MOP celebrated its fifth birthday – thanks to you! Yep, we’re still here, bringing you MMO news and opinions… like the fact that SWTOR dropped Pinnacles of Power, NCsoft’s MMOs are flagging, Anthem’s do-over is a reality, New World is back in alpha, and Allods Online (!) is getting a big new expansion. Plus, we have an absolutely epic Star Trek Online giveaway running for its 10th anniversary!
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
Massively Overthinking: MassivelyOP, five years in - Five years ago, we flipped a switch, let the site go live, and published our first article as Massively OP. It was from Justin, in fact, and it was about,…
Anthem abandons seasonal content as BioWare confirms major redesign and reinvention - So, apparently all the stories last week about how Anthem still hadn't taken down its Christmas decorations struck a nerve, and we've got an update on the state of the…
WoW Factor: How could World of Warcraft restore confidence ahead of Shadowlands? - The last opportunity that Blizzard had to really restore player confidence was Warcraft III: Reforged. And... Yes, that's very good, please stop laughing. I know. It's hilarious in hindsight. Remember to…
LOTRO Legendarium: Revisiting Riders of Rohan in Lord of the Rings Online - It's finally time: We're heading back to Rohan. On Lord of the Rings Online's progression servers, at least -- the live servers have hosted Riders of Rohan since October 2012.…
Enter to win a Star Trek Online LE anniversary badge, T6 battlecruisers, fleet packs, and more! - This might just be the coolest Star Trek Online giveaway we've ever done, and we've done a lot of 'em! In celebration of the epic sci-fi MMORPG's 10th anniversary, Perfect…
Lawful Neutral: Examining the infamous MMO lockbox, 2020 edition - I have a soft spot for paranormal horror. I love movies about demons, ghosts, hauntings, possessions. There's one particular movie from the early aughts called The Possession. The movie takes…
NCsoft Q4 2019: It was a rough quarter for MMORPGs, especially Guild Wars 2 - NCsoft corporate had a solid financial quarter for the last three months of 2019, with increases in revenue quarter over quarter and year over year of 34%, thought the year…
Neverwinter’s 2020 roadmap includes Zariel fight and big surprises - It doesn't take a crystal ball and a Mind Flayer to suss out the future of Neverwinter, just a few chatty Cryptic developers. The Dungeons & Dragons MMO team assembled…
New World resumes closed alpha testing with NDA, teases new dev vlog - We're expecting another big day for Amazon's New World today. First, the MMO has gone back into private player testing after many months dormant. "We have resumed Closed Alpha testing,"…
Massively Overthinking: Which MMORPG do you wish got a glow-up? - No matter how much we love mechanics, even our most cerebral writers and readers still admit to being graphics snobs. It's human: We like eyecandy. And it's one of the…
Warframe of Mind: The creepy charm of Chains of Harrow - Slowly but surely, I have been making my way through Warframe's story missions. And while understandably story and lore may not be the first things that comes to mind when…
Blue Protocol shares more character creation and initial gameplay, Reddit fansubs the closed beta trailer - The first few moments of an MMORPG are certainly the most impactful, and in this new look from Bandai-Namco's upcoming Blue Protocol, that first impression should be impressive. The latest…
Multiplayer-optional ARPG Wolcen just launched on Steam with a huge day-one patch - It's not an MMO, but you might want Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem on your wish-list anyway. It's a new ARPG from WOLCEN Studio, clearly borrowing from titles like Path of…
Vague Patch Notes: How to read games industry investor reports as a player - The old adage goes that diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock. By extension, marketing is the art of setting yourself on fire,…
Lord of the Rings Online starts testing new raid and Rohan housing - Hot on the heels of yesterday's rollout of Riders of Rohan on the progression servers, Lord of the Rings just started testing Update 25.4 on the Bullroarer server. [AL:LOTRO]The centerpiece…
Failing to down Drakkar in Guild Wars 2 turns on free-for-all open PvP in the zone - All right, so it's a little bit harder to beat Drakkar at this point in Guild Wars 2. That's fine. You kind of expect to occasionally fail as a result, yes.…
The IRS deleted guidelines citing Fortnite’s Vbucks as virtual currency like Bitcoin - Every so often you just get to see a news story and think to yourself that this is going to turn into a major issue and fight in a few years.…
World of Warcraft: Classic is now inviting players into Blackwing Lair for the next phase of content - It's time to raid Blackwing Lair in World of Warcraft: Classic all over again. Of course, people have a slightly better idea of what to expect from Blackwing Lair at this…
SWTOR’s 6.1 Pinnacles of Power goes live today with new story beat and stronghold - Star Wars: The Old Republic's Pinnacles of Power was meant to go live this past Tuesday. It didn't. It was delayed, according to BioWare, over a "last minute issue with…
Desert Oasis: Finding the plot in Black Desert’s story - In our preview of Black Desert's new Guardian class, one of the more surprising conversations to come out of the comments was the opinion on the game's story. Some saw…
