The Stream Team: Witches are brewing in Elder Scrolls Online

If you've got a witch and you've got a cauldron, chances are something's brewing! Right now, that happens to be the Elder Scrolls Online Halloween event! Massively OP's MJ is taking another break from the story to enjoy the Witches Festival in Tamriel. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to stretch the season out. What: […]

Massively Uplifting: Supporting small businesses, grieving through games, and lending helping hands

Did you go trick-or-treating? There's still time! Here, have a handful of warm fuzzies! Take some full-sized good deeds! October has been full of treats in the form of uplifting and positive happenings throughout the MMOsphere. Have a look in your goody bag: You've got a a crew of mates in Sea of Thieves who […]

Star Conflict introduces an infectious game mode and a Plague Doctor DLC

It looks as if the digital space of Star Conflict is any more safe from a highly viral infection than the real world — at least in the case of the online spaceship battler's new brawl Curse of the Leviathan, which arrived as part of update 1.7.4. In Curse of the Leviathan, one random player […]

Final Fantasy XI announces its November update with a newbie channel and more story

The Voracious Resurgence continues along in Final Fantasy XI, and the game's November version update will start in on the second chapter of this new story arc. This installment brings players to Windurst and will feature a variety of familiar story characters along with a fair bit of… rolanberries. Yes, rolanberries. Of course, you'll still need […]

Apex Legends has already planned as many as 12 seasons, aspires to be 'more than just a battle royale game'

An interview with game director Chad Grenier has unveiled some interesting designs for the future of Apex Legends, not the least of which being to expand the game to new platforms, new players, and new ways to play outside of the battle royale sub-genre, though the shape of those plans isn't immediately obvious. "I think […]

Elder Scrolls Online's Markarth DLC and update 28 are officially live for PC players

If this week is all just a little too much for you to handle, you can try living in Tamriel for a little while, thanks to the release of both the Markarth DLC and update 28 in The Elder Scrolls Online on PC (and Mac and Stadia too). It's effectively the culmination of the year-long […]

Genshin Impact brings new stories, characters, and a city reputation system on November 11

Genshin Impact is bringing some new things for players to chase after with its update 1.1, which is set to arrive on Wednesday, November 11th, such as some new story content, more characters to pray to the Gods of Gatcha for, and a new city reputation system among other things. In terms of story content, […]

The Stream Team: Dodging shrapnel in Star Trek Online's House Shattered

The House is no longer divided — it's shattered! The next step in STO's Klingon civil war story is House Shattered, and Massively OP's MJ is wading into the mess and dodging the shrapnel. She'll join House Mo'kai in the shadows as rage and war rips through the Empire and J'mpok shows his true colors. […]

TERA Console will introduce cross-play between PS4 and Xbox and merge servers on November 19

Thursday, November 19th, is a pretty big day for TERA Console as the MMORPG will introduce cross-play features between PS4 and Xbox versions of the game. This feature will also introduce in-game friend and block systems that are removed from each platform's friend and block lists yet still let players friend one another regardless of […]

Hellgate: London rogue server London: 2038 enters beta

If you take a look back at the extremely bumpy history of Hellgate: London, the fact that the game has got yet another lease on life isn't so much surprising as par for the course, like Dracula rising up constantly to fight the Belmonts. So here we go once more with the rogue server London: […]

Shroud of the Avatar adds mounts, the Breach, map changes, and economy changes in R83

Release 83 has landed in Shroud of the Avatar, and with it comes a whole lot of changes as outlined in the official newsletter. High on the list (quite literally) is the addition of 16 mounts, 13 of which come from the Crown Store but six are obtainable by those who own certain foal decoration pets […]

Wisdom of Nym: The implications of Final Fantasy XIV Forspoken

So we do actually know the title of the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion now, even though we don't. Technically this has not yet been announced, but it matches literally every other bit of timing we've ever had regarding expansion titles, and it just has the right mouth feel, you know? We don't yet know if we're […]

Star Citizen's Chris Roberts and Richard Tyrer talk about plans for character death in a video

