So if you were all but holding your breath to see whether Blizzard was going to pull off World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, you can exhale now: It’s live, it wasn’t a huge trainwreck, and so far even the skeptics are pleased with how it plays.
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 of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, part one: Story and leveling - In a lot of ways, the problem with talking about World of Warcraft is the same problem when you try to talk about The Simpsons. At this point, its longevity…
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands enjoys a relatively smooth launch, sees first level 60 - World of Warcraft may have just experienced one of its smoothest expansion rollouts yet. Yesterday evening, Shadowlands launched simultaneously around the globe, and by many reports, pulled it off rather…
Desert Oasis: So, is the PlayStation 5 an upgrade for Black Desert on console? - Way back in August, I did a first impression of Black Desert for the PlayStation 4. It was a solid game, but I couldn't stick to it. The game just…
Global Chat: Shadowlands impressions from the community - With one of this year's biggest releases out this week, we've taken to the mean streets of Blogtown to see what MMO gamers are saying about World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.…
First Impressions: Atlas Rogues’ current early access is a broken imitation of Atlas Reactor - Thanks to some truly weird control scheme issues, it took me an absurdly long time to clear a tutorial level. That was my opening impression of Atlas Rogues, the co-op…
Surprise: Fallout 76 accidentally releases Steel Dawn a week early - While it's not yet December -- we checked, using our keen investigative skills -- Fallout 76's December update actually is live in the game. Originally scheduled to release next week,…
Final Fantasy XIV drops a trailer and previews the content of patch 5.4, Futures Rewritten - The next major patch for Final Fantasy XIV is launching on December 8th, just a little under two weeks from today. Unsurprisingly, that also means a new trailer for the…
Mechwarrior Online’s Piranha Games is being bought out by EG7 for $24M+ - If you were a bit surprised to see MechWarrior Online perk back up this fall after a long period of neglect in the wake of MechWarrior 5's development, then it's…
Fallout 76 adds CAMP wheelchairs following a disabled player’s petition - Disabled players aren't often represented in video games, especially multiplayer online ones that feature nothing but hearty and hale athletes leaping and running through virtual worlds. So even a gesture…
Massively Overthinking: Gratitude for the devs of the MMO genre - Thanksgiving conveniently falls on a Thursday every year, which means it's the perfect topic for our regular Thursday Massively Overthinking roundtable. I've asked our writers what they're grateful for in…
Star Trek Online lets Klingons fly the new and improved Titan - If you haven't yet watched Star Trek: Lower Decks... well, what are you waiting for? But if you have, you'll know that there's an excellent arrival by the USS Titan,…
The best MMO sales and events of Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2020 - Thanksgiving and Black Friday are pretty different in 2020 than in past years, but the online gaming sales and events? They're eternal. Join us for a run-down of all the…
PlayStation 5 launch is officially the biggest console launch in history - The PlayStation 5 has a lot to recommend it. It has backwards compatibility with a good library of games. It's rather nice to look at. It has current games. It makes…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMO blessings to be thankful for in 2020 - There is no doubt that this has been a much more difficult year than most in many respects, almost to the point where it's become a very cynical meme. However,…
CIG recruits Turbulent to open a new Montreal studio and build new star systems for Star Citizen - Star Citizen developer CIG already has studios in the US, UK, and Germany. What it didn't have was a studio in Montreal, Canada, up until a partnership with Turbulent that…
Choose My Adventure: Surprise storytelling in No Man’s Sky’s base building progression - It was often remarked going in to this week’s Choose My Adventure task that base building in No Man’s Sky is something of a black hole. I just sort of…
Red Dead Online becomes a $4.99 standalone title next week, teases new bounty hunter content - If you thought it was a bit odd yesterday to see an uncritical interview in mainstream media on Red Dead Online after the game spent the year accumulating so little…
Fortnite’s new subscription option is a $12 monthly program called Fortnite Crew - Earlier this month, we covered a leak that seemed to suggest Epic Games was once again reviving its plan to implement a subscription service for Fortnite. While gamers in our…
NCsoft Q3 2020: Guild Wars 2 just had its best revenue quarter in two years - Let's get the best news for western players in this NCsoft financial report out first: Guild Wars 2 just saw a bit of a welcome upswing in revenue, with its…
We’re years away from an open beta for Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings MMO - How far away is the next Lord of the Rings MMORPG? Years, fam, so get comfy where you are. The news comes via Wccftech, which dug up documents relating to…
Pantheon mourns the loss of technology lead Kurt ‘Molad’ Habetler - A dark cloud has once again settled over Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Yesterday, Visionary Realms announced that it recently lost one of its key teammates -- this time, Technology…
Cyberpunk VR MMO Zenith delays its alpha to early 2021 - Zenith's November developer update video earlier this month offers a catch-up on the doings and goings of this virtual reality MMORPG. The small dev team announced that "progress has been…
Roblox goes public on the stock market with an IPO filing, confirms it’s operating at a loss - The massively popular online game-building game Roblox is going to toss its hat into the stock market ring. The company has officially filed an initial public offering (IPO) with the…
Superdata’s October 2020 report: Genshin Impact makes big bank, WoW is on the rise - Congratulations are in order for Genshin Impact, which became October's highest-grossing title. In Superdata's new report, the crossplay title is deemed "an unprecedented international success for a game made by…
The Soapbox: How Pathfinder killed World of Warcraft for me - World of Warcraft: Shadowlands launches today. I will not be playing. Once upon a time, a new WoW expansion would be a major event in my life, but this is…
Elyon shows off gameplay footage and discusses gear enhancement, housing, and crafting - There's been a whole lot shown off by the upcoming MMORPG Elyon over the past few days, and most of it is in video form, which means the devs can…
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating on the timeline of the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion - There are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns. This is true when it comes to Final Fantasy XIV at the moment. We know for a fact that there will…
Hearthstone’s community is in open revolt over the new reward system - It's been an ugly month in Hearthstone's neck of the woods -- and it's only getting worse. Community outcry over what it's seeing as stingy and greedy business tactics with…
World of Warcraft Shadowlands is upon us tonight as WoW turns 16 years old - At long last - and I do mean long, since the expansion broke with modern tradition and actually saw a delay at almost the last minute earlier this fall -…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 298: The one with the chocobo
The Stream Team: Completing Warframe’s The Glassmaker
The Stream Team: Black Knight Friday quests in AQ3D
The Stream Team: Turkeytopia 2020 in Trove
The Stream Team: Sidetracked in SWTOR
The Stream Team: The Way Forward in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Getting rid of the Gray Host in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Escaping the Dual Universe tutorial trap
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.
