Doesn’t it seem as if BlizzCon was weeks ago? Nope, just one week. So over the last seven days, the gaming community has been mulling over the convention and where it went wrong. Probably not from their phones. Investors didn’t seem too pleased with the Diablo Immortal reaction or the company’s third quarter financials either.
Meanwhile, MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online successfully launched its first-ever progression server, seeing so much demand on day one that Standing Stone rolled out a second.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
BlizzCon 2018: What the heck happened? - Every year, I cover BlizzCon for Massively Overpowered. This is not new information; you've all seen my liveblogs running every year for quite some time. And the reception of any…
Lord of the Rings Online opens the doors to its first progression server - It's time to go back to the Shire once again. Today, Lord of the Rings Online opened up its first "legendary" progression server, Anor. Subscribers and lifetime members have the…
Blizzard denies claims that Diablo 4’s reveal was meant to punctuate BlizzCon as ActiBlizz stock plummets - So here's some fuel on the raging dumpster fire that is the Diablo scene right now: Kotaku has sources claiming that Blizzard did indeed intend to reveal Diablo 4Â at BlizzCon…
WoW Factor: The dumb World of Warcraft stuff from BlizzCon - It's easy to just think of this year's BlizzCon as having dumb stuff on display for Diablo, but let's be real here - there were enough missteps to go around, right…
Star Citizen is delaying quite a bit of alpha 3.4 into 3.5 to make its December goal – including female toons - Cloud Imperium's Sandi Gardiner and Chris Roberts are back with another episode of Star Citizen's Around the Verse - with good news and bad news. The good news is that…
Epic MMO Battles of History: World of Warcraft’s Wrath of the Lich King vs. Legion - It was just a couple of days ago when Bree was sharing that I felt like Wrath of the Lich King was the best World of Warcraft has ever been.…
Activision-Blizzard Q3 2018: Activision Blizzard revenue dips, WoW Battle for Azeroth did well - It's probably a good thing for Activision Blizzard that its third quarter financials cut off at the end of September, given that its stock took quite a tumble following its…
Gamigo promises ‘new content on a regular basis’ for ArcheAge, RIFT, Trove, Defiance, Atlas Reactor - Players still awaiting more details on what's happening to their MMORPGs following Gamigo's buyout of Trion Worlds' assets have finally received a blanket announcement, this time from the game's new…
Massively Overthinking: Which MMORPG should have never been made? - This could be a gruesome topic, but it popped into my head after GIbiz published an article with advice for game developers from Melbourne Games. It's called Australian devs' advice to…
NCsoft Q3 2018: NCsoft sales continue downward slide while online PC sales trend up - Slides may be fun when you're a kid, but they're not something you want to see when you're a multinational games corporation that's operating several online properties. Unfortunately for NCsoft,…
The Game Archeologist: Halo Universe - Since its debut on Xbox back in 2001, the Halo franchise has been a massive powerhouse and a mainstay for shooter fans. To date, there have been 13 releases, including…
Leaderboard: Are you playing on Lord of the Rings Online’s progression server? - So many people showed up to play on Lord of the Rings Online's progression server Anor yesterday that SSG had to rush to put up another one, Ithil, to beat back…
Warframe’s Fortuna update is live on PC with a new zone, new activities, and totally rad hoverboards - There's been a lot of hype in the lead-up to Warframe's Fortuna update, including a full-blown ARG in which players were tasked with decoding clues and solving puzzles to aid…
Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped more boxes in eight days than Red Dead Redemption sold in eight years - It's been a hot minute since we talked about Red Dead Redemption 2, which launched last month in a flurry of "best game evers" against a backdrop of reported labor…
Another e-thug responsible for DDOSing SOE years back is brought to justice - Hey, remember a few years ago when there was a new Lizard Squad article like every month, thanks to the fact that the e-thug group was hacking and DDOSing multiple…
EverQuesting: EverQuest II’s 14th anniversary retrospective, from Columbus Nova to Chaos Descending - During last year's anniversary retrospective for EverQuest II I dared to say things were too quiet. Big mistake! Why would I tempt fate like that? I certainly can't say the…
Gamigo considers ‘quality of life improvements’ for RIFT post-Trion, but there’s little else shared - We've heard from the ArcheAge and Trove teams about just what plans Gamigo has for those games following Trion Worlds' apparent fire sale, and today, we're hearing from RIFT. But the…
