The final week of 2021 didn’t really slow down at all, and the new year was kicked off by the collective industry groan at Square-Enix and Roblox.
Meanwhile, we finished off our formal end-of-the-year awards, delivering MMO of the Year to FFXIV and New World, Best Expansion to FFXIV Endwalker, Most Anticipated to Palia and Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons, and Stormiest Future to Blizzard and WoW. We also delivered our Golden Yachties awards, resolutions, and the finale to our 2021 MMO news recap.
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
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: MMORPG of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the MMORPG the Year, which was awarded to Final Fantasy XIV last year. Longtime readers will recall that way back…
Square Enix president lauds blockchain for play-to-earn and ‘self-sustaining game growth’ potential - If you've been anywhere near gaming social media or news feeds, you've no doubt been exposed to the loud, trumpety fart of a letter from Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda…
Fight or Kite: Was 2021 the death of large-scale group PvP MMOs? - Here we are on the cusp of the end to another year: 2021 is almost completely in the rear-view mirror. As I look back on the year, I can’t help…
Into the Super-verse: A look back at superhero MMOs in 2021 - Superhero fans were not lacking in news, games, and events this past year, and there's always the promise of much more to come in 2022. But before we jump to…
Wisdom of Nym: Thoughts on the first wing of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker’s Pandæmonium - All right, I realize this is the sort of thing that's going to bother very few people, but it bothers me that Final Fantasy XIV decided to name this particular…
Goodbye to all the reasons we can’t have nice things in MMOs, 2021 edition - Years ago, we started binning all our positive stories under the "warm fuzzies" tag and our uggggg stories under "this is why we can't have nice things." The latter one…
Massively OP’s 2021 MMO Lifetime Achievement Award - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! You thought we were done, but surprise: We have one more. Over the course of our awards discussions this year, MOP's Ben…
Paris Hilton opens a ‘metaverse business’ in Roblox that will host a virtual DJ set on New Year’s Eve - If earlier news about Roblox hasn't already made your soul leave your body, then consider this one the coup de grâce: Reality TV "star" Paris Hilton is launching what's being…
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the brightest future in 2022? - In years past, we've run a "most innovative" and "most potential" award, but today, I want to focus on the "most potential" part because let's be real: Most MMORPGs do…
Massively Overthinking: Our 2022 MMO resolutions - Even if you're the kind of person who is deeply opposed to the idea of resolutions - or your typical resolution fizzles out by February - this week is nevertheless…
Massively on the Go: How to fix Pokemon Go’s longstanding player safety failures - [pullquote]This article is part four of a four-piece series on safety in Pokemon Go as well as other Niantic games. You can read all four pieces right here.[/pullquote]I've talked at…
Albion Online recaps its huge 2021, mobile launch, and massive population spike - Albion Online is a sandbox MMORPG that has, let's be honest, done rather well for itself all things considered. If you don't believe that fact, why not take a look…
SWG Legends rogue server added 15K new players in 2021, plans Bespin apartments for early 2022 - So here's something I've never seen an MMO dev do before: The player-led Star Wars Galaxies rogue server known as SWG Legends just released player data for every single event…
Wizardry Online makes a comeback as a rogue server - Those with good memories and perhaps a bit of personal experience might remember that for a hot minute back in 2013 and 2014, SOE published a unique MMO called Wizardry…
Roblox’s CEO has apparently dodged millions in taxes using a ‘small business’ exemption loophole - In case you somehow still thought Roblox was one of the good ones after all those pieces about its exploitation of child labor, or perhaps if you thought maybe the…
MassivelyOP’s 2021 Golden Yachties: Best worst post - MassivelyOP's not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards continue today with our pick for best worst post. (If you’re wondering what the heck a Golden Yachtie is, you can get caught up with the…
Steam’s annual best-sellers and most played roundup features several MMOs, MMORPGs, and multiplayer titles - As the new year inches closer to our proverbial doorstep, the gaming world takes a moment to look back at past events (ourselves included). Valve is doing the same thing…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go actually nerfed its own support rather than help players - [pullquote]This article is part three of a four-piece series on safety in Pokemon Go as well as other Niantic games. You can read all four pieces right here.[/pullquote]In the first…
Bless Unleashed’s content roadmap will be impacted by its sudden publisher change - Yesterday, we covered the distressing news that Neowiz and Round8Studio have apparently begun disentangling themselves from Bless Unleashed's PC version, turning that version of Bless over to publisher Valofe, which…
