Guild Wars 2 had an interesting fourth anniversary week: A massive bug led to uncharacteristic downtime and a rollback for the game, punctuated by the arrival of birthday and anniversary gifts. Then, research firm Superdata sent the game back into the spotlight by including it on its list of top five premium PC games by revenue for the month of July, a good sign for the game after a disappointing spring. And Massively OP’s Tina delivered a smashing guide to what you ought to be doing in GW2 while awaiting the next episode of the living story.
Meanwhile? World of Warcraft: Legion launches Tuesday. It’s the deep breath before the plunge.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Superdata’s July 2016 data show Guild Wars 2 surging, Pokemon Go on top - [AL:GW2]Superdata's July report on online gaming revenues is in, and there are some predictable bits and some surprises. On the P2P MMO front, the lineup is exactly the same as…
Star Citizen 2.5 alpha is live with GrimHex base, new concept ship - Star Citizen's alpha 2.5 has officially released to live. "Star Citizen Alpha 2.5 includes significant changes to Star Citizen’s Crusader persistent universe environment," declares Cloud Imperium. "This patch, now available in…
Flameseeker Chronicles: What to do in Guild Wars 2 between season 3 episodes - [AL:GW2]Many MMOs, Guild Wars 2 included, face a well-documented but oft-unaddressed problem: What can players do to fill the time in between content gaps? The topic at hand was actually suggested by…
WoW Factor: Sticking the landing of the Legion expansion - Next week, folks, it's go time. The expansion arrives, and so forth. My impressions of the expansion will start going out on Monday, but odds are high that you already…
Why Eternal Crusade is launching on Steam first - Last week, Behaviour Interactive and Namco Bandai announced a release date for Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade -- September 23 -- but it surprised gamers by its apparent exclusion of the…
Revelation Online opens up founder’s packs for sale - [AL:Rev]If it's a free-to-play game coming out in the near future and it's got a beta schedule, you probably know enough to expect a founder's pack by now. Revelation Online…
The Daily Grind: Should MMORPG lockbox mechanics be regulated as gambling? - A reader named Paul recently wrote to us wondering why RNG lockboxes aren't considered gambling. Oh sure, we call them gambleboxes, but the government -- at least here in the…
Dark and Light confirms a buy-to-play, sub-free business model - Community confusion over Dark and Light's payment model was cleared up on Snail Games' Facebook page earlier this evening: The rereleased sandbox will indeed be a buy-to-play title without a…
Roleplay-centric MMORPG Ever, Jane waltzes into open beta - 3 Turn Productions announced this afternoon that Ever, Jane is officially in open beta. Yes, this is the roleplayer-centric, Jane Austen-themed MMORPG, complete with housing, storylines, carriages, and dancing. "Ever,…
Perfect Ten: My favorite features in RIFT - [AL:Rift]RIFTÂ receives too little of the MMORPG community's attention, partially due to its age (six years now), contentious feelings toward Trion Worlds, or a perception that the game is "generic World…
Nintendo sends condolences to family of woman killed by Pokemon Go-playing driver - In yesterday's Pokemon Go post, we alluded to an awful car accident in Japan caused by a truck driver who admitted to playing Pokemon Go while driving. He plowed into…
Black Desert plans to roll out all Awakenings by the end of the year - Whatever your choice of class in Black Desert, you have an Awakening waiting. The game's native Korean version has been steadily rolling out Awakening options for each class, while the…
Wargaming partners with Steven Seagal, shutters mobile studio with mass layoffs - [AL:WoWS]Wargaming has brought on actor and martial artist Steven Seagal to be World of Warships' "personal Heroic Battle Advisor." "Claiming victory in World of Warships takes more than raw power,"…
Funcom warns of system-wide forum data breach - A blaze of Twitter messages has just erupted to inform Funcom's community that all of its game forums have been breached by hackers and user information should be considered compromised. The…
EVE Online players have taken out a Keepstar, the largest citadel in the game - [AL:EVE]CCP has confirmed today that players have destroyed the first Keepstar ever in EVE Online. Keepstars are basically the largest player-built citadels -- the largest anything -- in the entire game.…
DC Universe Online’s GU63 brings new Suicide Squad content, tutorial skipping, and lockboxes - [AL:DCUO]Game Update 63 has landed on the DC Universe Online servers this week, and it's a smallish one, but that won't surprise longtime players, who already know that Daybreak switched…
Overwatch spawns a mysterious ARG teasing Sombra - Overwatch fans have been chasing clues this month in what appears to be a Blizzard-backed viral ARG revolving around Sombra, the character teased earlier this month. The Overwatch forums played host…
League of Legends community clashes with Riot over e-sports, patches, and money - [AL:LOL]It's no surprise when drama crops up in a gaming community of millions, especially when professional e-sports and money are involved. So it goes this week, as Riot Games'Â response to…
Pokemon Go’s popularity appears to be waning - The mobile ARG powerhouse of Pokémon Go appears to be losing players, and not just drivers who hit people due to focusing on the game instead of the road. Data…
EverQuest II gives away free level 95 heroic characters and the Altar of Malice expansion - Fans of free stuff (and who isn't, really?) are going to really enjoy what's coming out of EverQuest II this week. Daybreak is running a couple of promotions designed to…
Hyperspace Beacon: Who is Star Wars The Old Republic’s Emperor Valkorion? - [AL:TOR]I took a look back at some of my previous Hyperspace Beacons and noticed that I have really never talked about the Sith Emperor, who has been the primary focus of…
ZeniMax amends Oculus lawsuit to accuse Carmack of stealing documents and tech - Back in 2014, ZeniMax Media filed a lawsuit accusing Palmer Luckey's Oculus of essentially stealing trade secrets, code, and intellectual property in the development of the Oculus Rift VR platform. At…
Star Trek Online finally makes a classic T6 Connie available — in a lockbox - [AL:STO]If you've waded in the waters of Star Trek Online's community for any length of time, you'll no doubt have noticed that there's a repeated request (almost a refrain) that…
Exploring Japan’s Pokemon Go culture - As some readers may know, I've spent the last few years in Japan trying to tackle the local gaming scene, online and off. While Japan may be the birthplace of…
Wisdom of Nym: Three years since Final Fantasy XIV’s relaunch - [AL:FFXIV]When the last anniversary rolled around, we were coming off of an expansion launch for Final Fantasy XIV, one of the smoothest launches I can imagine. This year, we're sliding…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW’s Legion invasions are now spawning six at a time
Emerald Nightmare launches September 20, Mythic and LFR a week later
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.
