Warframe took another step closer to being an MMORPG this week with the launch of its Plains of Eidolon expansion, which introduced an open-world landscape feel to zones and a slew of MMO-like questing options.
In Final Fantasy XIV, the latest housing crisis was met by apologies from no less than Naoki Yoshida.
And on the business end of things, the ESRB declined to classify lockboxes as gambling, Blizzard sued another Chinese ripoff, and IGN bought out the Humble Bundle company.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
But seriously, lockboxes suck, even if the ESRB doesn’t think they’re gambling. Stop buying lockboxes. - So, MMO players. Are you tired of hearing about lockboxes and gambleboxes? It feels like we've been complaining about them for like six or seven years now, probably because we…
LOTRO Legendarium: Grading Lord of the Rings Online in 2017 - [AL:LOTRO]At the beginning of 2017, it seemed as though a mini-renaissance was brewing for Lord of the Rings Online. Standing Stone Games broke away from the sinking ship that was…
IGN has apparently bought up the Humble Bundle company - IGN has just announced that it's scooped up a pretty sweet acquisition: It now owns the company behind Humble Bundle, known best for its cheap game bundle deals and originally…
Blizzard sues alleged Overwatch clone, bans World of Warcraft cheaters - Gone are the days when Chinese companies could get away with ripping off games left and right: Blizzard is going after another one of these alleged copyright-violating piles of crap.…
Choose My Adventure: Map-based antics in Guild Wars 2 - [AL:GW2]One of the points of the polls and discussions for Guild Wars 2 the other week was that while I could focus on either map antics or storyline progression, I…
Pantheon’s halflings are more like Peter Pan’s Lost Boys than Tolkien’s hobbits - The MOP team tricked me into taking this post. They promised me gnomes. They aren't gnomes at all. They're halflings! We're talking, of course, about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen,…
Rumor: H1Z1 is about to drop King of the Kill branding (and maybe it’s really launching) - Remember in 2016 when Daybreak split H1Z1 into two separate games, H1Z1: King of the Kill and H1Z1: Just Survive? Remember back in August when Daybreak dropped the "H1Z1" from…
Star Citizen’s Around the Verse isolates 23 more 3.0 alpha bugs, details immersive cockpits - On this week's edition of Star Citizen's Around the Verse, Sandi Gardiner does a happy dance as Chris Roberts updates viewers on how Evocati testing of the 3.0 alpha is…
CNN alleges that Russia used Pokemon Go to try to spread dissent in the USA - It always gets a bit bumpy when politics, international intrigue, and video games collide, so hold on for this one. According to CNN, Russia's Internet Research Agency -- an organization…
Massively Overthinking: Three-way RvR and ‘fair’ PvP in modern MMOs - MOP reader Sally Bowls is on a roll with the good questions lately! She lobbed us one this past weekend that seems a good follow-up to a comment thread discussion…
SuperData: ‘The esports market has finally hit the mainstream’ - In promotional materials associated with its new paid "Esports Scoreboard," gaming anaylsis firm SuperData - known best to our audience for its monthly revenue charts - has declared that "the…
Grim Dawn’s ‘massive’ Ashes of Malmouth expansion has launched on Steam - Crate Entertainment has this week launched a huge expansion for its madly popular multiplayer OARPG Grim Dawn. Ashes of Malmouth is live now and runs $17.99 on Steam (the base…
Warframe’s Plains of Eidolon expansion launches open-world ‘landscapes’ today - [AL:WarF]It's been a thrill, I think you'll agree, to watch over the last couple of years as Digital Extremes' Warframe defied the rule that most online games in our purview shrink after…
Perfect Ten: Why no one should recommend World of Warcraft ever - Last week, MOP's Justin (friend to man and beast alike) posted his list of MMOs he would recommend people play. It was a pretty good list! It wasn't the list…
Dungeons and Dragons Online reveals its expansion’s head vampire - [AL:DDO]Every MMO expansion needs a great headlining villain, a character who inspires fear, dread, and most importantly of all, makes you so infuriated that you have no compunction against unloading…
Video game journalist infects hundreds of EVE nerds with insidious virus - [AL:EVE]A gaming convention turned into the banal opening scene of a zombie outbreak movie this week as a number of players who attended EVE Vegas 2017 suddenly came down with…
Naoki Yoshida apologizes for Final Fantasy XIV housing mess, outlines future plans - [AL:FFXIV]If you missed this particular bit of drama, here's the TL;DR recap. Final Fantasy XIV releases patch 4.1, which includes the new housing wards. Those wards are gone before the…
The Orochi Tower has arrived in Secret World Legends - The release of the Orochi Tower in Secret World Legends is a big deal for several reasons. For one thing, it wraps up the storyline in Tokyo, resolving all of…
