The Wagadu Chronicles adds one last stretch goal with just about two days left on the clock

There's no longer a question mark about the funding target for Afro-fantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles on Kickstarter; that happened ages ago, and the project has subsequently blown past one stretch goal after another. With just about 55 hours remaining on the project as of this writing, the developers have put forth one last stretch goal […]

Elder Scrolls Online: Update 28's 'stickerbook' and washing ya damn hands

When The Elder Scrolls Online's Markarth DLC launches next week, the free update 28 launches along with it, and one of its tentpole features is the item set collection system, which has now been profiled in a dev blog on the official site. "With Update 28's Item Set Collection system, you can add almost all […]

Atlas Reactor spinoff title Atlas Rogues now has a trailer to enjoy

The presence of Atlas Rogues – a roguelite spinoff of the sadly defunct Atlas Reactor based on what was apparently an early prototype – is the sort of story you'd have a hard time believing if it didn't already get announced. But it's true, this is a thing that's happening, and the latest press release announcing the […]

Old School RuneScape's Trailblazer League launches, complete with a battle rap video because why not

How do you hype up the launch of your latest content? PR? Sizzle reels? Memes posted on Twitter? If you're Old School RuneScape, you kind of just announce it. Oh, also, you kick out a rap battle music video. The main dish announcement post effectively breaks down what the Trailblazer League is all about: start […]

MassivelyOP's 2020 guide to Halloween across the MMO world

Take a pro-tip from a Halloween gaming expert: If you shout "Bloody Mary" three times at any MMO login screen, you'll unlock a secret mode in which you will be outfitted with the best raid tier set and be granted two "I Win" skills. Sure, you'll have to forfeit your skin and spend every waking […]

Aion KR confirms the release of a classic server for the region on November 11

Well, it turns out that earlier bit of supposition held true. An earlier tease of a classic server from the Korean version of Aion has been formally announced by way of a video from the devs. According to the sourced Reddit post and further corroborated by a comment in the video itself, Aion Classic will […]

Temtem plans 'exclusive' PlayStation 5 early access launch December 8

Back in August, early access creature-collection MMO Temtem announced that it'd be launching on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch in 2021 alongside the full PC launch. We knew the team would be "prioritizing" the PlayStation 5, and as of today, Crema Games has clearly sped up its timeline, as it's announced today that […]

Elyon aka Ascent Infinite Realm just dropped a new trailer and Korean launch date

We haven't heard a whole lot from Krafton's in-bound MMORPG Elyon, not since the April news that the game had pivoted from being a steampunk-fantasy MMO dubbed Ascent Infinite Realm into Elyon, an MMO that looks… well, a lot more like TERA. In any case, Krafton has just dropped a new trailer for the game, […]

Lawful Neutral: The Epic vs. Apple lawsuit – when titans are tweens

The MassivelyOP Golden Yacht was anchored someplace off the coast of Maine when the first news about Epic suing Apple hit. We had sailed north to avoid the hurricane from our normal anchorage much further south. I burst into the galley, fax bulletin clutched in my hand, and delivered the news to a bemused Bree, […]

Ship of Heroes shows off a Halloween-themed peek at its mission content in new video

Sure, Ship of Heroes hasn't technically released yet, but that doesn't mean the game can't get in on some of the Halloween fun! Enter the game's latest development video, which not only revels in the spooky season but also offers a full look at how development work on mission content is coming along. In this […]

Lord of the Rings Online tweaks War of the Three Peaks, talks more about classic server difficulties

The first post-release patch for War of the Three Peaks has hit Lord of the Rings Online, bringing a bundle of changes and tweaks for Update 28. In addition to fixing issues like not being able to launch the 64-bit client with DX11 enabled, the patch is also going to activate some new raid content […]

No Man's Sky: Next Generation brings the game to next-gen consoles, graphical upgrades for all

Back in September, No Man's Sky studio Hello Games revealed Origins as merely "the beginning of something new." Now that the update is well behind us, you might be wondering what the "something new" is. Turns out it's the next-gen console port, as Hello Games' Sean Murray posted this morning that No Man's Sky: Next […]

Valorant's latest patch ends up a 'technical nightmare' and earns a rollback

You know it's not a good patch week when the game's studio comes right out and admits that the release has been a "technical nightmare" and is being rolled back to try again. But that's exactly what's been happening in Valorant this week, and it's a huge pile of suck all around. "Real talk: 1.11 […]

