The Stream Team: Guess the deaths in The Shroud's lair in SWTOR
How many deaths does it take to get to the center of The Shroud's lair in SWTOR? Massively OP's Larry says many! And he doesn't mean just MJ's deaths, either. Can you guess? Come on, take a wild stab at it. After all, Larry and MJ will be stabbing (and shooting and slicing). In fact, […]
Early access title Craftopia patches in a new biome, new gear, and new skills for spring
The latest Craftopia patch has arrived for the game's early access, and it contains what may be the greatest patch note of all time within its larger list of changes: – The new enemy "Cassowary" has been added. They will kick you so hard, for real. Sure, you might not being kicked so hard, but you […]
TitanReach hints at a new area, opens a wiki, and showcases better animated chickens
As early access for TitanReach rolls on, so too do the development update blogs from Square Root Studios. The latest post offers another round of previews for what's next, such as a look at new party UI designs, new textures, new props, a number of new animations for character crafting and chickens, and a list […]
Starbase showcases easy build mode in new video, outlines progress on mining backpacks and new tutorials
Followers of the building-centric sandbox MMO Starbase know that the past few progress notes posts have made a lot of noise about the game's developing easy build mode. Now, we finally have a look at this feature in action by way of a new video. This new mode lets players clap together pre-built modules into […]
Blocky Ages is a new 'high risk-reward' old-school MMORPG, now in alpha
Let's have a peek today at Blocky Ages, which is listed on Steam as an early access alpha MMO, though the only way to get in right now appears through alpha. Three-person developer Gellyberry Studios says it's inspired by old-school MMORPGs from the late '90s, which pretty much means games like Ultima Online, for those […]
Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood is ready for you to break it on the PTS
If you're so eager to see Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood and update 30 aka ESO 7.0.0 that you're willing to test it out, it's your time to shine, as ZeniMax has opened the PTS with all the bells and whistles, including max-level copied test characters. You'll be poking around the new companion system, new 12-person […]
Open Perpetuum players mark three years by blowing each other up as Patch 21 content is promised for April
Cast your minds back to about three years ago, when Perpetuum Online, aka EVE Online but Robots, was being shut down by developer Avatar Creations only to be resurrected by the players with the original devs' blessing in the form of the Open Perpetuum Project. Now the players and devs are marking the anniversary of […]
Black Desert PC unleashes the Awakened Sage, launches new events, and introduces rare hunts
Can't you hear, can't you hear that thunder? No, it's not Men at Work calling to you; it's the arrival of the Awakened Sage to Black Desert on PC as the headlining part of this week's update, letting players trade in their Doctor Strange-like spellcaster for a more Thor-like one. As evidenced in last week's […]
Lord of the Rings Online players hits level cap by baking millions of pies
If you thought that you were super hardcore because you have raided all the things and are so drenched in purple that other colors might as well not exist, then meet your superior: A Lord of the Rings Online player who leveled to 130 by doing little else than baking pies for experience. A lot […]
Sandbox MMO Fractured has rebalanced PvP and added respecs in its spring alpha
MMO sandbox Fractured has been busy this past month as its spring alpha continues. Early on in the month, Dynamight Studios dropped its first patch of the season, with the nine world "Legends" bosses and their summoning altars, plus a full rebalance of PvP in accordance with feedback from PvP players, plus tweaks to jails […]
Dual Universe shifts launch window to mid 2022
After Dual Universe put out its series of dev blogs discussing the game's future, followers of the sci-fi sandbox had a number of questions. A few of those were pulled by Novaquark and answered in their own separate post. Leading off, the devs don't believe that a 2021 release is feasible right now, eyeballing instead […]
Four Winds: Why are Asian MMOs monetized the way they are?
