We’re taking a time-machine back through our MMO coverage, month by month, to hit the highlights and frame our journey before we head into 2019!
Guild Wars 2 dominated the headlines (and comment threads) in July, though not for the reasons ArenaNet might have hoped: The firing of prominent but outspoken developers from the narrative team took the spotlight rather than the game’s underwater combat revamp and the return of a beloved festival.
The month wasn’t all bad, though; Rend hit early access, Camelot Unchained finally hit beta one, Star Citizen’s 3.2 alpha went live, Temtem and Fractured funded, Defiance 2050 launched, WoW’s pre-expansion patch arrived, Gigantic sunsetted, and Trion was hit with layoffs. OK, those last two were kinda bad too. Read on for the whole list from July of this past year!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF JULY 2018
Todd Howard blames Fallout 76’s lack of cross-platform play on Sony
Online games are avenues for hate group recruitment, according to former white supremacist leader
Interview: Neowiz on Bless Online’s tech, class balance, gems, PvP, and more
Star Citizen’s 3.2 quarterly alpha update is fully live, with new ships, mining, and cash-shop features
Pokemon-inspired MMORPG Temtem just funded on Kickstarter with over half a million bucks
Camelot Unchained has briefly delayed its 4th of July beta launch because ‘the client crash rate is too damn high’
Journalists and academics clash over the World Health Organization’s ‘gaming disorder’ classification
Ashes of Creation claims it’s ‘now among the largest MMOs in production’
Richard Garriott rejects idea that Shroud of the Avatar is a ‘flop’, says the game will run ‘forever’
Former Star Citizen dev refutes fake Glassdoor review made by troll on his behalf
ArenaNet is working on inventory tweaks and bug fixes for Classic Guild Wars – yes, a real patch!
It’s starting to look like Valve is trying to murder SteamSpy on purpose
ArenaNet has let go two Guild Wars 2 devs following a heated Twitter confrontation
Headstart begins today for Defiance 2050
Todd Howard says ‘Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world’ as Ubisoft and Bethsoft weigh in on games as a service
TennoCon 2018: Warframe expands into open-world Venus plus space
Trion Worlds offers free MMO goodies for Marvel Heroes refugees
Saga of Lucimia chides MMO players for having ‘forgotten’ how to properly group and socialize
Guild Wars 2 pushes out underwater balance patch while players cross over 119,431 years /played
Defiance 2050 officially launches as a free-to-play reboot on PC and console today
Crowfall studio ArtCraft spins off new company to license its MMORPG-oriented Artisan Engine
IGDA calls for transparent guidelines on game studio social media and harassment following Guild Wars 2 dust-up
Game Workers Unite condemns ArenaNet for Guild Wars 2 developer firings
Interview: ArtCraft’s J. Todd Coleman on prepping Crowfall’s Artisan Engine for the broader industry
Interviewing Frostkeep’s CEO as Rend announces July 31 early access
Wild West Online plans ‘soft relaunch’ to boost playerbase, says playable women are a ‘cosmetic feature’
Former Guild Wars 2 developer criticizes ArenaNet boss for ‘solicitation of harassment’ and minimization of her work
Disgruntled Star Citizen players blockade a space station in protest over Arena Commander
Today in why we can’t have nice things: Roblox players were banned after ‘raping’ little girl’s avatar
Arr! Puzzle Pirates: Dark Seas has fully launched on Steam
Ashes of Creation’s subreddit has been taken over by Intrepid Studios
Star Citizen backer took CIG to small claims court over his refund request – and lost
World of Warcraft’s pre-expansion patch has a rough start as Blizzard levies bans and grants past content to subbers
Fallout 76 doesn’t want to be labeled as ‘survival,’ shows off emote wheel
The Culling 2 has been canceled as devs agree it was ‘not a game that you asked for’ and return to work on The Culling
Trion Worlds has been hit with layoffs, loses ArcheAge associate producer
ArcheAge, Trove producers address Trion layoffs, tell players not to worry
Fortnite shuts down internet mob levying cheating accusations against $130K tourney winner
Former BioWare lead James Ohlen regrets not pushing SWTOR towards ‘Knights of the Old Republic Online’
Guild Wars 2’s Festival of the Four Winds has launched after four years asleep
The War of Thorns starts today in World of Warcraft
‘Full multiplayer experience’ flies into No Man’s Sky today
Riot co-founder asks the Twitterverse whether it should build an MMO
No Man’s Sky’s concurrency is waaaaaaay up since the launch of NEXT
MMORPG sandbox Fractured’s Kickstarter has just fully funded at over $130,000
EVE Online sparks a 4,000-strong player battle
Star Trek Online warps into Discovery’s universe as Stephen Ricossa steps down as exec producer
Defiance 2050 has big plans for new classes, advancement, and endgame as it hits 1M players
CCP has obliquely confirmed it’s working on a brand-new ‘action MMO’
Space survival game ROKH has suspended development
Zeal is an upcoming MMOARPG with PvP, PvE, 15 classes, and no grinding
Gigantic’s last matches are now playing out ahead of tomorrow’s sunset
Monster Hunter World: 8.3M sold, PC performance drag, and Steam data
The second part of War of Thorns is live now for World of Warcraft
Camelot Unchained’s beta is indeed launching today at noon
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF JULY 2018
The Daily Grind: Which MMORPG has the best user interface?
