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, […]
The End is a Viking-themed multiplayer survival action RPG from Legends of Aria's Citadel Studios
Citadel Studios, best known around these parts as the folks behind sandbox MMORPG Legends of Aria, has pulled back the curtain on a new multiplayer game it's developing known as The End. As explained on PC Gamer, The End is set in a dark Viking-styled fantasy universe described as a "crumbling heaven," where players can venture out […]
WRUP: The alphabet of bird edition
A is for albatross. B is for blue jay. C is for cardinal. D is for dodo. E is for emu. F is for finch. G is for goldfinch. H is for hawk. I is for ibis. J is for jay. K is for kite. L is for long-tailed antbird. M is for magpie. N […]
The Daily Grind: Are you active or passive in finding groups?
Sooner or later, it happens. You hit a moment in a quest chain or need to finish that dungeon for some fool reason. And so you need help. You need… a group. The question is, how do you get it? I've observed that there are both passive and active players in MMOs when it comes […]
Betawatch: Pantheon promises its next alpha this month while looking for investments
There are problems on display right now for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. This is upsetting to type, of course, but the late Brad McQuaid's next big project is apparently knee-deep in restructuring to allow more rapid development and looking for investors, while also promising its next alpha test starting up this month. These are perhaps not great […]
The Stream Team: Nights of Naberus usher Halloween into Warframe
Talk about a fitting duo: Daughter and Halloween. Space Ninjas get to celebrate Nights of Naberus, an ancient festival of death and mischief in Warframe, and Massively OP's MJ can't wait to take part in the revelry. What will the ratio of death to mischief be? Only Daughter knows. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. […]
Blade & Soul's Halloween-themed Blade & Ghoul event arrives on October 21
It's time for something even creepier to come to Blade & Soul than the Lyn or some of the game's female outfits: It's Blade & Ghoul, the MMO's Halloween-centric update, which is making its way on Wednesday, October 21st. Blade & Ghoul starts with players collecting a Ghoulish Halloween Treats bag from the Hongmoon Store […]
Mortal Online 2's newest combat alpha patch adds the city of Gaul'Kor
The latest patch for Mortal Online 2's combat alpha has a headlining feature that is not all that combative at face value. Players can now go to the city of Gaul'Kor. They can even go to the city to start with, as it is a starting option complete with landscapes surrounding the city. Of course, you […]
Lord of the Rings Online brings back Durin's Day through October 20
It's time to celebrate Durin's Day once again in Lord of the Rings Online, which the game announced will be running between now and Tuesday, October 20th, in a tweet. And that's kind of about it. For those who aren't familiar with the in-game holiday and what it entails, the LOTRO community has stepped up […]
Albion Online talks up a mid-season update, open beta for Google Play, and faction warfare improvements
Albion Online game director Robin Henkys is back once again from his comfy chair to deliver another development update, talking up some of the next updates the game is planning over the next few months. First off, players can look forward to the mid-season update known as Brimstone and Mist that we reported earlier arriving […]
Full-loot PvP MMORPG Profane postpones end-of-year testing, now counts 43 staff
At the top of 2020, we covered a new MMO called Profane, one that sparked a lot of discussion over its full-loot, open PvP sandbox style of design. Since then, it's pushed out a ton of info on everything from its development process and procedural maps to its combat system and factions and even its […]
Skyforge is now available on Geforce Now from Nvidia
The developers behind Skyforge have heard of exclusivity to specific platforms and they seem to think it's nonsense, because the game is everywhere. PC players, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 – all of them can get in on the game. Nintendo Switch players will have access to the game at some point this fall. And now anyone […]
The Stream Team: Mad scientists and more Mogloween in AdventureQuest 3D
The Mad Scientist Doctor Trollenstein is back at it in AdventureQuest 3D and Massively OP's MJ needs to stop him! Or, she needs to run more Mogloween events to get the awesome holiday goodies! Same difference, right? Join us live at 2:00 p.m. as Massively OP's Stream Team celebrates the fun of the spooky season […]
Tiny MMO Book of Travels will use early access to 'experiment' with player caps
Even all the way back to its successful Kickstarter last year, Might & Delight has maintained that Book of Travels is not a traditional MMORPG – that it's a "tiny multiplayer online" aka a TMORPG, which definitely belongs on our big list of silly and unnecessary MMO acronyms; people might debate whether it's got truly […]
Presidential nominee Joe Biden has his own Animal Crossing: New Horizons island
As a US presidential hopeful, you want to make sure you have your message spread to as many corners of the country as possible. This is likely the reason why Democratic nominee Joe Biden has an island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which will be toured by Kinda Funny Games today, October 16th, at 2:00 […]
Elder Scrolls Online, Star Citizen, Project Gorgon, Champions Online, Warframe, SWG Legends, Wurm Online celebrate Halloween
Halloween events are piling up faster than we can write them up – here are a few you should keep your eye on! Elder Scrolls Online: The Witches Festival returns next week, starting October 22nd. "Throughout this terror-filled term, you can receive repulsive rewards in the form of spoopy Plunder Skull containers, a 100% XP […]
Explaining Genshin Impact's impact: Is it actually worth your time?
