Aion Classic raised all the eyebrows this week when it launched with a subscription with what is arguably an economic pay-to-win feature baked right into it. It’s not entirely clear what if anything will be done by NCsoft to rectify the situation, but it’s worth reminding game companies that the people who want a return to the old days in classic servers are looking for a return not just to old mechanics but to old monetization. They might be willing to pay a premium and even a subscription, but a wrecked economy from day one isn’t going to ensure goodwill, longevity, or profit.
Meanwhile, we delivered our impressions of Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood, chuckled over World of Warcraft’s survey, cringed at Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance, cheered for Anarchy Online’s 20th birthday, and learned LOTRO’s new progression servers launch next week.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Blizzard surveys World of Warcraft players about their Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker intentions - "A rising tide raises all ships," or so the axiom goes, which is appropriate when one considers how healthy competition is between bigger MMORPGs. And while it's made very clear…
First Impressions: Diving into Oblivion portals with companions in Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood - [AL:ESO]Like clockwork, The Elder Scrolls Online has flung wide the gates of its annual chapter release. This time, in Blackwood, we are headed to southern Cyrodiil, where the remnants of…
Not So Massively: First impressions of Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance - I'll admit I had low expectations for the new co-op action game Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance. The graphics looked a bit dated, and the trailers made it seem a…
Six months later, Sony is finally putting Cyberpunk 2077 back on the PlayStation store - When Cyberpunk 2077 crashed and burned at launch last Christmas, one of the more surprising side-effects was Sony's decision to not just refund purchases but pull the game from the…
WoW Factor: Would you like to take a survey? - All right. Yes, I know that World of Warcraft is finally releasing its first major patch for Shadowlands on June 29th. That's a thing to talk about. That should be…
Aion Classic encourages global first races as players raise fresh pay-to-win alarms - Aion is enjoying a rare moment in the spotlight thanks to yesterday's launch of a legacy mode called Aion Classic. The opening day was what you'd expect: crowds, bugs, excitement,…
NCsoft acknowledges pay-to-win uproar in Aion Classic, doesn’t believe candy is an exploit - Aion's forums are absolutely raging about the Daeva pass and its candy problem afflicting Aion Classic, as we noted yesterday. NCsoft hasn't directly addressed the outcry, but at least one…
Casually Classic: What retail WoW could (re)learn from Burning Crusade Classic’s class progression - Now that we're weeks into Burning Crusade Classic, players are discovering that despite many antiquated design elements, this expansion is still a whole lot of fun with scads of stuff…
New World’s latest alpha update reduces PvP penalties, adjusts experience requirements again - Amazon's New World apparently has a couple more patches in store for alpha players after all. Today's update behind closed doors has several changes small and large, including new PvE…
Xianxia action MMORPG Swords of Legends Online is launching July 9 - We've finally gotten a date for Swords of Legends Online: July 9th. I say this as if it's been a game we've been covering a long time, but in reality,…
Amazon Games responds to complaints that Lost Ark character redesigns are ‘censorship’ - Lost Ark has yet to release here in the west and it's already got its first stupid controversy. When Amazon Games first announced that it was going to publish the…
Aion Classic is officially live in the west- are you playing? Or at least in the queue? - [AL:Aion]Listen, if you're reading this at work, then you're already behind in Aion Classic, I'm sorry to say. That's because after a brief delay, the new version of the old…
The Game Archaeologist: Anarchy Online, from launch to now - July 27th 2001. On this date, Funcom pulled the trigger on Anarchy Online, launching it in North America with a planned release in Europe a couple of months later. [pullquote]Don't miss…
Anarchy Online celebrates 20th birthday with new dev retrospective and video - Last week, we covered some of the initial events Funcom was rolling out for Anarchy Online fans to celebrate its 20th birthday. As of today, the studio has done quite…
The Soapbox: Abusing MMO community reps over design decisions is not only toxic but futile - Recently, an online video game community rep was run off Twitter by "fans." The CM's fellow game dev shared how upset she was that said employee friend had been harassed.…
