MMO Week in Review: A house divided, a wedding, a do-over, and a TV show

It was a hodge-podge week for MMOs, yet one without a dull moment: Epic Games reneged on its promise to release Conan Exiles for free on the Epic Games Store, Star Trek Online released House Divided, Amazon pulled Crucible back into beta after a messy launch, LOTRO rolled out the wedding of Arwen and Aragon, and Fallout is getting a TV show helmed by the Westworld folks.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

First impressions of Star Trek Online’s new Klingon tutorial and House Divided arc - One of the things I have always admired about Star Trek Online is the fact that its writers know how to take a premise that seems blandly uninteresting and make…

Amazon is pulling another game back for a do-over – this time it’s Crucible - So here's the good news: Amazon isn't throwing Crucible in the trash the way it did with Breakaway. But the bad news is that it's going back into beta for…

Conan Exiles isn’t going to be free for a week on the Epic Games Store after all - If you follow Conan Exiles' twitter, you might have noticed that a bunch of gamers have been pestering Funcom this morning over the fact that the game, which was supposed…

Fallout is getting a TV series run by the Westworld folks and homed on Amazon Prime - So, who nommed the Fallout franchise when last we discussed which MMO or MMO adjacent title deserved its own movie or TV show? Because you were right on the money.…

Neverwinter’s Avernus, Star Trek Online’s House Divided launch as Cryptic offers 20th anny rewards - It's a big day for Cryptic Studios as the company is celebrating two decades in the industry, releasing Avernus for Neverwinter, and dropping House Divided for Star Trek Online. "Founded…

LOTRO Legendarium: A very Middle-earth wedding - Dearly beloved players, we are gathered today to celebrate the release of Lord of the Rings Online's Update 27, and with it, a great wedding indeed. For the moment, the…

World of Warcraft plans to connect multiple low-population realms to higher-population ones over the next few months - Friendships! They're probably spectacular. Would you like to have some in World of Warcraft? The designers would like for you to have them, which is why the team has finished…

Massively Overthinking: Can Amazon actually save Crucible? - Earlier this week, Amazon pulled Crucible back into closed beta for some hefty retooling, a move that surprised basically no one. We'd watched the game's depressingly low playerbase since its…

Camelot Unchained addresses staffing changes and the latest state of the game - This week, we learned that Camelot Unchained studio City State Entertainment has seen a minor staffing shuffle, as four of the studio's engineers moved on this past spring, something that…

Diablo III has launched Season 21, Trials of the Tempests - Not that Diablo III was ever a calm and peaceful game at the best of times, but with the advent of Season 21, it's about to get even more frenetic…

Guild Wars 2 shares patch notes for a class balance update arriving on July 7 - This week, ArenaNet has decided to set off its own community fireworks with some advance patch notes detailing class balance adjustments coming to Guild Wars 2 on Tuesday, July 7th,…

Fortnite is hosting the We the People panel on race in America for the Fourth of July - Fortnite is a dance floor, a murder simulator, a concert hall, a movie theater, and now, a home for serious discussion: Epic Games is using party royale to host a…

New World talks up the musket weapon and shares some PvE combat gameplay - The armory of New World is once again open as some fresh Twitter threads are talking up the musket weapon. The musket is a hitscan weapon, meaning there's no damage…

Massive Black Desert nerfs prompt tamer players to action through a letter writing campaign - As we've previously covered, Black Desert was updated with the PvP changed originally touted during the Heidel Ball last month. Tamer players (including me) were not happy seeing a whopping…

WoW Factor: The missing soulbinds of Shadowlands’ testing - Everyone remembers about soulbinding, yes? It's one of the major new features in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands? Like, it's literally the whole thing that is supposed to be functionally the…

Ubisoft promises a ‘structural shift’ in the wake of sexual harassment scandal - Ubisoft remains in the spotlight - the bad kind - this week following multiple accounts of abuse by multiple senior devs and execs that have now become public thanks to…

Niantic of Pokemon Go fame is working on a new Catan: World Explorers MMOARG - So it seems like Niantic's follow-up to Pokemon Go in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite didn't quite get as warmly received, probably helped by the fact that it was the same…

Secret World Legends preps weekend balancing pass test server event - Our recent Chaos Theory column on Secret World Legends' rather dismal last year didn't paint the best picture of the health of the game. But maybe Funcom can turn that…

