This week, we learned that Daybreak President Russell Shanks left the company back in October, having been replaced (temporarily?) with Columbus Nova exec Ji Ham.
Meanwhile, Black Desert’s big “New World” server merge went down, SWTOR’s KOTET expansion went live, and The Elder Scrolls Online went down the old lockbox road.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMORPG stories of 2016 - As we start to come to grips with the fact that we will be turning over the calendar into 2017 in one short month, it might just be for the…
Rumor: Daybreak’s Russell Shanks is out, Columbus Nova exec is in - Wilhelm over at The Ancient Gaming Noob has dug up what appears to be juicy Daybreak news. According to entries on Linkedin and Wikipedia, Russell Shanks, who had been the…
Elder Scrolls Online rolls out lockboxes this week - I'm sure you're as tired of hearing about lockboxes as we are of writing about them, but here we are and it's still happening. Remember the lockboxes The Elder Scrolls…
Star Citizen begins testing 2.6 alpha, aims to release it on December 16 - In this week's episode of Star Citizen Around the Verse, Sandi Gardiner is joined by Technical Director Sean Tracy to issue the latest big announcement for the game: The 2.6…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s A Crack in the Ice - [AL:GW2]I've covered plenty of ground since my initial impressions piece went live last week, and I'm hoping that you've had time to play Guild Wars 2's most recent addition to the…
SWTOR Knights of the Eternal Throne launches today; we chat with BioWare - [AL:TOR]Last year, the developers of Star Wars the Old Republic changed the focus of the game. Instead of continuing to make Knights of the Old Republic the MMORPG, BioWare decided to…
Nature cops who punch kraken: Catching up with Project Gorgon’s Eric Heimburg - As many of you are well aware, we here at Massively OP are pretty fascinated with the work being done by MMO industry veterans Eric Heimburg and Sandra Powers on Project…
VR was the ‘biggest loser’ of the holiday gaming sales season, says SuperData - SuperData has deemed virtual reality the "biggest loser" of the holiday gaming sales season, according to a new report on GamesIndustry.biz this week. VR companies sold "notably fewer" headsets than…
RIFT responds to players who say Starfall Prophecy’s launch was a ‘mess’ - [AL:Rift]Not all is rainbows, unicorns, and talking dragons over in the land of RIFT these days. Serious concerns have arisen about the MMO following the release of Starfall Prophecy, and…
Guild Wars 2 PvP lead Josh Davis leaves ArenaNet - ArenaNet is short one grouch this week. Associate Global Brand Manager and Competitive Events Manager Josh Davis, otherwise known as Grouch, announced on Friday that it was his last day…
Ship of Heroes becomes the fourth City of Heroes spiritual successor - How many spiritual successors will it take to fill the void that was left by City of Heroes' shutdown? We now know the answer: four. It takes four spiritual successors…
Rawr: Buy a World of Warcraft Mischief minipet — for the children - Let's face it: Almost every single MMORPG out there has useless crap you can buy in the cash shop and parade around in-game. So if you're going to buy something,…
Classic vampire MMO Dark Eden arrives on Steam - After looking for Steam greenlight approval earlier this year, Dark Eden has clinched it and arrived to dwell on the digital platform as one of Valve's latest free-to-play MMORPG offerings.…
Path of Exile: Breach is launching today – right now, actually - [AL:POE]Going live today -- right as this post is published, in fact, if all goes well -- is the latest content addition to MMOARPG Path of Exile. Dubbed Path of…
A Parent’s Guide to Video Games: Condensing ‘The Video Game Debate’ - Remember The Video Game Debate? The game research book edited by Thorsten Quandt and Rachel Kowert, the latter of whom we've been covering here since Massively-that-was? Good. Dr. Kowert's got a new book…
WoW Factor: Looking forward to World of Warcraft 7.2 - It's been a little while, friends, but that happens. Last time I was making bets about what we'd see for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon, and as it happens I…
Black Desert Korea teases this month’s Dark Knight class launch - There are good points and bad about getting imports from overseas, but one of the good, at least from my perspective, is that we have an idea what's eventually coming…
Former BioWare and Blizzard devs announce new online co-op RPG Dauntless - At the 2016 Game Awards last night, gamers laid eyes on Dauntless, a new online multiplayer (but not massively so, alas) RPG from indie studio Phoenix Labs, which is touting…
Massively Overthinking: FOMO and time-limited events in MMORPGs - Earlier this week, Daybreak told players it wanted to get back to time-limited events in DC Universe Online. "Events make logging in every day that much more special," the announcement…
Blizzard cracks down on Overwatch aimbot cheaters - OK, cheaters, listen up. You're jerks, you're ruining the game for everyone, you're wasting developer time, which means you're wasting everyone's money, you're not as slick as you think you…
TERA’s Fang and Feather update goes live today - [AL:TERA]Despite the name, TERA's most recent update doesn't feature an overwhelming quantity of fangs or feathers. Both of them are doubtlessly involved, but that seems more decorative than anything. It's…
Hyperspace Beacon: What to expect from SWTOR’s Knight of the Eternal Throne - [AL:TOR]After some of the major flaws with Knights of the Fallen Empire, I wasn't expecting much from Star Wars: The Old Republic's latest expansion Knights of the Eternal Throne. It…
Choose My Adventure: My first week in the Elder Scrolls Online - Despite the fact that for this round of Choose My Adventure, I am jumping into The Elder Scrolls Online in an era of doing whatever I want at any level I choose,…
UK watchdog group dismisses gamer complaints over No Man’s Sky advertising - Back in September, we reported that UK watchdog group Advertising Standards Authority was investigating No Man's Sky following "several" -- we now know it was 23 -- complaints over the…
Black Desert’s ‘New World’ server merge will keep the game offline most of Wednesday - Black Desert's big "New World" server merging is set to finalize tomorrow on schedule, Daum announced today, changing up the usual maintenance cadence:Â The servers will go down on Wednesday at…
Mark Kern renames Ember to Em-8ER, picks up Nostalrius programmer - Earlier this month, Mark Kern's "massive planetary wargame" shooter Ember got a new name and logo: Em-8ER. "While still pronounced 'Ember,' we changed the official name to Em-8ER after other…
World of Warcraft player dings 110 without picking a faction - Back in March 2015, we reported on a World of Warcraft player who decided that when the game tried to make his Pandaran character choose a faction, he would pursue…
Project Genom is back on Steam after DMCA meltdown [Updated] - "We are pleased to announce that Project Genom is now once again available on Steam." That's the news from a new press release this morning from studio NeuronHaze, and it's…
Survival mode and base building comes to No Man’s Sky - Following a heap of post-launch controversy and several months of silence, No Man's Sky is back with a content update that adds a new survival mode and base building as…
EVE Evolved: Getting started with EVE’s free-to-play - [AL:EVE]Just under two weeks ago, EVE Online launched its new free to play account option with the introduction of clone states. Subscribers are now given the new Omega clone state that allows…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 93: Free-to-EVE
Battle Bards Episode 87: Elves!
The Stream Team: Checking out LOTRO’s chicken ball
The Stream Team: Last stand in Gigantic’s last closed beta weekend
The Stream Team: Completing more SWTOR companion conversations
The Stream Team: Chilling in HEX’s Frost Ring Arena
The Stream Team: A look at the new Neocron Evolution
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW Legion 7.1 hotfixes address Xavius and more
WoW’s Kirin Tor emissary quest will auto-complete for everyone
Overwatch wins Game of the Year at The Game Awards
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.
