Warframe begins the Great Ensmallening, adjusts Xaku on PC, talks future updates
Oh look, there's another bundle of Warframe things going on. Let's hop in! Players on PC are now able to enjoy a fresh update that, among other things, begins the process of "ensmallening," makes some tweaks to the Xaku frame, adds some snakeskin cosmetics to the Necramech and Voidrig among a variety of other skins, and […]
Blizzard outlines World of Warcraft Shadowlands prepatch changes, announces BlizzConline for February 2021
The one thing that basically everyone playing World of Warcraft wants to know right now is when the prepatch for Shadowlands will arrive. Thus, it makes perfect sense that the latest update from Blizzard is lacking exactly that information. Instead, players will just have to guess that "soon" means "next week or the week after," since most of the […]
Path of Exile's first week of Heist content went pretty well
The first week of running away like you stole something in Path of Exile has gone pretty well! It turns out that the Heist launch was largely successful, with just a couple of minor hotfix patches along the way. Console players will thus be happy to know that the update is arriving on September 23rd for […]
Destiny 2 outlines customizable Ghost boons arriving with Beyond Light
Most Destiny 2 players are familiar with their Ghost, the helpful little robot friend that mostly helps players respawn when they die and sometimes needs to be protected from enemy waves while scanning a macguffin. When the Beyond Light expansion arrives, Ghosts will be capable of a lot more thanks to some new customization features. […]
Conan Exiles adds a bunch of new servers for Asia and Europe to meet Isle of Siptah demand
Even though the Isle of Siptah expansion is only in early access, and for only about a week at that, it's still garnering a whole lot of interest from players of the survival sandbox, especially in Asia and Europe. As a result of this interest, Funcom has announced that several new servers are opening for […]
Titan Reach patches in combat stances and a map as its crowdfunding continues
The earliest chunk of money in any Kickstarter is always the hardest. (Trust us, we know.) Titan Reach, which you may recall is promising a modern take on an old-school MMORPG, has passed just over the $80,000 mark on a total ask around $430,000 (we're converting here from Australian dollars, so the numbers are more even […]
World of Warcraft raises a mug to Brewfest 2020
October, as we all well know, is home to one of the greatest MMO holidays of all time. No, not that silly one with bats and witches; the one with hearty ALE and lowered INHIBITIONS. We're talking Brewfest, baby. World of Warcraft's ode to Oktoberfest has arrived in the game world, giving players a couple […]
Fight or Kite: Spellbreak's epic combat and classes set it far apart from the battle royale pack
Another week, another battle royale arrives at my doorstep, this time with a subtle but sweet note attached: Please kind sir, take it in, and treat it like family. I must admit I've never been one for tending to young 'uns, but this one here seems to have caught my attention. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe […]
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts says the game's economy simulation tech is still a ways off
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts, bleary-eyed and exhausted from the self-reported "running a company of 630 people spread around the globe, while directing two projects [which] already takes way more than 40 hours a week," thought to himself, "What if I open an AMA but I only answer one question that others vote up and as […]
Wisdom of Nym: So… what if our last expansion is Final Fantasy XIV: Nextpack?
Oh, yes, that's confirmed. The next Final Fantasy XIV expansion is entitled Nextpack, leading players to adventures in Land Mass, encountering the beast tribes First Animal and Second Animal, fighting the primals Series Reference and New Character with the help of new jobs Healer and Magical DPS Or Melee DPS. I'm looking forward to our showdown with […]
Sony admits PlayStation 5 pre-orders 'could have been smoother,' promises more consoles through year's end
If you were among those who took part in the pre-order blitz for the PlayStation 5 and found things far from well handled, then perhaps it's reassuring to note that Sony agrees with you. But more importantly, the company promises that it will be releasing more PS5 consoles to retailers for pre-order in the next […]
Epic ends support for Fortnite: Save the World on Mac because Apple won't sign patch updates
The saga of Epic and Apple's legal spat has once more applied a ripple effect to players, this time to Fortnite's PvE mode Save the World. According to a post this past Thursday, Apple is preventing Epic Games from signing updates and releasing fixes when applying the game's latest update, and so Epic is ending […]
Microsoft just bought ZeniMax, Bethsoft, and Elder Scrolls Online's ZOS for $7.5B
Here's your Monday bombshell: Microsoft announced this morning that it has acquired ZeniMax Media – and therefore Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studios and all its franchises and games, including the ones near and dear to us, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76. "Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most […]
Lord of the Rings Online celebrates Bilbo's Birthday, hedges on mini-expansion specifics
Tomorrow is September 22nd, which is a significant date for Lord of the Rings Online players. It's the date of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday, which is the event that kicks off the book trilogy. In the MMO itself, the birthday is a small but fun event that involves solving riddles and getting a […]
The Daily Grind: What's your 'palate cleanser' MMO or MMO zone?
