The Stream Team: The Epicness of LOTRO's Mirkwood
There are a number of books of LOTRO's epic story that Massively OP's MJ hasn't finished, but until she wraps up the Mirkwood one, she won't be able to fully participate in the skirmish events. So today, she's fighting her way through that dark forest to unlock more skirmishes. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. […]
Kingdoms in Chaos is an open world PvP MMORPG 'where murderer and monster co-exist'
That quote in the headline is directly pulled from the description of Kingdoms in Chaos, a new open world MMORPG that recently arrived to Steam Early Access. And that's not the only bit of flex that this game is showing off: "A place where murderer and monster co-exist. Huge open world where players can travel […]
Mobile MMO Warhammer Odyssey makes a combat balance pass and adds some quality-of-life features
Hey, remember Warhammer Odyssey? We've touched on this game a few times over the past couple of years, including a look at a very familiar game world in November of last year. Since then, the mobile MMO has been soft-launching across the globe with plans to fully release at the end of January, but before […]
Atlas Rogues readies the release of two new characters in an update next week
Last week, the multiplayer tactical rogue-lite Atlas Rogues unveiled plans for a new content drop in their January patch notes. A press release from Gamigo has sort of supplemented this information with a couple of other details as well as a release window for the update. According to the presser, the next content drop will […]
Habbo Hotel developer Sulake is fully bought out by gaming and adtech firm Azerion
It's time for some games business news that may or may not be good for Habbo Hotel! The multiplayer social game's developer Sulake has been fully bought out by Azerion, which recently purchased the final remaining shares from the game's only other sole investor. Azerion is a pan-European firm that specializes in gaming and adtech. […]
Neverwinter shows off its upcoming rewards from the new Sharandar campaign
Are you ready to venture into a new Sharandar campaign in Neverwinter? The answer may very well be, "no, I can't fight anything any longer and so I'm not really down for that at the moment," but let's put that to one side for now because the latest preview is all about the rewards you'll get for […]
World of Tanks rolls out Italian heavy tanks as Wargaming's infringement lawsuit is dismissed in California
We've got three World of Tanks and Wargaming stories to truck through this afternoon. The Blitz lawsuit: First, Wargaming had apparently filed a California lawsuit against Blitz Team (now called Press Fire Games), which itself was made up of members of the original World of Tanks: Blitz team. Wargaming had argued that its ex-employees had […]
The Reddit-driven GameStop stock spike isn't going to end well
If I had told you last year that GameStop, the retail business that was already struggling even before COVID hampered its plans for rescue, would make headlines in 2021 for a massive stock surge involving Elon Musk, Reddit shitposters, and hedge fund villains, you would've laughed at me, and rightly so. But here we are […]
SMITE releases new Conquest map, new battle pass, and new tutorials with the launch of Season 8
Goodbye creepy Sleeper purple, hello resplendent Tiamat marble. It's the start of Season 8 in SMITE, which has brought along with it a fresh bundle of content updates, all of which holds no surprises for you if you checked out Hi-Rez's presentation from earlier this month. As a refresher, Season 8 introduces a refreshed Conquest […]
NCsoft Korea's office literally turns away employees that have worked too many hours
It's not too terribly often we get the opportunity to report on gaming companies doing the right thing by its employees (even if it is also to not run afoul of local government), so allow us a moment to eagerly report on NCsoft's "Gate Off" protocol, which effectively prevents employees that have been working at […]
Black Desert PC adds new chicken chasing quests, opens Western transfers from Kakao
As sure as the sun will rise and set, the latest update to Black Desert on PC has added a bunch of new events and quests. This time around, though, they don't really have any overarching theme as the headline alludes to, unless you tell a story where your character rides their horse to earn […]
Stick and Rudder: Nine non-combat activities to enjoy in Elite Dangerous
I'm horrible at combat in Elite Dangerous. It took me several tries to get past the bot in the combat tutorial. Not the advanced combat tutorial, mind you – the basic one. Due to my astounding level of ineptitude, I've outfitted my ships to be able to run from trouble, not confront it. It should […]
