The Stream Team: Delving Elder Scrolls Online's Skyrim and finding lost treasures
In Elder Scrolls Online, you can delve into dungeons, or you can delve into delves. ESO's current Western Skyrim event has three options, and Massively OP's MJ has been choosing to explore the various delves of the region. There's also a community-wide hunt for lost treasures! Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to see where […]
Diablo III prepares its next season and item changes for public testing on October 1
The dawn of another season in Diablo III will soon be upon us, but before that is the daybreak of an upcoming PTR session to test out the next season's content as well as a variety of legendary and item set changes that are planned. This round of testing will happen in two waves, with […]
Fortnite celebrates the third birthday of Battle Royale with challenges and free goodies
Happy birthday to Fortnite! Specifically to Battle Royale, aka the primary mode of the game now. It's been three years, and the folks at Epic Games are eager to celebrate the milestone with a birthday bash that introduces birthday challenges to earn rewards like a Wrap, Spray, Emoji, XP, and a Back Bling. There's also […]
Torchlight III's game designer shows off favorite character builds, teases next big update
One of the nice things about having a limited action bar is that you can put together some fun builds given time and futzing around with upgrade options. Such is the illustration of Torchlight III's most recent State of the Game post, which features several character builds as shared by Echtra Games dev Michael "Mayhem" […]
MMO Business Roundup: FarmVille's sunset, Netmarble's acquisitions, Intrepid hiring, WoW esports, PUBG India
Welcome back to another roundup of gaming industry news relevant to MMOs and MMO adjacent-titles. PUBG India: Earlier this month, we covered how PUBG Corp. (now merged back into Krafton) was working overtime to avoid Indian's ban on Chinese games and apps. PUBG Corp. had removed Tencent as publisher of the game, though Tencent continued […]
Fractured AMA covers questions about fast travel, PvP, pricing, and testing plans
Dynamight Studios' CEO Jacopo Gallelli decided to open an AMA for Fractured, and curious players responded with a wide swath of questions about the developing sandbox's systems. One of the first questions asked about the game's recent price reduction and whether that represented a "weakness" in business plans. Gallelli admitted that the initial pricing for […]
Legends of Aria provides a sneak peek at the Necrothium mines and heirloom items
The previews for Legends of Aria's upcoming Outlands release are continuing to roll on with another peek at the game's world and the new heirloom items that will be added with the update. In the world preview, players are invited to the Necrothium mines, which house a mysterious mineral that reportedly burst forth from the […]
The Wagadu Chronicles outlines its newly achieved navigation stretch goal, looks to Swala sub-lineages next
There's 32 days left to the Kickstarter campaign of The Wagadu Chronicles, but the project has already hit its first stretch goal. As detailed in the latest update post, this new navigation system will now allow players to sail the open ocean between islands manually and open up three new types of boats for carpenters […]
Razer announces digital event RazerCon 2020 for October 10, complete with streamed lightshow and concert
I know what you're thinking: 2020 really needed another digital gaming convention! Enter Razer, which has today announced RazerCon 2020, a "full-day digital event" hosted in Singapore on October 10th but of course streamed everywhere because the pandemic is still a major problem. In addition to hardware demos, expect gaming content showcases from Perfect World […]
Dark Age of Camelot celebrates 19 years with in-game tabletop map dioramas and RvR bonuses
How do you best celebrate the world of Dark Age of Camelot? By having little chunks of the in-game world in digital tabletop form! That's just one of the rewards that's being offered during the MMORPG's 19th anniversary celebration, which tasks players with helping a cartographer and rewards them with up to four different Frontier […]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen offers a look at the Dire Lord class in a livestream
The upcoming Dire Lord class for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen got its time in the spotlight in the most recent developer livestream, but first the devs brought on to the broadcast talked about the recent pre-alpha 5 shakeout tests, discussing things that the tests let them complete. The remainder of the stream went all […]
Fans are working on an improved Warcraft 2 remake with Warcraft III: Reforged
It goes without saying at this point that Warcraft III: Reforged failed at pretty much everything it was supposed to do, with the game's very slow patches still working on adding back in functionality like custom campaigns that was working in the original game. Having those custom campaigns back would be a boon to a […]
Wisdom of Nym: What awaits Final Fantasy XIV's Norvrandt in the future?