Welcome to Four Winds, Massively OP's newest column, dedicated to Asian MMOs and the culture around it. As the resident Black Desert columnist, I'm a fan of the game as well as the subgenre it belongs to. There's something special about Asian MMOs, and I'm eager to explore and uncover what that special sauce is […]
Star Wars The Old Republic is handing out guild commendations due to a Conquest Invasions bug
While Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to get set for the release of Update 6.3, which as of right now is still hanging out on the PTS and due to arrive this spring, things in the current build of the game are a bit dicey for guilds that are running Conquest Invasions, which are […]
Perfect Ten: Here is the stuff you can have when I quit this MMO
Paul Simon once said that there had to be at least 50 ways to leave your lover. Back in the day, however, there was considered to be one appropriate way to leave an MMO, and that was to proudly announce that you were leaving in some public forum. And so when you had gotten past […]
Dungeons & Dragons Online adds the Perils of the Planar Eyes and spikier damage calculations
The latest update for Dungeons & Dragons Online is adding some spikes. No, not with the game's newest set of adventures that are available to purchase in the game's store or free to VIP members; the Perils of the Planar Eyes adventures should probably be kept free of spikes. Spikes don't go well with eyes. They do […]
Elite Dangerous plans to remove minigame aspect of exo-biology, promises to fix planet scanning bugs
The primary feature of Elite: Dangerous Odyssey's third alpha phase has been the exo-biology gameplay loop, where players have to scan plants to earn a sample that can be sold to a station NPC for cash. That process has, at the brass tacks level, two parts: scanning a planet for life using the Detailed Surface […]
Discord ends talks with Microsoft, remains independent – for now
Considering how popular and heavily used Discord is to MMO players, there were plenty of concerned and interested eyes turning to a proposed deal by Microsoft to buy the chat application for a paltry $10 billion. Did we say "paltry?" We meant "astonishing and why didn't I think of doing this." Well, if that possible […]
The Survivalist: Conan Exiles' Isle of Siptah expands tomorrow with sunshine and a spitting spider god
The Isle of Siptah, Conan Exiles' first major expansion, is now itself expanding — in size, scope, sunshine, and spiders! Sorry arachnophobes! If you thought the large list of improvements in patch 2.3 was all that we'd be getting before the upcoming official launch set for June, you'd be mistaken. And it's nice to be […]
The Daily Grind: Which MMOs are still on your bucket list?
The other day I was running through our full list of MMORPGs and taking note of titles that I've never played at least once. It was a surprisingly small list, much smaller than I would have assumed, since I'm usually open to trying out anything. You know, at least once. That said, there are still […]
YouTube video series hilariously lampoons MMORPG tropes
If we're being frank here, we have to admit that a whole lot of the structure and interactions of MMORPGs are quite silly if they were applied to real life. Closely examining the skewed logic of these games is a rich field for parody, and fortunately there is one man who is up to the […]
Project Gorgon brings out its Attack of the World Bosses event with new signposts and fewer adds
Eager to go fight some world bosses in Project Gorgon? The Attack of the World Bosses event is kind of the time to do that, with players tasked with running around and killing a quintet of bosses spawning across the game world. But the latest version of the event has some changes, starting with boss respawn […]
The Feast of Swords returns to Final Fantasy XI
Despite its name, the Feast of Swords in Final Fantasy XI does not actually allow you to eat any swords. You will be given no opportunities to much on delicious brined sabers, slow-cooked scimitars, or country-fried claymores. If you consequently decide not to take place out of deep protest, your actions will be respected, but it […]
Warframe rolls out free skins and four weeks of 8th birthday celebrations
Even MOP's MJ did a doubletake when Warframe announced its eighth anniversary celebrations last night. That's because Warframe's launch month is March, not April. Then again, Warframe is still technically in beta and never had a launch. Eh, dates are hard and who really cares when it's an excuse for a party? Yes, Warframe is […]
Amazon's New World adds achievements and updated faction PvP to the alpha
As if to reassure everyone that Amazon Game Studios really is planning on launching New World rather than canning it like everything else, the team has launched another alpha patch today. At the heart of this update is a new ice-themed gauntlet for casters, new expeditions called Lazarus Instrumentality and Dynasty Shipyard, updated milestone rewards, […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 318: Middle-earth no more
Justin and Bree discuss Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO's cancelation, LOTRO's Bilbo patch, FFXIV's 5.5, and SWG Legends' Bespin expansion, with adventures in WoW Classic, Guild Wars 2, Albion Online, and Cozy Grove, plus mailbag topics on ugly duckling MMOs, reconciling immersion, and superhero MMOs.
