This week, BioWare disappointed a whole bunch of folks, including us since we were hoping to give it an award this month, by delaying Star Wars The Old Republic’s impending Legacy of the Sith expansion a full two months without much of an explanation.
Meanwhile, Lost Ark picked February 11th for its launchy date, we learned about a new pseudo-MMO called Nightingale and a new Warhammer MMO, and offered our initial impressions of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. Also, Activision-Blizzard is still on fire; workers are trying to unionize, and corporate execs have gone pure movie-villain trying to stop them.
Finally, we started our annual rollout of awards, kicking off the series with our picks for Most Underrated, Best Rogue Server, and Best PvP MMO. 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
Activision-Blizzard execs attempt to ward off incipient workers union - With Activision-Blizzard workers organizing, striking, fundraising, and working toward unionization and ATVI stock falling 40% following what has now been five months of scandal over the company's culture of sexual…
Activision-Blizzard fields new accusations as workers strike, fundraise, and issue union cards - The thumbscrews around Activision-Blizzard and Bobby Kotick tightened that much more yesterday when a current employee of the company, identified only as Christine, held a press conference with her lawyer…
BioWare has delayed SWTOR’s Legacy of the Sith expansion to February 15 - Bad news for fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic: BioWare is delaying the Legacy of the Sith expansion two full months to February 15th, 2022. [AL:TOR]"Like many of you…
First Impressions: Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker is a satisfying ending to a decade-long story - So here we are, at the end of the story. Final Fantasy XIV has been weaving a narrative now for a very long time, and Endwalker is the expansion that's meant…
Nexon is apparently working on a new Warhammer Age of Sigmar MMO - Nexon and Games Workshop are teaming up for a new Warhammer MMO, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, according to a joint press release issued by the companies this morning. We don't…
The Game Awards 2021: Lost Ark launches February 11, Nightingale is a new multiplayer survivalbox - (We're updating at the end with all the big news!) Geoff Keighley's Game Awards are getting bigger and more star-studded by the year, and that only increases the likelihood of…
Elder Scrolls Online looks ahead to quarterly content cadence in 2022, laments extended datacenter hardware refreshes - ZeniMax Online Studios' Matt Firor penned a letter to The Elder Scrolls Online community last night, checking in on the state of the game, the team, and the future of…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best MMO PvP - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO PvP of 2021, which is an old award we haven't given since 2017, when we…
The Game Archaeologist: Hero101, the lost KingsIsle superhero MMO - You do get the sense that KingsIsle once had very grand plans for what is called its "101 Universe." After Wizard101 came out to great acclaim in 2008, a flurry…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best MMO Rogue Server - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO Rogue Server of 2021, which is actually one of our new awards this year; readers…
Corepunk’s latest progress report video admits that beta testing will not happen this year - We're not near "Whatever Happened To" levels of silence with Corepunk, the multiplayer ARPG from developer Artificial Core, but we have had a lull in communication from the devs beyond…
Working As Intended: The hits and misses of MassivelyOP’s 2021 predictions - Last year's MMORPG predictions didn't exactly go to plan, since in 2019, we weren't really expecting 2020 to play out the way it did. But at the end of 2020,…
DC Universe Online’s Episode 42 Legion of Doom and winter events have arrived - DC Universe Online players, your doom is upon you - Legion of Doom, that is, as Episode 42 is live and free for everyone. Expect the new Doomed Washington D.C.…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Most Underrated MMO - Welcome once again to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Every year, we poll our writers on the best and worst MMOs, stories, studios, and trends and assign awards to the…
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are so stupid and I love them - It's well past time for me to get something off my chest. MMOs are dumb. MMOs are full of weird stuff. This genre is weird and off-putting and full of weird…
Raph Koster and Playable Worlds won’t announce their MMO until next year - While legendary MMO developer Raph Koster hasn't held back from writing essay after essay about game theory this year, the one thing he hasn't spilled yet are the details about…
Gamigo starts a countdown for its mystery MMO, but we still don’t know whether it’s Fractured - Gamigo is less than a week away from officially revealing its next big MMORPG, but that doesn't mean that the community can't figure out what it is beforehand. The company…
