This week, Star Wars: The Old Republic came under fire over its Dark vs. Light event, which essentially requires achievement-hunting players to roll new characters (on alt servers or with newly purchased slots, assuming their home server is full) to replay content they have already have done many times before. PvP and raiding requirements also have eyebrows quirking and historians reminding everyone of WoW’s Children’s Week’s many problems.
But hey, I can’t wait to see the EA infographic bragging about the eighty bajillion characters rolled in SWTOR!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
The MMORPGs of the Steam 2016 ‘Summer Picnic Sale’ - Get out your wallets, my darlings, because the Steam sale has arrived, and it's hungry. Yes, everyone's favorite summer event for the most frugal gamers among us has returned, tempting you…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Update 11 features Argonian theme, new dungeons, updated trials, and new hair - ZeniMax is busily teasing its plans for The Elder Scrolls Online's Update 11 today. If you're a fan of the franchise's lizard peeps, you're gonna love it. "As with our…
Star Wars: The Old Republic kicks off the Dark vs. Light Event - [AL:TOR]The current expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic has the Sith and the Jedi working together pretty closely, because it's either that or get annihilated. But let's not forget…
Star Trek Online to introduce JJ Abrams-inspired content - [AL:STO]PWE and Cryptic have confirmed today that the Star Trek Online universe will collide with the JJ Abrams lore. "Players will soon be able to journey to the alternate reality seen…
Overwatch, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft top May Superdata charts - Probably no big surprise here, but according to Superdata Research in May, Blizzard and Riot Games are still kings of the online PC gaming charts. Overwatch was the MVP of…
Funcom delays Conan Exiles’ planned September early access to January 2017 - Funcom has decided to delay the launch of Conan Exiles into next year. You might be thinking, wait, didn't Funcom only just announce a September 13th early access launch in…
Valve sued for enabling e-sports gambling with skins - According to report at Polygon this week, Valve is being sued by a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for allegedly knowingly allowing and sponsoring illegal gambling thanks apparently to Steam's OpenID…
Pantheon highlights non-instanced dungeon group gameplay - Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's livestream Thursday night took a deep look into the gameplay possible in the pre-alpha client. Visionary Realms' Brad "Aradune" McQuaid walked guests through dungeon gameplay and…
EverQuest II is getting two new servers and a $400 guildhall - Following in its older sibling's footsteps and making good on its May promises, EverQuest II has finalized its plans to introduce two new server types. Launching on June 28th, the…
Lord of the Rings Online explains how it’s building its first raid in nearly three years - [AL:LOTRO]Well here's a nice Friday surprise: A Lord of the Rings Online dev diary, all official-like! Turbine Content Designer Ryan “Pinion” Penk previews the raid content of Update 18's Throne…
Ask Mo: Was Star Wars Galaxies really that great? - This round of Ask Mo features a question from BalsBigBrother that I've shamelessly poached from the Massively OP Podcast mailbag. The truth is, we've put this question off for many,…
World of Warcraft devs want to bring more flavor to professions in Legion - A new expansion is as good an excuse as any to stir the pot and make big changes to an MMO, since players are already in the mode to adapt.…
Massively Overthinking: Is every MMORPG with a cash shop pay-to-win? - This week's Massively Overthinking comes to us from one of our dear Patreon Patrons, Duane. "There seems to be an ever broadening attitude towards what is pay-to-win. Recently I was…
Black Desert postpones its siege schedule over bugs - After numerous delays, Daum implemented the "rehearsal" version of Black Desert's siege system last week, but it's already decided to postpone the real deal. "Unfortunately the two most recent bugs have…
Guild Wars 2’s World Championship e-sports tourney will feature $200K prize pool - ArenaNet has just announced details of the Guild Wars 2 World Championship in partnership with ESL. "On Saturday, September 17, at the ESL Studios in Burbank, California, the top six…
Overwatch is tearing it up in Korea - We know that Overwatch has been more than the talk of the town, as the game almost effortlessly shot past 10 million units sold since its launch. What might not…
E3 2016: Black Desert on PvP, sieges, and lessons learned - Though Daum didn't have a booth at this year's E3, I managed to snag some time with Black Desert PR/Marketing Manager Rick van Beem. Given some of the recent rumblings about delayed content and…
Blade & Soul’s Soul Fighter update is live today - The Soul Fighter does not actually fight souls in Blade & Soul. No more than any other class, anyhow. It mostly fights with soul, and that's "soul" in the "glowing…
Trion’s Scott Hartsman speaks out against G2A: ‘Game creators of all sizes survive on your support’ - In the wake of accusations about G2A becoming a haven for unscrupulous third-party sellers to move keys bought with stolen credit cards, Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman has issued a statement regarding…
Black Desert promises fixes for last patch, plans mobile version - Friday's massive Black Desert patch was a messy one, hence this morning's minor update. The chief changes are a small nerf to tamers and a big fix for buy orders…
New players join The Elder Scrolls Online’s NA megaserver today with Japanese launch - The Elder Scrolls Online expands again today, this time with a launch in Japan. Game Director Matt Firor writes that ZeniMax and DMM have fully localized the game for the…
ArcheAge 3.0 trailer shows off Dwarf and Warborn races - [AL:Arche]Something wicked this way comes to ArcheAge -- if you define wicked by having horns, that is. The Warborn, a new race sporting some menacing-looking horns, was spotlighted in the…
Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan explains the functionality of matchmaking - Matchmaking is a big consideration for Overwatch's competitive play. Sure, it's upsetting when a Quick Play match is filled with people choosing Bastion whilst you have no support or tanks,…
Warcraft has become the most successful film adaptation of a video game - The strength of its success at the Chinese box office has led Warcraft to be the single most successful video game adaptation film to date, with its current worldwide totals…
Star Citizen changes refund clause for new backers, plans procedurally generated planets for 2.7 - There's no doubt that Star Citizen has sold a massive flotilla of ships and raised staggering amounts of money... but what if the game doesn't actually release the goods on…
Star Citizen passes 1M ships sold, $116M in crowdfunding - Star Citizen reached what Redditors are calling one of its last major milestones this weekend: 1,000,000 ships sold. The sale of the new Drake Dragonfly is also being credited with pushing…
Firefly Online’s development status is up in the atmo - Multiplayer mobile game Firefly Online was originally planned to release over a year ago. Then it delayed to work in the main cast and revamp. Last winter, the studio shut down in-app…
Star Trek Online will memorialize Anton Yelchin in-game - For those of you who missed the news, actor Anton Yelchin (best known to fans of Star Trek as Chekov in the reboot films) died this weekend in what appears…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 70: E to the three
The Stream Team: An anniversary stroll in the Star Wars Galaxies Emu
The Stream Team: A walk in ARK’s new redwoods
The Stream Team: A first look at Master X Master’s alpha weekend
The Stream Team: Making a Secret World Museum of the Occult
The Stream Team: Charades and pirates in SWTOR’s Shadow of Revan
The Stream Team: Getting on your high horse in Black Desert
The Stream Team: Elder Scrolls Online’s den of the Dark Brotherhood
The Stream Team: More Marvel Heroes Monday mayhem
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Legion profession Q&A liveblog
Game of Thrones gets the Leeroy Jenkins treatment
How to get Artifact weapons for every WoW spec
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.
