The Stream Team: Shipwrecked on Conan Exiles' Isle of Siptah
Conan Exiles threw open the doors of its Isle of Siptah expansion beta today… or should we say crashed it into a beach? And Massively OP's MJ will be washing up on there and dusting the sand off ready for new adventure. At least there isn't a lack of water! Join us live at 8:00 […]
Skyforge will be removing Might from equipment and the Stronghold in its next update
Things are about to change quite a bit for players of Skyforge with the arrival of the game's next Invasion. Namely, the forthcoming update will be removing Might from equipment and the Stronghold altogether, shifting the Might invested into the Stronghold between the Cathedral and the Tower of Knowledge and making accessories only grant Superiority. […]
Path of Exile offers up its balance change manifesto ahead of the Heist league
It's almost time for players in Path of Exile to be dressed in dashing clothing as they scamper through elaborate setups to snatch valuable objects, since the next league update is Heist. That also means that the developers have taken the opportunity to adjust some elements of the game that were either becoming too dominant or not […]
RuneScape's latest patch offers an exciting trailer of bug fixes
A video! A trailer! Thrill to the excitement of RuneScape… fixing bugs! Yes, the latest update for the game is mostly about bug fixes, but it still gets a cute little Twitter video, so that's a mark of love. Slayer introspection has been fixed! Rabbit immunity has been removed, so you can attack them once again! […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 288: ArcheAge again
Justin, Bree, and Mia discuss ArcheAge 2, TERA, LOTRO, Wizard101, Corepunk, Raph Koster's new MMO, and Star Citizen, with adventures in WoW Classic, SWTOR, Black Desert, Echo of Soul, SWG Legends, and LOTRO, plus a mailbag discussion on the Final Fantasy XI mobile remake.
Overwatch is all about Tracer with a new comic book series and special event
It's certainly arguable that Overwatch poster girl Tracer gets plenty of attention on her own, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a bit more attention. The multiplayer shooter is very much into the high-speed superheroine with a new comic book series and a new event. The comic, called Tracer — London Calling, is a […]
Ship of Heroes talks class picks, chaotic fights, and more beta events this fall
If you were following Ship of Heroes this past summer, you know that Heroic Games ran several beta events for backers and looky-loos during the season. But those betas are over now, and the team has recapped what it learned. Notably: Y'all like Devastators the best, followed by Tankers. The team is working on making […]
DC Universe Online drops riddles for Batman Day 2020, but DC Comics already revealed what's coming
What we have here is an apparent failure to communicate between DC Comics and DC Universe Online. The superheroic MMO is set to celebrate Batman Day and decided to try and have a bit of fun with the first of several Riddler-style clues being offered for players to guess at what goodies will be handed […]
PAX Online 2020: Destiny's Sword lets players roll characters in free-to-play demo
When last we checked in on Destiny's Sword, it was back in June, when 2Dogs Games admitted that COVID-19 had slowed the game's progress and forced the developers into contract work while seeking an investor or publisher. "We're still here and working, but our outreach team has slowed down significantly," 2Dogs said at the time, […]
Neverwinter rolls out Redeemed Citadel milestone II, plus mount overhaul and newbie leveling
PC players are due for a hefty patch in Neverwinter today, as the second chunk of the Redeemed Citadel campaign goes live, bringing with it the standard difficulty mode of Zariel Challenge. The first "milestone" for the campaign went live about a month ago, and we're expecting two more after that; completing all four will […]
Fallout 76 patches in One Wasteland and Season Two with today's update
Henceforth, there will be no more divisions of wastelands within Fallout 76! It's all one irradiated mess, after all, and now you won't have to be gated by arbitrary level restrictions with the game's One Wasteland update. Now enemies and rewards will scale according to your level, meaning that you can wander all over the demolished […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2's new Sunqua Peak fractal, live today
While Guild Wars 2's Cantha-centric End of Dragons expansion may not be coming until next year, players eager to visit The Empire of the Dragon can get a taste of things to come with the new fractal of the mist, Sunqua Peak. You could be forgiven for forgetting about this fractal's announcement during the anniversary […]
Players waged over a thousand PvP wars during New World's preview week