A few weeks back, Justin said something on the MOP Podcast that stuck with me. He was talking about how he liked to go back to Hoth on Star Wars: The Old Republic because it was like a visual palate cleanser. Instead of seeming bleak or empty, instead it made him feel calm after other […]
MMO Week in Review: Final Fantasy XVI's sweet sixteen
Square-Enix raised eyebrows this week with the announcement of Final Fantasy XVI – and the revelation that FFXIV's Naoki Yoshida will be attempting to work on both games. Of course, we don't know whether the new game is an MMO just yet, but that just makes room for lots of speculation in the meantime. Meanwhile, […]
Voxelbox MMO Elteria Adventures provides a roadmap of its next four 'mega patches'
Elteria Adventures, the cutesy voxelbox MMO of "creative freedom," has offered up a look ahead to its next major content updates, aka mega patches, each bringing new areas, items, and more for players to explore. The first patch, Faldaren Renewed, introduces a new tutorial chapter and a refreshed first story chapter, as well as hammer, […]
The MOP Up: Razer accidentally exposes 100,000 consumer accounts
Razer, a popular provider of gaming hardware, joined the notorious list of companies that accidentally exposed their consumer's personal information to the world. While credit card info and passwords were not shared, 100,000 customers had other details revealed. "Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, billing addresses, shipping addresses, and details on what people bought were all […]
MMOs You've Never Heard Of: LiteBringer, SamuTale, IcarusM, Stellar Warfare, Primordials of Amyrion, A3, Raid Shadow Legends, Second Extinction
Welcome back to another roundup of MMOs and MMO-adjacent games you've probably never heard of (or have entirely forgotten about). LiteBringer: Tibia fans who aren't opposed to BitCoin titles might want to take a peek at LiteBringer, a CipSoft MMO with a Tibia-development pedigree. This online RPG's built with an "unapologetic" (their word) use of […]
Jukebox Heroes: LOTRO's Great Wedding soundtrack
One reason why I keep highlighting Lord of the Rings Online patch soundtracks in this space is that the studio actually makes an effort to post its music out there. That's fairly rare in the MMO space, much to my annoyance, considering how much excellent work is done by composers for new updates to these […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 to reveal New Genesis info and footage next week
With the Tokyo Game Show preparing to fill up our feeds next week, SEGA is eager to get as many eyeballs as possible on the next iteration of Phantasy Star Online 2. The studio announced that it's going to be revealing details about the New Genesis revamp at the show and officially introducing it to […]
One Shots: Unholy abominations
We may view them as horrible monsters who are standing between us and our precious loot, but have you ever considered life — such as it is — from their perspective? Nobody finds them desirable, they're forced to live in dank places, and imminent death comes rushing at them from every corner. Have pity on […]
The Daily Grind: Is personal challenge or group challenge more important to you in an MMO?
