This week, the news across the US and the world focused on the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, and gaming joined in the chorus, as multiple studios pledged solidarity with protesters and postponed events to clear the way for activism.
On the MMO front, we reminisced over WildStar and Marvel Heroes, got caught up with Black Desert’s next big thing, caught wind of Elite Dangerous’ next expansion, peered over at EVE Online’s latest event, mourned the cancellation of Final Fantasy XIV’s fan festival this year, and delivered impressions of Phantasy Star Online 2.
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
Gaming companies from Blizzard to Daybreak stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter - Update: We've been updating the end of this piece with all the online gaming studio statements we can find this week. Sony has apparently decided to put off the PlayStation…
Phantasy Star Online 2 is a fun treasure buried under antique contrivances and inconveniences - When I first booted up Phantasy Star Online 2, the only way to get to a suite of visual options that included making the game full-screen was through the launcher…
The Game Archaeologist: Were sequels ever a good idea for MMOs? - From movies to books to video games, sequels (and all related spin-offs) are a common sight when a property is sufficiently successful enough. Even some not-so-great creations might get a…
EVE Online patch enables trillions of ISK in theft from inactive players - When EVE Online introduced player-built citadels in the 2016 Citadel expansion, there were fears that people wouldn't trust them enough to put their valuable assets into them. To keep people's…
Desert Oasis: Recapping Black Desert’s Heidel Ball, from backstage to balancing - One of the complications of playing playing Black Desert is that it operates on UTC. Since I live in California, aka the center of the universe (I'm kidding), I always…
A happy posthumous birthday to the dearly departed WildStar - Today marks the six-year anniversary of WildStar's release. There are no in-game events planned for the game, however, due to the fact that the game shut down in November of 2018.…
WoW Factor: Behind blue (elf) eyes (in World of Warcraft) - Players were very excited when blue eye options were datamined out for Blood Elves in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, then less happy when it was confirmed that those were NPC-only eyes…
Warframe developer makes a donation to Black Lives Matter, promises ‘zero-tolerance chat policies’ - We've previously covered the growing movement by games companies and publishers to reschedule or temporarily halt gaming events and livestreams, including the halting of the weekly devstream by Warframe developer…
Final Fantasy XIV cancels its North American fan festival for 2020 over COVID-19, delays patch 5.3 - One of the later events scheduled for this year has still been claimed by the global pandemic; Final Fantasy XIV's fan festival scheduled for November in San Diego has now…
Massively Overthinking: Deleting pieces of MMOs to save them - Two ideas floated across my virtual desk in recent weeks, neither directly relating to MMORPGs, but they put the nugget of an idea in my head that most definitely is. First…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Matt Firor addresses Greymoor launch issues - Elder Scrolls Online game director Matt Firor has posted a lengthy and detailed explanation of some of the rough spots encountered during last week's Greymoor chapter launch. In it, he…
Ashes of Creation puts up a spectacular 4K video of raw gameplay footage - With Ashes of Creation's pre-alpha ticking along and the NDA partially lifted, we're starting to hear more and more about this upcoming MMO. It's still a ways off, though, as…
Marvel Heroes would’ve been seven years old today if Gazillion hadn’t imploded - It may not have been a traditional MMORPG, but it's safe to say that Marvel Heroes was a pet favorite here among the Massively OP staff and readers; we even…
Naoki Yoshida dismisses Final Fantasy XVI directorship rumors - The rumors have flown around about Naoki Yoshida being attached to Final Fantasy XVI as the game's director. In fact, the rumors have been flying about Final Fantasy XVI and Naoki Yoshida…
Storyboard: Making fights matter in MMOs (and in roleplay) - You know what's fascinating about the original Guild Wars release, later redubbed as Guild Wars: Prophecies? The Prince Rurik fight works. Yes, these are spoilers for a game that's been out for…
Amazon’s New World gears up with all the loot you can handle - Let's not beat around the bush, here: We are all loot fanatics. We love getting those choice drops and seeing our bags fill up with that sweet, sweet treasure --…
