The Stream Team: Celebrating 15 years of Dungeons & Dragons Online
How old is your dungeon? Or your dragon, for that matter? DDO's are 15 as of this week. That's 15 years to celebrate! Massively OP's MJ and the D&D night crew are partaking in the party in-game, complete with dev dungeons, cake, and kobolds. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to join in the festivities. […]
Massively Overthinking: 'Dead games' in the MMO space
I had a laugh a while back when I spied this tweet in my feeds from a Bungie CM who was suggesting people mute the words "dead game" on Twitter. Forever. It's a whole mood. I hate seeing the phrase because it's seldom actually used for games that have actually been killed off or sunsetted […]
Haven and Hearth prepares a new world reset with new map features, combat tweaks, and more
Back in July 2018, we cast a quick spotlight on Haven and Hearth, an isometric survival crafting MMO rooted in Germanic and Slavic myth. The game has been in an alpha state for a while now and has gone through 11 world resets to date, but a 12th reset is on the way, bringing with […]
Final Fantasy XI announces more Voracious Resurgence and the pinnacle of Odyssey for March
Is March the cruelest month in Final Fantasy XI? You might not think so, but consider that players will be forced to contend with the most vicious possible boss in Odyssey when the game's March update goes live, reaching a new pinnacle of danger and offering concurrent rewards. There are four different augment paths available for […]
Blade & Soul Revolution's global edition hits mobile today
The Blade & Soul news just keeps on coming today, as Netmarble has officially released the global version of Blade & Soul Revolution to the AppStore and GooglePlay. "Players new to the Blade & Soul IP can look forward to an updated and streamlined experience in Blade & Soul Revolution, as in-game enhancements to the […]
Valheim players create a PvP tourney and take down a boss with 50 wolves as game sales hit 5M
While major content updates to the early access Viking survival sandbox Valheim haven't come out yet, that definitely hasn't stopped players from making their own fun. One such case is the formation of a Vikings of Legend PvP tournament, which sees two teams drop into one server, move into separate directions to initiate a one-hour […]
Star Stable announces new Wildwoods zone and releases ASMR video
Gather 'round, fellow horse girls and horse guys, because the kid-friendly equestrian MMO Star Stable is announcing big news for the game today, and it's just too adorable not to share. Star Stable Entertainment has taken the wraps off of Wildwoods, a brand-new zone for the game that represents the first fully new in-game land […]
Ultima Online's Publish 110 nerfs auction hall access for free-to-play players
As promised, Ultima Online's Publish 110 release has landed on the test server, offering players a first full glimpse into what this release entails. It's a relatively small update all the same, with the most notable positive bits being tweaks to dynamic events and a new round of Black Market rewards and veteran rewards, including […]
Fallout 76 plans to open its test server for the next major update in mid-March
Eager to try out the next major patch for Fallout 76? Well, you can't. Not yet, anyway… but soon. The latest dispatch from the development team explains that the team is very aware how eager people are to test things, but it's going to be a little bit longer. The plan is currently to open up […]
Check out this recreation of World of Warcraft's Stormwind in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
The human capital of Stormwind in World of Warcraft has endured a great deal, from the loss of its king to the attack of Deathwing to a stealth assault by the Horde. But now it faces a new challenge… the challenge of shredding. Yes, the user going by the name of Scrombles/Skramblez has recreated the entryway […]
VR MMO Zenith plans alpha for March 10, posts new zone vids
The VR MMO Zenith is just bursting at the seams with information for players to the point that the devs at Ramen VR are planning seven days worth of reveals starting today. Chief among those reveals will be a date for the game's alpha test, which is expected to be announced at some time today […]
Vague Patch Notes: MMO sunsets and the myth of meritocracy
A few weeks back, I talked about why a given MMO might have failed even when it possessed good qualities. It was a response to something that I see get passed around a lot any time a given game sunsets or winds up in a half-alive maintenance mode. And clearly I was being some kind of […]
Blade & Soul's Unreal Engine upgrade lands in the west this summer after all – here are the teaser pics
It's been a wild 24 hours for Blade & Soul's fanbase: Shortly after news broke that NCsoft was sunsetting the game's prototype Frontier World UE4 upgrade server in Korea – and everyone assumed that meant the upgrade was off – NCsoft confirmed that the upgrade was in fact coming to the live servers anyway. There's […]
