Mortal Online 2 on how it's improving combat and server latency
Whether it's an action combat MMO or a multiplayer shooter, having your attacks miss due to latency never feels good. Mortal Online 2 recognizes this and so is doing everything it can to make sure its revamped combat feels as good as it can be, as detailed in a recent developer blog. The focus of […]
EVE Online dev discusses how communities and lasting friendships form in the sandbox
Let's all ignore the 15 weeks' worth of explosions, bubbles, and fighting going on in EVE Online and instead talk about friendship. Or more specifically, let's hear developer Tryggvi Hjaltason talk about friendship, which was the subject of his talk at this year's Devcom Digital that elaborated on the way players form bonds. Hjaltason references […]
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning attacks a host of bugs in its latest patch
So, how is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning treating you? Are you finding it a pale reboot of an otherwise OK game? Are you playing it to try to make Project Copernicus come back? Or are you just enjoying the final vestiges of 38 Studios? And if you are, how many bugs have you run in […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 293: Passing the Torchlight
Justin and Bree discuss Torchlight III, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons Online, EverQuest, Atlas Reactor, Pantheon, Ashes of Creation, TERA, Legends of Aria's new sibling, and StarCraft II, with a mailbag topic on difficulty modes.
Neverwinter kicks off its Halloween festivities with the Masquerade of Liars starting October 22
Is it really fair to call everyone involved in the annual Halloween celebration in Neverwinter a liar? Is wearing a mask enough to make someone a liar? Maybe not, but the event is still dubbed the Masquerade of Liars, so you're just going to have to cope with the fact that participating on October 22nd marks […]
PSA: Fallout 76 is offering a free trial, Fallout First trial, and an atom sale
Some games celebrate the day their games hit early access, or funded on Kickstarter, or actually launched. Fallout 76, however, is celebrating a lore day: October 23rd, "the day the bombs fell" – in the fictional 2077, of course, the nuclear apocalypse that defines the franchise. And this celebration will offer more than cake and […]
Enter to win a Star Trek Online PC Klingon Dahar Master Faction Pack or Klingon Defense Force Elite Starter Pack from PWE and MOP
With Star Trek Online's House Shattered patch live for PC players, PWE has kindly granted Massively OP some bundles to pass along in honor of the release: five codes for the Klingon Dahar Master Faction Pack and 50 codes for the Klingon Defense Force Elite Starter Pack, specifically for our PC readers. The Klingon Dahar […]
Star Wars The Old Republic's GU 6.1.4 update is live with the Feast of Prosperity
Who's hungry? Star Wars The Old Republic players better be because the Feast of Prosperity is live today in the just-launched GU 6.1.4 update. "Over the years, the Hutt Cartel's reputation has taken a hit. The once powerful organization no longer instills respect and fear. To restore the Cartel's influence, two up-and-coming Hutts, Gaboorga the […]
New World has kicked off its fall alpha test today as patch notes point to reduced leveling speed
You might have forgotten, but Amazon has one more big New World alpha test lined up this year, and it's creeping up on us. "Equipped with a ton of data and feedback from Preview, we are back in development and heading forward into Alpha Testing," the studio says in a dev blog today. "Like previous […]
Researchers argue Pokemon Go caused a discernable increase in car accidents, injuries, and deaths
What is the deadliest video game in existence? If a scientific whitepaper is to be believed, at least in the case of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, that game is Pokemon Go. The Purdue University paper, titled Death by Pokemon Go: The The Economic and Human Cost of Using Apps While Driving, documents an increase in vehicle […]
Choose My Adventure: Good friends and bad player behavior in Star Wars Squadrons
Well, I was hoping for this to be more fun than it actually was. I adore the heck out of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, it should be pretty evident that I absolutely am in love with space flight sims and sim-lites, and I most certainly like playing multiplayer and MMOs with friends. So it certainly […]
Final Fantasy XIV shows off its items for patch 5.35 alongside its upcoming Gold Saucer event
It's been a week since Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.35 arrived on the game's live servers, and now the patch notes have gotten a little bit of an update. It's not a major one, to be sure, just listing all of the new items added with this particular update as well as all the new […]
Grab a key for three months of Dual Universe beta time courtesy of Novaquark and MOP!
