Well, that sure was a week. We got our first public look at the real state of Camelot Unchained’s tech, CliffyB resurfaced with all-new reasons for why LawBreakers failed, refunds and excuses began for the much-maligned Warcraft III Reforged, Blizzard had another dismal financial quarter with WoW Classic as its sole bright spot, and mostly we all just collectively hung about arguing agreeing about MMO raiding.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Activision-Blizzard Q4 2019: Revenues are down YoY for the fourth straight quarter - So here we are in 2020, looking back at the last quarter of 2019 for Blizzard. Nothing big happened or anything, just a massive political scandal that saw a widespread…
WoW Factor: So why did people love WoW’s Wrath of the Lich King so damn much? - Sometimes, when I write something and note it would require an additional column, it is a preview of coming attractions and something I actually plan to write later. Other times…
Vague Patch Notes: If people aren’t raiding in an MMO, it’s not because it’s too hard - The start of the year, at least from my perspective, was dominated by Blizzard doing lots of dumb things. So it's kind of nice, in an even-handed sense, that ArenaNet…
The Game Archaeologist: The legacy of Guild Wars - Last week on The Game Archaeologist, we examined the exciting beginnings of Guild Wars, thanks to a trio of ex-Blizzard developers who wanted to build "an MMO for the rest…
Blizzard gives a half-hearted apology for Warcraft III: Reforged - Make no mistake: Warcraft III: Reforged is going down in history as one of the worst-received and most poorly handled Blizzard launches. The incredibly strong community backlash and rush for…
Leaderboard: Four months after the Blitzchung Hong Kong mess, are you still boycotting Blizzard? - MOP reader Pepperzine recently dropped us an email about Blizzard that we've put off until today very intentionally. Why? Because tomorrow, Activision-Blizzard releases its Q4 2019 financial results. Obviously, Blizzard's…
Warcraft 3: Reforged is now apparently offering instant refunds with no official statement from Blizzard - Fortunately for Blizzard, after the not-great launch of Warcraft III: Reforged, everything blew over... by which we mean things got significantly worse, to the point of angry players making a faux-advertising page…
Cliff Bleszinski now claims LawBreakers failed because it was ‘too woke’ - Well, that's it, everyone. Shut it down. The English language had a pretty good run, but it's over now. Cliff Bleszinski, also known as "Cliffy B," also known as "Dude…
Jukebox Heroes: Elder Scrolls Online’s Elsweyr soundtrack and music boxes - While I wasn't that impressed with Elder Scrolls Online's launch soundtrack, the scores for both Morrowind and Summerset did much to win me over. There are so many great pieces…
Here are the highlights from Camelot Unchained’s siege warfare demo and roadmap reveal - Note: We liveblogged the stream; scroll down to the end of the post for the latest. The past week has been a whirlwhind for MMO players and watchers of Kickstarted…
The Daily Grind: Are DPS meters in MMORPGs toxic by nature? - I've been thinking about this a bit. On Monday, MOP's Eliot penned a lengthy piece about addons in Final Fantasy XIV that seemed to be perfectly timed for the detailed…
Massively Overthinking: Contemplating Colossus and Camelot Unchained - You had to know we were going to talk about Camelot Unchained in this edition of Massively Overthinking, right? Last week, City State Entertainment announced that it's started work on…
Camelot Unchained’s Mark Jacobs apologizes for Colossus reveal, promises roadmap and siege video tomorrow - A week ago, Camelot Unchained studio City State Entertainment stunned MMORPG players - and its own Kickstarter backers - with the news that it was working on a second game,…
French World of Warcraft fans release epic live-action War on Lordaeron short film - I'm gonna tell you to go get some popcorn now, and not because of drama. It's because it's movie time! World of Warcraft movie time! No, not that Warcraft movie…
Final Fantasy XIV: Echoes of a Fallen Star releases on February 18 - Good news, Final Fantasy XIV fans, the date we had all expected for the game's next patch via context clues has been confirmed! Yes, patch 5.2, Echoes of a Fallen Star,…
