The Stream Team: Pushing deeper into the Underdark in Neverwinter
After securing the Verdant Caves, Massively OP's MJ and her team are ready to help Davlin Hoth expand the safe area in Neverwinter's Underdark. Next up is heading to the Xorlarrin Outpost to get rid of any Drow there and rescue a guide. Tune in live at 9:00 p.m. to push deeper into the Underdark. […]
Massively Overthinking: How much should MMO subs be in 2021?
MMORPG blogger Wilhelm at The Ancient Gaming Noob has a fantastic piece up this month on the traditional $15 MMO subscription. He dips back into ancient history when the common subscription was actually $10 and then points out that the standard has been $15 for a really, truly long time, seeming "stuck" in that price […]
Old school-styled MMORPG Ethyrial offers a peek at a monster journal and plans for closed alpha testing
We're circling back around to the indie MMORPG Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore, which we aimed a spotlight at last month; it's an MMORPG from three-person Gellyberry Studios that takes its cues from classic titles like Ultima Online, promising a "high risk-reward driven game, where the player has a lot to lose, but also, much to […]
Iron Harvest shows off gameplay and story trailers for its Operation Eagle expansion
Multiplayer RTS Iron Harvest 1920 is ramping up the hype for its standalone Operation Eagle expansion with a pair of trailers. The story trailer gives us a tease of the new campaign. It's taking us out of Europe for the first time in Iron Harvest, but not in the direction you'd expect. While the new Usonia […]
Black Desert PC issues apologies and recompense for recent Node War issues, offers gifts to new and returning players on console
If you were among the PC players of Black Desert who experienced some problems with Node War and Conquest War this past weekend, Pearl Abyss has been paying attention and is offering its apologies as well as some rewards for those who were affected. According to the post, the problems were caused by a bug […]
Darkfall Rise of Agon's Chinese VIP-only server officially opens to all players tomorrow
We've waded through the waist-deep mire of Google Translate to bring you this Darkfall: Rise of Agon news. Readers will recall that the sandbox MMORPG announced its intention to expand into Asia this past February, which then saw a VIP-only server open up in China at the beginning of April. Since then, the devs announced […]
Blizzard is about to stream some Overwatch 2 PvP gameplay and a Q&A
MMO players are understandably concerned about the state of World of Warcraft after Blizzard's disastrous player losses over the last few years, but Overwatch is in far more trouble. You might not like WoW's updates, but it's making bank – and the same can't be said for Overwatch. (If it could be said, Blizzard would […]
Wurm Online showcases new animal feeding stations, better breeding features, and improved horse models
This news is for those Wurm Online players that are all about that farm life, particularly livestock and animal husbandry. The most recent Valrei International has offered a look at a variety of updates that should make livestock rearing a little bit easier and nicer to look at. First, the game will be adding hay […]
Desert Oasis: So Black Desert wants to be an esport now
Even though the San Francisco Giants threw away a 6-2 lead against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, the real highlight of my weekend was watching Black Desert's Arena of Arsha Best-in-Class Championship. It's Pearl Abyss' answer to the age-old question: "How can we make our game into an esport?" And you know what? It wasn't bad. So […]
Here's how Geoff Keighley aims to improve on 2020's neverending summer of not-E3
I'm super grateful to all the organizations and games companies that did their level best to provide convention entertainment last summer when the pandemic closed everything down, but even I have to admit that it wasn't exactly thrilling; I believe we referred to it as the "neverending summer of not-E3." We're facing down a similar […]
Hands-on with Dauntless' creative and punishing Behemoth and Hunting Grounds location
It's been a very long time since Dauntless has had a new radiant-aspected monster to slay. For the longest time, the element was tied to the Rezakiri, and then the Valomyr arrived a while later, but beyond those two there haven't been a lot of new light-wielding Behemoths to face. With today's new update, however, […]
The Elder Scrolls Online teases a possible new tabletop game developed with Chip Theory Games
It would appear that The Elder Scrolls Online is keen to get all over gaming tabletops everywhere. Hot off the heels of the game's characters landing in the Call to Arms minis war game, there's now been a teaser from board game and TTRPG creator Chip Theory Games of what looks like a new game […]
Magic Legends' May patch is live with the Pyromancer, and you can get it for free
Following the reveal of the Pyromancer class yesterday, Magic Legends is popping off with its big May patch today – just as this post goes live, in fact, so if you're reading this, you can already leap in. As we've previously noted, the update includes the new class, the new storyline bit, battlepass touch-ups, and […]
