MMO Week in Review: Spreadsheets in diversity space

Activision-Blizzard proved we really need a stronger term for “self-own” and “own-goal” in the English language as this week it attempted to demonstrate its commitment to diversity by revealing a creepy and dehumanizing “diversity space tool” that purports to turn real-world traits like age and ethnicity into quantitative scores to supposedly measure diversity in its games. The gaming public was not amused, and the company scurried to scrub much of the original announcement from the internet.

Meanwhile, we kept an eye on EVE Online’s growing Fanfest COVID outbreak, Lost Ark admitted it’s dealing with “millions” of bots, Star Trek Online launched Stormfall, Path of Exile released Sentinel, LOTRO’s Discord server was upended, and FFXIV finally cracked down on blatant third-party mod users.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Activision-Blizzard creeps out the internet with its ‘Diversity Space Tool’ as union-busting continues - Friday afternoon, Activision-Blizzard proudly trotted out a dev blog talking up the creation of a "Diversity Space Tool" that the company has apparently been developing since 2016, described by King…

EVE Fanfest 2022: CCP delivered free food to EVE Online players waylaid by the Fanfest COVID outbreak - It's been over a week since EVE Online players from around the world met up in Reyjkavik, Iceland, for EVE Fanfest 2022, the first official in-person EVE event since 2019.…

Lost Ark admits it’s been ‘fighting a war against bots’ since launch, banning millions of accounts - Have you spotted a bot or two in Lost Ark over the past few months? If so, you're definitely not alone. Amazon admitted on Friday evening that its MMOARPG has…

Star Trek Online’s Stormfall brings two new featured episodes to PC players today - As promised, Star Trek Online's Stormfall is blanketing MMO players today as the latest Mirror Universe release drops on PC. The update features a huge roster of famous Star Trek…

You can begin patching for Path of Exile’s Sentinel launch… now [Update: It’s live!] - Happy Sentinel day! Grinding Gear Games is rolling out Path of Exile's Sentinel expansion and league today as planned, so we hope you've got your weekend squared away! If not,…

Storyboard: The fatal flaw of overreaching villain plans in MMOs plotlines - So the other day, a friend and I were talking about villainous schemes in MMO storylines. Specifically, we were talking about why World of Warcraft's whole thing with the Jailer…

Lost Ark KR’s director is reportedly stepping down because of health concerns - According to myriad unofficial reports from fans across Lost Ark's official forums and subreddit, the director for the Korean version of the game, Keum Kang Seong Hyung aka Gold River,…

World of Warcraft is testing a ‘social contract’ for its players in 9.2.5 - "For the love of the Titans, please be a decent person to your fellow players." That is not what the new social contract in World of Warcraft says verbatim on…

Final Fantasy XIV is finishing its housing bug corrections on May 16 - As promised, so it has come to pass; a new letter from Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that the housing issues which caused the first…

Massively Overthinking: If you could change one thing about an MMO… - Back in April, MOP's Colin posed us an interesting challenge on the MOP Podcast: change one thing about an MMO you don't like that would make it a game you…

Bethsoft has delayed its co-op shooter Redfall to next year – along with Starfield - Blink and you probably missed it: Bethesda Softworks dropped some bad news on Twitter this morning, delaying two of its upcoming AAA games into 2023: Starfield and Redfall. Starfield, of…

WAPO calls out gaming industry for lack of support for reproductive health as workers strike - The Washington Post has a new article out this week ripping into the gaming industry for its "silence" on the likely overturn of Roe v. Wade, a long-standing precedent with…

WoW Factor: Excitement and trepidation about World of Warcraft bringing back talent trees - So you probably don't need me to tell you at this point that I'm looking forward to having talent trees back in World of Warcraft, if for no other reason…

Legends of Aria’s new owner begins testing NFT system even as crypto crashes globally - Considering how badly crypto currencies and NFTs are crashing all over the globe this week, you would think that game studios would be running in the complete opposite direction, right?…