In any kind of MMO, there are a lot of different challenges to endure. They do, however, tend to split a fair bit between personal challenge or group challenge, regardless of whether the content is done in a group or solo. A personal challenge means that the difficulty and the penalty entirely falls on you; for example, if […]
Make My MMO: Titan Reach and Ilysia head to Kickstarter
This week in MMO crowdfunding, Titan Reach kicked off its Kickstarter, seeking $428,000 US to fund a modern take on an "old-school" MMO set in a skill-centric, massive fantasy world. It's actually pulled in around $80,000 already, with 26 days yet to go. It's also sweetened some of its reward tiers. Meanwhile, Camelot Unchained resumed […]
Battle Bards Episode 177: Gone with the wind
As the weather howls and gusts around us, the Battle Bards stand in the middle of it all with their heads lifted up, listening to the music that rides on the breeze. In this episode, Syl, Steff, and Syp examine wind-themed tracks from MMORPGs. Will they find all of the wind's colors? Probably not, but […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be adding a new tier of augments with its next update
The tippy-top end of power in Star Wars: The Old Republic is due to change with the release of update 6.1.4 according to an announcement post made by design director Chris Schmidt, which explains that there will soon be a new tier of augments for players to chase. These new augments will require materials from […]
Elder Scrolls Online's Markarth DLC launches November 2 for PC, November 10 for console
As promised, ZeniMax has just dropped a ton of info about Elder Scrolls Online's next update during its year-end preview event stream. We knew the next DLC – the last for 2020 – had been renamed to Markarth, but now we know it's launching November 2nd for PC, Mac, and Stadia players and November 10th […]
Conan Exiles' producer explains healing and food tweaks, outlines update plans for the Isle of Siptah
I haven't read many of the Conan the Barbarian books, but I'm reasonably sure that whenever he was brought low in a fight, he didn't suddenly pull a drumstick from thin air, cram it into his face, and rise mightily back up to fight his foe. That's sort of the problem that Conan Exiles was […]
The Soapbox: The joys of MMO collecting
I've often sat and pondered exactly what it is that I enjoy about the MMO experience. After all, being educated about your own likes and dislikes can lead to a more enjoyable leisure experience as well as wiser purchasing decisions. Two obvious things come to mind: story and progression, and the better these two things […]
Krafton spins Bluehole off as an 'independent subsidiary' to handle TERA and Elyon
The corporate reshuffling that's been going on ever since En Masse Entertainment announced that it was closing is producing interesting developments this fall. Krafton, which owns PUBG and TERA, announced on Friday that it was spinning Bluehole Studio off into an "independent subsidiary" to grant the studio some degree of autonomy. Krafton said that it […]
WRUP: Cat control guide edition
WASD: Move Mouse: Move camera Shift: Move slowly Ctrl: Move quickly Space Bar: Jump Left Click: Cry like an idiot Right Click: Swat F1: Summon Drone Number keys 1-0: Suggest actions to drone F2-F10: Command drone to act in a way that is not optional but reduces your affection level with drone F11: Direct workflow […]
The Daily Grind: What upcoming MMOs have fallen off your radar?
The joke around the Massively OP office is now that Chris is covering Star Citizen news with his angle of expertise, the rest of us can take a break from trying to ride that bucking bronco of news. Honestly, I stopped being interested in Star Citizen a long time ago. It's too much drama, too […]
The Stream Team: Preparing for a first Heist in Path of Exile
Path of Exile's latest league Heist just launched today, and Massively OP's MJ is ready to turn to a life of crime. Well, commit crimes against the crime bosses anyway! She's preparing for her very first heist and invites you to come along. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to see if she can pull […]
Betawatch: Frozen Flame burns its way into a cool closed beta
Survival action RPG Frozen Flame announced this week that it was heading into closed beta with a single-player mode, a new event, and a special respec juice for characters. The good news is that you can now play singly, take part in the event, and drink the juice as the beta has begun and is currently running. […]
The Division 2 previews Concealed Agenda, the Summit, and gear transmogging
With the latest update to The Division 2 arriving on Tuesday, September 22nd, now seems as good a time as any for the devs of the game to summarize all of the things that are coming with the update. And that's just what they did. Leading off things is the game's third season, Concealed Agenda, […]
The World of Warships Transformers promotional event is live
Do you like World of Warships? Do you like Transformers? If the answer to both of those questions is "yes," you are the reason why today hurts me so dang much. There is a crossover event running in the game with a franchise I very much enjoy that keeps not happening as a proper MMO, but […]
Champions Online's third anniversary week sees Dr. Destroyer and his Destroids attack the city