Bethesda is shuttering its official forums and moving to Discord, Elder Scrolls Online's forums will remain
Whether you like them for communication, commiseration, and news, or despise them because they almost never seem like happy places, the point stands that official game forums are something of a legacy method for game devs to communicate with their playerbase, crafted at a time where things like Discord, Twitter, and Reddit weren't so widespread. […]
Vague Patch Notes: The self-made shadowboxing of MMO feuds
There's no actual feud between the development teams behind World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. The two teams have congratulated one another on successful expansion launches. They've exchanged good-natured jokes on social media. Naoki Yoshida has said before that he'd love to do a crossover event with Blizzard's MMO. If there is any kind of top-level […]
Final Fantasy XIV previews patch 5.55's additions, players hold a vigil for Kentaro Miura
The upcoming patch 5.55 for Final Fantasy XIV is a smaller patch, but it does wrap up the main scenario quests ahead of Endwalker and gives players a new region to explore in the form of Zadnor. But there's more even than that; players will also have new emotes and gear to unlock, the new Fender Stratocaster […]
Virtual Reality MMO Zenith delays alpha 2 test again, now to July
Small teams with big ambitions are no strangers to encountering obstacles and hiccups along the say, and so it is with the indie team handling the virtual reality MMORPG Zenith. Zenith's seen numerous delays during its development and early testing phases so far. Following this month's early bird alpha test, the team announced that it's […]
Swords of Legends will have a crapton of PvP modes when it launches
Gameforge continues pumping out videos and teasers for Swords of Legends Online. Following up on the PvP teaser we ran earlier this week, the company has pushed out a deeper-dive into the upcoming MMO's PvP modes. "it's the game's varied game modes that really round out the experience. Band together with two allies to defeat […]
LOTRO shutting down Ithil progression server, offers free transfers
Back when Lord of the Rings Online rolled out its progression server Anor back in November 2018, the response was so overwhelming that SSG quickly activated a second game world, Ithil, to hold the overflow. But since then, Ithil has suffered low population, causing players to call for a merge between progression servers. This is […]
The Daily Grind: Are you enjoying the pre-patch for The Burning Crusade Classic?
So that pre-patch for WoW Classic was kind of a mess, huh? Players wound up waiting for hours for the maintenance that was supposed to end on the 18th to actually end, it took until the next day to do so, and now you've got a little time to level your Blood Elf or Draenei up […]
Revelation Online is getting a new area, new dungeon, and more this summer in the Demonic War update
It's not a candy war. It's not a pillow war. It's not a man o' war. It's a Demonic War, and it's arriving to Revelation Online this coming summer, but first it's getting a preview now. Yes, new content is coming to this MMO soon. Will wonders never cease. What new content, you might ask? […]
Old School RuneScape soft-launches clans, prepares for A Kingdom Divided, and announces Jad Challenge winners
This week in Old School RuneScape is a pretty busy one if you consider the the weekly update newsletter coming out of Jagex. As noted last week, the new clans feature has soft-launched with the process of setting up pre-registered clans underway, a wiki entry that outlines clan ranks and titles, and some new chat […]
Multiplayer-optional cyberpunk RPG shooter The Ascent launches July 29
The Ascent is happening! No, not that one. No, not that one either. The Ascent – it's the cyberpunky multiplayer-optional shooter from Curve Digital and Neon Giant, and it's just gotten a release date: July 29th. "A solo and co-op action-shooter RPG set in a sci-fi cyberpunk world, The Ascent is the first title from […]
Wakfu is rolling out unique ID numbers and two-factor authentication to all Ankama accounts
Wouldn't it be nice if your account identification in Wakfu weren't tied to a unique name but instead to a specific ID number so you could change your nickname if you wanted to? Good news, then, because that's exactly what's happening starting on May 25th. Player ID numbers will be granted for all accounts on that […]
Atlas addresses Armored Docks and other balance issues in its latest Q&A session
Armored docks in Atlas: Are they a good thing or a bad thing? The latest Q&A acknowledges that the answer is kind of both, and while they produce some interesting elements of play they're also not where the team wants at the moment. However, as the game's economy is shifting and the gold costs and gold […]
DreamScapes Dimensions is an early access first-person medieval MMORPG that comes from a 'single indie hobbyist developer'