I don't want to spoil Final Fantasy XIV's most recent patch here before the cut, but it is not exactly a spoiler to say that when all is said and done, we won. The mechanics and stuff aren't as important as the simple fact that when the dust settles, Norvrandt is well and truly safe and not […]
EA's advertisement of FIFA lockboxes in a children's toy catalogue draws mounting criticism
It would appear that Electronic Arts didn't learn from the last time it pulled this kind of nonsense, but apparently there was still fuel for the dumpster fire. The company is catching flak for an advertisement in a UK children's toy catalogue that touted FIFA 21's FUT lockbox scheme, explaining a four step process where […]
Not So Massively: The dos and don'ts of stealing from single-player games
In my last Not So Massively column, I looked at the right and wrong ways for other genres to steal from MMOs. But in our current climate of blurring genres, that's a two-way street. Just as small games can benefit from borrowing from the MMO playbook, so too can MMOs take some cues from their […]
Naoki Yoshida is focusing on Final Fantasy XIV even as he manages hype for Final Fantasy XVI
Right now, Naoki Yoshida is focused on Final Fantasy XIV. That doesn't mean that he's forgotten about the fact that he's serving as producer for Final Fantasy XVI, and he even brought it up during his TGS presentation on Sunday. Specifically, he talked about managing expectations by ensuring that the first footage was in-game graphics […]
Trove's 'hubdate' patch delivers an improved landing experience
It's a real toss-up whether Trove's "Hubdate" patch or Blizzard's "BlizzConline" is going to win the prestigious award for "Most Annoyingly Clever MMO Portmanteau." While we'll have to wait until 2021 for the latter, Trove's offering is available right now. As the name implies, the Hubdate delivers a reworked layout for the game's central hub. […]
Genshin Impact officially launches for PC, PS4, and mobile devices
Shanghai-based developer miHoYo has officially launched the new open world multiplayer RPG Genshin Impact to the world, bringing its colorful universe and unique mechanics to iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, and PC. In it, you play as a traveler from another world looking to reunite with a long-lost sibling and discover the mysteries of the world […]
SSG confirms Lord of the Rings Online's new Brawler class, presumably for Gundabad
After a little oopsie last week that allowed Lord of the Rings Online testers to witness a class name that they shouldn't have, Standing Stone Games confirmed this past weekend that, yes, the Brawler is coming to the game. "Obviously you've all seen something we weren't quite ready to talk about, but we'll have more […]
The Daily Grind: Which musical act do you wish would show up in your core MMO?
Last week, we saw no less than three announcements of MMOs and MMO-adjacent titles collaborating with musical acts and pop stars in their worlds. Fortnite played host to BTS, PUBG Mobile is working with BLACKPINK, and Roblox is holding an album launch party with Ava Max. I'm of multiple minds about this. There's the cynical […]
MMO Week in Review: The week Bethesda got bought
Welp, it definitely wasn't a boring week over here in the world of online games. It all kicked off on Monday, when Microsoft announced it had bought ZeniMax, Bethsoft, and Elder Scrolls Online's ZeniMax Online Studios. Plus, we covered Ultima Online New Legacy, new afrofantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles, LOTRO's upcoming DLC and rumored new […]
EVE Online talks about recent updates, SKIN bundles, and a relaxed banning policy in a video
EVE Online has put out yet another Pulse video newsletter, scooping together the most recent updates to the spaceship sandbox in one condensed bite of information. And this time around, it doesn't feature the running "gag" of one of the devs being blown up by a random enemy. The video draws together the most recent […]
The MOP Up: Life Beyond beefs up building
Life Beyond's recent patch is a spot of good news for budding builders: "With this release, buildings get free energy so you don't have to add fuel to the AI Core. Additionally, constructions don't need to be finalized manually!" And this is just the beginning of the rest of the news! Read on for a roundup of […]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons brings pumpkin patches and more customization for Halloween
While we still don't have my beloved gyroids with a release date, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is bringing a September 30 update with features we haven't seen in previous main series games: growing pumpkins year-round and body paint. You'll also have the usual seasonal DIYs to find and create, seasonal clothing/costumes, candy-giving for Jack during the Halloween night event […]
Global Chat: Would it be easier than assumed for World of Warcraft to do housing?
