ALL THE POSTS
Make My MMO: Shroud of the Avatar is rolling out player-created dungeon encounters this week
This week week in MMO crowdfunding, Shroud of the Avatar is gearing up for its 63rd release. Portalarium is currently testing pronged weapons, pirate cosmetics, new themed dungeon rooms, new deco, and more tweaks to the new in-game cash shop. Since the last update, the team has also tweaked player-owned towns to be upgradeable using crown currency. But...
The Stream Team: An Astroneer body recovery run
For her first time ever, Massively OP's MJ died so far away from her Astroneer base that she wasn't able to easily retrieve her backpack. And now that she has died in the meantime, it means there is no longer a backpack to find (hence, no more beacon) but only a pile of belongings on the ground. That won't...
After a month of quiet work, Valiance Online updates fans on internal progress
A while back, Valiance Online made a thread on its official forum to keep fans up to date on the internal progress for the game; that way, even with a lack of patches, it would be clear that things were happening and the game was moving forward. This thread followed a pretty steady cadence of updates and then...
The Stream Team: Seeing red (drops) in ARK
Massively OP's MJ is seeing red! At least she hopes to: She's seeking out those powerful red drops in ARK: Extinction. Although it's sure to be quite the encounter, how bad could it really be when the team has already easily bested a titan? Yeah, famous last words, we know. Join us live at 2:00 p.m. as MJ seeks...
EverQuest reworks progression server rules while EverQuest II’s new servers are weeks away
EverQuest fans, mark your calendars for March 16th. The 20th anniversary date of the first title in this franchise will see four specialty server launches across both EverQuest and EverQuest II.
Daybreak announced that it is reworking the rulesets to EverQuest's two shards following heavy player criticism earlier in February. Now, the Selo server will feature fast...
LOTRO Legendarium: Examining 2019’s amazing producer’s letter
I swear, the news never fails to make a monkey out of me. Just the other day I was grousing about how it was the end of February here and we had yet to get our annual Lord of the Rings Online producer's letter, and the very next day one pops out of Standing Stone Games as...
MMO Business Roundup: Overpaid gaming CEOs, FTC’s lootbox workshops, and why online launches are trainwrecks
Welcome back to another MMO Business Roundup, where we check in on all your favorite flaming dumpster fires in the gaming business world.
The 2019 As You Sow report on most overpaid CEOs is out, and you bet it includes some video game company bosses. Activision-Blizzard's Bobby Kotick is ranked at 45 with over $28M annual pay -...
WRUP: This post was not written by a neural network edition
Well, folks, I'm sorry. I strongly hinted in the last intro that the next installment of What Are You Playing would be written by a neural network. (If you missed that hint, go back and double-check the intro; I might have made it too obvious.) But after feeding all of the previous installments of this column into a...
The Daily Grind: Does law and order add to MMORPG worlds?
As of late I've been going through the Thieves Guild DLC in Elder Scrolls Online. The result of this has taught me that (a) I'm rubbish with pickpocketing, (b) wicker baskets will fool even the most determined guard, and (c) the justice system adds a lot of immersive value to the game.
I haven't played many MMOs where there...
The Stream Team: Following staff advice in Conan Exiles
Well now she did it. Massively OP's MJ has awakened the staff and now it won't shut up. So, what's she to do? She'll try following its advice and see where that leads her. Surely it can't be that bad, right? Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. to see whether a staff can give sage advice or MJ...
Betawatch: Anthem has begun to sing
It'd be nice to say that nothing in beta can stay there, but that would be a lie. There are lots of games that stay in beta basically forever. But Anthem is not one of them, as today marks its proper launch date and means that everyone gets to do the fly-and-shoot-in-a-robot-suit dance. First impressions will be shared later,...
Pokemon Go looks to the future in new interview as it announces Clamperl-focused limited research event
It's hard to believe that it's been over two years since Pokemon Go launched, starting an international craze that seemingly had everyone out and about, using their phones to hunt for Nintendo's iconic critters. The craze may have died down since, but the game is still going strong, and 2018 saw the addition of a number of features...
Star Citizen previews NPC collision detection, geysers, and shiny spaceship VFX
In this week's episode of Star Citizen Around the Verse, there's a Hammer Time joke. You have been warned. But seriously, the episode focuses on multiple topics: The animation team discusses NPC AI, specifically how they program NPCs to avoid collisions with other NPCs - or players, who are unpredictable. And then the network team talks about...
Hey packrats, clean out your Elder Scrolls Online hoards… for the good of the database
Wrathstone and update 21 are launching in Elder Scrolls Online next week, at least for PC, so you're going to want to be prepared. It turns out you can do something even more valuable than getting your crowns stocked up and your dungeoning toons ready to roll: You can clean out your damn bank. And your inventory and...
The Stream Team: Boundless is having a freebie weekend, so we’re streaming it!
Free weekends are a perfect time to check out a game you might be interested in but are unsure if it really fits. This weekend, Boundless is opening its doors for free. That means you can download it and play on Steam to your hearts content -- at least until 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 24th. And if you...
We have officially lost count of how many times Conan Exiles’ next patch has been delayed
Funcom has been talking up Conan Exiles' next update for what seems like months now, but when it finally hit the testlive server at the beginning of February, we breathed a sigh of relief. But since then it's been kicked down the road multiple times, most recently today.
"Unfortunately, we've once again been forced...
ZeniMax Media is hit with a trademark dispute over a filing for ‘Redfall’
What is "Redfall?" We don't know just yet, beyond the fact that it's a trademark filed by ZeniMax Media (the parent company of Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios). It may be the title of the upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 installment, though. And it's definitely the source of a trademark battle between ZeniMax Media and author Jay Falconer, who has a...
SuperData: Digital gaming revenue is down across the board as Fortnite has ‘increasingly lumpy revenue profile’
Hey so can we just get a do-over on January and maybe February? No? Sigh. SuperData's released its January 2019 report, and surprising no one, digital games revenue is once again down on PC, console, and mobile. The analysis firm blames the console decline specifically on "tepid performance from top Premium Console franchises such as Grand Theft Auto,...
Jukebox Heroes: The 10 greatest MMO soundtracks of all time (as voted by you)
A few weeks ago we witnessed the showdown of the ages (or at least the epoch known as "late January 2019"), as Massively OP readers voted on and debated the best MMO soundtrack of all time. All Time, people. This was no trivial matter! There were links to songs, wails over particular titles being overlooked, and not a...
Bethsoft says it’s ‘fully dedicated’ to Fallout 76 as it rolls out huge roadmap for 2019
Heck yeah let's keep the Friday good news train rolling. Fallout 76 just turned 100... days! And Bethsoft has plans, people. It's just posted up its roadmap for 2019. This spring, expect multiple new quests (with merit badges and customizable backpacks), legendary vendor for scrapping, CAMP decorating, player vendors, brewing, distilling, a new in-game camera, a seasonal...
