Not So Massively Roundup: Fortnite Short Night, Runeterra's Empires of the Ascended
Welcome to a roundup of some MMO-adjacent titles that sit just on the edge of our wheelhouse but not enough to tip it over and make this metaphor super weird. Fortnite: Fortnite Short Nite? Yes, Epic is trying yet another type of event with Short Nite on February 20th and 21st (that's this weekend). Players […]
Gamigo is merging down ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained's servers, and yes there will be new land rushes
ArcheAge's misery just compounds lately: Gamigo has announced that it's merging many of the gamers servers servers under the "server evolution" catchphrase. Across both the free-to-play ArcheAge and buy-to-play ArcheAge Unchained, the game will go from 13 to four servers. Unchained's servers make the big crunch on March 4th, while the original game will lose […]
Allods Online opens up pre-orders for collector's editions of its upcoming Desert Dreams update
Why wait for an update to arrive when you can pre-order a collector's edition of an update before it even lands? This is the honest-to-goodness thinking of Allods Online, which has taken the bold step of offering up CE's of the game's next update. These editions come in two varieties and offer a number of […]
Conan Exiles gets closer to cracking crashing issues on Xbox One and update parity with PC
It's time to turn the page once again on the ongoing battle with crashing issues for Conan Exiles on Xbox One. Readers will recall that the devs were looking to address crashes when connecting to an official server, and the latest producer update announces that the most recent patch has cracked it. Sort of. "This […]
Albion Online discusses the faction rankings and rewards coming with the Call to Arms update
One of the spotlight pieces of content coming to Albion Online in the Call to Arms update is the adjustments to faction warfare, but what's the point of signing up for a faction if you can't really tell what you're getting for your trouble? That's where ranking comes in, which has been broken down by […]
Massively on the Go: Your complete guide to the Pokemon Go Kanto tour
The Pokemon GO Kanto Tour is almost upon us! On Saturday, February 20th, ticket holders will have an opportunity to collect most of the 151 Kanto Pokemon plus trade for some, much like in the original Game Boy days. Except without wires. And now with color. Well, you know what I'm saying. Unlike most Pokemon Go events though, […]
Lord of the Rings Online nerfs Ill Omens event rewards
If you thought that the trio of top-shelf items that Standing Stone Games released with this year's Ill Omens event sounded way too good, just know that the studio agrees with you. The Lord of the Rings Online developer pushed out a patch on Wednesday to nerf the overpowered rewards. The Obvious Portents of Strength, […]
The Stream Team: A Heckbug of a holiday in Trove
It's that time of year when the Heckbugs cross the borders of gaming and invade Trove. That means the adorable little critters are all looking for love and they need Massively OP's MJ to play matchmaker. Rumor has it that this year includes baby Heckbugs and pink piñatas! Join us live at 2:00 p.m. for […]
Enter to win a Maplestory M Xenon swag bag, including a battery pack, from Nexon and MOP!
In honor of the launch of Xenon in MapleStory M this month (and the concomitant avalanche of new events), Nexon is offering a nifty swag bag to one of our American readers! The bundle includes a sweet Xenon-themed battery pack, along with a charging cable and case, plus a Xenon-bedecked notebook, pen, and stainless steel tumbler. Read […]
Elder Scrolls Online's Tribunal Celebration fêtes Morrowind with bonuses and sales next week
I'ma let you finish, but Morrowind is the best thing in the Elder Scrolls franchise. If you agree, you'll want to point your eyeballs at The Elder Scrolls Online next week as the game kicks off what it calls the Tribunal Celebration, which sends players back into Vvardenfell and the Clockwork City itself. Starting February 25th […]
Chronicles of Elyria is releasing Kingdoms of Elyria as a standalone product for backers
In early 2020, Chronicles of Elyria stunned MMO gamers by announcing it was out of money, had laid off the devs, had closed Soulbound Studio, and had ended development on the game. And though CEO Jeromy Walsh later retracted much of that and said the game was still in production with volunteer staff, the gamers […]
Titan Reach addresses early access funding – and its partly unpaid staff
If you are working on an MMO, you should be getting paid to do so. Please, developers, do not work for free in an industry worth billions – that goes for the devs of Titan Reach too, some of whom are apparently working volunteer on the unreleased MMO, according to the latest Titan Reach developer […]
Vague Patch Notes: The challenge of the average MMO player
Pick an MMO, any MMO you know pretty well. Pick an MMO where you have a good sense of how much content there is in the game. Now, ask yourself this: How much of that content has the average player done? How frequently do players engage with various bits of content? What does an average […]
World of Warcraft's BlizzConline press kit leaks confirm patch 9.1 and Burning Crusade Classic
Well, that'd be a whoops from Blizzard: It turns out that World of Warcraft's press kits for the reveals at BlizzConline 2021 have been released now, and Wowhead is reporting all of the documents now confirming at least some of what players had already expected. For example, it looks like we are indeed getting a […]
Naoki Yoshida sees at least another five years of vitality in Final Fantasy XIV
The fourth major expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, Endwalker, is just around the corner (to the extent you can consider "planned for fall" to be just around the corner). Anyone who thinks that means the game is ending, however, is just plain wrong. That's something producer and director Naoki Yoshida was clear about during the initial presentation, […]
Recapping Nintendo Direct's Splatoon 3, Animal Crossing x Mario, Monster Hunter Rise, and more
Last night's Nintendo Direct was about much more than new Xenoblade characters! While I'm sure the single-player stuff has some people interested or curious (for you Mana fans), and the Animal Crossing: New Horizon Mario-crossover was something we've known about for a while now, there were a few curveballs. Some good, like the announcement of Splatoon 3, and some that […]
Rumor: Blizzard may be testing Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal soon
By tomorrow evening's BlizzConline keynote address, we'll have a lot better idea what Blizzard has in store for its various properties. Until then, we're going to be riding high on waves of speculation and rumors. And hey, speaking of rumors, Wowhead has noted that the studio has updated its beta access help pages for World […]
The Daily Grind: What's the most egregious grifting you've seen in the MMO sphere?
