Gamescom this week started out as a dud for MMORPG players but ended with a bang: We got a release date for Eternal Crusade, huge presentations from Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous, and a tease for The Elder Scrolls Online’s One Tamriel. Hint: It’s lockboxes.
Meanwhile, Legion is bearing down on us all.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
WOW: LEGION
WoW Factor: Fighting against the Legion and the end of the world
World of Warcraft further tweaks invasion XP, gives a sneak ‘peak’ of Highmountain
Gamescom 2016: WoW Legion’s first patch, Return to Karazhan, will include 5-man Kara
Blizzard makes radical adjustments to World of Warcraft invasion XP
World of Warcraft: Legion’s Azsuna is a ‘broken land’
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Gamescom: Elder Scrolls Online on lockboxes, the gold edition, and One Tamriel - A Redditor who attended The Elder Scrolls Online's tavern event at this year's Gamescom snagged over half an hour of shaky-cam footage and a run-down of some of the Q&A…
Eternal Crusade is launching on September 23 for PC - Eternal Crusade's launch date nears. Behaviour Interactive announced in a press release this evening that it is "launching in the Americas for PCs on September 23, 2016, with the console…
Gamescom 2016: Star Citizen’s annual presentation - Gamescom will once again play host to Star Citizen's annual presentation today. Kicking off at 3 p.m. EDT (when this post first goes live!), the event will see Chris Roberts recap and…
Former H1Z1 developers join John Smedley’s Pixelmage Games - John Smedley's Pixelmage Games has gotten a few devs richer at H1Z1's expense. Massively OP reader Kinya pointed us to the Twitter feeds of Steve George, Paul Carrico, and Timothy…
Massively Overthinking: The best combat systems in MMORPGs - One of the big problems in the MMORPG genre as I see it is game studios' inclination to prioritize combat above all else, turning what once was a genre stuffed…
Gamescom 2016: Elite Dangerous demos Port Variant and route plotting - Frontier has a bundle of new Elite Dangerous videos out in honor of Gamescom. First up is the newest pair: a look at the upcoming Port Variant, a gorgeous space station…
Lost Ark takes you on a sumptuous visual journey - There's a new eight-minute trailer out for Lost Ark, and if you'll pardon a mild spoiler, it's flat-out amazing. It's almost as if the trailer needed eight full minutes to…
Brad McQuaid: Pantheon will put the ‘E’ back in PvE - Time to feast on the bounty of a rich Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen AMA on /r/MMORPG, courtesy of creator Brad McQuaid. Yesterday, McQuaid tackled dozens of community questions during…
This French village has had enough of Pokemon Go’s anarchy - People around the globe are becoming less and less amused with the messes created in their neighborhoods by Niantic's Pokemon Go app. The AP reports that the mayor of Bressolles,…
Gamescom 2016: Black Desert’s video avalanche - Black Desert devs have unloaded a bundle of new trailers on Gamescom-goers and -watchers alike. Let's take a look! First up is a two-parter from Pearl Abyss (with English subtitles)…
Gamescom 2016: Bungie previews Destiny’s Rise of Iron DLC - Get ready, pseudo-MMO players: Destiny's Rise of Iron DLC-expansion lands on September 20th on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and Bungie's at Gamescom this week to show it up. The…
Sea of Thieves sees Xbox and PC as ‘equal partners’ - When Sea of Thieves releases, it won't just be on console; Rare is developing the game for both the Xbox One and Windows 10. In a new developer video, the…
Das Tal changes its name to The Exiled - What's a Das Tal anyway? You won't have to worry about the meaning of Fairytale Distillery's German moniker any longer, as the studio has officially changed its upcoming game's name to The Exiled.…
The Elder Scrolls Online’s Shadows of the Hist DLC is live on console - The Shadows of the Hist DLC released to Elder Scrolls Online players on PC earlier this month is live for console players on PS4 and Xbox One today. The update introduces…
Neverwinter: Storm King’s Thunder is live today - [AL:NW]Ready to team up with some big heroes and slay some big enemies? Neverwinter's next expansion, Storm King's Thunder, is live today, tasking players with facing off against the frost…
Hyperspace Beacon: The five sins of roleplay in Star Wars The Old Republic (or any MMORPG) - [AL:TOR]I know that I have complained quite a bit about what Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn’t have, but I still play the game. However, a large chunk of my…
Pokemon Go: Michigan couple sues over game’s impact on private property - Pokemon Go is the subject of yet another lawsuit: A Michigan couple is suing Niantic, Nintendo, and the Pokemon Company in federal court. The pair say that a Pokestop and…
Dual Universe explains its server technology in a new video - There will be only one shard for Dual Universe players when the game finally launches, and it's going to be big. Heck, it's going to be outright huge, and it's…
Wisdom of Nym: What I’d like to see (and probably won’t) in the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion - [AL:FFXIV]One of the things I do in this column, at times, is stomp on dreams. It's not really an intended function, but it's one of those things that I can't…
Trove wrangles the Dino Tamer into its class roster - [AL:Trove]Trove has been cultivating a reputation as a game with a diverse array of pretty awesome classes, so there's always that pressure to do itself one better with future additions.…
RIFT covers Starfall Prophecy’s Gedlo Badlands - [AL:Rift]"The land is almost barren, and harsh. No soft and nourishing forests, no comforting leafy shade. You'll be glad to hear that there are no rivers of lava, raging wildfires…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 78: Hot dog!
Battle Bards Episode 80: Aura Kingdom
The Stream Team: Bear necessities in ARK
The Stream Team: SWTOR’s Revan hunt moves to Yavin
The Stream Team: My second day in Shroud of the Avatar
The Stream Team: Learning to love melee in Black Desert
The Stream Team: Marvel Heroes’ story gets level scaling
The Stream Team: Exploring Evolve
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Emerald Nightmare to open three weeks after Legion’s launch
Dave Kosak: “Artifacts will be a Legion-specific thing”
Know Your Lore: Who is Jaina Proudmoore?
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.