Black Desert’s Xbox One beta has officially begun – here’s the trailer - It's happening: Black Desert's Xbox One beta has officially begun as of today, running through November 12th, with a slew of events on tap over the next few days. In…
World of Warcraft’s latest PTR build reduces the experience needed for all levels - Does it just take too dang long to level a World of Warcraft character at this point? Help is on the way in the form of the 8.1 patch on…
DC Universe Online launches Atlantis today - Come under the sea with DC Universe Online today! There'll be no accusations, just friendly crustaceans. Or... wait, let's double-check the patch notes... never mind, there are actually lots of…
NCsoft formally reveals Aion and Blade & Soul sequels ahead of G-Star - This week's NCsoft game announcements aren't going to surprise most of you who've been following NCsoft for a while. We've known for many moons thanks to investor reports that the…
Elder Scrolls Online offers free membership trials, introduces new rewards for subscribers - If you've been eyeballing an Elder Scrolls Online Plus membership but aren't sure that you want to shell out the cash for it just yet, then perhaps next week's ESO…
Blizzard talks up ‘meaningful choices’ in World of Warcraft’s story - Did you still have any hopes about the story of World of Warcraft in this expansion? Did you think the writers would somehow pull out an amazing last-minute twist that…
Bethsoft says it’s working on addressing Fallout 76’s many bugs, including the nastier exploits - I'm surprising no one by saying that Fallout 76's beta thus far has been a mess. We've seen report after report on the bugs and cheats and hacks in the…
Interview: Neowiz on Bless Online’s now-live Ruins of Shaqqara and the state of the game - Neowiz's beleaguered MMORPG Bless Online is live with its first big update since launching out of its open beta early access last month. Ruins of Shaqqara will boost the level cap…
Perfect Ten: MMOs that aimed at the future… and missed - The future is a weird place. It's similar to the present, but it has a very different outlook on the world, and it wants what it wants. More importantly, it's…
Overwatch’s new character Ashe sparks discussion on the roster’s diversity - There's been plenty of excitement over the announcement of new Overwatch character Ashe at BlizzCon 2018, but the new arrival has also sparked a bit of controversy around the subject…
Black Desert Online cracking down on private servers to community’s dismay - The folks at Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss have announced via an official forum post from GM Rhotaaz that they're cracking down on Black Desert Online private servers, much to…
ARK: Extinction launches today with a free week of Survival Evolved - With the lack of fanfare leading up to today, you might have thought that Studio WildCard delayed the launch of ARK's third expansion, Extinction. Technically you'd be right, but only…
World of Warcraft’s Alex Afrasiabi on the possibility of faction unification - During BlizzCon 2018, the folks at Blizzard Watch chatted up World of Warcraft Senior Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi to discuss what lies in store for players in the future of Battle…
Final Fantasy XIV’s 4.45 patch is live with Eureka Pyros and the further adventures of Hildibrand - [AL:FFXIV]Let's be blunt: People did not like Eureka Pagos. But Final Fantasy XIV's patch 4.45, live today, pushes the storyline along with role-agnostic customizations that might appeal to grumpy players…
Funcom is now working on at least six new games, including a new open-world multiplayer title - Man, just a couple of years ago, there was serious concern that Funcom wouldn't make it another quarter, and now here we are in Q3 2018, when Funcom has performed…
Tencent is expanding draconian ‘healthy gaming’ child blocks across all of its titles - Oof. If you thought RealID was a bad call, point your eyeballs at China, where Tencent has announced it will expand its existing "addiction-prevention" system across all of its titles.…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 195: April fools at BlizzCon
The Stream Team: Building a pet-friendly Conan Exiles treehouse
The Stream Team: Enlisting some ARK enforcers
The Stream Team: Aye, it’s Fortuna time in Warframe
The Stream Team: Songs of AdventureQuest 3D adventure
The Stream Team: Stepping onto LOTRO’s legacy server
The Stream Team: Celebrating EverQuest II’s anniversary like a hero
The Stream Team: First steps in ARK’s new Extinction
The Stream Team: Continuing The Elder Scrolls Legends’ story
The Stream Team: Back to Halloween battles in World of Warships
The Stream Team: Neverwinter’s Masquerade of Liars
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
• The new WoW Paladin Consecration animation is too good not to share
• What would you need to try Diablo Immortal?
• Everything we know about World of Warcraft’s patch 8.1: Tides of Vengeance
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 bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
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