We haven't seen a whole lot of Chris Roberts in video form for quite a while (save for that brief cameo in the latest Inside Star Citizen episode), but with the recent Calling All Devs episode, the Star Citizen boss joined core gameplay director Richard Tyrer to talk about plans for the game's death mechanics […]

Fight or Kite: Spellbreak's Clash 9v9 mode is absolute mayhem

For the past few months I've been searching for an online game to really pull me in and become a new regular part of my gaming rotation. Valorant held that coveted title for a couple of months. I had a good time playing at first, but eventually the truth set in: I'm just not good […]

Camelot Unchained offers looks at new UI, the Dreadcaller class, and more Dragon's Web details

Camelot Unchained has offered up another round of check-ins for the playerbase to cap off the weekend playtest. We start with the most recent weekly update, which offers a whole lot of visuals, including some new UI previews, some fixes to unruly clothing items, and a look at the Abhorrent Knight Tower Champion. The Top […]

NCsoft expected to change its name to NC before September

Evidently, NCsoft is no longer going to be soft. It's not going to be hard, either, or even slightly squishy. It's simply going to be NC, a name change meant to recognize that the company, which first started off making software, now has its thumbs in a whole lot of different pies. The name change […]

Vampire the Masquerade sinks its teeth into the battle royale genre

Ask yourself: What is really missing from the battle royale genre at this point? If your non-sarcastic answer is "a hard-R splatterfest with horror's most overrated monsters," then you're thinking right along the same lines of developer Sharkmob. The studio announced that it has been working on a battle royale set in the popular Vampire: […]

World of Warcraft hosts 16th anniversary party, spotlights Shadowlands' Ardenweald

It's going to be a busy month for World of Warcraft, and it all starts with the 16th anniversary celebrations of the long-running MMORPG. The event, which started yesterday and runs through November 22nd, centers around a huge party in the Caverns of Time with plenty of goodies to attain. Every player who logs in […]

The Daily Grind: What's the best 'affordable' MMO?

We're fast approaching the end of 2020, which means we'll be cranking up our end-of-the-year machine with some of our recurring pieces. One of those is our piece on MMOs with the most value, and let me tell you, that is one of the most contentious pieces we do because figuring out the value equation […]

MMO Week in Review: WoW Shadowlands repositions for launch

This week in MMOs, we learned that Guild Wars 2's Steam launch and Path of Exile's next league would be delayed, which is a bummer. But World of Warcraft Shadowlands issued a brand-new launch date of November 23rd, all against the backdrop of Acti-Blizz's latest investor report and the news that Blizzard lost another 2M […]

World of Warships adds sci-fi LTM, War Thunder announces battlecruisers and battleships

Both of the big military vehicle battlers are getting some unique updates, so we'll go ahead and bundle up the latest news from War Thunder and World of Warships together in one post. Either way, there's a whole lot of naval combat going down. In World of Warships, there are a couple of unique events […]

The MOP Up: Anarchy Online's remixed raid

It's always a notable event when a stagnating MMORPG suddenly receives an infusion of new content. Such was the case for Anarchy Online this week, which received a reworked raid for players level 201 or higher. "Supercharged and reimagined for a single-team raid, experience the classic Condemned Subway instance like never before," Funcom posted. "Remixed […]

Champions Online delays its next story update until 2021

It's been a good while now since Champions Online received a new story — and the bad news is that players are going to have to wait a while longer to get the next one. While Cryptic said that it was very close to completing The Midnight Depths this past August, the update has not […]

The Stream Team: A Halloween-y hunt in Dauntless

MOP's resident monster hunter Chris is back on the job once again against a particularly threatening foe in the Shattered Isles. Apparently, there's a special hunt happening as part of the game's ongoing Halloween event, and by all accounts it's one of the game's more imposing and creepy critters: the Shrowd. Will our hero punch […]

Global Chat: How World of Warcraft can be peaceful

A recent article about the revised leveling process in World of Warcraft caught my eye, because MMO blogger Kaylriene spoke about how it's really been helping him get through a hard time in his life by being, strangely enough, calming and peaceful. "The whole experience led to me a thought about why it is I […]

One Shots: Cooking with arsenic

In the apocalypse, cooking shows are a lot weirder — and deadlier. But just because your co-host accidentally drank that bubbling green liquid and immediately passed to the great beyond doesn't mean that you have give up! A skeleton co-host is just as entertaining, in many cases. "Happy Halloween Week from Fallout 76," posted Lethia. […]

The Daily Grind: Have you ever gotten into MMO lore speculation?