Dr. Destroyer. Boy, what a comic book-y villain name. I love his '80s-style cheese. I love his Marc Silvestri-looking metallic outfit. And I love that his minions are called Destroids, which happen to be the primary threat in the third week of the anniversary of Champions Online. Players of the superheroic MMO will need to […]
Blade & Soul previews another round of item and system changes arriving with Cosmic Horizon
As ever seems to be the case with new updates to Blade & Soul, the upcoming Cosmic Horizon update will introduce some more tweaks to the MMO's items and systems. This time around, players will be facing some sterner challenges in floors 9-20 of Mushin's Tower, Outlaw Arena, Circle of Sundering, and Den of the […]
Warhammer Online: Return of Reckoning offers a special title for taking part in its anniversary events
Can you believe that it's been 12 years since the launch of Warhammer Online? Because it absolutely has. Of course, the game hasn't been consistently running during those 12 years, but the Return of Reckoning rogue server is still going to celebrate the anniversary with a weekend warfront event giving you a chance at a unique title. […]
Torchlight III promises a date for final data wipe and launch 'soon'
So the last patch for Torchlight III took a little while to arrive, but you can rest easy knowing that launch approaches! A date for that fabled actual launch will be here soon. How soon? Why, in a jiff! Are you now annoyed because a jiff is not actually a timeframe but an ambiguous statement? Then […]
The Stream Team: Gone fishing in AdventureQuest 3D
AQ3D just introduced an expanded fishing system, making it the very first trade skill! Massively OP's MJ has always loved fishing (especially in games), so she cannot wait to check it out. Even better, fish go into a new resource tab so they won't fill up her inventory! Join us live at 2:00 p.m. as […]
Path of Exile's Heist expansion officially launches this afternoon
It's expansion day for Path of Exile as Grinding Gear Games goes all Oceans 11 with the release of Heist for PC and Mac players. As we've covered at length, this update introduce the Heist challenge league, new equippable NPC, the Rogue Harbour hub, new items, trinket lots, new skills, skill reworks, and of course, […]
No Man's Sky teases 'the beginning of something new': New update Origins, launching next week
No Man's Sky studio Hello Games has a bit of a habit of casually announcing major expansions out of the blue and crashing its own website. Today being what it is, that's exactly what happened this morning with the announcement of Origins, launching next week, with basically no pomp or fanfare, "the beginning of something […]
Kickstarted MMO Fractured lowers price of entry, rearranges alpha and beta schedule
Dynamight Studios' latest dev blog has some big changes for Fractured and its fans, starting with the news that the game's price is coming down down down. The devs explain that the alpha has gone on longer than anticipated as the developers continue testing, which means the first beta hasn't launched yet (and probably won't […]
Disintegration is shutting its multiplayer servers down after less than five months
In what will no doubt be a non-surprise to pretty much anyone who has paid attention to the industry over the past decade, it turns out that multiplayer shooters need more than just "you do the shooty and there are other people" to build a community. You cannot replicate the success of Halo by showing […]
Inside Star Citizen shows off an improved personal inventory, planet painting, and homestead concepts
This week, Star Citizen is all about mucking with its inventory as the latest video digest opened with a look at an improved personal inventory system. This system, powered by the bespoke Building Blocks UI, will more easily let players move items from their various inventory locations, split stacks apart, and access other contextual functions […]
WoW Factor: No, Shadowlands is probably not going to be terrible
I've noted many times at this point that World of Warcraft does not seem to have done a great job with Shadowlands, at least from what we've seen so far. A little prison of the team's own making over here, a little bad philosophy behind redesigns over there, and not even a little salami as a treat. And […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online turns on its pirate event for the weekend
With this weekend's International Talk Like a Pirate Day bringing out the buccaneer in all of us, Dungeons and Dragons Online wanted to join in on the swashbuckling good time. The MMO is activating its Crystal Cove event from now through September 22nd, which opens up the usually hidden area for adventurin' and plunderin'. According […]
The US government is now probing Epic and Riot in relation to Tencent's data security
Remember back in August when the Trump administration made noise about trying to ban WeChat and Tencent from transactions with folks in the US? It caused a big ripple at the time, as it was written to effectively include all of Tencent's holdings, including its games studios, everything from Riot and Epic to Funcom and […]
Astellia Online grants an 'ultimate buff' for its first birthday
It's already been a year since Astellia Online launched here in the west, and anyone's first birthday is a cause for celebration. If it's a kid, that usually involves a messy consumption of chocolate cake, but for this MMO, it involves turning on the buff hose and letting it spray everywhere. "We truly thank all […]
