World of Warcraft dominated the week with the launch of Battle for Azeroth; we’ve been delivering impressions from both our regular columnist and a casual player to boot for two perspectives on the rollout and experience so far. Two more years and we can probably do it all again!
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, part 1: Mechanics - Part one covers chiefly the expansion's mechanics: the basics of leveling, the Heart of Azeroth, level scaling, Azerite powers, combat, spec changes, War Mode, and the campaign.
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, part 2: Content - Part two covers expansion content: the storyline, the new zones, the War Campaign, questing, rewards, Inscription, professions, dungeons, and environments.
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, part 3: Narrative - Part three covers expansion story: narrative design, the text, the intended emotional reaction, good vs. evil, comparisons to Wrathgate, and how the game's cinematic presentation is let down by its…
A fluffy casual’s starting perspective on World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth - Let me tell you a bit about me and how I play MMORPGs. Between two jobs and a family, my gaming time is relegated to the deep evening hours where…
World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth is live – are you prepared? - Just one hour to go before you too can play World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth! Just kidding, the only thing you're going to be playing tonight is Queue Wars.…
WildStar brings back its home decoration event as the game languishes - Poor WildStar. These days all the attention and excitement that Carbine's MMO generates is by recycling old events. One of these, the home renovation event, is coming back tomorrow and…
Tamriel Infinium: Three key takeaways from the Elder Scrolls Online Murkmire teaser - [AL:ESO]Hopefully, everyone saw the Elder Scrolls Online presentation at Quakecon. If not, I'll have that whole video just past the break. Game Director Matt Firor and Community Manager Gina Bruno…
Ashes of Creation preps for September’s Alpha 1, shows off its action combat - Need a good dose of Ashes of Creation news to spice up your week? Intrepid Studios popped its head back up to talk up the game, starting with the revelations that…
Bless shares stats from its Assassin update - Ignore the bizarre sight of a developer's talking head stuck onto a suit of in-game armor for now. Bless is most pleased with its recent Assassin update, and the team…
The Daily Grind: Should being an MMO ‘whale’ absolve a player of toxicity or push him to the front of a queue? - Longtime MOP reader Agemyth recently brought to our attention a couple of bits of commentary that disturb at least my own fundamental sense of fairness. In one recent Waypoint piece,…
Massively Overthinking: Would you want to play a League of Legends or Diablo MMORPG? - Over the last couple of weeks, we've had some tantalizing rumors and teases that both Riot Games and Blizzard are building something new: Riot's dangled some questions about maybe making…
Elite Dangerous’ Beyond Chapter Three launches on August 28, players take on massive effort to salute community helpers - The next phase of Elite Dangerous is en route - specifically, that's chapter three of the Beyond rollout. In a brief tweet this afternoon, Frontier put a date on it…
Check out some of the new dwarven zones coming in Lord of the Rings Online’s Update 23 - [AL:LOTRO]At GenCon earlier this month, Lord of the Rings Online studio Standing Stone dished on some of the goodies coming to the game in Update 23, dubbed the Grey Mountains…
Torchlight Frontiers is being built by an ‘all-star team’ of former Torchlight and Diablo II devs - "So now I am very, very pleased to announce to everybody that we are taking the next step with Torchlight and making an MMO." By pulling back in some of…
MMO Skyforge is getting a battle royale mode, but it won’t utilize your MMO character - [AL:Sky]So this is happening. Skyforge is getting a battle royale mode of its very own, following in the footsteps of other MMOs that have adopted the mode into their virtual…
Diablo III is heading to the Nintendo Switch this fall - We may now know at least one of the several Diablo projects that Blizzard was teasing last week. Blizzard Watch reports that Diablo III is due for at least one…
Black Desert revamps and shortens Savage Rift, implements offline leveling - [AL:BDO]Black Desert players are being treated to a big update this week featuring the revamp of Savage Rift that basically makes the PvE co-op content more accessible and interesting -…
A judge has mostly denied Star Citizen studio’s motion to dismiss the Crytek copyright lawsuit - MMO-watchers will recall that just before the turn of the new year, Crytek filed to sue Cloud Imperium, the company behind the sprawling and controversial crowdfunded MMO Star Citizen. Crytek…
Leaderboard: Must MMORPGs revolve around grouping to be MMORPGs? - It would be easy to dismiss Saga of Lucimia's pervasive "group-based or go home" ideas as mere rhetoric, but the reality is, there exists a small segment of the veteran…
NCsoft Q3 2018: Aion, Blade & Soul, Guild Wars 2 revenues dip, while NCsoft teases three new titles - NCsoft's second quarter financials for the year hit this morning, and it's not exactly bad news. Sales are down slightly, but everything looks wimpy next to Lineage M's record-breaking debut…
Hi-Rez reorganizes SMITE, Paladins, and Realm Royale teams as newly renamed substudios - Hi-Rez Studios is making bold moves today: It's just announced that it's splitting up the band, unbundling its games teams into separate but joined substudios. Titan Forge Games will run…
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth tackles launch issues, sees first level 120, and activates companion app - All things considered, yesterday saw a fairly smooth global rollout for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. But while many realms were up and players enjoying the seventh expansion for…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Wolfhunter DLC is live today with new dungeons and PvP love - [AL:ESO]As promised, The Elder Scrolls Online's next DLC, Wolfhunter, has officially launched today! The patch is for everyone, while the DLC comes with a fee, unless you're subbed, in which…
Monster Hunter World breaks its Steam record but now faces a regulation nightmare in China - The record for highest concurrent users on Steam for a game launched in 2018 goes to Monster Hunter World, smashing the record set by... Monster Hunter World. Yes, after hitting…
Black Desert’s remastered edition looks and sounds amazing - [AL:BDO]Black Desert fans have a good reason to be excited -- after all, when was the last time that the MMO you played got a massive visual and audio overhaul?…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 182: Follow the Torchlight
Battle Bards Episode 126: Out of this world
The Stream Team: A first look at DEATHGARDEN
The Stream Team: Trying Warframe’s Frame Fighter minigame
The Stream Team: All your base are belong to Rend
The Stream Team: Secret World Legends Immersion Game must go on
The Stream Team: Sharing a stash of Trove summer festival stuff
The Stream Team: What comes after SWTOR’s Knights of the Eternal Throne?
The Stream Team: Is Bless better at higher levels?
The Stream Team: Seeking a way to survive in Will to Live Online
The Stream Team: Star Trek Online’s summer pet-a-palooza
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
The actors behind the fantastic voice work of Battle for Azeroth
Azshara might make her Battle for Azeroth debut at Gamescom next week
Soloer extraordinaire Mione is leaving 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.
