Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire expansion launched on Friday, sending fans of Tyria and nostalgia back into the Elonian deserts. How many of those 11 million total accounts are playing? Probably not all of them, to be sure, but enough to cause more than a few disconnects and instance-creation problems through the weekend, especially in the EU but felt across the game’s territories. The demand bodes well for the game’s long-term finances (if not its short-term charm).
Don’t miss our coverage of the update; we streamed the launch on Friday, got our accounts in order, and debated the game’s material storage nerfs. MOP’s Choose My Adventure series will also cover Guild Wars 2 for the next month, so keep an eye out for that, a special guest on the podcast, and our impressions of the launch!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
GUILD WARS 2 EXPANSION
Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire launch diary: Initial impressions
Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire has launched; get caught up on the expansion here!
Guild Wars 2 counts 11 million players
The Stream Team: The MOP team dives into Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire
MMO Mechanics: Material storage and the Guild Wars 2 economy
Here’s what’s changed since you last played Guild Wars 2, including Path of Fire’s spec changes
Choose My Adventure: The return to Guild Wars 2
Flameseeker Chronicles: Our Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire launch countdown checklist
Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire is rejiggering crafting material storage to prevent hoarding, and fans are not happy
Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire launch trailer is hot. One might even say it’s on fire. Because it is.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
EVE Evolved: How much toxic, antisocial behaviour should MMOs tolerate? - [AL:EVE]The EVE Online community is aflame this week after alliance leader gigX was permanently banned for making threats of real-life violence against another player following possibly the biggest betrayal in…
Tamriel Infinium: First impressions of Elder Scrolls Online’s Clockwork City DLC - [AL:ESO]It's hard to know where to start with these impressions because the upcoming DLC for Elder Scrolls Online is significantly more complex, more extensive, and more fun than I originally…
EverQuesting: Is EverQuest II in a downward spiral? - Are we witnessing the death throes of EverQuest II? Of the whole EverQuest franchise? These questions have been at the forefront of my mind lately. Today's EverQuesting started as a guide…
PUBG ‘contemplates further action’ against Epic’s Fortnite battle royal mode - Remember that whole ordeal earlier this week when Epic announced that next week's Fortnite patch will be a free-to-play PvP-centric battle royal mode? PvE players were understandably miffed, given it's an…
LOTRO Legendarium: Six places LOTRO could go after Mordor - [AL:LOTRO]It always seems a bit unfair, a bit impatient, and a bit premature to be asking that eternal question of an MMO: "What's next?" This, perhaps, is doubly true when…
Secret World Legends has launched Tokyo part II Beyond the Wall - [AL:SWL]Secret World Legends fans, Funcom's just pushed a new free update out to you: Tokyo: Beyond the Wall, better known as Tokyo part II. The highlights for core players include…
Red Dead Redemption 2 kicks the can on its ‘summer’ announcement - Rule lawyers, please advise: Is it fulfilling the terms of a verbal contract to have promised more details on a delayed game by the end of summer and then announce…
Star Citizen is down to only 7 must-fix issues before alpha 3.0 goes to the Evocati - What's that sound? That's the sound of Star Citizen's alpha 3.0 creeping ever closer, as the teams say they've made "substantial progress." In the latest edition of Around the Verse,…
Overwatch: Fan designs an awesome Thai character, competitive bans start soon - Overwatch's next great character isn't a product of Blizzard's labs at all but the imagination of a masters student who whipped up a Thai hero named Tara as part of…
Massively Overthinking: How will Star Citizen make money after launch? - During this week's Massively OP Podcast, Justin and I attempted to tackle a question sent in by commenter and listener Sally Bowls - specifically, she wanted us to speculate on…
Divinity: Original Sin 2 welcomes friends with four-player co-op, PvP, and a game master mode - Anyone remember BioWare's Neverwinter Nights from back in the day? Those who have fond memories of that game and its bustling online mod community might want to take a look…
Classic EverQuest’s 24th expansion, Ring of Scale, is set to launch in December - Are you sad that the original EverQuest is so neglected? If so, you are wrong. It's not neglected at all. Even if you have zero desire to go jump on…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs with playable fairies - Probably my greatest and most constant gripe about fantasy MMORPGs is that for all of the freedom and imagination that this genre supposedly boasts, game designers keep going to the…
Star Trek Online launches a new feature episode with LeVar Burton and prepares for Season 14 on October 3 - [AL:STO]It's time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so it would be weird if Star Trek Online let that milestone pass by without comment. The…
PvE-centric Fortnite’s new battle royal PvP mode will be free-to-play - Epic Games announced this morning that Fortnite's upcoming PvP mode will essentially be free-to-play. The game was originally touted by Epic as a PvE survival title without direct PvPÂ and has…
RuneScape players accuse new lockbox promo of promoting gambling to children - RuneScape announced yesterday a new promo that works in conjunction with its existing Treasure Hunter system. It's a bit of a lockbox system, with the caveat that you can claim…
Villagers & Heroes’ Starfall expansion launches today - Villagers & Heroes' Starfall expansion officially launches today - a week earlier than originally planned. Who does that?! Mad Otter Games, that's who. Indeed, the studio has declared it the…
Hack-n-slash MMOARPG Guardians of Ember launches today - [AL:GOE]After wandering the lands of early access since last December, the Runewaker-developed hack-and-slash Guardians of Ember has now gained enough confidence, experience, and (most importantly) development to officially launch. Even…
EverQuest II announces 14th expansion, Planes of Prophecy, accompanied by name purge - EverQuest II Producer Lauren "Mooncast" McLemore has penned the September producer's letter for fans of the franchise. The chief announcement? The game is getting a new expansion called Planes of…
Square-Enix announces ‘survival action shooter’ Left Alive - Square-Enix announced LEFT ALIVE this morning, a "survival action shooter" that is permanently in capslock mode apparently. We don't know a whole lot right now as we've just got the…
EVE Online thieves produce propaganda music video, auction off ill-gotten gains - [AL:EVE]If betrayals, heists, coups d'état, and threats aren't enough to pique your interest in EVE Online's metagame, maybe memes will do the trick. As PCGN points out, EVE Online players…
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds breaks Steam’s concurrent user record - [AL:PUBG]If you've spent the past few years playing games based on the title with the highest concurrent user count on Steam... well, you have an awful metric for what you…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s Stormblood dungeons in review - [AL:FFXIV]Have I really not talked about the dungeons of Stormblood yet? That's unexpected. Usually I would have mentioned them by now, I talk about these things a lot. Yet here…
Cliff Bleszinski asserts that Lawbreakers is ‘fine’ on PS4 while planning to be ‘less of a dick’ - So what's the key element in revitalizing the flagging player numbers for Lawbreakers? Cliff Bleszinski puts forth that part of the onus is on him to be, in his own…
Asheron’s Call emulator lead explains what went down with the cease-and-desist - What are lawyers good for? Pouring lemon juice on the open wounds of an MMO community desperately trying to hold on to the remnant of their closed game, apparently. The…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 136: Westward ho!
DDO Players invites Massively OP to chat about gaming, news writing, and podcasting
The Stream Team: The MOP team dives into Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire
The Stream Team: Getting a look at Guardians of Ember’s launch
The Stream Team: Moving on to KOTFE’s Chapter XIV Mandalore’s Revenge in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Talking like a pirate in AQ3D with Artix
The Stream Team: Just another Marvel Heroes Monday
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Yes, you can fight gaming toxicity by being nice to other players
Upgrade your Legendaries to ilevel 1000 in WoW 7.3.2
What WoW 7.3.2 spoilers mean for Azeroth and the next expansion
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.