When you play Star Wars: The Old Republic, there is a certain sort of lore speculation that holds that in 3000 years none of this will matter because we all know what happens then. (It involves midichlorians.) But there is also lore speculation about what will happen in the next patch, where the game's current story […]

Make My MMO: Wagadu funds, Project Gorgon eyes mid-2022 launch

This week in MMO crowdfunding, we got a blast of good news courtesy of Project Gorgon player Drew, who got a tentative release window for the early access MMORPG out of an Elder Game GM during a Halloween Q&A with the devs: As the cherry on top for the week, the genre saw another big […]

Conan Exiles' latest PC update introduces a 'massive' overhaul to crafting and thralls

The way you craft your tools of conquest (or your decorations of housing) is going to be changing dramatically with the latest update to Conan Exiles on PC. Update 2.1 has introduced previously discussed adjustments to the crafting system in what is being called a "major overhaul." As a refresher, this overhaul introduces specialized crafting […]

Ashes of Creation offers a peek at PvP combat from pre-alpha and discusses PvP balance in a livestream

Ashes of Creation has made no bones about the fact that it's a PvP title and the latest livestream from the devs once more illustrates as much with a look at some fresh pre-alpha combat footage featuring two teams of devs and testers attacking or defending a caravan. It also features Steven Sharif absolutely getting […]

The Stream Team: Astroneer's B.O.O. event is underway for Halloween

For Halloween, Astroneer has a giant hungry plant that needs to be fed, and Massively OP's MJ has volunteered for the position. To feed it, not be the food! B.O.O. (EXO's Biofuel Obtainment Operation) is underway, necessitating the collection of specific ingredients for the Cauldrangea to snack on in order to obtain the biofuel. Of […]

PSA: The online memorial for Meridian 59's Brian Green is this afternoon

It's been a long year, so you're entirely forgiven if you forgot that we lost Brian "Psychochild" Green this past summer. Green was the long-time caretaker of Meridian 59 and the creator of Storybricks, a tech that EverQuest Next wanted to use in its now-defunct project at one point. While there was an online memorial […]

The Game Archaeologist: Fallen Earth

I remember back when Fallen Earth first came out, I had some friends who were raving about it and doing everything in their power to drag me kicking and screaming into it. I did a lot of kicking and screaming back then, I realize. But what I first didn't get soon became a tale of […]

World of Warcraft shifts its 16th anniversary event, defends raiding over the holidays

Now that the (new) release date of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is public knowledge, both players and developers are swinging into action to prepare for this fall's big expansion debut. As Shadowlands is releasing on the exact 16th anniversary of World of Warcraft's 2004 launch, Blizzard apparently decided that it was best to bump up […]

WRUP: Wither bird edition

he came to me he came to me though I was afraid my fear and anxiety have ruled my life and it has been so consuming upon my windowsill he sat, black and ancient, and the tap of his claw against the glass spoke of something more eloquent than any language I had ever heard […]

The Daily Grind: What MMO boss quote can't you get out of your head?

There's one thing to be said about running the same dungeons and fighting the same bosses in MMORPGs repeatedly: You absolutely end up memorizing every one of their quotes. This is doubly true for the real ear worms, such as with World of Warcraft's seasonal Headless Horseman, who speaks in rhymes like, "Here's my body, fit […]

The Scream Team: Finding ghosts in Phasmophobia

What's better than a ghost hunt for Halloween? Not much! And since her favorite genre is horror, Massively OP's MJ has found a perfect holiday treat: an online co-op psychological horror. Phasmophobia sounds just perfect for her! She's slipping into the new early access game with friends to collect evidence of the paranormal.  Join us […]

Betawatch: Spooky scary Bless Unleashed closed betas

Yes, I know, Bless Unleashed isn't scary… except for the specter of the original Bless that hovers in the background. Oooh, there's a closed beta coming up! Spooky ghost voice! You can get a key for it, if you dare! Did that part do it for you? Nope? Well, that's all we got. Other beta […]