An untitled prequel novel for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has surfaced on Amazon - One of the things that was conspicuously missing from World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's initial announcement was the concurrent announcement of anything that might be construed as a release date. That…

Ubisoft 2022 financials: Skull & Bones will finally set sail by early next year - It's not every quarter that Ubisoft's financials merit a post or even a mention, but the company has been a low-key mess for the last year or two, first with…

Whatever happened to Square-Enix’s Babylon’s Fall? - When we first tried out Babylon's Fall in beta, we said it was a decent enough starting point that needed some launch polish. Spoiler warning: That didn't happen. Not that…

Perfect Ten: The many-colored dragon rainbow of the MMO sphere - Dragons are ubiquitous. When I wrote a Perfect Ten describing every single MMO bestiary, I noted that no matter what game you're playing, no matter the setting, you were eventually going…

Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd joins The Elder Scrolls Online cast for High Isle - Iconic actor Billy Boyd is slated to join the cast of The Elder Scrolls Online in the upcoming High Isle chapter. Boyd is a film actor and singer/songwriter best known…

Final Fantasy XIV finally issues bans to some streamers over addons - So it's only been a couple days since Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida once more asked the community to avoid using third-party tools, which are against the game's terms of…

Elite Dangerous will grant console players a free PC copy of the game as it tries to allay content drought concerns - If the future of Elite: Dangerous feels grim in the face of canned console development, a shaky communications cadence, and a threadbare-looking 2022 roadmap, perhaps fans can be convinced otherwise…

Open-source MMORPG sandbox Ryzom has lowered its subscription price – again - This spring, at least two major MMORPGs, RuneScape and EVE Online, made the bold move to increase their subscription rates as their playerbases grumbled. Ryzom, on the other hand, is…

Choose My Adventure: My life as a Guardian in City of Heroes Rebirth - Can the introduction of a completely different class change the entire makeup of an MMO’s experience? That is often the bet pushed forward by other games like Black Desert or Lost…

EVE Fanfest 2022: All the major EVE Online announcements from Fanfest - It's safe to say that EVE Fanfest 2022 was very much a social event first and a game event second, with fewer concrete announcements of new features and gameplay compared…

Lord of the Rings Online’s fan Discord gets yanked away from the community - A popular water cooler of virtual discussion over Lord of the Rings Online is now no longer affable toward fans of the MMO. According to a contentious forum post, the…

Not So Massively: Nothing can prepare you for Craftopia’s weirdness - While I like many survival mechanics, I've struggled to get into actual survival games. Despite that, I've kept one eye on the early access title Craftopia, as I was impressed…

Wisdom of Nym: Deep-diving Final Fantasy XIV’s new adventurer plates - One of the things that I think is important to note about Final Fantasy XIV's new adventurer plates is that they are in an early state. The portraits and the…

WoW Classic’s Wrath of the Lich King beta is coming later this summer - While Blizzard's announcement that Wrath Classic is coming to World of Warcraft came as a surprise to [checks notes] absolutely no one, perhaps not everyone prognosticated that the second expansion…

Massively on the GO: Talking MMOARGs with Orna’s lead dev - We've talked a bit about Orna: The GPS RPG a few times here in the Massively on the Go column, as this indie game helps define what a location-based MMO can…

The Daily Grind: Are you sick of crypto and NFT crap in MMOs? - Yesterday, our genre's core subreddit floated a poll to subbers about whether or not crypto and NFT game threads should be characterized as scammy spam and booted to the far…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 372: Blizzard’s great mobile hope

The Stream Team: Finding out the fate of the feral turtle boy in Lost Ark

The Stream Team: One Warframe Archon down, two to go

The Stream Team: Friday the 13th fun in AdventureQuest 3D

The Stream Team: Rolling through Dungeons and Dragons Online’s Red Fens arc

The Stream Team: SWTOR’s Jawa murder party

The Stream Team: Another round of errant story adventuring in Star Trek Online

The Stream Team: Infiltrating gangs for the Kestrels in Guild Wars 2

The Stream Team: Ascending Doubt with The Elder Scroll’s Online’s High Isle prelude quests

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.