Former WoW story VP Chris Metzen returns to gaming with new tabletop company

Chris Metzen hasn't made a ton of headlines since his retirement from Blizzard back in 2016, but as turns out, that's because he's been busy putting together a new gaming company. Don't get too excited, MMORPG fans, because it's not an MMO studio. It's a tabletop gaming company. It's called Warchief Gaming, an obvious and […]

EverQuest II's newly announced Reign of Shadows expansion offers playable Vah Shir, huge AA revamp

It was only a matter of time until Daybreak announced its yearly EverQuest II expansion, and this week it's happened. EverQuest II: Reign of Shadows is coming to the MMO later this year with beta testing and pre-orders starting on November 10th. The tentpole attraction for the game's 17th expansion is most definitely playable Vah […]

The Daily Grind: What's the point of collecting MMO vanity pets?

In my book, there are two types of MMO players. No, it's not warlords and carebears. It's not even subbers versus freebies. The only two categories that matter is whether a player is a pet collector or a pet denier. I mean, how can you not want to go out and get yourself some adorable […]

The Stream Team: Going mad for Guild Wars 2's Halloween events

Halloween and madness go hand in hand, and what induces more madness than the Mad King's Clock Tower jumping puzzle in GW2? Nothing! So Massively OP's MJ is really getting into the spirit by jumping head(less) first into the holiday festivities. Join us live at 8:00 p.m. to revisit the Mad King and his realm. […]

Early access MMO Atlas adds sea forts with its latest patch

Do you want to control trade in an area in Atlas? Well, you'll have to wait for the full trading system to be added to the game, because it's not there yet. But the latest patch has added sea forts to the game, and these will be crucial to establishing control over a region when the […]

Counterstrike: Global Offensive players in Australia get a year-long ban for betting on themselves

It turns out that professional athletes placing bets on their own performances in games is generally frowned upon in most sports. This is true in competitive gaming as well. Counterstrike: Global Offensive, well known as a game in which people find the most absurdly corrupt ways to cheat or behave like jerks and perhaps occasionally play […]

Whoa, Astellia Online's next-next update, Palat Coast, is quite a glow-up

Damn, I had forgotten how pretty Astellia Online was, but the latest patch preview has brought it back to my working memory. And it's a good thing it's pretty because Studio 8's forum post is loaded with screenshots and confusion and not much else. The update is framed as an in-character tease of Palat Coast, […]

Massively OP Podcast Episode 294: Butterfly in the sky, I can game twice as high

Justin and Bree discuss SWTOR, New World, WoW, City of Heroes, and LOTRO, with adventures in Torchlight III, WoW, and SWG Legends, plus a mailbag topic on working in the games industry.

The gamer who circumnavigated the galaxy in a ship of Elite Dangerous' own making

By god, the kids have done it: They've circumnavigated the entire galaxy in a carrier. In Elite Dangerous, that is. According to his now much-loved Reddit post, the Elite player known as CMDR Thauma undertook the self-imposed mission, using Eddiscovery for mapping and performing jumps and mining for fuel a few hours a day through […]

Grab a MU Online or C9 gift bundle in Webzen's Halloween 2020 giveaway

Webzen is celebrating the spooky season once again with events across its catalogue of MMOs: MU Online and Continent of the Ninth Seal (C9). "Webzen will be opening a spooky mysterious mansion to celebrate Halloween. During the event period, all guests are welcome to come to the mansion for trick-or-treating and receive special candies as treats. […]

The Stream Team: Golden Saucers and Halloween in Final Fantasy XIV

Massively OP's Chris and MJ had so much fun together they wanted to keep the FFXIV party going! And what better time than during Halloween, a holiday that's all party? Chris is going to show MJ the Golden Saucer (should they grab it for the Golden Yacht?!), and they'll be enjoying the season together, so […]

Don't look now but Cyberpunk 2077 just got delayed for at least the third time, now to December

I know you're all going to be super surprised, but CD Projekt has gone back on claims that it would not delay Cyberpunk 2077 further and in fact… delayed it once again. This is at least the third big delay for the game (first from April, then from September). The new launch date is December […]

Guild Wars 2 outlines content plans through May 2021, with next chapter, Truce, coming November 17

