The Stream Team: Puzzled to death in SWTOR
With seven combined deaths already on the Death Counter, Massively OP's Larry and MJ have only made it through part of The Shroud's lair in SWTOR. They've got quite a bit left to complete — and that includes puzzles! (Sorry, the traffic jumping puzzle and all its amusement is over though!) Tune in live at […]
Monster Hunter Rise unleashes Apexes and crossover with Monster Hunter Stories 2
Hold on to your butts: Monster Hunter Rise is letting the current Apex monsters out of their rampage cages and into the wild. Capcom's also introducing Apex Diablos and Apex Rathalos for rampages and sticking title monster Magnamalo into the rampage rotation. Capcom's also adding past Elder Dragons Kushala Daora, Teostra, and Chameleos to the […]
Survival MMO Stars End struggles with low engagement, reaches alpha milestone
Last fall, we noted that an intriguing-looking space survival MMO called Stars End had sort of stealth launched on Steam early access and wasn't doing a lot to draw attention to itself. As it turns out, it was pretty much DOA — but it's fighting for a brighter future even still. Steam Charts notes that […]
Voxel MMO Elteria Adventures revamps its visual style, plans open playtesting this week
Back in May of last year we took a peek at Elteria Adventures, a voxel-based MMO that featured floating islands, destructible environments, building features, and monsters like Crystal Llamas and Boarmelons. It also stood out because its voxel style was very Landmark-esque, with voxels being smoothed out into more natural-looking shapes. It turns out that […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 319: A sadness prison for addicts
Justin and Bree discuss Destiny 2's tmog, Elite Dangerous Odyssey, PSO2's New Genesis, RuneScape and Albion on mobile, and Jeff Kaplan's farewell, with adventures in Guild Wars, City of Heroes, and SWG Legends, plus a mailbag discussion on Blizzard's downfall and future.
Final Fantasy XIV and XI now support more authenticator software for one-time passwords
If you want to enable a one-time password for your Square-Enix account to access Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy XI, or both? That's a good and sensible security measure. And now it's easier to do even if you're not interested in making use of the Square-Enix software token app available for your phone or the physical […]
TERA Console opens a new dungeon and makes several dungeon adjustments in latest update
The console version of TERA has gotten a recent update that's almost exclusively about dungeons, which is good news for those who like to get their action combat kicks in the variety of instanced locations in the game. For those who enjoy new delves, the update brings the Immortal Manaya's Core dungeon, an item level […]
Neople opens a teaser site for its new game Dungeon and Fighter: Overkill
In a story from the tail end of last year (and in coverage from a year before that), we cast our eyes on Neople's Project BBQ, which was elaborated as a "parallel universe" MMO from the Dungeon Fighter Online IP featuring 3-D graphics, movement, and combat. Now, we have an official name for the game […]
Fallout 76 launches its Locked & Loaded update
Today, Fallout 76 is ready to lock things and load other things, or possibly load something and then lock it when it's been loaded? That second one makes more sense. Look, the point is that the Locked & Loaded update is live today, bringing a new season of reward progression for players along with double the […]
Multiplayer PvPvE shooter Scavengers enters early access April 28, floats 9000-player-and-bot mode
This past March we got a look at Scavengers, a multiplayer PvPvE survival shooter where up to 20 teams of three players are tasked with surviving the elements, AI attacks, and potential fights with rival teams as they try to gather the most datapoints in the map and exfiltrate to win. If the load of […]
EVE Online releases the second half of its industry update, asks players for footage for an anniversary video
It's one part work and one part celebration in this EVE Online news posting. On the work side of things, the second part of the game's industrial shakeup has gone live today, introducing the promised blueprints, reactions, and components for ship manufacturing, while also adjusting the materials received when reprocessing tier two ships and doubling […]
Guild Wars 2 releases summer roadmap, plans End of Dragons reveal event for July
Guild Wars 2's Icebrood Saga Episode 5 Chapter 5 Judgment is launching today, and of course we've got our Guild Wars 2 columnists bringing you coverage from the press event and impressions of the new content. But ArenaNet also has a big announcement launching at the same time, one you won't be too surprised about, […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2's Judgment world boss, Dragonstorm
Judgment is upon us, friends, in this edition of the Flameseeker Chronicles: The fourth and final chapter of Guild Wars 2's The Icebrood Saga: Champions drops today! Eighteen months of living, breathing content culminates in a whirlwind of a world boss encounter – Dragonstorm – and one of the highest stakes showdowns we've seen in […]
Swords of Legends Online drops a brand-new lore trailer and concept art
Swords of Legends Online would really like your attention, and it's apparently going to keep pumping out trailers until it has it. Today, Gameforge, Wangyuan Shengtang, and Aurogon have released a lore trailer that explains just what the heck is going on in the gameworld when players drop in for the first time. Chaos, benevolent […]
Choose My Adventure: RIFT was fun before, wasn't it?