MMORPG development is hard for some of the largest studios out there, but then again a single person also made a phenomenal multiplayer life sim RPG, so stranger things can certainly happen under the sun. With all of that in mind, consider DreamScapes Dimensions, a new first-person medieval MMORPG that comes from studio AHDS, whose […]
The Vault of Glass raid returns to Destiny 2 on May 22 with a race to world first
The starting gun will sound in Destiny 2 this coming Saturday, May 22nd, as the looter shooter will reintroduce the Vault of Glass raid, an encounter that was in the original game, as well as start the race for a world first clear. When the Vault of Glass arrives, it will do so in a […]
PlanetSide 2 celebrates 18 years on PC with double XP, a returning weapon, and store items on May 20
It's time to mark another anniversary as PlanetSide 2 will celebrate 18 years of the original multiplayer shooter's release with a new update that features some in-game goodies. Top of the list is a double XP event that will run between May 20th and May 23rd, while the original NS Scorpion rocket launcher will also […]
Book of Travels previews its explorer-oriented spell reagent system
If you thought Book of Travels would retreat with its tail between its legs after admitting last week that it would be delaying its early access launch for the second time, you were very much mistaken. Might and Delight has a new dev blog up homing in on regents – yes, regs, reags, reggies, whatever […]
So Mythic Quest is a TV show about a fictional MMO studio – how well does it represent actual MMO issues?
As an avid MMO gamer and big fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I was extremely excited to watch Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet when it released last year. The idea that we might get a TV show with some major talent that may also represent MMO and gamer culture in a positive way was […]
Lord of the Rings Online's Fall of Khazad-dûm raid and update 30 class balancing are now in testing
Delays are behind it now: Lord of the Rings Online has opened up its test server with update 30 in tow as promised, so you can copy over your toon and give it a whirl. The update includes the 12-man Fall of Khazad-dûm raid, a handful of housing and quest tweaks, and of course, class […]
Perfect Ten: Everything in MMOs that is pay-to-win
I have stated before that I have a complex relationship with the term "pay-to-win." On the one hand, it tends to refer to something that isn't actually winning but is gaining some kind of advantage, which means that by definition it's kind of a ridiculous term to be using in the first place. On the […]
Overwatch celebrates five years as Heroes of the Storm finally releases a hero-rework update
Blizzard's had its hands full with WoW Classic this week, but not so full that it hasn't been able to crank out content for some of its other games – including Overwatch and even Heroes of the Storm. Really. Overwatch is celebrating its fifth birthday (can you believe it's been five years because I cannot); […]
Preloading for Swords of Legends Online's first western beta has begun
If for some reason you're not all tuckered out from the absolute deluge of beta tests and launches we're having this May, then Swords of Legends Online would like to pencil you in for its beta too. Pre-downloading for this weekend's test event began last night, regardless of whether you're using Gameforge's client or the […]
Magic Legends' May update adds streamlining, newbie QOL, and monetization changes
Magic Legends is gearing up for a big beta update tomorrow, but before it drops, Perfect World and Cryptic have posted a dev blog to explain what's in it – and more importantly, why what's in it is in it. "The feedback from the majority of our open beta testers is that while the collection […]
Mike Morhaime's new company teams up with other ex-Blizzard studios for mutual support
The story of Blizzard's most notable leaders doesn't end the moment they walk out of that studio's doors forever. For example, former Blizz president Mike Morhaime is up to some pretty big stuff over at his new company, Dreamhaven — stuff that includes partnerships with other studios run by Blizzard's former devs. In a post […]
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey launches today on PC after an 11 hour-long maintenance
Today is the day that Commanders in Elite: Dangerous can climb out of their spaceships, stretch their space legs, and gain feeling in their space butts again. The Odyssey expansion is releasing today on PC, though it will do so after an estimated 11 hour maintenance window that started at 3:00 a.m. EDT today. As […]
WoW Classic's Burning Crusade pre-patch was held hostage by player mail
If you were one of the many hoping to jump into the first minutes of the Burning Crusade Classic era of WoW Classic last night, undoubtedly you experienced a whole lot of frustration at a maintenance window that grew longer and longer… and longer. In fact, it wasn't until the wee hours of this morning […]
The Daily Grind: What should Guild Wars 2 do beyond Cantha?
