Gotta love a huge MMO week! Not only did World of Warcraft continue its ramp-up ahead of Battle for Azeroth’s launch (we had a few words about that), but Path of Exile announced Delve, we got our hands on Monster Hunter World’s PC version, Blizzard teased more Diablo games, and best of all, PWE finally announced that Torchlight MMO that’s been rumored for like a billion years. This thing better not have giant roaches.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Elder Scrolls Online drops Murkmire, Wolfhunter trailers, buffs subscriber benefits - [AL:ESO]ZeniMax is dropping some good stuff at QuakeCon for players of The Elder Scrolls Online. If you're a dedicated subscriber, you're in for some welcome tweaks to the way the…
Hands-on with Monster Hunter World on PC: ‘A quick and dirty port’ - So you've probably heard some news about the Monster Hunter World port. PC performance issues, keyboard and mouse issues, random crashing. I wish I could tell you differently, but I can't.…
The Game Archaeologist: City of Heroes’ launch history and the Marvel lawsuit - In our first part of this series looking back at the stupendous history of City of Heroes, we saw how the idea for this superhero MMORPG germinated from a tech millionaire…
Perfect World Entertainment reveals Torchlight Frontiers, an MMOARPG for PC and console - Last year, Perfect World Entertainment shut down Runic Games. Even before that, fans had been told that any sort of Torchlight MMO would be a long time coming. And yet…
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s market saturation and the pull of vague memories - Here's something a little different: Usually, before I write a World of Warcraft column (or any column), my assumptions and data are pretty firm before I put them down on…
Path of Exile’s Delve launches August 31 with an infinite dungeon; here’s our chat with Grinding Gear’s Chris Wilson! - Picture this: an underground dungeon that gets progressively more challenging -- and rewarding -- the deeper you go, and there is no end. Not no end in sight, but no…
No, World of Warcraft’s warfronts won’t go live with Battle for Azeroth - One of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth's key features won't go live when the expansion launches this coming week. Blizzard announced players are going to have to wait a…
Bless compensates for downtime, is 67% off this weekend - Neowiz is decompressing from the rollout of this past week's Assassin update in Bless, which went... more or less OK. The studio said that it will be creating more instances…
League of Legends Lead Designer Ghostcrawler moves to an unnamed project - [AL:LOL]Let's play connect-the-dots today and see if we can see a picture forming over at Riot Games, shall we? Back in July, its co-founder dropped a befuddling tease about the…
Star Wars Galaxies fans are working on an emulator for the game’s TCG - I haven't been making any secret of how much fun I'm having in the Star Wars Galaxies Legends emulator (and thanks so much to the readers who urged me to…
Greed Monger delays refunds again because of crypto market dips - There's been another update in the long-running saga that is Greed Monger. Greed Monger is easily the most infamous MMORPG Kickstarter failure to date, having raised over $100,000 back in 2012…
Discord has launched its own video game storefront into beta, and it kinda looks like a Steam-GOG mashup - We all rolled our eyes when Valve's new Steam chat client borrowed heavily from Discord's proven best practices for chat, but most people didn't seem particularly inclined to switch. Wonder…
Massively Overthinking: Should MMORPGs incentivize exploration – and how? - Our Daily Grind on exploration last week sparked an intriguing follow-up from MOP reader Miol. "When asking about sightseeing and exploration in MMORPGs, you also mentioned the lack of rewarding…
Trove is back online after major economy exploit; Trion to offer compensation, ban perpetrators - [AL:Trove]Trion's voxelbox Trove was down most of yesterday thanks to what screenshots clearly identified as a massive duping exploit that positively trashed the game's economy overnight. Bonus, I got the fun…
World of Warcraft makes some big last-minute class adjustments before Battle for Azeroth - As the final few days count down before Battle for Azeroth drops, World of Warcraft's developers are making some significant last-minute class adjustments to make sure that players will be…
The Daily Grind: Is it time to move on from PvP ‘factions’ in MMORPGs? - I'm think I'm over factions in MMOs. I get why RvR games need them, and I'll grudgingly concede that the average player is far better off joining an arbitrary NPC faction…
Endless Trials seeks $66K on Kickstarter to build a semi-hardcore endgame PvE MMO that omits grind - Here's a new one for us, and if you like it, you can throw money at it right now: It's called Endless Trials, and it is gunning for some of…
