Lost Ark previews the Martial Artist and its four advanced classes
Amazon is pushing onward with reveals and deep-dives for Lost Ark's classes: This round is all about the Martial Artist. "Martial Artists are quick-footed fighters who like to rush the enemy with combined attacks at lethal speeds that can only be described as breakneck. Players interested in the quick and nimble Martial Artists can pick […]
Overwatch League loses more sponsors as workers expose Activision-Blizzard's toxic culture
The fallout from the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard just keeps on dropping. Yesterday, more sponsors of the Overwatch League pulled support from the esports giant. Kellogg told Polygon that it "will not be moving forward with any new programs this year, but will continue to review progress made against [Blizzard's] plans." Kellogg […]
EverQuest II's Toil and Trouble update brews up unholy dungeon runs
A dark and twisted summer treat arrived for EverQuest II players this week in the form of Toil and Trouble update. At the core of this patch are a variety of new dungeons, including raids, heroic, and solo editions, as well as additional collections and missions to accomplish. "In the Loping Plains' village of Somborn, […]
The Daily Grind: Are there MMORPGs you try to ignore?
I've joked before that several of our writers allow me the luxury of ignoring some MMORPGs. I don't have anything against Final Fantasy XIV, for example – I've even voted for it to be our GOTY a few times – but I'm extremely grateful that Eliot's expertise allows me to sort of tune out of […]
Massively Overthinking: What's your favorite type of MMORPG raid?
Raiding is one of those very simple MMO concepts that has somehow become a contentious one in the broader discourse. A "raid" in MMO terminology is just a relatively large group of players engaging in some sort of coordinated PvE combat – that's it. There shouldn't be anything wrong with this idea; it encompasses everything […]
World of Warships adds submarines to ranked, a new Dutch cruiser to early access, and an anime crossover
It's been a long time since World of Warships first announced the arrival of submarines to the game in 2019, and over the course of many rounds of testing, tuning, and talking, the time has come for subs to finally make their way to the game in full. Sort of. Update 0.10.7 has indeed brought […]
Aion gets cat scratch fever with a cat magician event and two cat transformations
Aion is apparently feline very catty with its latest events. From meow until Septempurr 1st, players can take part in an event that sees them grow a humble Cat Egg into a fully grown Grand Magister Cat by earning Catnip Stones and purrgress their egg through eight diffurent evolution levels. If you're curious on how […]
Gamigo's multiplayer MOBA hybrid Skydome has entered founder early access
Last spring, Gamigo surprised everyone by announcing that it was plotting several new game launches across the span of 2021. One of them turned out to be Skydome, a 4v4 MOBA-slash-tower-defense multiplayer title from Kinship Entertainment, and it's surprisingly pretty. And as of yesterday, you can actually play it, assuming your account has the right […]
Bless Unleashed PC celebrates a new China server's opening and holds a contest for Japanese players
These are (hopefully) happy times for Asian players of Bless Unleashed on PC. For one thing, the China server list is getting a fourth server starting this afternoon, which is being marked by a server-specific celebration event with 10% boosts in XP gain and five free bag expansion tickets for those who hop into the […]
Krafton's IPO launch didn't go to plan thanks to China and Tencent
Yesterday was supposed to be a huge day for Krafton, the South Korean gaming giant behind everything from TERA to PUBG, as it launched its initial public offering. As GIbiz notes, its IPO share price was 498,000 KRW (about $430 US), but as the market opened, shares were already trading down 10%, sinking to 20% […]
Legends of Runeterra prepares for its Beyond the Bandlewood expansion's arrival August 25
It's very nearly expansion time for Riot Games' CCG Legends of Runeterra. This Wednesday, August 25th, will see the launch of Beyond the Bandlewood and the devs of the game are stirring up the hype with some preliminary details and a new trailer. Beyond the Bandlewood will introduce the game's last region of Bandle City […]
Ship of Heroes shows off the end boss fight of its mission beta while discussing difficulty
The smart way to take on the big showdown at the end of the Iris arc currently playable in Ship of Heroes' mission beta event is to take the time to pull enemies out of the central chamber one at a time. That's not the way the players choose to take on the content in […]
EA fires Apex Legends lead designer over past sexist and racist remarks
Daniel Klein, a lead game designer on the battle royale shooter Apex Legends, has been fired from his position by Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment as a result of sexist and racist remarks he had made in various blog posts across different websites as far back as 2007. The posts in question were discovered on […]
Blade & Soul is getting its Unreal Engine 4 upgrade on September 8
It's time for Blade & Soul to look better with the game's upcoming engine upgrade to Unreal Engine 4. That feels like it's been something that's been "coming soon" for half of forever, but it's really about to happen with the imminent arrival of the patch on September 8th. A better-looking and better-performing version of […]
The director for Riot Games' Runeterra MMO turns his mind to character customization
Mark Yetter, the director for the in-development MMO set in the world of Runeterra, has character creation on the brain, at least according to a couple of tweets from his personal account, where he poses a TDG-like question: "Being able to build your character identity that is just right for you is a rare 'have […]
WoW Factor: What do changes in Blizzard management mean for World of Warcraft?
