The Stream Team: Birthday bashing and Blackwood prologue with Elder Scrolls Online
Yesterday, The Elder Scrolls Online celebrated its official seventh birthday, but Massively OP's MJ gets to eat cake all week long! And boy, does it look good (where's Wonka Vision when you need it?!) As part of the birthday bash, she'll also be partaking in some good old-fashioned bashing while running through the new Blackwood […]
Massively Uplifting: Gamestonk, gorillas, and giving in MMOs
When it comes to feel-good stories in the general media, coming across a positive one about gaming seems harder than finding a four-leaf clover. Thankfully, you don't need the luck of the Irish to find uplifting stories — you've got Massively Uplifting! And March was brimming with kindness, inclusion, helpfulness, and generosity like a pot […]
Multiplayer deceive-em-ups Project Winter and Among Us get new maps
What better way to screw around with friends than to play a game where the objective is to survive a dangerous map and other players in the team out to sabotage everyone else? Fans will be very familiar with this multiplayer gaming set up thanks to the wildly popular Among Us and the under-the-radar (but […]
Neocron's gritty cyberpunks hunt for pretty Easter eggs
Volunteer-led Neocron is enjoying a spring update, courtesy of Patch 2.5.1, even as the team continue to work on more content for this cyberpunk MMORPG. The patch made some adjustments to various mobs, made a whole lot of weapon balance changes, and a hopeful fix for a game stability issue. The game's Easter egg hunt […]
Star Citizen talks about future plans for player-based ship refuel and repair
As it stands now, filling up the tank and repairing the damage of your internet starship in Star Citizen is an automated matter, but the devs are reportedly working on ways to let players take up these tasks according to a recent Calling All Devs video. Manual refueling will become a necessity in-game once the […]
Shadow's Kiss plans a Steam early access launch this summer, ends test builds due to lack of patcher support
Talk about rising from the dead: Shadow's Kiss, the vampire-filled horror MMO that we last looked towards in a Whatever Happened To post in June 2020, has suddenly announced that it's ready for an early access launch on Steam this summer. "Originally, we had not wanted to go with Steam for some logistical and financial […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 teases bosses, concept art, and character races for New Genesis
Most of the news about Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis has either come from the game's official site or from the Rappy.commu Twitter account (which is in Japanese), but as of this past February leading up to now, the global PSO2 Twitter account has taken to localizing Rappy's reveals and sharing them for everyone […]
New UK research finds opening lootboxes is 'structurally and psychologically akin' to gambling
The mountain of research-based evidence against lootboxes has had another leaflet added to the pile. A recent report from researchers at the universities of Plymouth and Wolverhampton in the UK has concluded that opening gaming lockboxes is "structurally and psychologically akin" to gambling. The research, commissioned by the GambleAware charity, analyzed 13 previous studies into […]
Steampunk MMO Noah's Heart aims for a summer 2021 beta
Last summer we delivered to you many precisely crafted words regarding Noah's Heart, a steampunk mobile MMO being developed by Archosaur Games, which is known for a ton of MMOs, including Jade Dynasty and Swordsman Online. Players intrigued by airships and grand promises have been left waiting for the actual product, but there may be […]
Book of Travels previews the different means of transport in the game
While Book of Travels is about walking around the world to discover things, that doesn't mean that world isn't without modes of transportation. Several means of larger transport were outlined in a recent post to highlight some of the ways players can get around when they don't feel like walking. One of the primary modes […]
Valheim can now be played in VR thanks to a modder
Bless the modder community, making games we enjoy even better. That could certainly be said for the VHVR mod, which lets players of Valheim experience the Viking-themed survival sandbox in VR using OpenVR and SteamVR Unity integration. VHVR is the work of Brandon "manicmoose99" Mousseau, letting players explore their landscape in stereoscopic 3-D with either […]
Fight or Kite: For Honor is still the only viking vs. samurai vs. knight game for me
Many moons ago, in the simpler times of 2017, Ubisoft delivered a fantastical game that sought to bring a close to the question all historians have argued for centuries: Who would win in a fight between a viking, a samurai, and a knight? I was extremely hyped at launch for the game. In all honesty, […]
Destiny 2 discusses adjustments to armor mod vendors and certain weapon perks coming in Season 14
The informational run-up to Season 14 of Destiny 2 rolls on in Bungie's latest weekly newsletter, calling out a couple of specific adjustments to armor mod vendors and the Celerity and Bottomless Grief weapon perks. Season 14 will see Ada-1 return to the Tower, where she'll sell two different types of randomly chosen armor mods […]