Elite Dangerous sets Odyssey PC alpha for March 29, drops brand-new mission video
One of the MMOs that seems to have emerged from 2020 in a better place than when it went in is Elite Dangerous, which means the launch of Odyssey is only going to lift it higher – no matter how many times it's been delayed. The good news today is that it isn't being delayed […]
EVE Online begins advertising Skill Point pack sales as CCP Games addresses monetization
If you're an EVE Online player that's nervous about in-game store items like the Expert System consumable, then you really might be shaken by the latest post from The Ancient Gaming Noob, which outlines an emailed offer about a Skill Point Resurgence pack that sells 1,620,000 Skill Points for $43.99. Fellow MMO blogger Wilhelm Arcturus […]
Star Citizen shares new enemy NPC behaviors, continued work on Orison, and new weapon progress
The February development report for Star Citizen is now available and is once again full of updates for features and improvements the team at CIG is making to the space sandbox's alpha. The very top of the report has a number of video previews regarding enemy AI behavior, including a demonstration of a "Confidence" metric […]
Lost Ark brings out the Striker for Korean players
Some days it does feel like we've been waiting several quarantine's worth waiting for Lost Ark to finally get its gorgeous polygons over here. So it really doesn't help our patience to dwell on what Korean players are getting these days, but we're going to do it anyway! This month, Lost Ark is introducing the […]
Crowfall posts development and launch roadmap, promotes Hunger Dome battle royale
As we covered in our extensive Crowfall interview back in February, this long-awaited PvP MMORPG is coming close to its launch date — but how close? And what needs to happen between now and then and beyond then? While there's still no date on the calendar, fans can satiate some of their curiosity with a […]
The Daily Grind: Are there MMOs you love to look at but hate to play?
For those of you who have forgotten my experiences with DC Universe Online, I found it one of the most obnoxious and unpleasant games to actually play that I've ever wound up covering while working here… but darn, I love that game's aesthetic. It's seductive. I keep looking at it and thinking that maybe if I give […]
The Stream Team: Seeking SWTOR's hidden droids on the Republic side
The home stretch of SWTOR's Shroud search is in sight, but Massively OP's Larry and MJ might get just a bit sidetracked. There are still more droids out there, and Larry and MJ plan to discover them all for the achievement. To get them all, as much as Larry hates to do so, they have […]
Pokemon Go players are bummed about the lackluster Kanto Tour 'bonus event'
We mentioned in our Pokemon Go Kanto Tour post-event wrap-up that there were some bugs, glitches, people who got the event without paying, and a promise that there'd be a make-up event. Well, that's now been announced, and people across social media aren't thrilled. The main issue is that it seems like the bonus event just […]
Titan Reach shows off crafting stations and NPC creation, promises servers are 'ready to launch'
The devs of Titan Reach sound like they're inching closer to the game's early access launch as the most recent development blog has a cornucopia of smaller updates, the arguably most important of which is related to server infrastructure. According to the post, the game's servers "are now all setup ready to launch and update […]
The Stream Team: Black Desert's 5th birthday bash
Today Black Desert Online turns five, but this time the party's at Pearl Abyss! Massively OP's MJ is ready to celebrate this milestone while checking out the game after its move. There will be a week of boss spawns, login rewards, and NPCs with special quests. Tune in live at 5:00 p.m. as Massively OP's […]
Albion Online buffs castle and outpost point generation ahead of Season 12 PvP
The next season of Guild PvP is starting very soon in Albion Online, with season 12 slated to kick off on Saturday, March 13th. Still, the developers are sneaking in a little patch beforehand now with a number of changes designed to shake up the metagame ahead of the next season, with the changes centered around […]
Star Trek Online brings its House Reborn content to consoles
It's time to feel very Klingon about stuff on console editions of Star Trek Online. The game's House Reborn update has just landed on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, meaning that console players get to experience the two new featured episode starring multiple familiar show actors like Mary Chieffo, Robert O'Reilly, and J. G. Hertzler. That's […]
LEGO Universe documentary podcasts continue as old videos re-release to mark the MMORPG's 10th anniversary
