Lord of the Rings Online startled everyone this week by smacking a release date on its Mordor expansion, and it’s surprisingly soon: July 31st. Maybe. “In the event of delay, you will receive the Mordor expansion content and items no later than August 31st, 2017,” preorder players are told. Of course, if you are thinking of preordering, maybe check out our editorial on the community’s reaction to the price and what’s in the virtual box before doing so.
Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 announced its season 3 finale, EVE Online killed the last remnants of walking in stations, and we got a last-minute heads-up on new “massive” online RPGÂ Citadel: Forged With Fire.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
LOTRO Legendarium: Mordor’s pre-order is flat-out ridiculous - [AL:LOTRO]Outrageous. Ridiculous. Exciting. Exploitative. Controversial. This past week's announcement of Lord of the Rings Online: Mordor's launch date and pre-order packages set ablaze discussions and arguments among the community, both…
Massively Overthinking: Consumer protections in the MMORPG industry - Veteran Massively OP reader Miol says he's exhausted by a recent string of stories in which MMO companies screw gamers over, one after another: ARK Survival Evolved, Albion Online, Skyforge,…
Lord of the Rings Online: Mordor eyes July 31 launch, starts taking pre-orders - [AL:LOTRO]Ready to hop in your Middle-earth safari jeep and start touring around the untamed and lava-strewn lands of Mordor? It might be coming sooner than you think. Standing Stone Games…
Star Citizen’s derelict ships offer dangerous excitement, plus new Lost & Found cinematic - Is it possible for one game to think of every little detail in a fictional universe? Star Citizen's various teams are certainly trying to cover all of their bases to…
The last episode of Guild Wars 2’s living world season 3 arrives July 25 - [AL:GW2]The sixth and final episode of Guild Wars 2's third living world season launches on July 25th. We'd like to tell you more, but the announcement is literally one sentence…
How to find the right MMORPG as a couple - People seemed to quite like my piece last week about how my wife and I wound up married in no small part due to World of Warcraft. Of course, I…
EVE Online is killing off the last remnants of walking in stations - Hey remember EVE Online's walking in stations, the talk of the genre a decade ago? Remember when all we really got was a captain's quarters where you could finally see…
Pantheon’s Brad McQuaid on ‘vertical interdependence,’ WoW killers, and attracting nontraditional MMO players - Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's July newsletter is one of its better ones, featuring a Q&A with Visionary Realms' Brad McQuaid himself. A few highlights: McQuaid is touting vertical interdependence, the idea…
Guild Wars 2’s season 3 finale will include a brand-new fractal - [AL:GW2]When ArenaNet announced the sixth and final episode of Guild Wars 2's third living world season yesterday, it was a one-liner post with a teaser screenshot that points us right…
Secret World Legends: ‘We plan to continue producing new story content for years to come’ - [AL:SWL]In a combination of review and interview, Gamasutra's Katherine Cross took a new look at Secret World Legends to see what had changed with the reboot. Generally, she found it agreeable,…
Here’s how magic in Citadel: Forged With Fire will work - This morning, we wrote about a new "massive online sandbox RPG," Citadel: Forged With Fire, built by Slender devhouse Blue Isle Studios and expected to hit early access later this month.…
The Survivalist: Osiris New Dawn is doing early access right even amid disappointments - A couple of weeks ago, when Osiris: New Dawn introduced new classes, I'd delved back into the sci-fi survival sandbox after a bit of a break to check out the…
Choose My Adventure: Starting out fresh in DC Universe Online - [AL:DCUO]Last week was supposed to be when I kicked off playing DC Universe Online, but thanks to various real-life time obligations, I just didn't have the chance to dive into it.…
Marvel Heroes opens up Carnage PC preorders - In our newsroom, I had this article listed as just "Marvel Carnage," and I suspect that led other writers to avoid it -- what drama could it possibly be now?…
Revelation Online announces housing and archaeology systems - [AL:Rev]Either Revelation Online was jealous of Twin Saga or houses on the backs of giant turtles is a thing in Asia, but the MMO is introducing its own version of…
Could Blizzard be working on offline modes for its games? - [AL:Hearth]Imagine one day sitting down at your computer, firing up the Blizzard launcher, and choosing to play World of Warcraft or Diablo III... offline. Yeah, it'll probably never happen, but…
Black Desert opens up a waterpark for summer, reduces level XP requirements - Just in time for those dog days of summer is Black Desert, which is making a splash with its new Terrmian Waterpark. Today is the park's grand opening, and you…
