MMO Week in Review: Farewell to WoW’s old guard (September 18, 2016)

September 18, 2016 8:00 PM

Were you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!

Already reeling from Rob Pardo’s new studio announcement and the sudden retirement of Chris Metzen, fans of Blizzard and World of Warcraft were further stunned this week by a small exodus of developers adding their resignations — from Blizzard, the WoW team, or both — to the pile.

Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 is prepping for its living story episode drop this week, H1Z1: King of the Kill delayed its launch, and Marvel Heroes surprised its playerbase by announcing a significant streamlining plan for its characters and gameplay. Cue the “dumbing down” comments.

Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Tamriel Infinium: Why I’m sold on Elder Scrolls Online’s One Tamriel - It hasn't taken me long to fall in love with One Tamriel. This Elder Scrolls Online team has a distinct understanding of what makes this game an Elder Scrolls game, and…

Chris Metzen departs Blizzard, World of Warcraft for retirement - Chris Metzen announced this evening that he is leaving Blizzard and "retiring" -- and he says he means it. Formally Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, Metzen…

Marvel Heroes is getting a massive simplification overhaul - Marvel Heroes is due for a massive overhaul, one Gazillion is calling "the biggest systems update in the history of" the game. Lead Systems Designer TheArtofRawr says the team is…

Check out Guild Wars 2’s Rising Flames trailer - [AL:GW2]The second episode of Guild Wars 2's third living story season is almost here, and now we know its name: Rising Flames. The episode launches September 20th and takes players away…

Perfect Ten: The worst-squandered IPs in online gaming - There are always going to be differences in opinion about what should be done with an IP based upon a franchise. That's just natural. The same core universe could be…

Solo players are welcomed to Craglorn with The Elder Scrolls Online’s One Tamriel - When Craglorn first arrived in The Elder Scrolls Online back in 2014, it had a robust selection of content for max-level grouped players and a constant radiating wave of death…

WoW Factor: Assessing the zones of WoW Legion’s Broken Isles - I've now made my way through all of the zones in World of Warcraft: Legion twice. There's something to be written about that, which I think is at once a…

Final Fantasy XIV drops a trailer for patch 3.4 - [AL:FFXIV]Ready to see what awaits Eorzea with the end of the Dragonsong War? Final Fantasy XIV's next major patch drops on September 27th, and as is the custom, a new…

Crowfall team answers dozens of community questions, confirms beta 1 players will test this year - Crowfall fans are in for a long, tall drink of information this weekend, poured straight from the minds of creators J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton. The pair sat down for…

WoW loses three more developers: Craig Amai, Tyson Murphy, and James Waugh - Looks like Blizzard has lost more than just Chris Metzen this week; MMO Champion reports that World of Warcraft Lead Quest Designer Craig Amai has departed that team. Adding to that…

Elite Dangerous’ 2.2 The Guardians hits PC beta next week - Frontier announced in this morning's newsletter that the beta for Elite: Dangerous' 2.2 patch, dubbed The Guardians, will kick off next week. "We’re thrilled to let you know that you’ll be…

H1Z1 delays King of the Kill launch, opts to stay in early access for a while longer - Last we heard, H1Z1 was getting ready to officially launch its PvP title, King of the Kill, on September 20th. Well, plans have changed, and the producers have elected to…

Paladins hits open beta on Steam today – pick up a Cassie key from Hi-Rez and MOP - It's official: Hi-Rez's shooter hybrid Paladins is leaping into open beta on Steam today, complete with Steam achievements! "Some of the newest features of the Paladins Open Beta include a new…

Self-driving cars are learning to drive with Grand Theft Auto - So it turns out that people were right when they said that self-driving cars were a terrible idea. We were all in favor of them; it seemed like a nice…

Chaos Theory: Tips for returning to The Secret World for Halloween - It's almost that time of year -- the best time of year! It's the most wonderful time of the year in fact, especially in The Secret World. Halloween is coming!…

