It was a strange sort of businessy sort of week in MMO land, as Daybreak’s games got a ticket to 4Game, Blizzard canceled BlizzCon again, New World tried to explain its monetization, and Ashes of Creation lost its lead designer. Meanwhile, we dipped our toe into Swords of Legends Online and learned NCsoft is go for Aion Classic in the west.
As for this week, we’re looking forward to WoW Classic Burning Crusade and Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood, though the Blackwood rollout will be a bit thinner than originally expected.
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 the landscape difficulty slider is changing the rules of the game - For a long time now, one of the chief complaints about Lord of the Rings Online has been that... it's too easy. Players have noted that, for the most part,…
WoW Factor: What does the lack of BlizzCon mean for World of Warcraft? - So we're not having a BlizzCon this year again. Not that one wasn't originally planned or at least in the early stages of planning, apparently (you can't cancel something you…
Four Winds: Exploring Swords of Legends Online’s mindblowing world - Have you ever played a game knowing exactly what you're going to get, only for it to impress you because it did exactly that but just did it so well?…
Blizzard has canceled BlizzCon again, will replace it with another online event early in 2022 - Well, this is gonna be a bummer for anyone who was hoping this year's BlizzCon would be a blockbuster to turn the company around: Blizzard just announced that it's canceled…
New World ‘won’t consider selling anything other than cosmetic items until 2022 at the earliest’ - Amazon's New World was the subject of much debate this month when a leaker exposed the state of the game's cash shop in the alpha - including the fact that…
EG7 Q1 2021: The Daybreak MMOs are headed to the 4Game platform - The buyout of Daybreak by Swedish games company Enad Global 7 was one of the biggest MMO stories of 2020, and it's remained a sign of hope from players for…
Vague Patch Notes: Money makes the MMO world go round - I had some thoughts after the most recent bit of news we got from Star Trek Online about how, you know... the game costs money and making it is expensive.…
Ashes of Creation Lead Game Designer Jeffrey Bard leaves to pursue VR development - Out of all of the former SOE and Daybreak developers that have flocked to Intrepid Studios to work on Ashes of Creation, Jeffrey Bard was arguably one of the biggest…
New World offers a guided tour through lush Windsward - Will summer 2021 culminate with one of the biggest MMORPG releases in years? There are great hopes resting on the largely unproven Amazon Game Studios and its flagship New World.…
Ashes of Creation provides a look at early siege area gameplay - Previously, Ashes of Creation had only provided a slice of siege area gameplay, specifically focusing on fighting world boss dragons. Now, the devs of the PvP MMORPG are providing a…
Get pumped for WoW Classic’s Burning Crusade with lore refresh and music video - It's time. Well, it's nearly time. After nearly a decade-and-a-half, The Burning Crusade is coming once more to World of Warcraft -- this time to WoW Classic. And as players…
Blizzard is already cracking down on Diablo II Resurrected modders and hackers - Apparently, Blizzard has decided to crack all the way down on the modding community that's popped up around Diablo II: Resurrected. Following the technical alpha - which, I'll note, we…
The Star Wars Galaxies Restoration III hybrid CU/NGE rogue server launches tonight - We've been updating at the end of this post. The original article follows. It's a happy day for Star Wars fans in the MMO world, as the emulator community is…
Superhero MMO City of Titans teases player housing and team base decorating - If you'd forgotten that City of Titans was planning to offer housing at some point, well, so had I, but we can be forgiven since this game has been in…
Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis releases a character creator and benchmark tool for PC - If you missed out on the recent closed beta test for Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis and are eager to prepare yourself for the game's arrival in June, or…
A Tale in the Desert starts its tenth ‘telling’ since 2003 today - Seasons come and seasons go, and no MMO knows this better than A Tale in the Desert. Ever since the non-combat, crafting-centric game went live in 2003, its creators intended…
Massively Overthinking: How important is gear in your core MMO? - This week's Overthinking comes to us courtesy of a rant on the MMORPG subreddit, which... well don't judge it by the title, OK? Author Galgox argues that gear and gearing…
NCsoft seemingly confirms that Aion Classic is coming to the west - Last fall, NCsoft announced a new classic mode for the Korean Aion servers. It was a huge success that brought the game back from a major slump, as our recent…
The Elder Scrolls Online offers a new unified tutorial experience with Update 30 - The tutorial experience for new characters is changing when The Elder Scrolls Online launches Update 30 for free next week alongside Blackwood, and it's changing for everyone regardless of the most…
Dreamworld actually released an alpha, and it’s exactly as bad as you thought it’d be - So, we're back to Dreamworld again. Regular readers already know that this game has been a wild ride ever since it popped up on Kickstarter. It was pitched as massive,…
