With figurative summer reaching its conclusion, MMOs had another big week: World of Warcraft Classic launched the pre-patch for Wrath of the Lich King, WoW’s retail version began beta for Dragonflight, New World announced a major revamp, Bless Unleashed announced its impending console sunset, and we weighed in on Final Fantasy XIV’s Buried Memory.
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
Vitae Aeternum: Previewing New World’s Brimstone Sands, leveling revamp, greatsword, and more - New World is gearing up to unleash its largest patch since launch, and members of the press were recently invited to a virtual event to preview the massive autumn update.…
Wisdom of Nym: First impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s Buried Memory content - Everyone, you need to remember something very important about this patch. Something that it's possible you didn't even know until just now, something that the Final Fantasy XIV community has…
Wrath Classic’s pre-patch arrived last night with unsightly queues, level boost sales - Even though Wrath Classic is still officially a month away, the era of Northrend, Death Knights, and happy-go-lucky Arthas is here with the debut of the pre-patch on the WoW…
WoW Factor: When your MMO design is hooked on a feeling - To start this off, I want you to summon up a feeling. I want you think back to the first time you can remember getting a gift from someone that…
Lord of the Rings Online defends controversial Minstrel changes - This week's out-of-the-blue announcement that Lord of the Rings Online was testing a massive overhaul to the Minstrel class caused no end of consternation, confusion, and discussion in the community.…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Standout moments from 10 years of Guild Wars 2 - Time sure flies when you're slaying Elder Dragons, doesn't it? Is it really possible that it has been a decade since our characters first set foot in locations like The…
Bless Unleashed on console becomes the latest Bless title to shut down - Stop me if you've heard this one: Bless is shutting down. It's Bless Unleashed this time. Our readers will remember that Bless Online originally launched in the west on PC…
The Game Archaeologist: How Ultima Online got made - You know how there’s that yokel in every global chat channel that likes to troll players by claiming that World of Warcraft was the first MMO? If you’re me and…
Embers Adrift announces open beta weekend on September 16, discusses Worldbreaker and ashen monsters - If you're curious about Embers Adrift but aren't willing to spend money on a beta and weren't tapped for August's Worldbreaker event, then your chance is arriving in a couple…
Elite Dangerous firms up dates for console to PC transfers as players spot a possible Thargoid ‘death star’ - Over the past few months, Elite: Dangerous has been talking up plans to let console players transfer their accounts to the PC version. Readers will recall the discussions first started…
MMO dev Raph Koster disambiguates sandboxes, themeparks, simulation, and stagecraft - Veteran MMO developer Raph Koster, who himself is working on a sandbox MMO couched in a metaverse, is back with another dev blog this week on the origins of the…
World of Warcraft brings back the glory days of graph paper with its Dragonflight UI revamp - After years of leaning on the modding community to make World of Warcraft's user interface a better place in which to live, Blizzard's picking up some of that slack with…
Massively Overthinking: Who’s really paying for MMOs? - Two years ago, we did a piece on dark patterns in MMO design, and in the comments, a reader named Shadex De'Marr penned a rant that raised interesting points -…
World of Warcraft opens up the whole of Dragonflight for beta testing today - Want to test everything that's available in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight? The good news is that players who have opted into the beta may indeed be able to test that…
Team-based mech shooter Galahad 3093 officially begins its early access period - The time has come for Arthurian robots to fight it out for reasons: Galahad 3093, the team-based shooter involving players hopping into mech suits known as Lances, has now launched…
Vague Patch Notes: The gating of time in MMO content - People are over the moon about the Island Sanctuaries added in the most recent update to Final Fantasy XIV, and I entirely include myself in that lineup. I'm enjoying the…
V Rising delays its first major content patch into 2023 - Vampire survival MMO V Rising dominated the gaming landscape back in early summer, with 2.5M copies sold and 150,000 peak players. So you might think the game is preparing a…
PSO2 New Genesis’ launch to PlayStation 4 gets hit with brief server problems and the delay of a pack sale - Yesterday saw Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis arrive to the PlayStation 4 as promised, and like clockwork, the influx of fresh players caused the servers to groan under the…
Conan Exiles enters the Age of Sorcery and launches battlepass seasons with today’s release - "The Age of Sorcery update is now available for download on PC." So sayeth Funcom, which has launched the 3.0 update for Conan Exiles as of this morning - the…
Activision-Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick downplays regulatory scrutiny, says Microsoft deal is on track for 2023 - Skepticism over Microsoft's takeover and buyout of the beleaguered Activision-Blizzard group is mounting across the industry, as multiple of news outlets have pushed stories in the last few days homing…
Perfect Ten: The MMO studios that keep whiffing on new projects - Everyone makes mistakes, and that's all right. That's not necessarily a big deal. Yes, this is true when it comes to MMO studios too. I cannot think of a single…
Swords of Legends Online is bringing new dungeons, biographies, and PvP content in its next update - There's some fresh content on the horizon for Swords of Legends Online players, and while there's not a date set for when it arrives, there is a preview post to…
Mortal Online 2 defends its decision to go subscription-only - Is it the height of foolishness to launch an MMORPG in 2022 as subscription-only -- or is it a shrewd financial tactic? Players will soon be the judges of Star…
Guild Wars 2 is giving away free mount skins as part of its 10th anniversary promo - If you haven't poked your head into Guild Wars 2 this week, you're going to want to do so, as ArenaNet is doing something I can't recall it ever doing…
Lord of the Rings Online shuts down its Anor server today, but characters are retrievable through Dec 31 - It's the end of an era for Lord of the Rings Online, as the game's original progression server comes to the end of its four-year run. Started back in 2018,…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go Fest’s Finale was a blend of comfort content and bad bugs - Pokemon Go's yearly Go Fest was fairly rocky this year - so rocky that some of us old trainers had to remind people that we've seen far worse. That shouldn't mean Niantic can…
Microsoft admits that Activision-Blizzard acquisition is primarily driven by a desire to get into mobile gaming - Those who were questioning the motives and reasons for Microsoft's big juicy buyout offer of Activision-Blizzard need not wonder any longer. An interview with Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer reveals that…
Arby’s is bizarrely promoting Guild Wars 2’s 10th anniversary and we’re here for it - We have certainly seen some deeply weird stuff in the MMO industry over the years -- so much so that we have silly end-of-year awards celebrating these goofy moments of…
Choose My Adventure: Chimeraland lets its freak flag fly one last time - You remember how I wrote last week that Chimeraland was becoming comfortable and routine? That its weirdness had sort of become kind of expected but not surprising? Yeah, I was…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 387: Do the Dune
Battle Bards Episode 216: FFXIV Before Meteor
The Stream Team: Dipping a toe into Conan Exiles’ big Age of Sorcery update
The Stream Team: Firing up the free weekend demo of Fractured Online
The Stream Team: Dungeons & Dragons Online’s Dragonblood Prophecy
The Stream Team: Showing off SWTOR’s newest content
The Stream Team: Roulettes, private islands, and elder content clearing in Final Fantasy XIV
The Stream Team: Unmasking Purist sympathizers in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Doing The Dragonguard’s Legacy 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.
