The Stream Team: Loving the land of lava in Neverwinter
What better place for our favorite fire-lover than the luscious lava of Neverwinter's Mount Hotenow? Massively OP's MJ feels like she's in flame-thrower's heaven dancing around those flowing rivers of lava. D&D night adventures continue with MJ whispering "I lava you" as she wanders the volcano. Tune in live at 9:00 p.m.for MJ's hot date […]
Massively Overthinking: Picking the 'wrong' MMORPG class
Last month, the MMORPG subreddit slept on a good thread about picking classes in MMOs. Let's wake this sucker up. "Am I the only one who is afraid of picking a class and said class ending as the 'wrong' class and get rejected from guild/raid groups just because I picked the weak class to play?" […]
Alien invader survival title Drake's Odds: Survive espouses the virtues of the UFO tractor beam
What self-respecting Earth-invading aliens would arrive without a classic UFO complete with an iconic beam of light that lets them haul things around? Luckily, the players of Drake's Odds: Survive won't have to suffer such ignominy, as the survival sandbox game will most definitely feature a UFO with a tractor beam. According to the related […]
Blade and Soul 2 showcases a cooperative horde mode in latest game footage trailer
We already know that Blade and Soul 2 players are going to have to fight things, but not all threats roam the game's world; some come from a fiery sky fissure. That's the focus of the latest trailer from the game, which offers a in-engine animated look (according to the video's auto-translated title) at this […]
Black Desert just revealed the new Sage class on its afternoon stream
On its splashy reveal stream this afternoon, Pearl Abyss took the wraps off the latest playable class in Black Desert: The Sage. "Armed with the cube-shaped Kyve, an ancient, god-defying weapon, Sage can open rifts in space, calling on Ator's Fist and a range of offensive spells to smite his foes," the studio explains. "He can […]
Fall Guys shows off one of the new maps arriving as part of its fourth season
The fourth season of Fall Guys is supposedly being announced on March 15th with a whole trailer for what to expect, but fans of the game can whet their appetites with the latest preview from the game's official Twitter account. It's showing off one of the seven new levels being added with the update, Skyline Stumble, […]
Whatever happened to Snail Games' Outlaws of the Old West?
In the spring of 2019, Snail Games launched Virtual Basement's then-new survival sandbox MMO Outlaws of the Old West into Steam early access under the Wandering Wizard label, intending to keep it in early access for just a year. Well, it's now been two, and the game is still right there in early access, with […]
Albion Online offers a closer look at the upcoming loadouts feature
Managing your equipment is a vital yet sometimes obnoxious chore, especially when you want to switch gears from combat to crafting as an example. Albion Online's loadouts feature, which is due to arrive with the Call to Arms update on March 17th, looks to not only ease this pain point but introduce a number of […]
Fallout 76's Locked and Loaded update isn't landing until April 27
Fallout 76 players already know that the Bethsoft team's been prepping the Locked and Loaded update this past season, and as of today, we now know when the update is coming: April 27th. Yeah, that's a bit of a long wait. In the meantime, the PTS will come back online tomorrowday for players to check […]
Star Citizen XenoThreat postmortem talks co-op gameplay, performance issues, and PvP imbalance
Players of Star Citizen certainly have opinions about how the game's first dynamic event played out, but how do the devs at CIG think? A postmortem about the event has some insight as several teams chimed in on what went well, what went wrong, and what plans will be made to improve things for the […]
Desert Oasis: A brief history Kakao Games, Black Desert's former PC publisher
It's been a busy couple of months for Pearl Abyss and Kakao games. While Black Desert players knew about Pearl Abyss taking up self publishing duties for the game's western PC release a whole year before the announcement, news of the split became official in December. Fast forward to today, and Black Desert is now fully […]
MechWarrior Online and RUST are slowly recovering after data center fire yesterday
As we reported yesterday morning, a massive fire in Strasbourg, France, took out multiple buildings at the OVH data center where countless companies, including gaming companies, hosted websites and games. While no one was physically harmed in the blaze, several games in our wheelhouse were dealt a nasty blow. Piranha Games' MechWarrior Online, for example, […]
DC Universe Online ushers in St. Patty's Day event and brutal survival mode
Little green-clad men offering magical riches may not seem that out of place in DC Universe Online. We have to imagine that nobody in Gotham or Metropolis will blink twice to see Mister Mxyzptlk frolicking about during St. Patrick's Day. The yearly event is expected to launch today in the game, offering players a special […]
