World of Warcraft launched its Fury Incarnate patch this week, so you might think the MMO world would be fixated on that, but Blizzard almost immediately moved on to promoting the next patch, Guardians of the Dream, and admitted that it’s considering directly selling the trader’s tender currency, effectively marking the pivot of the trading post to an overt cash shop.
Meanwhile, we got a look at the newly launched Fae Farm, SWTOR launched its fifth season, and Jagex finally apologized for the deeply unpopular battle pass monetization that it tried to ram through in RuneScape.
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
World of Warcraft contemplates buyable trader’s tender and an old world revamp - We all learned about World of Warcraft's Guardians of the Dream patch in terms of its overall location and content offerings yesterday, along with its arrival on the PTR just…
World of Warcraft’s Guardians of the Dream sends players to the Emerald Dream itself - As teased, Blizzard has unveiled World of Warcraft's Guardians of the Dream, giving little breathing space between it and the just-released Fury Incarnate as GOTD launches on the PTR -…
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s exhausting constant hype cycle - When I saw that there was an event happening on Thursday for World of Warcraft's next patch, I had to do a double-take. I was sure that the most recent…
Vague Patch Notes: The specter of racially locked classes in MMOs and before - One of the things I've taken on multiple times in this column is the concept of gender-locked classes, which are bad, and if you think "hey, it makes sense in…
RuneScape’s Jagex on the much-derided battlepass: ‘We messed up’ - All week, we've been covering the chaos brewing over in the RuneScape community as players have put up a strong protest against Jagex's new seasonal battlepass, which vocal players believe…
LOTRO Legendarium: Coping with Lord of the Rings Online’s Mount Everest of content - I vividly remember back when Lord of the Rings Online launched its first legendary server, Anor, in 2018. Like many of you, I got swept up in the hype of…
Rumor: RuneScape studio Jagex might be up for sale again, the fourth time in less than a decade - The uproar over RuneScape's new monetization mess has a new angle today as apparently the future of UK-based Jagex is up in the air. According to the Financial Times' sources,…
Black Desert PC raises item costs to counter inflation, dates guild war adjustments, and adds spooky ships - A whole lot of stuff is once again happening in the PC version of Black Desert, and I'm not feeling clever enough to try and tie them all together in…
Fractured Online vows to be back on Steam soon, posts early access roadmap - At the beginning of 2023, Fractured Online raised gamer eyebrows with the news that it would be taking the rare step of leaving Steam's early access program -- without a…
Lord of the Rings Online readies a plus-sized pirate event for September with new stories and missions - Tuesday, September 19th is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a cheeky internet holiday that's served as an inspiration for Lord of the Rings Online's Tales of the Shipwrecked…
Skull and Bones loses yet another creative director as union assembles over labor conditions - With Skull and Bones now in closed beta testing after a half dozen significant delays, it's smooth sailing ahead for this frequently delayed pirate game, surely? Avast, some bad news…
Overwatch 2 kicks off its single-player Hero Mastery mode with a limited-time event - After a not-at-all-great August, during which Overwatch 2 came out on Steam and was crushed by player reviews and negative publicity, Blizzard is hoping for a turnaround of sorts this…
The ESA is no longer working with ReedPop for the theoretical next E3 event - Well, if you were dreading the possibility of E3 coming back in 2024 under ReedPop's direction, you no longer have to worry about that. The ESA has stated that ReedPop…
Massively Overthinking: The dumbest deaths in MMORPGs - This past week has been amusing for everyone in the MMO community and beyond who loves to watch people die stupid deaths in video games, all thanks to World of…
Throne & Liberty is collecting feedback on autoplay, admitting it can wreck immersion - Despite Throne & Liberty's delay into 2024 for non-Korean audiences, it's not been all quiet on the western front for this MMORPG. NCsoft and Amazon are conducting a big technical…
Wayfinder’s new inventory, accessory, and echoes update should address lag, load, and crashes too - Early access looter-shooter Wayfinder is preparing a major overhaul of the player inventory, Airship Syndicate announced today - and as it happens, it'll have a major effect on the game's…
