It’s the battle of the conventions this weekend as NYCC, EVE Vegas, and Frontier Expo have all gone head-to-head. At NYCC, Star Wars The Old Republic dished out info on the new Timothy Zahn-inspired planet;Â at EVE Vegas, we got the scoop on post-Lifeblood F2P EVE Online improvements and CCP’s new mobile game; and we’ll have a bunch of news on Elite Dangerous tomorrowday straight from London!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Guild Wars 2 is now selling waypoint unlocks in the cash shop - [AL:GW2]With today's update, ArenaNet has begun selling waypoint unlocks in the Guild Wars 2 cash shop. "You know the drill. You’re trying to reach East Nowhere to stop a rampaging…
World of Warcraft confirms a next expansion reveal at BlizzCon in new video - Let's be fair, World of Warcraft's recap of 2017 doesn't outright say that the game's next expansion will be revealed at BlizzCon. But if you don't want to take a…
Flameseeker Chronicles: One week into Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire - [AL:GW2]I've had my hands on Guild Wars 2's second expansion for a week and some change now and have built up a more solid picture of Path of Fire in that time.…
Exclusive Guild Wars 2 interview on Path of Fire’s launch and philosophy - [AL:GW2]Spurred on by my excitement for Guild Wars 2's second expansion, Path of Fire, I reached out to ArenaNet shortly before release to secure a post-launch interview to ensure all my most…
Choose My Adventure: Following a god in Guild Wars 2 - [AL:GW2]To my absolute lack of a surprise, the fact that your abilities are so aggressively limited once you pick an Elite Specialization in Guild Wars 2 came back to make this…
Perfect Ten: The 10 live MMORPGs everybody should try - If you have ever visited the MMORPG subreddit, you probably know that one of the most frequent posts that pop up are ones asking the community for recommendations. These are…
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.0 is finally in the hands of (some) player testers - Get your "it's happening" gifs out: Star Citizen's alpha 3.0 is here. Kind of. Sort of. It's here if you're a member the 800-member Evocati group, who are generally high-dollar-amount…
Hyperspace Beacon: The pros and cons of SWTOR’s United Forces server merges - [AL:TOR]First, if you're hoping this is going to be an article hating on server merges and declaring them the ruination of an MMO community, then prepare for disappointment. I believe…
Crowfall devs on why they don’t make their soft launch production checklist public - Happy October: It's time for another Crowfall Q&A. ArtCraft's Thomas Blair and Mark Halash and sit down to answer questions from high-end Crowfall backers. Of note, they cover multiple skill…
Star Citizen debuts Origin X1 racer concept ship for sale - If you need a break from counting down the time until Star Citizen alpha 3.0 is here, you could always just go buy a new concept ship. The new Origin X1…
British alt rock band Muse will close out BlizzCon 2017 - Blizzard's going old school once again with its band selection for this year's BlizzCon: UK alt rock band Muse. Here's the spiel: "Widely renowned as one of the best live…
Players express anger over Lord of the Rings Online adding high-end gear to lockboxes - [AL:LOTRO]Long ago, Lord of the Rings Online first experimented with having stats on gear you can buy for real money. We bring this up here because... well, let's unpack the…
Blade & Soul’s October 18 Rage of the Hive Queen update heralds new boss, quests, and Halloween - [AL:BaS]Blade & Soul likes to fly under the radar, but here's some buzz: The game's being pollinated with a brand-new patch on October 18th called Rage of the Hive Queen.…
Gear leveling comes to TERA with next week’s update - [AL:TERA]Once next week's Arsenal update arrives, TERA will become the latest MMORPG to take a stab at item progression. Yes, it's that moment when game designers are ripping their hair…
The Game Archaeologist: Ultima Worlds Online Origin - While the heady days of Ultima Online's dominant position over the industry are long gone, the MMORPG continues to operate and expand, and many players have fond memories of the…
Leaderboard: Do e-sports belong in the Olympics? - Nielsen has a massive "fan report" out this week dubbed The E-Sports Playbook, covering audiences in the US, UK, Germany, and France and focusing on e-sports fans as a market.…