Guild Wars 2’s Ember Bay is over-the-top metal - [AL:GW2]When Rising Flames launches on Tuesday, Guild Wars 2 players will be transported to the Ring of Fire island chain first introduced in Guild Wars: Prophecies. Goodbye, jungle; hello, volcanoes!…

CCP Games: ‘We are going to run the company from London’ - MCVUK reports this morning that CCP Games has opened a brand-new studio in London. In fact, as CEO Hilmar Pétursson puts it, "We are going to run the company from…

Atlas Reactor: Blur trailer, September 30 head-start, October 4 launch - [AL:Atlas]Turn-based strategy MOBA Atlas Reactor is launching for real on October 4th on both Steam and Trion's Glyph platform, the studio announced in a press release this morning. You'll be paying $19.99…

Mark Kern’s Ember pays for a mining mech with its latest crowdfunding campaign - Ex-Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern has taken to Indiegogo once more to finance his promised "massive planetary wargame," Ember. This second trip to gamers' wallets is part of Kern's…

Pokemon Go has dropped 79% of its players, but it’s still making money - The number of people playing Pokémon Go has declined by 79% since its peak, according to market analysis firm Slice Intelligence. That's a pretty enormous drop, moving the title from…

Sea of Thieves is proud of its fluffy clouds - Pirates in Sea of Thieves might be traveling on the game's gorgeous water for the most part, but it will always be under a picturesque, painterly sky. In a new…

Neverwinter claims ’12 million players’ across all platforms - [update]Update: PWE has confirmed to Massively OP by email that the 12 million players refers to registrations.[/update] Neverwinter has dinged up to 12 million players, according to a report on…

Today’s Black Desert patch awakens the Sorceress, beer festival - It's patch day in Black Desert! Kakao's sandbox has just returned from its morning maintenance, fully patched up with the Sorceress awakening, first revealed to Korean players late last year:…

Electronic Arts consolidates studios under one roof – including BioWare - Huge changes are afoot for mega-publisher Electronic Arts, which announced this week that it is bringing several studios under one roof "to strengthen [its] studios and technology platform." EA Worldwide Studios…

Jukebox Heroes: The best of World of Warcraft Legion’s soundtrack - For soundtrack junkies such as myself, the release of a new World of Warcraft expansion is always extra-special for reasons that go beyond mere gameplay. Blizzard is always incredibly faithful…

League of Legends boasts 103 million monthly players - [AL:LOL]League of Legends has a lot to brag about today as its parent company, Riot Games, turns 10 years old: The studio just announced that the biggest MOBA in the…

Aeria says Bless ‘project is bigger than expected’, postpones test schedule - Aeria has put off plans to announce Bless Online's western launch schedule following the close of Gamescom earlier this month, according to a statement made by company rep Carsomyr on…

EVE Online studio CCP Games says VR will pick up a few years from now - [AL:EVE]CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson told DICE Europe attendees that the company is on track to "break even" in the VR field, according to a report from GamesIndustry.biz today. "I think…

Steam’s new review filter affects crowdfunders along with freebie keys - Do you skip right down to the player review section for any Steam game to see what the populace thinks of a particular title? Just know that as of yesterday,…

DragonCon 2016: ArcheAge on FFA arena, belly physics, fresh-start servers, and December 3.0 launch - [AL:Arche]Community Manager Seraphina "Celestrata" Brennan was on hand at DragonCon 2016 to show off ArcheAge's upcoming updates, from the September second anniversary update coming this month to the big 3.0…

Rob Pardo of World of Warcraft fame launches Bonfire Studios - Rob Pardo is the former lead designer of World of Warcraft, but he's since moved on from Blizzard. Now, he's embarking on a new venture with Bonfire Studios, a new…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH

WoW 7.1’s Karazhan attunement requires ilevel 850 followers

Know Your Lore: The legacy of Chris Metzen

Chris Metzen’s going away present is this amazing statue

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.