Raise your hand if you weren’t expecting to see the words EverQuest Next pop up this week. Yeah, we’re right there with you. But they did, along with the words Jumpgate spiritual successor, Star Wars Galaxies, Warframe is six, Funcom’s new Secret World game, and free Guild Wars 2 episode. It’s been a ride, people. We even debated the trinity and welcomed female avs to Star Citizen.
And here on MOP, we introduced three more new columns: Desert Oasis, our returning Black Desert column; Fight or Kite, our new PvP MMO column; and MMO Cartographer, our tour of weird and interesting MMOs.
Finally… you know what tomorrow is, right? Believe nothing.
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
EverQuest Next failed to clear its ‘technical hurdle,’ but Daybreak hasn’t given up on a sequel - Did EverQuest Next fail to come to fruition because it wasn't fun, the studio didn't want it, or its technical challenges were too great to overcome? Take your pick on…
Funcom’s next horror game, Moons of Madness, is set in the Secret World universe - It was an open secret that Funcom was working on a new game targeted for Halloween - in fact, Funcom and its subsidiary and partner studios have been working on…
Desert Oasis: Reframing player perceptions of Pearl Abyss’ MMO Black Desert - Hello and welcome to our revival of the Black Desert column! The Desert Nomad decided it was time to reroll for the new meta, and it's back, better than ever at…
Fight or Kite: Clawing my way back into Guild Wars 2’s WvW - All aboard and welcome everyone to a brand-new series here on Massively Overpowered: Fight or Kite, our new column focusing on PvP across the MMORPG genre. Let’s get right on…
WoW Factor: Why people are mad at Battle for Azeroth, part 5: Conclusions and peeling the mask - This week, after some 7000 words on this particular topic, I'm starting off by acknowledging what should be a rather obvious fact: My series does not cover all of the…
Hyperspace Beacon: This is the toughest choice in Star Wars Galaxies Legends - I'm Larry, and I'm an altoholic. (Pauses for everyone to say "Hi, Larry.") The toughest part of any game for me is which class to choose when starting out. Star…
Perfect Ten: How to determine whether an IP would make a good MMO - A few weeks back, fellow writer Justin talked about cartoons from the '80s that would make for good MMOs. In some cases I agree; in others I disagree. But my…
Black Desert’s big banwave this week apparently had more than a few false positives - Earlier this week, we covered Kakao's move to crack down on cheating in Black Desert, specifically in Shadow Arena, which has reportedly been plagued by hackers since its rollout earlier…
Jumpgate spiritual successor Warp Nexus is ‘taking the suck out of the vacuum of space’ - File this one under "did not see that coming": Developer Wyrmbyte just announced Warp Nexus, which it's dubbed a spiritual successor to Jumpgate. Aaaaand they're calling it an MMO, full-stop,…
Leaderboard: How important is character gender selection to your MMO play? - Our article about lady toons (finally) in Star Citizen last week got a bit heated. One subthread was locked, unlocked, and locked again because the topic seems to rile so…
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.5 rolls out to all backers this weekend with playable female toons as ATV takes a break - It's gonna be a good weekend for Star Citizen backers: The 3.5 alpha is going live for everyone this weekend. This'd be the update we've been covering more intensely for…
Massively Overthinking: Thoughts on the holy trinity in MMOs - One of MOP's bright new columnists, Tyler Edwards, blogs over at Superior Realities, and he recently brought to my attention his pieces on the MMO trinity, amounting to an epic…
Warframe of Mind: Celebrating six years of Space Ninja history - Happy birthday! Warframe commemorated its sixth anniversary this week (or last week, depending on which date you go by), and that means it's time for an anniversary retrospective! Usually my…
Vague Patch Notes: The occupant’s dilemma in MMORPGs - This is the story of Stanley. Stanley had a hobby, and that hobby was playing MMOs. Every day, he logged in to Final Fantasy XI, where he knew he was expected…
The Division 2 gets a new Stronghold and World Tier on April 5 - For those who have blitzed through The Division 2's current content to the top of the endgame heap... how? Do you blink? Are you just that good at shooting digital…
PAX East 2019: Bless Unleashed’s overview trailer actually looks good - Bless Unleashed has been rolling out class videos over the last couple of months, but now, Bandai Namco is dropping a more generalist trailer ahead of its showing at this…
Dungeons and Dragons’ Masterminds of Sharn is up for pre-order, targeting April 30 release - The newest -- and most vertical -- Dungeons and Dragons Online expansion is just a month away, as Standing Stone Games announced this week that it is targeting April 30th…
Neverwinter announces an April 23 release date for Undermountain on PC - Week by week, Neverwinter has been kicking out dev blogs touching on the various things players can expect in the Undermountain expansion, so a video summarizing all of the features…