My time in RIFT this past month has left me confused, frankly. Primarily because I remember genuinely enjoying this game more than I did. That's not necessarily to suggest I had a bad time these past few weeks in the game, to be clear. I've just had a reasonable time. A wholly unmemorable time. A […]
EA insists it's focused on 'engagement,' not monetizing FIFA players into gambleboxes
Yesterday, Canadian outlet CBC published a massive Electronic Arts document leaked by a supposed "gaming insider" that seemingly confirms what you already thought about EA: It really wants you to buy lootboxes. The 54-page memo was originally circulated internally within the Canadian division's FIFA teams and declares, among other things, that lockboxes – are the […]
An infamous WoW Classic griefer sees his 16 accounts all banned during a livestream
If you've got your finger on the pulse of the greater World of Warcraft: Classic community, you perhaps are familiar with the exploits of one TinyViolin69, a player whose entire reason for existing in-game is to camp World Buff sites with 16 different boosted and paid-for accounts in order to dispel buffs that other plays […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic explores dark secrets with today's Update 6.3
Hey you! Drop everything — groceries, babies, financial responsibilities — and make a dash over to the Star Wars: The Old Republic launcher. You see that? Yup, it's a patch in progress, bringing you into the era of Update 6.3: The Dark Descent. The headlining feature of this update is a new flashpoint that takes […]
EverQuest's 'random loot server' Mischief and item comparison are coming in May
There's a portion of the classic EverQuest community that absolutely lives for days when a new time-locked progression server is added to the roster. But this year is bound to whip the MMO faithful into an even greater frenzy thanks to the announcement of Mischief, a time-locked progression server that just so happens to feature […]
The Daily Grind: What's the best way MMOs can improve player retention – other than new content?
Months ago, Gamasutra published a piece about the long-tail of game development – basically, how to keep a video game selling copies and/or attracting players long after it's faded from the front page of every website and dropped out of Steam's top 10. The specific suggestions are simultaneously obvious, depressing, and irrelevant: make a game […]
The Stream Team: Before Blackwood, anything goes in Elder Scrolls Online
After checking out ESO's upcoming Blackwood, Massively OP's MJ can't get all that lava out of her mind. She just can't focus as she waits to explore the new lands. Luckily, there are a multitude of other things she can do while she waits! Tonight is an anything goes adventure! Join us live at 8:00 […]
Runes of Magic plagued by murder bunnies and psychedelic eggs for spring
All of the surviving bunnies (sorry, "wabbits") from Easter and leftover colorful eggs have migrated to the safe haven of Runes of Magic, which is just now holding its Spring Rain Festival. The event, which kicked off this past Wednesday, promises to bring "a contagious atmosphere of joy and happiness," or as we better know […]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons announces content-light updates until June
Nintendo just announced that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is expected to get some new content for the next several months, starting with a May Day event from April 29th through May 7th, followed by International Museum Day events and the June Wedding Season Events. Sound familiar? That's because as it did with Bunny Day, Nintendo is bringing […]
Survival shooter Vigor adds a new weapon and more loot events in Season 8 update
The multiplayer survival shooter Vigor continues to cross our news desk like a whack-a-mole. This time around there's word of a new season for the game, bringing with it a couple of updates like the PH M82 sniper rifle, a new battle pass, the addition of two loot events to every encounter, and the addition […]
RuneScape player's huge history book goes on sale for charity
The full history of RuneScape, which spans two decades of development and operation, is far more than can fit in any one book. That's why July, the self-proclaimed "RuneScape History Nerd," wrote three such tomes as an exhaustive account of this MMORPG. This History of RuneScape trilogy, which clocks in at over 1,000 pages in […]
Neverwinter will reopen the Hell Pit for PC players to test their mettle on April 29
With Neverwinter on the precipice of war and the legions of hell looking for strong souls to join their ranks, now seems as good a time as any for the game to invite players to see if they're worthy with the Hell Pit event, which is coming back on Thursday, April 29th and running until […]
Rise Online is a two-faction MMORPG inspired by Knight Online currently in open alpha
