So that first week of 2021 has been… interesting. While I’m sure you all have more important things to do than hang out with us and talk about MMORPGs, we’re mighty glad for those of you who do, and we hope we’ve been a nice distraction this week especially, as we’ve recapped our 2020 awards, picked out the frontrunners for the MMOs we’re hoping will entertain us this year, stared in dismay at WoW’s lore leaks, cocked our heads at Chronicles of Elyria, gone to Bespin, and deep-dived Path of Exile’s Echoes of the Atlas. It’s not all doom out there, promise.
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
The Game Archaeologist: Free Realms - Its very name was a declaration of rebellion against the status quo. In an era that had yet to shift from a subscription-only model for MMORPGs, Free Realms came onto…
MassivelyOP’s complete 2020 awards debrief and annual recap - As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 (whee!), today I'm going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2020. We gave out…
Vague Patch Notes: Yes, Virginia, that counts as an MMO - There is a particular comment we get on a semi-regular basis, and it is always wrong. It shows up on a wide variety of different games, and not consistently, but…
CIG acquires a perpetual license for Crytek’s CryEngine to further develop Star Citizen - In what's probably a surprising bit of news considering the two year-long legal fight between CIG and Crytek, it appears that the Star Citizen developer has managed to get a…
Wandering Wraeclast: Everything you need to know about Path of Exile’s Echoes of the Atlas, launching January 15 - Yesterday, Grinding Gear Games held a mini remote ExileCon of sorts to share the reveal of this month's big new Path of Exile expansion with all players live. Managing Director…
Twitch lowers a (temporary?) banhammer on Donald Trump - Following the shameful events of this past week in Washington D.C. during which an outgoing U.S. president urged supporters to storm the Capitol, many social media sites have moved to…
The Daily Grind: Will you kickstart any MMOs in 2021? - I think I managed to make it all the way through 2020 without Kickstarting a single game, or anything at all, for that matter. Usually there's something, like a book…
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2021 - Welcome to 2021, folks. It's not even going to have to try all that hard to be better than 2020! For our first official Massively Overthinking of the year, I've…
Liveblog: Path of Exile’s 3.13.0 expansion Echoes of the Atlas revealed - We've updated with our recap of the stream below after the cut! Change is really in the air this year! Grinding Gear Games is doing the big reveal Path of…
Leaderboard: What was the most overrated MMO of 2020? - Longtime readers will know we've been granting an official end-of-the-year award for the most underrated MMO for several years now. But it comes along with another tradition: There's always that…
Cooperating in violent games like Fortnite is good for children, actually - Here's something that might bake your noodle: A new study suggests that children playing violent video games cooperatively such as Fortnite are actually more willing to engage in prosocial behavior.…
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2020 - I'm happy to report that the list of MMOs that sunsetted in 2020 was shorter than in previous years, but I'm sure you'll join me in wishing the list were…
Chronicles of Elyria clarifies art and comms as players vow their lawsuit will go forward - One of the biggest MMO stories from 2020 was surely the collapse of Soulbound Studios and its MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria, which at one point appeared dead in the water…
WoW Factor: Oh no, not the Sylvanas redemption arc - All right. So. Apparently people wanted to know my response to the new cinematic mined out from within World of Warcraft. Cool. That's easy. My response? Ahem. No no no no…
EVE Echoes lets players claim nullsec space and fly in larger fleets with the Indomitable update - Is that a war raging in your pants or is that EVE Echoes' latest update on your phone? The Indomitable update to the mobile sandbox has the potential to make…
CDPR denies alleged anonymous dev’s account of Cyberpunk 2077 mismanagement and cut content - If you've been following the ongoing drama surrounding CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077, you've probably seen or at least seen references to a thread from an anonymous CDPR dev…
Neverwinter announces three-part Sharandar expansion, with The Iron Tooth launching on February 9 - Big news for Neverwinter fans rolling out this morning: PWE and Cryptic have just formally announced The Iron Tooth, the first episode of the new Sharandar "expansion," launching February 9th…