Wisdom of Nym: Reacting to the latest Final Fantasy XIV live letter
The one down side to Square's most recent live letter was the simple reality that it didn't get to deliver on the tradition of revealing a date. Normally part of the fun of these letters is finding out exactly when the next patch is landing for Final Fantasy XIV, but we've known the date for […]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen discusses tweaks to health, mana, loot, and enemy DPS, shares a video of class abilities
A recent livestream from Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen had a lot to say, and none of it was associated with NFT minting. Instead, the devs offered a lot of talk about balancing and progression, as well as a look at some class abilities among other things. As we reported before, the stream brought in […]
Omar Gonzalez, a chief architect of World of Warcraft Classic, has departed Blizzard for Dreamhaven
If you're a fan of WoW Classic, you have Omar Gonzalez to thank for it. You may not have known about that, but it's true; Gonzalez was basically the man who locked himself away to find a way to integrate classic data with the modern World of Warcraft client, proving that the project was possible in the […]
City of Titans releases Mac avatar builder, improved menu system
The big spring release has arrived for City of Titans, and while the metropolis' boundaries remain closed to players, this patch represents another stride toward release. The headlining news here is that the Mac version of the avatar builder is now available (as the team is developing a Mac client in addition to the PC […]
Daybreak's owner Enad Global 7 acquires MMORPG publisher Innova for $109M
Enad Global 7 is once again in the news for us here at MOP with yet another buyout, this time regarding its February 25th acquisition of Russian publisher Innova to the tune of $109.8M. Innova, readers will recall, is the company that operates the 4Game digital platform and publishes a variety of titles for the […]
The Daily Grind: What do you think about 'exclusive' zones in MMORPGs?
I want to talk about exclusive zones today – specifically, Guild Wars 2's lounges, something I haven't seen in many other MMOs at all. Essentially, they're special themed maps that act as alternate hub cities, meaning they have pretty much all of the NPCs and craft centers and vendors you'd expect out of one of […]
MMO Week in Review: Little hope left for Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer
Cyberpunk 2077 all but killed off any remaining hope that a multiplayer version is still on deck, thanks to a corporate vision that will offer nonspecific "online experiences" even as the company "reconsiders" multiplayer for its cyberpunk title. In happier MMO news, Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV teased their next big content drops, we […]
World of Warcraft outlines updates being made to improve PvP matchmaking
If your experience in the Arena of World of Warcraft has been a little odd in relation to gaining rating, it's not just in your head. According to a developer post, more players are taking part in the Arena in Shadowlands than ever before, which is causing some unintended effects at the top of the […]
The MOP Up: Skyforge takes Switch players to the moon
Earlier this year, Nintendo Switch users were treated to a full-fledged MMORPG with the launch of Skyforge on the platform. Now, Skyforge is taking Switch players to the moon of Thea with a massive update on April 13th. "Shadow Of Aelion is planned to launch alongside various technical fixes to reduce the amount of crashes […]
Magic Legends provides a video overview of the Dimir Assassin class
Let's ignore the fact that the Dimir Assassin class of Magic Legends is an exercise in PWE and Cryptic's overreaching in lockbox monetization for a moment and take some time to appreciate just what this class is capable of, especially now that it's no longer stuffed in a lockbox and is instead awaiting as part […]
Massively on the Go: Mother Nintendo should make Niantic Earthbound
So, Nintendo and Niantic will work together for more AR games based on Nintendo IPs. No great surprise from me, as I'd mentioned years ago that there were other IPs that would make a better AR game than Harry Potter, and two of the five of them were Nintendo. While I didn't predict Pikmin, the […]
Guild Wars 2 updates legal documentation related to third-party program use, DMCA counter-notices, and more
Ah, online game legal documentation. We all know this as the wall o' text that we often scroll by en route to logging in to a game for at least the first time, but players of Guild Wars 2 may want to pay more attention to these set of rules, as they've seen a variety […]
One Shots: Riding the dino to the prom
You think you were all decked out in finery and had a spiffy ride the last time you went to a formal dance? You ain't got nothing on Skorry! "Spring has arrived in Final Fantasy XIV, and so it was time for my Ishgardian princess to expand her wardrobe a bit," Skorry said. "An FC-mate […]
The Daily Grind: Do you wait until after launch to start a new MMO?