Kingdoms of Amalur is getting an updated re-release in August - So here's your surprise thing to look forward to in a couple of months:Â Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. That's a pretty awful title, but it does successfully convey the idea that…
Atlas appears to be listing dead in the water - Off the port bow, there's something drifting in the water. Is it a shipwreck? Yes, in the sense that the ship is Atlas, the pirate game run by Grapeshot Games (i.e.,…
LOTRO Legendarium: Are LOTRO’s new PvP servers a good idea? - If you haven't been tracking this, you should be aware that Lord of the Rings Online has been running the new "Tournament of the Twins" server through the paces on…
Perfect Ten: An entirely accurate and unassailable history of pet classes in MMORPGs - Pet classes! They're a very important part of MMORPGs, the opportunity to not just go into combat alone but to march in alongside a companion who can help you fight…
Elite Dangerous begins its ‘next era’ Odyssey next year – yes, it’s the space legs expansion - Today's Elite Dangerous expansion announcement isn't going to come as a surprise to long-time players, who already knew that Frontier was working on a major expansion, that it had been…
LOTRO’s and DDO’s freebie content codes are going live today [Updated: They’re here!] - Fun fact: Our story on how Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online were going to be extending their content promotion and essentially giving away formerly pay-to-play…
Path of Exile’s Harvest introduces growth of passive skill tree, brands, and two-handed weapon skills - [AL:POE]In an update themed around gardening, it seems only natural that there would be plenty of growth in Path of Exile beyond just the new league. Harvest, which starts its…
Path of Exile’s take on Farmville blooms on June 19 with the Harvest League - After seemingly countless quarterly updates and leagues, you might think Grinding Gear Games would eventually run out of ideas for Path of Exile. Not so. The studio keeps surprising us,…
Choose My Adventure: Star Trek Online and my hunger for a space MMO - My installation of Star Citizen isn't working right, and Elite Dangerous has some neat things going on but not the right kind of hooks to get me truly invested, so…
Desert Oasis: Black Desert’s Hashashin, new server types, PvP changes, and new regions - I would be lying if I told you that I stayed up late this weekend just so I could hear the executive producer Jae-Hee Kim talk about Black Desert's balance…
Fight or Kite: Deep-diving Crowfall’s Dregs RvR gameplay - A couple weeks ago I was preoccupied with leveling up my Frostweaver in Crowfall and completely missed out on the Dregs campaign that was running at the time. Fortunately for…
David Braben of Elite: Dangerous sees physical games going away in two to three years - Attention, everyone who ordered a physical copy of a video game within the past year: David Braben is coming for your physical games with a hammer. Wait, that's not quite…
EverQuest’s new Aradune server struggles with nasty queues - Not to be left out of the launch fiascos of last week, EverQuest is struggling in getting its two new progression servers operating the right way. There were a number…
The Daily Grind: Are gaming subs due for a comeback? - When I first started at Massively-that-was, over 10 years ago now, I remember it being a crash-course not in MMOs, which I knew backward and forward, but in console gaming…
Massively Uplifting: Charity tourneys, Asheron’s Call in Animal Crossing, and over a million Kind Words - May day! May day! We have warm fuzzies incoming! And just in time to start June off with happier thoughts. And who couldn't use more happier thoughts right about now?…
Gaming events and patches are delayed, games taken offline to support Black Lives Matter protests - The PC Gaming Show that was scheduled for Saturday has been postponed a week, PC Gamer announced last night. It'll run June 13th instead, specifically to "make space" for the…
Wisdom of Nym: So, if there is a Final Fantasy XVI… - It's been about a year since I wrote about Naoki Yoshida's mystery project, which still has not actually been announced in any way and is still, formally, just "a series…
Star Wars Galaxies Legends shows off Bespin, paves the way for Empire Day 2020 - Things are still being updated in the rogue server known as Star Wars Galaxies Legends in 2020, and the latest community transmission newsletter has compiled all of the things that…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 274: Greymoor, BlizzCon, and Guild Wars 2
Battle Bards Episode 170: Star Stable
The Stream Team: Going for Guild Wars 2’s glider
The Stream Team: A hodge podge of AQ3D adventures
The Stream Team: Bring on Neverwinter’s Barrow Lords!
The Stream Team: Advancing to the abandoned lodge in ESO’s Greymoor
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.
