I joked on Twitter that it’s not every week when we get to graduate a Kickstarter MMORPG to launch, but it’s also not every week when we have not one but two major MMORPGs launching, and that’s exactly where we are right now with the launch of Crowfall and Swords of Legends Online – the former of which has been long-awaited since its crowdfunding in 2015 and the latter of which has been on western players’ radars only since this past spring. While nobody quite knows where these two games will end up in the genre hierarchy, we’re just glad to get some new blood.
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
Kickstarted MMORPG Crowfall officially launches today - It's been a very long road, but Crowfall is finally launching today. Yes, a crowdfunded MMO with a real launch! MMO readers will recall that we've been covering this game…
Swords of Legends has officially launched today – and it’s already spun up a new server - It came all but out of nowhere this spring, and now it's live in the west: Gameforge's AAA MMORPG import Swords of Legends Online aka SOLO is up, out, and…
Launch impressions: Crowfall won me over, but it’s not for everyone - So Crowfall's beta has finally ended and launch is upon us. As someone who backed the game but has played alphas of many games that never even launched, I only played a…
Four Winds: MassivelyOP’s guide to getting started in Swords of Legends Online - It's a strange trend whenever new MMOs launch that there's a deluge of tutorial videos on a bunch of topics but a shortage of written guides. Sometimes I just need…
WoW Classic shares insights on same-faction battleground testing, plans more tests soon - Last week Blizzard raised more than a couple of eyebrows with its plan to test same-faction battlegrounds in World of Warcraft: Classic. Now that those tests are over, the devs…
World of Warcraft’s finale for the Sanctum of Domination raid reveals a major character’s fate - We try really hard to avoid spoilers here when we're talking about story stuff on Massively Overpowered. It's possible, for example, that you are really excited to see the end…
Crowfall’s community frets over low population, but ArtCraft isn’t panicking - One of the biggest MMO Kickstarters of all time and a long-awaited PvP game launched this past week... but you might not know it if you look around at what…
Elite Dangerous threatens to ban players over toxic behavior toward devs - Elite Dangerous has drawn a line in the sand on toxicity - toxicity against its staff, that is. Frontier's lead community manager, Arthur Tolmie, posted a missive to the forum…
Final Fantasy XIV posts Endwalker benchmark trailer - Let's be realistic: Anyone who can currently run Final Fantasy XIV is probably going to have no problem running Endwalker when it releases in November. The upcoming benchmark for the…
Lawful Neutral: Defining toxicity in the MMO industry - One of my earliest memories from World of Warcraft isn't really a positive one. It was in back in the Wrath days. My guild had just recruited a new member,…
The Game Archaeologist: Why 2008 was one of the wildest years for MMORPGs - In the relatively short history of MMORPGs so far, there have been a few years that I would say were watershed moments for the genres. And while I'm sure we…
‘Non-traditional’ DC Universe Online episode coming next month - When DC Universe Online's next patch arrives in August, don't expect the same-old, same-old. Daybreak is going a bit of a different way with Episode 41: House of Legends, billing…
Massively Overthinking: Which of the summer MMO launches captured your time and attention? - OK folks: We're in the thick of summer now, a summer that's seen an endless parade of MMO launches, mobile ports, expansions, classic servers, console ports, progression servers, major updates,…
First impressions: Monster Hunter Stories 2’s demo raises new multiplayer questions - When Monster Hunter Stories 2 was first announced, I ignored it. The original had no appeal to me whatsoever. I actually felt bad when a friend tried to tell me how excited she…
Vague Patch Notes: Playerbase size doesn’t have to be everything in MMOs - I'm already worried about Crowfall. Not because of personal experiences, mind you; I haven't yet played it or anything, and all I have to go by are Andrew's anecdotal experiences…
Lost Ark unwraps the Warrior as westerners wrangle with the Korean battlepass - The latest Korean patch notes for Lost Ark have dropped, sending hopeful western players into a tizzy. The Korean patch adds a new public prologue and a planned progression revamp,…
Black Desert talks up a rather vague 300% increase in daily players - Fair warning: The information in this article is going to frustrate you. That's because Pearl Abyss has released relative numbers for Black Desert, claiming that daily players have surged by…
Chinese gamers beware: Tencent’s games now tattle on minors using facial recognition - Tencent, the company that owns like half of the world's online titles at this point, is doing the Chinese government a solid by taking up the role of tattle-teller and…
Elyon expands its gear system, fights RMT with new market mechanics - Where would an MMORPG be without a gear system? Lost. Alone. Frightened. Clinging to the side of an iceberg of indifference, adrift in the vast sea of purposelessness. Or it'd…
Fallout 76’s Steel Reign arc and fifth season are live today - It's patch day for folks still marching through the Wasteland, as Fallout 76's Steel Reign, season five, and update 28 have officially launched. "This update brings all-new quests to Fallout…
New World previews its 20v20 PvPvE battleground, Outpost Rush - Ahead of the beta later this month, Amazon has posted a new video on New World's PvP - specifically, on Outpost Rush. This mode is essentially a 20v20 PvPvE battleground,…
Perfect Ten: Worst MMO expansion names of all time - Back when Daybreak announced that EverQuest's 19th expansion would be titled Rain of Fear, I instantly found myself tripping over the name. I shouldn't have -- it's a few simple…
Tamriel Infinium: Companions are the star of Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood - The Elder Scrolls Online continues to pump out content at an alarming rate, but the update that most players look forward to the most every year is the annual zone/story…
Amazon makes its Lumberyard game engine open source, and it’s already supported by 20 companies - Is it possible that Unity and Unreal Engine have a new contender? The potential is there as Amazon has elected to make its Lumberyard 3-D game engine open source. The…
Guild Wars 2 offers Rising Flames for free, previews next week’s legendary armory launch - Guild Wars 2 fans are still reeling from the revelation that End of Dragons has been delayed into next year and that Colin Johanson is back at the creative helm,…
Choose My Adventure: Space combat is yet another vast and interesting layer to Star Wars Galaxies - What even is this game? This is a question I seem to be asking myself a lot as I continue to scrape at the surface of Star Wars Galaxies. I…
Final Fantasy XIV breaks its Steam concurrency record - Odds are pretty good that even if you're a Final Fantasy XIV fan, you don't devote a whole lot of your brainmeat to the game's Steam concurrency record, since the…
LOTRO’s Classic server ‘wouldn’t work’ with current tech, SSG says - Standing Stone Games is probably getting sick of being asked all of the time about a Lord of the Rings Online classic server. Despite the studio not officially taking such…
Wisdom of Nym: What will Final Fantasy XIV add to its tanks? - So we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Endwalker will add new tricks to every job in Final Fantasy XIV. We don't know what just yet, but it's…
Not So Massively: Magic Legends had all the right ideas and all the wrong choices - This is the worst kind of column to write. Not only am I reporting on the closure of a game, but it's a game I enjoyed. I can't pretend to…
U.S. Department of Justice investigates Overwatch League over salary concerns - While Blizzard wants as many eyes as possible on its Overwatch franchise, the studio could probably do without the recent gaze of the U.S. Department of Justice. According to a…
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.