Launch day! The date when everyone is talking about a new MMO, there's a mass of new players, overcrowding, disconnections, and all of the bugs are being discovered! Yes, launch is usually a tumultuous time for any new MMO, and there's something to be said for taking a look at all that tumult and deciding […]
Make My MMO: Elite's Odyssey is a beautiful mess
This week in crowdfunded MMOs, our own Stick and Rudder columnist Chris got his paws all over Elite Dangerous' Odyssey alpha this week, finding the alpha label to be extremely accurate indeed, with plenty of rough edges, balance issues, and a weak test intro – but also one with enormous potential. "Odyssey is a new […]
Lord of the Rings Online leaks Brawler class details
Trust MMORPG players to poke around where developers wish they wouldn't, especially when it comes to prying all of the secrets out of upcoming patches. Thanks to time spent on Lord of the Rings Online's test server, online detectives uncovered a wealth of information about the upcoming Brawler class, even as it's still in development. […]
Torchlight III unveils the new Cursed Captain class arriving with the next update
Pirates and curses just go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so it's not necessarily a surprise that the Cursed Captain is a thing. What might be a surprise is that the Cursed Captain is a new class that's coming to Torchlight III as part of the ARPG's next update, which is due to arrive […]
The Stream Team: Astroneer's second great scrap event
The EXO Salvage Initiative has returned to Astroneer, and Massively OP's MJ is ready to clean up the planets. What? The fact that there are cool new cosmetic rewards is merely a coincidence! Cleaning up is just a rewarding experience. And for any new folks, that includes nabbing last year's rewards on the way to […]
The Game Archaeologist: The ballad of Fansy, EverQuest's famous bard
It was summer, 2001. EverQuest had just rolled out Sullon Zek, a no-rules "penal colony" server where the realm was as lawless as the PvP was ruthless. Ganking, PKing, and corpse camping were rampant, all the more so for anyone who dared roll on the "good" side, as "evil" players made up the vast majority […]
Trove is coming to Nintendo Switch this year, Wizard101 and Pirate101 may get a console port
Whether you are a dinosaur tamer, a ruthless pirate, or a dashing superhero, you soon will have another platform to enjoy the antics of Trove. Gamigo parent company Media and Games Invest Group released a report, first noticed by Troveasaurus, that indicates the studio is bringing Trove to the Nintendo Switch some time this year. "We […]
WRUP: How to make a giant mess out of the inside of your car if that's your goal for whatever reason edition
What you'll need: A box of plastic disposable forks. Four bottles of foaming shaving cream. Rubber bands. Glitter. A Roomba. One full set of golf clubs. A car. Duct tape. Seven pairs of scissors. A complete lack of any sensible reactions to the things you're about to do. Construction paper. Personal injury insurance. How to […]
The Daily Grind: What cancelled MMOs deserve a rogue server?
