‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the games industry, not a creature was stirring, not even a… OK not really. Just about everyone put out some sort of sale, patch, event, promo, or teaser for the new year before the holidays took over all the western studios we cover. Also, nothing useful rhymes with industry.
Most notably, Guild Wars 2 teased its next episode; we recapped the year to date for LOTRO, GW2, and Elder Scrolls Online; Warcraft III got a launch date; PSO2 started tester signups; and EverQuest and EverQuest II dropped expansions. Plus we’ve continued our awards, posted our predictions, began our monthly roundups, and even started up our goofball awards too. Stay tuned as we’ve got more coming through the holidays!
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
Guild Wars 2 previews early 2020 plans, promises Shadow in the Ice saga episode on January 28 - [AL:GW2]If our retrospectives of Guild Wars 2's 2019 (found here and here) left you a bit unsettled about ArenaNet's future and communication, then feast your eyes on the company's missive…
Massively Overthinking: Our MMO predictions for 2020 - With 2019 drawing to a close and a new decade of MMORPGs waiting for us just a few days away, the Massively OP writing crew has regrouped for another round…
MassivelyOP’s 2019 Golden Yachties: Most bizarre thing in an MMO this year - MassivelyOP's not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards begin today, and you'll notice we've given them a new name this year: the Golden Yachties. Many years ago on Old Massively, someone cracked a joke…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: Best MMO Crafting - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Crafting, which was awarded to Final Fantasy XIV last year. Once again, we’ve opted to include pre-2019 MMOs,…
MassivelyOP’s 2019 Golden Yachties: Best drama in an MMO that doesn’t exist yet - MassivelyOP's not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards continue today with our pick for Best drama in an MMO that doesn't exist yet. If you're wondering what the heck a Golden Yachtie is, you…
LOTRO Legendarium: How did Lord of the Rings Online do in 2019? - [AL:LOTRO]When we gave Lord of the Rings Online the award this year for the Most Underrated MMORPG on the market, it came with plenty of caveats. The engine, even with…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: MMO (or studio) with the Stormiest Future - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for MMO with the Stormiest Future, which was awarded to Chronicles of Elyria last year. Prior to 2018, this award was…
Tamriel Infinium: A 2019 Elder Scrolls Online retrospective - It’s been a banner year for The Elder Scrolls Online. From events galore to the release of the dragons, so much has happened that it’s easy to forget some of…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: MMO Studio of the Year - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Studio of the Year, which was awarded to Grinding Gear Games last year. We asked our writers to…
Interview: Star Citizen on the Argo MOLE and the future of mining gameplay in alpha 3.8 - It was probably easy to assume that the marquee feature of Star Citizen's alpha 3.8 was going to be blowing wind. That's not all, however: There's also the unveiling of…
WoW Factor: Where WoW Vanilla’s and WoW Classic’s communities diverge - I want to talk about the community in WoW Classic because I think it's interesting and it's been on my mind ever since the story we ran recently about one PvP server…
Gun running, Fallout 4 hacks, and a Steam delay – just another week in Fallout 76 - So. Yeah. Fallout 76. Is there any dignity left to shatter for this game? Any functional part left to break? Any spot on Bethesda's face not covered by pie? We…
World of Warcraft patches in Visions of N’Zoth on January 14 - We knew it was coming after the new year, and now we have the date. The next major patch for World of Warcraft, Visions of N'Zoth, arrives on January 14th, 2020.…
Desert Oasis: A few improvements I’d like to see in Black Desert for 2020 - Part of the reason it's been so easy to write for the Black Desert Desert Oasis column is that I really love this game. But just because I love a…
DC Universe Online introduces a progressive tax to correct money exploitation - So here's the bad news, DC Universe Online fans - the game got hit with a pretty nasty exploit that allowed players to flood the game with trillions of dollars worth…
Vague Patch Notes: Why don’t we have more MMO psionics? - Seized by what I can only describe as an incomprehensible fit of pique, I've spent a decent chunk of my free time over the last week looking into the history…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: Biggest MMO Disappointment - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Biggest MMO Disappointment, which was awarded to multiple industry failboats last year. Disappointments can be games, launches, patches, trends, stories,…
The Massively Overpowered 2019 winter holiday MMO roundup - The holidays are here! Well, most of them are. Some of them might not be. And as is tradition here at Massively Overpowered, we have decked the halls with information…
EverQuest’s Torment of Velious and EverQuest II’s Blood of Luclin expansions are live - Happy Expansion Week for the EverQuest franchise! EverQuest Next is releasing its second expa... what? What dimension am I in right now? One where that game never came out? Oh...…
