So Lord of the Rings Online appears to have kicked off 2021 the way it ended 2020: on fire. This week, SSG was cheered for reducing its expansion costs but then introduced enormously unpopular changes and then almost immediately walked them back thanks to the uproar, but hey, it got us agitating to just delete an entire mechanic from the game, so that’s something?
Meanwhile, Elite Dangerous delayed Odyssey, Elder Scrolls Online delayed its Gates of Oblivion reveal, Ever, Jane sunsetted, Path of Exile’s Echoes of the Atlas rolled out, PlanetSide 2 lost its top developer, and all eyes are on Guild Wars 2’s big update this week.
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: It’s long past time to delete legendary items from Lord of the Rings Online - Mines of Moria was easily the most ambitious expansion that Lord of the Rings Online created. Not only did it implement the largest underground realm in any MMO ever and…
WoW Factor: The Shadowlands gameplay loop problem - A friend and I were discussing World of Warcraft the other night, which is something we do fairly often. This is especially relevant for me because one of the things that…
Vague Patch Notes: In defense of easy fun, in MMOs and elsewhere - I don't play video games to be challenged. I play them to have fun. This isn't to say that these are inherently separate propositions. People who know me, for example,…
Epic Games brings Fortnite complaint against Apple and Google to the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal - While understandably most of the attention in the Epic vs. Google and Apple legal scuffle has been focused on the suit being heard in the US, there's a similar legal…
Cyberpunk 2077 bosses: ‘Don’t fault any of our teams for what happened’ - Facing what could turn out to be multiple lawsuits over the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and the ensuing financial fallout, CD Projekt Red released a missive to the community…
PlanetSide 2 boss Andy Sites announces his departure and Rogue Planet successors - Here's a huge Friday bummer for PlanetSide 2 fans: You're losing your much-loved lead dev. Executive Producer and Head of Rogue Planet Games Andy Sites announced this afternoon that he's moving…
Path of Exile’s Echoes of the Atlas expansion launches this afternoon - It's been a bit of a whirlwind of a patch for Path of Exile, or at least it feels that way for players, as the expansion that was meant to…
Carpet-bombing Elite Dangerous’ Odyssey settlements is probably a bad idea - With Elite Dangerous' Odyssey expansion delayed a smidge for PC and into fall for console, players have nothin' but time, so you may as well spend it poring over the…
Interview: Neverwinter devs on Sharandar’s cadence, systems overhauls, and future new class - [AL:NW]Last week, Perfect World Entertainment announced Neverwinter's Sharandar expansion, a three-part update that kicks off with The Iron Tooth patch February 9th. Players are expecting a new social hub, new…
Crimson Desert interview clarifies the game’s multiplayer vs. single-player aspects - So where exactly does Crimson Desert sit on the spectrum of single-player vs. MMORPG? The answer, according to a new interview from MMO Culture, is that it's complicated. Internally, the…
Blizzard prepares to roll out a major Battle.net upgrade - The biggest upgrade to Battle.net in a long time is on the cusp of coming to players' screens everywhere. For those of you who play World of Warcraft, Overwatch, or…
Massively Overthinking: What MMO were you hoping to hear much more about this past year? - So 2020 wasn't exactly the year a lot of us probably thought it was going to be in early January. Every bit of our lives was altered by the pandemic,…
Leaderboard: What’s more important in an MMO – character visuals or world visuals? - When I first got to Massively-that-was, well over 10 years ago now, one of my tasks became front-page editing, meaning I had to keep the front page of the site,…
The Repopulation’s latest alpha patch touches on inventory and optimization - It seems strange now, but five or six years ago, The Repopulation was a much-wanted Kickstarted MMORPG, with visual and design roots in sandboxes like Star Wars Galaxies. But of…
Lord of the Rings Online pulls back from controversial patch changes - Usually when there is some sort of controversial change to Lord of the Rings Online, you can find some fiercely loyal players defending Standing Stone Games. That's what made yesterday's…
LOTRO community rises up in anger over new legendary items money grab - The test server for Lord of the Rings Online's next patch opened up this week to run Update 28.3 through the paces -- but it also opened a dam of…