Roadmap roadmap getcher Guild Wars 2 roadmap here! Yep ArenaNet's dropped a roadmap for the "final arc" of the Icebrood Saga this afternoon. "The Icebrood Saga: Champions is a multichapter Living World finale featuring new story, repeatable gameplay content, rewards, achievements, and masteries," ArenaNet explains. "In the weeks between releases, each chapter will continue to […]

Destiny 2 offers up a calendar of events and a new ViDoc for Beyond Light's upcoming launch

While players of Destiny 2 are perhaps still ogling some freshly found story hints, there's other things for fans to point their eyeballs at. Specifically, a calendar of events and a new video, both of which are all about the coming arrival of Beyond Light. The ViDoc (which is my personal front-runner for dumbest videogame-related […]

Choose My Adventure: Counting the ways I love Dauntless

Thank you all for letting me close out this month with some Dauntless because I seriously love this game so very, very much. I've been following this game pretty actively since its final closed alpha all the way up to now, watching it develop in to the title that it is now, so to say that […]

Genshin Impact adds a story quest for Mona, with a big update coming next month

While Genshin Impact's first major post-launch patch is still to come on November 13th, the team at Mihoyo put out a smaller update yesterday that added a story quest for Mona, one of the game's five-star heroes. The Astrolabs Chapter story requires a few prerequisites to access, namely being at least adventure rank 38 and […]

Massively-on-the-Go: Niantic's 'Mega' missteps in Pokemon Go

Previously in our Massively-on-the-Go column, we covered the deluge of events and updates Pokemon Go has seen this season, with a bit of commentary. While we normally don't cover every little update that the game receives, many of these updates were confusing, but none so much as the upcoming Mega Evolution updates. We spelled out exactly […]

Epic's latest legal clapback says it couldn't steal from Apple something Apple never owned

The Epic v. Apple lawsuit is slated to begin in full next May, which means 10 more months of smaller salvos between the companies. The most recent came Friday, when Epic Games responded to Apple's claim that Epic's "flagrant disregard for its contractual commitments and other misconduct has caused significant harm to Apple." "Apple's repeated […]

Elite Dangerous has merged Horizons into the base game as of today

Last month, Frontier made a whole lot of sci-fi MMO fans take notice when it announced it would be merging Elite Dangerous' Horizons expansion into the base game, effectively giving it away to players who never bought it. The day of the merge is now finally upon us. "Today we are merging Elite Dangerous and […]

Destiny 2 fans clamor over some datamined story hints ahead of Beyond Light

With only a couple of weeks left before the Beyond Light expansion arrives to Destiny 2 on November 10th, an intriguing leaked image has stirred up some fan hype. Datamined code from the PlayStation Store reveals some new logo artwork for the game, which seems pretty innocuous until you look closer and see what looks […]

Blizzard loses Dave Kosak to new studio as confused players show up for WoW Shadowlands

World of Warcraft former Lead Narrative Designer Dave Kosak has struck out from Blizzard for a new opportunity, according to an announcement that he made yesterday. Kosak said that he left the studio after 12 years in order to take a creative director role at Deviation Games where he is making something "secret" but "amazing." That's […]

The Daily Grind: Is the 'forever game' philosophy healthy for MMOs?

A few weeks back, Remnant from the Ashes creative director David Adams did an interview on Gamasutra where he discussed how his team very specifically wanted to avoid the "forever game" mentality when it came to development. MMO players, of course, grew up thinking the forever game was the norm and the ideal, but then […]

Indie fantasy MMO Past Fate strives to make 'dynamic and rewarding' combat

Following up on the small but successful Kickstarter campaign this past summer, indie MMO Past Fate has been pretty quiet with no early access release in sight. That doesn't mean the team isn't working on it, of course. In fact, earlier this month Icy North Games brought fans up to speed on the project on […]

Gloria Victis revamps horses, tweaks castles, and prepares Forefathers' Eve for Halloween

Gloria Victis has clearly been busy, if its latest press blast is any indication: Black Eye Games is talking up the addition of a well timed attack effectively parrying an incoming blow and a cleave mechanic for taking on multiple foes, the addition of crouching, and optimizations to mounted combat in an effort to fighting […]

Wurm Online tweaks favor earnings, favor spells, and PvP ahead of Halloween events

