The Stream Team: Mo Mania the Third, stream-athon extravaganza
You know what they say, the third Mo Mania's the charm! And we're starting up the third Mo Mania stream-athon right now with plans to dazzle and delight you. (Though if you want to get technical, MOP's fifth birthday celebrations were also Mo Manias, though not stream-athons.) Do you wish to be delighted? Dazzled? Deafened […]
LOTRO Legendarium: The quiet consistency of Lord of the Rings Online
I want to start this LOTRO Legendarium column today by talking about, well, by talking about World of Warcraft. Like probably many of you, I play several different MMOs, and alongside of LOTRO, WoW has been one of my most consistently visited titles. And as we all well know from general chat, there's no resisting […]
WRUP: Extreme unicorn hammer tag edition
Important note: Due to the sensitive nature of the contents contained within, this post has been auto-checked by ContentReader Safe Censor™! The algorithms of Safe Censor™ ensure that you see as much of a post as is possible while editing out any unpleasantness unsafe for human eyes. Please enjoy! All right, folks, it's time for […]
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best in-game cutscenes and cinematics?
There are a lot of ways that stories can be told in MMORPGs, but one of the most straight-forward and visually exciting is the cinematic cutscene. These temporarily yank the player out from actively controlling a character to simply watch an important narrative beat play out as a small movie in the game. Not every […]
Betawatch: Craftopia is doing the difficult Early Access work
There's kind of a pall around early access games, mostly because a lot of them launch into early access and then faff about pointlessly. But Craftopia is doing the hard work necessary to keep itself going along, and that hard work means patching. So many patches hit this week! Points for Craftopia. Other beta news is not being patched […]
The Stream Team: Following the Path of Fire story in Guild Wars 2
Massively OP's MJ was not in any rush to finally finish the Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire story… until she learned that she can't have an underwater mount until she does! Now she's raring to go. There is quite a bit of story to cover, so let's get to it: Tune in live at […]
Meta: Meet Mo Mania the Third, coming to SUBtember this Saturday
Whats better than a regular Mo stream? A Mo Mania stream-athon! (And a third one at that!) Meet Mo Mania the The Third, or MO III for short. If you were seeking hours of livestreaming entertainment filled with silly songs and prize giveaways for your weekend, look no further: Mo Mania III is here for […]
Isometric co-op zombie roguelike OARPG Darksburg exits early access on September 23
While we've been busy keeping eyes on all the games as best as we can, developer Shiro Games has had its head down working away on Darksburg, the isometric online ARPG that sees players trying to survive in the titular town during a zombie outbreak — you'll recall it was among the titles we included […]
The Division 2 details its upcoming Summit game mode and maps out content for the rest of the year
Remember when a dataminer in May unearthed details of a new game mode that involved a multi-story skyscraper being taken back by Agents? The datamine that was confirmed by the devs at the time? Well, now we're all getting more succinct details of this new game mode, which is being dubbed Summit. Summit tasks players […]
Inside Star Citizen offers up a closer look at Origin 100 ships and the Building Blocks UI
There's certainly something to be said for arriving in a big, chunky spaceship, but sometimes you just need something a little smaller and more refined, especially if you're the sort who seeks out dogfights. Star Citizen is feeding that need for smaller spacecraft with the upcoming Origin 100 series, which were part of the game's […]
LOTRO's next 'mini-expansion' content update includes boar mounts and a $100 edition
We already knew that Lord of the Rings Online is working on a Gundabad expansion for 2021, but before that arrives, there's a big fall update on the way. However, if you were expecting to get this for free, you may want to brace yourself: This update is being branded as a "mini-expansion" that will […]
MMO Business Roundup: Guild Wars 2 voice acting, EVE Online mental health, Good Game, and more
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO – and MMO-adjacent – industry news! Guild Wars 2: If you've been bummed about Guild Wars 2's pandemic-times content episodes and their lack of voice recording, your troubles are soon coming to an end. ArenaNet announced last night that the "voice over actors are back in the studio," […]
Legends of Aria makes plants extremely mad with the launch of Season 5: Raging Undergrowth