Kakao Games' upcoming survival sandbox Dysterra begins alpha March 18
Eager for another survival game in your library? Kakao Games is publishing the upcoming title Dysterra, an Unreal Engine 4-powered survival game in which players are dropped on an abandoned prison version of Earth and left to fend for themselves. Success will thus be a matter of finding resources, building bases, and fighting it out to […]
Vague Patch Notes: The sneering elitism of the MMO term 'welfare epics'
A few weeks ago, I saw an MMO player unironically complaining about "welfare epics" here in 2021. This is basically the equivalent of saying, "I'm a gigantic elitist turd," and it invites laughter. The devil cannot stand mockery and all that. But that aside, it did prompt a bit of a discussion among the team […]
Saga of Lucimia's founder hasn't been involved in the game's development since last fall
Last fall, we did a "Whatever Happened To" article on Saga of Lucimia, the group-centered hardcore MMORPG that we've had an eyeball on since 2015 and was originally targeting 2017 for launch (that was later moved, of course, with the most recent window being Q4 2021). The game has weathered multiple controversies along the way, […]
World of Warcraft's Wandering Ancient mount is out, but it's taking some time to roll out
The community was asked, and they answered. World of Warcraft players are finally getting the community-voted mount, the Wandering Ancient, a big walking treant with special seasonal coloration for players to enjoy. All of the various seasonal colors have already been datamined by Wowhead, along with the colors for the upcoming Daisy the Sloth pet as […]
LOTRO's Wildwood testing continues while Angmar offers dev tours
It's another round of testing for Lord of the Rings Online's new mid-level content patch, as SSG announced that Update 29 is once again available for preview on the Bullroarer server. "Beyond the Bree-fields lies the lightly travelled wilderness of the Wildwood. This heavily forested area has drawn the attention of two groups of Free […]
'We will never be the same': Cryptic is adopting a permanent work-from-home policy
A lot of gaming companies, including MMO companies, shifted to working from home when the COVID pandemic began in earnest last year. And one of the "silver linings" of the pandemic was supposed to be making work-from-home more acceptable than ever – that maybe offices would become all but moot. Not a lot of mid-size-and-up […]
The Daily Grind: What's the oldest MMO change or update you're still a little angry about?
I still find Final Fantasy XI's old vague patch notes so annoying ("The potency of certain actions has been adjusted") that I named an entire column after it. It's tongue-in-cheek, but the reference is still there. But even that pales to the people who are still angry about Ultima Online's Trammel, approximately two centuries after that happened. […]
Whatever happened to indie tabletop-inspired MMO World Seed?
Cast your mind back to the middle of 2020, when we first covered World Seed, a newly launched MMO crafted by solo Swedish developer Kim Korte under the Ape Egg banner. The game was notable for being one of the few titles to tinker with the classic tabletop motif for an MMO, with a "reshaping" […]
Animal Crossing New Horizons latest transmedia synergy effort is with Build-A-Bear
Animal Crossing New Horizons has been king of the crossovers for a while now, with partnerships with everything from fast-fashion makeup brands to an IKEA catalogue spread. Now, apparently Nintendo is transmedia synergying it up with… Build-A-Bear. Bonus, this is the second article about bears we've gotten to do today, so thanks ACNH. Build-A-Bear, for […]
Century: Age of Ashes preps for its next March 12 closed beta and showcases gameplay in new trailer
Curious to ride on the back of a dragon and blow the smithereens out of others in aerial PvP dogfights? Then you're going to want to get your toes into the upcoming closed beta test for Century: Age of Ashes, which is due to begin on Friday, March 12th, and run through Sunday, March 21st. […]
Vendetta Online enhances Mac support, unifies KoS timers, and preps for further graphical improvements
It's been a little while since we last peeked in on the internet spaceship MMO Vendetta Online, so we suspect it's about high time to catch up, particularly since the game has seen a pretty steady stream of updates since our last report. Looking back over the past couple of months, we note the game […]
MMO Business Roundup: Germany, lockboxes, Distintegration, and CCP vs. the bots
Welcome back to another quick rundown of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. German lockboxes: We've gone through two full cycles of lockbox backlash in the last decade, and I thought we might be about to embark on a third, as yesterday headlines lit up around the industry about Germany's plan to reform abusive monetization in […]
Dauntless introduces private Hunting Grounds and addresses performance issues in latest patch
