World of Warcraft deploys hotfixes and plans for improving the zone bonuses of Shards of Domination
Hotfixes! Do you like them? They've arrived in World of Warcraft for patch 9.1. They're hot and they're fixing things. For example, your packaged soul ash is now bound to your Battle.net account rather than your WoW account. Defeating bosses on level five will now appropriately count for the Touring Torghast achievement. Fleshwing will no […]
Vague Patch Notes: Playerbase size doesn't have to be everything in MMOs
I'm already worried about Crowfall. Not because of personal experiences, mind you; I haven't yet played it or anything, and all I have to go by are Andrew's anecdotal experiences in the game. But those anecdotal experiences reminded me of a thing that happens an awful lot with new MMOs, and that's when the designers […]
Black Desert talks up a rather vague 300% increase in daily players
Fair warning: The information in this article is going to frustrate you. That's because Pearl Abyss has released relative numbers for Black Desert, claiming that daily players have surged by over 300%. Over 300% of what, you ask? Hey, look over there! "Pearl Abyss announced Black Desert Online has seen an over 300% increase in […]
Lost Ark unwraps the Warrior as westerners wrangle with the Korean battlepass
The latest Korean patch notes for Lost Ark have dropped, sending hopeful western players into a tizzy. The Korean patch adds a new public prologue and a planned progression revamp, but it's the battlepass – Ark Pass – that has some gamers concerned. In Korea, the battle pass will be split into three mutually exclusive […]
Chinese gamers beware: Tencent's games now tattle on minors using facial recognition
Tencent, the company that owns like half of the world's online titles at this point, is doing the Chinese government a solid by taking up the role of tattle-teller and babysitter for that country's youth. Indeed, the long-debated facial recognition tech that blocks access to games if it spies kids playing them late at night […]
Elyon expands its gear system, fights RMT with new market mechanics
Where would an MMORPG be without a gear system? Lost. Alone. Frightened. Clinging to the side of an iceberg of indifference, adrift in the vast sea of purposelessness. Or it'd totally be OK, because games don't always have to conform to the standard. But in the case of Elyon, it most definitely has gear — […]
The Daily Grind: How do you go about choosing your class in an MMO?
Friends, years ago I used to be the kind of MMO player who pored over every class description and skill layout. I'd wiggle into betas and test everything to find exactly the right class for me. I'd been burned by enough bad class choices that I didn't want to invest any time into the "wrong" […]
Blizzard teams up with Z-Man Games for a Pandemic-style World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King game
We all know that if there's one thing people still love about World of Warcraft, it's Wrath of the Lich King. It makes a certain amount of sense, too; it was a beloved expansion with solid writing, positive game mechanics, and an immersive setting. So it makes sense that this is where Z-Man Games is […]
Hackers who disrupted Apex Legends to complain about Titanfall issues 'achieved nothing of value'
Over the Independence Day weekend, Apex Legends players were subjected to a very specific hacking attack headed by disgruntled players of Titanfall's online modes, with playlist notifications modified to advertisements for a Save Titanfall website that claims Respawn Entertainment and EA are ignoring an ongoing hacking problem with Titanfall. While this attempt at raising awareness […]
Warframe releases its Sisters of Parvos update on all platforms
Warframe promised that the update was coming and sure enough it has. Yesterday marked the official release of the co-op shooter's Sisters of Parvos update, bringing plenty of new goodies to players on all platforms at the same time. Hurray for update parity! In case you missed it, the Sisters of Parvos update features the […]
Black Desert PC adds a buff-granting otter pirate and details the summer season server
Have you ever been the recipient of a sea shanty as sung by a piratical otter that grants you some XP buffs? No? Well with the latest patch for Black Desert on PC, that's a thing you can say you've experienced. Just imagine how generations will look upon you with awe. Or confusion. Or awed […]
Red Dead Online pushes you into a life of criming with next week's Blood Money
Following Rockstar's announcement about an announcement yesterday, we finally have the real story on what exactly is in Red Dead Online's first big content update in ages, Blood Money. Essentially, you'll be working for a crime boss doing Crimes. That's what they're called, literally, caps and all. "Crimes will range from cloak-and-dagger coach holdups to […]
Fallout 76's Steel Reign arc and fifth season are live today
It's patch day for folks still marching through the Wasteland, as Fallout 76's Steel Reign, season five, and update 28 have officially launched. "This update brings all-new quests to Fallout 76 with the Steel Reign questline, which picks up right where you left off with the Brotherhood of Steel at the end of Steel Dawn," […]
New World previews its 20v20 PvPvE battleground, Outpost Rush
Ahead of the beta later this month, Amazon has posted a new video on New World's PvP – specifically, on Outpost Rush. This mode is essentially a 20v20 PvPvE battleground, though you can join it solo or in small groups. "Teams must coordinate and balance their time upgrading outposts, gathering resources, capturing objectives, and defeating […]
The Stream Team: Running into the wild unknown of Crowfall
After several years of development, the time has come for Crowfall's launch, and MOP's Chris hasn't played the game's test version in about as many years, so it's very likely a brand-new run at this point. Join him today at 2:00 p.m. EDT as he explores this throne war MMO to see what life as […]
Can you sell your Ashes of Creation account? Intrepid says 'no.'
