The Stream Team: Clearing Shadowfen caves in Elder Scrolls Online
Map completion in Elder Scrolls Online is more than just collecting books, skyshards, points of interest, and wayshrines. Last time, Massively OP's MJ spent her time checking these off her things off her list, but now she's ready to start work on the other areas: caves, delves, and dungeons. If she can squeeze in a […]
Love O2O is a Chinese romantic comedy series about two people finding each other in an MMORPG
We're no strangers to showcasing MMORPG-based TV shows here at MOP. Whether it's the sitcom Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet or the touching drama of Dad of Light, we like to see series about our favorite gaming genre. So consider us eager to offer a nod to Love O2O, a romantic comedy from China that takes […]
Ragnarok Online IP is getting new titles for 2021, NetEase announces PC and mobile strategy MMO Project Ragnarok
It's a double dose of Ragnarok in this news post, which is kind of odd considering the event of Ragnarok is supposed to be a world-ending apocalypse. In any case, we'll try to make sure this doesn't end up being too confusing, as we're dealing with entirely different game studios and game experiences here. First, […]
2-D MMORPG Key to Heaven adds new content, opens PvE servers, and touts 'over 6500 created characters'
Back in February of this year we offered a look at Key to Heaven, a 2-D pixel MMORPG that's been a passion project for solo developer Björn "William" Johansson for over 16 years. Since that spotlight, the MMORPG has made it to Steam early access as of April 23rd and has seen a lot of […]
Vendetta Online previews brand-new user interface and upcoming localization expansion
Vendetta Online is still chugging along since its free-to-play conversion last summer, we're happy to report, and Guild Software has dropped a fresh newsletter packed with previews of what's coming to the game – including a new UI. "A new interface is being constructed for all platforms of the game, currently in testing solely on […]
Profane shares a sneak peek at its weather system and day/night cycle
Are you a fan of MMO weather systems and day/night cycles? Then you'll love the latest Twitter thread from the developers of Profane, which… well, it showcases weather and day/night cycles. This should have been obvious. It was right there in the lede. As with other threads from the devs at Insane Studios, this one […]
TitanReach shows off pets, discusses programming, previews new props and the Glimmermoore area
Once again the folks behind TitanReach are just itching to showcase all of the work they've been doing for their developing MMORPG. As with prior development blogs, two of the latest grant a large number of things to look at, including new trees, more animations, another round of 3-D animal models, various furnishings and crafting […]
Overwatch 2's changing team makeup has pro tank players concerned about their esporting futures
With Overwatch 2 completely changing the PvP meta via smaller team sizes and one tank position per team, there are plenty of professional tank players who are now wondering if they'll have a job when the game releases. A nervous question issued into the Twitter ether by Philadelphia Fusion off-tank player Poko started a lot […]
Diablo-like MMO Cronous is closing down this summer
It seems kind of sad that the very first time we mention an MMO on this site is to tell you that it's shutting down, but such is the case for Cronous. Current owner Neowiz announced that it's winding down operation of the Diablo-style MMO by the end of the summer. "We regret to tell […]
Hundreds of Return of Reckoning players hold an in-game memorial for a fallen community member
The playerbase of Warhammer Online's rogue server Return of Reckoning lost one of its own recently. Akaathi, a member of Ere We Go and the NoBodies alliance, had passed away a couple of weeks ago after falling ill. Members of the alliance had decided to hold an in-game memorial this past Sunday at the Graveyard […]
Moonlight Sculptor's developers discuss the mobile MMORPG's background and feature set
With the game's global launch arriving tomorrow, Kakao Games and XL Games' mobile MMORPG Moonlight Sculptor probably has a few people wondering just what it's about, where it came from, and what makes it different. These are questions the devs at XL Games tried to tackle in an interview video. As we mentioned when this […]
Star Trek Online staff members explain why ships and boxes get released faster than missions
If you've played Star Trek Online either casually or consistently for a while, you've probably noticed that the game puts out a lot of ships to buy and lockboxes filled with prizes more frequently than it produces new story content. This is a true fact and not up for debate. But a recent thread on the […]
Wisdom of Nym: Almost losing Soken changed how we'll see Final Fantasy XIV forever
I'm not over this. I don't know how to be over this. Masayoshi Soken is one of the most talented composers working in this industry. His work on Final Fantasy XIV is amazing. I am in awe of his compositions and his musical acumen. Just the night before he floored the entire community, he did […]
Elder Scrolls Online just delayed its 'Console Enhanced' update to June 15
