The Stream Team: Beginning Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood for real
Although Massively OP's MJ completed the prologue previously, ESO's Blackwood chapter has now fully launched, so she can jump in and start this zone's story for real. That also means she can get her first companions! What new clues will she find to the mystery? Tune in live at 9:00 p.m. to start the investigation. […]
E3 digital's PC Gaming Show promises 39 new trailers, including something from EVE Online
Since this year's E3 showcase will once more be all-digital, we've got big swaths of presentation shows to look forward to. Among those is the return of the PC Gaming Show, which will debut on Sunday, June 13th, at 5:30 p.m. EDT and bring with it 90 minutes of PC-centric gaming reveals. "Broadcasting from Los […]
Hood: Outlaws and Legends outlines update 1.4 adjustments, a PvE mode, and balance changes in recent video
Remember Hood: Outlaws & Legends? It's a medieval-themed team-based PvPvE game where two teams of players fight against AI guards and one another to sneak into various locations, grab some loot, and skulk away — we first talked about it in August 2020. The game has since been released as of this past May and […]
Path of Exile plans its next expansion for mid-July
The developers behind Path of Exile really hope you're enjoying the current Ultimatum League, especially since it's not going to be around all that much longer. The latest announcement on the official site reveals that patch 3.15 is planned for some time in mid-July, which will bring with it a new League, new rewards, and all […]
Magic Legends removes the caps on weekly mana and echo acquisition
Still getting a handle on Magic Legends? You're going to need to be quicker on the uptake, Planeswalker, because Cryptic just made a significant change to your weekly routine. In the June 3rd patch, Magic Legends revamped weekly caps into weekly bonuses. Along with the name change, Cryptic has removed the hard caps to how […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 325: The bards sing of Palia
Justin, Carlo, and Bree discuss Elyon, Swords of Legends Online, WoW Classic Burning Crusade, Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood, Aion Classic, Crowfall, Trove, Neverwinter, and Palia, with a mailbag topic on spiritual successors and Guild Wars vs. Guild Wars 2.
Guild Wars 2's Echoes of the Past and Tangled Paths are free to unlock this week
All summer long, ArenaNet is dropping old episodes of Guild Wars 2's living story for free for folks who missed them many years ago. Thus far, the company has run promo weeks for Gates of Maguuma, Entanglement, and both halves of The Dragon's Reach. This week's freebies are Echoes of the Past and Tangled Paths, both […]
Swords of Legends Online offers free merch in exchange for beta feedback and shares new gameplay videos
For those who took part in the recent Swords of Legends Online beta test, the devs would like to know what you think and are willing to hand out free schwag in trade. Players can get things like a labeled notebook, lantern, mug, and fan by heading to the giveaway page and earning entries by […]
Choose My Adventure: Star Wars Galaxies' legacy questline is so boring
Level 22. That was the arbitrary block between me and wearing armor in Star Wars Galaxies. Not level 10. Not level 15. Not level 20. Not even a weird number like level 9. Level 22. To say that this week in the game was a little annoying is an understatement if I'm perfectly honest. It […]
World of Warcraft adds new mounts on the 9.1 test server unlocked through special activities
Are you tired of mounts you get through quests or reputation but want some new mounts just the same? Good news; patch 9.1 has added a couple of new mounts that you unlock through a few days of concentrated activity in Korthia rather than via specific tasks. The Dusklight Razorwing and Maelie the Wanderer both […]
Casually Classic: The WoW Classic vanilla era is over, and I won't miss it
With the launch of World of Warcraft Classic's Burning Crusade this past week, the door has been (mostly) closed on what is now being called the "Classic era" — or what we used to call, simply, "vanilla." Sure, there are some toons and hardcore guilds left to dwell in a world stuck in time, but a […]
Black Desert teases the arrival of 'a new tide' and enters a crossover with Bugatti across all platforms
*WHOCK! WHOCK! WHOCK!* Oh, don't mind that noise, that's the sound of Black Desert trying to hammer the square peg of Bugatti into the round hole of its game world. Yes, Bugatti — the hypercar manufacturer — is going to be represented in the MMO by way of branded cosmetics that can be purchased in […]
Neverwinter's Odious Court, the last chunk of the Sharandar plotline, is live today
It's finally patch day for Neverwinter: The Odious Court, the third and final episode of the game's Sharandar arc, is launching today across multiple PC platforms. "This new episode brings the completion of the revamped mystical land of Sharandar — originally introduced in Neverwinter's first ever module, Fury of the Feywild — and also introduces […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Three better ways Guild Wars 2 could have wrapped up The Icebrood Saga
