Path of Exile brings on another round of Heist improvements in the latest patch
The turning of knobs and tweaking of dials for Path of Exile's latest League continues. Grinding Gear Games has offered patch notes for the next update, which once again focuses on improving heists in a variety of ways. One of the biggest chunks of patch note real estate revolves around fixing Alternate Quality Gems. Fixes […]
RuneScape will give away goodies in anticipation of its Steam launch and additional action bars
Do you like free digital stuff? Do you happen to play RuneScape? Then this month has some good news for you, as the game's weekly newsletter has announced a couple of upcoming freebie handouts. To mark the game's imminent launch on Steam, Jagex is marking the occasion by handing out the Steam Valve goodie bag, […]
Legends of Aria's Toil and Trouble season six content gets spookier and longer
It's time to get spooked on in Legends of Aria as season six: Toil and Trouble is bringing all sorts of Halloween-style content for players to enjoy. And it's making it available for longer besides. This season introduces some new dynamic encounters in the form of Spooky Cauldrons in the West Valusia region of Southern […]
Elder Scrolls Blades shows off a new quest map and confirms monthly Arena seasons
The mobile multiplayer RPG Elder Scrolls Blades has had another Town Hall update post with another look at another update coming soon. Update 1.9 will be introducing a handy new quest map feature that makes it easier for players to go to their next quest, job, or event while also showcasing just how many quests […]
Destiny 2 offers a peek at revamped new player onboarding and armor mod adjustments
Bungie's usual weekly newsletter is once again offering up some sneak peeks for Destiny 2, specifically a look at a new player experience refresh and some new armor mod tweaks that are coming down the pike. Starting on November 10th, new players will once again see their friendly Ghost revive them in the Cosmodrome, but […]
Final Fantasy XI's October version update arrives with more promised for the future
The October version update for Final Fantasy XI is here! It brought some new Ambuscade fights with it, and… that's it! Well, that's not entirely it, but that's the vast majority of what is in this particular update. But as noted in the latest edition of the Vana'diel digest, this is simply a matter of […]
Elder Scrolls Online has just begun another freebie ESO Plus sub trial
Elder Scrolls Online is kicking off yet another free sub trial event starting today and running through October 19th. As usual, ESO players who take advantage of the trial basically pick up some temporary subscription benefits, even if they are normally B2P players, including the craft bag, double bank storage, experience and gold boost, extra housing […]
Albion Online previews its midseason update with corrupted enemies, combat balance, and more fish
Dungeons in most video games are not a pleasant place to hang out, and Albion Online is no exception. So you can imagine that the Corrupted Dungeons are even less pleasant places to spend time within, stuffed full of corrupted enemies and vile traps. And they're getting even more corrupted enemies with the game's upcoming […]
Not So Massively: Reflections on Blizzard, one year after the Hong Kong fiasco
Almost exactly a year ago, I declared that the Blizzard I loved is dead, in reaction to the Blitzchung/Hearthstone/Hong Kong fiasco. Twelve months later, that story has largely faded into the mists of history, recollected only by the occasional angry comment from those still holding a grudge over it. Now seems like a good time […]
Bless Unleashed preps November 4 closed beta for its PC edition
We'll understand if you're still too mad about the sad fate of Bless Online on PC to enjoy this post, but here it is anyway: As promised, Bless Unleashed is coming to PC, and in fact, it's rolling into beta on November 4th after its summer preview events. "Neowiz and Round8 Studio are pleased to […]
Wisdom of Nym: The first preview of Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.4
Here we go, here we go, here we go again. The hype cycle for patch 5.3 felt like it lasted too long, probably because of the actual rest of the world, but now Final Fantasy XIV is moving forward again, and that means stuff back on the Source! Yes, the first strains of 5.4 are being […]
Black Desert confirms that it will be compatible with the PlayStation 5
Let's face it, no one likes having to deal with the fact that the communities for every version of Black Desert are locked to individual platforms. But the game is facing an interesting conundrum as the next generation of consoles is rolling out, which prompts questions of what happens to PlayStation 4 owners and Xbox […]
Blue Protocol readies up another closed beta test phase in Japan on November 7
Closed beta for Bandai Namco's MMO Blue Protocol continues to roll on with another announced test phase for players in Japan starting on Saturday, November 7th. The game will open up to 15,000 players, with the recruitment period running between now and Monday, October 26th. This phase of testing will focus on the matchmaking system's […]
Chris Roberts talks up Star Citizen and Squadron 42's future, likening development to the Apollo project
As part of the ongoing eight year birthday of Star Citizen's launch (of alpha development), Chris Roberts tapped out a lengthy letter to the community in which he talked about the community, the developers, and a broad-strokes plan for both Star Citizen and Squadron 42, all while drawing parallels of each title's development to the […]
Torchlight III on the verge of launch: 'Lessons were learned'
As Torchlight III sits on the verge of release, there's an odd moment of calm for a game that's experienced a rollercoaster of development over the past two years. It's a title that's gone from a free-to-play MMO to a buy-to-play online ARPG and that's renovated its systems countless times. In this moment, the studio […]
The Daily Grind: Are day and night cycles a good or bad thing in MMOs?