RuneScape studio Jagex disputes RICO-tinged lawsuit over its convoluted ownership
Earlier this week, RuneScape studio Jagex announced it had been sold to a new investment company, The Carlyle Group. But then we learned another company, Plutos Sama Holdings, had contested that sale, having filed a multi-defendant lawsuit that claimed it had purchased Jagex at auction in China in 2019 and that Jagex's previous sale to […]
End-of-Year Eleven: The best-value MMOs at the start of 2021
What exactly is value, especially when it comes to MMOs? We all know what the word means, but the thing about "best value" is that it's highly variable. Is a buy-to-play game with an aggressive cash shop better value than a free-to-play game with a less aggressive cash shop? What about if the former game has […]
Bless Mobile has officially made its global debut on Android and Apple devices
Bless Mobile, the 800th version of MMORPG Bless, has officially made its global launch today. Yes, 800 is a bit of an exaggeration, but only if you concern yourself with numbers. Bless first dropped in the west as the incredibly short-lived and much-maligned Bless Online, then returned in a new format for console and then […]
Indie MMO Wild Terra 2 begins early access with a 'spirit of adventure'
The sequel to Wild Terra is finally here for players looking for a dash of fresh winter gaming. Wild Terra 2: New Lands has officially kicked off its no-wipe early access period on Steam with plans to further expand the MMO via "seasons" starting this June. It does sound like the current iteration won't quite […]
Animal Crossing New Horizons returns with series staple Mardi 'Festivale'
A festivale's coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but please, keep your shirts and pants on. ACNH's version of Mardi Gras involves a peacock, feathers, and new emotes, including some dances, finally! It's no Shrunk Funk Shuffle, but hopefully, it means we're closing in on it. The new reactions will be available from the Nooklings' shelf for […]
Fallout 76's new patch gives you more room for your junk
The life of a wasteland scavenger is a hard one, with killer mutants, radioactive pools, and cannibals ready to ruin your day. But the greatest hardship, bar none, is not having enough room for all the great stuff you find during your trips. That's why this week's Fallout 76 patch is a wonderful gift to […]
The Daily Grind: What MMO fuels your wanderlust?
As much as I do appreciate solid direction and guidance from my MMOs when I'm looking for useful content, sometimes I like to strike off the expected path and head for distant horizons. Games that empower and encourage me to explore are wonderful treasures, especially if they have delightful things to discover. Of course, not […]
The Stream Team: Exploring EverQuest II's Echo Caverns
While exploring EQII's Reign of Shadows, Massively OP's MJ entered an area where a voice proclaimed she would only find death there and then demanded she leave. As if! MJ isn't one to listen to anyone who tries to curtail her exploration! In fact, such a challenge makes her all the more interested in poking […]
Pirates of the Burning Sea wants to make new content and break up the pirate faction
With some of the more critical infrastructure issues addressed, free-to-play Pirates of the Burning Sea is now sailing into the waters of possible content development — but it's hampered in this effort. The only problem for this community dev team is that creating new content is impossible without a "proprietary third-party tool" that Sony Online […]
Atlas developers state that the game is not yet where they want it to be in a new Q&A
It's kind of nice to have a developer outright tell you that a game still deep in development is not yet into a finished state. The newest community Q&A from Atlas did precisely that, with a succinct and clear developer response explaining that the game's development is in part a collaborative process of seeing where players […]
The Blackwood chapter will headline Elder Scrolls Online's Gates of Oblivion year, launching in June
Here we go, folks: Tonight we're finally getting some hard details on what The Elder Scrolls Online is up to in 2021, courtesy of the ZeniMax Online Studios livestream this evening. What can we expect? ZeniMax already teased the year's theme – Gates of Oblivion – with a brief video back in December, so we're […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 306: Money makes the MMOs go 'round
Justin and Bree discuss Pantheon, the KingsIsle and Jagex buyouts, World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online, and Guild Wars 2, with adventures in WoW, LOTRO, and SWG Legends, plus mailbox topics on underwater combat and choosing between MMO subs.
