There’s no slowing down for the MMO industry right now, which feels pretty bizarre under the circumstances, but here we are. This week, we saw Ascent Infinite Realm rebrand as Elyon, examined Chronicles of Elyria’s road to nowhere, poked our noses into Elder Scrolls Online’s upcoming Greymoor chapter, took a stroll back through Star Trek Online, speculated on Guild Wars 2’s Cantha expansion, and welcomed some new drama to EVE Online in the form of its Eclipse quadrant invasion.
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
Elyon aka Ascent Infinite Realm ‘pivot’ is confirmed by western publisher Kakao - Yesterday, we covered the news from the Korean beta that Ascent: Infinite Realm was being rebranded with a new name, along with a video and some puzzling information about content…
Vague Patch Notes: Chronicles of Elyria’s road to nowhere - I honestly cannot stop thinking about Chronicles of Elyria. Not in the sense of surprise, mind you; this was pretty much one of the two endpoints I had always envisioned…
MassivelyOP’s first look at Elder Scrolls Online’s Greymoor chapter and Antiquities system - With the release date of The Elder Scrolls Online's Greymoor chapter just a few months away, work on the update is progressing even with staff working from home. In fact,…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Speculating on Guild Wars 2’s Cantha expansion features - I never thought I’d be saying this with a straight face, but yes, Guild Wars 2 is finally going to Cantha! This fan-favorite locale from the original Guild Wars’ Factions…
WoW Classic promises ‘relief’ for overcrowded servers - While World of Warcraft Classic is not the absolute beast it was in the first month of its operation, the legacy MMORPG is still seeing servers top 10,000 players apiece,…
The Game Archaeologist: The history of Guild Wars 2’s Super Adventure Box - In the MMORPG genre, April Fools' Day is especially relished as a time in which developers and studios can get a bit wacky and poke fun at themselves while trying…
MMO Cartographer: Boldly going into Star Trek Online - Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of your Massively OP cartographer into Star Trek Online, to explore a 10-year-old game developed by Cryptic and currently published by Perfect…
EVE Evolved: EVE Online’s Loyalty to Lowsec update shakes up Faction Warfare - Between the relative safe haven of EVE Online's high-security star systems and the lawless depths of nullsec where alliances play ping-pong with titans, there lies a grey area called lowsec.…
Star Citizen studio Cloud Imperium just picked up another $17.25M from investors - Looks like Star Citizen and Squadron 42 company Cloud Imperium just got a bit more rope, as its investor groups have bought up more shares worth $17.25M in additional funds.…
WoW Factor: The World of Warcraft expansion tour – Battle for Azeroth - Oh no. I'd ask how this happened, but I know how it happened. It happened because I am a gigantic idiot. This expansion tour seemed like a good idea when…
EVE Online players to face massive invasion in the Eclipse quadrant - The EVE Online universe faced a terrifying invasion in 2019 as the Triglavian Collective began sending vast fleets from their homes in Abyssal Deadspace to terrorise New Eden. The ancient…
Bless Unleashed is back online after fixing a ‘critical hit critical issue’ - In the wee hours of this Friday morning, Bless Unleashed ran into an issue. A "critical hit critial issue" even. One that forced the servers to shut down for some…
Desert Oasis: A guide to getting started with Black Desert’s lifeskill system - For pretty much all of my MMO-gaming career, I avoided anything involving crafting, gathering, and cooking. If the problem can't be solved with a weapon in hand, I stay out…
Legends of Aria’s $19.99 Dark Sorcery DLC has officially launched - It didn't quite make its original March deadline, but it came damn close: Early access MMORPG Legends of Aria has officially launched new DLC dubbed Dark Sorcery. The pack isn't…
Skyforge will disable its unpopular battle royale mode for a full revamp - As MMO players will recall, 2018 was the year when it seemed as if every other MMORPG was adding a battle royale side-game. Skyforge's battle royale mode was one of…
The World of Warcraft player who cleared all of the game’s achievements has done it again - Back in 2018, a World of Warcraft player by the (in-game) name of Xirev made a splash when his Blood Elf Mage managed to, well, beat the game. That means…
Massively Overthinking: How are MMO players faring through the pandemic? - This week's Overthinking is going to be a bit different from normal. As we've been covering extensively for more than the past two months, the impact of the global COVID-19…
