Sea of Thieves launched this week, it’s true, captivating many MMORPG player hearts with a round of yo-ho-hos and ahoy theres, but it was a huge week for the MMORPG industry all by itself too. We got expansion announcements for Elder Scrolls Online, Star Trek Online, and Skyforge and a launch announcement for Bless, plus deep-dives with Shroud of the Avatar, Secret World Legends‘ South Africa content, the newly launched ARK Park, and SWTOR’s 5.8 update. All that against the backdrop of our meanderings through GDC – including an exclusive with Ship of Heroes!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
The Elder Scrolls Online announces Summerset chapter for May 21 for PC and June 5 for console - [AL:ESO]Maybe you saw it coming, maybe not, but it's official now as it's just been announced on the stream: The Elder Scrolls Online's next expansion/chapter is Summerset, home of the…
A sneak peek of South Africa in Secret World Legends’ Season 2 - [AL:SWL]The things I do for you! You know that story is everything to me, and in order to bring you more information, I allowed myself to be partially spoiled on…
MMO studios form Justice League-style alliance to combat toxicity - After years of trying to crack the serious issue of negative behavior and toxicity among their individual communities, 30 game studios and industry leaders are teaming up to see if their…
WoW Factor: Allied races and a dearth of class choices - Last week, we got confirmation that Kul Tiran Humans and Mag'har Orcs are coming to the Allied Race roster for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. We don't know when,…
Bless Online interview: On soft launch, monetization, classes – and no lockboxes - Earlier today, we posted up Bless Online's new trailer and big news: That's it's launching on Steam early access as a buy-to-play title this coming May. As part of the announcement,…
Star Trek Online announces its fourth expansion, Victory is Life - [AL:STO]It's time to head back to Deep Space 9 in Star Trek Online with the announcement of the game's fourth expansion. Star Trek Online: Victory is Life sees players heading…
Shroud of the Avatar: Partying with Portalarium, countering pay-to-win, and the state of the game - The day is finally arriving: Shroud of the Avatar is formally launching next week. It's been a long journey. The path to this new old-school MMO started back on Kickstarter on…
Sea of Thieves says 5000 people logging in per minute – 1M users total – are why the servers are struggling - No MMORPG player will be surprised to hear that Sea of Thieves' biggest problem right now is that too many people are wanting to play - launch success works against…
Hyperspace Beacon: So SWTOR’s Update 5.8 happened - [AL:TOR]Yesterday, Star Wars: The Old Republic launched the delayed Update 5.8: Command Authority to the servers. BioWare now offers its first complete operation since Shadow of Revan. For those keeping…
Star Citizen brings back old ships for sale, asks backers to vote on alpha 3.2’s priority projects - Do you have too much money? Awesome. Star Citizen has some ideas for where you can spend it - say, on some new ships? Some old ships? Some reskinned ships?…
First impressions of the newly launched ARK Park - By the time you read this dear reader, I'll already be dead... dead tired, that is, from running around the Game Developer's Conference talking to developers from such companies as…
The Game Archaeologist: Shattered Galaxy - War. War never ends. Especially if it was designed and encouraged to wage forever. One of the most popular computer gaming genres of the late 1990s and early 2000s was…
GDC 2018: In the crow’s nest with Ship of Heroes’ CEO Casey McGeever - Let me be upfront: I've never gotten into a superhero MMO. I love comics; outside of work, it's probably the only fiction I willingly read these days. It's just the…
ArcheAge shows players how the next patch will allow you to tame a dragon - [AL:Arche]Of all the flying things you can ride in the world of ArcheAge, dragons seem like they might not be the best choice. They're pretty smart and aren't crazy about…
Sea of Thieves conscripts Sean Astin and plans a death tax - Citing "unprecedented numbers" of players rushing in to play Sea of Thieves over the past few days, Rare has acknowledged the multitude of issues that have cropped up since launch. These…
Ship of Heroes’ map is ‘larger than the starting maps in City of Heroes’ - If you're a City of Heroes fan - or any kind of superhero fan - then you're gonna want to check out the brand-new and never-before-revealed early-game Ship of Heroes…