Perfect Ten: MMOs I’m optimistic about in 2020 - I didn't actually plan to make this an annual feature or anything; I thought of it last year as a fun list, and then it occurred to me this year…
Funcom’s Conan Chop Chop has been delayed yet again, this time to Q2 2020 - Funcom spent 2019 teasing its goofy but cuddly online ARPG Conan Chop Chop. Originally floated as an April Fools' Day joke, it turned out to be a real thing for…
Dungeons and Dragons Online upgrades to 64-bit client, adds Alchemist class - Heady times have arrived for Dungeons and Dragons Online, as it joins its sister game LOTRO today in upgrading to a 64-bit client. [AL:DDO]Standing Stone Games said that players will…
Bless Unleashed launches on March 12, founder pack purchases are live - We can no longer make jokes about Bless Unleashed not having a proper launch date, it seems, because the game's official launch has been announced for March 12th at long last.…
Activision-Blizzard has apparently yanked its games from GeForce NOW - If you were subbing to NVIDIA GeForce Now for your streamed games, we genuinely hope it wasn't for Activision-Blizzard's games. That's because yesterday Activision-Blizzard surreptitiously removed all its games from…
TERA’s Crescent Sea is live on PC with Elin Valkyries and the new treasure ship dungeon - [AL:TERA]It's patch day for TERA's PC crowd today, as Crescent Sea officially goes live, bringing the playable Elin Valkyrie to the game world along with the new 5-person dungeon, Sea…
Albion Online now counts 350K monthly active players, plans major alliance changes - We just got some fun numbers on Albion Online, buried in a forum post: Sandbox Interactive says that its massive Queen update in January was its most successful to date.…
Choose My Adventure: Nearing a point of Lahn mastery in Black Desert - In the last Choose My Adventure column, I mentioned how the Lahn in Black Desert felt an awful lot like a fighting game character insofar as working out the right…
Black Desert’s standalone battle royale title Shadow Arena enters closed beta on February 27 - Can a game really get a second chance to make a first impression? We may well find out once Shadow Arena, the standalone battle royale game that first debuted as…
Stake your claim with New World’s settlements as Amazon drops new dev blog - Even though New World is allegedly right around the corner this spring, Amazon Game Studios has been fairly quiet on the sandbox title since its initial announcement. Hopefully that is…
Leaks pinpoint The Division’s next DLC as Warlords of New York, launching in March - It should go without saying that if you don't want real spoilers, you probably should just close this tab or move on to the next article. But if you do,…
Cthulu-based horror MMO Yellow King has officially entered early access - Who's ready for a touch of far-reaching, dimension-shaking horror that's so potent simply looking upon it will induce madness? Then you might be ready for The Yellow King, which bills…
World of Warcraft Shadowlands is getting a prequel novel called Shadows Rising - If for some reason you're still really hoping that Blizzard will pull some good storytelling in World of Warcraft, maybe point your eyeballs to the novels instead of the game…
Allods Online adds new story content, overhauls strongholds and crafting in Soul of Darkness expansion - Dang, it's been a really, really long time since we talked about Allods Online here on MOP - almost a year, in fact, when it was still working on Destination…
Wisdom of Nym: Our last preview of Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.2 - For a lot of people, patch 5.1 felt sort of like a breather. Obviously, it had a bunch of new stuff in it, but I feel like everyone would agree…
Fight or Kite: Examining the state of Guild Wars 2 PvP ahead of the big balance patch - About two weeks ago, ArenaNet dropped one of the largest - maybe the largest - balance patch previews for Guild Wars 2 to date. And I don’t mean just in…
Astellia Online seems to be getting positive buzz following its Steam launch - So Astellia Online had a bit of a problem to start its Steam launch with its buy-in being classified as a non-refundable form of DLC. That wasn't a great look.…
Lord of the Rings Online’s Riders of Rohan arrives on progression servers this week [Updated] - Update: It's Wednesday. Saddle up and ride for the horse kingdom: Riders of Rohan is coming to Lord of the Rings Online's progression servers this week. Standing Stone Games gave…
Technical issues extended Phantasy Star Online 2’s weekend beta an extra day - So, how was your Phantasy Star Online 2 closed beta experience? Chances are it was a bit bumpy, but it also was expanded by a few more hours for Xbox…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 259: Once upon a Phantasy Star
Battle Bards Episode 162: Mystery abounds
The Stream Team: Valentine’s Day means helping heckbugs find love in Trove
The Stream Team: Crawling through Neverwinter’s Cragmire Crypts
The Stream Team: Heroes and hearts aplenty in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: MOP’s 5th birthday party, evening edition
The Stream Team: MOP’s 5th birthday party, afternoon edition
The Stream Team: A look at Path of Exile’s conquered Atlas
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.
