MMORPG fans said goodbye to WildStar this week as NCsoft sunsetted it for good after a four-and-a-half-year run.
But out on the periphery of MMOs, online gamers raised a massive stink over Fallout 76’s bugs, sales, toxicity, refunds, and the CE edition bag bait-and-switch. Gamers are grumpy over Red Dead Online’s economy mess too. And then we saw a major round of delays: Project Nova, Path of Exile PS4, and Blades were all affected. Oh yeah, and the FTC agreed to investigate lockboxes.
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
The Nexus Telegraph: What other MMOs should learn from WildStar’s demise - The shutdown of WildStar stings in a way that other shutdowns haven't. It's hardly the first game I've covered closely that has stepped away to the land of wind and ghosts,…
Fallout 76 fans are livid over what they call a collectors edition ‘bait-and-switch’ - Bethsoft just can't catch a break with Fallout 76, can it. Players across social media are bemoaning an apparent switcharoo in the Fallout 76 collector's edition. The original collector's edition advertisement,…
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO news stories of 2018 - With the turn of every new year, I know we are entering unexplored territory in the field of MMO news. No matter what we may predict, it's inevitable that the…
Project Nova’s alpha is postponed indefinitely as CCP Games heads back to the drawing board - CCP Games has put the brakes on Project Nova, according to a message plastered on the company website today. The game isn't over, as CCP says it's "return[ing] to the…
Red Dead Online players voice concerns over game’s economy and balance - As of today, Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer component, Red Dead Online, is available to all players, and while the experience has been largely well received, a significant portion of…
No, private World of Warcraft servers aren’t shutting down for World of Warcraft: Classic - So remember how a whole lot of private World of Warcraft servers justified their operation by claiming that the real reason they were operating was because there were no classic server options?…
RIFT team under Gamigo admits it’s been ‘reduced’ but is ‘open to expanding’ in the future - Since Trion Worlds was sold to Gamigo back in late October, resulting in sweeping layoffs of the former's staff, players of Trion's MMOs have been understandably concerned about the fate…
LOTRO Legendarium: Taking a fresh look at Lord of the Rings Online’s early zones - One of the unexpected benefits of jumping onto Lord of the Rings Online new progression servers is that it's giving many of us a refreshed look at old favorite zones…
Bethesda permabans Fallout 76 players for homophobic harassment - We're not sure whether to bin this as a good story or a bad - a little of both maybe. Multiple Fallout 76 players have been permanently banned from the…
Leaderboard: How much does an MMO’s IP influence your interest in it? - Here's a fun thought exercise: What if standard assumptions about IPs and games is wrong? To hear some people tell it, games like Star Wars Galaxies and Lord of the…
Ship of Heroes honors City of Heroes’ deathiversary with a support toon video - Six years ago today, the sun set on City of Heroes for the last time, but the game's not been forgotten. Among the title's spiritual successors is Ship of Heroes, which…
Bethsoft has delayed Elder Scrolls Blades into 2019 - Fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise (and Elder Scrolls Online specifically in our neck of the woods) have been in a state of curiosity over Elder Scrolls Blades ever since…
Perfect World Entertainment confirms Steam China deal - Earlier this year, we reported on the surprise announcement that Perfect World Entertainment was in talks with Valve to bring Steam into China. It's official now, though; Valve and PWE…
Smed vows he’ll someday make a game akin to EverQuest Next - Earlier this week on the podcast, Justin and I were joking around about how one of our favorite fun things to write about is when a famous dev will make…
Hyperspace Beacon: We have the Star Wars The Old Republic story all wrong - I have been buried in Star Wars: The Old Republic lore for about 8 years now, and it pains me to admit this, but I think I was wrong about…
Vague Patch Notes: Having fun in an MMO doesn’t actually mean it’s any good - It appears that Fallout 76 has become the latest in a long line of games that launched too early with ill-defined goals, trying to be both an MMO and a non-MMO…
Path of Exile delays PS4 launch from December 2018 to February 2019 - [AL:POE]Ah heck. If you were hoping to be roaming around Path of Exile on your PS4 by Christmas, best stick a pin in those plans. Grinding Gear Games announced last…
Valve’s Artifact is live to ‘reimagine’ the online TCG genre - Trading card game fans know the name Richard Garfield well. The man created the legendary Magic: The Gathering back in the early 1990s, but he hasn't stopped making games since.…
Previewing Dual Universe’s bigger, better alpha experience – including crafting - Every time I see and learn more about Dual Universe, I have that feeling that this may be The One. The one I have been waiting for. The one that…
Red Dead Online has a creative approach to handling griefing - So right now, I'm feeling the pain of being a PC-specific gamer: Not only can I not play Red Dead Redemption 2, but I can't play Red Dead Online either,…
Massively on the Go: The Pokemon Let’s Go-Go Connection - Yes, we're going to talk about Pokemon Let's Go Eevee (or you can pretend its Pikachu if you just want to experience Pokemon Yellow again). No, it's not an MMO, but looking at…
World of Warcraft on stumbling into a woman-dominated cast for Battle for Azeroth - If you hadn't noticed, the cast of this particular World of Warcraft expansion is pretty heavy on the leading ladies. Sylvanas, Jaina, Talanji of the Zandalari, Azshara, Tyrande... pretty much…
The FTC commits to investigating video game lootboxes following US Senate subcommittee hearing - Readers following the long-running lootbox/lockbox debate will recall that back in February of this year, New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan, who sits on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, questioned…
Bethsoft acknowledges ‘frustrated and angry’ Fallout 76 fans, previews December patches - You know, I'm almost starting to feel sorry for whichever Bethsoft community manager is tasked with entering the bowels of the Fallout 76 Reddit to deliver missives from on high.…
EVE Evolved: Where can EVE Online go from here? - Ask a hundred EVE Online players when the game was at its best and you'll get a hundred different answers. For some older players that might be the first era…
There might just be a class action lawsuit over Fallout 76 refunds - If you're having fun in Fallout 76, awesome - our own Fallout fanboy certainly found some positives in the game - but other folks are apparently taking their complaints to…
The Survivalist: ARK’s Extinction makes bases extinct - It had to be too good to last! We were all pretty shocked when Studio WildCard actually launched ARK's newest expansion on the right date (as opposed to weeks or…
Wisdom of Nym: Making proper predictions about Final Fantasy XIV’s next jobs - Now that we're done poking holes in bad logic, it's time to actually get down to brass tacks of predicting the next jobs for Final Fantasy XIV. And it's actually…
Guild Wars 2 is literally giving away a car to promote roller beetle racing - [AL:GW2]And you get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car! Just kidding, only one of you gets a car. I'm talking about ArenaNet's sweepstakes for…
Fallout 76 goes on steep sale while fans uncover a Skyrim connection - Ready for a bit of "huh, that's weird" for a Monday morning? We sure hope so because it turns out that Fallout 76 is being sold for $35 on Amazon.…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 198: Manatee… in… spaaace!
Battle Bards Episode 133: Star Citizen
The Stream Team: Raiding ARK: Extinctions drops
The Stream Team: Raising kittens of chaos in Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: Seeing the City of the Sun God sights in Secret World Legends
The Stream Team: Farewell, WildStar
The Stream Team: SWTOR after-story adventures
The Stream Team: Making our way to The Elder Scrolls Online’s Murkmire
The Stream Team: Legends of Aria’s head start!
The Stream Team: Starring in SMITE’s new arena (plus giveaway)
The Stream Team: One last ride in WildStar
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
• What would ‘WoW 2’ even look like to you?
• What in-game location from WoW would you love to see IRL most?
• What’s the laziest thing you’ve done in 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 bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
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