Hyperspace Beacon: Star Wars The Old Republic’s mid-term report card - [AL:TOR]You would probably expect me to cover the new Star Wars: The Old Republic Manaan stronghold because it just released yesterday, and indeed, I will be covering that in my livestream with MJ…
SuperData predicts up to 5M Destiny 2 digital sales in its first quarter - [AL:D2]How big is Destiny 2 going to be? Really big, SuperData predicts. The gaming analysis firm claims that "by analyzing historical data [of Destiny 1] and [SuperData's own] proprietary analytics-based…
Perfect Ten: EverQuest’s EverExpanding franchise - When Daybreak announced last year that it was cancelling the highly anticipated EverQuest Next project, the series' forward momentum lurched to a halt. This wasn't helped by other EverQuest entities that…
Secret World Legends update continues the main story - [AL:SWL]Boy, the Secret World Legends story is just clocking right along, isn't it? The game's latest update continues past the end of the "Mortal Sins" mission, so players can start…
Secret World Legends may be punishing groups for farming XP - [AL:SWL]Here's your public service announcement for Secret World Legends: You may want to avoid grouping up to farm mobs and XP on the map, as some players have reported being…
World of Warcraft announces $100K prize pool for Mythic Dungeon Invitational e-sports competition - World of Warcraft is giving e-sports another go. In a blog post going live this afternoon, Blizzard has announced the Mythic Dungeon Invitational, an e-sports competition themed around Mythic Keystone…
Guild Wars 2’s gem store gets a huge overhaul - Have you ever found yourself in this situation: You are flush with cash and desperately want to dump it on Guild Wars 2, but you find the store interface too…
Monetization expert: MMOs are dying because of clueless design, not insufficient demand - MMORPG players just love it when somebody declares the MMORPG dead, right? All those games you're playing, all the games we're writing about and sustaining us? Zombie games! You're imagining…
Oculus Rift price drops to $400 - How cheap does a VR headset and motion controller have to be before you'll consider purchasing it? Facebook is hoping the answer to that question is right around $400, it…
Black Desert ups the in-game prices on cash shop items in the auction market - [AL:BDO]Players are making more in-game money in Black Desert than they were a year ago. Part of that is just, you know, a year to refine processes; the other part…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2’s living world season 3 in review - [AL:GW2]The Guild Wars 2 story arc found in the Living World's third season has contained more twists and surprises than even I had anticipated, and I feel that an in-depth recap of…
‘Augmentgate’ rocks the Skyforge community - [AL:Sky]Calling it an "unbelievable story," the team at Pretty Good Gaming pulled back the curtain on a massive SNAFU regarding a particular Skyforge item. A recent Skyforge PS4 event had,…
Riders of Icarus has officially launched today; check out the launch trailer - Nexon and WeMade have formally sent Riders of Icarus into the pool of launched MMORPGs as of today. If you're thinking, hey, didn't that game already launch, it's probably because…
Firefall fans lock up the subreddit and turn out the lights - Firefall fans can cross their fingers hoping for the promised mobile edition, but we wouldn't put too much stock in waiting for it. In the meanwhile, players have had to…
Dean Hall calls the pre-launch price hike for ARK: Survival Evolved ‘outrageous’ - Whether you love or loathe the early access survival sandbox genre, you've got Dean Hall's DayZ to thank for it, although he's had far less luck with recent titles. Still,…
Wild West Online’s brand-new gameplay video shows bounties, saloons, and more - It's the video release that Wild West Online fans have been waiting weeks for: A six-minute glimpse into the western MMO's gameplay. During the video, you'll get to see quick…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 126: Firefall gets extinguished
The Stream Team: Beat the heat in Black Desert’s waterpark
The Stream Team: Going after alphas rexes in ARK
The Stream Team: Launching back into Riders of Icarus
The Stream Team: Heading back into SMITE Tactic’s Hand of the Gods
The Stream Team: Spooky and scaly stuff in Secret World Legend’s Savage Coast
The Stream Team: Scoping out Elite Dangerous on the PlayStation 4
The Stream Team: Diving into SWTOR’s new Manaan stronghold
The Stream Team: Climbing to the top of Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: Win a Wizard101 Fantastic Voyage Gauntlet Bundle
The Stream Team: Talking TennoCon and Warframe’s open landscapes
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Everything you need to know about WoW’s Black Temple Timewalking
WoW 7.3 takes us to Mac’Aree
WoW guild Method claims World First Avatar kill
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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