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. See any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!
This week we’ll see a bizarre MOBA/adult cartoon crossover, a special character that you can only play for two months, a sexism-free MMO, and more videos than you can shake a stick at (provided that your stick-shaking capabilities are limited to five).
New Games
- Asker: This dungeon crawler title just went into open beta in Korea on August 18th. Check out its new trailer below!
- Order and Chaos 2: This sequel is slated for a September release and announced a new race (the reptilian Kratan) as well as a new class (the Blood Knight).
- Gunslinger Stratos Reloaded: This action-heavy PvP game recently went into open beta in Japan, with only a Japanese Square-Enix account required to play.
- Devilian: In a new producer’s letter, Trion said that alpha is coming soon and that the team is working with the developers to make significant changes for western audiences.
Patches
- MapleStory: For a limited time, players can roll up a Pink Bean character with some wacky skills. Don’t get too attached, as all Pink Beans will be deleted on October 7th. [Patch notes]
Events
- Elsword: This colorful MMO is in the middle of its summer Pro-Am Tournament with 2v2 match eliminations culminating in finals on August 28th.
- Ultima Online: As UO nears its newest expansion, players are urged to seek out in-game events that will lead into the new content.
Odds and Ends
- Dota 2: Fans of the Adult Swim cartoon Rick & Morty can now purchase an announcer pack for the game featuring their voices. Because everything is possible when you have a portal gun!
- Eleven: While you might not have a ticket into this Glitch remake, the next best thing might be reading this post about what it’s like to play the beta (warning: extreme enthusiasm ahead).
- Villagers and Heroes: In the game’s weekly community update, players give testimonials about how the title is relatively sexist- and misogyny-free.
- Skyforge: The game recognized server first achievements on North American and European servers, giving players the rare title of Primordial God.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Season Six PvP rewards were teased in a new dev blog.
- Do violent video games cause real-life violence? The eternal debate continues with the American Psychological Association claiming a link while others refute the conclusion.
- Jonesing for a mobile game that perfectly replicates healing a raid in an MMO? Little Healer is for you!
Videos
Mabinogi Heroes, the Korean version of Vindictus, just put out its Season 3 Episode 4 release with a brand-new villain. Take a look:
Get an eyeful of Asker with this lavish anime trailer:
Check out what character creation looks like in the upcoming Order and Chaos 2:
So let’s get a closer look at that Gunslinger Stratos Reloaded, shall we?
Grepolis has a new Spartan Assassins Event coming and gave us a dev rundown of how it’ll work:
Rick and Morty a hundred years
Vexia Except feminists these days are going too effin’ far. Case in point: a witch hunt for the comet-landing guy (a person more clever and useful than any feminist can ever hope to be) because of his wardrobe decision. That’s the thing: they have no sense of measure, they just cut off everything that doesn’t fit their neatly boxed worldview. And the worst thing: they’re never gonna stop now. They’ve tasted the blood. They’re gonna be pestering us for decades to come, inventing arbitrary rules, raising senseless demands and justifying them with “sexism” claims.
Feminism used to be a noble cause. But that was thirty years ago. Today, it’s just another facet of the “distributed oppression” we impose on ourselves. And the global picture is getting quite nasty, quite fast.
Peregrine_Falcon wjowski Sorenthaz ManastuUtakataÂ
What drivel. This /tinfoil screed doesn’t really qualify a quality answer. And men biologically programmed to sexist is one of more sexist claims I seem made against men. Got to give you the bonus points for shooting down your own kind in the name of dissing this Perceived Correctness. /shrug
wjowski Sorenthaz ManastuUtakata – Fallacy of “How is it possible to be sexist toward IMAGINARY characters”?
Answer: Not possible.
Guys buy video games. Guys like seeing scantily dressed women. No one is harmed by seeing scantily dressed imaginary characters in a video game. Go be upset about women being murdered in middle eastern countries for having the audacity to learn to drive and quit trying make everything that men enjoy doing illegal and/or socially unacceptable.
Siphaed ManastuUtakata DystopiqÂ
I agree. But not everyone appreciates that. Especially when they’ve been brought in more linear plot narratives.
You should read the manga, as it builds the plot process at a Lord of The Rings pacing. But it eventually rewards the reader with epic explosive conflicts. It’s a manga you have to really patient in. I think the patience is worth it.
ManastuUtakata Siphaed DystopiqÂ
But it’s good to drop in and work backwards. That way it doesn’t just give away a clearly obvious “oh, that guy is the bad guy, that guy is the good guy, and this ending can be seen a mile away!” as so many Western shows and movies do.  K did a great job of that by not providing who killed the guy until the end with the super twist of the King’s power; starting off with a murder and ending with the who, what, and why of said murder.  Psycho-Pass did it as well by dropping us into a system of control someone was trying to take down, only at the end to find out what and why this system of control was and reasons behind the take-down attempt.Â
And yes, World Trigger is amazing. Although there are a few episodes that they do drag it out a bit. But my biggest gripes are the childish animation recaps at the end of the episode and the randomness of the introduction music video being placed somewhere midway through an episode (instead of the beginning). But even with these faults, the show still has a great character development, plot devices, and story arches. I actually felt super sad when Replica died at the end of the invasion. Why, Replica, why?!
Madda boredinBC Siphaed ArbiterLibera Well I watched the first season today and thought it was pretty hilarious.  You are bang on with your description of it :)
Sorenthaz Peregrine_FalconÂ
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation
Siphaed DystopiqÂ
World Trigger is absolutely amazing. But I digress…
…the problem with much of plotting of anime and as well with manga in where I come from, is that is drops the audience into a middle of the plot, as opposed to the beginning. And works it way backwards to explain itself, while working forwards at the same time. As well, it looks the villains as opponents that can be redeemed, as opposed to just the bad guys, creating a narrative where there is no true evil, just a really messed up situation in a messed up world. So this kinda throws a lot of people for loops and loop-de-loops, creating a lot of confusion for particularly among the “paying attention” challenged. So I sympathise and appreciate that this medium is an acquired love for likely most outside of it.
Dystopiq Guess that’s a matter of opinion. If you’re talking about the anime exclusively, then yeah I do agree there. At least they chose a stopping point to allow the manga to further progress the story (due to the manga only releasing one 45-ish page chapter per month).  But the manga has kept up a pretty good pace in my opinion and each chapter usually adds significant development of some sort.