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.
The Elder Scrolls Online’s long-awaited One Tamriel expansion, which level-scaled nearly all of the content in the game and busted down racial and level gates, rolled out to the game this month, followed by housing teases that almost but not quite suppressed annoyance with the impending lockboxes.
Also in October, Final Fantasy XIV announced the Stormblood expansion, EVE Online outlawed in-game gambling organizations, the voice actor strike gripped the industry, and somehow all the big MMORPGs managed to do pretty darn well in the eyes of Superdata.
Read on for the whole list!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF OCTOBER 2016
Rumor: Possible Guild Wars 2 leak teases future content destination
Scare your friends to death in Funcom’s Hide and Shriek
Valiance Online will launch free-to-play, heads into alpha
Blizzard denies saying WoW Legion has 10.1 million subscriptions
No Man’s Sky subreddit temporarily melts down over moderator frustration
Elder Scrolls Online’s One Tamriel is live along with ‘Trip of a Lifetime’ sweepstakes
Valve ordered to ‘stop facilitating gambling’ by regulatory body; CS:GO gambling class action dismissed
Here are the basics of Elder Scrolls Online’s race-based housing system, coming ‘early 2017’
Warframe staffer slammed with death threat over recent patch
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s ‘Betrayed’ Blur trailer is finally here – all of it
Albion Online extends its beta deep into 2017
Wurm Online co-creator steps back from development, says game is ‘doing well financially’
Star Citizen: CitizenCon recap and Squadron 42 delay
Daybreak seeks talent for an unannounced game
Overeager Overwatch researchers hack actual accounts to find a fictional character
SuperData says MMO gamers still stick around in a single game for a long time
Dual Universe’s Kickstarter has successfully funded
The Elder Scrolls Online will have a Halloween event this year
Project Genom arrives on Steam early access with new trailer
Overwatch tops 20 million players in five months of live play
Gazillion to sunset Marvel Super Hero Squad Online in January 2017
Today’s Black Desert patch brings life to the seas, awakening to the Ranger
CCP outlaws gambling in EVE Online, bans RMT organizations
Daybreak registers ‘Mythwarden’ domain name
RIFT delays Starfall Prophecy beta, announces big aventurine and PvP changes
EVE Online player promises $75,000 reward for thwarting enemies
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas replaces Tom Chilton as game director
Turbine previews LOTRO update 19, says Mordor will come in a 2017 expansion
Final Fantasy XIV announces its second expansion, Stormblood
We still don’t really know how many people play The Elder Scrolls Online
Revival’s universe developed as Theleston, might return to MMO space
Video game voice actors to strike on October 21st
RIFT says goodbye to CM Ocho, hello to CM Brasse
Red Dead Redemption 2 announced for fall 2017 with ‘online multiplayer experience’
LOTRO releases Update 19: March of the King with new premium housing
Blade & Soul’s Beluga Lagoon update is an homage to a whale
Trion’s Scott Hartsman: The MMO market is ‘in very good health’
AdventureQuest 3D launches open beta on mobile, Mac, and PC
Massively OP’s guide to MMO Halloween 2016
The video game voice actor strike is on
Pokemon Go smashes through $600M revenue barrier in record time
Revelation Online delays closed beta into November
Happy birthday, Path of Exile, and grats on quadrupling your team
Black Desert players claim to have dug up a massive infinite-gathering exploit
Blizzard isn’t announcing WoW legacy servers at BlizzCon
World of Warcraft releases Patch 7.1: Return to Karazhan today
Elite Dangerous rolls out The Guardians expansion today
Gameforge is hit with layoffs as the company turns away from mobile gaming
Player fakes a suicide attempt in EVE Online as part of an extortion scheme
Why you should never preorder a Bethsoft game again
EverQuest accidentally deletes many guilds and their homes
Superdata’s September report shows Destiny, WoW, GW2, SWTOR, and TERA doing well
Star Trek Online reports over a million console captains in a new infographic
Apparently hacked No Man’s Sky account tweets that the game was a ‘mistake’
Bless Online releases English trailer, promising 2017 launch
Massively OP’s complete Halloween 2016 roundup
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF OCTOBERÂ 2016
EVE Evolved: What else is coming to EVE Online in November?
Launch impressions of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade, part one
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV patch 3.4 in review
Flameseeker Chronicles: Fully unpacking Guild Wars 2’s Rising Flames
Atlas Reactor launch impressions: Who should step into this eclectic PvP arena?
Launch impressions of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade, part two
Hyperspace Beacon vs. Tamriel Infinium: An unpopular opinion on SWTOR and ESO lockboxes
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs with vehicle avatars
Chaos Theory: Hide and Shriek in The Park of The Secret World
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for Amazon’s New World
WoW Factor: A WoW Legion wishlist
Massively OP’s guide to the best upcoming indie MMORPGs, part three
MMO Mechanics: Enhancing MMORPGs with experiential learning mechanics
Epic MMO Battles of History: World of Warcraft vs. Final Fantasy XIV
Exploring real-life PUGs, the Plus, and the antisocial nature of Pokemon Go
Tamriel Infinium vs Hyperspace Beacon: Three ways to make lockboxes work better in MMORPGs
EverQuesting: Could Daybreak’s new FPS be an EverQuest?
Perfect Ten: Incompetent leaders in MMORPGs
Massively Overthinking: The classes MMORPGs never do
Working As Intended: A tour of 19-year-old Ultima Online
Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival: Recapping The Stormblood keynote
The Game Archaeologist: Classic PlanetSide
EVE Evolved: Controversy over gambling bans and charities
Flameseeker Chronicles: Gaming playstyles, science, and Guild Wars 2
Hyperspace Beacon: Examining SWTOR’s contentious 5.0 endgame gear grind
EverQuesting: EverQuest II’s public quest event — fun or flop?
Massively Overthinking: Real solutions to the MMO toxicity problem
WoW Factor: Sargeras, the Legion, and World of Warcraft lore on the cosmic scale
Perfect Ten: Ten ways to bond with your kids over MMOs
Guild Chat: Trying out for a hardcore MMORPG guild
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV console support, storage woes, and PvP servers
Hyperspace Beacon: Outside-the-box Star Wars The Old Republic gameplay
Perfect Ten: My demands to MMORPGs after 13 years
Chaos Theory: First impressions of Funcom’s Hide and Shriek
Massively Overthinking: Our five favorite MMORPGs of all time
The Game Archaeologist: Six Halloween holidays from buried MMOs
EVE Vegas 2016: Bridging the gap between PvE and PvP
EVE Evolved: Alpha Clone economics, bragging rights, and restrictions
EVE Vegas 2016: EVE Online is finally getting a real tutorial
Wisdom of Nym: The scariest stuff in Final Fantasy XIV
Jukebox Heroes: MMORPG music for a haunted Halloween
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)
