It just wouldn’t be fall without a Fallout 76 debacle and the continuing perversion of what was once meant to be its satirical anti-war and anti-consumerist themes and motifs, and so here we are again for round two thanks to the game’s new subscription and private world paywall. ArcheAge’s disabling of its ArchePass and LOTRO’s Minas Morgul delay didn’t help the mood either.
But this week wasn’t all bad for MMOs! SWTOR’s Onslaught launched, we got a look at Black Desert’s next big things on PC and mobile, and Book of Travels smashed through its Kickstarter. Plus, we peered into the business of doing business in China and have been entertained by a smattering of World of Warcraft and Diablo rumors ahead of BlizzCon.
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
Fallout 1st is a new Fallout 76 sub that locks private world ownership behind a paywall - "Do you think all these developers got together and were like, 'October 2019. That's the month we are all going to collectively sh*t the bed. Agreed? Great. Motion Passes.'" Such…
The Fallout 76 community is storming over the Fallout 1st sub - Yesterday's announcement that Fallout 76 is getting a "Fallout 1st" subscription plan that locks private world ownership behind a paywall and grants very Elder Scrolls Online-like benies like crafting storage…
Hyperspace Beacon: First impressions of SWTOR’s Onslaught and Update 6.0 - Like all other Star Wars: The Old Republic fans, I have been waiting for another expansion from BioWare for too long. Of course, the developers have attempted to keep us…
Desert Oasis: First impressions of Black Desert’s Great Expedition - One of the most difficult things I've had to deal with in my time with Black Desert is sailing and boating. I've never been an economically focused player, I don't…
Lawful Neutral: What’s China really worth to the Western gaming industry? - You know what we never talk about these days? China and video games! We should do that more. For example, did you know that as far back as 2011, Chinese…
BlizzCon 2019’s schedule is finally live on the official site - After what feels like a much longer wait than usual, the official schedule for BlizzCon (which, you may recall, kicks off in less than two weeks) is finally available on…
Miniature Desert Oasis: Hands-on with the upcoming Black Desert Mobile - Five years ago, if you'd asked me about any mobile game, I wouldn't have even considered it a real game. I'd have considered it less of a game - I'd…
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s Lich King 2, Tides of Lichness? - All right, I guess we're doing this now. Yes, this column isn't just about how Blizzard screws up so badly that a lot of people are still looking at the…
Gamigo has temporarily disabled ArcheAge’s ArchePass for a rework - So, how much did you hate ArcheAge Unchained's ArchePass? Because it's gone - or at least it's gone for now. [AL:Arche]MMO gamers will recall that the ArchePass wasn't a monetization…
City of Titans’ character creator, Titan Create, is now available for backers - If you'd been wondering what that countdown on City of Titans' Twitter last week was, well you probably just overlooked the announcement earlier this month that the pre-alpha superhero MMO…
LOTRO delays Minas Morgul until November 5 - Don't get your hopes up that you'll be heading back to Mordor for Halloween. Standing Stone Games announced yesterday that it was going to delay the launch of Lord of…
‘Unique social roleplaying experience’ Book of Travels begins Kickstarter - If you've often promised that you would support online RPGs that broke from tropish traditions and took risks, well, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Book…
Massively Overthinking: Niche MMOs vs. everythingboxes - Earlier this month, veteran MMORPG designer Raph Koster announced that he's finally making a new MMORPG, with a suite of top devs and a fat stack of cash to do…
Pearl Abyss preps standalone Shadow Arena battle royale plucked from Black Desert - Remember Shadow Arena, Black Desert's short-lived PvP battle royale mode? It was announced just before 2019, released a few weeks later, and immediately devolved into hacking and banwaves until it…
Vague Patch Notes: Scammers, grifters, and amateurs in the MMORPG market - There are two apparent truisms about scams in the MMO marketplace. The first is that players are quick to call anything that vaguely stinks of a scam as such. The…
World of Warcraft: Classic layering, Corruption, and the BlizzCon Q&A - Layers! Huh! Good God, y'all, what are they good for? Keeping player populations in early phases of World of Warcraft: Classic at manageable levels (say it again)! But as has been…
Guild Wars 2 addresses build templates and third-party programs in light of ‘collected feedback’ - [AL:GW2]Ever since ArenaNet's announcement that it's finally adding proper build templates to Guild Wars 2, the community, or at least the highly online and vocal part of it, have been…
The Game Archaeologist: A brief history of Multi-User Dungeons - You know that sinking feeling when you get into something that's way, waaaay over your head and you have no choice but to swim furiously or drown? That's exactly how…
Leaderboard: Did you go back to SWTOR for Onslaught? - When Star Wars The Old Republic's Onslaught was first announced last April, people were surprisingly excited for it. Oh sure, some folks in the comments of our Daily Grind on…
