MMO Week in Review: The next big wuxia MMO (September 13, 2015)

September 13, 2015 8:00 PM

Were you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!

Good news for those of you who love wuxia but haven’t glommed onto the existing wuxia MMOs: Blade & Soul is still on the way, sooner than you might have dreamed. While NCsoft’s epic action-combat MMO is still slated for an early 2016 launch, the closed beta begins next month.

Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.

ARCHEAGE

ArcheAge Heroes Awaken got up, hit snooze, and went back to sleep - If you've already been waiting since Thursday for ArcheAge's Heroes Awaken patch to launch and server merges to go live, prepare to wait some more. The launch, originally planned for 4 p.m. EDT this afternoon, was stymied…

ArcheAge patches in Heroes Awaken, reveals server merge compensation - As of the writing of this post, ArcheAge players are twiddling their thumbs during a two-day period of downtime during which several of the game's servers are being merged and the Heroes Awaken 2.0 update is…

ArcheAge goes offline for two days for 2.0 and server merges - ArcheAge is beginning its great 48-hour blackout today as Trion Worlds rolls out Update 2.0 while simultaneously merging several servers in its "evolution" initiative. "It made more sense to do this all at the same time so we'd…

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Guild Wars 2 Mordrem event stumbles - A brief Guild Wars 2 pre-expansion event featuring new baddies Mordrem has stumbled right out of the gate. Players have reported numerous bugs, problems with the structure of the event, and issues with receiving proper rewards.…

Otherland opens its early access doors today - Does Otherland hold potential to be an immersive MMO? Fans today will get to find out as the title opens up its early access testing on Steam. The sci-fi MMO is adopting a buy-to-play model, and as…

Camelot Unchained’s procedurally generated terrain build runs for over 100 hours - This evening's Camelot Unchained update has some good news regarding the recently concluded "100 hours of glory." In a nutshell, the fantasy RvR title's servers ran for 113 consecutive hours without a hitch, which is impressive…

Nexus Telegraph: WildStar takes on Halloween with Shade’s Eve - While I can't decide if Halloween is my favorite real-life holiday (it's close, no matter what), I have no doubt that the spooky ooky season is the catalyst for some of my favorite MMORPG events. Developers…

Why I Play: Final Fantasy XIV - We used to do a column called Why I Play on Massively-that-was, and while I didn't originally plan on rezzing it here today, I did return to Eorzea this week and have been enjoying the hell out of…

Asheron’s Call comes back online after weeks of downtime - After over two weeks of being offline due to a data center move, Asheron's Call is back in business. "The Asheron's Call worlds have reopened!" Turbine announced. "We thank you for your patience during this extended…

RPG MO whips up an indie free-to-play sandbox - Someone must not have spread the word that "Mo" is our thing, but that's OK; we're not jealous. Apparently there's a new indie MMO on the block called RPG MO, which is now available to experience as…

Crowfall raises another million, previews collector’s edition - While the central narrative of Crowfall focuses around an all-consuming Hunger that demolishes everything, Crowfall's development studio seems to be on the upswing rather than swiftly decaying. The studio has raised another $1 million in post-Kickstarter…

Destiny sold 6.3 million copies its first month - How successful was Destiny's September 2014 launch? Pretty successful, by most measuring sticks. Bungie moved 6.3 million copies of its sci-fantasy shooter in the first month, according to IGN, which cites published court documents from Bungie's recent legal dust-up…

Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2 raiding factsheet - [AL:GW2]If you're anything like me, you'll have been bursting at the seams to find out what shape the promised "challenging group content" will take in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. We now know that raids…

Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior changes aren’t bad - It's been two weeks since I visited Star Wars: The Old Republic in this column, and it's clear that two weeks is far too long to stay away from a game that will launch an expansion in…

Check out more than half an hour of Crowfall’s current test version - Crowfall is transparent. Not in the sense that you can see right through it, but in the sense that the development process is open and allows players a thorough look behind the curtain. The game is…

Bungie loses lawsuit to ex-Destiny composer - Ex-Destiny composer Martin O'Donnell has prevailed in a lengthy legal battle with developer Bungie. The company must restore O'Donnell's stock holdings and pay what it owes its former composer under its profit-sharing plan. O'Donnell, who in…

The Repopulation closes a test server to prepare for a hardcore shard - It's both an ending and a new beginning: The Repopulation is closing down one of its test servers today, but this is being done to make way for a new hardcore server. "We are bringing the server…

Here are a ton of tidbits about World of Warcraft: Legion - You've got questions about World of Warcraft: Legion. Of course you do. And Blizzard knows that it's got you on the hook, which is why the studio is going to make you anticipate every drip and…

Gazillion shares more about the recent Marvel Heroes layoffs - During a David Brevik's weekly Marvel Heroes livestream, the Gazillion CEO confirmed two of the casualties of last week's layoffs. The two employees among those who have parted ways are Creative Director Jeff "Doomsaw" Donais and Items…

TERA is revamping its starting experience - [AL:TERA]After three years of operation in North America, TERA is overdue for a new starting experience. The most recent producer's letter for the game promises precisely that in the near future, along with the first community-designed…

Perfect Ten: The top 10 craziest skills in Project Gorgon - It's no secret that many of us in the Massively OP office have a little bit of a game crush on Project Gorgon. Personally, I fell in love with the game when I discovered that it…

GTA Online sees 8 million players per week, freemode events coming soon - Grand Theft Auto Online is getting "new advancements in open world gameplay" next week, according to the Rockstar news wire. Freemode events are exactly what they sound like: overworld activities with no lobbies, load times, or…

Chaos Theory: Tips and tactics for The Secret World’s Manufactory dungeon - After my initial dev tour through The Secret World's Issue #12 , I couldn't wait to get back into the newest dungeon, The Manufactory, on my own Illuminati. Heck, I was so excited that I went…

RIFT previews the playstyle and souls of the Primalist - RIFT has done pretty well for itself with four specific callings since launch, and that means that the Primalist has a lot to live up to. It has to feel like it's something very different right…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS