It wasn’t a bad week for MMOs at all, we’re happy to report, as LOTRO launched the Wildwood patch, EverQuest kicked off its 22nd anniversary, New World updated its alpha with an Eastern-inspired zone, Black Desert released the Sage, Albion Online posted its Call to Arms update, and SWTOR announced Dark Descent. Plus, we got a peek at Magic Legends as it heads into early access. On the downside, Blizzard went through another round of layoffs.
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
Activision-Blizzard has laid off another 190 employees as Kotick could rake in an extra $200M - Don't look now, but Activision-Blizzard just laid off another batch of people. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has slashed just under 190 jobs, 50 of them relating to…
Hands-on with Magic Legends: A solid action game that could be even more - So, real talk: I am kind of an easy mark for Magic Legends. The initial conception of it, at least. I was very excited to see an MMO using Magic:…
Lord of the Rings Online’s Wildwood update is here with new quests, instances, and the spring festival - [AL:LOTRO]It's patch day over in Lord of the Rings Online - everyone come to me! I mean to Bree! Bree-land! Because that's where the new Wildwood stuff is! OK, now…
Perfect Ten: 10 ways that MMOs kind of used to be worse - Believe you me, I know quite well the arguments that have been rehashed over the years about how the MMORPG genre and these online games in general have declined in…
EverQuest marks its 22nd anniversary with events, producer’s letter - Wake up sheeple! If you thought today was going to be a normal, ordinary day -- you're dead wrong! It's the 22nd anniversary of the majestic EverQuest! Which means that…
New World’s latest alpha update adds Ebonscale Reach, flags all gear BOE or BOP - Amazon Games' New World is inching toward its new-new launch with a new patch unleashed on the alpha. The update includes the brand-new level 51+ Ebonscale Reach zone, with its…
WoW Factor: The long wait for patch 9.1 in World of Warcraft - We don't yet have a date for patch 9.1, but considering that patch 9.0.5 just released recently and the patch isn't even up on the test server, I'd say it's…
Casually Classic: Will WoW Burning Crusade Classic’s level boost be the casual’s best friend? - While the announcement of Burning Crusade Classic at BlizzCon last month was of no surprise to even comatose cave dwellers, details of that announcement were. Not everyone was expecting #somechanges…
Star Wars The Old Republic announces The Dark Descent update with new flashpoint and ‘galactic seasons’ - Remember when Star Wars The Old Republic's last update fell a little flat and we said we hoped that the promised influx of updates for the game in the wake…
Black Desert releases the Sage class on PC, introduces Life Skill Mastery and Caphras Stones to console - PC players of Black Desert can now rock enemy faces with the power of cubes. Today's update has introduced the Sage class to the MMORPG, along with a special event…
Massively Overthinking: Are MMO social hubs overrated? - MMO reader Random recently winged us an article from Kotaku arguing for the abolishment of pointless social hubs in video games. "Here’s a radical idea," it begins, "Turn every social…
Albion Online’s Call to Arms update is live today with new faction and buffed faction PvP - As promised, Albion Online's Call to Arms update is live today, with gobs of new content and systems reworks. To wit: Sandbox Interactive has completely revamped faction warfare; factions can…
The Game Archaeologist: The online world of Diablo II - Most of us probably weren't expecting to see Diablo II once again propelled into the spotlight in the year 2021, but the BlizzCon announcement of that classic game's remaster had…
Chronicles of Elyria outlines the basic gameplay beats of the colony sim Kingdoms of Elyria - Soulbound Studios CEO Jeromy Walsh would like you to ignore the elephant in the room and instead take a look at the overall gameplay cadence of Kingdoms of Elyria, the…
GDC 2021: What attracts – and motivates – mobile and MMO gamers? - GDC 2021 has been running this week, but sadly there aren't a lot of relevant panels for MMO or online game enthusiasts. However, it hasn't been a total wash for…
Crowfall player demonstrates how fast it is to reach max level via the new tutorial progression system - Crowfall's latest update made a number of changes to the game that our PvP columnist found to be extremely beneficial, but one of those adjustments -- the new player progression…
GDC 2021: Intel and Spirit AI’s Bleep aims to filter live audio – and toxicity - At Intel's GDC 2021 panel "Billions of Gamers, Thousands of Needs" this week, Intel and Spirit AI announced a new end-user application designed "to detect and redact audio" based on…
Sea of Thieves celebrates third birthday with 20M total players - Sea of Thieves is celebrating a birthday this week as the multiplayer title hits three years old - and 20 million players. Total, not at the same time, but that's…
