Final Fantasy XIV opens up another free login campaign through March 31
Resistance weaponry, Valentione's day, Skysteel tools, Blue Mage updates… there's a lot going on in Final Fantasy XIV at the moment, and even if you're not a subscriber, you might be curious about it. Fortunately, you can indulge that curiosity if you're a former subscriber with the game's latest free login campaign, which gives lapsed subscribers […]
No Man's Sky adds an in-depth pet system with the Companions update
Space can be a lonely place in No Man's Sky, but it doesn't need to be if you have a little pet friend helping you out on your journey. That's what the sizable Companions update is all about, adding a whole host of pet-centric features to the interstellar sandbox. At the base level, the Companions […]
Magic Legends discusses how gear and itemization will work in a new video
At its core, the upcoming Magic Legends is an ARPG, and ARPGs are kind of known for having enemies that are effectively loot piñatas. And while the game won't have a great deal of gear to look forward to when bosses are slain (you're more likely to see spell cards), the devs are indeed going […]
Texas snowstorm delays Blade and Soul's next update
A lot of the staff here at Massively OP were chatting and complaining about the massive snowstorm that dumped a whole lot of snow and ice all over the country earlier this week. And while it's been a headache for many, it's also triggered a "snow day" for Blade and Soul. NCsoft announced that its […]
The Daily Grind: What non-combat, non-crafting system do you enjoy in MMOs?
There's always a lot of stuff to do in MMOs, but most all of it involves punching, slicing, or blasting into oblivion. That's not what we're going to talk about today. Nor are we going to get into discussing crafting, because we've done that to death. Instead, I'm curious what non-combat, non-crafting MMO systems do […]
The Stream Team: Mounting a mount expedition in Guild Wars 2
She has a raptor, a skimmer, and now even a jackal, but Massively OP's MJ does not yet have a flying mount in Guild Wars 2. Tonight, her friends are going to help remedy that! They are mounting a mount expedition to get everything needed, from mastery points to relics. And gold. Lots and lots […]
Temtem confirms new islands and tutorial tweaks for final release
Temtem still has some work to do before it leaves early access, and a bit of information about some of that planned work was part of an interview with PlayStation Lifestyle with the devs, who talked about some of the design influences and other matters related to the game as well. In the interview, Crema […]
Red Dead Online hands out new solo missions via telegram, offers bonuses to Naturalists and Bounty Hunters
If you're looking for something to do in Red Dead Online but don't have a posse of friends to do things with, then Rockstar Games is handing out a personal invitation for you in the mail. The game has handed out three new solo missions via telegram from a mysterious benefactor simply known as J. […]
VR MMO Zenith returns from radio silence with a sneak peek at a city level and a magic attack
It's been some time since we heard a peep out of Zenith, the in-development VR MMO from studio Ramen VR. In fact, the last thing we heard was that the game's alpha was being pushed back to sometime this year. That has just changed, however, as the team has come back from hiding with a […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 309: You can take my loot over my dead body
Justin and Bree discuss Valheim, Elite Dangerous' slave cult, BlizzConline, Hearthstone, WoW's valor, Neverwinter Nights Arelith, Phantasy Star Online 2, Black Desert, and Shadowbane, with adventures in LOTRO, Elder Scrolls Online, SWG Legends, and Farm Together, with mailbag topics on full-loot open world PvP and brute-forcing unpopular gameplay design.