This may come as less-than-glorious news for Ashes of Creation supporters: Intrepid Studios has lowered the boom against the sale or transfer of accounts between players. Previously, Intrepid was ambiguous on the subject because of the difficulty of enforcing such a ban, but it looks like now the studio is ready to take action against handing […]
Perfect Ten: Worst MMO expansion names of all time
Back when Daybreak announced that EverQuest's 19th expansion would be titled Rain of Fear, I instantly found myself tripping over the name. I shouldn't have — it's a few simple words that are first-round picks for spelling contests — but it defied the traditional naming conventions for MMO expansions. Many people I talked to kept […]
Chronicles of Elyria backers sound the alarm on class action waiver in new NDA
Chronicles of Elyria backers are raising an eyebrow this week over the new NDA that Soulbound Studios is asking them to sign before granting them access to the test for the spinoff game Kingdoms of Elyria. That's because the NDA has a clause that essentially waives players' rights to engage in a class-action lawsuit. You […]
Tamriel Infinium: Companions are the star of Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood
The Elder Scrolls Online continues to pump out content at an alarming rate, but the update that most players look forward to the most every year is the annual zone/story release. This year, ZeniMax has taken us on a nostalgia tour of Oblivion with the Blackwood chapter. I don't know whether it's because my expectations […]
Lost Ark outlines its five base classes, says more will come after launch
Are you ready to play some Lost Ark? Whoa, whoa there, champ — it's not out quite yet. We appreciate your enthusiasm and wild-eyed stares around the room for a beta, though. Good to see such energy. At least you can occupy your mind with a mental exercise of pre-choosing a playable class for when […]
World of Warcraft's finale for the Sanctum of Domination raid reveals a major character's fate
We try really hard to avoid spoilers here when we're talking about story stuff on Massively Overpowered. It's possible, for example, that you are really excited to see the end of World of Warcraft's latest raid and really are looking forward to the end of the Sanctum of Domination, certain that the final cinematic will […]
Swords of Legends Online shares a launch trailer and video snippets of post-launch roadmap and battle pass previews
Did you happen to miss out on the pre-launch livestream from Swords of Legends Online? Then you can read our synopsis for the details. Would you rather see those details in video form with your own eyes and not have to watch over an hour's worth of video? The game's YouTube page has you covered. […]
Guild Wars 2 brings back the Twisted Marionette next week, teases End of Dragons voice actor
Way back in April, ArenaNet dropped its summer 2021 roadmap for Guild Wars 2, and among the planned updates was the return of the Twisted Marionette boss from 2014. In fact, the date given was precise: July 13th. As it turns out, ArenaNet's going to nail that date, as it's just revealed that next week's […]
Amazon makes its Lumberyard game engine open source, and it's already supported by 20 companies
Is it possible that Unity and Unreal Engine have a new contender? The potential is there as Amazon has elected to make its Lumberyard 3-D game engine open source. The engine is now known as the Open 3D Engine, and it already has the backing of 20 companies including Niantic, Huawei, Amazon Web Services, and […]
Crowfall's launch is marred by DDOS attacks and login problems
Crowfall's launch didn't entirely go to plan yesterday. While early on in the day, the servers were apparently handling the load just fine, by evening that was not the case as – if you'll permit me to quote MMO Fallout's Connor here – the servers "pooped the poop." "We are continuing to work on the […]
The Daily Grind: Where's the weirdest place you've ever played an MMO?
