The Stream Team: Completing concert collection and powering a ranger in AQ3D
The end of the Breaking Benjamin battle concert in AQ3D is eminent, and the conclusions of that 54+ step quest is in sight for Massively OP's MJ. Today is the day! She will complete the concert. But not only that, MJ will also power up her new ranger. It's a double-header of wrap-ups. Join us […]
Trove has a celestial summer with the launch of the Lunar Plunge event
It's about time to reach for the stars — quite literally — in Trove as the game kicks off the Lunar Plunge event where players can gather up all sorts of celestial-themed goodies. During the Lunar Plunge, Invasions will be replaced with Starfalls that will see Stars and Lunar Drops randomly appear around the world. […]
Shroud of the Avatar adds player town teleporters and previews new building block types
Release 80 is now live in Shroud of the Avatar and with it are new ways for players to blip between player-created towns. The teleporter items that were previewed earlier are now in-game, with a number of different types of things that can function as a route between player-created towns, from the previewed wagon to […]
Activision-Blizzard Q2 2020: Year-over-year revenues are up for the first time in six quarters
We're back with another dip into Activision-Blizzard's financials, this one Q2 2020, the first report since shareholders lambasted the company for excessive executive pay and the first report since BlizzCon 2020 was outright canceled. MMO readers will recall that Q1's report was heavily focused on on COVID-19 impacts and talking up better-than-expected returns, but as […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 282: Gate crashers
Justin and Bree discuss WoW Classic, Dragon's Prophet, Warhammer Online's Return of Reckoning, Phantasy Star Online 2, and EVE Echoes, with adventures in LOTRO, SWTOR, WoW, and SWG Legends, plus mailbag topics on memorable MMO stories and the greediest games.
Rebirth Online makes its early access arrival to Steam
Steam is now home to another free-to-play MMORPG from our friends in South Korea. This time it's Rebirth Online, which appears to be the PC version of the mobile MMO Rebirth M now released on Steam Early Access. As we covered when publisher/developer Caret Games first announce the arrival of Rebirth Online, this title hits […]
Past Fate promises new spells and skill trees to alpha as its Kickstarter marches on
As the second Kickstarter drive for sandbox MMORPG Past Fate rolls on, the devs at Icy North Games are still hard at work improving the game's alpha build, kicking out a bug fix-loaded update and planning on future updates that will include more spells & abilities for Necromancer, Warrior and Priest classes as well as […]
For Science: Meta-analysis of aggression studies shows no link between aggression and video games
Do video games make people violent? The dispatch from the APA back in March certainly seems to indicate that it thinks so, which runs counter to what even researchers connected to the studies cited believed. But a new meta-analysis released on the Royal Society site went through 28 different studies and analyzed the data from […]
Fallout 76 patches in a new public event and the communal Brotherhood of Steel base building effort
I'll be honest, the only reason I enjoy the Brotherhood of Steel is that they have neat toys, which I suspect would be a prime reason for Fallout 76 players to join in on the community goal of building a Brotherhood of Steel base, which is something that can now be done with the latest […]
Choose My Adventure: The absurd tsunami that is AdventureQuest 3D
Let's see… I was flung across the world, I fought an extremely hyperactive unicorn bro, I nearly got defeated by chickens, and I fought a monstrous tree stump that spoke only in puns. And that was just the beginning of my AdventureQuest 3D adventures. To be honest, I was expecting plenty of silliness. I used […]
Final Fantasy XIV will be down for 24 hours for patch 5.3 maintenance
Get anything you need to have done in Final Fantasy XIV done before August 10th. Anything you want done before the patch, at least, because that's when patch 5.3 comes roaring on to the game's servers with a 24-hour long maintenance window. Yes, it starts at 6:00 a.m. EDT on August 10th and ends at […]
Not So Massively: First impressions of StarCraft II's co-op prestige system
Last week, StarCraft II celebrated its tenth anniversary by launching the major 5.0 patch. With it came the new "prestige" system for co-op mode, offering a wealth of new strategic options for every commander. It would take weeks — if not months — to explore all the new options in detail, but for now I can […]
Yet another Ubisoft executive is out of a job in the wake of ongoing sexual misconduct allegations
Ubisoft is still feeling the effects of sexual harassment allegations at the executive level as Tommy Francois, VP of editorial and creative services, is how gone from the company entirely. Francois was previously put on administrative leave in June and widely reported to have left earlier this week, though Gamasutra's source says he was in […]