Elder Scrolls Online is about to have a big June: It's launching Blackwood for PC in just a week, then a week later, it was set to roll out the chapter for console alongside the big "Console Enhanced" update too. But apparently, ZeniMax has decided to spread everything out just a bit more. "In an […]
Not So Massively: Magic Legends has already made big changes, but there's more to do
Even as someone who enjoys the game, I have to admit that Magic: Legends had a very rough launch, with numerous polish issues and a relative lack of content. Last week saw the game's largest post-launch patch to date, and previous patches have made positive changes as well, but there are still issues that need […]
Black Desert offers a video preview of the upcoming Atoraxxian co-op dungeon
From the outside looking in, Black Desert appears to be a game about grinding, Conquest and Node Wars, and (in my personal case) logging in after some time away and utterly forgetting what attack buttons combo into one another. In short, it doesn't seem to be a game about dungeon delving and co-operation. Perhaps, then, […]
Ashes of Creation's Steven Sharif: "This industry needs people who take risks"
In a Reddit thread titled "I don't get the hype for Ashes of Creation," the project's own lead came out to attempt to explain the buzz around this upcoming MMORPG. Steven Sharif said that Intrepid isn't making a "World of Warcraft killer" or a game that'll appeal to everyone. Rather, Sharif pointed to several factors […]
Roblox scalpers make an absolute killing selling in-game Gucci handbags
I can already hear Bree opening up her "Weirdest Stories of 2021" file folder for this one. Roblox, the game that now says it doesn't host games but experiences, opened up a limited-time Gucci Garden Experience that invited players to "immerse themselves into [fashion designer Alessandro Michele's] creative vision and his multifarious inspirations, and share […]
Project Gorgon is adding an optional subscription and perks with today's update
Project Gorgon is much-loved around here, winning best indie MMO several years running thanks to its dogged devotion to being, well, the weirdest and most creative MMO around, with antique graphics and a tiny team to match. But one thing is hasn't pulled off yet is a formal launch, as it's been lingering in early […]
The Daily Grind: What's your oldest memory of epic MMO guild drama?
Let me tell you a story about my first real experience with guild drama. It was back in the days of yore, when I was a dumb teenager playing Ultima Online. I'd been there a few months and joined a famous anti guild – that is, a vigilante PvP guild that exclusively killed griefers, gankers, […]
MMO Week in Review: Burning Crusade, Odyssey, SOLO, Bless, and New Genesis
It's been a positively massive week for the MMO genre, with launches and betas left and right: WoW Classic rolled out the Burning Crusade pre-patch, Elite Dangerous launched Odyssey, Swords of Legends Online began its first beta, and we offered impressions of both Bless Unleashed PC and PSO2 New Genesis. Plus, we recapped Guild Wars […]
Neverwinter brings back the mechanized crafting of the Wonders of Gond event on May 27
If (for whatever reason) you have global chat on in Neverwinter and you start seeing players shouting for grommets, gears, and doohickeys, it's not because people have forgotten more specific terms, it's because the Wonders of Gond event is underway. Unless, of course, you are seeing those terms outside of the event, in which case […]
The MOP Up: World of Warships opens a book of German mythology
Weird things are afoot in World of Warships, with a German mythological event, more German destroyers, and reworked commander skills hitting the game world! "For the next four weeks, players can align themselves with one of four mythical beasts from German mythology, and complete personal missions to earn better rewards for their team," Wargming explained. […]
Destiny 2 offers an explanation for seasonal challenge XP payouts
"We know XP in Destiny 2 can be confusing – sometimes to the point that we miss things ourselves," admits Bungie in a recent dev blog, which offered some explanation about seasonal challenge XP rewards in order to clear the air and explain what some miscommunication on the devs' part. It all started with a […]
SMITE community mourns the passing of a star Hi-Rez esports caster, halts league events
On Friday, Hi-Rez startled the SMITE community by abruptly postponing all of its esports events for the weekend, a move made more bizarre by the fact that the company wouldn't say why. That had led to speculation about everything from a possible legal scandal to a bitcoin snafu. But I'm sorry to report today that […]
Allods Online adds the Suslanger zone, increases the level cap
We know that there are still some strong fans of Allods Online in our readership, and so we hope that it makes them happy to receive a huge content update from the long-running MMORPG. Update 12.0 landed this past week, bringing with it a level cap increase to 95, an overhaul of the artifact system, […]
One Shots: 100 miles up and climbing
When you find yourself soaring past the outer limits of the atmosphere in DC Universe Online, you best have a spacesuit or superpowers. Or both. Let's hope that Hikari has a plan for re-entry. In the meanwhile, our space hero has a few words to say about an MMO pet peeve: "I can say with […]
The Daily Grind: What's the earliest test phase you've ever played for an MMO?
