Hear that rumble off in the distance? It’s WoW Classic, and it’s only two weeks out now, as all the infodumps and server plans and promos and new models and character boosts and server types indicate. We got Blizzard’s quarterly financials this week too, and no surprise – WoW subs are up in anticipation. We’re thinking it’ll be awfully interesting if WoW Classic prods the rest of the genre to turn another page the way the original game did.
Meanwhile, No Man’s Sky is prepping its next big thing, DCUO hit the Switch, Legends of Aria hit Steam early access, City of Heroes’ rogue servers took steps toward legitimacy, video games were once again unjustly blamed for spurring on violence, and the ESA’s backtrack on lockboxes feels like a bit of a hollow victory.
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 ESA says a crapton of game companies are finally embracing lockbox transparency - Under pressure from no less than the US Senate, the FTC held the first of its planned video game monetization workshops today, and while it's not even over yet, we've…
Blizzard reveals server names, rulesets, and name reservation plan for WoW Classic - Who doesn't remember the thrill of sitting around way back in 2004, conferring with guildies and allies to figure out which World of Warcraft server to start on? I certainly…
DC Universe Online drops on the Nintendo Switch today with GU96 - It's about to be a good day for MMO players who've always wanted to play superheroes on their Nintendo handheld, as DC Universe Online's Switch launch day has officially arrived.…
Legends of Aria hits Steam early access today with the PvP patch, a sale, and a free month of sub for loyalists - Legends of Aria's big day has arrived - or will when the gates open today around 3 p.m. EDT. A few weeks ago, Citadel Studios announced that the Kickstarted MMORPG…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Chairs and other oddities in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop - [AL:GW2]I love MMO cosmetics, and Guild Wars 2 has a great selection, from armor skins and outfits to gliders to minipets to mount skins. I don’t mind dropping a few…
City of Heroes’ Homecoming rogue servers have joined the Titan Network/NCsoft negotiations - Exactly one month ago, tangent to our interview with the Homecoming server team that's part now-flourishing City of Heroes rogue server community, we also spoke to Tony Vazquez, the administrator…
Lawful Neutral: Money laundering and micro-laundering in the MMO industry - Previously on Lawful Neutral, we talked about currency and how video game companies try very hard to not be classified as a currency because of the regulatory overhead it creates…
TV networks block Apex Legends esports tourney broadcast following mass shootings - In what is being explained as a move of "respect for the victims and all those impacted" by recent mass shooting events in Texas and Ohio that left dozens dead…
WoW Factor: WoW’s anniversary editions and event speculation - Blizzard has really been pushing the whole anniversary thing for World of Warcraft hard and early this year. On the one hand, I get why; it's got WoW Classic coming…
WoW Classic is coming soon — here’s how to be prepared - As what looks to be the final World of Warcraft Classic pre-launch test wraps up today, Blizzard is priming fans for the second coming of vanilla. The studio pushed out…
No Man’s Sky Beyond gets a full launch trailer showing off its multiplayer environment - There's a lot of multiplayer support going on in No Man's Sky Beyond, the game's update arriving on August 14th. The latest trailer for the update just below is all…
Warframe of Mind: Get ready to rock with playable instruments - Digital Extremes can sure pack a bunch of good stuff in its Warframe Twitch shows, and July 26th's devstream #129 was no exception. But one particular little clip caught my…
Perfect Ten: MMOs of the apocalypse - It's the end of the world as we know it -- and for some reason, we are still gaming. I guess that your investment in that electromagnetically shielded internet cable…
Final Fantasy XIV’s Live Letter promises changes coming for Ninja, Samurai, Summoner, and desynthesis - Do you feel like Ninja in Final Fantasy XIV is currently putting out way too little DPS for the amount of effort required to play the job? The good news…
World of Warcraft’s latest sparkleponies don’t sparkle at all - While the official 15th anniversary celebrations for World of Warcraft are still a few months off, Blizzard is getting the party going in its cash shop. The studio announced yesterday…
