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 get an in-depth look at Skyforge’s newest raid, a 10th anniversary for Silkroad Online, new ships for Star Trek Online, and more!
New Games and Testing
- Wild Terra: A new alpha patch added a ton more localization, battering rams, and faster load times. Vietnamese players can even try the game out on their own test server.
- Eternal City 3 Online: The Japanese beta for this title will go into open beta — or soft launch, if you will — on October 16th.
- EVE Valkyrie: You can pre-order the first edition of the new Dark Horse comic book series that is serving as a prologue for this upcoming title. Issue #1 is coming out on October 14th.
- Black Desert: Mounts that can carry two players at a time? Looks like this game will have them!
Patches
- Skyforge: The game’s third raid, Operation Medea, is now open for business, but players who think that this will be the same as the other two raids should heed the advice of this developer preview, as the team says it’s the most difficult of them all. Skyforge also posted an explanation as to what victor’s medals are and how to get them.
- Elder Scrolls Online: Meet King Kurog, a major Orc leader in the upcoming Orsinium DLC pack.
Events and Contests
- Final Fantasy XI: The Gala Battle campaigns (that’s right, plural) kicked off yesterday and will run until October 31st. There are a lot of extra rewards to be earned through these, so check them out!
- Silkroad Online: This MMO is celebrating its 10th birthday with a month-long party for its playerbase that includes a level 70+ dungeon and several events. [Thanks to Ciciro for the tip!]
- Ingress: Google’s ARG is hosting a series of contests in 28 cities around the world that run from October 10th through December 12th. [Thanks to Nordavind for the tip!]
- Dark Age of Camelot: The Otherworlds campaign has moved into chapter 7, bringing the final zone of the event into play.
Odds and Ends
- Business models: Wargaming’s Ramin Shokrizade wrote a piece of advice on how to create an “oasis” for whales in the midst of gaming deserts. “So what is the solution?” he asks. “Build content that meets the needs of your consumers. Link it with a F2P monetization model that does not rely on threat generation. It’s that simple.” [Thanks to Jes for the tip!]
- Star Trek Online: There are a trio of new tier 6 ships warping into the game, and you can check out the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan versions before deciding whether or not to buy.
- World of Warcraft: Community Manager Chad “Crithto” Wingerd has left Blizzard after eight years wrangling the players.
- Voice Actors: Hollywood’s voice acting guild has voted to go on strike. How will this affect MMOs that utilize voice talents? That remains to be seen.