Century: Age of Ashes is a team-based aerial combat game with dragons entering closed beta this weekend
I'm legitimately surprised this sort of game isn't more of a thing, but here we are taking a look at a multiplayer dogfighting game that trades in silly things like military hardware or steampunk airships for dragons. That's the kind of thing Century: Age of Ashes is offering potential players when it releases free-to-play in […]
The Division 2 lets players dress up like Resident Evil characters in limited-time collab event
It's the 25th anniversary of the iconic Resident Evil series, which seems like the perfect occasion to… collab with The Division 2? Sure, why not. In honor of the original trilogy of RE games, the multiplayer looter shooter will let players collect outfits, weapon skins, and more styled in the gear of the RPD, just […]
Magic Legends sets open beta for March 23, drops new trailer and dev vlog
The question of how a CCG like Magic: The Gathering will translate into an online ARPG like Magic Legends has been a question that may be on the minds of many, specifically how building a deck changes how things play out. That question is hopefully addressed thanks to a new trailer from the devs that […]
Sea of Thieves elaborates on upcoming seasons content in new video and update posts
Back in December, the devs of Sea of Thieves released a news bulletin video that, among other things, talked about seasons, which add content, events, and additional rewards that can be harvested over three months. Now Rare Ltd. has kicked out yet another video that further elaborates on seasons and how they work. According to […]
Changyou's World of Shadowbane opens its Steam page, lists a February release window
Back in December, we caught wind of the 2003 MMORPG Shadowbane preparing for a return on Steam after publisher Changyou snapped up the rights in 2012; you can read up the Game Archaeologist's roundup if you're curious about this one's history. In that initial report, all signs pointed to a global release in late January […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 outlines more details on what items transfer over to New Genesis
By now we all appreciate that a variety of character goodies can be transferred between Phantasy Star Online 2 and its reboot-cum-sequel New Genesis — it's a topic that was elaborated upon in August. Now, there are even more details on what can be brought over to New Genesis, just in case you're looking to […]
Choose My Adventure: My post-level 30 life in ArcheAge
Well, this final week of my time in ArcheAge was indeed challenging, but not perhaps in the ways that were expected. Almost overwhelmingly it was asked that I push on to level 30 and beyond, and so I did with a little bit of trepidation and curiosity. After all, I was expecting things to become […]
EVE Online player's ashes take last voyage into space as CCP Games adopts 'gaming genius' label
Members of the EVE Online community were saddened back in 2019 as they lost one of their own: Bruce R. "Spike" MacPhee aka Paradox Olbers, who passed away at the age of 72. But there's cause to salute the skies this week. As communicated by famous EVE player Charles White aka the Space Pope, MacPhee's […]
Final Fantasy XIV updates Blue Mage and Bozja in patch 5.45 on February 2
Hey, rebuilding Ishgard is all well and good, but you know what's even better? Killing stuff in Final Fantasy XIV. And the next patch for the game is all about that, so if you're ready to start crafting and start skewering your foes, you should be getting pumped up for patch 5.45 arriving on February 2nd. Yes, […]
Star Trek Online patches in its 11th Anniversary celebration and starts its Klingon Recruitment
The time has arrived to celebrate more than a decade of operation for Star Trek Online. The game's latest patch is here, and it kicks off the game's 11th anniversary festivities, which include a new project to earn the Temer-class raider that represents a cooperative effort between Klingon and Romulan engineers. That means players will want […]
World of Warcraft hits numerous dungeons and the Castle Nathria raid with the nerf stick
Whether or not you enjoy the expectations regarding how often dungeons and raids should be run for loot in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, you will not be able to deny that a bunch of the expansion's dungeons and raids are getting quite a bit easier. The latest round of balance tweaks is the sort of thing […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic starts to wrap up PvP Season 13
The current ranked PvP season for Star Wars: The Old Republic is due to wrap up by the end of February, which means that it's the traditional time for BioWare to come out and announce what rewards combatants can grab by the time that all is said and done. BioWare announced that this season comes […]
Diablo II's remaster is officially in the works
It's no longer just a rumor; now we know for a fact that Activision Blizzard is working on a remastered version of the classic Diablo II. Bloomberg reports that the recent corporate reshuffling that landed Vicarious Visions and its 200 employees in Blizzard's lap was executed in part because the studio was already working on […]
The Daily Grind: Which MMO do you wish were more transparent about its metrics?