Final Fantasy XIV posts the preliminary patch notes for patch 5.1: Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty - Do not try to read the patch notes for Final Fantasy XIV's latest patch out loud in one breath. You will run out of oxygen and fall unconscious. Yes, if you…
Tamriel Infinium: Who are Elder Scrolls Online’s Dragonguard? - Players of The Elder Scrolls Online were treated to the release of Dragonhold this week, the conclusion of the year-long “season of the dragon” that has been releasing bit by…
Perfect Ten: The many flavors of MMO PvP - Not so long ago (so, at the rate news has come out since then, what feels like decades ago) I wrote a column about the different sorts of social interaction…
A gamer was killed after witnessing a robbery whilst playing Pokemon Go - So, yes, let's just open this story by acknowledging that this is horrible. Nobody wants to be murdered over a video game, but Cayla Campos (age 21) was killed just…
Star Trek Online improves its lifetime subscription package - If you already have a lifetime sub to Star Trek Online -- or perhaps were contemplating picking one up in the future -- then it's a good week for you:…
Dungeons and Dragons Online is finally getting horsies - Hot on the heels of the hardcore server's finale, Dungeons and Dragons Online had another big announcement for today: Mounts are actually, finally coming to the game. [AL:DDO]Non-DDO players may…
Elite Dangerous delays fleet carriers to 2020 in favor of multiple clean-up patches - Frontier hasn't had the best year when it comes to Elite Dangerous. After a line of patches that were plagued with many issues, notable community members banded together to craft…
The Daily Grind: What are the odds that Daybreak can turn itself around? - I've had... severe concerns about Daybreak Games over the last several years, and I'm sure that I am not alone in this. The multiple rounds of layoffs, the cancellation of…
ArcheAge Unchained permabans 200+ accounts over ArchePass mission exploits - [AL:Arche]If you were among the gamers protesting exploits in ArcheAge Unchained - or the ArchePass in general - then know that Gamigo has now acted on some of your complaints.…
Choose My Adventure: The poisonous hell of the Hyvid Frontier in Torchlight Frontiers - The Goblin Frontier of Torchlight Frontiers isn’t exactly boring per se so much as just… blasé, I guess is the word I want to use. It’s pretty typical stuff in…
Star Wars The Old Republic’s Onslaught expansion is now live with its launch trailer - [AL:TOR]First announced in April and delayed until October, Star Wars The Old Republic's Onslaught expansion is finally launching this afternoon. As we've been covering for the last many months, Onslaught…
SuperData September 2019: WoW Classic’s surge is over, Fortnite sees worst month since 2017 - SuperData's September 2019 global revenue report on the video game industry is out today, and unlike reports a lot of months, this one's got a couple of shake-ups. First, MMO…
UK’s children’s commissioner calls for tighter legislation on lootboxes - A report from UK children's commissioner Anne Longfield is calling for stricter laws on lootboxes and to amend current gambling laws to include lootboxes, once again raising the matter to…
The Daily Grind: What are you hoping to see in Diablo 4? - Rumors and leaks are making it seem ever more likely that Blizzard will finally reveal Diablo 4 at this year's BlizzCon, and though it may not have the energy it…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Dragonhold DLC is officially live on PC - Elder Scrolls Online's Dragonhold DLC, the last DLC for the game in 2019, is officially live for PC and Mac players today. Console players as always will be waiting a…
Project 1999’s Green server brings back the classic EverQuest experience on October 25 - Back in September, we told you about a new Green server being put together by Project 1999, the EverQuest emulator that got a written blessing from Daybreak Games to operate.…
Kritika Online appears to be coming back to life in the west, self-published by its developer - Back in April, we said farewell to Kritika Online as En Masse Entertainment closed it down following two years of operation. While the game continued to run in South Korea, it…
Fight or Kite: Albion Online has the potential to be the perfect mobile MMO - You know, I am regularly sitting in a waiting room for my turn to be called back to the doctor or at the lube shop to get my car serviced…
Daybreak talks PlanetSide Arena goals and plans for PlanetSide 3 - With Daybreak currently in the throes of fresh layoffs and a "company realignment" and PlanetSide Arena failing to really set the world on fire to the point that the game…
German magazine ad appears to confirm impending announcement of Diablo 4 - It's been long-rumored - and heck we all expected it last year - but it kinda looks like Diablo 4 has been confirmed by a careless ad in a German…
New World of Warcraft ‘leak’ continues to fan the flames of assumption for the next expansion - Those within the World of Warcraft community have already been pondering what the next expansion for the MMORPG is, whether it's something like Shadowlands that we've touched on a couple…
THIS WEEK’S CAST
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.
