The MOP Up: EverQuest II’s Fallen Gate moves forward (April 22, 2017)

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The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

Maybe you’ll discover a new game in this space — or be reminded of an old favorite! This week we have stories and videos from Uncharted Waters Online, The Division, Paladins, TERA, Reign of Guilds, War Thunder, Escape from Tarkov, Magic the Gathering Arena, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Wakfu, ARK Park, EverQuest II, Pokemon Go, Elder Scrolls Online, Crossout, EverQuest, Neverwinter, Citadel, and Kritika Online, all waiting for you after the break!

EverQuest activates XP bonus weekend as an apology

April 20, 2018 Justin Olivetti 2 comments

Get ready to level your butts off, because EverQuest is tossing a surprise bonus weekend to players for this week’s unexpected downtime. From now through the end of Sunday, all servers have activated a 25% bonus XP boon that should help everyone made up the lost time.

“On Wednesday, our live server patch was met with a number of issues that led to a lengthy downtime,” Daybreak explained. “We appreciate you all being patient with us as we worked to bring the servers back up, and wanted to show our appreciation by granting all players some extra experience to make up for the lost game time.”

Source: EverQuest

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The Daily Grind: What keeps you logging into MMORPGs over a long period of time?

April 20, 2018 Bree Royce 45 comments

Earlier this month, Pantheon’s community team tweeted out a question that keeps coming back to me: “What motivates you to play an MMORPG for long periods of time, as in months, sometimes, years?” My first reaction was a pretty common one I bed and was true for me for a long time: friends and guildies! I certainly played some games far longer than I would have otherwise because I wanted to hang out with friends (EverQuest in particular is coming to mind).

But in recent years, when I already “see” my friends and guildies every day in external chats, I’d found games need some other draw too. Housing is probably the biggest one. I don’t usually get sucked in for dailies or anything like that, but give me a house that I love and want to keep up – that I’ll not only log in for but pay for, as my continuing Ultima Online fees prove.

What keeps you logging into MMORPGs over a long period of time?

Massively Overthinking: What we really mean when we talk about ‘difficulty’ in MMORPGs

April 19, 2018 Bree Royce 42 comments

Massively OP reader Steve wants us to revisit the Daily Grind on making death more meaningful without making it more annoying. His letter was long, so let me paraphrase a bit:

“It feels to me like underlying point was, ‘MMOs are too easy, so how do we make them harder?’ The question of video game difficulty is something that is seldom ever tackled head-on, as it tends to draw out a somewhat vocal minority. There are so many worthy topics about how people define difficulty, twitch skills vs. depth, easy vs. hard, difficulty vs. accessibility, easy vs. engaging, shallowness vs. depth, and so on. These are things I’d love to really see discussed more online, and very few sites will actually touch it. But I think that MOP’s community is overall mature enough to actually have some discussions about this without it devolving into a fist fight.”

I’m sure you’ll prove him right! Right, guys? Guys? So let’s talk about MMO difficulty in this week’s Massively Overthinking. What do we really mean when we talk about “difficulty” in MMORPGs? Are games easier than they used to be, and if so, is there something studios should do to change that?
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The Stream Team: The final days of EverQuest II’s Bristlebane festival

April 10, 2018 MJ Guthrie Leave a comment

It may not be the Highest of Silly Days, but Bristlebane is still going in EverQuest II. And that means plenty of silliness for Massively OP’s MJ to partake in. Crazy quests and crazier rewards await, so join us live at 8:00 p.m. for the final days of this festival.

What: EverQuest II
Who: MJ Guthrie
When: 8:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 10th, 2018

The MOP Up: Crossout brings out the big raids (April 1, 2018)

April 1, 2018 Justin Olivetti Leave a comment

Maybe you’ll discover a new game in this space — or be reminded of an old favorite! This week we have stories and videos from Atlantica Online, War of Rights, Dungeon Fighter Online, Pokemon Go, Crossout, Battlerite, EverQuest, ARK Park, Reign of Guilds, Orbus VR, Avabel Online, and Overwatch, all waiting for you after the break!

Global Chat: RIFT Prime numbers

April 1, 2018 Justin Olivetti One comment

RIFT’s new Prime progression server certainly has recaptured or recruited many MMO bloggers to the game as of late, and it is all anyone seems to be talking about. So how’s the word out on the web?

Nerdy Bookahs observed that Trion “chose a perfect time” to release the progression server. The Ancient Gaming Noob initially felt conflicted but soon fell into a groove: “There was the feeling of life in the game, with lots of people around and public groups to join and things just happening everywhere.” And GamingSF said that he’s “coming along swimmingly” on the shard.

It wasn’t all kudos and praise. Endgame Variable hedged his outlook by saying that RIFT Prime was “fun, but I don’t think it will last very long.” Inventory Full felt disillusioned with the way the original game was handled and said, “RIFT simply doesn’t have the depth or breadth of content of either of the EverQuest games, nor the nostalgia factor.”