Facebook announces $199 Oculus Go, drops core Oculus bundle to $399 permanently - Facebook has announced that it's once again dropping the price of the Oculus Rift: The device-with-headset bundle will fall from $499 to $399, making permanent the "temporary" price reduction seen…
Lord of the Rings Online reverses course on incomparable gear rollback compensation - [AL:LOTRO]It took 'em a day, but it looks as if Standing Stone Games is going to do the right thing for Lord of the Rings Online players caught up in…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s 5.5 adds cringeworthy changes in the name of balance - [AL:TOR]Today, when I talk about the balance of a class, I hope you'll understand that I come from the perspective of a PvEer and raider. I also have a tendency…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV has a serious housing problem for basically no reason - [AL:FFXIV]Patch 4.1 arrived in Final Fantasy XIV, and the Shirogane housing rush came and went exactly how everyone familiar with the game had been expecting for months on end. The…
Lord of the Rings Online drops update 21, immediately rolls back upgrades - [AL:LOTRO]Update 21 has arrived for Lord of the Rings Online, which means the two new dungeons that have been getting tested for the past few weeks are now firmly in…
Chronicles of Elyria unveils its official launch kingdoms - Monty Python and the Holy Grail forever gave us the perfect test for whether or not someone is the king: see if he's got fecal matter all over him. Presumably,…
EVE Vegas 2017: Structure warfare is about to get very cool in EVE Online - [AL:EVE]If I had to pick out one thing that EVE Online does exceptionally well, apart from the political betrayals and thefts that regularly grace the gaming headlines, it would be the ability…
Riot employee fired over toxic chat comments says he deserved it - Last week, news that Riot Games Lead Experience Designer Aaron "RiotSanjuro" Rutledge had insulted a banned League of Legends streamer in a public chat under the Riot tag, calling him…
Wild West Online delays early access alpha: ‘It just ain’t ready yet’ - A couple of weeks ago, MOP's Justin and I expressed heavy skepticism that Wild West Online could ever be ready on schedule this fall. "No way, that's just not gonna…
Ship of Heroes has finished up its first character creator alpha – here’s what you built - Quietly zipping along this fall is City of Heroes spiritual successor Ship of Heroes, which has been running a small external alpha test with backers focused on its character creator…
Leaderboard: Are you one of the 2M people playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds today? - [AL:PUBG]PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds just keeps on growing globally: It's completely outstripped every other game on Steam in terms of concurrency, having now set a new record of 2M concurrent this weekend.…
Guild Chat: Coming back to an MMORPG guild after a long hiatus - Welcome along to Guild Chat, the column through which readers in need can source some solid advice to help them solve their guild-related issues. This time, an anonymous reader is…
Guild Wars 2’s AMA covers mounts, raids, maps, and the state of class balance - [AL:GW2]The ArenaNet devs descended on the Guild Wars 2 over the weekend for what looks like one of the game's biggest AMAs to date (but one with surprisingly thin info,…
Frontier Expo 2017: Elite Dangerous goes ‘Beyond’ with big plans for 2018 - When I spoke to Elite Dangerous' devs at this year's Frontier Expo 2017, the company's first fan expo, they admitted that communication went dark for a time. But it wasn't…
HALLOWEEN IS COMING AHHH
Halloween events in Path of Exile, Master X Master, RIFT, EverQuest, Ultima Online, and AQ3D
Champions Online’s Blood Moon rises once more this Halloween
LOTRO continues to course-correct gear issues, starts Harvest Festival, and gives away mithril tokens
Dark and Light encourages you to beat up goblins for sweet, sweet candy
TERA and Kritika Online kick off Halloween festivities
City of Heroes’ Paragon Chat is getting its own player-run Halloween contests, missions, and music
Paragon unveils the newest incarnation of Shadow’s Eve
Halloween 2017: Dark and Light, Villagers & Heroes, and MapleStory
Overwatch kicks off Halloween, hires for a new game possibly set in the Overwatch universe
Black Desert’s Wonderland-themed Halloween arrives next week
Guild Wars 2’s Shadow of the Mad King Halloween events return October 17
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 139: Catching up with Legends of Aria
Battle Bards Episode 107: Blade and Soul expansions
The Stream Team: Finding a new home on ARK’s Ragnarok
The Stream Team: Friday the 13th in Secret World Legends’ dreaming prison
The Stream Team: Into Warframe’s Plains of Eidolon!
The Stream Team: A night with EQII’s Nights of the Dead
The Stream Team: Taking a look at Total War: Arena
The Stream Team: Depart to SMITE’s afterlife in costume with new patch
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
BlizzCon 2017 Early Access Gear Sale is now live
Know Your Lore: Odyn and the power of death
Latest WoW hotfixes address bonus rolls on Greater Invasion Points and more
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.