An early test phase for any MMO has one major drawback, and that's the simple fact that it's not anywhere close to being ready for public release. You're almost inevitably dealing with half-assembled systems and placeholders that have yet to be filled in, and that's in the unlikely event that most of the game's content […]
Global Chat: Feasting on Guild Wars 2's Icebrood Saga
Nerdy Bookahs is pretty dang delighted to come back to a "feast" in Guild Wars 2, thanks to all of the new content in the game after an extended absence. I can relate to this. "One of the good things of returning to an MMO after not having played it much for a longer time […]
Path of Exile launches its graphical improvements patch, discusses the 'clear cache' function and performance matters
Are you ready for some hard-hitting, face-melting, blast processing-fueled game visuals guaranteed to scare your mom and upset your parakeet?? Then you're ready for Path of Exile's X-TREEM GRAPHICAL UPDATE PATCH aka patch 3.14.1d, which dropped on your weaksauce gamer faces this past Thursday. What's that? You're not ready? Too late, shortcake! It's here. If […]
Kakao and XL Games' mobile MMORPG Moonlight Sculptor launches globally May 25
In mid-April we shone a light on Moonlight Sculptor, a new mobile MMORPG from publisher Kakao Games and developer XL Games (of ArcheAge infamy) that sees players enter the virtual realm of Royal Road as one of five preset classes or enter the game without a class to become a Sculptor later on. At that […]
Fleet Carriers can once again jump in Elite Dangerous Odyssey as Frontier boss David Braben apologizes for launch issues
David Braben, CEO and founder of Frontier Developments, would like to offer his apologies to the wider Elite: Dangerous playerbase for the ongoing rocky launch of the Odyssey expansion, which is still seeing a wide variety of issues plague an otherwise active launch experience at the time of this writing. "First and foremost, I would like to […]
LOTRO gets a new producer, finally allows Anor transfers
Hey, you know what kind of slipped under the radar Lord of the Rings Online this week — at least unless you were reading the forums? The MMO just got a new producer, who moved over from working on mobile games at a different studio. Raninia posted an introduction while clarifying that he's not replacing […]
New Blizzard analysis chronicles the studio's five-year decline and developer exodus
The slow decline of Blizzard has been exhaustively covered over the last couple of years, but sometimes, it's more jolting to see it all in print in one place, which is exactly what IGN has done in a new "special report" that characterizes the studio as a "company at a crossroads." Blizzard's narrative is that […]
WRUP: What's in the bitey surprise bag edition
What's up, folks, today's What Are You Playing is all about opening up the bitey surprise bag! The last one of these we opened had some broken glass, an old newspaper, unidentifiable slime, a live raccoon, spoiled milk, a non-functional smoke detector, three pounds of hair, and a rotten apple! I'm really excited about this […]
The Daily Grind: Are Final Fantasy XIV's classes too restrictive?
