It was no September 6th, 2018 – an historic day when we had four major MMORPG news stories all piled in the span of a few hours – but this week was certainly one for the record books: Mike O’Brien left ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2, Tencent bought up 29% of Funcom, Raph Koster raised a truckton of money to make a new MMORPG, and Red Dead Online is finally making its way to PC.
Don’t forget to enter our TERA-themed PS4 giveaway! 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
Raph Koster is making a new MMO and just raised $2.7M in seed funding to do it - So, who wants a new and well-funded MMORPG from the guy who literally wrote the book on virtual worlds? I knew you would. Raph Koster-led studio Playable Worlds announced today…
Mike O’Brien is leaving ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 to form a new studio - ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien announced this afternoon that he is leaving ArenaNet, the studio behind MMORPG Guild Wars 2, to "join some of [his] friends in forming a new studio"…
It looks like Daybreak’s been hit with yet another round of layoffs - Former H1Z1 Technical Director and PlanetSide Arena dev Josh "Autenil" Kriegshauser posted a tweet this evening suggesting that Daybreak has once again undergone layoffs. "Sorry to hear about the layoffs…
Raph Koster’s new MMORPG will be more than ‘just hack and slashing your way through levels’ - Yesterday, we reported on something pretty thrilling for long-time MMORPG fans: Raph Koster, one of the brains behind classic MMORPG sandboxes Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, not only announced…
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online will finally hit PC on November 5th - Oh, thank goodness. At long last, Red Dead Redemption 2 has been announced to be arriving on PC November 5th, with pre-purchase available on the Rockstar game launcher starting on October 9th.…
Here’s why the Guild Wars 2 community is grumpy over build templates - If you've dropped by the Guild Wars 2 subreddit lately, you'll notice that pretty much everyone is talking about the build and equipment templates that are launching later this month.…
Into the Super-verse: Why Ship of Heroes’ character customization tool is so important - What kind of hero are you going to be today? In most MMOs, that question and its possible answers are watered down and homogenized, but in a superhero MMO, it…
World of Warcraft: Classic should be getting Phase 2 before the end of the year - Now don't panic, folks; if you haven't gotten everything you wanted to do in Phase 1 of World of Warcraft: Classic accomplished just yet, you've got some time left. But not all…
Ask Mo: Second chances, hate wagons, and the MMORPG grudge game - Today's Ask Mo is not really about comment moderation, but it's where I want to start. Over the years of trying to cat-herd Massively OP's comments, I've come to believe…
Jukebox Heroes: Exploring EverQuest’s official soundtrack - It is fairly rare for an MMORPG to sell an official soundtrack these days unless the game is fairly prominent (i.e., Final Fantasy XIV and Elder Scrolls Online) or the…
Montreal law firm wants to launch a class action lawsuit against Fortnite for being addictive to minors - Montreal law firm Calex Légal has officially filed a request to launch a class action lawsuit against Epic Games and its Canadian subsidiary for effectively making Fortnite an addictive game…
Ship of Heroes will let players save and share a costume file - "Okay, so which blue is it again?" "The third one down." "Down from the top?" "Yes, Frank, that's what down means." "Okay, is this good?" "...dammit, Frank, no, you have…
ArcheAge Unchained will open its PTS to everyone October 7 but delays character reservations again - Up until this point, the only way you could hop in to the PTS of ArcheAge Unchained was to have pre-ordered the game. That is going to change as the…
WoW (Classic) Factor: The journal of Nieve Vinther – fourth entry - The night after my last entry, Ceilidh took me out to the shores of Loch Modan. It wasn't for an occasion or anything; we just sat on the docks, letting…
Lawful Neutral: Endorsements, disclosures, and the games industry - Infomercials are the worst. There's nothing quite as infuriating as turning on the TV only to find a 30-minute commercial about how people can't put Tupperware into a cupboard without…