Trove interview: Gamigo on console's future, Bomber Royale, and the next class for a revamp
With Trove's fifth birthday and its Delves expansion now behind it, we're curious about what's next for the game. Gamigo's Cornelia and Coby – Product Manager and Game Designer on Trove, respectively – kindly chatted with us about that and a few other burning questions, like what's up with console, which class is next up […]
Phantasy Star Online Director on working on the original: 'The pressure was intense'
We wouldn't have Phantasy Star Online 2 without the original Phantasy Star Online – not just because numbers work like that, but because a big part of what made PSO2 possible was the foundational work done on PSO. A new interview with director Takao Miyoshi looking back on the original includes, among other things, his […]
Blizzard staffers agitate against poor worker pay as Activision-Blizzard rakes in billions
Blizzard's labor practices have been under scrutiny over the last couple of years, propelled in large part due to mass-layoffs at the top of 2019 that coincided with Blizzard's "historic" $7.5B revenue haul. Apparently, those who survived the layoffs haven't given up agitating, as a new report on Bloomberg covers the World of Warcraft, Diablo, […]
New World wraps up 'density test,' and the community is impressed
With all the activity flitting about Amazon's New World these days, you wouldn't think that the upcoming MMORPG has been delayed all the way into 2021. This past weekend, the studio ran a "density" (read "stress") test to prepare the servers for the promised pre-order preview that's coming later this month. Said density test has […]
Lord of the Rings Online opens the doors to Rohan housing and Helm's Deep
It's always a momentous occasion in Lord of the Rings Online when a brand-new type of housing is added to the servers, and today's may be even more so. The long-awaited Rohan housing is now open for purchase, offering themed premium houses for players to inhabit. Update 27.2 adds two Rohan neighborhoods with regular and […]
The Daily Grind: How can MMO communities revive a dying playerbase?
A while back, I read a Reddit thread from players of a certain small MMO who were discussing what the community could do to, well, save the game and give it the prominence it deserves. "Honestly this game is awesome, and has so much potential," the OP said. "I'd love to see it thrive – […]
The Stream Team: Speed gardening in Path of Exile
Massively OP's MJ wants to get in some more gardening before she's gone on her moving excursion. With all the packing and moving, she hasn't been able to play Path of Exile's latest league and her melee Scion nearly as much as she's wanted to. And now she'll be facing an undetermined time of being […]
Massively Uplifting: Good deeds don't take the summer off for Bungie, Niantic, and Trolls in WoW
When summer comes, some lucky folks get to take the season off. Even those who continue on their regular labors often head out on real life adventures and vacations. Conventions, family reunions, fairs and amusement parks — these were standard July activities. 2020, however, has certainly put the kibosh on many summer plans all across […]
Lord of the Rings Online community reschedules Weatherstock for September
In hindsight, Lord of the Rings Online's greatest annual player concert series couldn't have picked a worse time to try to host the event. Last month's Weatherstock was originally going to rage all day on July 18th, but that's about when the servers caught on fire and the game went mostly offline for great periods […]
Closed alpha testing results see survival sandbox Craftopia delay its early access launch
MOP's Bree and I — and probably some other staffers here — are pretty eager to see what Craftopia is all about. For those who don't remember the last time we cast eyes on this one, it styles itself as an open world survival crafting game with farming, crafting (obviously), dungeon delving, monster hunting, and […]
Black Desert addresses caster-heavy Conquest Wars, new regions, and gear progress walls
We're back once again with another set of Black Desert Heidel Ball player questions. Who knew that we'd be getting so much mileage out of an image of the Black Spirit adorably holding a microphone? In this Q&A round we get a number of answers from a wide variety of topics. One of the very […]
Fortnite's receding water level reveals a new Atlantis-like location known as Coral Castle
As the water level recedes in the battle royale island of Fortnite, more locations are revealed, yet those who have been exploring the area (when they're not being shot by other players) have been curiously peering at a particular corner of the map that was previously covered by a whirlpool that seemed to suggest a […]
ARK discusses balance changes and Genesis part 2 release, Atlas answers player questions
