There’s never a dull moment in the MMORPG world, not even in the middle of a holiday! This week, Star Citizen defied and/or exceeded expectations by releasing its 3.0 alpha to all backers, selling a new concept tank, and revealing the state of Squadron 42 (albeit after a small delay). Meanwhile, Destiny 2’s playerbase continues to melt down over the Eververse cash shop fiasco.
Please have a safe and happy holiday from all of us here at Massively OP. Enjoy some festive music we’ve picked out for the occasion, or maybe just play some MMO winter events!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Massively OP’s Winter Holiday 2017 guide! - It's that time of year again where the airwaves of certain radio stations are clogged with the same songs from the 1950s, television broadcasts are filled with specials about the…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Best MMO Crafting of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Crafting, which was awarded to Landmark last year (and no, we didn't know it was about to be canned…
Make My MMO: The biggest MMO crowdfunding news of 2017 - Welcome to a special edition of Make My MMO, Massively OP's regular recap of what's going on in crowdfunded MMOs, which we do specifically for those of you who are…
Jukebox Heroes: MMO carols for your gaming joy - If someone -- and we are not necessarily suggesting you -- were to create an MMO Christmas carol album, what songs would be included? "Raiders from the Realms of Glory"…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Most Likely to Flop in 2018 or Beyond - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Most Likely to Flop, which was awarded to Star Citizen and WildStar in a tie last year. We're once again happy…
Elite: Dangerous’ community mounts its most daring rescue yet - Now here is the kind of emergent gameplay that could only be found in an MMO. Elite: Dangerous pilot Persera went on an expedition beyond the bounds of galactic space…
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.0 is now playable by all backers - Is it ready? Probably not, but Star Citizen backers can all play the 3.0 alpha today anyway. "We’ve enabled all backers to participate in the current PTU build," CIG announced…
Chronicles of Elyria hunts for a publisher, enables store gifting, and battles ‘harbingers’ - A year ago, Chronicles of Elyria had crossed $2 million in fundraising. Today, that amount sits at over $3.4 million. Still, some players worry that the game might not have…
WoW Factor: Do World of Warcraft’s allied race requirements make sense? - We still do not know exactly when World of Warcraft will make allied races playable. What we do know is that it sure as heck looks like it's going to…
Destiny 2’s playerbase is melting down over holiday lockboxes in Eververse - [AL:D2]Destiny 2 just can't seem to stop pissing off everyone. Its Dawning holiday event, detractors argue, is overtly designed as a moneygrab focused around the Eververse cash shop, which is…
Elder Scrolls Online announces new chapter and three DLC, including Dragon Bones, for 2018: ‘We are not slowing down at all’ - [AL:ESO]The Elder Scrolls Online had a great year between Homestead and Morrowind, to say nothing of the rest of its DLC. But what's coming next year? Good stuff. In fact,…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2017, a brand-new award for us this year. All indie MMOs and crowdfunded MMOs…
Here’s what Civil War-themed MMO shooter War of Rights has been up to since Kickstarter - Two years ago, Civil War-flavored multiplayer shooter War of Rights raised $118,000 on Kickstarter to see the title to completion, at which point it rather fell off our radar. But…
Massively Overthinking: Our MMO predictions for 2018 - With 2017 drawing to a close and 2018 rushing up to meet us, the Massively OP team has regrouped for another round of bold and goofy predictions for the year…
The Daily Grind: What was the worst MMO trend of 2017? - Earlier this week, we posted our award celebrating what we thought was the best MMO-related trend of the year: a renewed focus on building MMO community and dev communication. Naturally,…
The MMOs of the Steam winter 2017 sale - Another December, another Steam sale to entice you to spend money on games you don't have time to play just to have them for a rainy day! Here's a quick…
CIG delayed its holiday Star Citizen/Squadron 42 stream over technical issues - If you were waiting up for the Star Citizen/Squadron 42 holiday special Around the Verse stream slated for today, looks like you're going to be playing video games instead of…
Pearl Abyss to western Black Desert players: ‘We want BDO to last for another 20-30 years’ - [AL:BDO]Pearl Abyss Executive Producer Jaehee Kim has a message for western Black Desert players today. It's not gonna look all that different to what the companies posted for Korean players…
Choose My Adventure Year in Review: Elder Scrolls Online, LOTRO, WildStar, Black Desert, and Neverwinter - So I've been writing this column for a year now. A little more than a year, as it happens, but last year there was no point in doing a whole-column…
Dungeons and Dragons Online adds a new raid while Hollywood preps yet another D&D flick - [AL:DDO]The terror of Dungeons and Dragons Online: Mists of Ravenloft are only increasing thanks to this week's Update 37.1. Standing Stone Games activated an additional raid for the expansion called…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Biggest MMO Industry Disappointment of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Biggest MMO Industry Disappointment, which was awarded to EverQuest Next's cancellation and No Man's Sky's lack of multiplayer in a tie…