It's easy to be critical of a game when it lets us down. In some ways, it's equally easy to fall into the trap of denying the flaws in a thing you love. As much as I love Guild Wars 2, I always want to be honest about its missteps, but I also want my […]
Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood launches on console today – here's the new trailer
While PC, Mac, and Stadia fans are already deep in Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood chapter, but console fans are only just getting their first go-round today as the chapter has officially launched for them too, complete with a new trailer. As we've been covering all year, the centerpiece of Blackwood is the new companion system, […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 shares game features, closed beta survey results, and boost item handouts for New Genesis
Tomorrow is the official launch of Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis and the devs of the MMO are gearing up with a whole slew of announcements. Leading off the pack is an all-encompassing detail post that talks about every feature in the game, from classes and their weapons to the many advancement systems to […]
The Division 2 will not be at Ubisoft's E3 kickoff, but the company is supposedly working on a new F2P shooter
Here's the bad news for fans of The Division 2: The game is apparently not going to be featured at this year's Ubisoft Forward event, which is kicking off on Saturday, June 12th as the start of the overall E3 online experience. The same goes for The Division: Heartland, so you shouldn't expect to hear word one […]
Fortnite's season 7 rolls out a kitschy alien invasion
Fortnite is being invaded, and no, not just by musicians with tween appeal. This time, it's aliens, thanks to Epic Games' season 7 launch. Hey, at least they brought cool stuff in the accompanying battlepass. Wait, is that Superman? And Rick from Rick and Morty? Best not think about internal logic too hard. "With an […]
LOTRO's Update 30 releases with a new raid, zone, and storyline
Do us a favor, yeah? Poke your neighborhood Hobbits out of their food-induced comas and tell them that Lord of the Rings Online has just put out its latest adventure full of danger, rewards, and tales. Update 30: Blood of Azog marks the big summer update for the MMORPG, providing some content as players continue […]
The Daily Grind: Do you roll MMO alts that you never actually level?
Roger at Contains Moderate Peril penned a fun piece a while back about the lost alts – the alts that get left behind, the alts that never get leveled. "Irrespective of whether you get to experience a new story or if you indeed like the new character you've created, there comes a point when you […]
Global Chat: Having a blast in Burning Crusade
How's Burning Crusade Classic going for those of you venturing back into Blizzard's past? MMO blog Priest with a Cause is having a great time, thank you for asking. "What has surprised me though has been how compelling it still is. I mean, if you boil it down to the basics it's all just grinding: […]
Frozen Flame introduces spells, adds a recipe book, and updates the Ancient Valley in latest update
The multiplayer survival RPG Frozen Flame is a place of magic. When it's not also a place of danger or a place that is dying, anyway. It would make sense, then, that players should be allowed to wield some of that magic, and that's just what the most recent update is letting players do. Provided […]
Ravendawn shares over 30 minutes of uncut pre-alpha gameplay footage
Are you curious to learn whether the in-development old-school MMORPG Ravendawn is as much of a Tibia lookalike as Redditors claim? Then perhaps you can make up your own mind thanks to 30 minutes of uncut pre-alpha gameplay footage. Or you can just get a look at what this game is all about divorced of […]
Open Perpetuum targets boss camping with time limitations
Open Perpetuum's strongholds have proven to be a popular features for the sandbox MMO, but that doesn't mean that they're perfect. The volunteer dev team acknowledges that there's been some issues with boss spawn camping that's made the experience somewhat miserable for all involved, so some significant changes have been made to address this. Now, […]
Pearl Abyss opens new studios in US and Europe as part of western expansion efforts
Pearl Abyss very clearly has eyes on expanding its reach further into the western market. The publisher/developer of Black Desert has opened up two new studios in the NA and EU regions as part of the company's efforts to that end. The new studios are located in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, and will be used […]
Closers introduces its latest character Eunha with new events and a pre-starter pack
The cast of the side-scrolling action MMO Closers is expanding once more, and this time it's getting a mope-filled scarf-wearing debt collector who loves knives and spouting off LiveJournal-esque witticisms like "scars that aren't healed bear emotions." It's time to say hello to Eunha. Don't expect her to say hello back, though. This new character's […]
