Star Citizen stole the show — Gamescom, that is — with reveal after reveal during its week of demoing a version of the long-delayed 3.0 alpha. While the SOEmote-esque real-time facial animation and camera locking captured most of the attention, CIG also let slip that it’s planning some detailed survival mechanics for the game, like eating and bathing.
Meanwhile, SkySaga announced a de facto shutdown, Guild Wars 2 completed another preview weekend, Star Wars: The Old Republic launched Crisis on Umbara, and World of Warcraft geared up for this week’s Argus release.
And we’re wishing all the best to our friends and readers suffering in Texas this weekend.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Chaos Theory: Funcom can still fix Secret World Legends’ Aurum fiasco - [AL:SWL]Mere days after the exciting news about Secret World Legends being made into a television show, we finally hear about the game's long-awaited Aurum conversion. Only it wasn't especially great…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2 Elite Specialization preview weekend impressions - Over the weekend Guild Wars 2 players had the chance to get to grips with the new Path of Fire elite specializations in a PvP setting, so I, of course, jumped in…
Gamescom 2017: Star Citizen demos ‘real-time, player-driven facial animation’ - If you skipped out on the Star Citizen Gamescom presentation, you missed out on some pretty good stuff. You also missed out on an hour of awkward preshow and a loooong…
The Game Archaeologist: Furcadia - Let's face it: There isn't really a huge pool of MMORPGs from the 1990s to explore in this column. By now I have done most of them, including some of…
SkySaga shuts down production and goes on hold indefinitely - Very sad news today out of Radiant Worlds, which announced that Smilegate, its publishing partner, ordered that SkySaga's development be shut down immediately and pulled support from the project. While the…
Dungeons and Dragons Online confirms that Ravenloft expansion is still on for this year - It has been a good long time since we have heard anything about Dungeons and Dragons Online's promised Ravenloft expansion. While we still don't know when this horror-themed module is…
Greed Monger creator says its failure ‘plagues’ him, offers recompense to backers - No, your eyes aren't deceiving you; we're going to be talking about Greed Monger today, because some very interesting developments have just transpired on Kickstarter. The long defunct MMO's former…
Choose My Adventure: Finding the fun in Shroud of the Avatar - One of the things that I believe is utterly vital to writing about games in general and MMOs in particular is finding the fun. It's sometimes difficult, but I think…
Hyperspace Beacon: Impressions of SWTOR’s Crisis on Umbara update - [AL:TOR]I questioned BioWare's delay of the latest update for Star Wars: The Old Republic. According to a post on the official forums, the team decided to delay the launch of…
En Masse is bringing Closers Online to the west this fall - [AL:Clo]We are glad to say that the rumors were 100% correct: En Masse Entertainment is indeed bringing Closers Online (which it is now simply calling Closers) to the west this…
Gamescom 2017: Star Citizen confirms survival mechanics, rolls out ship profiles - Cloud Imperium has continued its relentless Star Citizen streams from Gamescom all week, causing the usual sideshow drama over whether the 3.0 build on display is indeed partial, why it's available…
Gamescom 2017: ArcheAge 4.0 ports naval warfare westward this year - [AL:Arche]Trion is on a roll at a Gamescom this week: It's brought ArcheAge 4.0 to the party. "Slated for release in North America and Europe later this year, ArcheAge 4.0…
Guild Wars 2 has begun doling out anniversary presents; here’s what to expect - [AL:GW2]ArenaNet is rolling out birthday and anniversary gifts in honor of Guild Wars 2's fifth year of life. In the mail, fifth-year characters will nab an experience scroll granting any…
Albion Online maps out content updates Joseph and Kay in spite of continuing DDOS attacks - I'd like to be able to say that Albion Online is no longer under siege by DDOS blackmailers, but unfortunately, the most recent one was yesterday, as detailed by the…
Tree of Life launches and goes ‘beyond the journey’ - Last week, colorful sandbox MMO Tree of Life slipped the bonds of early access and launched itself into the wild blue yonder of live operation. If you played it a…
Leaderboard: Do the HTC Vive’s and Oculus Rift’s price cuts change your opinion on VR pricing? - When Oculus dropped the price of the Oculus Rift down to $400 earlier this summer, supposedly temporarily (but not its first drop), analysts were torn over the decision, suggesting that…
Gamescom 2017: Overwatch’s Mei-centric Rise and Shine animated short - Blizzard brought the goods to Gamescom this year, with trailers and announcements for almost every game in its stable, including -- and perhaps especially -- Overwatch. The team just revealed the…
Gamescom 2017: World of Warcraft’s 7.3 Shadows of Argus lands next week - Update: Patch notes are live now too! We've included them below. Here we go, World of Warcraft fans: Blizzard just announced during Gamescom that patch 7.3, dubbed Shadows of Argus,…
Perfect Ten: MMO experiments in transmedia synergy - We're not going to argue that MMORPGs are the dominant form of media entertainment these days, but they do have endurance and a devoted following among gamers. And whenever a…
Black Desert censures Pearl Abyss Taiwan employees found cheating - [AL:BDO]Let this Black Desert story be a lesson. Actually, no, let it be two lessons: Don't cheat, and definitely don't cheat if your job might be on the line. Maybe…
Gamescom 2017: The Crew 2 races to release on March 16, 2018 - Start planning the next leg of your cross-country vacation now because Ubisoft announced this week at Gamescom that it will be launching The Crew 2 on March 16th, 2018. This…
Touring Trove’s new Eclipse expansion with the Trion team - [AL:Trove]The big solar eclipse may have been yesterday, but today marks the beginning of Trove's Eclipse! And luckily, this one will last much more than a couple of minutes. Today's…
Star Citizen brought part of 3.0 to Gamescom - If you're lucky enough to be in Cologne this week for Gamescom, make sure you make your way over to the Star Citizen booth as it appears at least part…
Black Desert shows off 4K console version at Gamescom - It might have gotten buried in this massive list, but Black Desert is one of the MMOs that's slated to receive enhanced treatment by the new Xbox One X. While…
Destiny 2’s launch trailer is clucking awesome - [AL:D2]"Do you see all that I have done?" The stakes are high for this fall's Destiny 2, with a near-unstoppable villain smashing through the status quo to set himself on…
EVE Evolved: The strategy and narrative of EVE’s revenge war - [AL:EVE]At the start of this month, we reported on a massive new war that was kicking off in the north of EVE Online. The words "The Imperium Strikes Back!" rang…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 132: Filth TV
The Stream Team: Apes and dragons in an ARK raid double-header
The Stream Team: Going toward the light in Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: Conquering the new bosses in Trove’s Shadow Tower
The Stream Team: Burrowing deeper into Secret World Legends’ Blue Mountain
The Stream Team: Taking another look at the revamped Otherland
The Stream Team: Playing through Profit and Plunder in SWTOR’s KOTFE
The Stream Team: Exploring Trove’s Eclipse expansion (plus giveaway)
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW 7.3’s Invasion Points bring the fight against the Legion to many worlds
Official World of Warcraft 7.3 patch notes are finally here
Blizzard previews patch 7.3’s Argus campaign
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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