It’s been another glorious week for MMORPG expansions: EVE Online’s Ascension expansion went live, introducing among other features the alpha clone state that allows gamers to play for free (we streamed it, if you’re curious!). Then RIFT’s Starfall Prophecy made landfall; it’s very much a traditional MMORPG expansion (with a traditional MMORPG pricetag). Even Daybreak got in on the action with twin expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II (we streamed that one too!). And don’t forget Overwatch! All in all, good stuff for some of the genre’s staples.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
EVE Online is officially free-to-play today with Ascension - [AL:EVE]"We are happy to announce that EVE Online: Ascension has been successfully deployed!"Â That's the word out of Icelandic MMORPG studio CCP Games this morning, which has given the all clear…
RIFT’s Starfall Prophecy expansion is live today with a brand-new trailer - [AL:Rift]Trion Worlds is throwing its hat into the expansion ring this week with today's launch of RIFT: Starfall Prophecy. The MMO's third expansion takes players to a new continent besieged…
Enter the Breach in Path of Exiles’ next league, launching December 2 - [AL:POE]If you've ever wanted to call out "Once more unto the Breach!" as a battle cry, Path of Exile offers you just that chance starting on December 2nd at 3:00…
The Game Archaeologist: Mark Jacobs on Mythic’s early online games, part 2 - We're back with our second part of an interview retrospective of Mythic Entertainment's early online games with CSE's Mark Jacobs. Last week, we talked about the formation of Mythic, its…
Black Desert guild heraldry sparks questions over offensive symbols - This past week, an interesting guild situation arose in Black Desert. A Massively OP tipster was surprised by an unusual symbol above the entrance to a particular guild city and bedecking its…
Overwatch frags its First Strike comic - Overwatch's "expanded media universe" just shrunk a bit this week as the team announced that it has canceled development of the First Strike graphic novel. Lead Writer Michael Chu broke…
Guild Wars 2 addresses raiding tiers and accessibility - In response to players agitating for improving raiding in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet Game Designer Crystal Reid has addressed both tiers and accessibility for the endgame content. In short --…
How Project Titan and Overwatch prompted Chris Metzen to leave Blizzard - Months later, the World of Warcraft community is still coming to grips with the absence of Chris Metzen, who decided to retire from Blizzard at the age of 42. From…
Moonlight Blade will let you play as a tween girl - Perhaps you were on the fence with Moonlight Blade, thinking to yourself, "Well, this upcoming eastern MMORPG looks nice and all, but it's forcing me to play a grown-up with…
Rumor: Marvel Heroes code points to a PlayStation port; Beast and Black Bolt on the way - It's easy to get carried away based on circumstantial evidence when speculating about the future. Players have been suspecting that Marvel Heroes might be making plans to port over to…
Massively Overthinking: The many ‘NGE’ moments across MMORPG history - Eleven years ago this week, the New Game Enhancements patch descended on Star Wars Galaxies, forever changing the trajectory of the game, SOE, and maybe even sandbox MMORPGs in general…
Chaos Theory: The disappointment of The Secret World’s Samhain - The season to end all seasons has come and gone. The Secret World's Samhain has faded back into the fog, and it will be another year before it returns. So how…
Gamers rally behind Pokemon Go player mugged and left for dead in North Carolina - If there's one thing I've learned from Pokemon Go, it's that staying home and playing MMORPGs from the comfort of my pajama pants is way safer than leaving the house.…
Perfect Ten: Messed-up aspects of MMORPGs we mindlessly accept - When we engage in the collective fantasy of playing MMORPGs, we accept certain structures and tropes that have been in place since the early days of pen-and-paper RPGs. There are…
Guild Wars 2 addresses outage bugs, NCsoft deals with DDOS attacks - When you're running an online game, there are certain words that are pretty much always a harbinger of problems. Words like "outage," and "missing," and "unexpected." Combining them into a…
MapleStory preps its ‘largest update in nearly a decade’ for December - MapleStory has been around for a long, long time, so when the game's designers say that they're preparing to unleash the "largest update in nearly a decade," it should make you…
World of Warcraft datamining points to new WoW Token use in patch 7.1.5 - Do you remember BlizzCon 2016? It was just a couple of weeks ago, surely you do. One of the topics on discussion was letting World of Warcraft players use the…
Star Wars: The Old Republic releases another trailer for Knights of the Eternal Throne - [AL:TOR]BioWare suddenly released yet another gameplay trailer for the next Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion. Much like the previous Knights of the Eternal Throne trailer, this one lasts only about 30…
For Science: A third of our polled social media users quit Pokemon Go over trackers - Pokemon Go has received some large updates recently: the buddy system, medals, some big gym changes (twice), and now we've got dailies. We've been dazzled with two events granting bonus... well, everything,…
FIFA hackers charged with stealing millions in spoofing scheme - Don't ever let anyone tell you it's just a game and exploits aren't a big deal: A group of FIFA players are standing trial on charges of felony wire fraud…
Japanese MMO shut down a day after launch for allegedly ripping off Final Fantasy XI - Is Chaos Saga destined to go down as the shortest-lived released MMORPG in history? This Japanese game that you never heard of launched on November 15th and was shut down…
Hyperspace Beacon: Five class changes to watch out for in SWTOR 5.0 - [AL:TOR]Even if you are not subscribing for the impending Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion, Knights of the Eternal Throne, you will be subject to the class changes that come with…
Overwatch content update adds Sombra and Antarctica - Are things cooling down or heating up? If you're playing Overwatch this week, the answer is "both, baby!" Yesterday's content patch went live for all of Overwatch's platforms, bringing a…
NCsoft appears to be blocking former Soviet states from WildStar - Reports this morning that players in various former Soviet countries, among others, had been unceremoniously barred from accessing NCsoft MMORPGs WildStar and Guild Wars 2 appear to have been confirmed…
League of Legends pro teams agitate for better compensation - [AL:LOL]Last week, the owners of a number of North American and European League of Legends Championship Series teams dispatched a letter to Riot Games outlining their many complaints with the…
Crowfall studio joins Indiegogo’s equity crowdfunding platform - Crowdfunding activists and haters should point their eyeballs at Indiegogo today, as the crowdfunding platform has just announced that it's launching a new equity crowdfunding service that might remind you…
Guild Wars 2’s next episode, A Crack in the Ice, drops November 21 - [AL:GW2]Guild Wars 2 has just released the first trailer for A Crack in The Ice, the third episode of the third season of living story content, which is due out…
EverQuest II: Kunark Ascending brings players back to familiar lands - The EverQuest onslaught begins today with the release of EverQuest II's 13th expansion, Kunark Ascending. Players can now return to Kunark and visit previously unexplored areas of this country while…
Lineage Eternal shows off its spectacular closed beta trailer - Lineage Eternal is on the verge of kicking off its Korean closed beta test, and when there's a test, there's almost always a trailer. NCsoft released a two-and-a-half minute tour…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 91: Accounting 101
Battle Bards Episode 86: World of Warcraft: Legion
The Stream Team: Checking out EVE as free-to-play
The Stream Team: Testing ARK’s Scorched Earth weaponry on wyverns
The Stream Team: Blue Mountain sabotage in The Secret World
The Stream Team: Teaming up with Artix for MechWarrior Online
The Stream Team: Launching into EverQuest II’s Kunark Ascending
Marvel Heroes will personalize difficulty level in its streamlining patch
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW’s 12th Anniversary rewards include a new Corgi Pup pet
WoW Lore: The Nightwell, the Sunwell, and the Well of Eternity
Will WoW ever have another new class?
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.