As a historian, game preservationist, and general MMORPG geek, it does my heart good to see players do their best to restore and operate titles that were kicked to the curb by studios years ago. There are so many rogue servers out there, from Star Wars Galaxies to Free Realms to The Sims Online to […]
The Stream Team: Chillin' with some villains and man-eating mimicsin AdventureQuest 3D
In AQ3D, you have the big baddy Vain the Void King, who is the nemesis of the entire story. However, there are plenty of other villains to defeat on your way to vanquishing Vane. All those boss challenges had to come from somewhere, right? And sometimes, Massively OP's MJ just wants to spend a day […]
Betawatch: Pantheon aims high for alpha test and hits low with NFTs
Ah, Pantheon, you're aiming high for your still-undated alpha test! That's a really good thing. It's why we're rooting for you as a scrappy underdog! Or it's why we were rooting for you before you started selling NFT artwork, thus turning yourself into a simultaneous villain for Batman and Captain Planet in one fell swoop. […]
Astellia Online makes Miodan Mine tweaks, adds dungeon gift boxes, and introduces multiple item upgrading
Astellia Online, aka the version of the game that's not Astellia Royal, has recently gotten an update with a variety of new things to check out. At the heart of this update are several changes to the Miodan Mine zone, with nerfs to monsters, increases to daily rewards, the addition of new Miodan's upgrade treasures, […]
Aion EU's next update brings back Pangaea, reworks Legion contribution system, and adds a Labyrinth
As fans of Aion often know, what arrives to the EU version of the game usually is a precursor for the NA version. With that in mind, players will want to note that update 7.9 is soon to arrive to Aion EU, bringing with it a few marquee features. First on the list is the […]
Darkfall Rise of Agon launches in China as the western version revives player cities
Remember back in February when the two devs working on Darkfall Rise of Agon announced they were making a huge move: partnering with an investor to bring the game to Asia and heavily expand the dev team? Not only is it still happening, but it's happening today. The game's new Chinese website says that the […]
Grinding Gear Games collects Path of Exile 2 reveals ahead of April 8 livestream, doesn't see beta until 2022
As we've reported, this coming Thursday, April 8th, will have a new livestream for Path of Exile, which will showcase a new look at Path of Exile 2. If you've forgotten all about that game somehow, the devs at Grinding Gear Games have rather helpfully pulled together all of the reveals, videos, and details that […]
MechWarrior Online is bringing a first pass of weapon adjustments in April
The month of April is going to see continued tweaks to weapons and equipment in MechWarrior Online. That in and of itself isn't too surprising if you've been paying attention, but the method in which these changes are coming is perhaps a bit different than expected. Essentially, the devs at Piranha Games were hoping to […]
Battle Bards Episode 190: Genshin Impact
It was the FOMO title of last fall, and now Genshin Impact is in your ears! On this episode of the Battle Bards, Syp, Steff, and the Other One explore the varied and delightfully cheerful soundtrack to this online RPG. Unless you have headphones made of live kittens, it'll be the most adorable thing you'll […]
Final Fantasy XI updates with the latest part of the Voracious Resurgence
It's time for an update of dour elves with the latest patch for Final Fantasy XI, bringing in the final part of the Voracious Resurgence storyline in San d'Oria. Of course, that's one of the biggest pieces of this particular update, which the developers already stated would be a bit smaller due to naturally less […]
The Soapbox: How Magic Legends went wrong with the Dimir Assassin class
Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment are known for their love of lockboxes as a monetization strategy. Therefore it was not wholly surprising when Magic: Legends open beta launched with a whole character class exclusive to its paid, randomized "booster packs" (lockboxes by another name). What was surprising was that the pushback was so intense that […]
Elder Scrolls Online opens Blackwood prologue during its free-play event and birthday season
If this week's Elder Scrolls Online console and Blackwood reveals have you itching to play the game, well, ZeniMax's marketing team can congratulate itself on a job well done. But this post is about you and what you can get out of the game right now, and as it turns out, it's quite a bit. […]
WoW Factor: We're waiting how long for Shadowlands' patch 9.1, now?
So it looks like World of Warcraft's next patch is going up for testing on the week of April 12th. What the heck is happening? At best, this just explains that the reason for such a threadbare presentation during the whole BlizzConline event was because there was very little to actually reveal at that point, given that we're […]
Dual Universe delays its missions system, opens tutorial portal
The March newsletter for Dual Universe is out, containing a wrap-up of how this space sandbox fared over the course of the month. Update 0.24, with its better jetpacks and improved graphics, was the highlight, but there are a few other tidbits to sift through. In the newsletter, Nova Quark said that it's going to […]
Stick and Rudder: Shaky space legs and promising potential in Elite Dangerous' Odyssey alpha phase one
Yep. This certainly was an alpha test. For those who are curious, yes, I bought my way in to the Elite Dangerous Odyssey alpha, as did my good friend Britarnya and my husband. The three of us were more than eager to make our first steps and have been excited for this first phase of testing […]
Mimic chests are causing havoc in Dungeons and Dragons Online's new permadeath server season
Players who were dipping in to the recently opened permadeath server of Dungeons and Dragons Online were likely expecting a challenge, but it appears that they got more than they bargained for this time around. Apparently the Mimic Hunt event, which makes every chest opened after level three a potentially hungry monster instead of a […]
