I was thinking last week was a bit thin on MMO news, but I’m so glad I do this weekly recap because it’s proved my impression so wrong! This week, Bless Online officially sunsetted its last remaining server, Star Trek Online launched its Awakening expansion, Caravan Stories rolled out for PS4, PlanetSide Arena let folks in for a peek, and there was a smidge of turmoil in the City of Heroes rogue server community. Plus, we debated Elder Scrolls Online’s trade guild mess and mused on EVE Online’s population problem.
Oh yeah, and a UK parliament committee berated video game companies for their gross monetization and lockboxes specifically – let’s hope they throw more than shade going forward.
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
EVE Evolved: EVE Online is losing players, and no one can agree on why - Nobody wants to think that a favourite MMO is losing popularity, but with EVE Online now being over 15 years old, it's a possibility that is never far from players'…
UK parliament committee calls for ban on selling lockboxes to kids, deems games industry ‘wilfully obtuse’ - As gamers will recall, the UK government's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee panel has been investigating addictive technologies for the better part of the last year - if…
Star Trek Online Awakening is officially live today, starring Discovery’s Anthony Rapp - Star Trek Online Awakening is formally launching on PC today, with Star Trek Discovery's Anthony Rapp's voice and visage at the helm of the patch and its storyline. "Awakening brings…
Tamriel Infinium: The Elder Scrolls Online’s economy needs a casual friendly option - A few years ago, I was introduced to the concept of trading guilds. Trading guilds are unique to the The Elder Scrolls Online as far as I know, at least…
TonyV leaves City of Heroes NCsoft negotiations, resigns from Titan Network - Over the course of the last few months, following the revelation of working City of Heroes server code out in the wild and the community's Herculean efforts to restore the…
Japanese MMORPG Caravan Stories officially launches in North America today on PlayStation 4 - It's a good day to be a PS4 owner, folks: Bread girl is about to become a reality in North America as Caravan Stories, delayed from July, rolls out to…
Working As Intended: What it means to be an MMORPG - I am amused and somewhat bewildered to admit that I have my very own pet troll. He follows me around on Reddit to hassle me, and from time to time…
Interview: Star Trek Online’s Al Rivera on Discovery’s Awakening and beyond - The Federation's past is meeting its future this week with the rollout of Awakening for Star Trek Online. Set in the "present" timeline of 2410, Awakening connects to the Discovery…
LOTRO promises that Riders of Rohan won’t hit progression servers before next year - So back when Lord of the Rings Online originally launched the progression servers last November, Standing Stone Games said that it would unlock subsequent expansions about every four months. However,…
EverQuest community server Project 1999 is launching a new shard next month - Tired of WoW Classic already? Feeling ready to take off the training wheels from your MMO bike and pedal with the hardcore kiddies? Then consider jumping into the EverQuest server…
MMO Burnout: Greedfall is a pretty interesting swing for the fences, even when it misses - It's been said by me many times before now, but here it is again: I really appreciate a game that swings for the fences. Heck, I probably appreciate it more…
LOTRO Legendarium: The bold life of a player chicken - [AL:LOTRO]When you get a little bored of the normal questing flow or dungeon hopping in Lord of the Rings Online, there are plenty of side activities for you to enjoy.…
Guild Wars 2 talks up 2v2 PvP, Swiss tourneys, and the future of ‘expansion-tier features’ - Guild Wars 2 PvP. It seems that you either like it, or you think it's missing a whole lot. But what does ArenaNet think - is it in a good…
World of Warcraft: Classic is nerfing threat generation on Demoralizing Shout - Demoralizing Shout has numerous effects in WoW Classic; it reduces the attack power of nearby enemies, gives you a nice shouting animation, and generates threat. But does it generate too much…
Lawful Neutral: Examining Ashes of Creation’s controversial referral program - I have a really hard time taking anything seriously that refers to money as "bucks." You'll recall that I opened the Lawful Neutral column on virtual currency a while back…
Here’s what we learned from PlanetSide Arena’s brief demo event yesterday - Yesterday's invite-only PlanetSide Arena demo event was a quickie - it was over in two hours. But already the hype is building for the game. Readers will recall that PlanetSide…
Inside Star Citizen goes spelunking with a full episode all about patch 3.7’s cave systems - The weekly Inside Star Citizen is once again an episode focusing all on one aspect of the developing game: caves. Covering everything from lighting and sound to generation tools and…
