Elder Scrolls Online let the press loose on the Morrowind expanshachapter this week, and we met the challenge: We deep-dived the story and lore behind the new version of the 15-year-old Vvardenfell, scoped out the unusual 4v4v4 PvP battlegrounds, and examined the new jack-of-all-trades Warden class (and yes, there are bear butts). And don’t forget the gameplay trailer, which ought to satisfy those grumpy about not getting any gameplay sneaks during the reveal last month.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind: Warden, story, PvP, & gameplay trailer - [AL:ESO]Last week, Massively OP's Larry Everett attended a press event for Elder Scrolls Online's Morrowind chapter and brought back a veritable guar-load of information about the brand-new Warden class, the…
Elder Scrolls Online: Deep-diving Morrowind’s PvP battlegrounds - [AL:ESO]At last week's Elder Scrolls Online press event, I sat down in the ESO Live studio to talk to the PvP designer in person: Lead Designer Brian Wheeler, whose high…
Elder Scrolls Online: Setting up the Morrowind story - [AL:ESO]Last week, I trekked out to Baltimore to visit ZeniMax Online Studios and get a first glimpse at Elder Scrolls Online's upcoming chapter/expansion, Morrowind. After all, it's been fifteen years since anyone…
Elder Scrolls Online: Deep-diving Morrowind’s new Warden class - [AL:ESO]Along with a new expansive 30-hour long story, Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind will introduce us to the game's first new class called the Warden, a class I previewed at last…
WoW Factor: Where do we go after WoW Legion? - So at the risk of being dinged for spoiling the current World of Warcraft expansion, let me say this: Azeroth is not going to be destroyed or completely overtaken by…
The Soapbox: Pokemon Go Generation 2 still isn’t a real MMO - Pokemon GO Generation 2 is out now, and it feels a lot like an MMO expansion in a lot of ways:Â We have new features, we have new grinding mechanics, and…
ZeniMax attempts to block Facebook’s use of Oculus Rift code - Not content with a partially (and lucrative) legal victory over Facebook and Oculus Rift, ZeniMax is now looking to block the use of specific lines of code in the making…
Star Citizen promotes Spectrum, begins Anvil Hurricane ship sale - Star Citizen's weekly Around the Verse treks to the Los Angeles studio for a check-in, but the real meat is the behind-the-scenes look at Spectrum, the communication platform the studio…
En Masse is bringing Kritika Online to the west in Q2 2017 - [AL:Krit]The explosive and hyper-kinetic Kritika Online has been confirmed for a 2017 release in the west. En Masse Entertainment, the publishers of TERA, announced yesterday that it will be releasing…
Hi-Rez addresses the Paladins pay-to-win uproar - The Paladins community has been flipping tables this week over the game's new Legendary cards and Essence currency, which players argue are blatantly pay-to-win. Hi Rez's latest patch essentially nerfed…
Massively Overthinking: Is the MMORPG genre taking a much-needed breather? - Massively OP donor and commenter Tibi sent this epic question to our podcast and kindly allowed me to share it here instead for maximum impact! Tibi wants us to consider…
Check out these gorgeous New World screenshots - Ever since last September's surprise announcement that Amazon Game Studios was actually building a sandbox MMORPG called New World, we have been dying to know more about it. As the…
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs that help you get your spaceship on - Sometimes even the most die-hard MMORPG player finds him or herself a little tired of constantly looking at the back of a head and a running butt. We yearn to…
Club Penguin players make a game out of getting speed banned - If your MMO's overlords suddenly announced that they were going to shut down your game in a month's time, how would you spend those remaining days? For some of the…
Albion Online is launching on July 17 - Huge news for the Albion Online community today, as Sandbox Interactive announced that the fantasy sandbox will be launching this summer on July 17th. At that time, the studio said,…
Enter to win a Seeker Pack for The Exiled’s early access launch today - In honor of the early access launch of The Exiled on Steam today, Fairytale Distillery has granted us some lovely keys to raffle to our readers! The game -- which you…
Guild Wars 2 drops a big skill balance patch - Could you feel that? There's been a disturbance in the forums, as if dozens of Guild Wars 2 skills cried out in terror... and were suddenly balanced. ArenaNet dropped a…
Devs and players say farewell to Landmark and the last remnants of EverQuest Next - Landmark's servers blinked off for the very last time last night, with our own EverQuest franchise columnist MJ Guthrie there to stream the end. The sandbox hadn't even reached its first…
The Elysium WoW emulator community is in total meltdown - The Elysium World of Warcraft private server community is in total meltdown, so popcorn at the ready. Most MMORPG players would probably have never heard of Elysium but for Nostalrius,…
Choose My Adventure: Starting fresh in WildStar - There are times when I've been away from a game for a while that I'm honestly not sure if I remember something correctly. I like to think that I have…
Tragedy strikes during World of Tanks livestream - This is the sort of story that we never like seeing here at Massively OP. During a 24-hour charity livestream, a World of Tanks Twitch player left the room for…
Anarchy Online finally arrives on Steam with $90 level boost option - Sixteen years after its debut, Anarchy Online has just now found itself a new home. After a lot of promises and teases, the long-running sci-fi title has finally arrived on…
Leaderboard: If you solo in MMORPGs, why? - Solo players in MMORPGs are a strange case, chiefly because they are treated like an outlier when they aren't. The fact is that almost everyone solos at one time or…
Neverwinter’s Cloaked Ascendancy expansion has just gone live - [AL:NW]Neverwinter's Cloaked Ascendancy expansion is live for PC players today, PWE has declared. "The city of Neverwinter is under attack by the Cloaked Ascendancy, a group of four mages ripped…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s The Head of the Snake - [AL:GW2]Now that I've had a little time to sink my hours into completing the episode after my initial impressions piece two weeks ago, I'm ready to bring you a more…
Dark Age of Camelot hops on the microtransaction wagon - There's a whole lot to digest in this month's Dark Age of Camelot producer's letter, but perhaps the most significant is the move by Broadsword to introduce a microtransaction system…
Funcom is now region-locking Conan Exiles’ official servers - If you're a fan of playing survival sandboxes with your friends around the world, better scrape together some pennies to invest in a private server: Conan Exiles has implemented region…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 105: Samurai and Smedley
The Stream Team: Exploring deeper into Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: See monkey raid, do monkey raid in ARK
The Stream Team: Hellion launches into Early Access today
The Stream Team: The Secret World’s Emergency Procedures
The Stream Team: The Exiled’s Early Access launch
The Stream Team: Answering your Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind questions
The Stream Team: Sharing a first look at MU Legend with closed beta codes
The Stream Team: Playing in SWTOR’s Asylum with Senya
The Stream Team: Landmark’s sunset stream
The Stream Team: Collecting all the things in Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: A midday Marvel Heroes in Midtown
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Should WoW experience be account wide?
Is WoW becoming too much like Diablo?
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.