Near the tail end of February, we noted that the LEGO group has been putting a lot of spotlights on the sunsetted LEGO Universe MMORPG, starting with a segment on the Bits N' Bricks podcast. While that podcast series has been expanded upon, there have since been a whole lot more official videos about the […]
MMO Business Roundup: Comic Con 2021, Apple v. Epic, and Twitch transparency
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. Comic-Con 2021: Organizers have now canceled the core Comic-Con event for the second year in a row, specifically owing to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. "While we are buoyed by the rollout of the vaccine and the growing number of individuals being inoculated, it appears […]
Blade & Soul's Unreal Engine 4 upgrade is coming this year in spite of Frontier World's cancelation
We've updated this article at the end with a big update – the original story follows. If you were excited about the Unreal Engine 4 upgrade in the works for Blade & Soul, we have some bad news for you. You might want to be sitting down. See, the UE4 client was being worked on […]
Massively on the Go: Getting the most out of your Animal Crossing Warp Pipes
As I mentioned in our Nintendo Direct February recap, the Mario-item crossover in Animal Crossing: New Horizons included functional warp-pipes, bringing fast travel to the series for the first time. Since I'm an Asheron's Call fan with an AC themed island, being given the tools to recreate the fast-travel Arwic Hub (or the Town Network) seemed like a […]
DC Universe Online's Community Style Initiative seeks to get player feedback on outfit styles to add to the game
When it comes to character cosmetics, getting the right look is arguably the most important in superhero MMOs, where a character's entire identity is intrinsically tied to their appearance. While DC Universe Online certainly has plenty of outfit styles to choose from, there could always be more, and gauging just what new styles to add […]
Perfect Ten: The top 10 things to love about Elder Scrolls Online
Having finally clicked hard with Elder Scrolls Online this winter, I find that it's difficult to restrain myself from gushing about pleasant discoveries (and rediscoveries) from this fantasy MMORPG. I've got my lizard Warden riding a bear and fielding a bear (with a bear vanity pet), carving a legend for myself in this wide-open world […]
Zynga bought up Torchlight III developer Echtra Games
Gaming powerhouse Zynga is best known for FarmVille, which made the company a household name a decade ago, though it had wild revenue swings along the way and sparked "cautionary tales" and "disaster timelines" across the industry about the "has-been's" outright failure. Clearly, its fortunes have turned in the last few years, in spite of […]
The Elder Scrolls Online will be handing out unlimited respecs during a mini-event on Update 29's launch
As players of Elder Scrolls Online now know, the Champion Points system is due for a wholesale overhaul with Update 29. In celebration of player characters effectively being reset, there's going to be a Heroes Reforged mini-event that will just make it rain respecs. This two week-long event will coincide with Update 29's launch, meaning […]
Black Desert opens Star's End on console, introduces tainted monsters on PC, and teases the Sage class
Black Desert is once again hitting us with all the news. We'll begin with the console version of the game, which has introduced the Star's End area to the game as well as added Blackstar weapons, a Blackstar Distortion earring, new guild missions, and some additional quality-of-life improvements. Players who are curious about learning more […]
SWTOR's update 6.2.1 is finally live with updates for conquests, amplifiers, and uprisings
As promised, Star Wars The Old Republic has finally rolled out update 6.2.1, which was originally delayed from its planned mid-February launch thanks to the devastating storms in Texas. Most notably, this update tweaks conquests, amplifiers, and uprisings. "All Uprisings are now available at level 75 with a rebalance of their difficulty and the time […]
Epic Games snatches up Fall Guys studio for an undisclosed sum
Do you remember Fall Guys? It was that wacky multiplayer title that everyone was all hot for about two gaming crazes ago. Well apparently that shining moment in the sun was enough to get developer Mediatonic noticed by Epic Games because the latter just acquired the former for an undisclosed sum. Tonic seems pretty pleased […]
Gamigo grants Defiance players' wishes, posts sunset schedule, and runs a weird survey
Ready to bask in the riches that Gamigo wishes to pour down upon your upturned face? Then you'll first want to head over to either version of Defiance, where the company is handing out free sets of caches and crates to any player who participates in a single Arkfall during these successive events. Gamigo is […]
The Daily Grind: What MMO set dressings make you roll your eyes?