There was a time when World of Warcraft charging $25 for a sparkly pony was considered absurd fleecing of its playerbase. Times have certainly changed since then, and not just because it turned out that these mounts were a license to print money for Blizzard (hence the studio making a bunch more of them). No, […]
The Stream Team: Zeroing in on The Shroud in SWTOR
New content may have seduced Massively OP's Larry and MJ away from the search for The Shroud in SWTOR for a time, but don't worry — he won't be getting away! The two are returning to the search and are zeroing in on his whereabouts. The Shroud won't escape. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. […]
Old School RuneScape's eighth anniversary has monkeys, RuneScape has double XP this weekend
You know the saying "more fun that a barrel full of monkeys"? Well that seems to be taken rather literally by Old School RuneScape, which is marking its eighth anniversary with a quest that's chock-full of monkey business and monkey-themed rewards, so presumably players will be putting the truth of that turn of phrase to […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 has launched on the Epic Games Store today with a new limited-time quest
The state of Phantasy Star Online 2 is very different now from when it launched in North America last year, because you can now launch it through pretty much any digital storefront you want. This is especially true as of today, as the title has launched on the Epic Games Store today for players to download […]
Istaria plans new content, quest classifications, and revamps for races and armor in 2021
It's been about a million years since we last checked in on Istaria, fka Horizons, but that changes today thanks to the Virtrium team's developer letter posted over the weekend, which looks back at 2020 and ahead to 2021. And while last year was focused on storylines and quests and tech, this year is slated […]
TERA's first console battle pass arrives with its latest patch
The latest patch for TERA on consoles is not just about the game's new battle pass, but that is definitely the central feature on display. Level up your battle pass by performing activities in the game, and unlock such rewards as a new mount, a new costume, new cosmetic items, and various useful in-game rewards. You'll […]
The Office stars talk about the making of the Second Life episode
Fans of NBC's The Office probably remember the 2007 episode "Local Ad" where the Dunder Mifflin team made a commercial for the Scranton branch. Tucked into that episode was a B-story about Dwight channeling his depression into playing Second Life at work, which resulted in a bit of chatter and some scenes of the virtual […]
Black Desert is deleting accounts not transferred to Pearl Abyss by May 31
If you haven't transferred your Black Desert account from Kakao to Pearl Abyss – perhaps because of the chaos last week – then you should definitely pencil it in. That's because Pearl Abyss has now put an end-date on the whole ordeal: May 31st. And that's a serious business date because that's when accounts that […]
MMO Business Roundup: Stadia's bungle, Axie Infinity's $1.5M in-game property
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! Stadia: The Google mess just gets thicker, as apparently, developers on Stadia's internal video games were told things were just peachy right before Google closed the whole thing down and laid everyone off as of last week. "[Stadia] has made great progress building […]
Fractured Veil is a new open-world survival MMO – and it's hunting for stress-testers
Here's a new game on our radar thanks to a post the developer dropped on Reddit: It's called Fractured Veil, and it's flagged as an early access open-world survival MMO on Steam. Apparently, it's been in development for five years already and expecting up to another two years for early access, though as a closed […]
Why I Play: Final Fantasy XIV's memorable Shadowbringer relic weapon grind
I have a love-hate relationship with Final Fantasy XIV. I actively fought against giving the game MMO of the year for 2020, and I hold the unpopular opinion that the best way to experience the game's long-winded story is to skip through most of it. But at the same time, I have so much to thank for […]
World of Warcraft updates the requirements for mentor status on the 9.0.5 test server
If you want to be a guide to new players in World of Warcraft, it behooves you to first know what you're doing. The game's mentor system was introduced with the pre-patch to Shadowlands, but with the upcoming patch 9.0.5 on the test server it's going to be a little bit harder to be a mentor. […]
Whatever happened to Legends of Aria?
The last time Legends of Aria studio Citadel made a formal announcement, it was two months ago, and it was an apology, as the team made amends for what it called its "lack of communication" during the pandemic, most explicitly on Point Release 11. "[O]ur work on Legends of Aria has continued to the greatest […]
Perfect Ten: 10 MMOs to get you out of your gaming rut
We have all been there. You've been gaming in your standard comfort MMOs when one day you hit that wall of burnout. You feel like you've done all of this too much — and you need a break. You're in a gaming rut. When that happens, it's only natural to start looking around for alternatives. […]
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 […]