The Yellow King has introduced hardcore mode, Mac and Linux versions, and a new dungeon

Back in February of this year, we reported on the early access release of The Yellow King, a self-described Lovecraftian horror rogue-lite MMO. We figured that there's been more than enough time between then and now for updates, and sure enough, there's updates a-plenty. For a few months, anyway. Some of the headlining updates include […]

Afrofantasy MMORPG The Wagadu Chronicles just funded on Kickstarter for almost $200K

Twin Drums and its fans have done it: The Wagadu Chronicles just fully funded on Kickstarter to the tune of €163,910 (around $191,400 US) thanks to 2,659 backers. Its original ask was $117K US, which it more than exceeded; the Kickstarter funding is meant to increase the development budget and rope in player "feedback and […]

Guild Wars 2 postpones November Steam launch indefinitely to focus on End of Dragons expansion and living world

Just three months ago, ArenaNet told Guild Wars 2 players the game was bound for Steam with full crossplay in November. You might have forgotten that, what with the fact that the studio announced End of Dragons during the same event, and that kinda stole the show. Also it's 2020, so that August event feels […]

Naïca releases a gorgeous pixel art trailer ahead of its equally pixelated open beta

The open beta for Naïca starts on November 10th. We've covered that before, of course, along with all of the things that the game will offer to players even within the limited confines of its open beta scope on the continent of Lazul. But today there's something else to admire ahead of that open beta […]

Book of Travels previews its early access landmass and elaborates on its chapter-based update system

The self-described tiny multiplayer online title Book of Travels is slowly unfurling its plans for early access, and this time around it wants to show you the part of the game's world that will be open once early access — aka "Chapter Zero — kicks off. The area in question is a sizeable chunk of […]

Netdragon's Eudemons Online just hit Steam with a new server and promo

Long-running free-to-play MMO Eudemons Online is following in the footsteps of several other MMOs this year and has set up shop over on Steam. "In this mythic world, you can choose to be a Warrior, a Mage, a Paladin, a Vampire, a Necromancer, a Shadow Knight and a Ranger. Over one hundred distinct Eudemons are […]

The Stream Team: Trick-or-treating in Trove

One of the most iconic parts of Halloween is trick-or-treating. And Massively OP's MJ looks forward to it every year, in all its many forms. In Trove, that just so happens to involve smashing and bashing monsters in dungeons. (Don't try that at home, folks!) Tune in live at 3:00 p.m. as MJ embarks on […]

WoW slots Classic's Naxxramas for December 1, previews Shadowlands' Bastion in new video

If you're looking for big news about World of Warcraft Classic… well you're not likely to get it for a while, in spite of the teasing during last night's investor call. Blizzard's not gonna stomp all over Shadowlands for nothing. But you're definitely going to get some medium news, as Blizzard announced that Naxx will […]

Warframe continues the Great Ensmallening with focus on texture size and visuals

In case you're wondering just what the heck an "ensmallening" is, it's an effort by Warframe to reduce the game's overall file size and improve its performance over the course of three phases. The first phase arrived to PC players in September, and now the next phase is on the horizon for PC players with […]

Ultima Online previews New Legacy's updated weather and climate systems

Back in September, Broadsword announced a bold new initiative for the 23-year-old Ultima Online: It's called New Legacy, and it's essentially a new-player shard with a new ruleset that simplifies and streamlines onboarding for the game. It's not just another fresh start or classic server, and in fact, it's expected to have seasonal timelimits, at […]

The MMO Cartographer: In the Echo of Echo of Soul

How much would you pay to play a game that has been shut down as a free-to-play game and then re-released as a buy-to-play game? Your answer is probably something along the lines of, "Nothing! Why would anyone pay for that? Why does this keep happening?" And that is the correct answer. But for me, […]

Torchlight III adds pet costumes, spooky fort decorations, and legendary items in the newest update

While Torchlight III isn't really going to put on any sort of large-scale social event owing to the fact that it's not an MMO, the multiplayer ARPG still is keen on celebrating the Halloween season with its Gear 'N' Goblins update, which has added a variety of thematically appropriate goodies for players to revel in. […]