While I'm not always the most nitpicky person in the universe, sometimes I do get tired of visual tropes that pop up over and over again in MMOs. One particular one that makes me roll my eyes is whenever I see the studio's artists throw piles of skulls and bones into places to supposedly make […]
The Stream Team: Gotta get gold for a Guild Wars 2 griffon
After getting to test-soar on some quest griffons, Massively OP's MJ is even more determined to get her own gliding mount in GW2. She already has the guard bribe, now she needs to go bribe a guard! And earn so much gold. And collect all the things. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to see […]
Neverwinter patches in balance tweaks and bug fixes as Vault of the Stars is live
Sometimes, even minor patches for Neverwinter have a clear and understandable throughline of what's being changed. Other times, you wind up with the game's most recent patch, which is a bit harder to ascertain. It's definitely weakening some items, like reducing the power of the Bloodcrystal Raven Skull with a shorter shield time and lower health […]
Conan Exiles applies a laundry list of bug fixes to its testlive build
This is pretty much what a public testing environment was meant for. The most recent PTS build of Conan Exiles has gotten a whole ream of fixes touching on several bugs related to a variety of gameplay elements including thralls and AI, combat, crafting, and building. Adjustments include a balance to XP earnings at crafting […]
Blankos Block Party makes more shooting and racing changes and improves the Party Bus feature
The open beta for the multiplayer game-building title Blankos Block Party has gotten another update full of improvements to racing and shooting parties among other things. On the shooting side of things, all weapons have gotten unique reticles to better visualize where projectiles will fall, while automatic weapons and rail guns now feature hitscan for […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 311: The day the MMOs died
Justin and Bree discuss Anthem Next's demise, Defiance and Gamigo's MMO purge, DDO's big news, Black Desert's free-play, Riot's MMO, and mobile Warcraft, with adventures in LOTRO, City of Heroes, WoW Classic, and Elder Scrolls Online, plus mailbag topics on post subs, Valheim, and MMOs as they used to be.
Dark Age of Camelot plans Catch Up in Calendonia fast-leveling event, Ultima Online previews Publish 110 and New Legacy's map
Broadsword's antique MMORPGs are still chugging along, both with news of note this week. In Dark Age of Camelot, players are being invited for a fresh-start event this coming Friday called Catch Up in Caledonia. Starting March 5th, the 10-day event will center on the RvR battleground Caledonia and offer a fast way to level […]
Fractured updates players on the tech tree and studio investment while delaying its next test
You probably don't need anyone to tell you that the winter test for Fractured is not taking place in February, due to certain little indicators like the fact that it is presently March. The latest dispatch from the development team acknowledges this, explaining that some of the time was taken up by adding the economy into […]
Atlas explains the logic behind its new ship system
Boats are kind of important in Atlas, since that's the main way that players sail between islands and generally engage in piratical operations. The game's new changes to ship systems have some players already annoyed, though, and so the latest dispatch from the development team explains what the new system is meant to accomplish while reassuring players […]
Magic: Legends explains how its ramping difficulty mechanics work
Do you want to make life harder for yourself in Magic: Legends? There are good reasons to do so, as outlined in the game's latest article explaining how the game's difficulty and modifier systems will work. The difficulty system is the easiest to understand, ranging from Normal to Master, with greater difficulties unlocking as you finish […]
A Star Trek Online player opened 12,000 lockboxes so you don't have to
You may have had your fingers in an MMO lockbox or two over the years, but we're willing to bet that you don't count your openings in the thousands. But that's exactly what YouTuber CasualSAB can claim, now that he's opened an astonishing 12,000 Infinity lockboxes on Star Trek Online's test server. The point to […]
Cold Iron's Alien game is finally happening: It's a co-op shooter called Aliens Fireteam, under the Daybreak banner
One of the more confusing stories we've covered over the past few years is the story of Cold Iron Studios: It's the group run by former Cryptic devs (including Craig Zinkievich and Matt Highison) that was working on an Alien-franchise MMOFPS. But it's been bought and sold repeatedly over the years as the game started […]
Choose My Adventure: The combat is the sauce in Wizard101
It's only been a little bit of time, but I am already mightily impressed with Wizard101. The game has a pretty rich and involved following, so I sort of assumed it was doing something right, but my first-ever foray into this MMO has already intrigued me with some interesting design decisions. Sadly, not many of […]