Perfect Ten: 10 of the worst launches in MMO history - Launch time is a difficult time for every MMO, and honestly, I have nothing but sympathy for the teams launching a new game at any point. And while people will…
Hands-on: Cozy game Fae Farm might strike familiar gameplay beats, but its setting is the sauce - I appreciate how a lot of my opinion of Fae Farm is going to come off reductive or as I'm damning it with faint praise. It's hard to toe that…
Lord of the Rings Online attempts to undo some of the damage caused by last week’s stat squish - With such a wide-ranging change as last week's Lord of the Rings Online stat squish, you just know that it would be a mess of unforeseen consequences. And true enough,…
World of Warcraft’s Fury Incarnate is out with Dreamsurges and heroic Dawn of the Infinite - Blizzard is absolutely ragin' - that is, Fury Incarnate went live for World of Warcraft's retail version last night. As promised, the update includes the continuation of Dragonflight's storyline, new…
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 7.3.1 update and Season 5 launch today - After a long and arduous battle, Kai Zykken has been removed from the fleet stations for numerous offenses including writing bad checks, causing issues with players buying Spoils of War…
Elder Scrolls Online’s update 39 hits console as ZeniMax preps the Undaunted celebration - Console fans, it's your day in Elder Scrolls Online as update 39, which has been available on PC and Mac for a few weeks already, is now finally rolling out…
Fight or Kite: Harry Potter Magic Awakened is going to school you too - Continuing my hotly anticipated column covering everything PvP, we’ve gathered together again here in Fight or Kite to discuss dancing and school work. You read that right. Harry Potter: Magic…
Bethesda vows to ‘keep working on’ Redfall, arguing it doesn’t ‘quit or abandon stuff’ - Most eyes are on Bethesda and its sprawling single-player space epic Starfield, particularly in light of the RPG's bugs and how previous game releases were similarly bumpy. That reality is…
Choose My Adventure: Trialing and testing in Trixion before returning to Lost Ark - I'm going to preface my return to Choose My Adventure by noting that I've had a very busy few days. It's been a good busy, mind you, but it's been…
New World’s devs detail mount trinkets, Edengrove changes, artifact perks, and ‘influence v2’ in latest video - It's probably no surprise that the devs of New World are talking about the forthcoming Rise of the Angry Earth expansion in this month's much lengthier dev video, but while…
Facebook finally adds legs to VR avatars in its Horizon Worlds metaverse… sort of - Facebook - we're not calling it Meta like it wants to be called any more than we're calling Twitter by its featureless rebrand - runs something of a metaverse in…
Wisdom of Nym: What seems to be cut content from Final Fantasy XIV - The thing about Final Fantasy XIV datamining is that, at least to me, it's kind of boring. Unlike some other games that used to have a whole lot of almost-finished…
Warframe’s Halloween-themed Abyss of Dagath cements 2023 as the year of creep - It is no secret how much I love Halloween, horror, and all things eerie and spooky, so learning about Warframe's next update Abyss of Dagath both before and at TennoCon…
SAG-AFTRA union prepares for a second strike over video gaming’s use of AI and low wages - The SAG-AFTRA union has already stood up to TV and film companies with no apparent resolution in sight, and now it looks as if the union is also preparing to…
Roblox confirms Quest VR release later this month, PlayStation launch in October - Roblox's bespoke RDC event has once again offered up a list of major headlines for the multiplayer player-generated content platform, but one of the biggest of the lot is the…
Diablo III’s Season 29 will bring one last new theme on September 15 before de facto maintenance mode - The seasonal model that's powered Diablo III for a very long time now is winding down, though fans should try and take heart that it's not ending wholesale. Blizzard's Season…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 436: Rise of the Angry River Hobbits
Battle Bards Episode 227: NCsounds
The Stream Team: A higher-level look at the just-launched cozy life sim RPG Fae Farm
The Stream Team: Neverwinter War Machines
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming peeks into Palia
The Stream Team: Arcade shooting action in the multiplayer multi-game Tower Unite
The Stream Team: Sunday is roulettes day 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.