There's been an update to Wurm Online, and while it touches on a variety of things, some of the larger sections in the latest patch notes are tied to favor earnings and PvP adjustments. On the subject of favor, this patch now allows for more regular casts of global ritual spells on smaller and less […]

PvP-centric mobile MMO A3: Still Alive confirms a global launch on November 10

We've been covering the arrival of A3: Still Alive a couple of times now, first with its initial reveal in 2019, then with some further details this past September including a global pre-registration event. The game basically tries to merge open-world RPGs and battle royale together, with an always-open PvP environment and PvP and Player […]

Roblox invites kids to a virtual Halloween block party to make up for lost trick-or-treating

It goes without saying — but I'm going to say it anyway — that this year's Halloween isn't going to be quite normal due to the pandemic. A lot of families and kids are looking for alternate experiences this week, which is why Roblox is going all out to throw a virtual Halloween Block Party […]

Life sim Identity languishes in early access development, asks for map builders

Life usually moves pretty fast — but for the aspiring simulator Identity, it's nearly slowed to a halt. The project, which we've been tracking for a few years now, has done little to suggest any forward momentum this year. In fact, it's last significant development was back in 2018, when it released the town center […]

RuneScape kicks off its 2020 Halloween event and improves quality of life for Slayers

Tired of Halloween events in MMOs? No? Awesome because RuneScape has one for you starting today! It all starts at Draynor Manor where players are tasked to help Death, Famine, Pestilence, and Muncher with a variety of tasks each day of the event, with cosmetic rewards like Death's Hood, Death's Scythe, and a Muncher pet […]

Halloween comes to ArcheAge, Defiance 2050, and more Gamigo MMORPGs

When you're a publisher like Gamigo, you have the benefit of casting a wide net with your announcements. Case in point: The announcement from the publisher about all the Halloween events running in games under the company's umbrella mentions Aura Kingdom, Echo of Soul, Twin Saga, Last Chaos, and Fiesta Online in one line as "oh, these games also […]

Final Fantasy XIV interviews main scenario writer and lore director Banri Oda

Every single interview with the Final Fantasy XIV development team makes it clear that the people working on this game have a deep and passionate love for the game and its community. The new internal interview with main scenario writer and lore director Banri Oda should help reinforce this fact, as Oda notes that the biggest […]

War Thunder announces graphical upgrades, next-gen console release with crossplay

There's New Power coming to the online multiplayer vehicle battler War Thunder. No, that's not a failure to understand proper capitalization, that's the name of the game's next update that will be bringing a bunch of graphical enhancements to the game thanks to updates to its Dagor Engine. Fans can look forward to subtle new […]

ArcheAge Unchained tweaks ArchePass mission cap, players rock out to Metallica

For those who mainline chase the ArchePass objectives in ArcheAge Unchained, your grinding life has gotten a whole lot better. A forum post has announced that the weekly cap for daily missions for the ArchePass will be raised from 12 missions to 20, starting on Thursday, October 29th, for the Season 5 ArchePass. Furthermore, the […]

Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV's borrowed power is generously loaned

If you've been active in the larger MMO discussion sphere over the past few months… well, thanks! It's the field I work in, after all. Also, you have probably seen discussion about the concept of borrowed power come up, especially when it comes to some entire planet of fighting. Borrowed power, as a concept, refers to […]

Blockchain-powered creative MMO Blankos Block Party announces closed beta for November 17 and launches founder's packs

If you're hearing the sound of furniture being flipped from somewhere, that's evidently Bree's kids upending tables in excitement over Blankos Block Party, a new MMO coming from publisher Mythical Entertainment and developer Third Kind Games that was first revealed during the PC Gaming Show in June and is now confirmed for closed beta on […]

Not So Massively: StarCraft II's maintenance mode doesn't mean game over

Earlier this month, we learned that Blizzard was effectively putting StarCraft II into maintenance mode. Considering what a massive fan of StarCraft II I am, you may be surprised to learn that I am largely fine with this. I don't think this contradicts my earlier assertion that StarCraft II has been Blizzard's best-managed property in […]

World of Warcraft players are embracing the new leveling challenge of reaching level 50 without a spec

The launch of the pre-patch for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has brought with it an entirely new way to level via each individual expansion and plenty of adjustments to the low-level experience. But maybe that's not enough for you to really get a charge out of this content any longer. Maybe you need something harder to get […]