End-of-year Eleven: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures going into 2022 - All right, so let's start with the disclaimer that I put right at the start of this article every single year, which at least one fanboy ignores every single year…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Most Anticipated MMO - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Most Anticipated MMO, which was awarded jointly to New World and Crimson Desert last year. As has…
New World continues to work on regional transfers, makes Steam’s top-selling list - Months after New World's launch, Amazon is still struggling to solve the issue of cross-region server transfers. The studio's been talking about it for a while now, saying back in…
Star Citizen fans call out several promised features that were cut from alpha 3.16 - While the recently released alpha 3.16 of Star Citizen has its fair share of things to do, fans of the game are calling attention to the fact that many more…
Elyon plans to merge NA and EU servers into a single server for each region in February - Elyon is giving its players plenty of advance notice of some upcoming server merge plans as the devs seek to bring all current EU and NA servers into a single…
Choose My Adventure: All the MMOs you made us play in 2021 - It’s been quite a year of Choose My Adventure columns, hasn’t it? We did a pretty good random skip around of different games, in my opinion, and as is tradition…
Massively on the Go: How Pokemon Go support fails MMOARG stalking victims - [pullquote]This article is part two of a four-piece series on safety in Pokemon Go as well as other Niantic games. You can read all four pieces right here.[/pullquote]In the first…
Pirates of the Burning Sea teases ‘legacy’ edition coming soon - Arr, there be some life left in Pirates of the Burning Sea's sails, after all! Shortly before the dev team broke for the holidays, it teased an image on Twitter…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: MMO Expansion of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the MMO Expansion or Update of the Year, which was awarded to World of Warcraft's Shadowlands last year. Every…
Riot Games will settle sexual discrimination lawsuit for $100M and then some - We’ve been poking at the dumpster fire inside League of Legends company Riot Games ever since 2018, when Kotaku’s expose of workplace conditions was followed by an employee walkout, multiple…
Neowiz will transfer service and development of Bless Unleashed PC over to Valofe on January 26 - It appears that publisher and developer Neowiz is going to be passing the Bless Unleashed PC torch. The studio announced on the game's Steam page that transfer of the game's…
Harry Potter MMO ‘almost happened’ before EA scrapped it - There's a whole raft of "could've been" MMORPG projects that litter the past couple of decades, titles that went through some development but ultimately were not pushed live. One of…
Embers Adrift discusses the MMORPG’s vision, announces a new trailer and gameplay preview for January - Embers Adrift, formerly the sandbox MMORPG Saga of Lucimia, is basically being forced to reintroduce itself following the departure of the game's founders earlier this year. That's effectively the goal…
Massively on the Go: How Niantic evades handling stalking and harassment in Pokemon Go and other ARGs - [pullquote]This article is part one of a four-piece series on safety in Pokemon Go as well as other Niantic games. You can read all four pieces right here.[/pullquote]Shortly before Pokemon GO was…
Star Citizen fans complain about Luminalia ‘gift advertisements’, ship pricing, and Legatus pack price hike - CIG has found ways to get money out of the backers of Star Citizen enough times that it's earned the dubious honor of being a practical annual shoe-in for our…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: MMO with the Stormiest Future - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the MMO (or Studio) with the Stormiest Future, which was awarded to Camelot Unchained last year. Years ago,…
LGBTQIA New World player is temporarily banned from the game due to a ‘homophobic mass report’ - We've got another report of players behaving poorly and abusing an otherwise benign system to malicious effect. Isacoh, a LGBTQIA streamer of games including New World, reported over the past…
Ashes of Creation is getting a visual upgrade by way of Unreal Engine 5 integration - Unreal Engine 5 is more than just a fancy way to advertise the newest Matrix movie; it's also meant to power the creation of the next batch of games, and…
Steam’s global version appears to have been blocked in China - It would seem that the Chinese government's continued efforts to bring the games industry to heel has extended to the global version of the Steam storefront, assuming the latest news…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 353: Mailbag diving, part 2
The Stream Team: Finishing 2021 off right in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Wandering Neverwinter’s Winter Festival of Simril
The Stream Team: Yule join us for Lord of the Rings Online’s Frostbluff festivities, yes?
The Stream Team: Celebrating a late Starlight in Final Fantasy XIV
The Stream Team: Going for Guild Wars 2 Wintersday achievements
The Stream Team: Deepice differences in this year’s EverQuest II Frostfell
The Stream Team: Preparing for Warframe’s The New War
The Stream Team: A Vulcan visit to Q’s Winter Wonderland in Star Trek 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.