With New World's preview week in the rear view mirror, we're left with various impressions and a whole lot of data for the development team to analyze. While Amazon isn't sharing any hard numbers in terms of how many people tested it or for how long, the studio certainly seems free with all sorts of […]
First Impressions: Craftopia is an enjoyably laid-back but extremely unrefined bit of survival sandbox gaming
You start by blowing up the world. Literally – a button is pressed and then the entire planet explodes. But that's OK because you're then whisked away by some extremely fancy deer lady to a new world and tasked with rebuilding civilization! This is the completely weird and threadbare impetus behind life in Craftopia, a […]
Blade & Soul will add a new class, new dungeon, and new talisman tier in the Cosmic Horizon update
Players of Blade & Soul will soon be able to control phenomenal cosmic power in an itty bitty package when the Cosmic Horizon update lands on Wednesday, September 23rd. How, you ask? Because the game will be introducing the Astromancer, a new class that's available only to the Lyn race. The game's 13th playable class […]
Final Fantasy XIV reminds players of the new plots arriving in patch 5.35
When patch 5.35 arrives for Final Fantasy XIV, players will have an incentive to take a break from building what is expected to be the next housing area in order to potentially purchase a home in one of the newly added wards. The official site has reminded everyone that the patch will bring with it […]
Bungie appears to deny rumors of acquisition talks with Microsoft
What would the gaming world look like if Bungie went back underneath the Microsoft umbrella? It looks like we'll never find out as the developer has come forward to flatly deny growing rumors that Bungie was in talks with Microsoft about acquisition. The rumor was first brought up in the GamesBeat podcast and was subsequently […]
Conan Exiles' Isle of Siptah expansion launches today as Funcom celebrates 10M users
It's expansion day for Conan Exiles as Isle of Siptah officially launches. You might be tempted to quibble over the use of the word "expansion" over DLC, but you should really save your energy for debating the fact that this is an early access content drop running $19.99, twice as much as the game's earlier […]
The Daily Grind: How much do MMOs succeed on faith vs. mechanics and fanbases?
A while back, MOP's Eliot, Chris, and I were discussing Last Oasis and why it didn't take off. Collectively, I think we determined it was a bunch of factors, including the fact that it was a bit of an emptybox asking players to, as Chris put it, "establish a freakin' kingdom from nothing" – but […]
The Stream Team: Calling on Karthwatch for help in Elder Scrolls Online's Greymoor
During her last Elder Scrolls Online Greymoor adventure, Massively OP's MJ saved the long-lost ice princess. But her main goal is to get support to convince the high king of the danger of the coven. Now, that she has Morthal's support, she needs to move on to Karthwatch. Join us live at 8:00 p.m.as we […]
Darewise wants to make MMO Life Beyond a 'super positive' gaming experience
The vast majority of games, MMO or otherwise, are often about conflict and resolving problems through violence. It's something that co-founder and CEO of Darewise Entertainment Benjamin Charbit is familiar with, having worked on AAA titles like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and The Division. With the release of Life Beyond, however, Charbit is following […]
Survival RPG Frozen Flame outlines updates and an event coming to closed beta
As of tomorrow – Tuesday, September 15th – the "action survival MMORPG" Frozen Flame will have made its way to closed beta testing, and when it does, it will do so with some new updates and an in-game event. The beta build of Frozen Flame will include the addition of a single-player mode, new Obelisk […]
MMOs You've Never Heard Of: Age of Ascent, Little Sim World, Arcane Showdown, Riders Republic
It's tiny titles time, friends! One of the best parts about working with (and before then, reading) MOP is the fact that we all get peeks at some of the smaller, lesser-known, or under-the-radar MMOs and multiplayer games that are out there. In other words: the MMOs you've never heard of. Let's get to it! […]
RuneScape introduces the Effigy Incubator and Penguin Hide and Seek in its latest update
One is about surveilling penguins, one is about creating your own effigy. Both are part of RuneScape's latest update. Choose your poison. Or don't; you can totally do both things if you want to. The latest update to the MMORPG has brought on the Effigy Incubator, a new monthly Diversion and Distraction that lets players […]
Lost Ark announces a launch date of September 23 – in Japan
It doesn't look like it'll be long now before Lost Ark makes its way to Western shores. How do we figure? Because the Korean-built MMORPG has announced its Japanese launch date in a livestream, arriving to players in the country on Wednesday, September 23rd. As of right now, Japanese players can pre-download the game while […]
