This week, MMORPG players saw three major releases: Star Wars The Old Republic’s War for Iokath, Lord of the Ring’s Online’s anniversary update, and the arrival of a slimmed-down and isolated Marvel Heroes on PlayStation 4. Meanwhile, Funcom is full steam ahead on a spring release for Secret World Legends, in spite of mounting criticism.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
The Soapbox: Lessons Secret World Legends failed to learn from Final Fantasy XIV - [AL:SWL]I've mentioned many a time that I like Funcom quite a bit. I want to like Funcom quite a bit. Heck, I want to be excited about Secret World Legends,…
Video: Everything you need to know about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 5.2 War for Iokath, live today - [AL:TOR]After a week-long delay, Star Wars: The Old Republic launches its first major patch to the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion as Update 5.2: The War For Iokath today.…
Tamriel Infinium: Why I changed my mind about Elder Scrolls Online - [AL:ESO]When I took the trip to ZeniMax Online Studios to check out Morrowind a couple of months back, I was sitting at a table with other games press and a handful…
Marvel Heroes Omega’s closed beta begins for PS4 founder pack buyers - The closed beta for Marvel Heroes Omega is now live in the US for PlayStation 4 owners, Gazillion announced just a bit ago. A console launch had been long-anticipated by…
Carbine Studios is hiring for an unspecified new project - The general consensus for WildStar has been that the game is running on borrowed time for several reasons. That's a sad conclusion, but an understandable one. And so that probably…
Amazon job posting reveals New World details - A job listing for a player relations specialist may be inadvertently giving us a glimpse of a few details concerning Amazon's upcoming New World MMORPG. Tucked inside the job posting is…
LOTRO Legendarium: A marvelous decade of Middle-earth - [AL:LOTRO]The first I ever heard of Lord of the Rings Online was flipping through the pages of some gaming magazine back in early 2007. At the time, I was neck-deep…
Secret World Legends still hopes for a spring release, will expand beta to include Egypt soon - [AL:SWL]Our latest glimpse at the reworked universe of Secret World Legends came yesterday courtesy of an hour-long livestream on Twitch. For those of us on the outside of the NDA-slathered beta,…
LOTRO devs address anniversary event uproar - [AL:LOTRO]While Lord of the Rings Online players are flitting all around Middle-earth to complete the brand-new scavenger hunt cards, not everyone is happy with the anniversary event. Some of the…
Ashes of Creation plans May 1 Kickstarter, demos ‘Metropolis’ player city system - We already knew Ashes of Creation was going to run a Kickstarter for funding, but as of this afternoon, we have a date: May 1st. And the devs put out way more in…
Star Citizen’s Around the Verse deep-dives the Banu, begins referral contest starring Star Kitten - Still reeling over the last Star Citizen infodump? You're getting a breather with this week's Around the Verse as the bulk of it is centered on... lore. Specifically, the Banu, one…
Check out WoodenPotatoes’ multi-video Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns review - YouTuber WoodenPotatoes, whom you might remember from Tina's top five Guild Wars 2 vloggers review earlier this week, has posted a lengthy review of Guild Wars 2's Heart of Thorns,…
Massively Overthinking: Disassembling MMORPGs for parts - This week's Massively Overthinking comes to us from Xijit -- and I think you'll agree it's quite timely. "In light of The Secret World getting reworked into more of a single-player or…
NetEase soft-launches WoW-like mobile MMORPG Crusaders of Light today - Soft-launching today on both the iOS and Android markets is a new mobile MMORPG from Netease dubbed Crusaders of Light. It was originally released as Land of Glory overseas last…
Choose My Adventure: Grinding away in Black Desert - Let me talk to you, my friends, about grinding. Specifically, about how it gets a bad reputation that it doesn’t altogether deserve. How does this connect to this week's adventures…
Feast your eyes on one of Project Gorgon’s ongoing graphical updates - I can't tell you how many times I've heard MMORPG gamers say they love everything about the weird and wonderful sandbox of Project Gorgon... except for the dated placeholder graphics.…
Elder Scrolls Online community grumbles over Morrowind class nerfs and the impending Warden takeover - [AL:ESO]Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind has a lot of casual players, former players, and future players excited for its launch in June. But what about existing hardcores? And in particular, what…
Funcom’s Joel Bylos on the difference between MMOs and survival sandboxes - Funcom's Joel Bylos features in a Twitch interview on Gamasutra this week talking up Conan Exiles and explaining the core difference between server-based survival games versus Funcom's "old MMOs," as…
Black Desert’s Striker kickpunches his way onto Korean servers - The newest Black Desert class is no slouch in bringing meaty beatdowns to foes, as some players are discovering this week. The kick-punching martial arts Striker has landed on Korean…
Perfect Ten: Time travel in MMORPGs - Over the years, I've been fascinated with the concept of time in MMORPGs. It's one of those things that developers probably don't want you thinking about too closely, since it…
Flameseeker Chronicles: 5 brilliant Guild Wars 2 YouTube content creators - [AL:GW2]I often find that playing Guild Wars 2 leaves me with more questions than answers when it comes to lore and story predictions, build strategies and rotations, and efficient raid…
What virtual reality immersion researchers are up to will ‘shock’ you – literally - OK, virtual reality fans and frenemies, here's a fun thought process: How do you simulate haptic feedback when your arms are waving around in the air? When you pretend to…
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind drops a Warden class gameplay trailer - [AL:ESO]Ah, trailer season is almost upon us, and The Elder Scrolls Online is inching closer today with its video of the Warden, the new class landing in the game when…
Star Citizen’s 3.0 to ‘simulate a first-person universe with almost no limits’ - As Star Citizen players are still grappling with the recently revealed development schedule, Chris Roberts has swooped in to provide some context and explanation for the roadmap. He said that…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 113: Avatar vs. toon
The Stream Team: Practicing with Paladins’ new healer, Seris
The Stream Team: Watch and win SMITE Tactics beta access
The Stream Team: Fighting through HEX’s Fort Romor
The Stream Team: Launching into Cloud Pirates on launch day
The Stream Team: The end of act one in SWTOR’s KOTFE
The Stream Team: Beating the dungeon boss in Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: Beast’r egg hunting in EverQuest II
The Stream Team: Diving into Marvel Heroes’ Dimensions Collide terminal
The Stream Team: Post-Easter battle bunnies in HEX
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Godmoding vs. metagaming in MMO roleplaying
New WoW short story Dark Mirror provides insight into Nathanos and Sylvanas
Is it time for more WoW character model revamps?
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.
