Welcome, everyone, to the biggest week of MMO gaming of the year. The high point of 2015? You’re standing on it, so enjoy the view. Guild Wars 2 launched Heart of Thorns on Friday, celebrating 7 million accounts — check out MOP’s Tina Lauro’s ongoing launch diary for the scoop. Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion released for early access subscribers, followed up by an impressions piece and spoiler-heavy video by our SWTOR expert, Larry Everett. And hot on the heels of its controversial skillpoint trading announcement, EVE Online leaped into its Las Vegas con, where MOP’s Brendan Drain is reporting back on the upcoming Citadel expansion.
Oh yeah, and because that’s not enough insanity for one week, Halloween is right around the corner, so expect an avalanche of Halloween events in all your favorite MMOs, plus our traditional roundup of all the festivities. In the meantime, read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions!
GUILD WARS 2: HEART OF THORNS LAUNCH
Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launch diary: Initial impressions
Guild Wars 2 celebrates 7 million accounts as Heart of Thorns arrives
Get ready for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns with checklist, interactive trailer
Massively Overthinking: WildStar, Guild Wars 2, and MMO raiding in 2015
Guild Wars 2 recaps raids, PvP leagues, and legendary weapons
Guild Wars 2 details its upcoming action camera
Guild Wars 2 talks post-Heart of Thorns PvP
Guild Wars 2 shows off its new action camera
Here are 10 compelling reasons to get excited about Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Guild Wars 2 rebounds dramatically in Raptr’s September rankings
SWTOR: KNIGHTS OF THE FALLEN EMPIRE LAUNCH
EVE VEGAS 2015
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
EVE Vegas 2015: Citadel expansion details revealed - CCP promised some big reveals at EVE Vegas 2015 and so far it has definitely delivered. In yesterday's EVE Online keynote speech, we heard concrete details on the big Spring 2016 expansion and some other cool stuff…
WoW Factor: A decade of Blizzard’s bad habits - The funny thing about World of Warcraft - and I should note here that I'm using "funny" in this case as a synonym for "odd" rather than "hilarious" - is that the game has been around…
Star Citizen releases version 1.3 and a development update - Cloud Imperium released a couple of Star Citizen updates last night, both in game and on its website. First up is version 1.3, which is now available for download through the launcher and which represents a…
Wakfu rolls back EU server to June - Call it the mother of all rollbacks. A series of technical issues has resulted in massive amounts of lost data on Wakfu's EU Elbor server, requiring a shutdown of the server and a rollback to June 21st.…
ArcheAge bans blockades, griefers cry about it - Those crazy ArcheAge kids, always mucking up the works! The latest bit of fantasy sandpark drama comes to us courtesy of the game's official forum, where Trion laid the smack down on griefers who were blocking…
LotRO’s Siege of Minas Tirith update ‘coming soon’ - Turbine has published a website update that previews Lord of the Rings Online's Update 17, otherwise known as the Siege of Minas Tirith. The patch will add three new areas, two epic battles, new story quests,…
Camelot Unchained reveals its Shapeshifter classes - I think I found my preferred class in Camelot Unchained. It's called the Black Rider, and "while their attacks may not be as physically powerful as those of their opposing realms’ counterparts, their ability to spread…
Sword Coast Legends has officially launched today - After a couple of delays over the past few months, Sword Coast Legends is now live on Steam and officially celebrating launch with a lengthy list of patch notes. The star of the launch patch is the…
‘Hardcore Russian’ MMO Sphere 3 aims at open beta - Do you often find yourself bemoaning the carebear environment of current MMOs and missing the "good old days" of unrelenting player killing across virtual worlds? Then one new Russian title might be your savior: Sphere 3:…
Extra Credits explains Bartle’s Taxonomy and its application - The generally excellent Extra Credits series occasionally touches on MMORPGs and their various systems has a pair of new videos out that might be of interest to you. The first explores Bartle's Taxonomy, which you might…
Nexus Telegraph: The problem with WildStar’s paths – and how to fix them - When the path system was first revealed close to WildStar's initial announcement, it was presented as a major tentpole of the game to set it apart from the rest of the MMO pack. Somewhat loosely based…
Funcom is fined by Norwegian authorities - In January of last year, Funcom was subject to a raid by Økokrim, the Norwegian agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting financial crimes. The company complied with the investigation, and the long-delayed penalty of that particular…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Online games and internet addiction - Massively OP's overview of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt's book The Video Game Debate last month was just the beginning of our coverage of the topics contained within it. I advised MMO players and writers to pick up the…
Final Fantasy XIV previews the new dungeons of patch 3.1 - [AL:FFXIV]It's all right if you're tired of running Neverreap in Final Fantasy XIV; everyone is at this point. So it's a good thing that the game's next patch is bringing two fresh dungeons for players to…
Check out some footage of planetary landing in Elite: Dangerous - Space may very well be the final frontier, but it's the planets within space that get your imagination going. Elite: Dangerous is letting players touch down on planets with its first major expansion, and we've got…
Ascent’s lead dev offers insight on the Star Citizen controversy - Last week, the Massively OP podcast hosted guest James Hicks, the developer behind impressive indie space sandbox MMO Ascent: The Space Game. You won't be surprised to learn that the kind of insane dev who takes…
Chaos Theory: Sneaking into The Park with Joel Bylos - Decisions, decisions. When you are invited to a special sneak peek of The Park, the upcoming single-player game based on The Secret World's own Atlantic Island Amusement Park, guided by Joel Bylos, the very guy who…
Linkin Park to perform at BlizzCon - BlizzCon 2015 has its big closing act: Linkin Park. The rock group has signed on to perform a concert for Blizzard's community on Saturday night, November 7th. As with most of the convention's coverage, fans who can't…
Camelot Unchained reveals its heavy fighters - Next up on Camelot Unchained's class reveal docket is the upcoming MMO's heavy fighters, a brutal group of muscled pain that will be sure to ruin an enemy's day. As with the other reveals to date,…
Someone camped Black Desert’s Harpy Queen boss for 10 hours to bring you this vid - Steparu camped a Black Desert world boss for 10 hours so that he could record a gameplay video of it, and the results have been posted on his website for all to see. Pearl Abyss recently…
TERA welcomes new players with a video guide - [AL:TERA]Every MMO has its own quirks that other games simply don't possess, and TERA is no exception. Sure, you're familiar with the basics of logging on to a game client and naming your character, but there…
Leaderboard: Are you worried about the westernization of Black Desert? - I've been looking forward to Black Desert for quite a long while. Sure, the B2P-with-an-item-mall business model dampens my enthusiasm, but I'm still keen on exploring the game's open world and seeing if one of the few…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 34: Rollbacks and breakups
The Stream Team: Haunting Halloween builds in Landmark
The Stream Team: Raising baby dinos in ARK
The Stream Team: An anniversary excursion in Path of Exile
The Stream Team: Win a Wizard101 Jewel Crafter’s Bundle while playing with devs
The Stream Team: Soaking up the Halloween spirit in The Secret World
The Stream Team: WildStar’s Back to the Future Day hoverboard races
The Stream Team: Exploring EverQuest II’s pre-expansion and killer bunny events
The Stream Team: 12 Days of TOR, Day 12
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Activision Blizzard creates new e-sports division
What’s new in WoW’s Hallow’s End 2015
The revival of Valor Points in WoW
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 Monday’s Not So Massively for MOBA and multiplayer news, 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.
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