When sci-fi MMORPG sandbox Dual Universe launched its beta this past August, it did so with an unusual caveat: While early backers would be able to access the beta freely, folks who picked up a copy of the game after it was up would be expected to pay a small subscription fee, which may have […]
Cliffy B now states he might return to game development after all
In November of 2018, Cliff Bleszinski (or "Cliffy B" if you prefer) stated that he was never making another game ever again, for real, never. Many people responded to this by posting that bit from The Cabin in the Woods with the enthusiastic, "The evil has been defeated!" Especially people who had dealt with the […]
Whatever happened to Saga of Lucimia?
Sometimes the development of a title goes so dark that months go by before anyone really notices. Such is the case with the group-centric Saga of Lucimia, which has been mostly running silent since this past spring. Back in April, the team posted a video to highlight some of the world-building for Release 13. Since […]
Kickstarted MMO Zenith wants to be 'the Ultima Online of VR'
We've reported a couple of times about Zenith, the in-development VR MMO that soared through crowdfunding to lock down over $280K and is slowly making its way to alpha. But just what is the game about? That's touched on in an interview with developer Andy Tsen, who discusses more about what features are coming to […]
Lord of the Rings Online's $20 quest pack, War of Three Peaks, launches today
It's a strange and uncertain new era in Lord of the Rings Online, as Standing Stone Games has moved to start selling quest packs to everyone — including its subscribers. Update 28: War of Three Peaks arrives today in the game, but you won't be experiencing it unless you shell out some cash — not […]
The Daily Grind: What explorer-friendly mechanics should be in more MMOs?
When Final Fantasy XIV's Futures Rewritten patch arrives next month, it includes a nifty feature called explorer mode that will essentially allow players to wander back through your completed dungeons so you can explore, take pictures, and get up to all kinds of shenanigans. Imagine the video footage you can score in there! I personally […]
The Stream Team: Treasure hunting in Elder Scrolls Online
Massilvey OP's MJ know a thing or two about a full inventory. Much of her bag is crammed with various treasure maps. The solution? Go treasure hunting! Tonight she takes a break from Greymoor story to tackle the issue of too many unused maps. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to find out what she […]
Star Citizen Live discusses the features of alpha 3.11 and patch plans for the new build
This weekend saw yet another episode of Star Citizen's livestream with members of CIG, and this one's all about the release of alpha 3.11, or more specifically, the things that will be updated and adjusted moving forward. One of the marquee features of the new alpha build is the force system which sees player characters […]
Swords 'n Magic and Stuff adds a Halloween event, plans animal companions, and pushes back housing
Let's take a look back at the charming little single-player/multiplayer RPG Swords 'n Magic and Stuff, which readers will recall made its way to Steam Early Access at the beginning of September. Since then, there have been a number of hotfixes, but we're here to talk about two more substantial updates. First, an update added […]
Stardew Valley developer previews split-screen co-op and working chairs
We all know that chairs can be a pretty big deal, so consider this your important alert regarding Stardew Valley and its still-developing 1.5 update, which has had a couple of new teases from Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone on Twitter. The first from earlier in September offers a look at what seems to be a new […]
Blaseball is a text-based 'absurdist simulation of baseball' where players bet on fake teams
Whether you're a fan of baseball or not, there appears to be a place for you in Blaseball, a text-based browser game that ultimately has players watching descriptions of fake baseball games and betting on the outcomes. And while that might seem pretty blasé, there are a variety of random events that can happen during […]
Blue Protocol confirms NPC costumes for player characters in a preview
It is the season for costumes, and since the pandemic is likely going to put the kibosh on a lot of costume-centered gatherings, it's just as well that player characters in MMOs can let folks feed their dress-up good time needs. That's the segue I'm going with to point to Blue Protocol's latest preview tweet, […]
Path of Exile previews its next Heist patch with bug fixes and QOL improvements