Blizzard is going through some changes at the moment. This is a good thing, as Blizzard has made it clear that it is a gigantic open sewer long filled with vile predators and people who enabled those predators via inaction. You probably don't need to be reminded that J. Allen Brack is out and a […]
No Man's Sky hits five years with a 'stronger player base,' teases next update
Five years ago, No Man's Sky was the eye of a nerdstorm of unbelievable proportions. The highly anticipated title launched with many of its promised features missing and bugs abounding. Yet the team at Hello Games chose to stick by its product rather than abandoning it, slowly but surely shaping No Man's Sky into an […]
Astellia Royal has announced its sunset now too after less than a year online
Earlier this week, we passed along the sad but not unexpected news that Astellia Online, which had dwindled in playerbase and seen its forums overrun by spammers, was planning a sunset at the end of October. At the time, we noted that Astellia Royal, the free-to-play spinoff of the original title, was missing its Steam […]
Lord of the Rings Online hopes to start rolling out monetization changes in the next year
One of the longstanding criticisms of Lord of the Rings Online revolves around the game's antiquated and frankly expensive business model. We found out earlier this summer that SSG is drawing up plans to modify or replace the model (and we even gave SSG a few suggestions of our own). Happily, it sounds as though […]
Elder Scrolls Online's Waking Flame will be accompanied by technical upgrades for console and PC
Elder Scrolls Online's Waking Flame and its associated patch are a lot more than just a dungeon DLC, and ZeniMax Online Studios explaining why in a new dev blog today: The graphical improvements for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 players is just as important as the new content. Lead Graphics Engineer Alex Tardif notes […]
Shards-powered CODEX wants to 'change the way we play massively multiplayer games'
You may recall that one of the goals of Citadel Studio in creating Legends of Aria was developing the flexible Shards Engine to allow players and other studios to fashion their own online worlds. One such project has emerged on the scene: an MMO named CODEX that wants to "change the way we play massively […]
Guild Wars 2 reveals the Guardian's new elite spec, Willbender, and new Virtuoso and Harbinger details
We've been buzzing all week over the impending reveal of Guild Wars 2 first three elite specs from End of Dragons. Technically, we already have some glimpses of the first two; the Mesmer's Virtuoso was revealed during the preview event, and the Necromancer's Harbinger got a video yesterday. But the third one – and more […]
The Daily Grind: What MMO drop has eluded you for the longest time?
