MMO Week in Review: Wayfinder through a viewfinder

Wayfinder found a way to launch into early access this week, though it’s been a bit chaotic as servers struggled to keep up with the day one rush and Airship Syndicate has battled to keep the logins up – and the queues down.

Meanwhile, Dungeons and Dragons Online launched Vecna Unleashed, Palia continued to struggle, Waven hit early access, Lost Ark released the Aeromancer, and the genre is gearing up for a hell of a week ahead thanks to Guild Wars 2, WoW Classic, and oh yeah, Gamescom.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s Secrets of the Obscure - It has been a weird time to be a Guild Wars 2 fan, with a lot of ups and downs lately. End of Dragons was, in my opinion, the best…

Wayfinder proves its MMO heritage with a messy MMO-esque early access launch - Wayfinder's off to a rocky start: Airship Syndicate's sci-fi MMO-esque looter-shooter rolled out to early access yesterday, and it wasn't the smoothest beginning - you need only peek at Steam…

First Impressions: I honestly can’t tell whether I like Wayfinder or not - Playing Wayfinder marks the first time in my games writing career that my impression of a game has involved quite so much of my staring at the screen and shrugging.…

Dungeons and Dragons Online releases its new Vecna Unleashed adventure DLC and Update 61 - Today is the day when Dungeons and Dragons Online players can "experience the thrilling climax of the Codex of the Infinite Planes Saga" and perhaps get to know just what…

WoW Factor: Potential features for the next World of Warcraft expansion - Last week I talked about potential destinations for the next World of Warcraft expansion, which is actually a pretty short list when you think about it. But this week I…

Star Wars The Old Republic delves deeper into the changes coming with Galactic Season 5 - When Star Wars: The Old Republic offered an initial preview of update 7.3.1, players likely noted how there were quite a few things different with the update's related Galactic Season…

DC Universe Online teases Justice League Dark Cursed, announces PS5 and Xbox X|S launches - You have to appreciate that the developers of DC Universe Online post their plans with a quick summation of the big news points right up front. Episode 46 is Justice…

NetEase announces another new MMO studio: Rich Vogel’s T-Minus Zero Entertainment - NetEase has made no secret of its goals for expansion in the west: It managed to snurch Jack Emmert away from Daybreak to build a Warhammer 40K MMO, and its…

The Soapbox: How Vanguard’s diplomacy system could be revived and improved - Once upon a time there was an MMORPG called Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. It wasn't the most popular MMO, but it did cultivate a loyal fanbase due to its innovative…

Palia’s open beta has apparently been hit with a house-burgling bug - Palia has very specifically built itself a reputation as a cozy MMO - the kind of online game where you can go and rest and relax and not have to…

LOTRO Legendarium: Six ways to spice up your next LOTRO alt - While Lord of the Rings Online features a questing journey that can take you months if not years to go through the entirety of it, the temptation to roll up…

Massively on the Go: Our planning guide for Pokemon Go Global Go Fest 2023 - While the timing and quantity of events change each year, Pokemon Go is holding its global Go Fest 2023 August 26th and 27th this round. Last year's Go Fest proper was…

Corepunk will finally open testing in September: ‘The most interesting exchanges are about to start’ - When last we checked in on Corepunk, we noted that the MMORPG had been delayed at least five times, owing heavily to the fact that its Kviv-based staff had been…

Hi-Rez Studio president adjusts a contract rider for voice actors after being called out for potential AI use - If you've been on gaming Twitter anytime recently, you might have seen a thread started by voice actor Henry Schrader that was calling attention to a portion of a voice…

Warcraft Rumble soft launches in several more countries including Australia and Canada - Your next mobile obsession might be creeping its way across the globe right now. That's because Warcraft Rumble -- formerly Warcraft Arclight Rumble before it lost 33% of its name…

Massively Overthinking: Do you strive to be ‘rich’ in MMORPGs? - Last week, we did a Daily Grind about living our best lives in MMOs, doing things in video games we wish we could do in real life but for multiple…

War Thunder Mobile has officially launched on Android and Apple today - Gaijin Entertainment is launching a new game as of today - and it's going to look a little familiar too. It's a new and independently developed version of War Thunder,…

Skull & Bones previews its crafting system ahead of next week’s closed beta test - Had you forgotten about Skull and Bones? Ubisoft means to rectify that if so with a new dev blog on the long-delayed multiplayer pirate game, and it actually focuses on…

Vague Patch Notes: The shell game of MMO subscriber numbers and player counts - Here is a very reasonable question: How many subscribers does Star Wars: The Old Republic have? Not how many players, but how many subscribers. How many people are paying a…

Lost Ark compensates players for long downtime from the Wield the Storm update - The fact that Lost Ark was going to be offline for the bulk of yesterday was not a surprise; Amazon told players the game would be down for 15 hours…

