I remember when I used to worry about studios misusing words like sandbox, free-to-play, persistent world, and MMORPG. I even worried that the term “lootbox” was a far kinder term for gambleboxes than the one traditionally used by MMO players – lockbox. But apparently, the worst was yet to come, as this week, EA decided to argue, with a straight face, before a UK government committee hearing, that lockboxes constituted “surprise mechanics” – that they are “quite ethical and quite fun” and akin to “many other products that people enjoy in a healthy way.” Explains a lot about EA’s games I guess.
Meanwhile, the MMO world is preparing for the launch of World of Warcraft’s Rise of Azshara and stressing testing WoW Classic, we got our hands on Black Desert’s new Shai class, Harry Potter Wizards Unite went live, SWTOR promised adjustments for its business model, and we caught up with Camelot Unchained’s status with a Mark Jacobs interview.
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
EA absurdly argues video game lootboxes are ‘surprise mechanics’ - Did you think EA had maybe learned its lesson from the whole Star Wars Battlefront lockbox meltdown back in 2017, when the uproar over the game's abusive and greedy monetization…
World of Warcraft’s Rise of Azshara is finally launching on June 25 - Move over, WoW Classic - it's live World of Warcraft's time to shine, or it will be next week, that is, when the long-awaited Rise of Azshara finally launched for…
Interview: Camelot Unchained’s Mark Jacobs on the state of the beta and the NDA - We've been watching Camelot Unchained ever since its original Kickstarter in 2013 - and a lot has changed in the ensuing six years, including the anticipated launch date, as the…
Desert Oasis: First impressions of Black Desert’s new Shai class and her skills - The announcement of Black Desert's Shai class earlier this month really caught me off guard. Sure, I thought a snow globe sprawled on advertisements for the Heidel Ball fan-event-plus-press-conference felt…
Star Wars: The Old Republic is easing restrictions for free-to-play and preferred players - It can be difficult to play Star Wars: The Old Republic without paying; the game has some pretty strict restrictions in place for free players and even formerly paying members.…
Into the Super-verse: A quick-and-dirty guide to picking the right City of Heroes archetype – Blueside edition - What's amazing about the unexpected City of Heroes revival (and does that ever feel good to type) isn't just that old players are eager to go back, but that new players are seeking…
WoW Classic’s stress test is stressing player patience - Last night I, and apparently 80% of human civilization, logged on to the public stress test for World of Warcraft Classic. There I found the expected: retro graphics, few features,…
Perfect Ten: The most poorly managed MMO sunsets of all time - MMOs shut down. This is just kind of a reality. It's an unpleasant one, but we also are collectively aware that it happens and not much can be done to…
Star Trek Online’s Discovery Enterprise lockbox has captains in an uproar - It stands to reason that in a game called Star Trek Online, the most desirable starships of them all will be any that have had the name "Enterprise" slapped on…
Black Desert Online locks (some) player accounts in the wake of data breach - Black Desert Online appears to be in the midst of an account-security fiasco, as a recent forum post from GM Rhotaaz has announced that the "account information of a number…
MMOARG Harry Potter Wizards Unite has officially launched – a day early - "A wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." -Obi-Wan Kenobi, probably. Now that we've ticked off all the Harry Potter fans and…
Blizzard on World of Warcraft class pruning: ‘We’ve gone too far’ - With everything swirling about WoW Classic's stress test this past week and next week's Rise of Azshara content update in regular World of Warcraft, it is entirely possible that you…
WoW Factor: Blizzard’s schizophrenic view of levels - So it was just last week when I did a whole column asking whether Blizzard does, in fact, have a plan when it comes to World of Warcraft. Normally, that's…
New RIFT team letter discusses release cycle changes and the game’s future - Ever since Gamigo acquired Trion Worlds back in October 2018, RIFT players have been left in a sort of limbo in regard to what lies in store for the game's…
EA CEO on Anthem: ‘I feel like that team is really going to get there with something special and something great’ - We don't want to say that the mood of the Anthem fanbase is fatalistic at this point, but it's certainly not predicting that all is well in the game or…
Massively Overthinking: The worst MMO cash shop trickery - Last week, games psychologist Jamie Madigan tweeted an underrated comment about how psychological tricks used in restaurant menu design are also found in video game cash shops. The Mental Floss…
Astellia previews plans for next week’s closed beta, preloading begins tomorrow - With Astellia's first western closed beta coming up on us next week - on Tuesday, in fact - Barunson has posted up a fresh dev blog outlining exactly what players…
Warframe of Mind: The story of Space Mom and The Second Dream - When I first started playing Warframe, I definitely wasn't in it for the story. Was there story? Initially, no. There were only crumbs of lore scattered through out missions and…
Final Fantasy XIV is removing the FATE entries from its challenge log in Shadowbringers - Here's a bit of a surprise for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion: Two of the game's Challenge Log entries are being outright removed. Both Fated to Wander and Embrace…
MMORPG Atlas is testing a single-player mode this summer - Is it weird for an MMO like Atlas that once touted its planned 40K-person servers to now be producing a single-player version? Maybe, or maybe it'll be a better way…
New study finds connection between gambling addiction and lootbox purchases in adolescents - The research and science continues in the case of lockbox/lootbox purchasing habits and gambling addiction. The latest piece of scientific literature on the subject has been published today in the…
US Senator Bernie Sanders publicly offers support for game worker unionization - That dull, wooden hammering you hear in the background is the attachment of planks to platforms. With the US 2020 presidential campaign season drawing close, many American politicians are making…
Funcom is throwing anniversary bashes for Anarchy Online and Secret World Legends - Funcom is gearing up for anniversary festivities in two of its MMOs. First up: Anarchy Online is turning 18. Feel old yet? "Beginning June 18th through July 9th, Ganimedes Personal…
Guild Wars 2 resurrects Dragon Bash events from June 25 to July 16 - [AL:GW2]Surprise! Dragon Bash is returning to Guild Wars 2 next week. Even our columnists were stunned at this announcement, as the event hasn't been seen since its inaugural run in…
Choose My Adventure: TERA’s Valkyrie and the free-to-play grind - Close set of voting this time 'round, at least in terms of TERA's business model. For a time, the polls were literally at 50/50, but ultimately the ride as a…
Destiny 2’s daily player count is surging back to a million players - Things were looking a little... dicey for Destiny 2 for a bit there, let's be honest. But the good news is that all appears to be a thing of the…
World of Warcraft is removing an exploit used to powerlevel characters in Island Expeditions - What's the fastest way to level up in World of Warcraft right now? Have some friends willing to game the system. Essentially, there's a well-known issue wherein players can turn off…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s E3 hangover - Honestly, I wondered how the heck Final Fantasy XIV could top the revelation about Hydaelyn and Zodiark at the start of this year's E3. And it turns out that the…
Anthem’s Reddit cracks down on ‘aimless’ criticism - How dire is the situation surrounding BioWare's Anthem these days? It's so bad, apparently, that the community reddit has taken to drastic censorship to keep complaints and criticism of the…
The Daily Grind: What are you going to roll in WoW Classic? - I swear that we are all of us caught in a time loop right now. It's not 2019, it's really just 2004, when City of Heroes was just a few…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 225: The slash and burn of Amazon Game Studios
The Stream Team: Dare you duel in AdventureQuest 3D?
The Stream Team: MassivelyOP takes on City of Heroes!
The Stream Team: Chasing dragons in Elder Scrolls Online’s Elsweyr
The Stream Team: All about the Acts in Path of Exile’s Standard league
The Stream Team: Warframe’s The War Within
The Stream Team: A first look at ARK’s new free Valguero map
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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