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The Daily Grind: How long can you do the same thing in an MMORPG?

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I have, it must be said, a high tolerance for grinding and repetition. I can handle a very long stretch of doing the exact same thing, over and over, with little to no variation. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I can subsist on the exact same weekly routine with weekly caps and activities...

The Stream Team: A spring (festival) fling in LOTRO

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It's been a while since Massively OP's MJ muddled about in Middle-earth, and she has missed it. With the Spring Festival in full force, it's the perfect time for her to hop right in. (And not just to enjoy spring and flowers, as opposed to the snow still present outside her window.) Join us live at 8:00 p.m. to...

Trove’s spring update adds a gearcrafting skill and overhauls endgame drops

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Gamigo's Trove is continuing to get love regardless of what's going on with the rest of the company's MMORPG catalogue, and for the blocky sandbox, that comes in the form of yet another update called, cutely, the Gear Up!date. "With the new spring update, players can master the latest new profession, Gearcrafting, enjoy dynamic loot, and progress through the Golden...

‘Realtime action-based MMORPG’ Quest Master’s Realm confirms early access launch March 29

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Over the past year or so we've been keeping eyes on Quest Master's Realm, an indie "realtime action-based MMORPG aboard the shell of a giant turtle" that has some sky-high ambitions and has been moving through testing phases. The game's next major phase is soon to happen, as developer Blue Lightning Software has announced a Steam early access...

Enshrouded opens the reward-filled Hollow Halls dungeons in its latest patch

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The survival sandbox world of early access title Enshrouded has gotten that much bigger this week with the launch of the Hollow Halls update, which introduces a wide assortment of new challenges for players to face and new goodies to discover and unlock. The tentpole attraction for the patch are the titular Hollow Halls, a series of four new "expansive"...

New World’s buffed cross-world expeditions LFG helped players suck less at Empyrean Forge (nice)

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If you're recovered from this week's Forged in Aeternum video, in which New World's devs explained that they still can't tell you what exactly is going on in June, then at least you can gorge yourself on a new Amazon dev blog, as the devs talk numbers... about Empyrean Forge. Amazon level designer Pride St Clair says that the improved...

LEGO Fortnite lets players build their own vehicles in the Mechanical Mayhem update

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While walking the hills and dales of LEGO Fortnite's world is probably fine and dandy for some, there are those times when you just want to get to your destination a bit faster. Enter the Mechanical Mayhem update, which introduces the ability for players to build vehicles for themselves. The game features three premade vehicles players can clap together in...

Wizard101 opens the Portal of Peril that brings a new dungeon delving event in latest update

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Usually opening something known as the Portal of Peril would be ill-advised at least or very bad news at worst, but in the case of Wizard101, it's the name of a new happy fun time event. Though it's also probably still going to be a little perilous; it wouldn't be a Portal of Peril unless there were some danger,...

The Stream Team: Making a return trip to Palia as part of its Steam platform release

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The open beta of Palia has hit new shores as the cozy multiplayer title launched on Steam this week, which is good enough of an excuse as any for MOP's Chris to peer back in and wander around this colorful and comfy world. Join him today at 2:00 p.m. EST for his return visit! What: Palia Who: Chris Neal When: 2:00 p.m....

Overwatch 2 announces nonbinary geotech hero Venture, trialing this weekend

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It surely goes without saying that Blizzard did not see Riot Games announce a non-binary character this past weekend and then decide to announce one of its own for Overwatch 2 today, right? Right? We all know it doesn't work that way, yes? Good. You may, however, speculate on who scooped whom here because yes, Overwatch 2 just announced...

No Man’s Sky launches Orbital update with major upgrades for space stations

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Whenever Hello Games starts sticking little cutesy icons in its tweets, you know a No Man's Sky launch is imminent, so Monday's little start emoji was an obvious clue. That launch is now here in the form of Orbital. "Dock your fully customised starship in the sleek new space stations of update 4.6, ORBITAL!" the studio says. "Space stations have...
City again.

Perfect Ten: MMOs that experienced a surprising comeback

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It's hard to pass up a really good comeback story. We love it when a beloved something or someone is counted down and out... and then returns in a surprising but welcome fashion. In today's list, we're going to look at 10 MMOs that were either canceled and returned or games that experienced a revival along the way. Before we...

NetEase and Marvel Games are building a new team shooter called Marvel Rivals, with closed alpha in May

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The lack of Marvel in the MMO space has always seemed kind of weird, especially given the vacuum left by the beloved Marvel Heroes, and I'm afraid today's announcement isn't going to fill it either - but it does put Marvel back in our orbit again. NetEase and Marvel Games have announced today that they're developing a "free-to-play, superhero...

Diablo IV spruces up its looks, Diablo Immortal drops its first 2024 update, and Hearthstone updates its core set

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Blizzard's being quite the busy little bee this week, so let's check in with the studio's multiplayer titles to see what's happening lately. Diablo Immortal got its first big update of the year with the Precipice of Horror. "This update introduces the Age of Unmaking, consisting of delightfully dark challenges throughout the year which ultimately mark the return of the...

Embers Adrift introduces new solo loops to ember veins and the ability to inspect players

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Embers Adrift continues to fold in new things for solo players to do in the primarily group-centric MMORPG with its latest patch, which introduces ember vein solo loops for some of the game's deeper delves. A total of five solo loops can be found within five ember veins, each offering new sections, new names, and updated uncommon loot drops in...

PSA: Palia is still in open beta and should be flagged that way on Steam too

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If you've been watching our coverage of Palia over the last few articles, you'll know we've had to keep pointing out an inconvenient fact: Palia is still in open beta. It has never launched out of open beta. It is free-to-play with an expensive cash shop, but it's still beta. But you'd never know that from the game's press...
Here we go again.

Guild Wars 2 recaps its latest test effort for restructuring WvW combat

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Here's one of the amazing new pieces of information that Guild Wars 2's designers divined during the most recent WvW restructuring tests: Long queues are bad, actually! You're shocked, we're sure. But while that might sound like a no-brainer, it's pretty clear from the most recent test recap that the team is taking basically every aspect of feedback into...

Wrath Classic opens dungeon challenges while World of Warcraft tests Dragonflight Season 4

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Even with Cataclysm Classic's testing underway, Wrath Classic has one last trick up its sleeve. This week, Blizzard rolled out Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall for Alliance and Horde players, respectively, to beat. These events promise rich rewards: "Get increased dungeon drops in Wrath of the Lich King Classic and take part in the UPrising of gnomes and trolls as...
Boat.

EVE Online is running a ‘mass test’ of shadow fixes and other improvements today

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How many of our EVE Online playing readers would like to test shadows? Then there's good news for you because CCP Games is scheduling a "mass test" today - Wednesday, March 27th - on the Singularity test server to see if shadows are more performative. Woo-hah! Shadows! Facetiousness aside, the test in question is intended to ensure shadows are less...

The Daily Grind: Do you experience social anxiety in MMOs?

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While an outmoded argument says that everyone who shows up for massively multiplayer online roleplaying games must be in the mood for socializing, history has shown that's not the case. There are many reasons that people are attracted to MMOs, and that includes introverts and others with social anxiety. This is most notable when we come to the topic of...

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