EVE Online highlights how industrial players provide the fuel for the sandbox MMO's wider wars
As any player of EVE Online will tell you, waging galactic-sized wars in the game requires a lot of resources — especially when those wars rage on for 41 weeks. It's the job of the industrial players of EVE to keep that war machine fueled and chugging, and those efforts were highlighted by CCP Games […]
Jeff Kaplan leaves Blizzard Entertainment and his position as director of Overwatch
Everything is going super great at Blizzard Entertainment, and the proof of this can be found in the newest announcement of employment shakeups. Jeff Kaplan, a veteran of the studio who was until today serving as game director of Overwatch, has apparently departed Blizzard after 19 years. Given that this is not even the first time this […]
Interview: Mortal Online 2 CEO on stress testing, persistent plans, and the MMO market
It's not every day that I actually get an answer, let alone a number, when I ask an MMORPG developer how many people showed up for a stress test. But that's exactly what Mortal Online 2's Henrik Nyström offered up in response to our candid interview with him this past week, and now it's got […]
City of Heroes' Homecoming buffs travel powers and adds tour guide missions in today's i27p2 update
Back in March, we covered a new patch that had just gone in testing for the test server for City of Heroes' Homecoming rogue servers. (Yes, emulators with proper test servers. It's a weird period in the MMO genre.) Anyhow, that patch is finally live for all Homecoming players today, and it includes some hefty […]
Choose My Adventure: Further group adventures (that weren't IAs) in RIFT
Once again, the polls from last week were a split between people saying I should queue for normal dungeons and others saying I should just roll around in Hammerknell. So, I elected to try them both out for this week's run through RIFT, seeing as some of the comments granted me the impression that finding […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Possible futures for Guild Wars 2's strikes and dragon response missions
Guild Wars 2's Icebrood Saga gave us a new type of endgame group content starting with its prologue chapter: Strike Missions. Each episode introduced one or more of these mini-raids, up until the release of Champions, which in turn introduced us to dragon response missions, which became the new formula for delivering both new instanced, […]
Chris Metzen's Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent Kickstarter funded in 11 minutes flat
Remember a month ago when former World of Warcraft VIP Chris Metzen announced a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting and book called Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent? It went up on Kickstarter this morning, and if you blinked, you missed the funding, as it took only 11 minutes to fund and is still going […]
Swords of Legends Online opens preorders with minimum $39.99 buy-in for closed beta
If you've somehow missed the deluge of class reveal trailers from Swords of Legends Online the last two weeks – or you can't be arsed to watch them all – then good news for you: Gameforge, Wangyuan Shengtang, and Aurogon have released a new video smooshing all the highlights of the Reaper, Berserker, Bard, Spellsword, […]
Casually Classic: Four alternative day one strategies for WoW Classic's Burning Crusade
OK, real talk time, people. Is there anyone out there that, knowing the zone design of Burning Crusade and Blizzard's track record with launches, isn't anticipating an unholy mother of a mess when TBC Classic releases? We're talking about funneling thousands of primed characters through the Dark Portal and into a single zone. It's going […]
Path of Exile exploit banwave hits one of the game's main streamers, furor over accessibility ban caused by a troll
Today in "garbage members of the Path of Exile community" news, we've got a couple of unfortunate instances to report from the multiplayer ARPG. First off, a number of players have been banned from the game due to an exploit in Ultimatum that allowed them to generate excessive rewards. Among those 20 players was Empyrian, […]
Guild Wars 2 Judgment episode is unleashed April 27 – here's the new trailer
Back in March, ArenaNet hinting that the fourth and final episode of Guild Wars 2's Icebrood Saga would roll out in late April, and now we've got a hard date, as the studio just announced this morning that Judgment is upon us next week on April 27th. "With ally Braham, norn of prophecy, on the […]
Playable Worlds' MMO will leverage cloud gaming to simulate a world and be playable on multiple devices
Over the past few weeks, Playable Worlds' Raph Koster has been kicking out lots of blog posts about what his studio's game is aiming to become — in fact there's been so many of these posts that we've started to pool together a list. While we still have no concrete details on what this dream […]
WoW Classic lets you store world buffs for later, pushes Burning Crusade beta forward
A late-cycle patch for WoW Classic hit the servers today with a couple of significant changes to how buffs work in the game. First of all, spell batching has been removed to make player abilities more snappy, and buffs are now prioritized to keep the most important ones on player characters if the buff limit […]
The Daily Grind: How do you occupy yourself when your MMO is offline all day?