Black Desert to show off its sizzling new graphics and music on Saturday - [AL:BDO]Black Desert is about to look and sound even more incredible than it already does, and you'll be able to check it out as early as this weekend. On Saturday,…
Lord of the Rings Online hypes up dragons, 64-bit client, and Minas Morgul - [AL:LOTRO]Last week's GenCon in Indy turned out to be a surprising source of information for fans of Standing Stone Games. First we found out that DDO is working on a…
Nexon’s financials hint at an upcoming western release for Moonlight Blade - We have been waiting for a long, long time to see if and when Nexon would be bringing the mega-hit Moonlight Blade over from the east. Now, we have some solid…
Jace Hall confirms that he’s H1Z1’s new PC lead, promises the sky - The rumors and hints are true: Monolith's Jace Hall has made the jump over to Daybreak to take on the position as PC lead for H1Z1. Hall said that some…
Tamriel Infinium: Becoming a Wolfhunter with the Elder Scrolls Online devs - [AL:ESO]While I have been an MMORPG fan for a very long time, I was also a comicbook fan long before the MCU was a thing. X-Men was my comic of choice.…
Hands-on with mobile Old School Runescape, plus a chat with the Jagex devs - I experienced a couple firsts recently that you may not have expected from me, and they can both be summed up in two words: Old School RuneScape mobile. Why so…
Blizzard teases ‘multiple Diablo projects in the works,’ with reveals ‘later this year’ - It's not exactly a secret that Blizzard has been working on something Diablo-related for a while as we've been tracking the company as it posts job openings for new Diablo games…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMO features that deserve widespread adaptation - You know what gets me excited about upcoming MMOs? It's certainly not the list of expected systems and features that have since become standard for most games in this genre.…
The Expanse started life as a failed MMO pitch - It's always funny when you see the routes that various franchises take. The Expanse started life as a series of books, which became a television series, and now it's getting…
Extensive Kotaku exposé uncovers a ‘culture of sexism’ at League of Legends developer Riot Games - The internet is ablaze over an in-depth report at Kotaku that uncovers a "culture of sexism" that is allegedly running rampant through Riot Games. Over two dozen women, both formerly…
Interviewing the Bless team on the Assassin, merges, PvP, and concurrency as the patch goes live today - Bless Online is rolling out a hefty content update today as promised, including the Siege of Castra PvP battleground, the faction-based open-world Capital War, and of course, the sneaky Assassin…
RuneScape Classic has gone dark, but you can relive its final moments - Crowds of players turned out to mark the final hours of RuneScape Classic yesterday, celebrating the impact that this initial version of the popular free-to-play MMORPG had on their lives.…
SWTOR’s Rishi stronghold and PvP tweaks are live today with the 5.9.2 update - [AL:TOR]Multiple goodies are coming to Star Wars The Old Republic today via its previously delayed but now launching 5.9.2 update. The headliner content is assuredly the Rishi stronghold, which our…
LOTRO Legendarium: Is Lord of the Rings Online aging well? - [AL:LOTRO]By now, to me, Lord of the Rings Online is a comfortable, well-worn friend that always offers a very predictable and enjoyable experience whenever I return to the game. It's…
Pathfinder Online promises free trial, open enrollment, and a marketing push - About nine people showed up at a GenCon Pathfinder Online panel this past weekend, during which Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens gave an update on the status of this struggling sandbox…
The 22-year-old Meridian 59 heads to Steam - One of the MMORPG genre's longest-running titles is finally making the jump to Steam in the hopes of picking up a new generation of players. Meridian 59 announced that it…
World of Warcraft opens up the Siege of Lordaeron - So, to the surprise of absolutely no one, burning down an Alliance capital city did not actually demoralize anyone other than players and now the Horde is getting one of…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Returning to Mu Legend for its Steam launch
The Stream Team: Soaring over ARK’s Scorched Desert
The Stream Team: Revisiting Citadel for Reignited
The Stream Team: Artix’s special MOP live event in AQ3D
The Stream Team: Playing Secret World Legends’ The Game v2.0
The Stream Team: A first look at Occupy White Walls
The Stream Team: Exploring EverQuest II’s GUK
The Stream Team: The search for Trove dragons continues
The Stream Team: Better hop to it to get your LOTRO bunny!
The Stream Team: A surprise Rend survival session
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Know Your Lore: High Overlord Varok Saurfang and the struggle for honor
Diablo Battle Royale and other guesses for future games in the franchise
Zekhan, aka Zappy Boi, is the surprise star leading up to Battle for Azeroth
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.