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO is hiring, online shooter Crucible gets a launch window - We are still largely in the dark when it comes to Amazon Game Studio's upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO, but a new job posting at least lights a match…
Elite Dangerous fully reveals Fleet Carriers, launching in June - Elite Dangerous is finally getting closer to the fleet carriers content that was originally meant to launch last year, with the reveal of the system in Frontier's latest video. "Fleet…
Age of Conan announces a test for the new Onslaught group scenario - Age of Conan needs your help to test out an upcoming new group scenario. This group content, called Kuthchemes Temple Onslaught, is inspired by author Robert E. Howard's Black Colossus…
Fallout 76 PC players can scoop up a game copy on Steam – for free - So here's a nice surprise: We knew Fallout 76 was coming to Steam, but we didn't know that existing players could claim a free Steam copy to play there when…
The Daily Grind: Are you on board for Burning Crusade Classic? - It seems all but one official announcement short of certainty that Blizzard is going to be rolling out a Burning Crusade Classic server for World of Warcraft. The general thought…
Perfect Ten: MMOs that were ahead of their time - Timing is, as they say, everything. A good idea presented at the wrong time (and perhaps in the wrong way) might fizzle hard when it should have succeeded. Interesting initiatives…
ArcheAge, RIFT, Trove, and more Gamigo MMOs launch a reforestation charity initiative - Gamigo is announcing a big charity project today with Eden Reforestation Projects, which will raise money to plant trees all over the world while granting perks to the MMO accounts…
Albion Online wants to boost players’ ‘incentives for backstabbing and going to war’ - Over the last few months, Albion Online's Sandbox Interactive has continued its push to rebalance the endgame meta - specifically, the power and potency of admittedly lopsided alliances to drive…
Choose My Adventure: Albion Online, chestnut logs, and terrible mistakes - I regret to inform you all that my final moments in Albion Online were something of a bellyflop. A number of smaller frustrations just piled on top to effectively lead…
Wisdom of Nym: Does Final Fantasy XIV need new jobs? - We're all still basically expecting an expansion announcement for Final Fantasy XIV in November. I'll talk about the weirdness of the world right now and its potential effects upon the…
Global Chat: Is Animal Crossing New Horizons an MMO? - One trend that we have noticed over the past decade or so is the blurring of lines between "regular" video games and MMORPGs. It seems as though many MMO-like traits…
EverQuesting: Looking back at EverQuest’s 21st year - There are landmark years, and then there are landmark years. (Not to be confused with Landmark, which has been gone for years.) You can have a year filed with remarkable,…
Massively on the Go: How Pokemon Go is improving without all the ‘go’ - We've briefly covered some of Pokemon Go's new changes in light of recent non-fun viral events, and in today's Massively on the Go, I want to explore them in more detail.…
Not So Massively: StarCraft II has quietly become Blizzard’s best-managed property - While I do think the studio's actions at BlizzCon are encouraging, it still feels weird heaping praise on Blizzard right now. But I also believe in giving credit where it's…
Last Oasis goes offline for a week to fix problems, offers refunds - It's a bit of a double-edged sword when you launch your popular early access game. On one hand, you may just become the top-selling game on Steam. On the other…
Why I Play April Fools’ Day - So it's time for our April Fools' Day joke, which means that usually it's my time to shine. Seriously, a lot of these have been me for the past few…
April Fools’ Day around the MMO ‘verse, 2020 edition - Happy April Fools' Day, folks. Here's a look at a few of the goofball pranks and patches we spied in MMOs this morning! First, up there in the header is…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 265: Delusions of Elyria
The Stream Team: Celebrating six years of Elder Scrolls Online with song
The Stream Team: The third part’s the charm in Warframe’s The Sacrifice
The Stream Team: Another attempt at AQ3D’s Yokai adventures
The Stream Team: Exploring Dungeons and Dragons Online’s currently free content
The Stream Team: Celebrating First Contact Day in Star Trek Online and the Borg
The Stream Team: Looking for SWTOR datacrons in Alderaan places
The Stream Team: Tracking the Yuty mission in ARK: Genesis
The Stream Team: Plagued by pink bubblegum boulders in Astroneer
The Stream Team: Enjoying the outdoors with LOTRO’s spring festival
The Stream Team: Sheltering in space in Ship of Heroes
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.