As promised, Daybreak's entire suite of MMORPGs is offline for 24 hours today, which means DCUO, EverQuest, and PlanetSide 2 fans are going to be looking for something to do. While some folks retreat to Twitter to crack 420 jokes (go ahead, it's bound to happen), I'm hoping y'all have something better to do. A […]
The Stream Team: Facing Path of Exile's Ultimatum for the first time
After it had such a rocky launch, Massively OP's MJ is glad she waited to jump into Path of Exile's new Ultimatum league for the first time. But she can't hold out forever, so she's ready to jump in. Will things be more settled now? and just how much will she risk? Tune in live […]
Wurm Online previews its upcoming animal update with donkeys
Tired of plodding around in Wurm Online on a cow? Then we've got good news for you because here come donkeys. Yes, with the game's upcoming animal update, donkeys will be available for players and can serve as mounts for non-premium players. There's also the distinct possibility that your horses and donkeys can wind up […]
The Cycle previews its updated UI design
Fans of The Cycle will get to enjoy a new and improved UI in the not-too-distant future, and the latest development diary on the game is all about showing off what's changing with the user interface while also discussing some concurrent gameplay and system-wide changes. For example, the game's seasonal pass is being reworked to […]
Destiny 2 brings back the Guardian Games on April 20 with revamped scoring and a new playlist
Life in Destiny 2 already feels pretty competitive, what with all of the PvP and world first raid races and running to the highest Power levels possible, but now that competition is getting another layer added on as the Guardian Games are returning this coming Tuesday, April 20th. For those who missed out on how […]
Aion EU opens Pangaea, adds the Labyrinth, and reworks Legion contribution in Update 7.9
If it feels like you've seen this headline before it's because you kind of have, except this time around the previously announced update to the EU version of Aion is now officially live for players of the region. Of course, the content that's arriving in Update 7.9 isn't different: There's still a new instance in […]
MapleStory is opening the luxurious Hotel Maple to celebrate its 16th anniversary
No, unfortunately for fans of MapleStory, the Hotel Maple is not going to be a thing in meatspace. What it is going to be is the location for the MMO's 16th anniversary event, offering up some glitz, glamor, and a taste of the high life. In-game anyway. Entering the Hotel Maple requires players to have […]
ArcheAge developer XL Games announces mobile sandbox MMO Moonlight Sculptor
Developer XL Games, which readers will know are the folks behind ArcheAge, and publisher Kakao Games are set to unleash a new mobile sandbox MMORPG onto the world. Say hello to Moonlight Sculptor, a new MMO based on the light novel The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, which is arriving to the globe in May 2021 and […]
Kickstarted VR MMORPG Ilysia is finally nearing alpha
Last fall, we covered the successful Kickstarter of VR MMORPG Ilysia, which pulled in over $150,000 to become the second-biggest Kickstarted MMO of 2020 (topped only by Wagadu Chronicles). Team 21 Studio studio pitched Ilysia as a traditional MMO "inspired by classic MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest" where gamers can "experience the […]
Sony changes course and announces the PlayStation 3 and PSP Vita stores will remain operational
Remember at the end of March when Sony announced that the PlayStation 3, PSP, and PSP Vita stores would shut down this year? Fans were pretty unhappy, especially as it meant that buying things like DLC and otherwise rare games would suddenly get a lot harder. And in the wake of the response, Sony has […]
Fight or Kite: My mobile MMO experience peaked in 2008 with Parallel Kingdom
It's a distant memory now, but in 2008 I played a mobile MMO that completely and totally had me hooked. I remember sitting on the bus, on my way to class, phone in hand and eyes glued to the map. Click here and smash this deer there. Suddenly, my nemesis appeared, which in this game […]
Albion Online buffs matchmaking, loot, and accessibility for its new hellgates
It's patch day for Albion Online, and if you were one of the players fussed over the state of the hellgates introduced in the base Call to Arms patch, then you're going to be happy with the changes today, as it tweaks matchmaking, makes the gates more accessible to more players, and buffs their rewards. […]