Fallout 76's daily ops will deliver randomized and repeatable missions
Along with the One Wasteland revamp and Season 2 tomorrow, Fallout 76's Update 22 is due to bring us another spiffy feature on September 15th: Daily Ops. So what are daily ops? Bethesda describes them as "instanced, randomized, repeatable encounters" that can be run, er, daily for new challenges and rewards. Daily ops can be […]
Warframe's 'great ensmallening' updates will shrink down the game's file size and optimize performance
Apparently, Warframe could stand to lose some weight; after three open worlds, over a dozen tile-sets, 28 quests, almost 500 weapons, over a thousand mods, and several remasters that updated older content, the game's file size has reached megachonker status, so the devs at Digital Extremes are going to perform what they're calling a "great […]
Albion Online touts continued population growth in September and work on new features
Earlier in May, Albion Online experienced a pretty significant spike in population numbers thanks in part to shelter-in-place orders for the pandemic. So one would maybe suspect that, as some of those pandemic restrictions ease, the game's population would similarly slip, but as of this month that's not the case, rising past the lockdown population […]
Not So Massively: The dos and don'ts of stealing from MMOs
Recently I played through the new PC port of the open world RPG Horizon Zero Dawn. While playing it, I was struck by how much it felt like playing an MMORPG… but in all the wrong ways. Endless chores, forgettable side quests, and unfocused design. That's not to say that the game doesn't also have […]
Path of Exile explains changes to Curse skills, Steel skills, and classic spells coming in Heist
Sure, the Heist expansion for Path of Exile is all about stealing baubles from highly guarded places, but there's going to be much more than that as outlined by developer Grinding Gear Games in a couple of announcement posts. Namely, some noteworthy adjustments to several skills and spells in the multiplayer ARPG. In the first […]
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV's second Ishgard season is a touch underwhelming
In the days of my youth, you usually got introduced to a new band via the radio. (The radio was like YouTube, but no video, only for music, and it was terrible.) Once you heard a new song on the radio, you would often begin a particular cycle of disappointment. First, you'd hear this new […]
Ilysia VR launches Kickstarter, vows to bring back 'the glory days of MMORPGs'
Several years now into the latest virtual reality "revolution," we've yet to see many breakout hits on the platform — nevermind the promised MMOs that seemed suited to the tech. Other than Orbus VR and a handful of other side projects, VR isn't the next big thing for MMOs. So far. Ilysia is hoping to […]
Star Wars Squadrons will be premiering a new CG trailer — watch it here
Much of the noise about Star Wars: Squadrons has been made about the game's narrative beats in its single-player campaign and it looks like that drum will continue to be thumped as the game is about to premiere an all-new CG trailer that's all about that sweet story. "Meet one of the ace pilots you'll […]
Missed Lord of the Rings Online's Weatherstock XII last weekend? Rewatch it here!
After being delayed from its original July date due to the summer Lord of the Rings Online's server meltdown, Weatherstock XII finally happened this past weekend. The popular annual player concert series featured dozens of bands playing 15-minute sets across an entire Saturday. By all accounts, it was a great show — as usual — […]
Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs streams refund payments from inside the City State Entertainment office
There's been another stream from Mark Jacobs regarding Camelot Unchained, but it might not be quite the content some would expect of a livestream. For one, the stream is live from inside the City State Entertainment office, and for two, the broadcast involved Jacobs processing refunds. Naturally, that's not the only thing that was part […]
Torchlight III is working on a UI scaling slider, according to its latest state of the game address
With repeated patch delays and a lot of last-minute adjustments, you'd be forgiven for harboring suspicions that Torchlight III isn't quite ready to play with the big kids. And so another state of the game report shows a title that's still in flux, this time in regards to its user interface. The developer report talks […]
Conan Exiles discusses the Isle of Siptah expansion in a stream, begins testing temperature changes on PTS
As one would expect, Conan Exiles is all about its impending Isle of Siptah expansion with a focus on the new content in the most recent developer livestream, where Funcom offered a few more specifics about what to expect. For one thing, the Isle of Siptah map and the Exiled Lands will not be linked […]
The Daily Grind: What's the weirdest stunt you've ever seen players pull in an MMO?
