If the last couple of years have taught us anything, it’s to appreciate a low-key week when everything was fine and nothing was actively on fire. This week had plenty of fun bits for MMO players: Guild Wars 2 dropped its Truce trailer, Elder Scrolls Online released Markarth, ArcheAge previewed Rise of Nehliya, Bless Unleashed went into closed beta, and the genre’s just waiting a few more weeks for WoW Shadowlands. More weeks like this one all around, ‘kay?
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
LOTRO Legendarium: How to make Lord of the Rings Online Classic work - Twice now this year we have heard from Standing Stone Games' Jeff Libby that, no, a hypothetical LOTRO Classic isn't in the works, nor is it something that's feasible and…
WoW Factor: Ego, philosophy, and learning the right lessons in MMOs - Picture the scene, if you will. The year is 2006, and I am working in a library with a number of people whom I get along with and one girl…
Guild Wars 2 teases November 17 ‘Truce’ living world content chapter with brand-new trailer - [AL:GW2]As promised, Guild Wars 2 has dropped the new trailer for its next chapter, The Icebrood Saga: Champions, Chapter 1: Truce. Is it possible to have too many colons in…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Markarth DLC and update 28 are officially live for PC players - If this week is all just a little too much for you to handle, you can try living in Tamriel for a little while, thanks to the release of both…
Vague Patch Notes: Managing the MMO message, volume two: How to shut up - It wasn't so long ago that we talked about managing the message when it comes to fans and the like, but today I want to talk about a more advanced…
Perfect Ten: 10 reasons MMOs struggle with underwater content - In Final Fantasy XIV, players could fly before they could swim. There's no joke there. The game's first expansion added the ability to fly through the expansion zones on a mount,…
ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained announce Rise of Nehliya for November 12 - [AL:Arche]If you caught Gamigo's teases earlier this week on Twitter, you might have wondered what ArcheAge was up to. Wonder no more: The company announced today another update for ArcheAge…
Ahead of Bless Unleashed’s PC closed beta, Round 8 Studio says it ‘learned a lot of lessons’ from Bless Online - Round 8 Studio is just about ready to roll out the Bless Unleashed closed beta for PC: In fact, if you're reading this from North America, it's actually kicking off…
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is pretty much ready to go now - We are just about two weeks away from World of Warcraft's latest expansion launch, but if the test servers are any indication, this sucker is pretty much ready to release…
Black Desert launches $29.99 ‘prestige’ editions for console today - [AL:BDO]As promised, Pearl Abyss is today launching its Prestige edition for MMORPG Black Desert, making it one of the few modern MMORPGs to actually get a proper console box edition,…
Elder Scrolls Online moves Markarth DLC launch on console by a day, promise next-gen news ‘soon’ - Elder Scrolls Online's Markarth DLC and update 28, which launched for PC players earlier this week and put a mighty fine hat on the Dark Heart of Skyrim plotline, was…
DC Universe Online battles across time in its latest episode, Long Live the Legion - "Protect the future. Save the past." That's a tall order for any superhero squad, but it's totally within the abilities of the 31st century Legion of Super-Heroes. [AL:DCUO]In DC Universe…
Massively Overthinking: Does early access kill an MMO’s buzz? - A while back on the Massively OP Podcast, Justin and I were flipping through Steamcharts checking in on Torchlight III, and we were a little dismayed at what we saw:…
Warframe is launching on PlayStation 5 this year with cross-gen play and upgraded visuals - [AL:WarF]Big news for Digital Extremes' Warframe today: The company is pushing the game to next-gen consoles a release on PlayStation 5 "this year" and Xbox Series X "later." The company…
Kakao Games’ Q3 2020 investor report suggests late 2021 western launch for Elyon Ascent Infinite Realm - Kakao is a hard company to cover, largely because the gaming segment we care about is only a tiny piece of the sprawling Korean company's portfolio, which ranges from music…
What’s going on with Epic Games’ lawsuit against Google? - Ever since Epic Games took its festering feud with Apple to the courts back in August, lawsuit news has focused on that specific fight - and the willingness of both…
World of Warcraft multiboxing just got a whole lot harder thanks to Blizzard’s new policy - World of Warcraft players who use multiple accounts simultaneously will find their favored gameplay much harder going forward, as last night Blizzard announced that "the use of input broadcasting software…
Pirates of the Burning Sea’s new operators released a new launcher, patcher, and website, with plans for a legacy server - One of the feel-good stories of 2019 came from the corner of the MMOverse belonging to Pirates of the Burning Sea, when the remaining Portalus developers admitted they were being…
Choose My Adventure: Exploring a new world and new bugs in No Man’s Sky - My goodness how things have changed. I have had a brief peek at No Man's Sky once before, but only the barest peeks, so being able to fully dive in…
Bethsoft’s Todd Howard on Microsoft, subscriptions, and the future of its IPs - When Microsoft walked over to ZeniMax Media with a big fat wallet and acquired all of the things, there was plenty of speculation on what it meant for the various…
Whatever happened to Valve’s digital card game Artifact? - Valve's digital card game Artifact launched in much the same way that the Soviet R-16 test-launched at Baikonur. Since then, back in May the game announced that it was going…
MechWarrior Online’s CM promises more community input and a ‘rough outline of a plan’ for updates - Another news story about MechWarrior Online roughly two weeks since our last report? Yes, believe it or not, the lines of communication appear to be opening more than they ever…
Massively Uplifting: Supporting small businesses, grieving through games, and lending helping hands - Did you go trick-or-treating? There's still time! Here, have a handful of warm fuzzies! Take some full-sized good deeds! October has been full of treats in the form of uplifting…
Genshin Impact brings new stories, characters, and a city reputation system on November 11 - Genshin Impact is bringing some new things for players to chase after with its update 1.1, which is set to arrive on Wednesday, November 11th, such as some new story…
Wisdom of Nym: The implications of Final Fantasy XIV Forspoken - So we do actually know the title of the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion now, even though we don't. Technically this has not yet been announced, but it matches literally every…
Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts and Richard Tyrer talk about plans for character death in a video - We haven't seen a whole lot of Chris Roberts in video form for quite a while (save for that brief cameo in the latest Inside Star Citizen episode), but with…
Fight or Kite: Spellbreak’s Clash 9v9 mode is absolute mayhem - For the past few months I’ve been searching for an online game to really pull me in and become a new regular part of my gaming rotation. Valorant held that…
NCsoft expected to change its name to NC before September - Evidently, NCsoft is no longer going to be soft. It's not going to be hard, either, or even slightly squishy. It's simply going to be NC, a name change meant…
Vampire the Masquerade sinks its teeth into the battle royale genre - Ask yourself: What is really missing from the battle royale genre at this point? If your non-sarcastic answer is "a hard-R splatterfest with horror's most overrated monsters," then you're thinking…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 295: Reveals and roadmaps
Battle Bards Episode 180: Moonlight Blade
The Stream Team: Searching for skilled labor in a Conan Exiles super surge
The Stream Team: Happy Heisting in Path of Exile
The Stream Team: Into the Tower of Necromancy in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Doing good deeds for Neverwinter’s Dwarves
The Stream Team: Soaking up Samhain in Secret World Legends
The Stream Team: Helping open Haven Bound, EverQuest II’s prelude event
The Stream Team: Doing DC Universe Online’s Witching Hour
The Stream Team: Witches are brewing in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Dodging shrapnel in Star Trek Online’s House Shattered
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.