Lawful Neutral: 2020 was the year that wasn’t for MMO legal news - It seems surreal, but it is that time of the year again when we wax nostalgic about the year that was. Well, maybe this year is a bit less "wax…
Desert Oasis: Avoiding burnout in Black Desert Online - Players leaving Black Desert in a tizzy is something of a tradition in the community. It can be for a number of reasons. Sometimes players just get bored. Some players…
Perfect Ten: The top MMOs to watch in 2021 - "MMOs are dead!" "MMOs are dying!" "We didn't get any good MMO releases this past year!" While I won't argue with the last one there, I humbly submit today's column…
Elyon’s Korean version adds a new 300-player faction battlefield - If you enjoy a good PvP match, it stands to reason that you'll enjoy a lot of PvP matches even more. Elyon's newest addition to the Korean version of the game certainly…
Black Desert brings the Nova’s Awakening and Succession in latest update to PC and console - As is ever the case for classes in Black Desert, it's now time for the Nova to choose between mastering her existing kit or taking up some new skills. Awakening…
Choose My Adventure: The extremely guided tour through the opening segments of ArcheAge - Look, I appreciate how a sandbox game should start people off by guiding them in to what's possible, but much like Black Desert, ArcheAge so far has been an extremely…
The Soapbox: What I want to see in Riot’s League of Legends MMO - It's finally happening, y'all! League of Legends is getting an MMO! And boy howdy am I excited. While I didn't follow the game in its infancy, over the past three…
EVE Online’s ‘massacre at M2-XFE’ gets an official breakdown from CCP Games, officially tallies losses - The latest great battle in EVE Online appears to have wrapped up, leaving in its wake an absolutely astonishing number of destroyed ships. For those who haven't been following along,…
The Daily Grind: What MMOs are you no longer anticipating in 2021? - At the end of every year for almost as long as I can recall, we've delivered our "most anticipated" award. The winners in 2019 were a bit unusual: One was…
Massively Uplifting: Niantic, ArenaNet, and more MMO studios end 2020 on charitable high notes - Do you know what one of the best things about Massively Uplifting is? Although the world focuses on giving good deeds and Joy to the World during the holiday season,…
CD Projekt Red promises ‘vigorous’ defense in Cyberpunk 2077 consumer lawsuits - In what's perhaps a bit of a "water is wet" sort of story, CD Projekt Red, the publisher/developer of Cyberpunk 2077, released a statement that effectively has the company cracking…
Wisdom of Nym: Predicting Final Fantasy XIV’s 2021 for now - I don't know what 2021 is going to bring in general. This has always been the case, of course, but if anything 2020 should have taught us all that we…
Ten-year study finds no link between game violence and aggressive behavior from adolescence to adulthood - We've got another leaflet of evidence on the already towering pile of research suggesting no link between video game violence and aggressive behavior. A ten year-long longitudinal study published in…
‘I saw a City in the Clouds!’: Previewing Star Wars Galaxies Legends’ Bespin expansion - There are very few MMORPGs that can plausibly compel me to sit down and log in the weekend of a big real-life move, seeing as I am surrounded by grumpy…
Popular World of Warcraft cosplayer Jarod Lee Nandin passes away from complications with COVID-19 - Sad news this past weekend for the World of Warcraft community: cosplayer Jarod Lee Nandin, best known for his cosplay of the antagonist from South Park's "Make Love Not Warcraft"…
Guild Wars 2 ends Mac support February 18 thanks to Apple OpenGL issues - If anyone reading this is a player of Guild Wars 2 on a Mac, then we've got some bad news for you: ArenaNet has announced that the studio will be…
Star Trek Online player is banned following lifetime subscription refund bungle - File this one under "no good deed goes unpunished": A 10-year veteran of Star Trek Online who picked up a lifetime sub to the game recently ended up with a…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 303: The 2021 new year MMO roundtable
The Stream Team: Knee-deep in the Necramech Operation: Orphix Venom in Warframe
The Stream Team: Deeper into AQ3D’s Darkovia
The Stream Team: Setting sail to pirate adventure in Dungeons and Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Snowball PvP is the way to celebrate the season in TERA
The Stream Team: Coming back to life to exact revenge in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: A rematch with Elder Scrolls Online’s Banished Cells II
The Stream Team: Happy horsie holidays in Star Stable
The Stream Team: A fresh look at Osiris New Dawn’s survival update
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.