The Division 2 and Ubisoft Massive studio tapped to create a Star Wars open world game - When Lucasfilm Games announced its resurgence, we wondered aloud whether Electronic Arts' exclusivity contract to create Star Wars games was set to die on the vine. It would appear we've…
Perfect Ten: The 10 tiers of MMO system complexity - MMOs can be complicated things, as I am pretty sure we have discussed on multiple occasions now. There are no known means to prevent this, sadly; we just have to…
Massively on the Go: Monster Hunter Rise’s demo is merely a less pretty taste of Monster Hunter World - I have to admit, from the demo, Monster Hunter Rise isn't what I was expecting. Having played Monster Hunter World on both PS4 and on PC, as well as having cross-culture…
Elder Scrolls Online delays Gates of Oblivion reveal event to avoid inauguration day pandemonium - One of the big events MMO players were surely looking forward to this month was The Elder Scrolls Online's planned reveal of Gates of Oblivion. The date for the big…
Elite Dangerous has delayed Odyssey’s PC launch to late spring, console launch to fall - When Frontier Developments opened preorders for Elite Dangerous' Odyssey expansion last month, most gamers presumed the launch was just around the corner. And it is! It's just that the corner…
Leaderboard: What’s the most vulnerable Daybreak MMO in 2021? - Yep, it's that time of year again: We've been doing this recap for the last several years, although this one is going to be interesting, given that Daybreak just got…
Choose My Adventure: Oops, I completely forgot to do the main quest in ArcheAge - Yes. Yes, that happened. I absolutely am an idiot. [AL:Arche]This week in CMA saw me rambling onward in ArcheAge with a fresh set of skills and a whole bunch of…
RIFT’s ‘Three Kings’ event riles up the community - A community event to find "three kings" and photograph them in RIFT in the post-holiday season apparently sparked a degree of criticism and controversy over the last week. While some…
Lord of the Rings Online’s new expansion bundle smashes its huge barrier to entry - Lord of the Rings Online had one heck of a 2020, in all the ways you're thinking: It stole players' hearts by giving away gobs of content for free during…
Final Fantasy XIV launches the last piece of Ishgard Restoration with patch 5.41 - If you've been waiting for new battle content in Final Fantasy XIV, you're going to have to keep waiting past patch 5.41. That has launched today, and the focus is entirely…
LucasArts revived as Lucasfilm Games, Bethsoft announces new Indiana Jones game - All right, history lesson time for those who don't remember: Back in 1982, Lucasfilm had created Lucasfilm Games as part of the company's gaming creation and publishing arm. Most people…
Guild Wars 2’s ‘Power’ chapter lands January 19 – here’s the new trailer! - [AL:GW2]Prepare to feel the Power, Guild Wars 2 players: The next chunk of the Icebrood Saga is dropping next week. And yes, it's called Power as ArenaNet teased over the…
Fight or Kite: Pearl Abyss’ Shadow Arena has epic new modes – and no one to play them - In this week’s edition of “why is Sam still so sad and unable to find a regular MMO to play?” I've decided to take a look back at a battle…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s community is better – and worse – than you think - If you are not actually playing Final Fantasy XIV, you probably have an impression of the community for this game being an amazing font of positive wonderfulness in which everyone…
City of Titans shares new video, screenshots, and 2021 update plans - A retrospective of the last year's work by City of Titans is full of the looking back that one comes to expect out of these sorts of posts, but it…
Kickstarted Jane Austen MMORPG Ever, Jane closed its doors over the holidays - Well crap - just when we thought we'd escaped 2020 without too many MMO sunsets, another one sneaks in at the last minute to join the pile - and we…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 304: League of MMORPGs
The Stream Team: Starting a Conan Exiles Siptah dream home
The Stream Team: The final episode of Warframe’s Glassmaker mystery
The Stream Team: Jumping right in to Path of Exile’s Ritual league
The Stream Team: A final foul pilgrimage into Neverwinter’s Twisted Fane
The Stream Team: Exploring the Lycan Conclave in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Returning to EverQuest II’s Reign of Shadows
The Stream Team: Counting down the days ’til Path of Exile’s Echoes of the Atlas
The Stream Team: Celebrating 10 super years of DC Universe Online
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.