Read on for the MMO blogosphere’s thoughts on other topics, including inventory woes in Guild Wars 2, the classic multiplayer dogfight sim Air Warrior, and the early access release of Project Gorgon.

EverQuesting: EverQuest II breaks into spring with Beast’r eggs and Bristlebane

March 30, 2018 MJ Guthrie One comment

Spring has sprung! And for EverQuest II, that means a return of Beast’r Eggs and Bristlebane. Norrathians get to celebrate the season by immersing themselves in frivolity and fun, pranks and pets, egg hunts and event rewards… but only for a limited time.

More than most events, these two are time sensitive. While the Bristlebane Day festival startes yesterday and goes for two weeks, The Highest of Silly Days is only one day — April 1st. And the Beast’r Eggstravaganza only lasts a single week, ending early on the 4th. The chances of missing out on the semore time-limited festivities is too high, so I’m going to help you make sure you can catch these celebrations this year! I’ve got tips and tricks as well as a general guide to help you make the most of both festivals.

Battle Bards Episode 118: More starting zone themes

March 28, 2018 Justin Olivetti 2 comments

What are your favorite memories of those first few days in a brand-new MMORPG? Chances are that those memories are inextricably connected to the music of these beginning areas. On today’s episode of Battle Bards, the crew revisits starting zone themes to talk about the experience of those first critical steps in an online game — and the songs that connect us forever to that.

Battle Bards is a bi-weekly podcast that alternates between examining a single MMO’s soundtrack and exploring music tracks revolving around a theme. MOP’s Justin co-hosts with bloggers Steff and Syl. The cast is available on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, and Player.FM.

Listen to Episode 118: More starting zone themes (or download it) now:

Massively OP Podcast Episode 163: Expansions ‘Я’ Us

March 27, 2018 Justin Olivetti One comment

On this week’s show, Bree and Justin recover from an avalanche of expansion news, including announcements from Elder Scrolls Online and Star Trek Online. Also, did you hear that Bless Online is coming this May? Oh, they did, and they have many words to say on the matter!

It’s the Massively OP Podcast, an action-packed hour of news, tales, opinions, and gamer emails! And remember, if you’d like to send in your own letter to the show, use the “Tips” button in the top-right corner of the site to do so.

Listen to the show right now:

The gaming community rallies around EverQuest Next AI developer Dave Mark

March 26, 2018 Justin Olivetti 20 comments

A renowned game AI designer who worked on EverQuest Next and John Smedley’s Hero’s Song is the focal point of concern following an accident at this past week’s GDC.

Dave Mark was struck as a pedestrian by a car at the conference and has suffered brain bleeds, a pelvis fracture, a hip fracture, and possible brain damage. Mark’s friends set up a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of his travel, medical costs, and rehabilitation. It looks like the campaign has taken off, too, as it raised nearly $20,000 in its first day.

“Please help if you can,” tweeted Star Wars Galaxies designer Raph Koster. “We are lucky to still have him with us, and recovery will be a long road.”

“Please help if you can. Dave is a wonderful guy with a beautiful family and he’s also one of the worlds leading experts on game AI. Send love and prayers his way,” said John Smedley.

Source: GoFundMe

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EverQuest II teases a change to its monthly moonlight enchantments event

March 21, 2018 Justin Olivetti 4 comments

Fey mushroom rings are sprouting all over EverQuest II, marking the return of the monthly Moonlight Enchantments event. This one-day-only event comes and goes every 20th and 21st of the month. What’s interesting with this recurrence is that Daybreak is hinting that there might be a change with this event come April.

“Though the rings have appeared as usual this month, we’ve got a peculiar feeling that something new may be involved the next time around,” the studio teased.

Additionally, the studio is running a spring screenshot contest through March 29th. Players who enter a winning submission could win 1,000 Daybreak Cash, which we assume can be used as a down payment on a car or home.

Source: Twitter, EverQuest II. Thanks Katriana!

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Perfect Ten: Why MMO progression servers are a brilliant idea

March 21, 2018 Justin Olivetti 41 comments

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been enjoying the journey through RIFT Prime, the game’s first progression server. Trion Worlds surprised and delighted many of us when it announced that it would be creating a slightly more difficult, vastly more cash shop-free shard that would take players through the entirety of the RIFT experience from vanilla through the latest expansion.

As I’ve reset the clock on my RIFT adventures, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the benefits of progression servers. With a lot of World of Warcraft fans wondering if Classic will eventually morph into a progression shard (which I certainly hope it does), and with games like EverQuest and EverQuest II repeatedly embracing the alternative ruleset, I think we could be moving into an era where older MMOs experience new life with this relatively simple move.

So why are MMO progression servers a brilliant idea? Here are 10 thoughts on the matter.

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See: EverQuest