If you were looking for a new MMORPG that's similar to the 2004 title Knight Online but is designed by someone else (and you somehow missed out that game's arrival to Steam in 2016), then Turkish developer Rokosoft would like to introduce you to Rise Online, a new game that's like that old game but […]
Profane previews its sound design by focusing on a tropical beach biome
While the developing PvP MMO Profane will obviously feature the sounds of fighting between players and the sounds of combat in general, a new development preview Twitter thread is taking players on an audio journey to a serene tropical beach while also talking about how head of audio Marlon Kroth crafts the soundscape for the […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic to launch update 6.3, The Dark Descent, on April 27
Earlier today, we made a snarky joke about how the next Star Wars: The Old Republic patch has had plenty of its content teased but not yet gotten a hard release date. It turns out that we should have waited just a little bit longer, because the release date for patch 6.3 has just been revealed […]
Not So Massively: Checking up on multiplayer RTS Iron Harvest 1920
Last fall, this column covered Iron Harvest 1920, an alternate history RTS with a strong multiplayer emphasis and surprisingly poignant story-telling. Once I got into the full game, it only continued to impress, and I've been following it since. I thought now might be a good time to take stock of how Iron Harvest has […]
New Eden is a pixel graphics Souls-like MMORPG that's in open early alpha testing
This one's for the MMORPG fan that likes a more hard-bitten challenge in their game and doesn't mind some old school visuals to go along with it. Introducing New Eden, an in-development 2-D MMORPG that pairs pixel graphics with Soulsborne-esque combat to create a game that the devs at Wanderwolf Studios hope will "push the […]
Stick and Rudder: The frustrating and unsuccessful search for life in Elite Dangerous Odyssey alpha phase 3
I should have been more capable. If I were a better exploration pilot in Elite: Dangerous, I suspect I would have had a better time. Or would have had more fun. As it stands, this past phase of alpha testing for Odyssey left me a bit more frustrated than I would have liked. But then, […]
Old School RuneScape announces plans for story mode and hard mode versions of the Theatre of Blood
While the devs at Jagex are keen to follow player feedback and introduce more endgame content to Old School RuneScape, the team hopes that some plans for the Theatre of Blood encounter will fill the gap before then. Assuming player polls guide the team's steps. The proposed updates seek to introduce a story mode version […]
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV's patch 5.5 stories have some issues
All right, I'm just going to spoil this column up front. Out of this patch's stories… well, one is kind of a wisp of a thing, one is admirable in attempt but doesn't quite land right, and one is just straight-up bad. And if you've played through all of them, you can probably guess which […]
Final Fantasy XIV confirms that there will be no in-person attendance for the digital fan festival
Here's the good news for Final Fantasy XIV fans: The digital fan festival scheduled for May 14th and 15th is still going to go forward as scheduled, with new information and fun events for players around the world to watch. The bad news, especially for fans in Japan, is that none of the fans will be […]
World of Warcraft's director Ion Hazzikostas has no plans for Legendary refunds but does promise catch-up systems in 9.1
Apparently, you should have an entire collection of Legendary items in World of Warcraft. That's one of the takeaways from an excerpt from a recent interview with Ion Hazzikostas from LingHunFuSu in which he discusses the current approach to Legendaries and dealing with refunds or re-arranging secondary stats. Hazzikostas stresses that while players should probably have […]
Star Wars The Old Republic talks about the upcoming Secrets of the Enclave Flashpoint
It's time once again for another de facto dev blog from Star Wars: The Old Republic! BioWare has once more brought forth world designer Allison Berryman to talk about the new Secrets of the Enclave Flashpoint that's arriving to the game in Update 6.3, offering up a couple of lore and location hints for the new […]
Chronicles of Elyria developer offers a look at Milestone 2 features coming to side game Kingdoms of Elyria
Soulbound Studio CEO Jeromy Walsh is back once more with additional update details for Kingdoms of Elyria, the side piece standalone strategy title that claims to be driving development of the studio's originally planned MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria. In the dev blog, followers get a look at some promised features for the next phase of […]
The Daily Grind: Which non-MMO developer should make an MMORPG?