Are you ready to piss off plants? Then you're prepared for Legends of Aria's latest season Raging Undergrowth, which tasks players with thinning the growing threat of the Tree Lords in the Black Forest. As one would expect, this involves the use of fire — specifically a torch — on Tree Lord Saplings. And as […]
The Stream Team: Discovering Secrets of the Sand Sea in AQ3D
What do mummies, sandworms, and lizardmen have in common? Massively OP's MJ is going to face them all as she explores the new Hidden Tomb in AQ3D. This latest update invites all to come discover the secret of the Sand Sea, so join us live at 2:00 p.m. as MJ dons her Indiana Jones hat […]
Star Wars Galaxies Restoration III is a new rogue server blending the CU with the NGE
One of the best (and arguably also worst) parts of the Star Wars Galaxies emulation community is just how many servers we have to play around with, many of them with new ideas and new ruleset combinations that keep the 2003 MMORPG fresh long after its sunset. While we cover SWG Legends and the original […]
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go's new event includes problematic features and stat bloat
Yes, more not-great-news in Pokemon Go, and yes, it's once again mostly about Mega Evolution. While it's been nice that the official Pokemon Go Twitter account has been trying to engage players in positive ways more so than I can recall in the past, it does so in the face of a tidal wave of […]
Apple reverses its decision to block 'Sign In with Apple' functionality for Fortnite after Apple user blowback
As the battle between Epic Games and Apple continues to wear on, the effects for the players continues to be felt in small waves. Case in point, the Fortnite Status Twitter account stated that Apple would be cutting off future "Sign In with Apple" functionality for the game on mobile on September 11th, offering up […]
Project Gorgon's latest patch sends you to the dungeon(s)
At this point, it wouldn't surprise us if Project Gorgon never actually launched but rather stayed in its early access cocoon indefinitely. At least we know that the MMO would continue to grow at a steady pace, even if it didn't get an official release. And so the pupa grows even larger this week with […]
Elite Dangerous is reviving its in-game storytelling with the return of Galnet and community goals
Earlier this year, the Elite Dangerous community was justifiably grumpy over the revelation that Frontier had seemingly put an end to communtiy features such as community goals, Interstellar Initiatives, and even pure lore content through GalNet. There were petitions and players begging to be allowed to fill the gap themselves, and even Elite novelist Drew […]
WoW Factor: Covenants have become a Shadowlands prison of Blizzard's own making
If there was any remaining question about what stage of the expansion development we were at with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, this week marked the "we hear the things some of you are asking for and here's why we're not doing any of that" stage of developer communication. This means that yes, we are now at […]
Ubisoft CEO address promises 'real change' in the wake of massive sexual harassment scandal
While publisher/developer Ubisoft was keen to showcase the games its been working on during the Ubisoft Forward broadcast, what wasn't part of the presentation was any mention of the company's still-lingering problems with institutionalized sexual harassment, which has seen to date a total of seven managers ousted from the company. Instead, Ubisoft released a separate […]
Raph Koster argues MMOs are much more than 'a series of kill and fetch quest pellets'
As many of us know, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be the only leavings we may ever see of 38 Studios' ambitious MMO Project Copernicus after the studio famously burst into flames so hard that Rhode Island got hurt. And now that the game has released its remaster, it's back on the minds of many, […]
TERA will 'live on,' starts transferring operations from En Masse next week
It may be the end of an era for En Masse Entertainment, but it's definitely not the end of the road for TERA. The closing publisher posted another notice yesterday that promised that the action MMO would "live on" under new management. Starting next week, TERA is going to begin the process of transferring to […]
Amazon is apparently working on a new unnamed sci-fi MMO
Former SOE and Daybreak boss John Smedley has been a fixture at Amazon Game Studios for the last few years, working on at least one unannounced game that we know of. This week, he tweeted that he's hiring again for the studio in San Diego, though apparently remote work is on the table too. And […]
The Daily Grind: What's the worst MMO you've ever played?