Star Citizen recounts alpha 3.7.0 feature development in its September report as the update hits PTS - Alpha 3.7.0 for Star Citizen is a pretty big deal for the game. It's been the subject of numerous Inside Star Citizen videos for the past few weeks and it…
Massively Overthinking: The one about MMO roleplay servers - An MOP reader named Thierry recently pointed us to a brewing storm in the World of Warcraft Classic community: In a nutshell, the server crunch in that game has meant…
Vague Patch Notes: Copies, blatant copies, and plagiarism in MMOs - So... this was honestly not the story that I had expected to have wound up coming out of Eternal Magic. I'd been expecting that "beauty contest for the ladies" would be…
Elite Dangerous addresses community petition over development ‘grievances’ - It appears that a number of Elite: Dangerous players are unhappy with the state of things in the space sandbox. In fact, they've drafted a formal petition to Frontier Developments…
Perfect Ten: Solo prequel games to MMORPGs - When studios go about making MMORPGs, risk comes along with the effect as a matter of course. The only question is how to reduce that risk as much as possible.…
CCP vets found new game studio to build an open-world MMO - There's a new player in the MMO space, and that player is Mainframe Industries. This Nordic game studio was founded by veteran developers from Remedy, Next Games, and, yes, CCP…
Elder Scrolls Online players can slay fictional dragons to save literal cats in a unique charity event - The Elsewyr chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online has been all about saving the cat-like Khajiit from the dragon threat. Now, players can slay those same dragons to help actual…
Guild Wars 2’s October balance update is live today, along with dismounting skills for the Warclaw - [AL:GW2]You can look now: Guild Wars 2's latest balance patch is here today with tweaks for every class and most of the specs too. How happy you are will depend…
Multiplayer monster sandbox Day of Dragons just funded for over half a million dollars - Day of Dragons has gotten just a sliver of coverage here on Massively OP as it headlined a crowdfunding column, but today it's getting a bunch more, as the game…
Eternal Magic publisher denies accusation that it plagiarized WoW and Guild Wars 2, shades accusers - Over the weekend, we covered a brewing storm in the world of Eternal Magic. The MMO, developed by Chinese studio Duoyi, just hit open beta, and players who leaped in…
Choose My Adventure: Torchlight Frontiers and the mindless catharsis of ARPG gaming - Sometimes, you’ve just got to run around and blow up hordes of enemies with big flashy skills and hoover in the goodies. You have to get mindless. You have to…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Does Guild Wars 2 release more paid outfits than armor skins? - [AL:GW2]I’ve noticed a common complaint bouncing around the Guild Wars 2 community, one that I believe to be a myth. Today, I’d like to address that myth. I speak of…
Dark Age of Camelot’s free-to-play version is ‘just around the corner’ - The dark age of mandatory subscriptions is almost over for one of the industry's most famous PvP MMORPGs. Dark Age of Camelot announced that its free-to-play edition, named "Endless Conquest,"…
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating on Final Fantasy XIV’s new relic weapons - So how, exactly, are we making this thing this time? That's what I want to know. It's not exactly a secret that Final Fantasy XIV's initial set of relic gear that…
Preview: Dual Universe demos alpha 2’s player economy, solar system, and space stations - You know that feeling when you follow a game's development and it just keeps getting better and better? I don't mean the promises of what's to come but the reality…
Not So Massively: Lessons MMORPGs could learn from Fortnite - Since taking up the mantle of the Not So Massively column here on MOP, I've felt the need to keep better abreast of major titles in the not-so-massively space. That…
Astellia players clash over the perks of new post-launch founder packs - The community of Astellia Online is barely a few days into the game's official launch, and it already looks to be stirring itself up into a froth. The issue is…
Don’t panic, but Tencent just bought 29% of Funcom - Whether you follow Funcom for its old-school MMORPGs like Anarchy Online and Secret World Legends, its survival sandbox Conan Exiles, or its up coming Dune franchise titles, you'll be intrigued…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
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.