Old School RuneScape adjusts to Theatre of Blood feedback, RuneScape announces mobile launch date
It's the start of a new week, and that means another deluge of updates coming out of RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. We'll start with OSRS, which released its two new modes for the Theatre of Blood this past Thursday. Since then, there have been a number of adjustments including tweaks to the encounter's hard […]
Atlas talks post-Tradewinds update plans, introduces buff-granting towers
Now that Atlas has released its Tradewinds update (after a bit of a delay), players are maybe wondering what's next for the seafaring sandbox. Some of those plans were outlined in a recent dev blog, with plans to have the game map separated into different geographical themes, more ship customizations and pre-built ship options, and […]
World War II Online turns 20, tweaks sub, plans Steam launch and UE4 conversion
Cornered Rat Software's MMO World War II Online is 20 years old, believe it or not, and still under development "so as the create the next 20 years," the team says. Over the weekend, the studio made several announcements about the future of the game, including plans for integrated voice comms, a monetization clean-up, a […]
Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV considers World of Warcraft a 'mentor' for the game's relaunch
If you need to know the degree of regard that Final Fantasy XIV's director and producer Naoki Yoshida has for World of Warcraft, a recent interview with the man gives a clear picture. Yoshida explains that without Blizzard's MMO, there would not have been a successful relaunch of the game. He goes on to elaborate that as […]
Second Life's CEO, Ebbe Altberg, has passed away
We're terribly sorry to report that Second Life CEO Ebbe Altberg has passed away after a long illness. Linden Lab posted the news to the game's community over the weekend. "Ebbe Altberg started with Linden Lab as our CEO on February 5th, 2014. He took the helm of the company and immediately went to work […]
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating about the mechanics of Final Fantasy XIV's Sage way too early
Here's what we know so far about Final Fantasy XIV's Sage: It'll be a healer. Specifically, it's going to be a barrier healer, as part of the sorting of every healer into two different types, pure healer or barrier healer. And we know… a handful of abilities that it's going to have, which certainly appears […]
Myst Online: Uru Live developer Cyan Worlds has open-sourced even more game assets
MMO veterans probably recall that ages ago Myst Online: Uru Live brought the Myst franchise fully into the MMO space in the mid-aughts, as developer Cyan Worlds put the game online in multiple incarnations attempting to find its audience, even open-sourcing parts of the project a decade ago in order to keep it all going. […]
Not So Massively: Iron Harvest's Operation Eagle expansion soars high
The lead-up to the release of Iron Harvest 1920's first expansion was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me (insomuch as you can ever apply that term to something as trivial as a game release). On the one hand, as is now well-documented in this column, I'm a big fan of the game, and […]
Chronicles of Elyria previews its Kingdoms of Elyria alpha
Progress apparently continues on Chronicles of Elyria spin-off game Kingdoms of Elyria, as outlined in Soulbound Studios' latest dev blog. The studio has recapped everything accomplished – and not accompanished – as of the second milestone. Notably, Soulbound says it succeeded in plans to introduce ambient and UI sound-effects, add Chronicles of Elyria music temporarily, implement […]
Crowfall outlines dates for beta closure and forum maintenance leading into full release
Crowfall is going to be a launched MMO on Tuesday, July 6th. That much is absolutely set in stone. Of course, that does leave up the question of when the game's current beta will be wrapping up, but that question has been answered with a date announcement post that outlines timing for the game's final […]
Craftopia developer announces co-op survival builder Palworld
Prepare for imminent cuteness because Craftopia developer Pocketpair just announced a cel-shaded survival builder slated to come out in 2022. This new project is Palworld, which takes players on a co-op adventure to craft and thrive in an anime-like world. There are activities like farming, dungeon diving, and operating factories to enjoy. The "pal" in […]
40 musicians collab on medley to welcome back Final Fantasy XIV composer Soken
Masayoshi Soken, the composer for Final Fantasy XIV, very clearly loves his work, to the point that he was still creating music for the MMORPG while he was battling cancer. Players of the game very clearly love him, with the outpouring of support for him and the rest of the game's devs after the reveal. […]
The Daily Grind: Do you judge MMOs by the quality of their Discords?
