The week before Labor Day is always a weird one between conventions and bonus events, and this week was no different in spite of the circumstances. We mused on New World, pondered the Epic/Apple lawsuit, cheered for WoW Classic, welcomed Path of Exile’s Heist reveal, puzzled over Camelot Unchained, raised eyebrows over Dual Universe’s security breach, combed through Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons trailer, and mourned lost friends in WildStar.
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
First impressions: New World has the foundation of what could be a great game - Like a lot of people, I've been hotly anticipating Amazon's New World, one of the first truly big name new MMOs we've seen in a while, so I was quite…
Vague Patch Notes: Apple vs. Epic is not good vs. evil - So Epic has really gone all-in on fighting against Apple here, huh? The company is using Fortnite as a wedge in hopes of bringing down some of Apple's tech monopoly when…
Perfect Ten: 10 reasons WoW Classic is still fun in 2020 - WoW Classic just celebrated its first year of operation, and what a year it's been! Back in the summer of 2019, I was rediscovering all sorts of old school features…
Camelot Unchained promises that ‘a game is starting to emerge’ - Progress and change are the watchwords of Camelot Unchained this late summer, as Chris Junior - formerly of the RIFT and EverQuest II teams - has taken over the role…
Hands-on with the four Vs of Nexon’s mobile MMO V4 - One of my friends once said to me, "Carlo, I always see you play those random 6 out of 10 MMOs, and I don't get why. You know the game's…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Breaking down Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons expansion teaser trailer - Last, after a lot of build-up, during a stream dedicated to the 8th anniversary of the launch of Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet finally released its teaser trailer for the game’s…
WildStar’s composer creates a brand-new music track for terminally ill player - For those of you who traveled in WildStar's orbit back in the day, you may remember a guy named Avidguru. Avid hosted the WildCast podcast and was a great supporter…
Dual Universe studio Novaquark issues password resets following registration ‘security issue’ - If you've signed up for a Dual Universe website account, you probably received a worrisome email this afternoon informing you of a password reset following a "security issue" on the…
Path of Exile’s Heist expansion will launch on Mac with full crossplay - What's better than getting a new Path of Exile league? If you are a Mac user, it's getting the game on your favored operating system. And Grinding Gear Games is…
Path of Exile’s Heist expansion lets players infiltrate Rogue Harbor on September 18 - Are you tormented by the unrequited desire of executing a daring caper, perhaps pilfering a rare antique or infiltrating a secure vault, all because you've been hindered by the legal…
Choose My Adventure: The slow-burning, esoteric start of Wurm Online - I have a feeling this is going to be a short article and a probably completely inept series. Wurm Online is definitely not the kind of game one gets deep…
Not So Massively: Iron Harvest 1920 is a dieselpunk RTS with a surprising amount of heart - It's pretty common to stumble across a new game on the front page of Steam and think it looks interesting enough to add to your wishlist, but often such games…
Hands-on with the brand-new Razer Naga Pro: As good as it’s ever been - I have been an advocate for the Razer Naga basically ever since it was a product that you could purchase. Why? Because it turned out to work really well for me.…
The Soapbox: Feeling the loss of an MMO community - Back in 2012, I was almost a year deep into Lord of the Rings Online and enjoying my time both in the game and discovering the benefits of settling into…
Funcom is teasing a big announcement for Conan Exiles next week - Funcom apparently got up this morning and said, you know what, let's tease a thing. There's a ticker counting down on Conan Exiles' official site right now with a promise…
Second Life bans all in-game advertisements that are ‘political in nature’ - Launching into political rants in global chat or hijacking the guild discussion to make everyone uncomfortable with views on election candidates is seen as a trolling tactic or a faux…
New World promises gobs of new content ahead of its next test in November - As Amazon's New World winds down its late-summer preview event, the studio has a new dev blog up, admitting it's been "humbled" by the player response to the event and…
World of Warcraft Classic’s smaller servers are not getting the help they need for the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort - The next phase of World of Warcraft Classic content updates will bring in Naxxramas, which is something you would like to have following the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj. We already…
Fallout 76’s One Wasteland and second season arrive on September 15 - Mark your calendars, because September 15th is going to be a significant date for Fallout 76. That's the day when Update 22 arrives, bringing with it the One Wasteland leveling…
Google seeks to dismiss Epic’s lawsuit as Epic talks up the Fortnite ‘Metaverse’ - While much of the focus of the Epic lawsuit coverage has been on Apple, which was certainly helped along by that 1984 parody ad played on Fortnite, Epic Games is…