World of Warcraft fundraises for Doctors Without Borders by offering pet incentives - Everyone loves a good vanity pet, right? Well, what about donating money toward a very good cause? Both pet and human lovers can find something pleasing in Blizzard's latest charity…
Former Halo Wars game designer talks about the Halo MMO we never got to see - How do you think an MMO in the Halo universe would have played out? Would it just be like a really large multiplayer deathmatch? Would it work like the open-world…
Crayta is a newer, Fortniteyer Roblox, and it’s now live on the Epic Games Store - If Roblox hasn't already permanently taken the "games-within-a-game" spot in your heart - or on your kids' devices - then you might want to take a peek at its most…
Blade and Soul’s Slithering Shadows update is live - Yesterday was patch day for Blade and Soul, introducing the Slithering Shadows update to the game along with a set of patch notes to accompany the launch. As one might…
The first part of Dual Universe’s ‘biggest beta update’ arrives with fancier graphics and better jetpacks - Better-looking eye candy? Jetpacks that perform as expected? Wallets to organize all of your hard-earned currency? Yes, please, and pile on some more of that delicious Dual Universe 0.24 patch…
Aliens Fireteam devs discuss City of Heroes’ lasting popularity and Cryptic’s canceled Marvel MMO - Earlier this month, we finally got some hard info on Cold Iron's Aliens Fireteam, the Alien-franchise shooter that's been under wraps for six years while the former Cryptic devs who…
RIFT’s 10th birthday is here, but it ignores the elephant in the room - With the desperate, frenzied actions of a parent trying to redirect a kid's attention away from tragedy, Gamigo invites one and all to RIFT's 10th anniversary events this week. [AL:Rift]The…
Alienware cut its League of Legends esports sponsorships short over ongoing Riot Games scandals - Last month, we covered yet another sexual harassment lawsuit swirling around Riot Games, this one a wrongful termination suit from a former executive assistant who alleges she was fired from…
Choose My Adventure: The point where Wizard101 blends in with other MMOs - I feel like I’ve got the general thrust of Wizard101. For the most part, anyway. This week it was all about trying to clear the quest list, which ended up…
Elder Scrolls Online decides to leave proc sets disabled – for now - The bursty nature of proc sets have been a contentious part of Elder Scrolls Online's PvP scene, where some players dislike how quickly they can tip the tide of battle…
Mabinogi celebrates 13 years with combat challenges and lots of balloons - Few things set a festive atmosphere quite like a bunch of balloons, so it's a good thing that Mabinogi has plenty of them to celebrate the game's 13th anniversary. Balloons…
Saga of Lucimia studio splits from the Anderson brothers, says game dev ‘continues full steam ahead’ - Last week, we covered the surprising news that the founder of Saga of Lucimia, Tim Anderson, was no longer working on the game. The revelation came courtesy of a Patreon…
Not So Massively: Checking the pulse of Star Wars Battlefront II - As I am someone who is at best lukewarm to the Star Wars franchise, nearly as ambivalent toward shooters, and almost entirely uninterested in competitive play, Star Wars Battlefront II…
Wisdom of Nym: Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker (given what we know so far) - At the time you read this, it'll be just about two months until we know more about what's coming with Final Fantasy XIV's fourth expansion. We already have some information,…
Astellia has officially launched its Astella Royal free-to-play version on Steam - There's nothing more delightfully confusing than when there are completely different versions of the same MMORPG operating globally, as with TERA or Aion. But usually those separate versions are in…
Blizzard ramps up hiring for its unannounced online game - Blizzard Entertainment is up to something -- something big -- these days behind closed doors. We've known that the World of Warcraft studio was forming a team to work on…
One of City of Heroes’ rogue servers, Sanctuary, has apparently been taken out by hackers - It appears as though City of Heroes' Sanctuary rogue server has suffered what could turn out to be a catastrophic outage. The troubles began last Wednesday when the server went…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 313: Hope you saved your game!
Battle Bards Episode 189: Spooky and Magical 3
The Stream Team: Finding piece(s of yourself) in the mountains of Valheim
The Stream Team: Checking out Warframe’s big Corpus Proxima Railjack update
The Stream Team: Dungeons & Dragons Online anniversary, hard mode
The Stream Team: Dancing with the Bad Luck Sneevils for AQ3D’s Lucky Day
The Stream Team: Relishing the Republic side of SWTOR’s droid hunt
The Stream Team: St. Qubeslick’s shenanigans in Trove
The Stream Team: Poaching eggs in Guild Wars 2’s Crystal Oasis
The Stream Team: Frolicking Frogloks as EverQuest turns 22 today!
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.
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