In Explaining Genshin Impact's impact: The reinvention of gachapon, I went into the nitty-gritty of the gacha system and how it's actually pretty easy to digest for the larger market. In this piece, however, I'll be digging into the gameplay and mechanics themselves and tackle whether or not this game is worth your sweet, precious […]
Ship of Heroes talks about its variety of missions, asks players how many hours of mission content should be at launch
Your superhero in Ship of Heroes is going to need things to do. Luckily, the developers at Heroic Games are planning on making plenty of missions for players to take on, as detailed in the latest dev blog. Missions will come in a few varieties, including story arcs from the Founding Five superheroes, task forces […]
WoW Factor: The World of Warcraft leveling experiences ranked, part one
Now that the pre-patch is here, you can level through any World of Warcraft expansion you'd like in the order your heart desires! But that, of course, brings the question of which one you should start with; you have eight options, after all. Obviously, my first suggestion would be stuff that you haven't leveled through before, since […]
ArcheAge Unchained offers free trial as Reddit melts down over pay-to-win
So let's just get this out of the way upfront: ArcheAge Unchained's rollout a year ago did not go as well as Gamigo was hoping. It's changed its business model twice now since the launch, not even counting the original ArchePass situation, doing so while admitting that Unchained stumbled and Gamigo needs it to unstumble. And […]
World of Warcraft honors Reckful with a new Rogue trainer
It was a big deal when World of Warcraft streamer and esports star Reckful passed away this summer, with large parts of the game's community coming out to offer tributes in his honor. Now he's received another honor within WoW itself, as a new rogue trainer named Reckful has been added to the game. The character has […]
City of Titans shows off character creator possibilities
The character creator tool that City of Titans released a year ago is getting better and better with every passing month. Missing Worlds Media recently overhauled the avatar builder with work on both the back end and the visible options that players see. "The underlying data tables were reorganized, clearing up several costuming issues for […]
StarCraft II officially ends development as Blizzard 'thinks about what's next'
Earlier this year, MOP's Tyler noted that StarCraft II had quietly become Blizzard's best-managed game, with updates and events rolling out even a decade after its release. And that's a shame because now StarCraft II will become quiet, period. Blizzard posted a letter on the StarCraft II site to announce that it was putting an […]
The Daily Grind: Isn't it time to put an end to land rushes in MMORPGs?
When Final Fantasy XIV's 5.35 patch arrived this week, the hardcore XIV players on the Massively OP team had very mixed reactions. One triumphed in the guild land rush; one did not. I don't like seeing our writers – or any MMO players -that glum. It burns me up that a game as huge as […]
Massively Overthinking: What one MMO mechanic or system would you like to banish to the ends of the earth?
Back in September, one of our dear readers Aldristavan sent in a fun question for the Massively OP Podcast: What's one outdated MMO mechanic that just needs to go? Justin and I cracked each other up because we had exactly the same answer: raid-only endgames. The way we see it, the problem isn't raiding itself; […]
The Stream Team: Can't resist Dungeons and Dragons Online's Promise of Fire
If there is one thing you've learned by now, it's that Massively OP's MJ loves fire. It is no coincidence her DDO character is a flame-flinging sorcerer. Now a new quest was just introduced called The Promise of Fire — and you just know MJ is drawn to it like a moth to, well, you […]
TERA: Endless War is a mobile strategy game based on the IP now available for pre-registration
While the stewardship of TERA has been a rather sloppy pot of chili, the IP of the game appears to be heading to the mobile market in a rather unexpected form: TERA: Endless War, a mobile strategy game promising large-scale battles on a hexagonal map. Players of TERA: Endless War take on the role of […]
World of Tanks Blitz and Korn join forces for a music video, an event, and new game mode
The band Korn is becoming no stranger to seemingly random video game collabs. The latest comes from World of Tanks Blitz, which sees the multiplayer vehicular combat title link up with the rock band for some transmedia stuff. Relevant to the game itself is Convergence, a five-stage event with in-game challenges to uncover pieces of […]
'Hardcore' MMORPG Astaria plans a test this month after multiple early access launch delays
MMO fans might recall that Astaria was billed as a "hardcore fantasy MMORPG with emphasis on social communities, crafting, party combat, territory capture and player vs. developer," and it's delayed its early access launches multiple times. The most recent date was supposed to be January 2020, but the game missed that window and all these […]
RuneScape officially arrives to Steam with achievements and unique goodies for subscribers
The time has come for Steam users to experience RuneScape for themselves. As of yesterday, the game has officially arrived to the platform in both its free-to-play and subscriber varieties, offering three tiers of membership bundles that include one month, three months, or 12 months of membership and a variety of goodies unique to the […]
Mad World offers a quick peek at dungeon gameplay in a new video
It's been quite a while since we heard something out of Jandisoft's isometric MMO Mad World, which is a pretty frequent refrain we're expressing when covering this title. The game first had plans to launch to Steam in 2018, then elected to host an alpha in 2019, and then was picked up by publisher Netmarble, […]
LA Comic Con 2020 is finally cancelled
Well, this qualifies as good news. Sure, we have absolutely zero doubt that some people will be sad to hear that LA Comic Con 2020 is officially not happening following California Governor Gavin Newsom declining to provide new guidance for large-scale public gatherings. But considering that the rationale behind declining to offering those guidelines is […]
The Stream Team: Celebrate Pirate101's 8th birthday with free gifts!
