This year, we’re taking a time-machine back through our MMO coverage, month by month, to hit the highlights and frame our journey before we head into 2017.
World of Warcraft ran away with the month of August in spite of not launching Legion until its tail end, but many MMORPG players were busy tussling over Black Desert business model shenanigans and No Man’s Sky’s no man’s multiplayer mess, plus we learned EVE Online was destined for the free-to-play market.
Read on for the whole list!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF AUGUST 2016
Black Desert’s biggest bot creator is being sued by Daum
No Man’s Sky subreddit loses its space marbles over spoiler streams
Snail Games resurrects massive sandbox Dark and Light
Pokemon Go: Niantic addresses community, New York panics over sex offenders
Elder Scrolls Online’s Shadows of the Hist DLC goes live
WildCard recombines ARK versions back into one game, adds SOTF modding and VR
Marvel Heroes’ dynamic combat scaling is live now
SWTOR wants to make your lockbox experience better
Here’s everything you need to know about RIFT’s Starfall Prophecy expansion
What drives Star Citizen’s superbackers to spend $10,000 or more
TERA is assessing interest in that rumored console port
Black Desert players explode over plan to allow cash shop items on the in-game market
Activision-Blizzard Q2 2016: Overwatch at 15M users, WoW sees growth
Wizard101 starts selling instant level 50 boosts, adds a Make-a-Wish character
Black Desert: Community uproar and analysts on Kakao
Perpetuum Online update brings in new robots and the first lighting improvements since 2012
You can play a Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft today
Superdata’s June report shows Overwatch, WoW still on top
No Man’s Sky, the non-multiplayer multiplayer game
Black Desert’s controversial cash shop patch is live today
Kakao to Black Desert players: Chargebacks have consequences
No Man’s Sky original LE box touts ‘online play’
NCsoft Q2 2016: WildStar up, Guild Wars 2 down
Star Citizen’s Sandi Gardiner vacates social media over harassment
Trion is taking Trove to China, touts ‘millions’ of players every month
Pokemon Go: Michigan couple sues over game’s impact on private property
Neverwinter: Storm King’s Thunder is live today
Das Tal changes its name to The Exiled
Pantheon’s Brad McQuaid on MMO sunsets and handing players the keys to the game
This French village has had enough of Pokemon Go’s anarchy
Gamescom 2016: WoW Legion’s first patch, Return to Karazhan, will include 5-man Kara
Gamescom: Elder Scrolls Online on lockboxes, the gold edition, and One Tamriel
Star Citizen demos gameplay in its in-development persistent universe
ZeniMax amends Oculus lawsuit to accuse Carmack of stealing documents and tech
Shroud of the Avatar has crowdfunded over 10 million dollars
Star Citizen has surpassed $120M in crowdfunding
Guild Wars 2’s servers suffer rollback, downtime
League of Legends community clashes with Riot over e-sports, patches, and money
EVE Online players have taken out a Keepstar, the largest citadel in the game
Wargaming partners with Steven Seagal, shutters mobile studio with mass layoffs
Superdata’s July 2016 data show Guild Wars 2 surging, Pokemon Go on top
Roleplay-centric MMORPG Ever, Jane waltzes into open beta
TERA plans server merges and sweeping guild changes
Funcom’s Q2 2016 financials show revenue dip, debt repayment, new titles
New report says South Korean MMORPG companies are ‘facing a crisis’
Happy World of Warcraft: Legion launch day and roundup
Firefall appears to have silently sunsetted (Update: Or maybe not?)
Livelock is live on PC and console today
Black Desert’s Valencia II, desert PvP system, and Warrior Awakening arrive today
EVE Online is getting an optional free-to-play mode
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF AUGUSTÂ 2016
Hyperspace Beacon: Five reasons I still play Star Wars: The Old Republic
Global Chat: When MMORPG raiding becomes a job
Perfect Ten: The ten things I look forward to with MMO launches
EverQuesting: Let’s lay the Landmark hate to rest
Five IPs that could tackle ARG gameplay features Pokemon Go lacks
The Game Archaeologist: Middle-earth Online
EVE Evolved: The single-shard sandbox economy
Hyperspace Beacon: Why Star Wars The Old Republic’s KOTFE finale was satisfying and disappointing
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s Out of the Shadows
Jukebox Heroes: World of Warcraft’s main music themes
Perfect Ten: Great tips for naming your next MMO character
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMORPG soundtracks
WoW Factor: The storm upon the Broken Shore
The Game Archaeologist: Six videos from MMOs that never launched
MMO Mechanics: No Man’s Sky is mechanically genius (an ode to procedural generation)
Hyperspace Beacon: The five sins of roleplay in Star Wars The Old Republic (or any MMORPG)
Chaos Theory: Death becomes you in The Secret World
Massively Overthinking: The best combat systems in MMORPGs
WoW Factor: Fighting against the Legion and the end of the world
EVE Evolved: No Man’s Sky vs EVE Online
Wisdom of Nym: Three years since Final Fantasy XIV’s relaunch
Exploring Japan’s Pokemon Go culture
Jukebox Heroes: MMO music for epic fights
Flameseeker Chronicles: What to do in Guild Wars 2 between season 3 episodes
Perfect Ten: My favorite features in RIFT
The Game Archaeologist: The silent world of Tibia
Guild Chat: Minors and MMOs: Family-friendly guilds
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Legion, part one
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Legion, part two
ALL 2016 MONTH-IN-REVIEW POSTS TO-DATE
MMO Year in Review: Blade & Soul reaches western shores (January 2016)
MMO Year in Review: A wild Black Desert approaches (February 2016)
MMO Year in Review: EverQuest Never (March 2016)
MMO Year in Review: WoW’s legacy server snarl (April 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Carebear tears of Elyria (May 2016)
MMO Year in Review: The Landmark and WildStar Steam parade (June 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Pokemon madness (July 2016)
MMO Year in Review: We are Legion (August 2016)
MMO Year in Review: A whole New World (September 2016)
MMO Year in Review: One foot in One Tamriel (October 2016)
MMO Year in Review: New Eden free-for-all (November 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Turbine gave the ring to the eagles (December 2016)