Mysterious parchment teases next chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online - Yesterday, members of the Elder Scrolls Online community began receiving mysterious packages in the mail. Despite likely instructions for the items to remain "for your eyes only," many images of…
Pearl Abyss’ MMO shooter Plan 8 reveals new screenshots and how exosuits work - When Pearl Abyss announced a slew of new games back in November, MMORPG fans were naturally drawn first and foremost to Crimson Desert. But we should probably be following Plan…
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO news stories of 2019 - When we sit back to look at the biggest headlines of the year, we don't have to look far. These are the stories that dominated the news, spurred the most…
Magic Legends will let you swap classes and form three-player groups - Ever since the official reveal of Cryptic's Magic Legends at The Game Awards last week, we have been hungry for more details of this upcoming action MMO. While we wait…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2’s 2019 year in review, from Icebrood Saga to the future - [AL:GW2]The first half of 2019 was a rough time to be a Guild Wars 2 fan. It wasn’t without its bright spots, but it left a lot of players feeling…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: Best MMO Trend - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Trend, which was awarded to MMO progression servers last year. This year, all trends were back on the…
Funcom’s Conan Chop Chop, newly retooled with ‘full online multiplayer,’ arrives February 25 2020 - Do you folks remember the goofball multiplayer title Funcom's been teasing all year, Conan Chop Chop? It was originally floated as an April Fools' Day joke, but it turned out…
Final Fantasy XIV suspends a streamer for shaming another player live on his stream - One of the rules about playing Final Fantasy XIV is that players are to a limited extent liable for what they do and say outside of the game while still being…
WoW Classic has finally begun offering character transfers – for $25 - Did you end up rolling on the wrong server during WoW Classic's chaotic launch? Discover later on that your shard became a ghost town while others prospered greatly? Tired of…
World of Warcraft’s predecessor, Warcraft III: Reforged, gets a January launch date - Whether you cut your teeth on the Warcraft trio of real-time strategy games or only came to the franchise after World of Warcraft released, you'll soon be able to go…
Amazon’s just dropped New World’s first video dev diary - Crank up that hype machine folks because Amazon's released its first dev diary video for its upcoming MMORPG New World, which as we learned last week is now back and…
Massively OP’s 2019 MMO Video Game Music Awards - Many of us here on the Massively OP staff have our own personal pet projects and interests that might not be as widespread as others, but we still pursue (and…
Choose My Adventure: Conquering the fear of Project Gorgon (and getting rewarded for it) - You’ll probably notice that last week’s CMA was absent, and that’s because Project Gorgon intimidated me. I basically was scared off for a bit. I wasn’t scared off by the…
Fight or Kite: 2010-2019, the decade when PvP boomed and MMOs languished - The end of the decade is upon us. Many are now reflecting on how our lives have changed over the past 10 years. We’ve graduated high school, graduated college, and…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: Best MMO Business Model - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Business Model, which was awarded to Guild Wars 2 last year. This award is intended to recognize a…
Wheeee Phantasy Star Online 2 is now accepting closed beta signups in North America - One of the big surprises of 2019 - and also one of the most welcome ones - was the revelation that Phantasy Star Online 2 is finally, finally coming westward…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s first Patch 5.2 preview in brief - I did actually sit down for the most recent live letter, which was only halfway intentional. It's not like I didn't want to hear about the next Final Fantasy XIV…
EVE Evolved: First impressions of the EVE Echoes mobile beta - EVE Online has been a PC MMO staple now for over 16 years, carving out a niche for itself as a long-term hobby with a high difficulty bar. The game…
Massively OP’s 2019 Awards: Biggest MMO Blunder - Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2019 awards continue today with our award for Biggest MMO Blunder, which was awarded to Blizzard's Diablo Immortal disaster last year. This isn’t a meta-award we particularly enjoy…
Final Fantasy XIV touts 18 million registered users during its special 14-hour broadcast - It's not a secret that Final Fantasy XIV is doing very well for itself, especially in light of one of its most popular expansions ever. While we still don't have…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 251: New World, Magic Legends, and Corepunk
The Stream Team: Fraternizing with factions on SWTOR’s Mek-Sha for its anniversary
The Stream Team: A Rogue’s first Christmas in Neverwinter
The Stream Team: Warking through the holidays with Final Fantasy XIV
The Stream Team: Frosty fun and frolicking in LOTRO’s Frostbluff
The Stream Team: Winter is coming to crush AQ3D’s Battleon!
The Stream Team: Checking out EverQuest II’s Blood of Luclin expansion
The Stream Team: Making a Ranger for Path of Exile’s new Metamorph league
The Stream Team: Double the hunting fun in Dauntless’ Escalation mode
The Stream Team: Calling out all Krampusse in Secret World Legends
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.