Piggy-backing on our column on World of Warcraft's lack of housing, MMO blog GamingSF argued that the game actually has a lot of the components for housing in place already. "WoW has so much lavish detail in its interiors and so many different architectural styles across all these years; art assets that are already in […]
Fallout 76 previews upcoming PTS content, outlines a hotfix, and rolls on with Meat Week
Fallout 76 has kicked out yet another Inside the Vault jam with a little bundle of updates coming for the title, especially for those who are eager to see the game's test server open up once more. Yes, the game's PTS opens next week and will fixate on the C.A.M.P. Shelters feature. Shelters are instanced […]
One Shots: Amnesia and shipwrecks at level one
Utakata's shot of a "quiet earth" in Blade and Soul here is not from the starting area (I'm assuming!), but it definitely makes me think of all of the MMOs that seem to think that the only way to start your character out on a journey is to shipwreck them and give them a good […]
The Daily Grind: What has your biggest MMO Kickstarter disappointment been to date?
The complete non-starter of Pathfinder Online did not surprise me. It was about what I expected, and it always struck me as one of those ideas people seemed to believe for reasons that never made a ton of sense to me. But I did back the project, because there was supposed to be a fun book that […]
Jukebox Heroes: The best of Granado Espada's soundtrack
So here's an impossible task that lies before me right now: picking one musical genre that defines Granado Espada's score. I can't. It simply cannot be done. I've listened to a lot of soundtracks, my friends, and this game's score is literally all over the place. I don't know how or why the composers chose […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 delivered a glut of New Genesis gameplay goodness
Latch your rods and cones onto this one, boys and girls, because Phantasy Star Online 2 is showing how it's going to get a whole lot more pretty come next year. At the Tokyo Game Show this week, SEGA demoed gameplay from the sweeping New Genesis update — and it's all the eye candy you […]
The Game Archaeologist: The short ride of Auto Assault
When you think of post-apocalyptic video games, what comes to mind? Most likely it's a crawl through a bombed-out or zombiefied landscape as you might find in The Last of Us or Fallout 4. However, there's a side branch of the post-apoc genre that I like to call the "Mad Max strain." This is where […]
The Stream Team: A friendly tour of Conan Exiles' Isle of Siptah
When her friends say they have places they want take Massively OP's MJ to in Conan Exiles, should she be worried? Are these places of beauty and danger, or just death galore? At least one has been revealed as a freshly built trading post, so there is some hope MJ might survive this little trip […]
World of Warcraft hypes this weekend's Arena World Championship finals
The final event for World of Warcraft's PvP esports scene is on the horizon. This Saturday, September 26th (aka today) marks the finals for the Arena World Championship to determine which team is the best in the NA and EU regions and who will claim their share of a $500K prize pool. The first series […]
'One of the biggest updates ever' is coming to Secret World Legends
There's nothing like dropping the news on a late Friday afternoon that a direly neglected MMORPG is getting a massive update in the near future to wake you up. We've seen so little movement on Secret World Legends over the past two years that one would be forgiven to assume that the game was effectively […]
WRUP: How the articles get made (a look behind the magic) edition
First and foremost, you need to find a bird. Are you writing this down? You find a bird. You find a bird. You. Find. A bird. You find a bird. A bird! Bird! Bird bird bird bird bird bird! You! Yes, you! The person reading this right now! No, don't look over there! No, don't […]
The Daily Grind: Do you like pop-up objectives in MMOs?