It's birthday parrrrty time in Pirate101, and Massively OP's MJ is grabbing her eyepatch and setting sail for the celebration — because pirates know how to party hearrrrrty! KingsIsle is throwing in some free favors for the festivities. Just redeem the code AWESOME8TH before 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 2nd, and you'll receive these eight […]
Destiny 2 shares the details of its console upgrades for the new PlayStation and Xbox
The next generation of Destiny 2 is almost here! No, that doesn't mean a new title in the franchise; it means that with the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, there's a new generation of consoles to play the game on. That also means new improvements to the software's performance on console […]
Crowfall begins detailing specialization changes for each of the game's classes
When we first reported about Crowfall's plans to expand class specializations in update 6.2, we noted that there was an in-depth look at what's changing for the Ranger class. Little did we know, though, that every class in the game would be getting explanations of this depth, which have been posted on the game's news […]
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch check-in: Hotfixes, customization insight, and quest skips
Now that the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch is live, you might want to start your leveling experience in Warlords of Draenor but not want to do the horribly tedious start experience again. It's way too long. Fortunately, you have a new way to skip that! That's one of the undocumented changes with the latest patch; far more […]
Vague Patch Notes: Managing the MMO message – and when to piss off your fans
Remember at the beginning of this year when Mark Jacobs managed to basically enrage everyone with his announcement of another game his company was working on using the fundamentals laid down in Camelot Unchained? I know, it feels like that was four years ago, but it was January. People are still mad about it now, to the […]
Eight-year-old Pirate101 is essentially in maintenance mode with no new content planned for the next year
We've got some unfortunate but not unexpected news from Pirate101 this week, as KingsIsle has admitted that its content drought will continue for the foreseeable future. "In the September 2019 producer letter, we discussed a bit about the future of our updates – specifically that we were not considering any new worlds but looking at […]
Taking a look at World of Warcraft's new starter experience, Exile's Reach
While we are still in a holding pattern to know the launch date of Shadowlands, the good news is that you don't have to wait a single moment to try out one of World of Warcraft's brand-new zones. With this week's patch 9.0, Blizzard added the fresh starting area of Exile's Reach, which is playable […]
Pantheon restructures to allow 'more rapid development,' will start next alpha phase this month
Acknowledging that there has been "a great deal of confusion" around the current state of Pantheon, Visionary Realms posted a new producer's letter to explain the history of the MMORPG's development and what's on the horizon. In a nutshell, the team acknowledged that it had "backed itself into a corner" with its hardcoding and was […]
'Welcome back Freelancers': It looks like Gamigo might be reviving Atlas Reactor
The date is June 28th, 2019. It's the crack of dawn. And Gamigo has just sunsetted Atlas Reactor, one of the multiple Trion Worlds games that Gamigo picked up when Trion went under two years ago. The game's got a weird sort of cult status in the genre, with elements of MMOs, MOBAs, shooters, and […]
EverQuest announces its 27th expansion, Claws of Veeshan
Perhaps EverQuest fans were a little concerned that Daybreak might not be able to put out its yearly expansion, what with COVID and all. Rest easy, fair Norrathans, because Claws of Veeshan is coming! The studio officially announced its 27th expansion for the MMO this week, saying that it will be taking pre-orders and putting […]
We finally know who's taking over TERA's NA PC version: It's Gameforge
Two days ago, we wrote with some consternation over the fact that we knew when En Masse's TERA servers would be closing down and even when currency would transfer to the new publisher – but even two months later, we still didn't know who exactly was taking over the North American PC version of the […]
The Daily Grind: How solid do you think your memory of your favorite MMO's history is?
Ages ago, I wrote a column in which I jokingly pointed out that in order to really get the WoW Classic experience, you should need add-ons to enable multiple action bars. People tried to counter that this was not the case, as the game already had the option… but it didn't at launch. Multiple action bars weren't […]
The Stream Team: A handful of droids on SWTOR's Hoth
Corellia took too long, so Massively OP's Larry and MJ were not really able to hunt down the droids on Hoth last time. But today, today is the day they brave the snow on their tauntauns (not in) to find each and every droid for that SWTOR achievement. And they won't leave until the last […]
