At this point, it seems as if Gamigo has entirely given up on trying to appease disgruntled ArcheAge fans, as smack in the middle of its ongoing server merges and land rushes, the studio announced new fresh start servers.
Meanwhile, Blade & Soul’s Revival is happening, Daybreak and Cold Iron finally revealed Aliens: Fireteam, Crowfall posted its launch roadmap, we peeked into Camelot Unchained’s crafting plans, Valve gave up on Artifact, The Division 2 disappointed fans with a long delay before its next big mode, and we previewed Elder Scrolls Online’s upcoming DLC.
And in MOP meta news, we kicked off a brand-new WoW Classic column called Casually Classic.
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 much value does a VIP subscription offer these days? - Probably the biggest question any Lord of the Rings Online player has to ask him or herself is whether to go subscription or free-to-play while making a way through Middle-earth.…
ArcheAge Unchained announces new Fresh Start servers arriving on March 25 as server merges continue - Who here would like to start from square one in ArcheAge Unchained? You're going to be getting your wish this coming Thursday, March 25th, because that's when new Fresh Start…
Interview: Camelot Unchained lays out its innovative alchemy system - One of the major slices of content being worked on in this current 90-day quadrant of Camelot Unchained development is its crafting system, specifically and initially the design of alchemy.…
WoW Factor: Will most WoW Classic players genuinely move on to The Burning Crusade? - So as much praise as I had for the WoW Classic side of the World of Warcraft equation last week, there's something that was interesting as part of the presentation that's been…
Tamriel Infinium: Previewing Elder Scrolls Online’s Flames of Ambition DLC and Update 29 - It’s that time of year again, fans of The Elder Scrolls Online! The new yearlong story is about to kick off with the first quarter dungeon update. This year, the…
The Division 2 is getting a new game mode late 2021, reruns of Year 2 season content in the meantime - Ever since Ubisoft Massive made the announcement that The Division 2 would be getting another content update this year after TU12, which was intended to be the game's last update,…
Diablo II Resurrected will allow old save file transfers, will likely be Blizzard’s last remaster - I have to wonder who would be hanging on to an old Diablo II save file but then I check myself as I look at a screenshot folder that still…
Blade & Soul opens a ‘Revival’ landing page touting visual upgrades, engine changes, and dungeon updates - Blade & Soul is very excited about its upcoming Unreal Engine upgrade to the point that a newly opened landing page is calling it a Revival. The page not only…
Take a look at 25 minutes’ worth of Aliens Fireteam gameplay - Now that we know that Daybreak and Cold Iron Studios is finally launching that co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam, there are likely more than a few folks that are curious about…
MMO company Perfect World Entertainment is working on a new game according to hiring post - So what does Perfect World Entertainment have in the works right now? We don't know, but it appears to be something new happening. A new posting on Twitter has announced that…
Valve ends Artifact’s reboot dreams and shoves it into maintenance mode - BioWare isn't the only studio throwing in the towel after attempting a reboot of a promising title. Fans of Valve's digital card game Artifact were dismayed to hear this week…
Massively Overthinking: ‘Dead games’ in the MMO space - I had a laugh a while back when I spied this tweet in my feeds from a Bungie CM who was suggesting people mute the words "dead game" on Twitter.…
Vague Patch Notes: MMO sunsets and the myth of meritocracy - A few weeks back, I talked about why a given MMO might have failed even when it possessed good qualities. It was a response to something that I see get…
Elite Dangerous sets Odyssey PC alpha for March 29, drops brand-new mission video - One of the MMOs that seems to have emerged from 2020 in a better place than when it went in is Elite Dangerous, which means the launch of Odyssey is…
EVE Online begins advertising Skill Point pack sales as CCP Games addresses monetization - If you're an EVE Online player that's nervous about in-game store items like the Expert System consumable, then you really might be shaken by the latest post from The Ancient…
Crowfall posts development and launch roadmap, promotes Hunger Dome battle royale - As we covered in our extensive Crowfall interview back in February, this long-awaited PvP MMORPG is coming close to its launch date -- but how close? And what needs to…
Perfect Ten: The top 10 things to love about Elder Scrolls Online - Having finally clicked hard with Elder Scrolls Online this winter, I find that it's difficult to restrain myself from gushing about pleasant discoveries (and rediscoveries) from this fantasy MMORPG. I've…
Zynga bought up Torchlight III developer Echtra Games - Gaming powerhouse Zynga is best known for FarmVille, which made the company a household name a decade ago, though it had wild revenue swings along the way and sparked "cautionary…
A Star Trek Online player opened 12,000 lockboxes so you don’t have to - You may have had your fingers in an MMO lockbox or two over the years, but we're willing to bet that you don't count your openings in the thousands. But…
Cold Iron’s Alien game is finally happening: It’s a co-op shooter called Aliens Fireteam, under the Daybreak banner - One of the more confusing stories we've covered over the past few years is the story of Cold Iron Studios: It's the group run by former Cryptic devs (including Craig…
Choose My Adventure: The combat is the sauce in Wizard101 - It’s only been a little bit of time, but I am already mightily impressed with Wizard101. [AL:Wiz]The game has a pretty rich and involved following, so I sort of assumed…
Casually Classic: What’s the point of playing WoW Classic in 2021? - Welcome to Casually Classic, a new column here on Massively OP dedicated to examining World of Warcraft Classic from the vantage point of a hopeless casual. I've been playing WoW…
After just four months in open beta, pixel MMO Naïca is already in maintenance mode - Naïca hasn't been around long enough for anyone to remember the combination of keys to make the ï without copypasta, and now it's over, so no one will have to. Readers…
Guild Wars 2’s ‘Balance’ episode launches March 9 – here’s the new trailer - [AL:GW2]Guild Wars 2 next big thing - Season 5: The Icebrood Saga: Episode 5: Champions: Chapter 3: Balance - is launching next week. ArenaNet put a date on that mouthful…
The Daily Grind: Are you going to play Diablo 2 Resurrected? - One of the most interesting bits of BlizzConline 2021 to me was the reveal of Diablo 2 Resurrected. Yes, the rumors had ensured we all knew it was coming, but…
Not So Massively: A eulogy for Anthem and Defiance - Last week was a bloodbath. In a single day, we saw Electronic Arts consign one game to eternal maintenance mode, and Gamigo announced closures for not one, not two, but…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s Island Sanctuary and the descent of peace - If you look at it from an obvious thematic standpoint, the whole Island Sanctuary idea makes no sense for this particular expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. After all, the whole…
Thousands of WoW Classic fans replicate the ‘fresh start server’ that Blizzard won’t make - One of the hoped-for announcements about WoW Classic failed to materialize at this past month's BlizzConline. Some fans were hoping that among all of the server adjustments for Burning Crusade…
Shroud of the Avatar improves crafting as Richard Garriott dives to the bottom of the ocean - We'll go ahead and get this out of the way first: MMO developer Richard Garriott dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench today. The game-dev-turned-astronaut-turned-aquanaut had to the delay…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 311: The day the MMOs died
Battle Bards Episode 188: World of Warcraft Shadowlands
The Stream Team: Doing the swamp thing in Valheim
The Stream Team: Making music with Warframe’s Octavia Prime
The Stream Team: Meeting the Son of Braken in AQ3D
The Stream Team: Celebrating 15 years of Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Seeking SWTOR’s hidden droids on the Republic side
The Stream Team: Black Desert’s 5th birthday bash
The Stream Team: Gotta get gold for a Guild Wars 2 griffon
The Stream Team: Returning to Ritual in Path of Exile
The Stream Team: Happy 10th birthday RIFT
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.