When we covered Palia earlier this month, I noticed multiple commenters, Twitter denizens, and even our own staff talking approvingly of the community Discord. Like the game itself, it's already attracting the most lovely people. It's already a place I enjoy hanging out. You get the community you build for, right? It's a sharp contrast […]
MMO Week in Review: Burning Crusade, Blackwood, Prisms, and Crowfall
One of my favorite "problems" is when we have a week so packed with big MMORPG news that I can't decide what to feature at the end of the week, and that's exactly what we're dealing with tonight. This is a week that was dominated as much by WoW Classic Burning Crusade and Elder Scrolls […]
Battle Bards Episode 194: No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky is a Cinderella story, a turnaround from a project that failed on its promises to exceeding them. But what about its soundtrack? In this episode, the Battle Bards examine this "experimental" score and grapple with how it fits with space exploration theme. Battle Bards is the world's first, best, and only MMO music […]
The MOP Up: Wurm Online's animal update made sheep fluffier
Wurm Online's animal update is upon us, kindly making free-to-play players ride donkeys and mules so we can all point and laugh. I'm kidding. The late-May update likewise added a new animal feeding system, new farm items, new horse shapes, better animal AI, better animal breeding, and a fluffier sheep model. I'm not kidding. And […]
Moonlight Sculptor gets new dungeons, a guild hideout, and a new event on June 8
With roughly two weeks since the game's launch now under its belt, it's time for the mobile MMO Moonlight Sculptor to get its first content update this coming Tuesday, June 8th. Players can look forward to some new content in the form of a 150-floor Mirkhan Tower, a new Twisted Abyss – Sewer Maze dungeon, […]
Ashes of Creation addresses extra player questions on music, election systems, and more
Much as they did last time, the devs of Ashes of Creation saw fit to round up every single question that players have asked recently and collate every single response in one giant list, so if anyone's questions weren't pulled from the forum and addressed in the latest livestream, the answers are here. Also the […]
Mortal Online 2 introduces mounted combat, adds anti-cheat software, and lets players flip each other off
Remember when I said that one of my favorite pastimes in reading Mortal Online 2 patch notes is finding the more unique update features? The game's most recent patch notes offers one right from the very off: "Added FlipOff emote." We are now officially living in the year 2250. Rude gestures aren't the only thing […]
One Shots: Cave rave!
Where do you go when you want to relax in an MMO with friends, a strong drink, and some good atmosphere? This changes depending on the game, but here are a few suggestions from your friendly neighborhood screenshotters. We will start with Fisty, who is getting wild 'n' wooly in World of Warcraft: "This isn't […]
The Daily Grind: Do you play MMOs when you're on vacation?
As I type this, MOP's Justin is on vacation, though he'll be back by the time you're reading it. And dammit, he deserved it. We all do! Justin is really good at not wasting a good vacation on video games. When he says he's unplugging, he does it. But some folks? I've seen y'all taking […]
Make My MMO: Crowfall cometh
This week in crowdfunded MMOs, the big news was Crowfall – yes, the MMORPG everyone Kickstarted way back in 2015 is has a real launch date, now set for July 6th. Gamers can currently access the beta freely through June 23rd using the code MOPCROWCODE. Meanwhile, Albion Online teased next week's mobile launch and next […]
ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained add Gunslinger Ancestral skills in June 10 update
Players of both ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained who have hit the pinnacle of the recently added Gunslinger skillset are going to have some new heights to climb towards soon. A tweet from the game has announced that an update coming on June 10th will be introducing Ancestral skills for the Gunslinger, as well as revamps […]
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen showcases NPC combat tactics and discusses programming in latest videos
There have been a couple of extremely lengthy videos released by Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, both of which are full of behind-the-scenes goodness for those followers of the developing MMORPG that love their granular details. First, the game's recent livestream provided a close look at how enemies will operate in combat, pointing out a […]