As I type this, I'm waiting on a video game to give me some daylight so I can snap a picture for another article you've probably already read. And while I wait, this Daily Grind topic occurred to me! See, I'm usually a cheerleader for diurnal – day and night – cycles in video games. […]
MMO Week in Review: Crucible is canceled
Good news, junior high students everywhere: The Crucible is canceled! Nobody even likes that play. It's boring and sanctimonious and tedious – good riddance! Oh. Not that Crucible. The other Crucible. Amazon's Crucible. Yes, Amazon canceled its malingering flopped shooter Crucible and tried to bury the news on a Friday night. Boo hiss. But also, […]
V4 introduces a capture the flag-style PvP mode, merges three regions, and adds a new area
Nexon's PC and mobile MMORPG V4 has gotten some new things for players to do in a recent update, whether you're a PvP player or someone who likes to run around new areas. For the PvPers, there's the Halidom Rush mode, which reads way too close to Hamidon for my liking. This mode isn't about […]
The MOP Up: Wakfu's great server merge
Wakfu has finally set a date for its server merges. French servers are consolidating on October 14th, while international shards are coming together the day before that. "It is now technically possible to bring together characters from multiple servers," explained the team. "Our goal is to offer you a better in-game experience by improving Wakfu's […]
Trove and RIFT celebrate Gamigo's 20th anniversary, ArcheAge seeks community ambassador volunteers
The festivities to mark Gamigo's 20th anniversary are continuing to roll on in Trove and RIFT, with each game theming the next phase of its in-game celebrations after cleaning a celebration spot. Because nothing says "party" quite like cleaning! In specific, Trove players are tasked with clearing out the Thallasian dragon as often as possible, […]
Jukebox Heroes: Six great Runes of Magic tunes
Welcome back to Jukebox Heroes, the column that dares you to close your eyes and unplug your ears. Well, after you're done reading this opening, of course. So what's the greatest tragedy in modern musical history? Everyone has an answer to that, but mine will be, "How much Runes of Magic's score is overlooked because […]
Marvel's Avengers has more content incoming to satisfy players according to Crystal Dynamics' Scot Amos
It's only been out for a month, but Marvel's Avengers players are kind of on the bored side. This is probably not a huge surprise, as the game launched with somewhat threadbare content options for its persistent multiplayer options, helped not one whit by the fact that there are only six characters and you can't have […]
One Shots: Spit take
If my experience with that giant camel at Aladdin's Flying Carpets at Disney World is any indication, all dromedaries are jerks that want to spit on your head while you're already suffering from minor heat stroke in the warm Florida sun. So my advice for Hikari is to stand very, very still as this Conan […]
The Daily Grind: Has an MMO's story ever turned you off from playing the game?