Thinking back to my first days in WildStar, I think my brain went on sensory overload due to all of the Stuff that kept happening as you adventured across maps. You had your regular quests, sure, but there were also path objectives that appeared, challenges that popped up, and public quests that ran their course. […]
Betawatch: Crucible keeps working on the Heart of the Hive
Ah, Crucible, you entered our lives so quickly and then exited equally quickly… but only back to beta. You might think this is unnecessary to restate, but the game did just drop a big patch with a whole lot of changes to its one remaining gameplay mode, Heart of the Hive. So that's pretty significant, […]
Occupy White Walls now allows artists to upload their own creations with the Open update — for a fee
The multiplayer art museum of Occupy White Walls just got a whole lot more personal with the release of the Open update, which now allows artists to upload their own creations to the game for distribution to the title's audience for a one-time fee of $9 per upload. The devs at Stikipixels propose that this […]
Wurm Online teases UI and mission changes ahead of next week's roadmap reveal
The most recent dispatch from the Wurm Online team does not actually contain a full roadmap for the game's development updates; that's expected to roll out next week. But it does contain a number of plans and areas that the team is focusing on, starting with fixing uneven creature spawns and empty coffers in a patch […]
Crossout's Six Frags is the car MMO amusement park I never knew I needed
So here's something I did not expect to be writing about: Massive auto MMOFPS Crossout has added an amusement park in today's patch. It's called Six Frags, you guys. Six. Frags. "Welcome to the Amusement Park update, everyone! Complete the tasks of the new season, level up and get unique objects with which can be […]
City of Heroes players have released a security-centric, server-inclusive launcher called Sunrise
Back in 2019, when the City of Heroes community was still squabbling over who got to be in charge of what once a copy of the game's code was leaked from a secret server to the world, there were a few groups that buckled down and started doing the hard work of securing the game […]
Craftopia will dial back its update frequency in the interest of adding more content and managing time
If you've been following the update cadence of Craftopia, you'll note that it's been kicking out patches practically every single day, adding things like new sound effects, enemies, and building items, fixing multiplayer bugs and adding features like split XP, improving translations, adjusting various skills and spells, and attacking a host of critical bugs. In […]
Grim Dawn adds new locations, monsters, rewards, and Monster Totems in its latest update
The map of Grim Dawn in a quite literal sense as ARPG's newest version update opens up new side areas that were previously blocked off for players to delve in to. Naturally, these new areas house a host of new foes to face like new minibosses and a new Celestial Monster Totem themed after the […]
The Stream Team: AdventureQuest 3D's new Crimson Corsair quest
Any quest that starts with a pirate named Gunpowder Mary has got to be interesting, right? That's what Massively OP's MJ thinks. AQ3D just added a new quest called Crimson Corsair, and just as any good pirate adventure should, it ends with loot. Once completed, the quest opens a new in-game gold shop full of […]
VR MMORPG Ilysia releases an updated trailer and a final list of Kickstarter stretch goals as it preps for alpha
Earlier in the month we cast our eyes to Ilysia, an in-development VR MMORPG that promised to bring back "the glory days of MMORPGs again." Much of its feature set looks like standard MMO fare with crafting, fighting, fishing, pet battling, and exploration on offer, just in the unique gameplay format of virtual reality. The […]
Krafton continues its massive corporate consolidation with PUBG Corp amalgamation
If you've been watching all the Bluehole and Krafton and TERA and En Masse tomfoolery this past month, you've surely wondered what the heck is going on over there. And every day, it seems we get another piece of figuring out the puzzle. Today's piece is Krafton's announcement that it's merging its substudio PUBG Corporation […]
Afrofantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles hits Kickstarter target, adds navigation stretch goal
Earlier this week, we covered the launch of the Kickstarter for a new MMO The Wagadu Chronicles. Built by diversity-minded developer Twin Drums and based in Berlin, Germany, the game is a PC/Mac MMORPG with an afrofantasy setting and a serious focus on the "roleplaying" part of our favorite acronym. While the game is backed […]
Netmarble opens global preregistration for hybrid mobile MMO A3: Still Alive
We've covered A3 Still Alive a couple of times in the last year, but today, Netmarble has officially confirmed that the game is definitely happening, definitely happening on mobile, and definitely coming to our neck of the woods. As we've previously noted, the game is based on the Korean MMO called A3, but this game […]
EVE Online's Unpopular 'resource distribution' plan, plus the messy 49u battle and Japanese localization
Earlier today, EVE Online studio CCP Games released a dev blog on the next leg of its resource distribution plan. The studio aims to "create room for a better geographical distribution of minerals," shifting ore spawn types and quantities in an effort to push people into more dangerous, low-security areas of the game for harvesting […]
WoW Factor: The stuff I'm genuinely excited for in World of Warcraft Shadowlands
For the first time in the past three expansions, I am not in the beta for World of Warcraft's next expansion. This is fine. It's fine. I'm fine. As a result, all I can do in terms of evaluating the next expansion is look at systems already discussed and what has been previewed, and as I […]