I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my day as an MMORPG player, but I'd never seen anyone eat 999 eggs before Ross Donovan did it in Final Fantasy XIV. Why did he eat 999 eggs? Because someone gave them to him. Because he could. Because it made for fun absurdist Twitch. Who knows. You […]
MMO Week in Review: LOTRO's mini-expansion, WoW's covenant fuss
As part of our recaps at the end of every calendar year, we always do a piece here on MOP about developer quotes and related shenanigans. This week offered up a whole bunch of contenders for that piece that I suspect we'll be seeing again, as Chris Roberts, Tim Sweeney, and Raph Koster all went […]
Craftopia's fourth consecutive patch keeps hunger from killing you and adds window frames
Last week, a patch arrived each day for four straight days over in Craftopia, but the most recent patch is notable because you can stop dying of hunger! No, really; hunger damage will no longer kill you, leaving you at 1 HP as you desperately wish for a hamburger. So a slight breeze will kill you, but […]
The MOP Up: Overhit sunsets in Korea
Nexon's Overhit is fading quickly from the mobile MMO scene. Its global servers were shut down earlier this year, leaving only the Korean and Japanese versions alive. And now the Korean shards are on the chopping block, scheduled to close down for good on November 11th. And this is just the beginning of the rest of the […]
Here's how leveling an alt in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will currently work
We know that World of Warcraft players will have a small battalion of alts to push through the content of Shadowlands. So how exactly does that work? The folks at Wowhead have compiled the currently known steps together in to one handy dandy guide just in case you're curious but not experiencing the expansion's beta. […]
Jukebox Heroes: The best of MapleStory 2's soundtrack
The death of MapleStory 2 earlier this year is seen as somewhat tragic in the Massively OP offices. Many of us got time with this colorful MMO and were charmed by its unique style, robust tools, and generally fun atmosphere. We weren't happy to see it go away so quickly, I can assure you. And […]
Pirates fight ninjas in Trove, Aura Kingdom's 'double patch,' Twin Saga adds a new Senshi
With the number of MMOs under the Gamigo umbrella, it's perhaps easy for some of their updates to fall through the cracks, so consider this story a sweep-up of some recent happenings in several of the publisher's smaller titles. Over in Trove, there's an event where pirates are fighting ninjas over who's the best at […]
One Shots: When nerfing goes too far
We've all seen classes and gear hit with the nerf bat from time to time in MMOs — hey, it's a fact of life! But actually giving players foam weapons seems like the devs are grossly overstepping their duties. Minimalistway shares this World of Warcraft evidence: "Sometimes the game asks me not to kill mobs […]
The Daily Grind: Do you try to be patient with new players in MMOs?
Patience is a virtue. It is also something not everyone is very good at – and I include myself in this particular batch because I have a very easy time becoming impatient when the same person keeps screwing up the same mechanic in the same way multiple times in Final Fantasy XIV. The first time, […]
Global Chat: Which MMO has the least annoying inventory system?
Inventory is something we have to deal with in, oh, pretty much every MMO that we play. Some games are far more generous with space and offer better sorting options, while others give you a shoebox and expect you to store your horse, armor, and sword inside of it. So which MMO is the best […]
Mortal Online 2 scales up testing, aims for a beta later this year
After months running a combat alpha, Mortal Online 2 is ramping up the scope and population of its testing. In this month's newsletter, Star Vault said that it's increasing the number of alpha keys it's distributing and is planning a beta test for late 2020. "In the coming months we will also start a technical […]
Chris Roberts says Star Citizen is 'not a pipe dream' in spite of taking longer than planned
It's been some time since we've heard a peep from Star Citizen's Chris Roberts — the 10 for the Chairman video series has ended, and we haven't had a roundtable Pillar Talk since April, though that's likely more due to the pandemic than anything else. However, CIG's big boss has recently emerged in a couple […]
Tim Sweeney insists Epic Games' legal battle is meant to stop a monopoly
In an interview with NPR, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is continuing to explain that the motivation for his company's legal battle with Google and Apple over Fortnite is meant to stop the tech giants from monopolizing the mobile games space. "It's not just Epic being exploited by Apple, but it's every developer who goes […]