I know that a whole lot is riding on Guild Wars 2 sticking the landing for End of Dragons. It's not just that Cantha is one of the most-requested destinations for the MMO; it's the fact that the recent content offerings haven't been blockbuster affairs and the studio really needs a huge hit to restore […]
The Stream Team: Hatching Guild Wars 2 griffon eggs
After scouring the lands for griffon eggs in Guild Wars 2, Massively OP's MJ is ready to deliver them to the roosting griffons so they can be cared for and hatched. And once all that is completed, she'll be able to glide through the skies with her own feathered friend. Join us live at 8:00 […]
Which Star Wars Galaxies rogue server is for you? Here's the best list we've seen
The MMORPG rogue server industry is booming lately, you might have noticed, particularly for much-loved MMOs that were sunset for dumb reasons in the first place – and that includes Star Wars Galaxies. Just this month, we've been covering the Bespin expansion for SWG Legends and the impending launch of SWG Restoration III coming up […]
Survival management game Siege Survival: Gloria Victis officially launches
What would you do if you were responsible for managing a keep and its people during a siege? You can now more accurately answer that question thanks to Siege Survival: Gloria Victis, the standalone game set in the universe of sandbox MMORPG Gloria Victis that sees players trying their best to keep themselves alive long […]
Path of Exile promises its graphical improvement patch is coming this week
There isn't a way for Path of Exile to fix every graphical and display issue the game has with a single patch, but the team is certainly hoping to make some notable headway with the game's next major patch that's due out in the very near future. The officialy notes specify that the game will now […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 322: New World, old problems
Justin and Bree discuss New World, FFXIV Endwalker, WoW Classic's backtrack, and City of Heroes streaming, with adventures in WoW, New World, and SWG Legends, plus mailbag topics on guild housing and MMO economies.
Guild Wars 2 starts its return to Living World Season 2 on May 25
The overall Guild Wars 2 story has been moving through a lot of Living World content since the game's initial launch, and so it's possible you might have missed certain installments along the way. Considering that all of this is pretty important to understanding where the game is now, it can be a bit of a problem. […]
The Elder Scrolls Online confirms that the 12-person group limit is about performance
Some people are not terribly happy about the 12-player group limit in The Elder Scrolls Online for understandable reasons. It makes anything you'd want to do with more people pretty well impossible, including more social experiences like housing tours. So what's the reasoning behind it? A lot of players had speculated that it was based on […]
MMO Business Roundup: Discord, Ubisoft, Twitch, WB Games, Starfield, and more
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO- and MMO-adjacent games industry news! First, let's talk about Clyde. He's got a bit of a makeover. Discord: The platform that pretty much everyone in the western world uses for organized gaming is seeing a birthday and a branding overhaul this week. The company has changed up its […]
GTA Online and Red Dead Online unveil new content updates as GTA Online arrives to PS5 and Xbox X/S on November 11
Rockstar dropped a big 'ol announcement from the top rope onto fans of both Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online, unveiling some new content for each game's multiplayer open worlds and confirming a launch on the current crop of consoles for GTA. In GTA Online, players can look forward to eight new stunt […]
The Stream Team: Taking care of Star Trek Online's Tholian Trouble
The Tholians have brought more trouble to Star Trek Online. This time, they are launching a two-pronged attack: capturing a Romulan flotilla in the Azure Nebula and assaulting the the Vault. Massively OP's MJ is joining in the rescue efforts and to neutralize the Tholain threat. Tune in live at 1:00 p.m. to take on […]
NCsoft Q1 2021 financials: Overall revenues are down 30%, but Guild Wars 2 is perking up
NCsoft is not having the best couple of quarters. According to the company's first quarter 2021 report, its revenue has fallen 30% compared to this quarter last year, which was clearly buoyed a bit by last year's lockdowns and massive mobile launches in the preceding period. How about some good news, then? Guild Wars 2's […]