Predictably, the ESA rebuffs UK call to ban lockboxes, citing nebulous transparent lockbox plan - Yesterday, we covered the UK government’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee panel report on addictive technologies: Readers will recall that the lengthy paper was generated after nearly a…
Massively Overthinking: Let’s ban a word from the MMORPG lexicon - A while back, an MMO player I follow on Twitter who also happens to be super into sports retweeted something fun into my feed: a thread about banning annoying words.…
Vague Patch Notes: Timesinks, sunk time, and MMOs - Here's a fun question I asked myself a lot back in the day: Why, exactly, did leveling take so long in Final Fantasy XI? The obvious mechanical answer doesn't require a whole…
Book of Travels sucks you into a gorgeous online fairytale world - Every once in a long while, a game is announced that really makes us sit up and go "Oooh!" without any irony. Book of Travels, the newest reveal from studio…
Guild Wars 2 hypes Bound by Blood, loses a pair of devs, and sees Pink Day return - Time to bundle together some Guild Wars 2 headlines! Also I get to play with a bulleted list some more. Yay formatting! Let's tuck in for some ArenaNet-flavored news, shall…
Fallout 76 creates player ire by selling a food-saving refrigerator for $7 - Have you ever gotten mad at a refrigerator? I know I have: The one in the apartment I'm in right now has a dripping problem that we can't seem to…
PAX West 2019: Examining mental health and community in upcoming MMO Destiny’s Sword - Eager players packed the Washington State Convention Center at this year's PAX West, each greeted with games ranging from high-profile triple-A titles to more humble, two-person projects. There was something…
Desert Oasis: Hunting for the best grindspots in Black Desert - Of all things, the one thing about Black Desert that everyone can agree on is that there's a grind. Players who choose this game know that this is the central…
World of Warcraft’s private servers are emptying in the wake of WoW Classic, but they aren’t empty yet - So, who figured that the people playing World of Warcraft emulators would all jump ship in order to play on the official version of WoW Classic? Raise your hand and move to…
Perfect Ten: The many modes of social experience in MMOs - There are two statements frequently made with regard to MMOs that seem like linked clauses, but they're not. "MMOs are social games" is a true statement. "Therefore, people should be…
Path of Exile cancels new lockboxes-within-lockboxes after ‘intensely negative’ feedback - [AL:POE]So let's play a little round of bad news, good news with Path of Exile. Yesterday, with the Blight expansion not even a week behind us, Grinding Gear Games announced…
Choose My Adventure: A stronger, straighter start in Legends of Aria - What a difference a few weeks make. This past spring when I last toured Legends of Aria for Choose My Adventure, things were a little too heavy-handed with the “hard…
EverQuesting: Live in EverQuest II’s Baubleshire and Oakmyst Forest again – for a fee - What the what?!? How did I miss this?! I just went to browse the new things in EverQuest II's marketplace (honestly, I wanted to read what that new training monkey…
ArcheAge Unchained’s latest stream covers server count, Steam, and labor - If you missed Friday's ArcheAge stream, then good news for you: The ArcheAge subreddit, which is only slightly more excited for Unchained than the MMORPG subreddit, has helpfully collected all…
Funcom is still working on co-op shooter and multiplayer Dune game, according to Q2 2019 financials - Buried under all the WoW Classic news at the end of August was Funcom's second quarter financial report. Let's rectify our oversight with a peek now, shall we? Funcom characterizes…
Wisdom of Nym: Predicting the next Final Fantasy XIV jobs far too stupidly early - So now's a good time to start predicting the jobs we'll be getting in the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion, right? It seems like a great time! We have no material…
Cube World developer Wollay explains why the game has seen repeated delays - With Cube World once again in the spotlight thanks to a promised launch on Steam this fall, many are perhaps looking for an explanation on why the game has been…
EA’s infamous ‘sense of pride and accomplishment’ post now holds a Guinness record – for Reddit downvotes - By now, we're all familiar with the 2017 comment by EA about how lootboxes provide "a sense of pride and accomplishment." The remark was the epicenter of a global move…
Bless Online has officially sunsetted – RIP, Bless - Back in June, Neowiz announced the sad news that Bless Online's western version on Steam - the last version left alive - was sunsetting on September 9th. The moment of…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 237: Fallen Earth’s final glorious sunset
The Stream Team: Experience AdventureQuest 3D’s new Friday the 13th dungeon
The Stream Team: Night two of new Neverwinter adventures
The Stream Team: Exploring Elder Scrolls Online’s Imperial City celebration
The Stream Team: Into the Conan Exiles Blood and Sand arena
The Stream Team: Beginning Path of Exile’s Blight league
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.