Massively Overthinking: Paying for MMORPG emulators, legal or otherwise - MassivelyOp reader Bryan recently wrote to us with a fun question about emulators, a topic that will simply never die as long as MMORPGs do. [devdiary]"I recently viewed some comments…
Choose My Adventure: Anniversary groupings in Warframe - [AL:WarF]Last week's poll on Warframe was a nail-biter, but it ultimately came down in favor of me not buying a new frame for my explorations this week. So I didn't.…
RIFT Prime jacks up its quest experience, works on lag - [AL:Rift]Players on RIFT's relatively new Prime progression server will see one major complaint addressed today: Trion Worlds is tripling the experience rewarded from quests in a hotfix. Experience and rate…
Blade & Soul’s Fire and Blood patch brings a new raid and skill rebalancing - [AL:BaS]Ready to kick off some new raiding adventures in Blade & Soul? The newest patch, Fire and Blood, adds the 12-person raid Koldrak's Lair for players to challenge in a…
Perfect Ten: Why MMO progression servers are a brilliant idea - Over the past couple of weeks, I have been enjoying the journey through RIFT Prime, the game's first progression server. Trion Worlds surprised and delighted many of us when it…
GDC 2018: Rend is looking to ‘WoW’ the survival genre - I'm already old and bitter when it comes to survival games. I've killed zombies, dinosaurs, infected bears, maybe even infected dinosaurs, and people. Lots of people. Even for food, and I…
Skyforge announces Overgrowth expansion, coming April 11 - [AL:Sky]Skyforge is embracing spring with the announcement of a brand-new and rather leafy new expansion. It's called Overgrowth, and you can expect it on PC on April 11th (a day…
Bless Online hits Steam early access in May – here’s the new trailer - Thanks to an unfortunate leak, it's almost old news now, but we can now officially confirm that Bless Online is launching in the west this spring: Specifically, it'll come to…
Super Adventure Box returns to Guild Wars 2 on March 29, balance patch lands March 27 - [AL:GW2]My kid has been pestering me about Super Adventure Box for months now, and finally I'll be able to tell him just when the April Fools' Day gag will return…
GDC 2018: Game developers push for unionization in Game Workers Unite - Back in 2016, we covered the voice actors guild strike against multiple game companies in its an attempt to secure better compensation and working conditions. The drawn-out saga renewed calls…
MMO designer Raph Koster reveals ‘Trust Spectrum’ research for online games - If you'll be at GDC this week (we will!), you're in for a treat, as research from MMORPG designer Raph Koster will be on tap. It's new design framework aimed…
Hate groups are getting deleted from Steam… if they’re overt enough - It's fair to say at this point that Steam is an enormous part of the PC gaming market. It's also fair to say that Valve has demonstrated very little interest…
Preview: Trove’s Heroes expansion is super – and launching on March 27 - [AL:Trove]If you were ever of the opinion that one thing the voxel world Trove needed was a superhero, then you are getting your wish! The upcoming Vanguardian class is very…
Trion Worlds’ Scott Hartsman goes on NBC to address video game violence and game ratings - Here is something kind of neat: Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman sitting down with NBC's Press:Here to talk about video game violence and game ratings. Hartsman came on the program…
Trion Worlds says it has no plans to bring RIFT to console - [AL:Rift]With MMOs such as Trove and Defiance already inhabiting both the PC and console space, it seems not unreasonable to wonder if Trion Worlds has any plans on growing RIFT's…
EVE Evolved: What pushes EVE Online players to breaking point? - [AL:EVE]How many times have you read the comments on an EVE Online article and found someone talking about an experience they had that turned them off the game? They were…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 162: The Morninglight wants you
The Stream Team: Sidetracked by Secret World Legends’ side missions
The Stream Team: Checking out Chapter VI in SWTOR’s KOTET
The Stream Team: Starting spring in AdventureQuest 3D’s underworld with Artix
The Stream Team: Project Gorgon’s newbie dungeon is dark and full of terrors
The Stream Team: A Warframe 5th anniversary party
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Yes, First Aid is going away in Battle for Azeroth
What can WoW learn from Monster Hunter: World?
Who’s gotten into the Battle for Azeroth alpha?
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.