Final Fantasy XIV previews 4.2 Rise of a New Sun with a new sub-site - [AL:FFXIV]Ready to help rebuild Doma in Final Fantasy XIV? The preview site for the next major patch has gone live, and it makes it unambiguous that the story of the…
Apple now demands lootbox odds disclosures from Appstore games - No matter what type of mobile device you run as your daily driver, you're probably going to be surprised to hear that Apple is the one getting out in front…
Dark Age of Camelot is developing a free-to-play option for 2018 - While many MMO studios wait until January to release their year preview letters (and the lazy ones put it off until Ash Wednesday), Dark Age of Camelot is getting on…
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has officially launched today; are you playing? - Conventional wisdom says you probably shouldn't launch a blockbuster video game four days before Christmas, but then conventional wisdom never met PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which emerged from early access at 2…
Star Citizen has put out yet another expensive concept ship, and it’s a tank – literally - File this one under "bad press is still press right guys" or possibly "are you even kidding me right now": Star Citizen announced today that it's whipped up another concept…
Check out the brand-new Squadron 42 video starring Mark Hamill - As teased last week, IGN has a new Squadron 42 trailer up today straight from CIG itself. Clocking in at two minutes, the video features in-game footage of the player…
Hyperspace Beacon: A six-year retrospective of Star Wars The Old Republic - [AL:TOR]Happy birthday, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don't think your birthday has actually ever fallen on the same day that my article released, so this is a great treat.…
Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the best value at the start of 2018 - Let's talk about value. A couple of weeks back, I did an article on the healthiest games at the end of the year; today, I'm talking about the best value…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Best MMO Trend of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Trend, which was awarded to the trend of adding content scaling to MMOs last year. This year, all trends…
The Repopulation restarts its test world but removes backer tiers - It's a case of good news, bad news over at The Repopulation this month. The scifi sandbox, which is now being handled by Idea Fabrik since the turnover from Above…
Jukebox Heroes: The 2017 Online Video Game Music Awards - Oh, I can hear all of you out there, mewing with frustration that Massively OP hasn't yet announced the truly important awards yet this season. Well whine no more, because…
What are the odds that Blizzard is making a Diablo MMORPG? - Over at MMORPG.com, one of the writers has formulated an intriguing theory that Blizzard is actually in the process of creating a Diablo MMORPG which will be announced next year.…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Biggest MMO Industry Blunder of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Biggest MMO Industry Blunder of 2017, which we awarded to the industry's VR obsession last year, and I just need…
Chaos Theory: Guide to Secret World Legends’ first Krampusnacht - [AL:SWL]While many games go festive for the holiday season, no one does it quite like Secret World Legends. Cutesy doesn't quite fit here, but creepy sure does! OK, maybe onsie…
Leaderboard: What was the most overrated MMO of 2017? - Every year for the last many years, we've done some sort of award for the most underrated MMO, or even the year's sleeper hit. And every year, someone points at…
Shroud of the Avatar is really truly launching on March 27, 2018 - If you're a Shroud of the Avatar player, you've just gotten the last major update of the year. Release 49 rolled out ahead of the holidays last week as planned,…
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Best Not-So-Massively Game of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Best Not-So-Massively Game, which was awarded to Overwatch last year. As you might surmise, the games eligible for this category are…
Funcom gets $10.6M investment, signs deal to handle Conan and other RPG properties - Funcom's not quite done with Conan just yet, not by a long shot. The Conan Exiles studio announced today that it has signed a deal to establish a joint venture…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 149: Bringing back the MMO magic
The Stream Team: A Christmas first-look at Crossout
The Stream Team: A look at ARK’s Aberration
The Stream Team: Enjoying New Life festival cheer in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Snowfest fun in Trove
The Stream Team: Winter Solstice story speed run in Secret World Legends
The Stream Team: Surviving Fortnite’s holidays
The Stream Team: Get a free first look at Valnir Rok
The Stream Team: Celebrating SWTOR’s sixth anniversary with a Voss victory over Vaylin
The Stream Team: Frostbluff festivities in LOTRO
The Stream Team: Jump for joy, it’s Guild Wars 2’s Wintersday!
The Stream Team: Happy launch day Wild Terra!
The Stream Team: Devilian turns two!
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW Classic: Reminiscing about the old raid days
How do you feel about multi-boxing?
How many classes would be too many for WoW?
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.