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas talks randomness and Legendaries - There's been another live community Q&A session with World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas, and if you're in the "highly frustrated" crowd of fans, the answers received are not going…
The Thargoids are adapting to player tactics in Elite: Dangerous - First, the player debate in Elite: Dangerous was whether or not players would have to fight the Thargoids. Then, it was over how to fight the Thargoids. Then it was…
Spacetime Studios announces Pocket Legends Adventures - Last week, we broke the news that Spacetime Studios was working on a new mobile MMO, and as of today's announcement, it's been confirmed. That mobile game is called Pocket…
Star Wars: The Old Republic renames ‘Hot Prospect’ merged server - [AL:TOR]Aside from all of the other name issues surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming server merges, there was the reality that one of those servers was going to be…
Dungeons and Dragons begins testing Mists of Ravenloft expansion with a new race - [AL:DDO]A week after Dungeons and Dragons Online teased the reveal of the much-anticipated Mists of Ravenloft expansion, the MMO started testing some of the features that will be included in…
Warframe’s Plains of Eidolon is aiming to launch by Friday the 13th - [AL:WarF]Are we there yet? Almost, actually. Digital Extremes told Warframe players yesterday that the Plains of Eidolon expansion is coming sooner that you might think. "The goal is to launch…
The BlizzCon schedule is out, and it sure has some World of Warcraft panels - Again, we caution our readers, as we did yesterday, that there is not any official announcement of an announcement regarding the next World of Warcraft expansion, except that you can…
League of Legends dev who insulted streamer is no longer with Riot Games - [AL:LOL]Two days ago, we reported that a League of Legends developer had landed himself in hot water after he went grossly overboard in insulting a banned troll and streamer while using…
RIFT’s Crucia’s Claw update introduces Bastion of Steel raid and Mystic Archer soul - [AL:Rift]RIFT players, Trion's turned its attention back to you with a major update coming October 25th. Dubbed Crucia's Claw, the 4.3 patch includes a new raid for endgamers and a…
Blizzard is hiring for a production director for the Diablo franchise - Remember last week's announcement that there would be no news for Diablo III or any other part of the Diablo franchise at this year's BlizzCon? It remains to be seen…
SWTOR’s United Forces update includes a massive server merge - [AL:TOR]BioWare has just announced Star Wars: The Old Republic's United Forces update, a massive merge of the game's 17 servers down to five in an attempt to improve the game's…
Leaderboard: Which of the City of Heroes spiritual successors are you looking forward to? - A few years ago, we counted basically three City of Heroes successor games, all made by indie studios. In 2017, we still have three core titles on the way --…
This is how MMO lockboxes manipulate your mind - It is not going to shock you to hear that lockboxes are kind of evil. We here at Massively OP have been beating on that drum for years now. But…
Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan on how toxic gamers try to intimidate Blizzard devs - As the discussion and response to Overwatch's legendary toxicity problem continues, even the development team isn't spared from the impact of this, ahem, "passionate" community. Game Director Jeff Kaplan wrote…
EVE Evolved: What to expect from EVE Vegas 2017 - CCP Games' annual EVE Vegas event kicks off in less than a week on October 6th, and once again MassivelyOP will be on the ground to get the latest on…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 138: Mystery MMOs and the mobile revolution
The Stream Team: It’s story time in Secret World Legends
Warframe: New Plains of Eidolon trailer, players host 100-hour charity stream
The Stream Team: Celebrate Atlas Reactor’s first birthday and get gifts!
The Stream Team: Taking a story break with SWTOR’s Star Fortresses
The Stream Team: Deck building in The Amazing Eternals
The Stream Team: Exploring ARK’s Ragnarok map
The Stream Team: Peeking into NosTale
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Account-bound legendary tokens help WoW alts in 7.3.2
WoW’s Running of the Gnomes benefits breast cancer research
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.