In terms of content, the most recent patch to Dauntless doesn't add much, but what it does add is still pretty important on the performance and quality-of-life side. The one major feature of the update is the addition of private Hunting Grounds, letting players run through the area solo or with a team of their […]
Final Fantasy XI rolls out new Voracious Resurgence content and a new Odyssey foe
The March version update has arrived for Final Fantasy XI, and that means players can face off against a new foe in Sheol: Gaol as part of the game's Odyssey content. It's a tough battle to enter, as you need to be in a party of players with non-overlapping jobs and everyone needs three jobs at […]
Dark Age of Camelot's leveling event draws 'thousands' of characters
It's Fast Times at Dark Age High these days, as DAOC is in the midst of a 10-day "Catch Up in Caledonia" event to help players pump out those levels as quickly as possible. Broadsword said that the event has been a "huge hit" so far with "thousands of characters" sprinting through the leveling process. […]
World of Tanks Console's Season 5 lets all players earn a heavy Polish tank and a bear tank commander
There's a fresh season in World of Tanks Console and this one is a doozy, as all players, whether they have a Season Pass or not, have the opportunity to get a Polish Tier VIII 50TP Prototype heavy tank. Granted, it's waiting at level 100 so it's likely not going to be a cakewalk to […]
Leaderboard: Are you hyped for WoW Burning Crusade Classic?
I don't think I've ever seen people fight over the details of a classic server as hard as they do for WoW Classic. Dipping into the comments of our WoW Factor and Casually Classic columns shows an incredible array of opinions on the right way to move Classic forward and the motivations behind those preferences. […]
Indie space sandbox Avorion celebrates first anniversary – and 300K sales
Avorion's been on our radar for the last year, almost to the day: It's a "procedural co-op space sandbox where players can build their own space ships out of dynamically scalable blocks" that launched back in March of last year. Yes, I said launched. A real launch. A real MMO launch. Wild. The indie space sandbox […]
Not So Massively: Outriders' demo teases a decent but unremarkable looter-shooter
Outriders, the new co-op shooter from publisher Square Enix, is not a game I've followed super closely, but with Anthem consigned to eternal purgatory, I could use a new sci-fi shooter in my life, and developer People Can Fly has been kind enough to provide a free public demo prior to the April 1st launch, […]
Gamigo has laid off an unspecified number of RIFT devs, says MMO will continue
Yesterday, we learned through a trusted tipster that multiple Gamigo developers situated in the US and working on RIFT had been laid off from the company. The layoffs reportedly included both Kerilar and Acalos, long-running developers on the game, with the assumption that RIFT's development is being shifted overseas. We reached out to Gamigo for […]
Perfect Ten: Ten things that killed me in Final Fantasy XI
In many ways, Final Fantasy XI was a designed copy of EverQuest. It did, however, remove a lot of the elements of that game in particular. You no longer purchased training for all of your abilities, for example, just spells. You could no longer fall to your death from a treetop city. You could no longer accidentally […]
Black Desert players vote on next GM events as latest PC update brings new quests and plump pufferfish
What sort of GM-led events will PC players of Black Desert be seeing next? Well, if the results of a player poll are any indication, there's gong to be lots of treasure and a concert with the GMs, with an overwhelming 38% of players wanting a Treasure Hunt and 13% of players asking for a […]
Lord of the Rings Online's 2021 roadmap includes Wildwood, Bilbo, Blood of Azog, Gundabad, and the LI revamp
Lord of the Rings Online's Rob "Severlin" Ciccolini just posted a new letter from producer for the community, through if you've been watching the game's streams (and reading MOP's Justin's excellent recaps), you probably already know most of what's coming. In the immediate future, players can expect the formal release of the in-development Wildwood area […]
The world is vanishing, and only DC Universe Online heroes can help
No matter what your level of stoic cynicism is these days, I think we can all agree that having the world vanish is a net loss for all of us. So vote for superheroes as world saviors in 2021 and keep the Earth from disappearing altogether! These are the stakes for DC Universe Online's April […]
EU MechWarrior Online, RUST servers go offline following French data center burning to the ground – no one hurt
Well, this might be a first for the MMO industry: The data center in Strasbourg, France, that housed MechWarrior Online's servers was partially destroyed in a major fire overnight. Here's the message from Piranha Games just after midnight early this morning: "There has been a fire at the EU datacenter that hosts the Game Servers […]
The Daily Grind: Where's the love for MMO Engineers?