The next noteworthy patch for Path of Exile should be deployed soon, and it's all about the Heist league (as is usual for the game when it's in the middle of a league, of course). It is a patch with a lot of bug fixes. Seriously, everything from bugs causing players to get stuck in Heist […]
Black Desert releases its 'Prestige Edition' on November 6
Ladies, gentlemen, and those who fall into neither category, we implore you to look to your physical video game collection. Does it mark you as a person of rare taste and admirable refinement? We have no doubt you have all of the basics in place, like that original boxed copy of the Burger King Xbox […]
Derek Smart's MMO shooter Line of Defense shows a brief sign of life after two years of radio silence
You know him as the self-professed "internet warlord" and Star Citizen critic, but we have to remember that Derek Smart is also someone who is trying to make a game as well: the sci-fi MMO shooter Line of Defense, which has had its own rocky development history. Consider us a bit surprised, then, that the […]
Pantheon talks pre-alpha 5, publishers, and properly funding the vision
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen producer Ben Dean recently did an interview with YouTuber Nathan Napalm touching on a wide variety of topics related to the game's development, its community, and its search for investors. Emergent gameplay, for example, is something Visionary Realms loves; Dean professed his love of it, noting that it's something the […]
Fractured shows off mining and blacksmithing, dates fall alpha for November 4
Ah, the pastoral life of a sandbox MMORPG. None of this combat stuff, just you, your tools, and a slowly filling progress bar as you fashion components into a shiny new item. It's something I always am drawn to personally, and will be something that Fractured will soon provide, at least if you like mining […]
Wisdom of Nym: Going to war in Bozja in Final Fantasy XIV
Here we are in the wake of Final Fantasy XIV's latest content patch, and while there are a lot of different things that were technically contained in patch 5.35… let's face it, the real focus was on the Bozjan Southern Front. A new piece of content that feels oddly segmented, in a way, as if it's […]
Xbox's Phil Spencer suggests the Bethsoft buyout won't limit games launches to Microsoft platforms
Microsoft has been up to a lot in recent months, what with a new console launching and a new title in the flagship Halo series, but one of the moves that was most directly linked to us and our readers was the buyout of Bethesda and its studios to the tune of $7.5 billion. Naturally, […]
Fight or Kite: Checking out veteran sci-fi sandbox MMO Vendetta Online – on mobile
Over the last few months, I've been playing around with VR on my phone. I know, not the ideal VR experience but I had my reasons. In any case, as I browsed the Google Play store for different VR apps, I came across Vendetta Online. A robust, true mobile MMO with VR support that's been […]
Star Citizen has 720K total backers and 34K subscribers according to gathered public data
Getting subscriber details for multiplayer and MMO titles out of companies can often be like pulling teeth out of an alligator's mouth with a pair of tweezers while it's doing a death roll. One intrepid follower of Star Citizen, however, has managed to pull just such a trick using publicly available information to collect backer […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online fans take a look at Fables of the Feywild pre-order bonuses
With anticipation for Dungeons and Dragons Online's fall expansion on the rise, some fans may be interested to know what they'll be getting if they pony up for one of Fables of the Feywild's more pricier editions. To help with this decision, DDO Players purchased the $130 edition of the expansion and put together a […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic details the upcoming Feast of Prosperity event
Earlier in the month, we got word of several events arriving to Star Wars: The Old Republic, one of which being the all-new Feast of Prosperity. But just what is that, exactly? Luckily, fans have a new post to chew on. The Feast of Prosperity will take place in Nar Shadaa (of course) and features […]
Lord of the Rings Online's paid fall quest pack is arriving 'shortly' as world transfers re-open
Lord of the Rings Online's fall DLC, which the studio is trying to market as a "mini-expansion," should be coming within the next week or so. "War of Three Peaks arrives shortly," SSG tweeted on Sunday. "Stay tuned for more information in the coming days." So far, the studio is refusing to give specifics on […]
The Daily Grind: Are there any MMOs you wish could get the Crucible treatment?