Earlier this month, I first heard about Josh Strife Hayes, a YouTuber doing noble work by playing his way through a pile of unloved and distressingly terrible MMOs in order to find the worst one ever. To be fair, some of the games he's tried really aren't that bad. But I'm having Scarlet Blade flashbacks […]
The Stream Team: Plundering a pirate fort in Neverwinter
Shaben Shortcloak found a likely cache of treasure in Neverwinter's Pirate's Skyhold, and he's not moving a muscle until he can plunder it! Of course, he doesn't want to try for it alone, so Massively OP and her team will be lending a hand. (And that means they will take a cut!) Tune in live […]
Massively Overthinking: Contemplating in-game advertising
Last week, EA announced that it would finally be removing all the in-game ads from UFC4 after a few days of intense complaining from fans. Not only were the ads fundamentally annoying, but this was a $60 title, and the studio turned on full commercials in-game a few weeks after the launch, after all the […]
Torchlight III delays its next patch once again to next week
Remember when we were young and innocent and were looking forward to the next early access patch for Torchlight III this week? How foolish and naive we were. It turns out that the next patch and its changes to Dusk Mages, training dummies, and other systems will be waiting for a bit longer, as September 8th […]
Last Oasis introduces the lava-slurping Camelop Walker in its latest update
Harvesting lava has got to be tough, whether in real life or in the survival sandbox of Last Oasis, but as of the latest update that job has gotten a bit easier thanks to the introduction of the Camelop Walker. This unique new machine is specially designed to pump up large amounts of lava or […]
Final Fantasy XI delivers the second installment of the Voracious Resurgence today
Black-clad beastmen, a mysterious threat, and also the meta level of new story content in Final Fantasy XI should be more than enough to excite players about today's patch introducing the next part of the Voracious Resurgence. Of course, there's more to the latest update than that; the addition of Sheol C to Odyssey provides new […]
MMO gamers held an inspiring memorial for a fallen friend on Warhammer Online's Return of Reckoning server
As part of our Massively Uplifting column this past week, we covered an emerging story on the Warhammer Online Return of Reckoning rogue server, as a veteran player named Gary aka biploargary shared that he had terminal lung cancer and wished to say farewell to the Warhammer community he loved so much. That community sprang […]
Albion Online player steals an in-game billion's worth of assets from a guild in a self-described 'long con'
On the one hand, you have to respect a good caper, but on the other hand, this particular bit of thievery that happened in Albion Online saw assets stolen from Fricks, a guild that reportedly tries to help new and inexperienced players through the game. So that kind of sucks. According to a report of […]
Black Desert counts 40M players as its PC version buffs music and adds new Shai instruments
Pearl Abyss has officially turned 10 years old today, and it's brought some hard liquor to the party. Did I say hard liquor? I meant hard numbers, which might be less entertaining short-term but is significantly more interesting long-term! Specifically, the Korean company says that Black Desert counts 40M players across four platforms and 150 […]
SMITE's design director confirms one more new god in 2020, outlines early plans for 2021's Season 8
If you're not among those who are following SMITE design director A.J. Walker on Twitter, then you might have missed a thread with some pretty important details about the game's future moving in to the rest of this year and the early party of next year. In it, he discusses how the dev team has […]
World of Warcraft: Afterlives highlights Ardenweald – if you can bear it
We are happily resurrecting old memes with the latest installment of the World of Warcraft Afterlives animated shorts because watching this video should aggro every bears within a 40 yard radius. It only makes sense, you are watching a video about their best friend. Yes, it's time to go to Ardenweald, and that means looking at a […]
Ubisoft's long-delayed Skull and Bones promises new 'vision' and a 'comeback' next year
If it seems as if you've been hearing about Ubisoft's Skull and Bones for an absurdly long time without a game to show for it, that's because you have. It was announced and demo'd at E3 all the way back in 2017 – we even played it! But it's been delayed and delayed more in […]
Corepunk is aiming for a 'WoW Classic difficulty level,' with housing and farming in the works
With closed beta on the way for this December, Corepunk is generating some degree of interest among cyberpunk MMO fans. To feed the hype machine, Producer Eugene Kiver appeared on Reddit this week to tackle an AMA about the upcoming game. Kiver said that the team is aiming at "WoW Classic difficulty level" for Corepunk, expecting […]
Perfect Ten: How to speak with your family members about playing MMOs