I've been playing a bit of Cozy Grove lately, and I have to say, I'm incredibly glad that the company behind it, Spry Fox, is working on an MMO too. I haven't always loved the company's business models, but it makes superb games with adorable graphics. I'm really curious to see how well its varied […]
MMO Week in Review: Like butter that has been scraped over too much bread
The good news is that Lord of the Rings Online got its Bilbo adventures update out this week, not all that long after its last update. The bad news is that even MOP's Justin found it a bit of a drag: "If I may spoil it for you, these 10 missions can be summed up […]
Genshin Impact talks up its upcoming PlayStation 5 release in dev video
As we noted last week, there's an update coming to the multiplayer RPG Genshin Impact on April 28th that is adding a variety of things including the launch of the game to the PlayStation 5. It's that portion that has been focused on by a recent developer video that talks up the benefits of playing […]
The MOP Up: Why did Fortnite go dark for a day?
Earlier this month, the ever-popular Fortnite went dark for the better part of April 6th. So what happened? We finally have the full scoop thanks to a blog post by Epic Games. "On April 6th, 2021, an issue with an expired certificate caused an outage across a large portion of internal back-end service-to-service calls and […]
SMITE introduces Gilgamesh to the roster, elects to shut down Southeast Asia and Latin America North servers
This past Tuesday saw a new update arrive to the MOBA SMITE, featuring a new Babylonian god, Gilgamesh the King of Uruk. Gilgamesh is a melee warrior character with a variety of abilities that dish out AoE damage, while his ultimate ability creates a whirlwind that can trap enemies in place. The latest update also […]
Elyon's bonus AMA talks about shifting metas, endgame gearing, and a Russian client
What's better than getting a big fat AMA about an upcoming MMO that you're interested in playing? Two AMAs, of course! Krafton said that last week's Elyon question-and-answer session generated so many questions that a lot of them got overlooked, hence a follow-up AMA for this week. It's not the biggest AMA, but there are […]
Heroes of the Storm players lament Blizzard's neglect and slow development
While Blizzard's all-star character-filled MOBA Heroes of the Storm isn't shuttered or being completely ignored yet — in fact, there have been a couple of balance adjustments in January and March — the ongoing lack of Blizzard presence on the game has initiated more worry than usual since the collapse of the game's dev cadence […]
One Shots: Playing chicken
If your MMORPG ever expects you to take it super-seriously, then you need to follow Minimalistway's example and rebel by wearing a ridiculous costume to undercut the tension in cutscenes. This, I approve. "Now I didn't mean to do this," Minimalistway said. "While doing silly Hildy quests in FFXIV with the chicken suit, the duty […]
The Daily Grind: How important is an MMO's combat to you?
Today, we don't want to talk about whether you prefer tab-targeting gameplay or action combat. It's not important if you prefer harder fights or easier ones, and it's really a tangent if you want to talk about the ideal kinds of content you should be fighting through. No, today we're just asking you how important […]
Make My MMO: Crowfall's GvG tourney is dishing out $50K in cash and prizes
This week in crowdfunded MMOs, you could win a slice of $25,000! Or you could if you're a badass in crowdfunded beta MMO Crowfall, which is in the midst of its Eternal Champions Series event. There's still a few days left for teams to apply for the 3rd through 6th qualifiers, with cash and prizes […]
The Stream Team: Fireworks and friends for LOTRO's 14th birthday
Who parties better than Hobbits? And there is reason to party today: LOTRO turned 14! Massively OP's MJ is ready to celebrate in her favorite Middle-earth with her friends. There'll be fireworks, horse races, and even a new Bilbo quest (although it is apparently a very small one). Join us live at 6:00 p.m. for […]
Humble Bundle's charity donation caps cause an uproar among donors and subbers
The folks at Humble Bundle decided to light a tinderbox yesterday with an announcement that outlines a shift in how sales of its game charity bundles will work: It's removing the slider that determines how much of a bundle's purchase is donated to charity and replacing it with an "extra to charity" toggle, which places […]