Epic Games lobbies for a North Dakota bill that would force Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems
Considering Epic Games' legal interest in seeing Apple and Google allow for alternative payment systems and app stores, this bit of news makes perfect sense: A bill introduced into North Dakota's senate would ban Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store from mandating developers only use those app stores and their respective in-app payment […]
Neverwinter's Sharandar: The Iron Tooth is live on PC today
After a week's delay and a combat overhaul that set the playerbase ablaze, Perfect World has finally unleashed Neverwinter's next big thing: Sharandar. As we've previously noted, today's launch is actually called The Iron Tooth, and it's the first chunk of the three-part expansion centering on the Sharandar revamp. Notably, this episode includes the Ruins […]
Gamestonk's gamified guerilla trading made losers of both the good and bad guys
It seems like a long time ago, but just a few weeks back, the mainstream news cycle was absolutely obsessed with Gamestop thanks to celebrity investors and retail stock-buyers on Reddit pumping up the stock in a successful bid to damage hedge funds that were writing uncovered calls for it. During the melee, trading apps […]
Check out the latest combat footage trailer from Blade & Soul 2
We don't mean to shock anyone with this revelation, but Blade & Soul 2 is going to involve fighting stuff at various points. Possibly several points. If you're curious about what it's going to look like when you have to engage in fighting… well, that's what the game's latest trailer is all about, showing off […]
Star Citizen opens up another free fly demo and writes an alpha 3.12 postmortem
It's once more time to entice new players into the persistent universe of Star Citizen. As of yesterday, CIG kicked off yet another free fly event, offering up a code that can be redeemed to get a free taste of the title between now and February 25th. The demo provides access to six different vehicles […]
Amazon has delayed New World for at least the third time, now to August 2021
Amazon has delayed New World yet again, clearing your spring and summer calendars for other MMOs. "We've been hard at work on compelling end-game features we believe are important to include at launch," the studio says. "These features won't be ready for the Spring timeframe that we had communicated." Readers will recall that the game had […]
Lord of the Rings Online informal player survey highlights the least and most popular classes
If you've ever wondered which class is the most popular in Lord of the Rings Online, Squirle over at LOTRO Players has your back. By compiling a lot of observable data from the European server Evernight, Squirle managed to come up with a possible picture of how LOTRO's playerbase is spread out. Unsurprisingly, both Hunters […]
David Brevik confirms there was a plan for a second Diablo II expansion
David Brevik has been something of a font of information about the road not taken with Blizzard's Diablo franchise. As we covered back in 2015, he revealed that before he had left Blizzard, Diablo III had been planned as an MMO, something that no doubt confirmed a lot of suspicions when it came to how […]
First impressions: Valheim early access is already one of the best co-op sandboxes in recent memory
Straight away, I'm going to admit that my favorable impressions of Valheim are wholly informed by the fact that I have the good fortune of playing on a server with a bunch of good people whom I was only exposed to because I know MJ. That's not to suggest that you have to know someone […]
Elite Dangerous arrives to Xbox players as part of Game Pass on February 25
Is your Xbox Game Pass subscription missing some internet spaceship sandbox gaming? Not for long, friend, because the next batch of games coming to the service have been announced, and Elite: Dangerous is among them. Starting on February 25th, Xbox console owners will get to try out the game as part of the Game Pass […]
Blizzard is collecting BlizzConline Q&A questions for WoW, Diablo, and Hearthstone
BlizzCon is gonna be a little bit different this year. Yes, it's called BlizzConline, which is silly. Yes, it's in February, and that's weird. It's also going to be entirely free to view for the players, since it's fully online. And that means Blizzard will have a slightly easier time cracking down on audience shenanigans […]
Titan Reach promises to start its limited early access on February 28
It's almost time for indie MMO Titan Reach to open the doors to early access, apparently. A new entry on the official site reveals that the game is gearing up for a proper early access release starting on February 28th, though the developers are quick to caution that this will not be a typical Steam-style […]
Star Wars The Old Republic delays GU 6.2.1 due to Austin's winter storms
Ice is civilization, except when it's busy destroying said civilization: I'm afraid the Star Wars: The Old Republic update scheduled for today as been delayed as the usually temperate city where the studio is located – Austin, Texas – has been slammed by a nasty winter storm that's led to power outages, communication lines down, […]
The Daily Grind: What's your absolute favorite dungeon in an MMORPG?