The nice part about growing up with serious social awkwardness as "the weird one" in my family is that really, every strange fixation I had was more or less already covered by all of my other issues. When you have a hard time being around other human beings for more than half an hour at […]
Elder Scrolls Online's final DLC of the year is now called Markarth, not Darkstorm
Elder Scrolls Online's chapters and DLC run almost like clockwork every year, so we all knew there was one last DLC comning in 2020, and now we know its name: Markarth. In fact, it's apparently been renamed because the team "just like[s] it better" than Darkstorm, which is what was announced back in July. Skyrim […]
Final Fantasy XIV posts a new anniversary story and prepares for an online Tokyo Game Show
The third of four anniversary stories for Final Fantasy XIV has gone up today, and it covers an old friend. And an old enemy. An old everything, as it turns out. The latest story puts the reader in the shoes of Emet-Selch, he of the sassiest backhanded wave ever, and it covers a few memories of a […]
New World's director talks genre blending, release cadence, and Twitch integration plans in an interview
The interviews just keep on coming from the devs of New World. This time around we've got one from GamesIndustry speaking with game director Scot Lane about things that make the upcoming MMO stand out as well as plans for the game's future. Lane's own love for a variety of games including WoW, Black Desert, […]
XLGAMES finally confirms ArcheAge 2, a next-gen large-scale AAA MMORPG
ArcheAge 2 is more than a rumor now – it's a sure thing. The news comes according to Korean website Ruliweb, which reports that Jake Song has put together a team of 50 devs to work on the Unreal Engine 5 sequel under the XLGAMES and Kakao banners. The gist is that the game is […]
World of Warcraft struggles to come up with a Covenant compromise
With less than two months to go until World of Warcraft: Shadowlands releases, it's not a great time to be making major adjustments to the expansion's (arguably) tentpole feature. But that's just what Blizzard seems to be doing with the controversial Covenant system. In response to a lot of heated debates and rants (or as […]
The Daily Grind: Have you ever had an accomplishment in an MMO you didn't realize until later?
Back when vanilla World of Warcraft was a new thing, I soloed Hogger on my Paladin. This did not strike me as all that weird. After all, it was just another gnoll. Sure, he had a fancy frame around his portrait and it took a little while longer than I expected, but it wasn't all […]
Funcom reveals Conan Exile Isle of Siptah expansion, offers free Steam weekend and sale for original
Back in January, Conan Exiles players were wary when Funcom told its investors about "continuing to develop the game with a paid map DLC"; after all, players were promised free content and only cosmetics in regular DLC. In February, we postulated that Funcom would do better by fans making a real expansion instead of a […]
For science: New UK study finds that video games improve the mental health, reading, and writing skills of kids
So this one's fun. The results of a study performed in the UK between November and December of 2019 have just been released. The study's goal? Surveying children to find out the effects that video games have on their lives. And the findings? It turns out that video games are a net positive, as 85% […]
Minecraft Dungeons releases a frost-filled new DLC and a 'Hero Edition' for Nintendo Switch
We're only in the early vestiges of autumn in our part of the hemisphere, but in the co-op roguelike world of Minecraft Dungeons, it's already Creeping Winter. Or at least it is with the launch of the latest DLC. Creeping Winter, as the title suggests, adds some frosty new mobs, some new ice-related items, and […]
Iron Harvest 1920 plans co-op campaign and ranked multiplayer features this month
It looks like the surprising RTS title Iron Harvest 1920 is going to be doing a whole lot of growing over the course of September. A roadmap shared by developer King Art has provided confirmation that there will be new content updates every week this month. Week two is adding a new 3v3 map and […]
RuneScape assumes responsibility for the oddment 'exploit,' discusses Penguin Hide and Seek rework
Yesterday saw the devs of RuneScape offer up another weekly livestream about a rework to Penguin Hide and Seek, but before it launched in to that, it circled back around to an update regarding the punishment of a few hundred accounts due to what was thought to be an exploit of oddment pricing but was […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 starts a new campaign for players to complete ultimate quests
The name "ultimate quest" brings all sorts of possibilities to mind, like having to bring items to an NPC who in turn wants you to bring something else to another NPC for two full years, or driving a normal field monster to extinction, or something. They're actually just a particular sort of quest in Phantasy Star Online […]