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s beast tribes ranked, the middle rankings
The Daily Grind: What’s the best MMORPG skill system that avoids the ‘illusion of choice’?
The Daily Grind: What MMO is theoretically perfect but fails to click with you?
Tamriel Infinium: All the lore you need to know for Elder Scrolls Online’s Wolfhunter DLC
The Survivalist: Yes, ARK Survival Evolved actually does have a story
Choose My Adventure: Final Fantasy XI in review and choosing our next MMO
LOTRO Legendarium: Are the new seasonal instances a win or a whimper?
Jukebox Heroes: Six more groovy tunes from MMOs you’ve never played
EVE Evolved: Improving EVE Online’s organisational tools
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s PR nightmare
TennoCon 2018: Why Warframe will never launch (and why that doesn’t matter)
Massively OP Podcast Episode 177: ArenaNet A-bomb
Perfect Ten: Best MMO debuts by year, 2007-2017
TennoCon 2018: Deep-diving Warframe’s Fortuna and Railjack
Hyperspace Beacon: Take your SWTOR PvP to Rishi!
Choose My Adventure: Starting fresh in RIFT
Exploring Pokemon Go’s real-life communities: MOP staffers revisit the game from opposite corners of the world
The Game Archaeologist: A history of EverQuest’s expansions
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s beast tribes ranked, the top ranks
The Daily Grind: How can we solve Reddit’s gaming ‘tragedy of the commons’ problem?
The Survivalist: Using Conan Exiles for a virtual tabletop campaign
Tamriel Infinium: The bizarre lore of the Hist in Elder Scrolls Online – and how it could matter in Murkmire
Massively Overthinking: What important lessons are MMORPGs failing to impart?
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth feels like Cataclysm all over again
The Daily Grind: Which expansion helped out an MMO the most?
The Game Archaeologist: Kesmai’s Air Warrior and Legends of Kesmai
EVE Evolved: Four changes to improve EVE Online for new players
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV gets to hunt some monsters
Perfect Ten: The best expansions for specific MMOs
Rummaging through Rend: Alpha impressions of Frostkeep’s blissfully social survival MMO
Previewing Rend: Frostkeep studio visit, early access, PvP, factions, and more
Hyperspace Beacon: Making roleplay events deeper in SWTOR (or any other MMORPG)
Massively Overthinking: Random acts of MMORPG kindness
WoW Factor: Dissecting the dumb plan in World of Warcraft’s War of Thorns
The Survivalist: Hands-on with survival MMO Rend’s closed alpha
The Daily Grind: Do you tilt toward sci-fi or fantasy in your MMOs?
The Game Archaeologist: Digging up the history of City of Heroes
The Daily Grind: What would you do if you could reboot any live MMO?
Wisdom of Nym: Examining Final Fantasy XIV’s housing issues (other than availability)
Why I Play: Trove’s Geode changed me from a visitor to a player
ALL 2018 YEAR-IN-REVIEW POSTS SO FAR
MMO Year in Review: The SWTOR sunset scare (January 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Dragon Bones, Funcom’s revival, and the politics of lockboxes (February 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Thieves, Avatars, and Gorgons (March 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Columbus Nova who? (April 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Mixed Bless-ings (May 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls Online, and Bethsoft’s bonanza (June 2018)
MMO Year in Review: So, uh, how ’bout that underwater combat balance (July 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Watching the world tree burn (August 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Literally the biggest news day in MMO history (September 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Gamigo’s gory Trion Worlds acquisition (October 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Blizzard and Bethsoft’s dumpster fire showdown (November 2018)
MMO Year in Review: Daybreak gonna Daybreak (December 2018)
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