This week, Final Fantasy XIV let the western press loose on the Stormblood expansion that’s until now been a bit buried by other summer releases. Not anymore, though! MOP’s Eliot Lefebvre posted nine in-depth previews and guides on what to expect from the content avalanche on the way.
Meanwhile, Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter funded many times over with $3.2M now banked, Black Desert scored big on its Steam launch, and NCsoft put a date on Master X Master. Read on for the rest of the best of this week’s MMO news and opinions!
FINAL FANTASY XIV STORMBLOOD
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Everything you need to know about the expansion
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Samurai and Red Mage impressions
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Tank jobs
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Melee DPS jobs
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Caster DPS jobs
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Ranged DPS jobs
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: The healers
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: The dungeon
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood preview: Our interview with Naoki Yoshida
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter has successfully funded at $3.27M - Ashes of Creation's Kickstarter has successfully funded this morning, bringing in a grand total of $3,271,809Â US out of its $750,000 goal with almost 20,000 individual backers contributing, thus making it…
Check out Secret World Legends’ new combat revamp video - [AL:SWL]Ready or not, The Secret World's Secret World Legends revamp is coming this summer, and that means the combat changes, including the reticle combat options that are expected to make the…
Black Desert sells over 127,000 copies on Steam, adds three new servers with today’s patch - The first MMO hit of the summer is already upon us, as Black Desert's debut on Steam has paid off in dividends. Thanks to the high-profile release and a 40%…
Here’s how ArenaNet is improving Guild Wars 2’s WvW - As announced yesterday, ArenaNet is taking the month of June to patch the crap out of Guild Wars 2's PvP scene, and these are much needed patches, the PvP community…
Master X Master launches June 21; check out the cinematic trailer - Master X Master is launching in North America and Europe on June 21st, NCsoft just announced. The game is a hybrid MOBA-MMO with PvE elements that has charmed our writers…
‘Summer of SWTOR’ brings back the MMORPG - [AL:TOR]Squeaking in just under the wire for the dev team's promised May delivery date, Star Wars: The Old Republic published its (remaining) 2017 roadmap yesterday. The overall take from the reveal? This…
Elder Scrolls Online suspends hundreds of accounts over skill exploit - [AL:ESO]Elder Scrolls Online players who took liberties with an exploit that allowed them to easily skill up to their heart's content are facing a suspension this week. ZeniMax handed out…
Perfect Ten: My favorite MMO dungeons - It's hard to look at an MMORPG and imagine them without dungeons. For some people, these instances are the core of their game experience, offering challenging (well, hopefully) and rewarding…
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind has a new trailer, and it’s all about bears - [AL:ESO]Let's be real, here: The real new class being added for The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is the War Bear. The Warden is just kind of along for the ride.…
Neverwinter announces Tomb of Annihilation expansion for July 25 - If you're a Dungeons and Dragons fan, you may have already been watching the "Stream of Annihilation" on Twitch this afternoon. But if you're an MMORPG fan as well, you're getting…
LOTRO Legendarium: Seven abandoned LOTRO features - [AL:LOTRO]One of the hallmarks and attractions of MMORPGs is growth. These games, much like the characters that inhabit them, grow and change over time. Every hotfix, patch, content update, and…
Start earning your World of Warcraft class mount next week - For those keeping track at home, World of Warcraft's Patch 7.2 came out this past March, and yet here it is June and all of the features from said patch…
Massively Overthinking: 2017’s MMORPG zeitgeist - This time last year, I polled the Massively OP writers for their opinions on which MMOs had had the best year, or half year, up to that point in 2016…
Ryzom transitions to a freemium business model - As of May 31st, Ryzom (formerly Saga of Ryzom) has transitioned into a slightly different business model that will take a little explaining. Essentially, the game is straddling the line…
DC Universe Online fires up the Age of Justice today - [AL:DCUO]A new age is arriving in DC Universe Online, and it has little to nothing to do with Aquarius. It's the Age of Justice, and it's dropping onto the live…
League of Legends NA e-sports league reorg means $75K pro player salaries, revenue sharing, and player association - [AL:LOL]Riot Games is in the midst of a major reorganization of its League of Legends e-sports organization, at least in North America. The company is replacing relegation with a different…
Tamriel Infinium: A life lesson in Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind - [AL:ESO]If you start your Elder Scrolls Online character in the Ebonheart Pact, then you run into the Ashlanders almost as soon as you step off the boat into the mainland of…
Shroud of the Avatar makes $2M equity crowdfunding pitch, plans 2017 launch - Shroud of the Avatar's Summer Telethon concluded last night, having raised from players $115,000 and unlocking multiple stretch goal rewards for players, including balloons and special pipe smoke shapes. Perhaps…
LOTRO patch lays the foundation for its Mordor expansion - [AL:LOTRO]We don't even know the name of this fall's Lord of the Rings Online expansion yet, but the game is already laying down the foundation for Mordor. In today's 20.1.2…
Wild West Online discusses splitting the difference between scale and player participation - How many players makes an MMO? It seems like a straightforward question, but it's a rather complex one, and one that Wild West Online is attempting to answer by degrees.…
Marvel Heroes interview on PC vs console, new characters, and whether PvP is dead - A few weeks ago as pre-launch hype for Marvel Heroes Omega on console was reaching its zenith, we reached out to Gazillion with questions about the PC version of the…
Secret World Legends explains new pistol RNG mechanic - [AL:SWL]One big combat change coming with the Secret World Legends reboot is that each weapon type will now feature its own special mechanic. The team posted a spotlight on its…
Guild Wars 2’s June feature pack is all about PvP and WvW - So here's a new one for Guild Wars 2: The game's getting a "competitive" feature pack patch in June. The blog post was tweeted out earlier today by ArenaNet, and it's short…
Leaderboard: What’s the most important part of MMORPG character customization? - Valiance Online has a dev thread up this week asking backers and devs to propose hairstyles for the game's characters, something that immediately yoinked my attention since I am notoriously…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2 season 3 finale predictions - I've had enough time to fully reflect on my Guild Wars 2 Living World season 3 experience to date and wanted to circle back through what I now understand to be…
Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss prepares IPO in Korea - Multiple Korean outlets are reporting that Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss is preparing an initial public offering and seeks a fall listing on the Korean stock exchange. Seoul's Pulse News reports that in…
Conan Exiles addresses weather system, accusations of slow content rollout - Conan Exiles has another new Q&A thread up on Reddit over the long weekend, and the first takeaway is invest in a coat and some sunscreen. Funcom's Joel Bylos says…
Blade and Soul doubles its firepower with the Maestro - [AL:BaS]Asian MMOs can't exist for long without succumbing to the temptation to introduce some sort of gun-toting fanatic, and Blade and Soul is proving to be no exception in this…
David Brevik says Hellgate London was ‘a game ahead of its time’ - If you were harboring some sort of secret hope that David Brevik would return to the battered and bruised Hellgate London to realize its full potential, it's probably best to…
Wild West Online FAQ says the game is ‘not historically correct’ - Remember the days when MMOs used to post clear and concise FAQs instead of messy AMAs and lengthy developer livestreams? Wild West Online does, which is why it has a…
EVE Evolved: War declarations need revamped for the citadel era - [AL:EVE]It's a universally accepted fact in EVE Online that you're never truly safe from attack. Low-security space is littered with pirates looking for an easy kill, nullsec alliances respond to…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
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Know Your Lore: The Rise of the Lich King
WoW Pet Battles: 7.2.5 Deadmines Dungeon strategy guide
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.