Massively Overthinking: The best and worst MMO developer quotes of 2021 - One of my favorite traditions every year is to put a spotlight back on some of the wild things MMORPG developers said every year. OK, the clever things and the…
Survival strategy MMO Myth of Empires is delisted on Steam over copyright infringement allegations - At the end of November we cast a spotlight on the recent Steam early access launch of the game Myth of Empires, a combination real-time strategy and survival sandbox MMO…
ArcheAge pushes back its land rush to December 18th and delays today’s patch ‘until further notice’ - It would appear that ArcheAge is running into problems enough that updates and events are being pushed back by Kakao. The first major event being postponed is the land rush,…
End-of-year Eleven: The healthiest live MMOs at the end of 2021 - Healthy MMOs are a good thing. They have smooth, glossy coats, strong teeth capable of snapping bone, a full-throated call, and it just occurs to me now that I am…
World of Warcraft introduces its community council forums - So remember when Blizzard announced that it was starting a community council for World of Warcraft that would hand-picked by Blizzard directly to represent community feedback? The short version is…
Lord of the Rings Online pushes out a huge bundle of Gundabad changes, promises new Yule rewards - We've got a whole buffet of Lord of the Rings Online news today, so let's pig out! Our main entrée is the release of Update 31.1, which contains a slew…
From the Depths: Seven tips to improve your World of Warships experience - [AL:WoWS]It’s no secret that World of Warships has had a rough year thanks to dodgy monetization mechanics and Wargaming’s treatment of employees and players. But the game itself is undeniably…
EverQuest’s 28th expansion, Terror of Luclin, is live - Sorry, we're still trying to wrap our heads around the thought of an MMORPG having 28 expansions under its belt. Whether or not we believe it, the fact is that…
World of Warcraft releases a new Sylvanas cinematic ahead of patch 9.2 - Well, here we are with the first cinematic of World of Warcraft's patch 9.2, and... uh... well, let's start by saying that it's about Sylvanas. And yes, it's about the…
Whatever happened to woodpunk survival MMO Last Oasis? - Welcome to another edition of "Whatever happened to," a series where we touch base with games that have gone silent or dropped off our radar. Today, let's see what's going…
Ubisoft made good on its NFT scheme promise with ‘Ubisoft Quartz’ - File this one under "who asked for this": Ubisoft is going all in on the crypto dystopia with a new NFT-driven implementation in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. "Ubisoft Quartz is a…
Choose My Adventure: Grim Dawn starts off as grim as its name suggests - So, apparently, I was being hung to strangle out a demon. But I got better. This is the opening section of Grim Dawn, and boy howdy is that the most…
Warframe of Mind: The New War demo highlights story, playable NPCs, Caliban frame, and Harrow Prime - The New War is almost upon us: After a long wait - and we do mean long, as Tenno have been looking forward to The New War since it was…
New World responds to endgame gear concerns: ‘It is now clear we were wrong’ - New World has a big endgame problem -- and it's not been helped by Amazon throwing flaming logs of change onto the already burning pile. This past week, players learned…
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker officially launches today – how about some pizza? - Should we lose our way, tire of all this pain We won't be afraid to forge ahead. Yes, it's the launch day for Final Fantasy XIV's fourth expansion, Endwalker, marking…
Vitae Aeternum: New World’s travel problem is also a storage problem - Today, I'd like to discuss the recent change that increased the experience needed to level crafting in New World: It's terrible, and it should be reversed. In fact, leveling crafting…
Crowfall’s CM: ‘If the game [were] going to shut down, we’d let you know’ - It's no secret that Crowfall didn't exactly have the launch year that it wanted, with a subdued launch, subsequent layoffs, and low player counts (which the studio tried to hide)…
Wisdom of Nym: Initial impressions from Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker early access - All right. So technically it's a little early to talk about Endwalker's early access period in its totality because by my math early access ends today and there's still a…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 350: The start of Endwalker
Battle Bards Episode 206: Warping back to WildStar
The Stream Team: Celebrating Neverwinter’s Echoes of Prophecy with a giveaway
The Stream Team: Digging for the truth of the Dwarves’ demise in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Infiltrating SWTOR’s Dread Guard Sanctum
The Stream Team: Connecting with companions 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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