It was a pretty bold move when Guild Wars 2 decided to indicate that one of the game's playable races had actually been a gigantic catspaw for one of the Big Bads. Like, that's got to alter your experience with the game if you find out that your Sylvari was actually a villain from conception, created to […]
Star Wars Squadrons shares an infographic of stats from the first week of online play
It would appear that the online multiplayer of Star Wars Squadrons has been pretty active overall, or at least the very first week of it. EA's Star Wars Twitter account offered up an infographic that collected data from the game's first week and provided several trivia bites for players to gnaw on. The game has […]
DCUO encounters ghoulies and makes reservations to travel to the 31st century
About every October, Batman is more gloomy than normal due to the fact that everyone is honing in on his motif with the Halloween season. So if you're heading over to DC Universe Online for this month's Witching Hour event, you might want to steer clear of the Caped Crusader. Trust us, you won't want […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online starts Fables of the Feywild pre-orders, gives a free dungeon to all
Monday will be a big day for Dungeons and Dragons Online, as a sizable patch is dropping for the game at the same time as Standing Stone Games will begin taking pre-orders for its Fables of the Feywild expansion. Update 47 includes a brand-new free dungeon (Promise of Flame) for all players and a makeover […]
The Stream Team: An Astroneer escape alleviates Earthly woes
It has been far too long since Massively OP's MJ enjoyed the atmosphere in Astroneer, a game that offers light-hearted frivolity and fun. Even gravity can't hold you down there! She's ready to throw off the shackles of Earth and immerse herself in the more whimsical worlds of this space sandbox for a time. She […]
The Game Archaeologist: Deadlands Legends, the western MMO that never saw the light of day
The saying goes that there is nothing new under the sun. So while you probably can't write an original setting that's never been seen before, the next best thing is to take two established settings and slam them together to create a tantalizing mash-up. This is what game developer Shane Hensley thought in 1996, when […]
Star Citizen's AMA confirms Squadron 42 has 'a ways to go' before beta, will be 'done when it is done'
The question that's been on the lips of the Star Citizen community for the past several months has been in relation to Squadron 42's development progress. So naturally, that would be one of the highlights of an AMA with several of CIG's devs, including Chris Roberts himself, who answered the burning question. The player question […]
WRUP: Some new wrestlers, some better wrestlers
John Cee-Clamp-A: He's exactly like John Cena, but he has lobster arms instead of people arms. Signature hold is the "Clamp You With The Claws, Bucky Boy." Signature drink is a Coke with a splash of hot sauce. Koshiko: She is a normal Japanese salarywoman carrying a handgun. Signature hold is the "Don't Move, I […]
The Daily Grind: Which MMO class makes you feel overpowered?
Obviously, we here at MOP love anything overpowered — including frappes, meme wars, and MMORPG classes. Sometimes it doesn't even take numerically superior stats to take a class from wimpy to whompy. Sometimes it's all about animations, sound effects, and cool abilities that can make you feel overpowered. Right now in World of Warcraft, I […]
Amazon just killed off another online game – this time it's Crucible
Like Breakaway before it, Amazon's Crucible is over before it began. Before it began again. It really depends where you start counting. Yes, Amazon announced tonight that it's "discontinuing development" on its beleaguered online shooter. The move may seem a bit sudden, as the game just got a patch four days ago, but fans will […]
Betawatch: Star Citizen pushes a patch public and promises progress on PSquadron 42
Did you know you can put the letter "P" in front of almost any word if you want to? It's clever. Modern spelling. Anyhow, PStar Citizen pushed out its PTU patch to public players (who have paid to participate) with a plethora of playtime polish, as well as outlining progress being made on Squadron 42. Perfect! Other […]
EVE Echoes provides an overview of how the in-game economy operates
Money makes the world go round, or at least in the case of EVE Echoes, it's ISK. The grinding gears of the ISK economy were the subject of a video from one of game's designers, who elaborated on the various ways players can earn that sweet digital dosh. The primary source for making and spending […]
SEED offers a brief peek at gameplay and discusses QA as it prepares for wider testing
The colonization sandbox MMO SEED is inching closer to inviting players to start testing the game out, and getting to that point takes some QA. That process was the subject of developer Klang Games' most recent dev blog video, which discussed some of the QA team's job as well as showed off a bit of […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online gets even spookier for Halloween
While Lord of the Rings Online players will be waiting until much later this month to partake of their Halloween offerings, its sibling Dungeons and Dragons Online is already deep into the Night Revels. The Halloween event starts in a special version of Delera's Graveyard, where players farm special keys. They then use these keys […]