Aion Classic EU summons the Storm in Balaurea with today’s 2.0 update - A storm has arrived to players of Aion Classic EU, but not the meteorological kind; it's a storm of content! Presumably, anyway. One way or the other, today is the…

Ankama’s Waven has officially entered early access today – and it’s F2P too - Ankama's new multiplayer title Waven has been a long time coming, but as of today, it's officially joined the ranks of free-to-play early access games. A follow-up to the studio's…

Guild Wars 2 takes to the skies with Secrets of the Obscure’s flight masteries - Who's ready to take off and soar into Guild Wars 2's wild blue yonder? When the MMO's Secrets of the Obscure arrives next week, flying will become far more accessible…

Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert gears up for a fresh unveiling at Gamescom 2023 - When covering Pearl Abyss's recent investor call, we expressed worry about the hedging the studio engaged in with analysts when it came to the long-delayed release of Crimson Desert, the…

Riot Games exec says MMO is still in early phases, but the studio is ‘committed to the genre’ - A conversation between a Chinese streamer and a Riot Games executive indicated that we're still in for quite the wait to see Riot's unnamed MMORPG project. League of Legends Pro…

Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs whose worlds were built from scratch - Maybe I'm the only one to have stopped to think about it, but a great deal of the MMOs that we enjoy are based on some sort of previously established…

Mortal Online 2’s ‘monumental’ territory control and siege systems are live – here are the patch notes - You've got to fight for your right to hold territory and maybe lay siege to others' territory because you want it yourself! OK admittedly that doesn't meter out very well…

New World’s Luck of the Bones event has begun this morning with the 2.03 patch - New World players are waking up this morning to the game's latest patch, and while it's not a colossal one, it's still worth noting. The 2.03 update brings an end…

Destiny 2 director promises more PvP maps and expanded PvP playlist modes after facing player backlash - The PvPers of Destiny 2 were not happy whatsoever with the latest state of the game letter from director Joe Blackburn, who says that the team is "built to support…

Palia’s first content patch expands the main quest line, fixes the cash shop, and adds pets - Late last night, Palia finally pushed out what Singularity 6 is calling the game's "first real patch update" since the launch of open beta last week. "[W]e are ready to…

EG7 Q2 2023: Daybreak’s MMORPGs are ‘predictably stable’ - It's starting to look as if the Daybreak-run EG7 conglom is finally at the end of its bonkers revenue run: According to the Swedish gaming company's Q2 2023 financial report,…

Some Assembly Required: Trapped by exploration and age progression in Craftopia - I'm sure that this is going to come as a complete and utter surprise to those who have followed my playing of games on stream before: I got distracted by…

‘Romantic gold rush’ MMO Annex rebrands as Pioneers of New Dawn, plans fourth quarter alpha testing - This past November we all got word of a new post-apocalyptic survival MMO known as Annex, which is being developed by indie studio Arctic Theory, which is comprised of former…

Embracer Group’s botched $2B deal was with Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group - If you're a fan of the games put out by Cryptic Studios or just Gearbox Publishing in general, you probably have not forgotten that Embracer (which owns Gearbox, which owns…

Ultima Online is running an in-game lottery for hopeful New Legacy alpha testers - Let me set expectations right upfront: Ultima Online's latest newsletter mentions New Legacy and even includes some pics from the game's legacy system, but it doesn't have much to say…

Wisdom of Nym: The unspoken but expected features of Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - There are a number of features that we know are coming with Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. Sure, we can all have some fun speculating about what the exact combination of…

Albion Online adds new currency fees to discourage hoarding and balance the economy - Albion Online's touch-up patch today isn't a nothingburger: It actually introduces a new tax on currency meant to help balance the economy. "This patch introduces a new mechanism to the…

Overwatch 2 is (still) getting absolutely pummeled on Steam - There's an old adage that goes, "All publicity is good publicity." It's not an infallible statement, though, because we can't imagine that any company that was once known for pumping…

Titan Quest II is officially happening – and yes, it has online multiplayer - Multiplayer ARPG fans are probably very familiar with the original Titan Quest, a game set in an age of Greek mythology that is now a classic in the genre and…

Final Fantasy XIV prepares a dual-pronged event for its 10-year anniversary - You only hit the decade mark once, and Final Fantasy XIV's annual anniversary event is celebrating precisely that. So it makes sense that the big reward from this year's iteration…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 433: Throne & Delay

The Stream Team: Feeding the alt machine in City of Heroes Homecoming

The Stream Team: Returning to Dungeons & Dragons Online with Diplomatic Impunity

The Stream Team: Meat’s back on the menu, SWTOR

The Stream Team: A charge at the crown in Fall Guys

The Stream Team: Wrapping up Guild Wars 2’s Living World Season 2

The Stream Team: One royal found, two to go in Elder Scrolls Online

The Stream Team: Ending Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons (again)

The Stream Team: Filling out the Blue Mage spell book in Final Fantasy XIV

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.