One of my absolute favorite things about Final Fantasy XIV was the baked-in ability to switch out classes (jobs) on the same character. This saved so much time in rerolling alts while giving players a lot of flexibility. Bravo, I say. I wish more games would do this. But I always did feel restricted no […]
Betawatch: Swords of Legend Online kicks off its western beta
As it was foretold with the pre-loading, so it has come to pass! Swords of Legend Online has opened up its beta testing, and that's going to run until the 25th if you'd like to take part in this early test phase. The game is still planning on a launch at some point over the summer, […]
Battle Bards Episode 193: Tribal jams
Strike up a drum, flourish a flute, and howl to the moon — it's time to get funky with some tribal jams! In this episode of the Battle Bards, the intrepid crew enjoy a wide range of chanty, drummy, and peppy tracks from MMORPGs. Battle Bards is the world's first, best, and only MMO music podcast. […]
MMO Business Roundup: Valorant esports, South Korean politics, Netmarble, Nexon, and EVE Echoes
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! Valorant: It's been an ugly week in esports, as Riot Games suspended esports pro Jay "sinatraa" Won for the next half a year for what it characterized as his refusal to fully cooperate with the company's investigation into his alleged sexual assault and […]
Dual Universe adds optimization updates as the first part of the incremental patch 0.25 rollout
Dual Universe does its release patching a little bit differently than most MMOs. It doesn't unleash one large update and then iterate or adjust it as things go; it puts out updates in smaller pieces bit by bit. So it will be with the start of the patch 02.5 update process, which has introduced a […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic recaps the making of the Secrets of the Enclave flashpoint
So what precisely goes on in writing a Flashpoint story for Star Wars: The Old Republic? If you're curious about that, you can get some insight from an internal debrief of writer Caitlin Sullivan Kelly. As the woman responsible for the story behind the Secrets of the Enclave flashpoint, she has some commentary on the overall […]
Black Desert announces digital Heidel Ball convention for June 19
Black Desert's gearing up for a summer convention of its own as Pearl Abyss announced this morning the return of Heidel Ball. As in 2020, the 2021 version will be entirely online, which ensures everyone can actually watch the whole shebang. "During the 2021 Heidel Ball, not only we will announce the current development progress […]
Skyforge is launching Hunters of Terra for multiple platforms on June 2
If you're playing Skyforge on the Nintendo Switch, you have a good reason to peer out at PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One players with a single tear running down your cheek as all of those platforms (along with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S) get access to the game's 19th class on June 2nd. […]
Here's how Blizzard is changing Overwatch 2's tanks, group size, and meta
So, did we learn anything useful from yesterday's Overwatch 2 stream from the newly minted team leads at Blizzard? We did indeed, though whether it makes you happy or not will depend on what you think of the current meta, as the devs just can't stop messing with things like tank roles and team size. […]
Star Citizen outlines the free flyable ship schedule for Invictus Launch Week, debuts the RSI Scorpius
It's Invictus Launch Week in Star Citizen, and since the event is ostensibly about the UEE Navy flexing its military might, it's also more directly about ships: ships to ogle over, ships to fly, and ships to see coming in the near future. As with other free fly events in the game, this year's Invictus […]
Working As Intended: Touring my new SWG Legends houses (and looking at Bespin deco!)
If you're a fan of MMORPG housing, Star Wars, Star Wars Galaxies specifically, or just chatter about MMOs, then this very self-indulgent Working As Intended video is for you. By popular demand (OK, it was like five people and I was going to do it anyway), I've put together an updated video that tours my […]
Hi-Rez just postponed SMITE's esports broadcasts for the weekend [Updated]
We've updated at the end with the unfortunate news that led to the postponement. Well, this one's weird and kinda ominous: Hi-Rez just just down all of its SMITE esports broadcasts planned for the entire weekend, saying they've been "postponed." "We know this is disappointing to our players and fans, and we are deeply sorry," […]
Torchlight III's spring update drops next week with a new class that summons ghost pirates
Magic Legends and Champions Online aren't the only PWE titles getting love this month: Torchlight III is destined for its spring update next week too. The highlight of the update is, as Echtra previously teased, the Cursed Captain, which is essentially the game's first full summoner class. Yes, you're literally summoning ghostly crewmates. "Anchored in […]
No Man's Sky's most recent Expedition rewards a claimable Normandy SR1 from Mass Effect
In the middle of May, No Man's Sky launched the Beachhead Expedition, which players will recall is part of the new multiplayer-focused Expeditions mode that was added to the survival sandbox in April. This new Expedition certainly read like a fun but unremarkable goal for players to chase, but there was a surprise awaiting at […]
WoW Factor: Are Heroic dungeons the original sin of World of Warcraft's current issues?
The launch of The Burning Crusade's pre-patch in WoW Classic has me thinking about the features that expansion brought to World of Warcraft. I know, really it ought to wait until the expansion has properly released, but especially considering what a mess this particular pre-patch launch has already been, it's kind of hard not to find yourself dwelling […]