A while back, I asked our readers about the most boring dungeons in MMOs. It's The Oculus, by the way. That's the only right answer. I would also have accepted Razorfen Kraul, although personally I think failing at RFK can be downright entertaining. It'd be even better tipsy! Anyhow, let's push on to something more […]
Star Wars Squadrons promises further balance changes and cosmetics in 2021
What's on the horizon for the multiplayer dogfighter Star Wars Squadrons? A whole lot of balancing and shiny new cosmetics to collect according to a recent post on the game's website. The next few weeks will mostly be about balancing starfighters and components along with matchmaking tuning in order for players to have the best […]
Dauntless' simplified roadmap details new hunts, feature reworks, and Springtide
Were you a fan of the way Dauntless' old roadmap looked? If you answered "no," then the devs at Phoenix Labs basically agree with you, which is why they have put out a new roadmap that is less visually dynamic but far more informative and comprehensive. "We didn't find that our old roadmap was conveying […]
EVE Online spotlights Reign, the return of Guardian's Gala, and quality-of-life features
EVE Online has released the first episode of its video news digest series, The Pulse, of 2021, once again bundling together some of the most recent happenings in the space sandbox in one place. Naturally, the video kicked off by touting the the release of Reign, with particular spotlighting of the Fleet Discovery feature, as […]
ArcheAge Unchained's trial program stops circling the rug and finally lies down to stay
Don't worry, you're not experiencing deja vu at seeing us talk about ArcheAge Unchained's trial program. It's been rolled out several times in the past, only on a time-limited basis. Well, we guess that Gamigo is finally done being skittish about a trial for the buy-to-play version of the MMO and has made the promotion […]
Player-run Open Perpetuum builds its first 'truly customized island and PvE experience'
If we are learning anything from observing what's happened to Perpetuum after the devs handed off the project to the community, it's that sometimes players can do a better job of maintaining and updating an MMO that's been all but abandoned. The nearly three-year-old Open Perpetuum is still adding toys to its already impressive sci-fi […]
TERA previews its fight against Gardan of the Ice
Who is Gardan of the Ice? Well, he might just be your new best friend in TERA, if you consider fighting against a very large man with a very large axe to be the foundation of friendship. If so, well… welcome to friendship central when the next patch arrives because Gardan has a very big […]
Warframe is running an experiment on PC to guide new players into crafting
Being a new Warframe player can be an overwhelming experience, particularly in regard to the variety of systems and activities available to you once you've completed the first couple of missions. It would stand to reason, then, that the ability to craft things might go missed by many. It's with that in mind that the […]
Trove adds a new Delve biome to PTS, accidentally leaks a potential new Bard class
Are you ready for more Delve goodness in Trove? If you replied to that question with a groan, well too bad buckaroo because that's exactly what you're getting in the PTS. A new biome is being introduced to the Delve based on the Fae Wilds, which houses two new mounts, three new allies, three new […]
The Division 2 will be getting more content updates this year beyond Title Update 12
Apparently, Title Update 12 for The Division 2 was meant to be the last major update for the multiplayer looter shooter ever, but with the help of player support, the devs of the game will be releasing additional content for the game later this year. "Some of you had noticed that Title Update 12 was […]
Project Gorgon's improved animation system lets it get down with its bad self
As we look forward to seeing how Project Gorgon shapes up this year as it heads toward its 2022 launch, there's one thing that the developers have made a priority this month: Getting jiggy with it. The indie MMORPG said that it's made "a lot of progress" on rewriting its animation system to allow for […]
Wisdom of Nym: What Final Fantasy XIV has lined up for patch 5.5
Amidst all the news last week, the live letter for Final Fantasy XIV kind of got shoved off into the corner, didn't it? Partly because… well, there's not a whole lot to this particular live letter that qualifies as a surprising revelation. Like, it's hard to top "we're going to the moon" as a reveal […]
Valheim concurrency soars past 360K as the game's now sold 2M copies
When we first reported on the early access launch of Valheim, the new Viking-themed co-op survival sandbox, we pointed out that the game was already making a splash, selling 1 million copies and raking in 160K concurrent players on Steam. That player count has since been eclipsed. Significantly. To the tune of 2 million boxes […]
Not So Massively: Torchlight III is less than the sum of its parts