Massively Overthinking: What class is missing from your favorite MMO? - I've been obsessed with Albion Online the last few weeks - it really feels so much like Ultima Online to me. Ultima Online but better! And yet it's still missing…
Lord of the Rings Online’s two new progression servers launch June 30 - Not even two weeks ago, Standing Stone Games took the wraps off two new progression servers for Lord of the Rings Online, and as of this afternoon, we have a…
Starborne dev announces new sci-fi MMORPG called Starborne Frontiers - MMO players know Starborne: Sovereign Space as a space MMORTS, but if you wanted something more MMORPG-like, then I have good news for you, as Iceland-based indie dev Solid Clouds…
World of Warcraft Senior Artist Eric Braddock leaves Blizzard - The brain drain continues over at Blizzard Entertainment, as World of Warcraft Senior Artist Eric Braddock announced this month that he had left the studio for an unnamed opportunity, one…
Perfect Ten: 10 reasons you’d never want to live in an MMORPG - Escapism and daydreams are, in my opinion, wonderful and part of what fuels our creativity and excitement. I mean, most of us probably engage in some form of escapism just…
You can make your Black Desert Corsair right now (and play her next week) - On this week's podcast, we were discussing how few pirate classes there are in MMORPGs despite pirate NPCs being in pretty much all of them. So a 21-cannon salute to…
$100K Star Citizen whale discusses why he supports the game – and what he’s worried about - For those who orbit Star Citizen news and are aghast at why its business model -- a winner of this site's Worst Business Model award for four years running --…
Blocky sandbox Trove has finally launched on the Nintendo Switch - [AL:Trove]Trove's summer releases just keep rolling: Just a week after dropping the Bard update on PC, now Gamigo's blocky MMORPG has launched on the Nintendo Switch. The game is well-loved…
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has its first major patch, Chains of Domination, available for pre-loading - It feels like it's taken a really, really long time for the first content patch to arrive for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. That would be because it has taken a…
Massively on the Go: Niantic is partially rolling back Pokemon Go’s COVID bonuses - Almost a month ago I argued that Pokemon GO's COVID changes should not be rolled back. I was under no illusions that Niantic would necessarily listen to me as an…
Second Life turns 18 years old this week, counting 70M lifetime accounts - I'm gonna say the M word in this post, and I'm sorry, but metaverse metaverse metaverse. That's because Second Life is back in the news this week, but for happy…
Choose My Adventure: Awestruck by Star Wars Galaxies’ crafting and housing potential - This week has been something of a rollercoaster for me. Of emotions. Of discovery. And, slowly yet surely, of deeper appreciation and enjoyment of Star Wars Galaxies. By the slimmest…
Saga of Lucimia on its comms blackout: ‘We do not have a firm timeline on anything’ - For well over a year now, we have been concerned about the state of Saga of Lucimia's development -- namely, if it's even happening any more at all. Back in…
A slim majority of Acti-Blizz investors approved its ‘say-on-pay’ policy after vote extension - Score another win for the C-suite. As we've been covering, Activision-Blizzard investors purportedly represented by CtW Investment Group had been agitating to vote down the company's "say-on-pay" policy and curb…
EA is testing transparent lockboxes in a FIFA game - Remember two years ago when the ESA announced an optional new policy for the US games industry that would theoretically encourage games companies to catch up with the then-already-present trend…
Wisdom of Nym: Things to do in Final Fantasy XIV while you’re waiting for Endwalker - At the time I am writing this sentence, there are 151 days until Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker kicks off early access. That's not all that many! That's also a very,…
World of Warcraft fan animator releases a video that summarizes the current player experience - Are you ready to have your heart torn out by a cute animation, World of Warcraft fans? That seems to be the wide reaction to a recent video released by…
Obituary: Prominent Secret World Legends community leader HolloPoint - I'm sorry to report some devastating news out of the Secret World Legends community today: Prominent community member Mark "HolloPoint" Innes has apparently passed away. The news comes via his…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
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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