It might be hard to believe – or maybe it’s just hard for me since time stopped two years ago and everything is weird now – but the whole “Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard” thing happened only last week. Less than a week ago. See? Time is weird. Anyway. That happened. It’s kind of bonkers, and no, we’re not rid of Bobby K just yet. And some folks inside one of Activision’s other studios are unionizing!
Meanwhile, we got a peek into Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons, Gamigo’s up to some stuff, and Daybreak is mustering its forces for a big 2022 for EverQuest and EverQuest II. Monster Hunter Rise is pretty great on PC too!
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
Microsoft is acquiring Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick is still CEO - Welp, apparently the Activision-Blizzard hot potato is hopping to a new owner: Microsoft just announced that it's acquiring the beleaguered gaming corporation. "With three billion people actively playing games today…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Touring Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons guild hall, Echovald Wilds, and strike mission - With Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons expansion set to launch some time in February and the beginning of that month looming on the horizon, excitement from the Guild Wars…
LOTRO Legendarium: It’s time to revisit skirmishes in Lord of the Rings Online - Ever since 2009, I've loved skirmishes in Lord of the Rings Online. These were a new type of instance that rose to prominence in the Mines of Moria and Siege…
Perfect Ten: Bad takes about Microsoft buying Activision-Blizzard and why they’re wrong - Sigh. So today's column is one that I really didn't have an urgent desire to write, but then we started talking about the various bad takes we've seen floating around…
Activision-Blizzard’s Raven Software is formally unionizing - Perhaps ignoring and gaslighting the strikers wasn't the best move for Activision after all: WAPO reports that "over 30" QA testers at Activision's Raven Software have officially submitted a request…
Vague Patch Notes: Unpacking the Riot MMO’s group-centric philosophy - Well! It has been a week, that's for darn sure. And amidst everything else going on this particular week, it would've been easy to miss the time when Greg "Ghostcrawler"…
Lord of the Rings Online plans to make class, race, and virtue trait slots unlock by leveling in next update - The Bullroarer test server of Lord of the Rings Online has put Update 32 out for public testing, and one part of the update in particular brings very good news…
WoW Factor: Some thoughts on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision-Blizzard - At this point, keeping up with what's going on with Activision-Blizzard is far more of an involved project than keeping up with World of Warcraft itself. This is, perhaps unsurprisingly,…
Diablo II Resurrected’s game-changing Patch 2.4 hits the test server on January 25 - It does seem a little surreal that Diablo II has returned to such prominence and favor in Blizzard while Diablo III sits neglected and abandoned for a much older version…
Hellbugs and love hugs keep RIFT’s community busy - As the long-suffering RIFT community waits to see what may happen to their MMO, they have a couple of distractions to keep them busy during these winter months. [AL:Rift]First up…
New World tries to sell endgame players on expedition mutators - With an ever-increasing number of players in New World reaching the level cap, Amazon's come under pressure to provide meaty endgame content to keep this crowd occupied. The current major…
Massively on the Go: Orna’s a definitive MMOARG – but it keeps you at home - Twice now I have suggested a theoretical Earthbound ARG, and a central idea of such a game would be having a chosen safe spot for each player to "live," play, and…
Massively Overthinking: Do cross-IP collabs and promos in MMOs bother you? - Transmedia synergy. Let's just lead with that. We have a long tradition around here of teasing MMOs for jamming in these weird promotions with things that have nothing to do…
Sony believes Microsoft will ‘continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform’ - While most MMORPG players are watching this week's pending sale of Activision-Blizzard to Microsoft because of the MMORPGs, people outside the World of Warcraft interest bubble are watching the impact…
Leaderboard: What types of items do you buy in MMO cash shops? - Over the weekend, I used up some of the currency sitting on my Lord of the Rings Online account, and I want to talk about this. While LOTRO's cash shop…
New World interview: Mutators, the midgame, the level 30 wall, and more - Amazon dropped a positively massive video for New World this week, going in-depth on the January update and peeking ahead into what players can expect in February too. Ahead of…