You band together with other players, you go out into a dungeon, you kill a boss, and you take the stuff that boss drops. But you want a specific thing from that boss, and it doesn't drop on that first run. Or the next run. Or the next several dozen runs. Or when you go […]
Astroneer is heading to the Nintendo Switch in early 2022
As much fun as Astroneer can be, you currently have to settle in at home in order to play the game, so clearly modern society has somehow failed us. Fortunately that's a temporary problem, as the game has been announced for release on Nintendo Switch in early 2022, thus ensuring that you can just take […]
Blizzard apparently ousted three more key devs, including Diablo IV's game director
Kotaku is reporting that Blizzard has parted way with several more high-profile developers this week: Luis Barriga was game director on Diablo IV, while Jonathan LeCraft and Jesse McCree were designers on World of Warcraft. "We can confirm Luis Barriga, Jesse McCree, and Jonathan LeCraft are no longer with the company," a Blizzard rep told […]
Twitch streamers agitate for more revenue and better controls against harassment of marginalized casters
A hashtag has been making the social media rounds as Twitch streamers are trying to call awareness to several problems they have with the streaming platform. The #TwitchDoBetter hashtag — a reference to a 2018 tweet from Twitch that asked users to "watch [the company] closely and hold [it] accountable" as it planned to implement […]
Former Stadia first-party developers claim Google balked at the investment required to make first-party development work
Holy wow, did you know that developing video games is expensive and takes some time? It turns out that Google might not have known this when it started investing in first-party development in Stadia, according to former Typhoon Studios developers Reid Schneider and Alex Hutchinson. Both of them paint a picture of a company that […]
Final Fantasy XI deploys its August update with more story and Ramuh
It's time to fight Ramuh again in Final Fantasy XI! Sure, you might have already fought him to unlock him as a summon at this point and maybe a few more times for various reasons, but this time he's the more challenging Ambuscade battle for the month. But if you don't want to deal with […]
$40M of Nexon's $100M bitcoin investment poofed in the last four months
So Nexon's had an interesting financial quarter. Its revenues for Q2 were down quarter over quarter, in line with expectations. Why? Well, it turns out to be several reasons. First, Nexon notes that its incomes underperformed thanks to that weird investment it made last spring into bitcoin – to the tune of $100M US. At […]
Swords of Legends Online is launching two new easy- and normal-mode raids tomorrow
Swords of Legends Online is due for a big patch tomorrow that ought to make raiders happy. The patch notes introduce the Waves in a Tempest and Horror of Huaixiu raids, following on the heels of the Xuanjiu Jade Palace raid at the end of July. Waves in a Tempest is in the Shanghuai Grassland; […]
The Stream Team: Further pirating life in the Sea of Thieves
It's time once again to unfurl the sails and hit the Sea of Thieves! Join MOP's Chris and his good friends in the Porg Squadron as they set sail for the next leg of the Pirate's Life Tall Tale… or anything else that might strike their fancy! The anchors are aweigh at 2:00 p.m. EDT! […]
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs that would actually benefit from a Classic server
Here's the thing about having a classic server for a lot of MMORPGs: It doesn't actually do much. In order for a classic server to really make a lot of sense, you need to have a game that's been through substantial enough changes that the current game in someway does not resemble the original version […]
Blizzard denies rumor that Overwatch League will take year-long hiatus after current season
If you're still a big fan of Overwatch and the competitive Overwatch League, we may have some bad news for you. A rumor being reported now by GGRecon is that sources within the league have stated the fifth season will not be starting in its usual time, delaying into 2022 until the release of Overwatch […]
Old School RuneScape talks up its third raid, RuneScape details a mini dig site and Nodon Front fixes
The week's news for both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape are mostly about things that are coming soon as opposed to what's new. At least, the larger pieces of news; there's still things for players to look forward to this week as well, of course. The big news out of OSRS was the reveal of […]
Congress asks publishers to self-regulate lootboxes via a UK regulation that has nothing to do with lootboxes
There are some Democrats in the US Congress that are hoping to do something about lootboxes in the country. That's good. They even went so far as to send a letter to major games publishers to try and convince them to self-regulate the monetization scheme. That's also good. However, they're doing it by asking a […]
Here's how getting into a fight – and getting out of one – works in Book of Travels
If you thought Might and Delight's Book of Travels was going to be all walking and talking and no fighting, well, you're wrong. A new dev blog from the studio this week explains that while you won't be ganking each other in the idyllic, painterly setting, you will very definitely be fighting the monsters and […]
Activision-Blizzard shareholder group blasts response to scandal, demands board reshuffle