A few weeks ago, I logged into WoW Classic and was chatting with my guild when one of our community made a startling confession: She was raiding while going through labor in the hospital. Hey, anything to distract from the discomfort and pain, eh? That got me thinking about weird places that I've played MMOs. […]
Neverwinter's Sharandar trilogy is now complete on console with the launch of the Odious Court
A month after dropping on PC, Neverwinter's Odious Court, the third and final episode's of the Sharandar arc, is finally live on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as well. As we've noted, Sharandar itself is a nod to the game's first module, Fury of the Feywild. "In Episode 3: The Odious Court, adventurers travel to […]
Starbase continues working on its Easy Build mode and improves explosions
So what's going down on the development side of Starbase? Well, you know. Shooting at ships with a sniper rifle, making parts explode, that sort of thing. No, really; the latest notes for development include working on particle effects and electrical effects, and that includes explosions roiling off of ships that have been damaged. You […]
Osiris: New Dawn gets to work on squashing bugs and improving ship camera controls in recent patch
Now that the Fires of Industry update is out the door, the devs of survival sandbox Osiris: New Dawn can get to work on attacking issues and bugs, which is the focus of the latest patch. The patch itself is full of fixes to a wide variety of things and a smaller list of changes […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 329: Sith happens
Justin and Eliot discuss Magic Legends and the Cryptic layoffs, SWTOR's Legacy of the Sith, Guild Wars 2's End of Dragons delay, with adventures in FFXIV and WoW Classic, plus a mailbag topic on FFXIV as the potential WoW killer.
Chimeraland is an open-world cross-platform MMO with a focus on taming critters
Chimeraland is a relatively new MMO on the scene that's looking to bring a unique-looking PC and mobile game to market. The game is inspired by an ancient Chinese epic called The Classic of Mountains and Seas and will be feature a massive world in which players can build homesteads, tame creatures, and even play as […]
The Sabotage is a multiplayer co-op title where one person tries to stop other players from digging up gold
It's time for another deceive-em-up game to hit the collective radar! Allow us to take a moment to nod in the general direction of The Sabotage, a multiplayer co-op title that sees players take up two roles: diggers who are exploring and excavating a mine to find gold, and one saboteur whose job is to […]
Blizzard retools World of Warcraft's Mythic Dungeon International, offers $380K prize pool
Scoff all you want at MMORPG esports, but Blizzard has a nice chunk of change on offer for World of Warcaft's Mythic Dungeon International. The company announced this week that it's changing up the format of its raider esports tourney, with $380,000 up for grabs. "Over the last few years, we've been consistently improving upon […]
Elite Dangerous applies fixes related to missions, commodities, and faction influence in new patch
It's not a big honkin' patch like the game has previously gotten, but the fact that Elite: Dangerous has released a little server-side patch to address a few matters is probably nice to see. Unless you're the sort of person who is unconscionably bitter at the whole Odyssey launch to the point that no comfort […]
Guild Wars 2 offers Rising Flames for free, previews next week's legendary armory launch
Guild Wars 2 fans are still reeling from the revelation that End of Dragons has been delayed into next year and that Colin Johanson is back at the creative helm, but ArenaNet isn't stopping its summer rollout. Today, for example, season three episode two is back for a retour, as players can pick up Rising […]
Red Dead Online is revealing Blood Money tomorrow
It's been a long wait for major new content in Red Dead Online, and the game can really use it, but now it's finally en route. Readers will recall that back in May, Rockstar promised a summer update that would take players into the criminal underworld, and that's exactly what's on the way in Blood […]
Choose My Adventure: Space combat is yet another vast and interesting layer to Star Wars Galaxies
What even is this game? This is a question I seem to be asking myself a lot as I continue to scrape at the surface of Star Wars Galaxies. I arrived to my task of checking out space combat wholly anticipating it to be a tacked-on and underwhelming experience and came away pleasantly surprised. As […]
Nintendo unveils the Switch OLED model, which is definitely not a 'Pro' model
Good news, Nintendo Switch fans; the rumors about a Switch Pro model turn out to have been sort of true! But also bad news, Nintendo Switch fans, because those rumors led everyone to expect something very different than what the Switch OLED model is offering. The new model definitely offers a bigger screen, a better […]
Launch impressions: Crowfall won me over, but it's not for everyone
So Crowfall's beta has finally ended and launch is upon us. As someone who backed the game but has played alphas of many games that never even launched, I only played a few of this one's alpha and beta builds, and only very lightly. I tried to trust not only ArtCraft Entertainment but my fellow backers. But […]
Path of Exile's next expansion arrives July 23 as the devs prepare with a livestream and an engine update
Grinding Gear Games is starting to spin up the hype drives for the next expansion to Path of Exile, which readers will recall was first alluded to in the beginning of June. The devs will be holding another livestream that's all about the new expansion this coming Thursday, July 15th, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, which […]
Final Fantasy XIV breaks its Steam concurrency record
Odds are pretty good that even if you're a Final Fantasy XIV fan, you don't devote a whole lot of your brainmeat to the game's Steam concurrency record, since the game exists off of Steam first and foremost. Still, it is interesting to note that the game surpassed its previous concurrency record of 41,000 players […]
LOTRO's Classic server 'wouldn't work' with current tech, SSG says
Standing Stone Games is probably getting sick of being asked all of the time about a Lord of the Rings Online classic server. Despite the studio not officially taking such a discussion off the table, SSG's Rob Ciccolini said this week that it's most likely too difficult and ambitious a project for the resources on […]
Kickstarted MMORPG Crowfall officially launches today
It's been a very long road, but Crowfall is finally launching today. Yes, a crowdfunded MMO with a real launch! MMO readers will recall that we've been covering this game since its original Kickstarter back in 2015. It's undergone multiple delays along the way, but those have come with big boosts in investor funding and major […]
The Daily Grind: How important are invisible zone lines in your MMO?
A while back, Pantheon promoted a player thread about zone lines, in which a Visionary Realms developer is paraphased as saying that the zone lines in the game will basically be present but invisible to the player, such that the team can "stream the entire world around the player as they walk around." There's still […]
Final Fantasy XI adds a new high-tier battlefield with its next version update
Bad news for anyone hoping that the next update for Final Fantasy XI would continue the story arc of the ongoing Voracious Resurgence, as the preview of the next update explicitly notes that this month is taking a break from the story. But good news for people who want new challenges to face, as the […]
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem adds quality-of-life in latest patch and outlines updates for the rest of 2021
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is continuing to introduce quality-of-life updates with the ARPG's most recent update, which now allows health, rage, and willpower potions to be used at any time without any delay or breaking a channeled skill, scales items sold by Havar and Mohabi up to the maximum unlocked expedition level, and introduces a […]
Wild Terra 2 developers outline plans for the new continent, healing, and horses
Development on Wild Terra 2 is ongoing, but where are the development resources going at the moment? The team behind the game is glad you asked, because that's literally the focus of the latest dispatch explaining the current state of development. On the top of the list is a whole new continent for players to […]
Profane provides a closer look at cloth creation in latest Twitter thread
Making cloth in video games seems like hard work, so there's perhaps some interest in Profane's newest development Twitter thread that's all about the challenge of making "a viable way for two people to be able to create hundreds of different fabrics with the least amount of time possible while maintaining quality." The need for […]
OrbusVR is going fishing for the game's summer festival as the devs fix bugs and improve voice chat
It's just virtual you, your virtual fishing pole, and the virtual bounty of the virtual sea in OrbusVR's summer festival, which recently went live. As one would expect from the lede, there's plenty of fishing to be had as players are being tasked with helping the Fisherman's Guild bring in its haul. Players will naturally […]
Star Citizen talks about upcoming medical gameplay, FPS hacking and radar, and inventory updates
This past episode of Calling All Devs was primarily about planned updates to the core gameplay loops of Star Citizen — primarily, injury and death mechanics, hacking terminals, and personal inventory features. A lot was made about the game's planned health, respawn, and death mechanics that CIG discussed previously. In essence, each individual limb will […]