And I don't mean the cancellation part – I'm talking about the way Amazon pulled Crucible back into development in the first place. There wasn't much doubt that Crucible needed much more work done to it to pique the curiosity of a much bigger band of players to be sustainable. While Crucible was never going […]
MMO Week in Review: Squishy squish squish
World of Warcraft's Shadowlands pre-patch launched successfully this week, with some squishing and some bugs and some downtime and some meandering through the new newbie zone. Torchlight III also pulled of its not-an-MMO launch, then we learned Atlas Reactor is getting a resurrection of sorts and Gameforge is taking over TERA NA. Read on to […]
Destiny 2 prepares for its next world first raid race, players cheer closure of cheat vendor
There are a couple of new things that certain Destiny 2 players can look forward to, particularly if you're among those who are clamoring to beat the game's next raid or just hate seeing people use cheats in PvP. Which, to be fair, are somewhat niche parts of the community, but parts that deserve attention […]
The MOP Up: Phantasy Star Online 2 hands out more treats than tricks
Phantasy Star Online 2 fans can log in this week to enjoy a nice burst of additional content, including the fourth and fifth chapters for Episode 5, the Halloween event, a couple of new campaigns, and a pair of trick-or-treat urgent quests. And this is just the beginning of the rest of the news! Read on for […]
Make My MMO: Titan Reach turns to Indiegogo after Kickstarter ends unsuccessfully
This week in MMO crowdfunding, indie MMO Titan Reach admitted defeat on Kickstarter, having only $131,525 pledged toward its $416,118 goal, and the devs mapped out a plan for an Indiegogo launch instead, which will fund the game's alpha. But that was far from the only big news! Albion Online suffered a nasty data breach, […]
Global Chat: Comparing SWTOR's and Star Wars Squadrons' space battles
With Star Wars Squadrons now on the scene, a comparison between that game and SWTOR's galactic starfighter content was all but inevitable. MMO blog Galactic Antics took on the challenge of the comparison, saying, "I do honestly feel that the argument could easily be made that an experienced GSF player will have little trouble adjusting to Squadrons. They […]
Albion Online's forum database was breached, exposing user passwords and emails
If you're a user of the Albion Online forums in any capacity, then you're going to want to take heed of an alert shared in a thread posted this Saturday. Part of the forum's database has been breached, with the intruder gaining access to user emails and encrypted password information. No payment information was accessed, […]
One Shots: Disco dunking
Just because the career possibilities are limited for monsters with gigantism who have rage issues doesn't mean that they don't have feelings. Passions. A desire… to dance? That's how Minimalistway is interpreting this World of Warcraft screenshot: "The Abyssal Maw sounds so dreadful, but the place is so beautiful! Look at this faceless one dancing, […]
The Daily Grind: What's your preferred way of learning about a major MMO patch or expansion?
I don't know when we're going to hear about the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion. I know that it's going to happen, considering that Naoki Yoshida mentioned it specifically back in July, but the lack of a fan festival this year means that it's still up in the air about when we'll get our formal announcement […]
Atlas Reactor's revival is actually a story-driven co-op game that was part of original prototyping
Gamigo surprised a lot of gamers this week when a number of confirmed Twitter accounts started stirring the pot for a return of Atlas Reactor, the turn-based strategic team PvP game that it sunsetted last year. However, developer announcements from a community-built Discord of the game have now unveiled that this Atlas Reactor will be […]
Ashes of Creation first pre-alpha preview test is slated for December
A letter from creative director Steven Sharif has offered up some most interesting tidbits for Ashes of Creation followers. The letter first starts off with an expected look back at "rapid" development progress and touting several 4K resolution gameplay videos, but the real meat of the post comes in the form of a schedule for […]
The Stream Team: A first look at Torchlight III
Torchlight III has launched, and Massively OP's MJ is heading in to check it out. She never played Torchlight or Torchlight II; her only real experience with this IP is interviewing Echtra back when it was still Torchlight Frontiers. Still, she's interested to see what it's all about now. Tune in live at 4:00 p.m. […]
The Stream Team: A supply run from the sky with Conan Exiles Isle of Siptah's surges
On the Isle of Siptah, a surge is a special supply run! Thralls are important in all of Conan Exiles, and the only way to acquire them in the isle is through a surge. Thralls just rain down form the magic portal in the sky. Even better to Massively OP's MJ, sometimes those thralls have […]
Some Assembly Required: The future of Dual Universe's puzzle events and development
While I may be sad at missing Dual Universe's first big puzzle event that was just solved (though folks can still follow the clues and solve it themselves!), I am very much looking forward to the next projects planned for the space sandbox. During our recent interview with president and founder of NovaQuark Jean-Christophe Baillie, […]
