WildStar’s relaunch as a free-to-play MMO is bearing down on us this Tuesday. This week, Carbine introduced new quality-of-life changes, gussied up its lighting, put the auction hall on hold, and opened the beta for everyone. If you’re thinking of giving the game a second chance, don’t miss either the studio’s checklist or our own tips for new and returning players.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC
Hyperspace Beacon: Six things to do before SWTOR’s Knights of the Fallen Empire launch - When Knights of the Fallen Empire launches for Star Wars: The Old Republic, certain activities will not be available in game anymore -- specifically, quests like the Makeb staged weeklies and the Nightmare achievements for Eternity Vault.…
Want to see 10 minutes of SWTOR cutscene spoilers? This is your post! - [AL:TOR]Ready for some Knights of the Fallen Empire spoilers? Gamespot has them in a new Star Wars: The Old Republic video published earlier today. The 12-minute clip boasts a tiny bit of gameplay footage, but the…
Drew Karpyshyn returns to write for Star Wars: The Old Republic - [AL:TOR]Veteran BioWare writer Drew Karpyshyn is back with the studio after leaving to pen several Star Wars novels. On his personal blog, Karpyshyn confirmed that he's been tapped to work on Star Wars: The Old Republic once…
BioWare details SWTOR’s Consular and Inquisitor changes - [AL:TOR]You can't have an MMO expansion without class changes, and Star Wars: The Old Republic's Knights of the Fallen Empire update is no exception. The 4.0 patch will give Shadows and Assassins a new ability which…
CAMELOT UNCHAINED
CSE is creating 30 classes for Camelot Unchained - Camelot Unchained's current plans are to create a whopping 30 classes for the game, which means a heck of a lot of reveals over the coming months. City State Entertainment decided to include its community in…
Camelot Unchained boss talks classes, new hires, and more - Camelot Unchained's end-of-the-week update was published earlier this weekend. Head honcho Mark Jacobs revisited the big class presentation reveal, and explained that the RvR sandbox's class system will be "a bit less symmetrical than it was…
Camelot Unchained adds new team members and injury system - It's been a big week for the folks over at Camelot Unchained, as Mark Jacobs announced that the game has added two new members to the team. Thanks to a recent stretch goal, Senior Network and…
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
TwitchCon 2015: Guild Wars 2’s Heart of Thorns trailer; the Ranger’s Druid is a healer - ArenaNet is debuting its Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns trailer today at 6 p.m. EDT on the main stage at TwitchCon. So far today, the team has been taught how to cook by Femshep and has…
Riot is working on something besides League of Legends - [AL:LOL]League of Legends developer Riot has been a one-trick pony thus far, but that may change over the next little while according to the Twitter feed of lead designer Ryan "Morello" Scott. Scott, who has also…
Exploring RIFT 3.4: Into the Wilds with Trion Worlds - Coming "really, really soon" to RIFT is the MMO's fourth major update of the year, Into the Wilds. Patch 3.4 is so big, in fact, that Trion Worlds considers it an expansion-worthy update in all but name…
Now you can watch 7 minutes of pre-alpha Crowfall PvP - How about some Crowfall PvP footage? No, it's not from one of ArtCraft's ubiquitous dev blogs, but rather from a YouTube user who captured nearly seven minutes of fighting from the fantasy title's pre-alpha Hunger Dome tests. As you…
Pay for your Hobbit’s needs in LOTRO with Subway gift cards - A revised Lord of the Rings Online cash shop is coming soon to the game with many improvements, not the least of which will be the option to pay for virtual Middle-earth accessories with (we kid you…
Guild Wars 2 designers tinker with the Scrapper - None of the elite specializations in Guild Wars 2 has been received wholly without comment or objection, and the Scrapper is no exception. Designer Irenio Calmon-Huang took to the forums recently to address player concerns, both…
Perfect Ten: Ten well-known voice actors behind SWTOR’s characters - [AL:TOR]When it launched, Star Wars: The Old Republic was one of the biggest video game voice-over projects that BioWare or any studio had ever done. It boasted over 200,000 lines of dialogue voiced by more than 200…
Funcom’s The Park shows off a trio of creepy screenshots - Funcom released a trio of new screenshots today for The Park, the upcoming Secret World single-player spin-off that's slated for release next month. The pictures show the main character, Lorraine, for the first time, as well…
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen gets a new website and new team members - It would be fair to say that Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has had something a checkered development history, but it seems to be back to full steam ahead with a brand-new website. Said site features…
Ultima Online celebrates 18th birthday, plans October 8th expansion launch - Here's a quick way to feel old: As of today, Ultima Online is old enough to vote. In celebration of its 18th birthday, Broadsword thanked players on the official site, casually dropping the October 8th release date for…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Understanding Guild Wars 2’s Mordrem Guard - [AL:GW2]If you pay attention to the images I use throughout my Flameseeker Chronicles articles, you'll notice that one of my favourite characters to include is my little Sylvari Necromancer. She's just stunning to look at, and…
EverQuest emulator Project 1999 drops new patch, prepares for 6th anniversary with permadeath - EverQuest has evolved quite a bit over the years, but some folks prefer reliving the classic experience. Project 1999 -- recently given a written go-ahead by Daybreak -- has catered to that desire for the past…
Divergence Online’s Ethan Casner on SWG 2.0, open PvP, and edgelords - Star Wars Galaxies-inspired indie sandbox Divergence Online busted out its third alpha and third crowdfunding campaign last week, prompting many of Massively OP's readers to wonder, "What the heck is Divergence Online?" That's precisely why I…
Divergence Online adds consensual PvP server stretch goal - Yesterday, we published a detailed interview with Ethan Casner, one of the devs behind Star Wars Galaxies-inspired Divergence Online. The response was more or less as expected: a comment section debating the merits and flaws of its…
Elite’s planetary landings to add ‘new activities, new enemies,’ and more - It was a big week for fans of Elite: Dangerous, as Frontier called attention to a bunch of stuff that's in the works and talked up its space sim at the EGX gaming show. The biggest deal is…
Battle.net gets Twitch integration, Overwatch gets some criminals - Do you want an easier way to stream Heroes of the Storm from the Battle.net client? Possibly in anticipation of the new skins and mounts that are in development? Good news; integration between the Battle.net client…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively Opinionated: Which MMO would be the most innovative if launched today?
The Stream Team: A first look at Otherland
The Stream Team: A Shards Online stress test
The Stream Team: 12 days of TOR, Day 3
The Stream Team: Moving along ArcheAge’s story quests
The Stream Team: Hang time with The Secret World’s hoverboards
The Stream Team: Peeking behind WildStar’s beta doors
The Stream Team: MOP ARK’s Pimp My Raft competition
The Stream Team: 12 days of TOR, day 2
The Stream Team: An Aion anniversary
The Stream Team: Hoarding EverQuest II Heritage Quests
Stream Team: 12 days of TOR, day one
The Stream Team: More story with Marvel Heroes’ Storm
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Has the WoW Token killed off illegitimate gold sellers?
The official Warcraft prequel novel is now available for pre-order
Game of Thrones intro meets Warcraft in fan video
Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the little bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
