This week, the team behind former legacy World of Warcraft emulator Nostalrius, which treated with Blizzard last year in its play for official legacy servers, this week admitted it was wrong in having given its code core to Ukrainian-based emulator Elysium in retaliation for Blizzard’s BlizzCon silence on the topic. “Moving from ‘fan server’ to ‘pirate server’ reputation makes it harder to convince that legacy fans have a place on the WoW community,” the group said, asking Elysium to remove its code and user data. Intriguingly, Elysium said yes, sending its community into uproar.
Meanwhile, two of the bigger Kickstarted MMORPGs from the last few years both saw big movements this past week: Pathfinder Online is once again in talks for a new developer, and The Repopulation was offloaded to Hero Engine company Idea Fabrik, which plans to relaunch it rather than see it made in Unreal Engine as once planned.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
HI-REZ EXPO 2017 RECAP
SMITE and Paladins star at Atlanta’s Hi-Rez Expo convention this week
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: Newly announced SMITE Rivals turns the gods into cross-platform collectible cards
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: SMITE introduces Morrigan, Celtic pantheon, and massive plans for season 4
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: Paladins announces upcoming Season 1 following the Paladins Invitational
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: SMITE Tactics begins beta testing, founders pack sale
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: Hands-on with online card game SMITE Rivals
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: SMITE Rivals devs address copycat concerns and monetization
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: The future of Global Agenda, Global Agenda 2, and SMITE
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: SMITE’s specialty adventures, Paladins’ first season, and SMITE Tactics’ PvE
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Nostalrius has decided handing its WoW emu code to Elysium wasn’t such a good idea after all - So here's a twist in the Nostalrius saga that we didn't see coming: The group has changed its mind about supporting its code on the Elysium servers and in fact…
The Repopulation will relaunch in Q1 2017, now owned by Idea Fabrik - "Great News! The Repopulation is coming back!" -- or so said a hastily deleted tweet from Idea Fabrik last night, which you might have missed since the blog post titled…
Pathfinder Online in talks with anonymous ‘game agency’ for further development - Saying that 2016 was a year of "exciting promises" and "disappointing letdowns" for Pathfinder Online, Goblinworks Acting CEO Lisa Stevens said that she's trying a new tack in 2017. Right now,…
WoW Factor: New classes in a post-Legion world - So World of Warcraft patch 7.1.5 is out now... but I'm going to be honest, that doesn't feel like much of anything. It's there, it's all playable, but it feels…
DC Universe Online offers a free skip for players to CR 100 - [AL:DCUO]The DC Universe Online anniversary celebration is happening now, and as part of the celebration, you don't need to play DC Universe Online. Not all of it, anyhow. During the…
Perfect Ten: Mobile MMOs coming in 2017 - This past year, we couldn't seem to go a week without bumping into news of some new mobile MMO or a tablet spin-off of some existing franchise. It seems as…
Black Desert’s ship-faring Margoria expansion sails westward January 25 - You might have noticed that yesterday's wee Black Desert patch included a brief mention of Margoria preload content. That's because the naval-themed Margoria expansion is indeed on the way, sooner…
EverQuesting: The loss of Landmark - Daybreak did it again. Boy, that phrase has come to mean a great many different things over the years. However, in this case it refers to the art of dropping…
Line of Defense solidifies engine switch, B2P business model - Derek Smart's Line of Defense is expecting a new public build later this month, this one focused on the next phase of defense mechanics and AI. Back in November, the…
Here’s how Star Citizen’s alien languages are being constructed from nothing - "Don't waste your time learning Klingon, it ain't no use," Luna sang way back in 1996, but clearly, they had never met Britton Watkins, a man who's made a career…
Nintendo Switch reveals include paid online service, Dragon Quest X MMO - If you somehow missed the Twitter explosion last night, the full Nintendo Switch reveal happened, unloading a ton of details about the company's $300 console. The Switch will go on…
Choose My Adventure: Starting my journey in Lord of the Rings Online - [AL:LOTRO]If I had to guess which tabletop roleplaying game I was going to associate with Lord of the Rings Online, I really wouldn't have guessed Call of Cthulhu. There have…
SWTOR bug drives enemy boss to commit suicide - [AL:TOR]Any MMO dungeon boss knows that it is only a matter of time before he, she, or it will be slaughtered by a pack of well-geared, highly trained adventurers. As…
DC Universe Online’s sixth anniversary events have arrived - [AL:DCUO]Daybreak's having a rough month, but the team working on DC Universe Online is indefatigable. Case in point: The game turns six years old today, and the devs have just…
Recapping Crowfall’s equity investment Q&A - Early this afternoon, ArtCraft Entertainment's J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton answered investor questions about Crowfall's equity crowdfunding venture, which closes out on Monday. We've collected some of the highlights. Coleman…
The $2B ZeniMax Oculus Rift trial begins - Virtual reality headsets may be but babies on the gaming scene, but already one of them has landed in hot legal water. This week, a trial has begun in Texas between…
Check out one of the oldest Asheron’s Call players… in all senses of the word - The impending shutdown of Asheron's Call is outright sad news. It's an old title with a lot of strange elements, the likes of which haven't really been seen again. A…
Standing Stone on LOTRO’s 10th anniversary, Mordor expansion, and studio move - [AL:LOTRO]In a new interview with LOTRO Players, Standing Stone Games CM Cordovan gave fans a sneak peek at the big projects that are coming for Lord of the Rings Online…
Steam sets new record with 14 million concurrent users - It seems like more or less everyone uses Steam at this point, yes? It's fairly ubiquitous? The service managed to hit a concurrency record on January 8th, with over 14…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Ten things I’d forgotten from Guild Wars 2’s Living World Season 1 - [AL:GW2]I spent quite a while poring over a recent gem of a video that served as a fantastically nostalgic trip down memory lane through its condensed retelling of the Living World…
Revelation Online plots third closed beta, offers new trailer - [AL:Rev]My.com has announced a third round of western beta for Revelation Online. CBT3 will begin January 19th and run until the wee hours of February 2nd. Of note, this round…
ArcheAge suffers lengthy downtime over vanishing NPCs - [AL:Arche]ArcheAge just cannot catch a break. Disappearing NPCs prompted another complete restart of the North American servers yesterday, which didn't solve the problem. Trion community dynamic duo Brasse and Celestrata…
New Sims Online emulator shifts from open to closed beta following excessive player demand - 'Tis the season for emulators! Think back to 2002 MMORPG The Sims Online, what our own Justin Olivetti once called "an interesting failed experiment" for the genre and one of…
Carbine previews WildStar’s Primal Matrix horizontal advancement, defends ‘massive’ scope - WildStar kicked off 2017 with a bang last week with the reveal of the Power of the Primal Matrix update, a "massive" endgame update that not only adds new endgame…
The New York Times declares it’s ‘time for a reality check for virtual reality’ - It's been a pile-on kind of season. First Superdata called VR the "biggest loser" of the Christmas holiday buying rush, and now The New York Times has declared that "it is time…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 99: Landmark goes into the dark
The Stream Team: Stepping back into a Shards alpha with Brinkmann
The Stream Team: Pegomastax, ARK’s pesky pickpocket
The Stream Team: Friday the 13th is lucky in The Secret World
The Stream Team: Win a Rivals Loki for SMITE
The Stream Team: DC Universe Online celebrates six years
The Stream Team: At SWTOR’s Gravestone
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Do you want Timewalking raids in WoW?
Blizzard Watch’s guide to Warcraft in print
Valeera Sanguinar is coming to Heroes of the Storm
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.
