The StreamTeam: Helping open Haven Bound, EverQuest II's prelude event
We have an expansion incoming! Repeat: We have an expansion incoming! And that means Massively OP's MJ needs to get on the ball and work though the EQII's prelude event before it disappears at Reign of Shadows' launch. Join us live at 9:00 p.m. as she helps G.L.E.E.S.H. (Guild of Luclin Enthusiasts and Experts Supplying […]
Medieval survival sandbox The Black Death explains ongoing delays, insists development hasn't stopped
It's time yet again to check in on developing MMO and multiplayer games that have maybe fallen off of the radar because that's our duty to the genre and to you fine folks. This time around, we'll be peeking in on The Black Death, the survival sandbox set in a grimdark medieval backdrop that is […]
The Stream Team: Doing DC Universe Online's Witching Hour
It's that time of year again — the time when Massively OP's MJ gets to hang out with Klarion the Witch Boy in DCUO. And by hang out, we mean thwart his dastardly plot and break the spell! The Witching Hour event is still going, and MJ wants to revel in the spirit of the […]
Shadow Arena introduces a new trio mode with new mechanics
Speaking from personal experience, battle royale is more tolerable when you're with friends, if for nothing else than to have someone to complain to when you're taken out by someone you didn't see coming seriously what the heck happened the map was clear literally seconds ago. Enter trio mode for Shadow Arena, which lets three […]
Pokemon GO's Battle League Season 5 easing the ladder, adding more options
Tired of all the Pokemon Go updates that Niantic is constantly pushing out? Too bad for us, as there's another en route: In Season 5 (starting Monday, November 9th, at 4 p.m. EST, the climb to rank 10 will no longer be affected by losses. Instead, ranks 3 to 10 will be based on gaining a […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 295: Reveals and roadmaps
Justin and Bree discuss Guild Wars 2, WoW Classic and Shadowlands, Blizzard's Q3, The Wagadu Chronicles, EverQuest II, and Elyon, with a Daily Grind Blitz and a pair of mailbag voicemails on starting out in WoW and subbing to MMOs.
SMITE launches the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battle pass and updates its early surrender rules
The previously reported on mashup between SMITE and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is now officially online, letting players of the MOBA dress up Osiris, Loki, Mercury, and Sun Wukong as Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello respectively. In addition, there are Splinter Hachiman, Shredder Ravana, and a variety of other skins unrelated to the Turtles […]
EVE buffs up the Encounter Surveillance System to encourage player fighting even after taking out PvE bounties
The upcoming new Dynamic Bounty System for EVE Online gives players a reason to fight PvE pirates and earn bounties, with the game's multiplier system allowing each kill in more dangerous territories to be worth more. But there's an extra wrinkle added with the new version of the Encounter Surveillance System, which takes a portion […]
Pirates of the Burning Sea's new operators released a new launcher, patcher, and website, with plans for a legacy server
One of the feel-good stories of 2019 came from the corner of the MMOverse belonging to Pirates of the Burning Sea, when the remaining Portalus developers admitted they were being forced to sunset the game over a lack of financing and coding support. Players, however, stepped in behind a company called Vision Online Games to […]
Survival MMO Stars End flies under the Steam radar in early access
Despite going into early access earlier this fall, the space survival sim Stars End hasn't made a lot of traction with the Steam community. In fact, if you happen to buy the $15 and hop in, you're going to need to do a lot of scouting to find anyone, as the game is only populated […]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen offers a look at its environmental art process
The environmental artist. One of the unsung heroes of game development. These folks are the ones that very often set the stage for how a game's areas and region will look, with the design and artistry creating an overall motif to tell the story of a world through visuals. This is some of what was […]
Choose My Adventure: Exploring a new world and new bugs in No Man's Sky
My goodness how things have changed. I have had a brief peek at No Man's Sky once before, but only the barest peeks, so being able to fully dive in has definitely been an experience. Particularly when one considers how much the game has added over the course of its now four year-long history. But […]
Bethsoft's Todd Howard on Microsoft, subscriptions, and the future of its IPs
When Microsoft walked over to ZeniMax Media with a big fat wallet and acquired all of the things, there was plenty of speculation on what it meant for the various studios' titles, from Fallout to Doom to the Elder Scrolls franchise at large. And while the oft-repeated line of whether new games arriving to non-Microsoft […]
Whatever happened to Valve's digital card game Artifact?
Valve's digital card game Artifact launched in much the same way that the Soviet R-16 test-launched at Baikonur. Since then, back in May the game announced that it was going into a second beta to make changes and improvements, with our last story about the game being a preview of its new Draft gameplay mode. […]
MechWarrior Online's CM promises more community input and a 'rough outline of a plan' for updates
Another news story about MechWarrior Online roughly two weeks since our last report? Yes, believe it or not, the lines of communication appear to be opening more than they ever have. As we noted in that last report in October, Piranha Games had re-hired Daeron "Bombadil" Katz as a full-time community manager for MWO while […]
Old School RuneScape breaks its concurrency record
Don't look now — well, yes, look now — but Old School RuneScape is greater than it's ever been. The 2007-era version of the classic MMORPG has proved to be even more popular than RuneScape standard, with its Leagues II: Trailblazer pushing it to new heights. In fact, Jagex trumpeted the fact that this past […]
World of Warcraft: Free BlizzCon, dev swap, and Revendreth preview
Blizzard President J. Allen Brack posted an interesting "fireside chat" yesterday to talk about what's going on with the studio and its games in these final months of 2020. Brack said that "over 95%" of Blizzard has been working from home since the pandemic and is putting the final touches on Shadowlands before its November […]
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about character boosting in MMOs?
To clarify right off the bat, I don't meant elo boosting as in MOBAs; I mean using character boosts, either paid or otherwise, in MMOs to bump your character up in level. They're not really uncommon anymore; gobs of MMOs have these options. Just off the top of my head, Guild Wars 2 offers level […]
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 […]