There's already a would-be class-action lawsuit from shareholders against Activision-Blizzard alleging that the company withheld important information about its legal turmoil, constituting fraud against investors. But even shareholders not yet part of that class-action aren't thrilled with the way the company is handling the fallout since California filed its whopper of a sexual discrimination/harassment lawsuit […]
Blade and Soul's Hongmoon Resurgence event goes live today
While it's not the incredibly anticipated Unreal Engine 4 update that Blade and Soul has been hyping, today's Hongmoon Resurgence update is giving fantasy players something new to fill the time as they wait. At the core of this update is the titular event, which is running from August 11th through September 8th. By completing […]
Black Desert's Corsair awakens today on PC – yes, it's otter time
Happy Corsair awakening day! She's got pirate hats, she's got gunblades, she's got adorable otters, she's got rapiers, she's got mermaids… wait. Wait. Go back to the otters thing? Yes, Black Desert's latest toon gets her awakened version in today's patch. As we've noted, the awakened version of this mermaid pirate queen uses gunblades and […]
Guild Wars 2 confirms End of Dragons' Necromancer elite is the Harbinger
Speculation has run rampant over the two elite specs that ArenaNet has been teasing ever since its Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons reveal in July. We thought we'd have to wait until Friday to get a look at what has been presumed to be the Necromancer and Guardian specs, but as it happens, Guild […]
Lineage II's casual-friendly edition launches today
How about a beefy MMO launch to spice up your Wednesday? That's exactly what Lineage II is providing, as the game is pushing out a brand-new version that's specifically tailored for solo and casual-friendly play. Lineage II Aden is a completely separate edition of the MMO not only scales down the difficulty so that you […]
The Daily Grind: How many MMOs have you played this summer so far?
I've always seen the summer as a time to branch out and get in as much MMORPG gaming as possible, especially with all of the extra releases and launches that tend to happen in this corridor. The fall? The fall is a time to go back to old favorites and settle into comfort zones. Anyway, […]
Warhammer Online's Return of Reckoning rogue server starts the second part of its Stronghold Saga
If you haven't been paying close attention to the Return of Reckoning rogue server of Warhammer Online, then you're probably not one of the game's old regulars. If you are, then you already know about the game's most recent live event known as the Stronghold Saga, which first kicked off in July with the Dwarves' […]
TitanReach adds new items and critters, updates its launcher, and sells alpha access for a limited time
There have been a couple of smaller patches applied to TitanReach. So small, in fact, that the notes for both were shared on the same post. That said, there are things of importance to call attention to, such as the addition of three unique "design an armor" sets along with a Founders Armor and Golden […]
OrbusVR plans Highsteppe release and new content updates through 2021
Are you looking forward to what's next in the VR MMORPG OrbusVR? Then you'll definitely want to take a moment to look at this update roadmap post, which lines up the content headed to the game for the remainder of this year. Starting things off will be the addition of Highsteppe on Tuesday, August 31st, […]
Sandbox MMO Profane discusses how players will acquire cosmetics
As we've touched on many times, dressing up your MMO avatar is the single most important thing you can do in-game. Mercifully, the devs working on Profane appreciate this most vaunted of MMO features and have once more taken to Twitter to write about how the upcoming PvP title will approach cosmetics. The devs at […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 334: New World's fourth delay
Justin and Bree discuss Bless Unleashed's PC launch, Blizzard's financials and Brack's departure, New World's latest delay, Dungeon and Dragons Online, the gender and survey, with adventures in Ship of Heroes, LOTRO, FFXIV, Albion, CoH, and SWG Legends, plus mailbag topics on deadly difficulty in LOTRO and why FFXIV has become the landing zone for WoW refugees.
Black Desert Mobile opens Lahn and Crimson Lily pre-creation with contest
You think you can make a rather nice-looking character in Black Desert Mobile, do you? Well the game itself is asking you to prove it with its latest community challenge now that pre-creation is open for the Lahn and Crimson Lily. Each region of the game (Europe, America, and Asia) will have a prize for […]
So Netmarble is getting into the social casino gaming business
Our inbox here at MOP gets flooded with three things that are the equivalent of nails-on-a-chalkboard to me: requests for sponsored content, requests for blockchain content, and requests from online casinos. So the word "casino" in this press release automatically put me on edge and had my finger hovering over the delete button, but it's […]
Starbase's first big patch since early access is now live
It hasn't even been two weeks since Starbase finally rolled into early access, and now it's already getting its first big patch – but then again, if you saw the game's impossibly ambitious roadmap, that won't surprise you at all. The update includes a huge boon to base crafting as that's been sped up by […]