Obituary: WoW and Hearthstone esports star and Twitch streamer Reckful - Gamers and Twitch fans are in mourning this afternoon, as reports confirming the death of streamer Byron "Reckful" Bernstein have hit social media. Both his girlfriend and his roommate have…

Sony is considering purchasing the Chinese firm Leyou - You probably don't think a whole lot about Leyou at this point, but you probably should; the holding company owns most of Digital Extremes of Warframe fame (Warfame), is behind…

Vague Patch Notes: Trying to salvage MMOs from bad launches - So I'm glad that Crucible got a "pull back to beta" instead of a complete shutdown. I'm surprised but still happy because that's more likely to give the game a…

WoW Classic sees another 40,000 accounts banned for botting and RMT as cases surge - The war against the hungry bot horde continues in WoW Classic. Shortly after Blizzard gave 74,000 accounts the boot, the devs have once again checked in with an update that…

New UK parliament report recommends regulation of lockboxes as gambling - Remember last month when UK lawmakers started making fresh noise about classifying lockboxes/lootboxes as gambling to protect children following multiple reports and surveys on the monetization mechanic and its impact…

Camelot Unchained’s new 90-day plan includes weekend servers - Camelot Unchained has a new 90-day plan, and it could transform the way you experience your weekends. The next three-month goal for the current beta is to get the tech…

Choose My Adventure: EVE Online wasn’t really all that bad I guess - As I alluded to last week, I’ve been putting in a lot of thought into my time with EVE Online over the course of this adventure, and I’m slowly beginning…

Perfect Ten: World of Warcraft’s multicolored elf rainbow - Remember how I managed to get an entire column out of all the different flavors of troll within World of Warcraft? Except I kind of cheated there because it was…

Japanese survival sandbox Craftopia is hitting closed alpha in July and I want it - All MOP's Tyler had to do was say two words to me this weekend - crafting MMO - and Craftopia was instantly on my radar as something I want to…

The Soapbox: PvP MMOs desperately need PvE-style feedback loops - As I settled into my captain's chair for my evening visit to World of Warships the other night, I had an interesting experience. In a game of domination (capture/hold three…

Fallout 76 blasts off into season one today - With a retro board game theme and an eye to drawing players back into the game, Fallout 76's first season officially kicks off today. Running through the middle of September,…

Bless Unleashed plans a launch on Steam in early 2021 - Will the second verse be different than the first? We'll all find out at some point in the beginning of 2021 as Round8 Studio and Neowiz have officially announced plans…

The Daily Grind: What do you think about Reddit’s new toxicity policy in relation to gaming? - Yesterday, Reddit went on a tear banning 2000 of the most toxic subs across the platform and instituting a new content policy and enforcement plan that bars "communities and users…

Sea of Thieves is poised to start testing ‘bare-bones’ custom servers - Ahoy there! Custom servers for Sea of Thieves have been spotted -- but right now, they're so far out on the horizon that you probably shouldn't cancel those important plans…

The Soapbox: The world of Gloomhaven is primed to be an MMO - Anyone familiar with modern board games will immediately recognize and likely have a positive opinion on Gloomhaven. It is an absolute juggernaut in the tabletop scene. It’s been so successful…

Raph Koster shares rare behind-the-scenes Star Wars Galaxies pics in honor of the anniversary - He might be busy creating a brand-new virtual world, but legendary game designer Raph Koster always has time to chat about his beloved Star Wars Galaxies. In a series of…

Wisdom of Nym: What does Final Fantasy XIV’s patch 5.3 delay mean for the schedule? - Gosh, remember when it seemed like we... like, actually knew what 2020 was going to look like, or at least in the broad strokes? I certainly do; I wrote an…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 278: Patchy McPatchface

Battle Bards Episode 172: Lost Ark

The Stream Team: AQ3D’s summer war weekend has started!

The Stream Team: Remembering The Secret World’s launch eight years ago

The Stream Team: Launching Neverwinter fireworks for Lliira

The Stream Team: Joining SWTOR’s swoop race

The Stream Team: Smashing and bashing those Guild Wars 2 dragons

The Stream Team: EverQuest II demands yet another instance sacrifice to the signature quest lords

The Stream Team: In Path of Exile, a Scion Marauder’s work is never done

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.