Cash-shop crises blew up in MMO land this week. We put up a Leaderboard poll this weekend about the growing resentment toward Black Desert’s proposed cash shop being expressed on Reddit and in the official forums; the debate is still raging over whether we should all be raging. And then ArcheAge sparked a new drama by introducing a form of stat-boosting costumes with a form of maintenance and decay built in under the RP guise of doing laundry. Is it always about money? Yes, pretty much.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Leaderboard: Are you up in arms over Black Desert’s cash shop? - Since the Black Desert beta opened up, the cash shop has been at the center of a gathering storm. While the game is ostensibly a buy-to-play MMO with an upfront box price, the cash shop looks…
Guild Wars 2 previews its next raid boss, and it’s a horror sloth - Are you ready to jump into battle against the next raid boss in Guild Wars 2? The team previewed the next boss on the regular Friday Guild Chat livestream, and it... Wait a minute. That's a…
Perfect Ten: What you need to know before you play an older MMORPG - I cut my teeth on MMOs with the launch of Final Fantasy XI in America. My roommate in college was interested in the game, so I went with my girlfriend at the time, headed to the…
ArcheAge introduces stat-granting costumes and clothes laundering - [AL:Arche]After a long night of play in ArcheAge, do you stare at your costume slot and wonder why it can make you look so good but can't offer you one lousy stat boost? Stupid freeloading costumes.…
Landmark is introducing the new build mode - Playing Landmark is all about building. It's also all about exploring and experiencing the things other people have built. It's multi-faceted. That's why the game is making it a bit easier to set your sights on…
Massively Overthinking: The Star Citizen money machine - Massively OP reader Ichi has posed us an interesting question. At the end of 2015, a lot of gamers, including some of our own writers, said they expected Star Citizen's funding to slow way down. Massively…
Camelot Unchained is getting a lighting-centric facelift - City State Entertainment has announced a major visual upgrade for Camelot Unchained. In a new letter to backers today, CSE Co-Founder and Technical Director Andrew Meggs explains that "until now, CU has gotten by with fairly simple…
Exclusive: Path of Exile’s Chieftain Ascendancy class is on fire - [AL:POE]Are you ready to enter the labyrinth? Last November we learned all about Path of Exile's unique gameplay experience that will opens its doors in the next expansion, Ascendancy. Since that time, we've slowly learned about…
Star Trek Online is overhauling its skill system (again) - [AL:STO]The skill system in Star Trek Online is kind of a hot mess. It always has been, from the game's initial launch skills to its present system. That's not editorializing - that's a position that even…
Choose My Adventure: Blade & Soul’s questing, PvP, combat, and impractically revealing outfits - Hello friends, and welcome back to Choose My Adventure, where I'm in my third week of exploring NCSoft's martial-arts MMORPG, Blade & Soul. Last week, I asked you to choose which of the game's two main…
Trooper companion headlines SWTOR’s Chapter 11: Disavowed, due March 10th - [AL:TOR]BioWare has announced that since the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire, players have logged over 900 million minutes of Star Wars: The Old Republic. More than 27 million light- and dark-side choices have shaped players'…
Outlaw country musician to debut album in Shroud of the Avatar - You're going to have to follow us on a strange journey with this story. So there's this "outlaw country" musician, Shooter Jennings, who is getting ready to release his seventh album, Countach. According to the description…
Blade & Soul’s Warlock is coming soon to an MMO near you - Fancy a dip into the demonic realm? Blade & Soul can oblige you, as this fantasy title is getting ready to tag in the Warlock as part of next month's update. The Unchained content patch, which…
Exclusive: Crowfall’s world building pipeline video and interview - Are you a fan of Tetris but wish it were more free-form and connected to an MMO's world building tool kit? Yeah, neither am I, but apparently someone Artcraft thought it could work in Crowfall. Today we've got an exclusive first…
Black Desert’s second closed beta is live now - The second closed beta for Black Desert has kicked off. You could be playing the game right now. It's not quite the same game you recall from the last closed beta, though; the patch notes for…
How The Elder Scrolls Online is making grouping less painful - The Elder Scrolls Online's Thieves Guild DLC will offer benefits to more than your sneaking exploits, says a new dev blog released on the official site today: It'll also grant +1 to your grouping game. The…
Someone actually won The Elder Scrolls Online’s million dollar prize - Someone actually won The Elder Scrolls Online's million dollar prize, and it wasn't you. ZeniMax CM Jessica Folsom broke everyone's heart with the news on the official forums earlier today: Hey everyone! We know you're eager to find…
World of Warcraft: Legion has higher system requirements than previous expansions - If you've been assuming that World of Warcraft: Legion will run just fine on your current machine, you might want to take a minute to reassess that thought. According to Blizzard, the system requirements for the…
Former Funcom CEO charged with market manipulation and insider trading - Reuters reports that former Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas has been charged by The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime with "market manipulation and insider trading, focusing on a nine-month…
Hyperspace Beacon: What SWTOR’s latest chapter, Anarchy in Paradise, is really about - [AL:TOR]If you think that SWTOR’s chapter 10 Anarchy in Paradise is about Kaliyo Djannis, you’re wrong. Kaliyo stars in the chapter, and she can become a part of your suite of companions. But when you really…
The mystery of BioWare’s new online IP - The studio behind Star Wars: The Old Republic is working on a brand-new IP -- and everyone is dying to know what it is. A new BioWare job posting for a senior lead server engineer points to…
Blizzard eyes mobile development, player-created content, and faster updates for the future - When you think mobile gaming, chances are that super-casual (and extremely cheap) titles come to mind. Blizzard might be looking to change that stereotype, as its execs are publicly mulling over future mobile development with deeper,…
BBC investigates ‘mind-boggling’ Star Citizen project - Star Citizen's $108M (and growing) crowdfunded budget is large enough that it is attracting the attention of many outside the sphere of games journalism. In a new article at the BBC, the mainstream news service is asking…
Hands-on with The Division’s beta: From character creation to Dark Zone PvP - A couple of weekends back, I -- like many other players -- took part in the beta weekend for Ubisoft's upcoming MMO shooter, The Division. I also -- unlike many other players -- was actually able…
EVE player uses $28,000 of skill injectors to create max character - We recently brought you the story of EVE Online player Stromgren who had bought almost $7,000 worth of skill injectors to become the highest-skilled character in the game overnight. A bizarre twist on that story has since emerged…
Massively OP’s sneak peek of Atlas Reactor, Trion’s turn-based strategy MOBA - [AL:Atlas]I first experienced Atlas Reactor just before Trion made its big announcement at the PAX Prime party last summer. At the time, I didn’t really know what to think of it. First, it’s clearly set in…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 51: Unsavory deeds
The Stream Team: Going on a Quetzal hunt in ARK
The Stream Team: Accessing the Atlas Reactor alpha
The Stream Team: Heading to the hospital in The Secret World
The Stream Team: Back in another Black Desert closed beta
The Stream Team: Bunnies or bust in HEX
The Stream Team: Moving past Makeb in SWTOR’s story
The Stream Team: Everything Erollisi in EverQuest II
The Stream Team: Monday mayhem in MechWarrior Online
The Stream Team: Playing with Marvel Heroes’ Black Cat
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
The community weighs in on cookie cutter builds in WoW
Epic quality battle pets a possibility in WoW: Legion
Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the little bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
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