Hi there! Do you love some survival sandboxes developed by Studio Wildcard and Grapeshot Games? Then you're in the right place as both ARK: Survival Evolved and Atlas are in the news. Let's get to it. In ARK's latest community crunch, players are given the rather unhappy news that Genesis part 2's release is being […]
Final Fantasy XI: The Voracious Resurgence gets its own teaser site
It turns out that Final Fantasy XI will just keep going forever. The game has been pumping out monthly updates reliably ever since its supposed maintenance mode kicked off, of course, but now it's getting new story content… and as a demonstration of scope, the new story has a subtitle and even a full special […]
Path of Exile lays out a rough timeline for its next major expansion
Now that Path of Exile has effectively completed work on the Harvest League (sort of), the time has come for the devs at Grinding Gear Games to look ahead to 3.12 with a general idea of when players can expect the next League. As a result of a 14 week development cycle to create Harvest, […]
Star Citizen discusses its plans for finalizing the Stanton system
The Stanton system of Star Citizen (aka the only star system available to explore in the alpha right now) is almost fully built. Sort of. Maybe? It's a work in progress. That's the broad strokes message from the latest Calling All Devs video, though there are more specific details that should be noted before you […]
World of Warcraft ad accidentally shows up in Disney's Spaceship Earth
So for those brave foolhardy souls venturing into Walt Disney World during this year of the pandemic, it must be a surreal experience to see normally crowded parks spread out and subject to all manner of extra precautions. But it must be even more surreal when an MMORPG just happens to pop up in one […]
World of Warships enters into a crossover with Transformers for unique skins and voices
It's time for Transformers to cross over with World of Warships, and that means… ship skins. Like, seriously, that's the thing. You might think that you would get ships based on some of the numerous Transformers with sea-based alternate modes (Tidal Wave, Broadside, Seaspray, Thunderblast, Depthcharge, Splashdown, Undertow, Flattop, Manta Ray, and Waterlog all spring […]
Wisdom of Nym: What it means to be good at Final Fantasy XIV content
Let's start with an assertion that some people may or may not believe but is still true no matter what: Dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV are not terribly difficult. That's not to say that FFXIV is bereft of difficult content, although your standards on how difficult it actually is will vary. Savage and Extreme, for […]
Camelot Unchained works on giants, pretty trees, wyverns, and replacing Ben Pielstick
It's another week of Camelot Unchained updates with another Top Ten-ish and look at artwork — followers know the drill by now. In this update, the devs discuss working on a new giant race that's slowly starting to come together, adding the viking keep plot crafted by the Builder's Brigade to the battleground zone, and […]
Little Orbit offers Fallen Earth rebuilding update, say it's temporarily 'low priority'
Fans of the post-apoc MMO Fallen Earth were thrown a bone by publisher/developer Little Orbit recently as the studio's CEO Matthew Scott checked in with an update on where the game's in-progress rebuilding efforts currently are after the game was taken offline in September 2019. And it's not particularly great news overall. First off, Scott […]
Call of Duty gamers ignore pandemic-related safety orders at unofficial esports gathering
I never got the impression that some players of Call of Duty are a particularly compliant bunch, and that assumption was not helped by the actions of a number of players in an esports event that ignored calls for a tournament to be held online and instead congregated in a LAN event. The competition in […]
TennoCon 2020: The creepy charm of Warframe's broken frame, Xaku
When Digital Extreme's first announced that the Broken Frame concept won in the community creation contest, I had my reservations. I have known — and appreciated — how much Digital Extremes involves and listens to its community, but was this stretching it too far? Could eaterofstorms' meme-alicious idea that might be construed as a joke […]
Anthem discusses the design goals for getting loot and gearing up in the rebooted version of the shooter
BioWare Austin studio director Christian Dailey promised in his last preview of the Anthem reboot that a new dev blog would be coming soon, and sure enough, he made good on that vow with a look at what the developers are doing to improve looting and gearing up. Much of these changes are goals-oriented, but […]
WoW Classic players squabble over the Ahn'Qiraj Scarab Lord title amidst griefing and bans
Some player-crafted drama in WoW Classic appears to be brewing as guilds seek to complete a certain portion of the Scarab Lord quest chain. The incident in question involves the Horde guild Amnesty and the Alliance guild Sulfuras Alliance, both of which were attempting to finish the green scepter segment involving a boss fight. Just […]
The Daily Grind: How do you decide whether to play an MMO rogue server?