Standing Stone, Daybreak, KingsIsle, and more MMO companies will fundraise for Extra Life 2020
The season of Extra Life is almost upon us, meaning all your favorite MMO studios are going to be dispatching their developers to play all the things for the long-running gaming charity. "Since its inception in 2008, Extra Life has raised over $70 million USD for sick and injured kids. Right now, children's hospitals need […]
Yes, CCP London is still working on an unannounced new online title (or titles)
The HR department over at CCP London is looking pretty busy in recent days. The satellite branch of CCP Games has kicked out another two tweets in search of an audio engineer and a contracted balancing designer, the latter of which will be working on an "unannounced online shooter." The distinction of online shooter is […]
Bless Unleashed has begun head start access on PS4 ahead of its October 22 release
We already knew that Bless Unleashed was making its way to PS4 players on October 22nd, but those who bought in to the Ultimate Founder's Pack are getting a head start, allowing those players in as of yesterday a full two weeks ahead of everyone else, while those who purchased the Exalted pack get in […]
The Stream Team: A raveyard undead dance party for AdventureQuest 3D's Mogloween
What makes Massively OP's MJ happy? Mogloween! And the spooky holiday has begun in AQ3D. Along with previous year's festivities of mad scientists and haunted towns, there's a crazy undead dance party in Zorbak's Raveyard. Join us live at 2:00 p.m. as Massively OP's Stream Team kicks of this year's Halloween season in… What: AdventureQuest […]
Temtem introduces two new player-created monsters and their unique locations
Let's cast our minds back to June 2018, when Temtem was first entering the crowdfunding scene and was already lighting Kickstarter on fire. Among the tiers of pledges was the Breeder pledge, a $6K level limited to only four backers that let those backers create their own critters for the game. As of update 0.6.9, […]
Star Wars Galaxies Legends keeps teasing Bespin and we want it
Star Wars Galaxies Legends, the Star Wars Galaxies rogue server that's dominated the game's headlines for the last few years, has been teasing Bespin for a while now. It's one of multiple planets that the player team has been working on adding to its version of the classic MMORPG sandbox since at least last year. […]
Final Fantasy XIV has cancelled its European fan festival for February 2021
This is probably not a surprise given what happened before, but Final Fantasy XIV fans will not be gathering in Europe for a convention. The European fan festival has officially been cancelled as of today due to the global pandemic, which follows on the heels of both the North American and Japanese fan festivals being cancelled for […]
Star Citizen marks its eighth birthday with alpha 3.11's release, free goodies, and Halloween events
This coming Saturday, October 10th, will mark the eighth anniversary of Star Citizen's reveal to the public, which in CIG terms is the game's official birthday, and that means it's time to celebrate. One of the biggest party pieces of the celebration is the launch of alpha 3.11 after a brief stint in open PTU […]
World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas promises to reverse the Shadowlands ability limitation
It was just yesterday that people found out World of Warcraft: Shadowlands had made a change to Covenant abilities by limiting them to the eponymous Shadowlands. This made a lot of people angry and was generally regarded as a bad news. So good news: A new post from director Ion Hazzikostas confirms that the change will […]
WoW Factor: The problem with World of Warcraft's storytelling
Back a long while ago, when I reviewed the prequel novel for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, I noted that my general policy has been to ignore the novels and supplementary storytelling around WoW's expansions. The policy I outlined in the introduction there was fairly simple and straightforward: If it didn't happen within the game, something had […]
Pathfinder Online is still alive, and the devs are embracing the cloud
Pathfinder Online is transitioning to the cloud, and no, that's not a euphemism for ascending to heaven because Pathfinder Online is still alive against all odds. Yesterday, the Paizo/Goblinworks team still attached to the game announced that it's taking its first steps into porting the game into cloud. "It's hard to predict what other complications […]
Final Fantasy XIV previews its next major patch, Futures Rewritten, in its newest live letter
The next patch for Final Fantasy XIV isn't coming out until December, but the latest live letter from producer and director Naoki Yoshida has already revealed some details for the upcoming patch 5.4. And there's plenty for players to dig into, including the new Explorer Mode for cleared dungeons allowing you to roam dungeon maps you've […]
Titan Reach offers a second patch for its demo version as its Kickstart enters the final week
The Titan Reach Kickstarter continues to move forward, with the game's team releasing the second major patch to its demo client. This new version adds everyone's two favorite forms of content, a jumping puzzle and arena PvP. It also adds new character customization, new configuration settings for the test client, and a new legendary sword for […]