Last summer in this very column, I argued that ARPGs are the pizza of gaming: Even when they're bad, they're still pretty good. The Torchlight games feel like the best example of that. They've never done anything to separate themselves from the pack; they just do the bare minimum needed to provide a functional ARPG […]
Star Wars The Old Republic promises 'tighter, more balanced' Uprisings in next update
Update 6.2.1 of Star Wars: The Old Republic appears to be all about fixing its existing systems. Following word of adjustments arriving to amplifiers in the new update, the devs at BioWare have offered some information about Uprising tweaks that will also be landing with the update. The information comes by way of one paragraph […]
Albion Online's Guild Season 12 officially gets underway in March
It's time once again for a fresh season of GvG goodness for Albion Online as the sandbox MMORPG announced it will be kicking off Season 12 on March 13th, and as with previous seasons, the devs have shared the usual list of pertinent dates. Future dates of note will be Invasion Days on April 10th […]
Gameforge is sunsetting the western version of SoulWorker as the original dev promises a new global version
Bad news for western SoulWorker players today: Gameforge has announced that it will no longer be running the game in Europe and North America, but it'll be picked back up in an international format by Lion Games, the game's original Korean developer. Unfortunately, "an account transfer will not be possible." Gameforge says that payments for […]
Obituary: Guild Wars 2 composer Stan LePard passes away
It's a sad way to start a week with the announcement of the loss of one of Guild Wars 2's musical talents, indeed. Both ArenaNet and games composer Maclaine Diemer shared the news that colleague Stan LePard recently passed away. "Knowing him helped shape and change the course of my life and my music," said […]
The Daily Grind: What MMORPG would've performed better had it launched in a different year?
I was chit-chatting with longtime MOP reader Bruno the other day when we starting yawing about RIFT and EverQuest II and which one was better. I have a hard time answering this question because I like parts of both of them and wish I could smoosh them together – like EverQuest II's crafting smooshed into […]
MMO Week in Review: WoW's valor, Elite's jerks
Demonstrating once again why we can't have nice things, World of Warcraft dangled valor in front of players only to yank its original meaning and import away from us like Lucy with a football, while Elite Dangerous' most awful humans admitted to engaging in a form of abusive "slavery" in-game. But hey, MOP turned six […]
Destiny 2 discusses a quest details UI, returning classic content, and Black at Bungie philanthropy
The weekly Bungie update is once again sharing a diverse cornucopia of Destiny 2 news pieces, from features that slipped patch note notice to the Cosmodrome's "unvaulting." First off, there was word from the Black at Bungie Inclusion Club, which announced that last year's sales of the Black Lives Matter pin had helped raise $425K […]
The MOP Up: Apex Legends Mobile is on the way
The multi-platform hit Apex Legends is finally making the jump to mobile. Droid Gamers reported that Tencent and Respawn are working on a phone and tablet edition of the game for those who want to take their bloodshed on the go. And this is just the beginning of the rest of the news! Read on for a […]
Dual Universe is giving organizations a wallet in the next beta update
If my time watching sandbox MMOs has taught me anything, it's that game devs should probably stop handing players powder kegs and lighters, but here we are with Dual Universe very possibly doing just that in its next beta update, which will introduce a wallet feature for organizations to let player orgs store and transfer […]
Jukebox Heroes: The best of Genshin Impact's soundtrack
Genshin Impact isn't just a game that's easy on the eyes — it's marvelous to the ears as well. Massively OP's Chris has taken to wandering our halls humming its tunes and forcefully grabbing us and shaking us because we hadn't listened to the soundtrack yet. Well, I for one am tired of all of […]
ZeniMax Online Studios goes on a hiring spree for ESO and 'multiple unannounced projects'
Readers are surely familiar with ZeniMax Online Studios' work on The Elder Scrolls Online, but you're also probably curious about what the studio's up to in the future, particularly with regard to the potential new MMO that appeared to be ramping up production that we covered back in October of 2020 when ZeniMax was hiring […]
One Shots: Outer space needs an attitude readjustment
In retrospect, outer space was asking for it. It was giving all of us a cold shoulder, being very distant, and lording its size over us like it was King of Universetown. So can you blame us for grabbing the nearest weapons we could find to blast a hole in space's ego? Scott was on […]
The Daily Grind: Which MMOs give you the most space for letting your mind wander?
One of the things I regularly like to do with playing MMOs is to put something else on my second monitor to watch while I play. This might seem completely contrary to what others enjoy doing – after all, isn't the whole point of playing a game to enjoy yourself with just that one game? […]