If you announce that your MMO is going to have an Engineer class of some kind, then congratulation: I'm going to play it. In fact, I'll be first in line with a wrench in one hand and a remote control for my killer robot in the other. I can't help it; I love me a […]
The Stream Team: Barrels of beer (and fun) in EverQuest II's Brewday
Having already missed Erollisi Day, Massively OP's MJ is not going to miss out on EverQuest II's Brewday! Who knows how much beer her tiny Ratonga can hold, but today is the day to find out. She'll be barhopping to work on her drinking achievements as well as buying fun rewards. And there's always that […]
The Realm Online prepares to launch 'radical, disruptive' seasonal server
If you haven't stepped back in time and visited The Realm Online lately, you might want to see what fascinating things this rebooted 2-D MMORPG is doing. Specifically, the dev team is testing a "radically new ruleset" called Elphame's Arena. This seasonal server, which is currently in beta, is a way to introduce "new disruptive […]
MMO game studio comedy Mythic Quest debuts its second season on May 7
Back in January of last year, we reported on the comedy series Mythic Quest, which comes from many of the creators and writers of It's Always Sunny and Modern Family. The first season of the series released a month later to some generally favorable reactions from many of our readers. Evidently, it was a strong […]
MapleStory previews the upcoming Spring Blossoms update, complete with cafe and Mechanical Hearts
Spring has not yet quite sprung into MapleStory, but it's soon to spring away with the game's upcoming Spring Blossoms update coming in the near future. There's even a whole preview page showing off everything coming to the game with the new update, including all three seasons of Mechanical Hearts being available at once. That coincides […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 312: Written in the stars
Justin and Bree discuss Elder Scrolls Online Flames of Ambition and Update 29, WoW Classic, Daybreak's Aliens Fireteam, and City of Heroes, with listener mails and recordings on MMOs that are more fun to play than watch, a 2010 time capsule, Blizzard's Mac thing, and out-of-touch pockets of MMO fans.
Titan Reach has officially kicked off early access
To hear the story of Titan Reach, you might not believe the game would have gotten this far. The MMO from Australia-based Square Root Studios first tried its hand with Kickstarter in September 2020, which ultimately failed and caused the devs to plan a shift to Indiegogo instead but ended up ultimately eschewing that plan […]
Allods Online plans for Desert Dreams update launch and server merge on March 11
A bit of good news, bad news for Allods Online players. The good news is that the upcoming Desert Dreams update will be arriving soon on Thursday, March 11th. The bad news is that there will also be a server merge going down as well. Though that might also be considered good news if you're […]
Back under Naddic's direction, Closers adds new dungeon and raid to defeat the Ocean King
So, how's Closers doing since transferring back from Krafton and En Masse to its original developer Naddic last fall? Not too shabbily: Naddic has rolled out multiple events and patches in 2021, including a newbie event and the merging of the Thai server into the global set. Most recently, Naddic has announced a new content […]
Atlas Q&A acknowledges problems with Alliances, island assaults, and experience
Depending on your perspective, the latest community Q&A for Atlas will be either positive or frustrating. For example, if you're hoping to hear some acknowledgement of the problems the game has with experience, you'll probably be happy that this set of answers explicitly acknowledges that solo players or those in small companies are locked in a […]
Choose My Adventure: Fizzle frustration, boss beatdowns, and slowly forming strategies in Wizard101
Remember last week how I wrote about being surprised at the depth of Wizard101's combat? This week I learned that the game's combat can also provide a stern challenge for the unprepared. Or perhaps more likely, the undergeared. Or perhaps even more likely, the clinically stupid. Up to this point, battles have been generally pretty […]
Star Trek Online podcast to introduce Gene Roddenberry's son to the MMO
When you have a dad who created one of the most famous scifi IPs of all time, you best ride those coattails all the way through life, son. And so it is for Rod Roddenberry, the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who is the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment and an executive producer on […]