Elder Scrolls Online’s in-game lockbox item earning system won’t ship with Blackwood - [AL:ESO]Whether you are for buying Elder Scrolls Online's crown crates or not, you can't deny that there aren't some sweet goodies lurking in those lockboxes. And if your desire to…
Trove is set to launch on Nintendo Switch this summer, having counted 28M lifetime players - Remember back in April, when Gamigo parent group Media Games Invest Group told investors that it'd be launching Trove on the Nintendo Switch later this year? It's officially happening now,…
Classic EverQuest launches a pair of unique progression servers today - Remember way back in April, when Daybreak announced that classic EverQuest was due to get a new progression server? It's still happening. Better yet, it's happening today, and in fact…
Perfect Ten: MMO quests where you literally kill 10 rats - Webster's Dictionary describes "kill 10 rats" as "something nerds do, now shut up and read a few intelligent words." I think the editors are getting a little lazy there at…
Elite Dangerous Odyssey links server woes to Fleet Carriers, promises to improve performance and map out an update plan - Frontier Developments' CEO David Braben has once more taken to the forums of Elite: Dangerous to address the community regarding the ongoing problems with the Odyssey expansion. Braben first opened…
Echtra washes its hands of Torchlight III as the Cursed Captain arrives - What was once a promising next generation of Torchlight in the MMORPG space ended up fizzling so hard that even its developer is getting out of the game. That's right:…
Epic v Apple: Apple’s CEO ‘has a feel’ about App Store profits but no data, closing arguments are made - The Epic vs. Apple antitrust trial has entered its final stretch, closing out with a big moment for Apple's side of the case as CEO Tim Cook took to the…
Riot’s League of Legends MMO: ‘We’re going to make some choices that you may not agree with’ - Let this post be your intermittent reminder that, yes, Riot Games is working on an unnamed and not-quite-officially-announced MMORPG. Of some kind. The project was revealed last December to be…
Star Trek Online concludes its year-long Klingon arc with today’s House United launch on PC - [AL:STO]It's launch day over in Star Trek Online, at least if you're happily ensconced on the PC side of the Trek universe, as PWE and Cryptic have launched the House…
Choose My Adventure: Getting straight through the Riena Strait in MapleStory - I've got to admit, I'm very glad to see this one behind me, and that kind of makes me sad. MapleStory should have had all the elements of something that…
Casually Classic: Ranking WoW Classic’s racial and class mounts - Now that the pre-patch has arrived for WoW Classic's Burning Crusade, leveling characters are enjoying being able to snag a mount at level 30 instead of 40. After all these…
Star Citizen provides a detailed look at the systems that will power AI, dynamic events, and the economy - Fans of Star Citizen got a truly massive info dump thrown on them by way of a recent video from Persistent Universe director Tony Zurovec that's all about the game's…
Not So Massively: Magic Legends has already made big changes, but there’s more to do - Even as someone who enjoys the game, I have to admit that Magic: Legends had a very rough launch, with numerous polish issues and a relative lack of content. Last…
Ashes of Creation’s Steven Sharif: “This industry needs people who take risks” - In a Reddit thread titled "I don't get the hype for Ashes of Creation," the project's own lead came out to attempt to explain the buzz around this upcoming MMORPG.…
Guild Wars 2 repromotes living world season 2 starting today – for free - [AL:GW2]As promised in its summer roadmap, Guild Wars 2 is preparing a slew of events leading up to the big reveal of End of Dragons in July. Up this week…
Star Trek Online staff members explain why ships and boxes get released faster than missions - If you've played Star Trek Online either casually or consistently for a while, you've probably noticed that the game puts out a lot of ships to buy and lockboxes filled with…
Elder Scrolls Online just delayed its ‘Console Enhanced’ update to June 15 - Elder Scrolls Online is about to have a big June: It's launching Blackwood for PC in just a week, then a week later, it was set to roll out the…
Project Gorgon is adding an optional subscription and perks with today’s update - Project Gorgon is much-loved around here, winning best indie MMO several years running thanks to its dogged devotion to being, well, the weirdest and most creative MMO around, with antique…
Wisdom of Nym: Almost losing Soken changed how we’ll see Final Fantasy XIV forever - I'm not over this. I don't know how to be over this. Masayoshi Soken is one of the most talented composers working in this industry. His work on Final Fantasy…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 323: Odyssey, Burning Crusade, and LOTRO
The Stream Week: Slaughter Saturday during the free week of Conan Exiles
The Stream Team: It’s Legion vs. Paladin in AQ3D
The Stream Team: SWTOR’s The Shroud Strikes Back
The Stream Team: Fast and fury-ous leveling in EverQuest II
The Stream Team: Clearing Shadowfen caves in Elder Scrolls 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.
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