Torchlight Frontiers’ time-limited contracts are its version of seasons - The crew over at Echtra Games isn't hellbent on reinventing the MMOARPG format, but instead it is concentrating on taking what works in similar games and putting a refined spin…
Dragon Nest’s European servers are sunsetting in May - Ah dang, it's been ages since we've talked about Dragon Nest, so I'm sorry this post is gonna be a downer: The game is sunsetting in Europe. "It is with…
Bethsoft has just launched Elder Scrolls Blades into mobile early access - Did not see this one coming, but in retrospect, it makes sense: The Elder Scrolls Blades has apparently just launched into early access on Android in the middle of Bethsoft's…
Fallout 76’s Wild Appalachia tweaks PvP damage and launches Survival Mode - The Wild Appalachia update of Fallout 76 has landed, and with it comes a number of changes that will be important to note for the PvP-minded. Chief among these are…
Reddit is aflame over the ban of a popular bug-exposing YouTuber from ARK Survival Evolved - Since this article's publication, Wildcard has walked back the ban. We've updated with the whole story at the very end. Not quite a year ago, I wrote a piece about…
Super Adventure Box is live this week in Guild Wars 2 with new racing adventures - [AL:GW2]When ArenaNet announced last week that Super Adventure Box was returning to Guild Wars 2 this week, it wasn't entirely clear that new content was coming along with it. It's…
Choose My Adventure: The almost-zen of crafting in Legends of Aria - Funny how this run of Choose My Adventure arrives after we've had a discussion about designed downtime, because the crafting and gathering in Legends of Aria is the kind of…
Reverse Engineering: The super scientific dangers of capturing Pokemon with your phone - I don't mean to alarm anyone, but there is a chance that capturing Pokemon could be the end of civilization as we know it. It could likely bring the apocalypse…
No Man’s Sky Beyond will include free virtual reality support this summer - Earlier this month, we learned that Hello Games still has huge ambitions for No Man's Sky; it's planning to turn the game into a proper MMO with proper MMO multiplayer,…
Fallout 76 is coming to Steam sometime soon - While initial indicators were that Fallout 76 was going to skip over Steam in favor of Bethesda's own digital games platform, time can change minds. Or maybe this was the…
The Daily Grind: What are you looking forward to the most in WoW Classic? - After all the PR mishaps and layoffs Blizzard's had since last fall's BlizzCon, I wouldn't have been too surprised to see the company delay WoW Classic. But that doesn't appear…
Ascent: Infinite Realm looks into the lore behind its factions, the Vulpin and the Ontari - New information about Bluehole Studio's upcoming steampunk-fantasy MMO Ascent: Infinite Realm continues to slowly trickle out, this time with a bit of lore about the game's two factions, the Vulpin…
Apple reveals Apple Arcade, yet another subscription service for games - File this one under things you probably didn't ask for: At its conference today, Apple announced Apple Arcade, a multi-platform sub service "that will feature over 100 new and exclusive…
Epic’s Tim Sweeney on the Epic Games Store, self-publishing, and proper moderation - Epic Games found itself in a spot of hot water recently when it was discovered that its Epic Games Store was pulling users' Steam friends list data without permission --…
Anthem misses the mark again: No armor loot in Elysian Stronghold caches - The number of posts and threads about Anthem's loot issues are too numerous to count without a calculator. Now, we can add a misdirect to the mix of loot issues.…
The Survivalist: ARK’s Homestead update builds on disappointment - After all the time waiting for Studio Wildcard to deliver on its promise of integrating the super popular S+ building mod into the core of ARK: Survival Evolved, it finally…
Guild Wars 2 begins return-to-Tyria initiative with free episode and big Path of Fire sale - At the end of last week, ArenaNet announced its plans for a new five-week Guild Wars 2 initiative that's intended to bring players back to the game. And as promised,…
Wisdom of Nym: Reactions to the Final Fantasy XIV Tokyo Fan Festival - So we've now had our final fan festival for Final Fantasy XIV, and for heaven's sake we managed to get one big hype-derailing moment in the middle that you just…
MMO Cartographer: Touching all the things in Project Gorgon - Welcome to MMO Cartographer! I'm Mia, and I'll be your guide through this winding journey through interesting MMORPGs - some small, some forgotten, and some just worth another look. Today,…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 213: FFXIV’s first world problems
Battle Bards Episode 141: Riders of Icarus
The Stream Team: Commemorating another RuneScape anniversary milestone
The Stream Team: Alphabet soup with Guild Wars 2’s WvWvW and SAB
The Stream Team: Flirting with necromancy in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Shroud of the Avatar hits its first year anniversary
The Stream Team: A fifth birthday bash for SMITE
The Stream Team: Happy sixth birthday Warframe!
The Stream Team: Dino army drills at ARK’s ice cave
The Stream Team: Dungeon diving in Elder Scrolls Blades early access
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.
