Gotta love those weeks when there are so many huge stories I can’t decide what to feature here and just feature them all! Conan Exiles launched this week, with lots of praise – except for Funcom’s disastrous handling of PvE-conflict servers. Bless Online shocked its community by springing optional subscriptions just a few weeks ahead of launch and not exactly dazzling press previewers. Wild West Online blundered onward into its ill-advised formal launch from early access, in spite of criticism over its incomplete state (and lack of female toons). And just to cap it all off, the Daybreak/Columbus Nova/Renova mess took a bizarre turn into the tawdriest corners of political intrigue. What a week! I need a drink.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Hands-on with Bless Reborn at Neowiz’s San Francisco media reveal - As you probably have heard, there was a Bless influencer event this week, with a couple of media and a smattering of MMO streamers in attendance. The leak of the…
Bless fansite leaks founder pack info and partial subscription plan ahead of today’s stream, and people aren’t happy - This story has been heavily updated post-stream - keep on scrollin'! An apparent leak on a Bless fansite - which was hastily scrubbed but nevertheless preserved by players and Redditors…
Daybreak update: Renova boss questioned over Columbus Nova’s alleged payment to Michael Cohen - MMOs and politics once again collide this week as last night CNN broke the news that Robert Mueller's FBI team has zeroed in on Russian oligarch and Renova Group chairman…
LOTRO Legendarium: A whirlwind of activity in Lord of the Rings Online - [AL:LOTRO]If you haven't noticed already, an extended silence from me in this column space usually means that I've taken a break from Lord of the Rings Online for a while.…
The Survivalist: The good, the bad, and the barbaric of Conan Exiles’ launch - If the survival genre is any indication, Early Access is a nigh indestructable beast! Time and time again we've seen where so many have failed to defeat this end boss.…
Ouch, Conan Exiles players are pretty pissed off about Funcom’s PvE Conflict server switcharoo - It's not every day that an online game changes the official ruleset of whole servers the day after everyone rolled characters, but that's exactly what Funcom did yesterday in Conan…
Tamriel Infinium: Deep-diving the mechanics of Elder Scrolls Online Summerset’s Psijic Order skill line - [AL:ESO]Many MMO gamers - including me - are a bit underwhelmed by the next chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online. Although Summerset is not a bad bit of content, I…
Wild West Online’s stagecoach is held up by negative reviews and no female characters - Perhaps Wild West Online is attempting to emulate life on the actual historical frontier. This week's launch has certainly been uncertain, fraught with peril, and an unsure venture. As pretty…
The Wild West Online MMO officially launches out of early access today – here’s the new trailer - It's been quite a ride for Wild West Online, the survivalish MMO that came out of nowhere last spring to take on Red Dead Redemption 2. The game was originally…
Choose My Adventure: Ultima Online, we didn’t need to do this - Yes, this is going to come in as the shortest Choose My Adventure series, but I feel it's got a good reason to be so. I went into Ultima Online…
BioWare’s Anthem will let you be ‘the hero of your story’ even in multiplayer - What began as a general vision statement for BioWare quickly turned into a treatise on how the studio is going to handle Anthem's multiplayer mode. General Manager Casey Hudson returned…
NCsoft Q2 2018: Revenues for all NCsoft MMORPGs are down in Q1 2018 except… Aion? - NCsoft's first quarter 2018 financial results are in, and it's... kinda OK? Guild Wars 2 saw a big drop-off, though that's to be expected since the previous quarter saw revenues…
Belgian Gaming Commission releases full report barring gambleboxes in video games - Back in 2017, at the height of mainstream outrage over lockbox shenanigans, Belgium became one of the very first countries to take the problem seriously (instead of just passing the buck). The…
Champions Online releases brand-new content with the Save the Earth alert - [AL:Champ]Champions Online is really not going to stop reminding everyone that it's become the "longest running superhero MMO of all time," chiefly by simply refusing to close down as the…
APB Reloaded and Fallen Earth developer GamersFirst acquired by Little Orbit - It's been exceedingly quiet for a long while when it comes to APB Reloaded, and it'd be easy to think that the game's second lease on life had come to…
Even Trove is getting a battle royale mode – it’s called Bomber Royale - [AL:Trove]Trion's voxelbox Trove is getting its very own battle royale mode, after a fashion. It's called Bomber Royale, and its plain aim is to revivify the game's wilted PvP, complete…
Blade & Soul promises an engine upgrade and more ‘lifestyle’ content - [AL:BaS]If you feel like Blade & Soul is looking a little dated, you're not alone in that sentiment; the developers feel the same way. A new video from the development…
Classic Guild Wars 1 just got a huge graphics update - This week, classic Guild Wars 1 has gotten its first real update in the years since going into maintenance mode. As we noted on Tuesday's podcast, the update follows player…
Lord of the Rings Online starts testing massive class changes - [AL:LOTRO]It's finally here. For a while now, Standing Stone Games has promised that it would be giving most of Lord of the Rings Online's classes a major balance pass. Today,…
EA quarterly financials: Anthem due March 2019, record profits, and lockbox-gambling denialism - EA's quarterly financial report and investor call turned out to be a doozy this year with quite a bit of useful news. To wit: BioWare's Anthem is set to ship…
Perfect Ten: You got your MMORPG in my tabletop RPG - Tabletop games and MMORPGs seem like they would go well together, but remarkably they often don't. That's true for several reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we…
Destiny 2’s Warmind expansion is live today – here’s the launch trailer - [AL:D2]Will Warmind be enough to help Destiny 2 recapture the hearts and minds of Bungie fans? We don't know the answer to that yet. But we do know Warmind is…
Guild Wars 2’s underwater combat update and class balance pass are live today - [AL:GW2]Some MMOs pump out an endless stream of previews for their big patches, especially the type that overhaul major game systems or balance combat, to the point that by the…
Generation 3 is basically Pokemon Go’s One Tamriel: How Niantic has actually improved POGO - A lot of critical things have been said about Pokemon Go and Niantic in the past. Professionals that tried to defend certain UI elements still had plenty of suggestions a non-professional could have…
Change history in Path of Exile’s Incursion League starting June 1st - [AL:POE]If, like me, you are still quite disappointed from the announcement that the beloved Bestiary League won't be included in the core of Path of Exile, perhaps Grinding Gear Games can…
Star Citizen players grumble over warbonds, insurance, and the latest concept ship promotion - Last week, Cloud Imperium began teasing a brand-new concept ship for Star Citizen, the Hercules Starlifter and its variants. While most gamers will roll their eyes at paying for pixel…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Going ape in Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: Exploring the blue cave of ARK wonders
The Stream Team: Touring a massive menagerie and talking Path of Exile’s Incursion league
The Stream Team: Checking out SOS’s switch to battle royale during its free weekend
The Stream Team: Housekeeping as a Secret World Legends Anointed
The Stream Team: Wild West Online saddles up for launch
The Stream Team: Taking part in Paladins’ launch
The Stream Team: Conan Exiles slayed the early access beast and launched!
The Stream Team: More Miscreated adventures
The Stream Team: Celebrating the 15th EVEaversary
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
War Mode players will get a 15% experience boost in Battle for Azeroth
No, BlizzCon probably isn’t moving from Anaheim
Know Your Lore: The ongoing advance of the Lich King
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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