Blizzard addresses regaining player trust as Kotick’s all-hands meeting leaves workers unsettled - Earlier this evening, Blizzard's Mike Ybarra posted a public message to the company's players. Ybarra, of course, was appointed co-lead of Blizzard Entertainment following the ouster of J. Allen Brack…
Gamigo launches a new department and plans new acquisitions to increase its publishing efforts - It would seem that Gamigo is intent on making the publishing arm of its business that much stronger in 2022. The company, which already publishes MMORPGs like Trove, RIFT, and…
GDC’s State of the Game Industry: NFTs, the metaverse, and more than half of game devs want to unionize - Ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference, GDC organizers poll industry workers and release it all in a state-of-the-industry wrapper, which has landed in our inboxes today. A few notable…
Blade and Soul adds the new Soul Fighter spec and celebrates six years in the Soul Resurgence update - Blade and Soul is six years old and it's celebrating by letting Soul Fighters slap enemies at mid-range with glowing hands of divinity. This week saw the Soul Resurgence update…
Pantheon’s January newsletter talks ‘increasing awareness’ – and increasing staff, too - Pantheon's Visionary Realms is back with a new producer's letter to cap off January, and this one heralds a fresh outlook for 2022 as the game continues to march toward…
Reddit’s co-founder thinks crypto gaming and players ‘being properly valued’ for game time will be the norm in five years - Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, has peered into his crystal ball to look at the future of gaming, and that future sounds like white-hot garbage. Ohanian was a guest…
EverQuest II plots GU 199, GU 120, and a December expansion for 2022 - Classic EverQuest wasn't the only Daybreak game to get a roadmap yesterday: EverQuest II's roadmap for 2022 is just as rare and just as meaty. Most notably, EQII players can…
Classic EverQuest’s 2022 roadmap includes an expansion, community council, and new progression servers - It might be hard to believe, but Classic EverQuest is still among Daybreak's biggest games, and it's turning 23 years old in just a few short months. And yesterday, dropped…
Nightingale was originally an MMO but scaled back to become more intimate - Those hungry for details about the Victorian-themed survival game Nightingale would do well to read a new interview with Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn over at IGN. In the piece, Flynn…
Activision-Blizzard submits useless Microsoft buyout FAQ for employees - We sure hope you're not tired of hearing about Activision-Blizzard and its labor messes, discrimination and harassment scandal, and pending sale to Microsoft - because there's always more. First, yesterday…
Guild Wars 2 helps tide you over to the expansion with Lunar New Year 2022 - Kind of bummed that new year is over? Reluctant to take down the streamers, shiny balloons, and champagne? Desperate to hold on to the holiday season at any cost? [AL:GW2]Then…
First Impressions: Monster Hunter Rise on PC enhances an already excellent stew - I’m not here to tell you that Monster Hunter Rise on PC is somehow a different game. It’s a port; you already can guess that from a gameplay standpoint there’s…
Acti-Blizz buyout, day two: Labor, stock, Kotick, and the reasons behind the sale - The news has been flying fast and furious over the last 24 hours since Microsoft announced it was buying Activision-Blizzard for just under $70B. Here's where we stand since then.…
Webzen is closing down five-year-old Mu Origin in the west - Mu Origin is apparently en route to shutdown here in the west. "It has been over 5 years that we have traveled the MU continent with you. We are truly…
Not So Massively: Making the case for Dungeon Siege IV - Dungeon Siege is not the biggest name in ARPG field, but the franchise has always been dear to my heart. It's now been more than 10 years since the release…
Riot confirms Runeterra MMO’s group-centered design philosophy - While Riot Games' in-development Runeterra MMO still hasn't publicized anything that resembles gameplay, release plans, or even testing plans, what it does have is vision. Executive Producer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV and the ongoing balance pass - So how's your job doing in Final Fantasy XIV right now? Mine are a mixed bag, and I know I'm not alone in this regard. Over in the tank side…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 356: A long time from now in a galaxy far, far away
The Stream Team: Celebrating Halloween in January in Final Fantasy XIV
The Stream Team: Tracking down the Rakghoul SWTOR flashpoint
The Stream Team: Gutting Glacio and a chorus of singing space snails in Astroneer
The Stream Team: Sweeping through AQ3D side quests
The Stream Team: Recovering books from Dungeons & Dragons Online’s haunted mansion
The Stream Team: Undead Pygmie payback in EverQuest II
The Stream Team: Making moves against the mastermind 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.