The Game Archaeologist: Mirrorworld - In this column, we have previously journeyed to lands where you saw not with your eyes, but with your imagination. I speak, of course, of text-based multi-user dungeons, or MUDs.…
Massively on the Go: An open letter to Pokemon Go’s Niantic and The Pokemon Company - Dear Niantic and The Pokemon Company, Thank you for Pokemon Go. Despite my criticism, this is probably the longest I've ever played a Pokemon game. Ever. I've also probably made more friends…
Craftopia has entered early access on Steam - When is a launch not a launch? When it's early access, naturally. However, the idea of things being a bit rough around the edges but slowly getting refined until everything…
Massively on the Go: Here’s how Niantic is trying to fix Pokemon Go’s Mega Evolutions - A bit before Niantic's wellness week kicks in for employees, Pokemon Go players got an update on the Mega Evolution problem/solution. We've previously covered the Mega Evolution, noting that the…
Spellbreak trades battle royale’s shooting for spellcasting as it officially launches - As we mentioned earlier this week, the battle royale sub-genre has a fresh arrival in the form of Spellbreak, a game where the shooting of guns is replaced with the…
Casual space sandbox CSC aka Crypto Space Commander launches on Steam with a dash of Star Trek - If you yearn for the stars yet are put off by the complexity and coldness of games like Star Citizen and EVE Online, you may want to check out Lucid…
Massively Overthinking: How we deal with burning out of MMOs - Back in August, MOP's own Justin wrote a piece on his Bio Break blog about moderation in gaming that resonated with me. He described his initial crush on World of…
World of Warcraft drops another Afterlives video, this one on Draka and Maldraxxus - Last week, Blizzard posted the first of its Afterlives videos for its World of Warcraft Shadowlands hype ramp-up - that one covered Uther and the Bastion realm in the expansion.…
Crowfall is blowing up in the best way since hitting beta, with guild alliances and new zones on the horizon - Yesterday, Crowfall's J. Todd Coleman and Thomas Blair sat for their latest ACE Q&A, with happy news for fans of the crowdfunded game that just hit beta in August. "Last…
Champions Online celebrates 11th birthday with costume gender-swapping - [AL:Champ]With multiple in-development superhero MMOs offering up their character and costume creation tools for players this summer, it's the perfect time for Champions Online to step up with something pretty…
Star Trek Online’s newest promotional ship in a lockbox angers fans for breaking the developers’ own rules - There's always been some consternation between players of Star Trek Online and the Perfect World Entertainment marketing philosophy of adding new ships via lockboxes. Generally, a certain amount of grudging acceptance…
Kids MMO developer Age of Learning must pay the FTC $10M to settle ‘dark patterns’ complaint - The US Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on the purveyor of kids game ABCMouse this week, having alleged that the company "made misrepresentations about cancellations and failed to disclose…
Black Desert rolls out Hashashin to PC and mobile, teases O’dyllita for October 7 - It's Hashashin day across much of the Black Desert universe, as the new toon is out and playable on both PC and mobile today. "Hashashin is the 20th class to…
Lord of the Rings Online sees more login issues, gives update on race change tokens - With all of the issues causing game disruption over the past month, Lord of the Rings Online players are understandably sensitive toward any further problems. So it was with mild…
Star Wars Galaxies Legends teases Bespin, previews new Days of the Aned-Kla festival - It's a weird year when rogue servers are getting more love than some live MMOs, but we're not sorry to see it. One of those servers is Star Wars Galaxies…
Rockstar wipes out characters caught using a money exploit, sending cheaters in to a rage - You would think that the instruction -- either direct or inherent -- to not cheat in a game would be common sense, but as we all know some multiplayer gamers…
Corepunk plans December closed beta, talks questing and character customization - We've had our eye on upcoming Unity-based MMORPG Corepunk since its original announcement by Dutch studio Artificial Core back in December, and in spite of its early development stage, the…
Wisdom of Nym: What does Final Fantasy XIV’s final 5.3 stinger imply? - As above, so below, and as before, so again. Just to make it absolutely clear, even though we did it for last week's column as well, there will be spoilers…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 286: Cantha, Shadowlands, and New World
Battle Bards Episode 176: Orchestral RuneScape
The Stream Team: Meeting the family in Warframe’s Heart of Deimos
The Stream Team: The second day of Shroud hunting in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Overcoming obstacle courses in Dungeons and Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Playing with fire and factions in New World
The Stream Team: A magical 12th birthday for Wizard101, complete with gifts
The Stream Team: A second sashay into the New World preview
The Stream Team: Staking a claim in Dual Universe
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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