Numbers numbers numbers: I wish we could have more. No, let me amend that. I wish we had fewer numerical representations inside MMOs. I'd much rather go back to the days when item quality was a basic suffix or prefix, the days before gearscore and stat squish. But behind the scenes? I want all the numbers. […]
The Stream Team: Listening for echoes in Path of Exile's Atlas
Path of Exile's new Ritual league is fine and she was having fun in it, but Massively OP's MJ really wants to try to explore the expansion part of Echoes of the Atlas. That means she needs to play in the standard league since that is the only place where she has a character that […]
Atlantica Online celebrates its 13th anniversary with giveaways and events
Here's another MMO that just keeps on keepin' on and has been doing so for 13 years now. It's Atlantica Online, the turn-based tactical MMORPG, which is marking its new anniversary with a whole bunch of freebies and events for players to enjoy. While the initial 13th Anniversary Celebration Package was already handed out between […]
Wild Terra 2 improves chat and makes player characters into feudal lords
It must be nice to be a feudal lord. You get a starting set of quests, for example, and you begin on the beginner island instead of just spawning in a field. What? Is that not what you thought feudal lords were all about? Because it's what being a feudal lord means in Wild Terra 2, […]
Blue Protocol shows off the quick-access shortcut bar in another Twitter tease
When will Blue Protocol be released over here? We have no idea, it's not even released yet in its native Japan. But the team continues to tease game features via Twitter as it moves through testing, and while the last teases were all about action combat, this is more about access to useful interactions and items […]
Book of Travels' soundtrack aims to take you to a whole new world
For an MMO that will be all about the journey, getting the music right for your road trip is an important task for the folks at Book of Travels. Happily, they've enlisted a trio of experts who are bringing the sounds of the east into the game. A Steam dev blog talks about how the […]
Albion Online's next major patch delivers the Use All button
Hearken ye, people, to a tale of Albion Online and the quest to deliver a most powerful artifact unto those who might make use of it! Forsooth, the development team did journey far and wide, o'er hill and dale, questing for this most sanctified of all relics. Asked for by many, the people cried out for […]
Shroud of the Avatar announces plans to make public cache chests bigger and fancier
Have you really had a good, long, hard think about what your Shroud of the Avatar public cache chest says about your player-owned town or property? Do you think that just having some basic-looking treasure chest exudes the right sense of style you want to project? According to this week's Avatar Update, you'll be getting […]
Profane maps out alpha updates and testing plans for the first half of the year
Profane, the self-described open PvP sandbox MMO of "territorial domination," has arrived to Reddit with a roadmap for alpha, offering details on update plans and testing foci from now all the way to August. January and February will be focused on the bare-bones needs of getting alpha ready to go, with work on localization, login […]
Titan Reach shows off more character and weapon models, shares new music, and crafts an account system
What's one of the most important features in an MMO? Is it the combat? The leveling experience? How classes interplay with one another in a group? No, arguably the single most important feature is being able to actually log in to the game with your account, and luckily Titan Reach's latest development update post announces […]
Fight or Kite: Sea of Thieves made me feel like a pirate
In the long running debate between who would win in a fight between pirates and ninjas, I've always fallen on the side of the ninjas. Ever since I was a young lad running through my home with a turtle mask on while donning a sword and nunchaku (you can't tell me I can't be Leoangelo!), […]
SuperData December 2020: World of Warcraft is dethroned again, and people still love Among Us
While SuperData has already put a bow on the entirety of games earnings in 2020, there's still the December 2020 breakdown to cover, which offers a couple of shifting standings at the top of the sales charts and some newly broken records. Surprising nobody that follows the PC gaming universe, Cyberpunk 2077 was the top […]
Wisdom of Nym: Oh, the places left to go in Final Fantasy XIV
There's a lot of stuff on the Source in Final Fantasy XIV. (It feels faintly wrong to call the place Hydaelyn now, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has cleared through the Shadowbringers story.) And with the announcement of the next expansion happening in less than two weeks, now seems like a fine time to […]