Blizzard’s Diablo just picked up a new overseer, and some fans are worried - Well now, the Diablo franchise just got a wee bit more interesting. Prominent Epic and Microsoft developer Rod Fergusson announced last night that he's moving on from his long tenure…
The Expanse author blasts Star Citizen for privacy breach - This is probably not how you want to get noticed by another major name in the sci-fi industry, but Star Citizen seems to have severely irked the writer of the…
Whatever happened to MechWarrior Online? - Every once in a while, I'll be tabbing through my feeds and see an update on the MechWarrior Online site. I get excited for a sec, thinking I can put…
SWG Legends announces new plan to combat latency caused by its own dang popularity - Lag, lag, go away! If you play the popular Star Wars Galaxies rogue server known as SWG Legends, you're probably right there with everyone else in being tired of the…
Perfect Ten: When celebs crossed paths with MMOs - Even as the world continues to turn to and normalize gaming as a respectable hobby, there's still a lingering stigma of playing online titles as a supremely nerdy thing. Whenever…
Phantasy Star Online 2 is confirmed for Steam, according to its own game manual - Sometimes it pays to comb through an official game website. Cyber-sleuths looking for any and all scraps of information about Phantasy Star Online 2 recently discovered an interesting tidbit in…
Escape from Tarkov players call for a server wipe in light of gear balance issues and bad player behavior - When they're not abusing DMCA to silence dissenting voices or coming up with threadbare excuses for not adding female models, the devs at Escape from Tarkov are generally developing a…
Choose My Adventure: Falling in love with the Lahn in Black Desert - As much as I was hoping for some time with the Guardian that I pre-made ahead of the class’ arrival, the Choose My Adventure voting public’s will be done, and…
Cyperpunk 2077 won’t be ‘mixing’ its singleplayer and multiplayer modes - Still grumpy about Cyberpunk 2077's delay from April to September? Even grumpier about the revelation that multiplayer - the thing we care about around here - has now been pushed…
Fallout 76’s Wastelanders update will finally launch on April 7 – here’s the new trailer - As it turns out, the Wastelanders delay from 2019 to 2020 wasn't just a brief one: Bethsoft announced this morning that Fallout 76's big free update is finally releasing on…
The Daily Grind: Do you avoid MMORPG raiding – and why? - As part of the preview of upcoming Guild Wars 2 content for 2020 yesterday, ArenaNet's Andrew Gray made some comments on raiding I thought would be worth further exploration. He…
Guild Wars 2 just gave the most far-reaching core content preview we’ve seen in ages - ArenaNet heard you wanted more communication, and now, that's exactly what you're getting. Guild Wars 2's new-ish Content Design Lead, Andrew Gray, has chimed in on the MMO's official forums…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV has no addons and doesn’t seem to want them - So long ago I can't remember when, interviews with Naoki Yoshida had him talking about Final Fantasy XIV getting addon functionality. To his credit (as are most of the things he…
Not So Massively: Meet the new Torchlight, same as the old Torchlight - Last week brought the bombshell announcement that the MMOARPG Torchlight: Frontiers has been rebooted as simply Torchlight III, a more traditional ARPG with single-player and co-op modes. The dream of…
The Sims 5 will apparently invoke the spirit of – wait for it – The Sims Online - With 20 million players and six years of life under its belt, The Sims 4 has been a long-running powerhouse for the franchise. However, it's starting to be time for…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 258: Camelot Unchained and Colossus
The Stream Team: Further adventures in kitty capturing in Temtem early access
The Stream Team: Heading for the hills of Dungeons and Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Oh (no) is for Ossus and Onderon datacrons in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Going Beserker in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Happy 10th birthday Star Trek Online!
The Stream Team: A first birthday party for Astroneer
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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