Has World of Warships ever made it into the MMO Week in Review before? We don’t think so, not even that time when Steven Seagal became its spokesman, but it can claim that honor now, just not for great reasons, as this week we reported on a massive monetization dust-up in the community that led dozens of content creators to quit the game.
Meanwhile, Elyon rolled into a fresh beta, Roblox is gross, and WoW’s storyline is still bad. Plus, we checked out Neverwinter’s Jewel of the North, Guild Wars 2’s new elites specs, and Free Guy.
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
The Soapbox: World of Warships’ aggressive monetization incited a mass-exodus of content creators - Gaming monetization has been a topic of intense conversation ever since box copies of software diminished in favor of persistent online experiences. Subscription services entered the scene but presented the…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s new Harbinger, Virtuoso, and Willbender elite specs - One of the most anticipated features of any Guild Wars 2 expansion is unquestionably the addition of new elite specializations. We got our first peek at the first elite spec…
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s burning of Teldrassil plot wrap-up is terrible - Fair warning: This post contains spoilers for the current World of Warcraft plotline for anyone who has not finished up the latest parts of the covenant campaign. If you have…
Opinion: Free Guy is a great watch – particularly for MMO fans - I don't wind up writing a whole lot of movie reviews. This isn't because I don't watch a lot of movies or don't think about movies a lot, but just…
First impressions: Exploring Neverwinter’s leveling revamp and bard class - It's funny: The last time I paid a visit to Neverwinter, it was to check out a revamp of the new player experience. Here we are again, with a much…
WildStar’s Stephan Frost shares the depressing ‘flat circle’ of MMO development - Former WildStar lead Stephan Frost piped up on Twitter this past Friday to share a story. This isn't just any story, but rather all stories of MMORPG development, from concept…
LOTRO Legendarium: Why Lord of the Rings Online is worth playing in 2021 - It has come to my attention that there are more MMO nomads than normal this summer who are casting about for a new game world to call "home." With so…
Roblox’s shameless exploitation of child labor is why we can’t have nice things - I didn't think I'd be back so soon writing "Roblox" and "this is why we can't have nice things" in the same post two days in a row, but here…
Perfect Ten: My top 10 MMO pet peeves - In general, I try to be an optimistic fellow. When it comes to MMO gaming -- you know, that hobby we apparently love and enjoy -- I'd rather look on…
CODEX, an MMO based on the Shards engine, launches early access today after a brief delay - Just last week we first reported on CODEX, a project that licensed Legends of Aria's Shards Engine for the purpose of creating an MMO. This title's hook is that players…
World of Warcraft reverses course on player customization and promises more - Back in February, Blizzard reversed its stance on player customization options for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Originally, players had been told that further customization options for the various races would…
Roblox sees net losses for Q2 2021, struggles with toxic player-generated content - We've got a bunch of Roblox news on deck today. First, there's the Q2 2021 investor report. Readers will remember that in Q1, the company behind the game had just…
SOE’s Jeff Butler gives an epic three-hour interview on EverQuest, Vanguard, and EverQuest Next - If you're going to interview one of the most notable names behind EverQuest and Vanguard, it helps if you also worked at SOE back in the day. Therefore, it's great…
Wisdom of Nym: What will Final Fantasy XIV add to its healers in Endwalker? - Here's an interesting facet to consider: Unlike most of the other entries in this Wisdom of Nym series about Endwalker speculation, this one isn't relying on the benchmark trailer, as…
Pokemon Go’s New Zealand rollbacks show Niantic is more concerned with local law than actual safety - Good news: New Zealanders have had their Pokemon Go PokeStop and Gym radius restored to 80 meters, exactly what the community has been asking for in its demands for the…
NCsoft says Lineage W will launch this year for PC, mobile, PS5, and the Switch - Last week, we covered NCsoft's initial reveal of Lineage W, yet another entry in the long-running Lineage franchise. Lineage W, however, was initially pitched as a mobile MMO, which didn't…
EverQuest designer’s throwback MMO rebrands as Monsters & Memories - You may recall that earlier this year we reported that former EverQuest and DCUO developer Shawn Lord was working on a "throwback" MMO, which was operating under the codename of…
Playable Worlds’ lead designer: ‘We’re in the game industry because we love games’ - Earlier this month, Playable Worlds' Greg Costikyan, the lead designer for Raph Koster's upcoming unnamed sandbox MMORPG, opened up about the way games get made. (In fact, if you're a…
EVE Online’s July economic report may have unveiled the number of active subscribers - EVE Online has kicked out its monthly econ report for July, which has plenty to snare the interest of the industrious Capsuleer, but it's a particular section of the report…
Among Us developer Innersloth raises eyebrows at Fortnite’s Impostors mode and its striking similarities - While we cast our own shade in the direction of Fortnite and the recently introduced Impostors mode, with its barely veiled copycatting of Among Us, the mode's striking similarities to…
Swords of Legends Online asks you to become an unpaid QA tester - It's so hard not to throw shade at MMO studios that try to outsource paid positions to players -- or even worse, to charge them for the "privilege" of testing…
Bless Unleashed PC says it’s cracking down on illicit RMT with 30-day bans - Bless Unleashed is riding the high of its PC launch, which yesterday reported over a million downloads since the release. But now, Round 8 Studio is turning back to the…
Choose My Adventure: Back to the basic joys of dungeon running in Trove - This is way more like it. [AL:Trove]The bare bones, basic, simple delight of Trove continues to be running around the open world, heading to whatever little dungeons are sprinkled around…
MUD creator Richard Bartle’s seminal book on designing MMOs is now free - When MMORPG players encounter the name "Bartle," they think less malt liquor and more a man who helped to pioneer the massively multiplayer online space with his work on MUD1…
Cloud Imperium says ‘there’s NO place for racism in the Star Citizen community’ - Several members of the Star Citizen community messed around and found out. The story begins with a plea to CIG to introduce a profanity filter to the game's general chat…
Aika Online announces a September 15 sunset date - In this latest episode of "I didn't even realize that game was still running," Aika Online is finally closing its doors after over a dozen years of operation. Publisher T3Fun…
World of Warships studio Wargaming addresses row that led to influencer exodus - Yesterday, MOP's Ben Griggs deep-dived a shocking development in the World of Warships community: As many as 22 content creators had abruptly quit Wargaming's program, denouncing the studio for everything…
Bless Unleashed PC counts a million downloads on PC since its Steam launch - So, how is Bless Unleashed doing since its PC launch earlier this month? Well, apparently, as it's now claiming 1M downloads on PC alone. "Neowiz and Round8 Studio are thrilled…
Elyon outlines equipment and gear enhancement, opens pre-download for CBT2 - The video series all about the systems in Elyon continue with a look at equipment and enhancement. Equipment comes in one of five tiers from common to legendary, and each…
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.