Square-Enix Q1 2019 financials: Final Fantasy XIV helps drive revenue spike - One brings shadow, one brings the light, but Shadowbringers itself brings great financial results. The results for the first quarter of the financial year for Square-Enix have been posted, and…
Choose My Adventure: I may have fallen out of love with City of Heroes - I have to admit something, to everyone reading this and to myself. I’m not sure I missed City of Heroes as much as I had first thought. Trust me, I…
Anthem just stealth-launched the massive Cataclysm update today - It's patch day for Anthem! What, you didn't see that coming? Nobody else did either. BioWare just stealth-launched Anthem 1.30 Cataclysm today without any preamble, apart from the false starts…
Check out the updated Worgen and Goblin models from World of Warcraft’s 8.2.5 test server - It's high time for the Worgen and Goblins to get some face lifts in World of Warcraft, and that's one of the big updates with the game's current testing of…
DDO starts testing permadeath server, LOTRO’s Stout Axe Dwarves will be included in fall expansion - With the debut of Dungeons and Dragons Online's 90-day permadeath server heading our way on August 16th, it is fairly imperative that Standing Stone Games test out the shard before…
Researcher stomps the ‘lockboxes are Kinder Eggs’ defense into paste - Most if not all of us pretty much felt the same way Dr. Daniel King, senior research assistant from the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, did when…
Wisdom of Nym: Balance changes after Final Fantasy XIV’s patch 5.05 - Gosh, someone really likes Monk, huh? Not only did the job already get plenty of buffs, Final Fantasy XIV gave a bunch more improvements to Monk with the Savage patch...…
World of Warcraft provides a look at various class buffs and nerfs, hands out a free level 100 boost to players - We've got a couple of (likely) talking points for players of World of Warcraft to mull over, and if my observation of such discussions is any indicator, these are some…
Not So Massively: Why ARPGs, not MMOs, are where pet classes truly shine - I noticed something odd when I started playing Grim Dawn aways back: I went straight for the pet builds. This is interesting because this the exact opposite of how I…
Elder Scrolls Online is offering free sub access and perks for everyone until Tuesday - Moonsugar? No... no moonsugar here. Just some Elder Scrolls Online. Yep, if you've ever wanted to know what the paying customers in ESO get that you don't, then this is…
Massively Overthinking: Morality and compelling choices in MMOs - The most recent episode of The Psychology of Video Games podcast touches on a subject we don't tackle very much: moral choices. It's an interesting listen (there's even a quote…
Activision-Blizzard Q2 2019: Revenues dip again, WoW subs rise, expanded teams en route for Blizz - Remember in February when Activision-Blizzard posted record high financials but followed it up with a devastating round of layoffs? And then remember when the first quarter numbers arrived in May,…
World of Warcraft: Classic will have an RP-PVP server - There's not really such a thing in modern World of Warcraft as an RP-PvP server, since the current expansion basically did away with PvP servers as a thing in the…
Vague Patch Notes: Random thoughts on randomness in MMOs - Here's a fun little trivia fact that you probably already know: Computers can't really do randomness. A random number is usually generated by pulling outside data that appear to have…
Black Desert just hit open beta for PlayStation 4 – check out the new trailer - PlayStation 4 gamers are in for a treat today as one of the top MMORPGs on the planet rolls into open beta on the platform, joining PC and Xbox One.…
Working As Intended: We’re all full up on moral panics right now, but thanks - It's no great secret that MMORPG fans fall toward the middle of the age spectrum, given the history and peak of our genre. This means that most of our readers,…
Wings Over Atreia: Aion would make a better TV show than it does a game - It is no secret that Aion has frustrated me significantly to the point I can't even log in and play anymore. I get too annoyed just thinking about it. Which…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 232: Girl Dwarves rock our world
Battle Bards Episode 150: The great plains
The Stream Team: Warframe water fights
The Stream Team: Taking long enough in Secret World Legends?
The Stream Team: SWTOR’s pirate inclusion
The Stream Team: Legends of Aria launches on Steam!
The Stream Team: Summer Shai-tseeing in Black Desert
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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