Last week, we covered the bizarre case of a Dragon's Prophet rogue server, which announced itself as a legitimate, partnered version of the game coming to Steam and multiple other platforms. A few days of digging and prodding on the part of MOP and MMO Fallout exposed the server as just a fan-run emulator, whose […]
MMO Week in Review: Guild Wars 2's Jormag Rising has arisen
This week in the world of MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2's latest episode, Jormag Rising, rolled out to hungry players, albeit without voice acting just yet thanks to the pandemic. Meanwhile, DCUO, Black Desert, and PlanetSide 2 got meaty updates; the LOTRO downtime saga was more or less resolved; ArcheAge and Phantasy Star Online 2 announced […]
TennoCon 2020: Watch the full demo of Warframe's Heart of Deimos reveal
The TennoCon 2020 live reveal of Warframe's Heart of Deimos was quite a bit to take in, so we understand if you missed anything the first time around. Or maybe you can't wait until the August 25th launch and just want to revisit that thematic landscape to revel in the infested atmosphere for a while. […]
Overwatch hosts an AMA, Hearthstone adds a playable kitty hero
You can play as a kitty in Hearthstone. Yes, there's been some patch notes for update 18.0 which sets the table for the arrival of Scholomance Academy as well as some adjustments to Battlegrounds, new minions, and other gameplay tweaks, but none of those is important. Because you can play as a kitty now. The […]
The MOP Up: All Points Bulletin revs its engine upgrade
This past weekend, Little Orbit's All Points Bulletin ran its second open beta test as it prepares to roll out the huge Unreal Engine 3.5 upgrade for the crime shooter. The dev team said that this was another important step toward a full release of what will hopefully be a better performing game. And this […]
Runes of Magic plans an August filled with bonus drops and extra expies
It turns out it's been 115 days since we last talked about Runes of Magic, an unintended slight for an MMO that once commanded a weekly column on Old Massively. We're rectifying that today, as Gameforge is kicking off summer events in the game starting next week. "Different, exciting events await you each week this […]
Jukebox Heroes: The ultimate guide to MMORPG music
It's been a long, strange, and wonderful journey to explore MMORPG music with you here in Jukebox Heroes. And while I am anticipating many years to come of future soundtrack journeys, I wanted to take inventory this week of the places this column has traveled in the past. So I present to you the Jukebox […]
Ashes of Creation shows off gathering, spell effects, and a dungeon in its latest livestream
This past Thursday saw yet another peek at Ashes of Creation gameplay and development footage from the folks at Intrepid Studios. The video first kicked off with a number of spell effect previews as well as a look at the level up effect among other visual previews. The devs also discussed what sort of visual […]
One Shots: The ultimate tree house
When I asked for pictures of plant houses in online games, I wasn't quite expecting that notion to sprout and grow into this tremendous hangout in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. I want to go to there. "Plants you say?" Iron Salamander asked. "I could have linked a ton for obvious reasons but limited […]
The Daily Grind: Have you ruined your sleep for an MMO?
My wife and I were so excited for the launch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade that we pre-ordered well in advance and were all set to go for the midnight launch, lining up with others outside of the Gamestop before it released, feeling tired and worn but so excited to get our copies […]
Battle Bards Episode 174: Dragon Oath
Running from 2007 to 2016, ChangYou's Dragon Oath is probably one of those MMORPGs you've never heard of, nevermind actually played. Yet when Syl stumbled upon it on YouTube, she knew it was a soundtrack for the Battle Bards to highlight. Take a journey with the team today as they visit this Bhuddist-inspired MMO and […]
TennoCon 2020: Warframe's infested open world Heart of Deimos launches August 25th on all platforms
To the moon, Tenno! A Mars moon, to be exact. If that was your guess for Warframe's Heart of Deimos expansion, you got it. But did you guess "rideable infested dragonflies"? Giant sun and moon worms locked in eternal battle on the surface? K-drive combat? Playable mechs? The ability to take skills from one Warframe […]
