The MMO genre saw dueling conventions this weekend: Final Fantasy XIV’s London Fanfest revealed the new Viper job and Dawntrail regions and content, while Star Citizen’s CitizenCon teased the Pyro system hitting the preview channel on Halloween.
Meanwhile, drama swirled around Pantheon, SWTOR announced Chains of the Dark, LOTRO delayed Corsairs of Umbar, Albion Online released Wild Blood, and Diablo IV landed on Steam.
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
Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival London reveals: Viper, zones, and Echoes of Vana’diel - It's time for more reveals for the Final Fantasy XIV fans in the audience as the London Fan Festival has begun, and that means learning more about the content due…
Pantheon confirms ‘247’ extraction play mode rumors: ‘This is not a cancellation of Pantheon’ - Yesterday, we covered turmoil in the Pantheon Rise of the Fallen community stemming from multiple leaks from the game's VIP backer Discord. The leaker had posted purported messages from Visionary…
Star Citizen demonstrates new visual effects, destructible items, server updates, and engineering gameplay - The opening presentation of CitizenCon has recently wrapped up, offering up a wide assortment of tech-focused updates and at least one gameplay feature that are headed to Star Citizen at…
WoW Factor: This time will not be different - The other day, I got a nasty email from a World of Warcraft fan. This is not inherently unusual; it happens a couple of times a month, I'd say. And…
Star Citizen’s new test server will open Pyro to goodies pack owners and ‘active testers’ on October 31 - When Star Citizen dropped its alpha 3.21 build this past Friday, one of the features that were touted was a "preview channel" - aka a test server that runs parallel…
Whatever non-layoff thing is going on at Cryptic sounds ominous and we don’t like it - Disturbing and confusing news for Cryptic and its MMORPGs - chiefly Star Trek Online and Neverwinter - has erupted across social media today following what appear to be coordinated job…
Diablo IV has launched on Steam to ‘mixed’ reviews alongside its Season of Blood update - Diablo IV has kicked off the centerpiece of its autumn today with the launch of Season of Blood and the launch of the game on Steam. "Today, Diablo IV’s Season…
Star Wars The Old Republic players return to Ord Mantell in 7.4 Chains of the Dark - The BioWare-turned-Broadsword team has finally taken the wraps off Star Wars The Old Republic's 7.4 update, dubbed Chains in the Dark. According to the press release and developer stream today,…
Casually Classic: WoW Classic’s leveling journey shows how much retail has lost its way - In the past six months, I've been tracking a very interesting conversation that's arisen over what the MMORPG genre as a whole has lost as it's pushed forward into the…
Vague Patch Notes: Pivots don’t work with MMOs - So we can pretty much confirmed now that Pantheon's goose is thoroughly cooked. Yes, I know, the folks at Visionary Realms are claiming that when they have a livestream, it'll…
LOTRO Legendarium: Eight beneficial activities in LOTRO you may be overlooking - In my personal, immediate experience, I find that even in a broad MMORPG with lots of options, I tend to narrow my activities and interests down to a smaller slice.…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s Party Play is peak Niantic - Pokemon Go's newest feature, Party Play, is out now, and it's... well, very Niantic. Since the feature was first datamined, it seemed like it could be a fun little addition…
Pax Dei demos its extensive character creator in new video as players await alpha date - Mainframe Industries isn't telling us when Pax Dei's alpha is coming, but it is talking about something today: YOUR FACE. OK, really it's your character's face, as the studio is previewing…
Massively Overthinking: What’s next for Blizzard under Microsoft? - So the Microsoft acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is basically a done deal. Oh, sure, the FTC is still fumbling around with hapless appeals, but look, there's a trailer now. It's happening.…
Monsters & Memories hires four new devs and improves game performance - After a couple months of quiet, indie MMO Monsters & Memories has emerged to deliver an update regarding its progress. Niche Worlds Cult reports that it has hired on four…
Lord of the Rings Online opens the Corsairs of Umbar expansion for player testing - The first round of public testing for next month's Lord of the Rings Online expansion popped up on the Bullroarer test server yesterday as SSG made the first three (of…
Wargaming launches multiple charitable bundles for its slate of titles to benefit Ukraine - The country of Ukraine continues to defend itself from the ongoing Russian invasion, which naturally means that aid is still needed for the Ukrainian citizens caught within the maelstrom. Wargaming…
Perfect Ten: Myths about balance in MMOs - For some MMO players, "balance" is a dirty word. And I'm not going to lie, I can hardly blame them. If you're not a fan of sitting around running math…
Court docs show Activision-Blizzard helped a gun manufacturer market to ‘young consumers’ in Call of Duty title - Just when you thought that Activision-Blizzard news might finally slow down now that Microsoft's officially acquired it, no less than the Wall Street Journal has more to expose: According to…
New World’s Halloween event, Nightveil Hallow, is live today through November 14 - In what is the first real patch (not just a hotfix) since the launch of Rise of the Angry Earth, Amazon is delivering New World's 3.0.1 update today, and as…
Throne & Liberty promises to show off more of its launch content on November 2 - It feels safe enough to say that Throne & Liberty has not precisely lit the world on fire yet, especially with some less-than-enthusiastic reception to its various reveals. But what…
EVE Evolved: Is it too late to start playing EVE Online? - Sci-fi MMO EVE Online reached a special milestone this year with its 20th anniversary, and for many people, it raises an interesting question: Is it now too late to start…
Lord of the Rings Online’s Combe forester event has been pulled for the third time - Stop us if you've heard this one: Standing Stone Games has pulled the Combe Forester event from Lord of the Rings Online yet again. As players will know, we've been following…
Guild Wars 2 introduces a ‘leisurely’ version of the Mad King’s Clock Tower for Halloween - As promised, Guild Wars 2's Shadow of the Mad King is live today across Tyria, bringing new and old content 'round for the Halloween season. In fact, some of the…
Choose My Adventure: Amrine Excavation and other flail-based New World adventures - I wasn't sure that I was going to be playing with others this week in New World. That's not to suggest that I've been alone or lonesome in this game…
Palia lands on the Epic Games Store next week alongside new European servers - Palia is expanding its playerbase, or hoping to at least: Singularity 6 announced this morning that it's rolling out to the Epic Games Store next week on October 24th. "Palia…
Gamigo grants RIFT players 10 days of free sub time to celebrate the MMO’s 10th birthday on Steam - Earlier this year, the MMO community was growing increasingly concerned about the future of the beloved but beleaguered MMORPG RIFT, which has seen repeated layoffs and languished in Gamigo's stable…
Rumor: Pantheon leaks suggest a monetized spin-off mode is en route for testing - The Pantheon Rise of the Fallen community is in uproar this morning over apparent leaks from the game's VIP backer section - regardless of whether they're mad someone leaked it…
Elite Dangerous’ Frontier Developments readies a round of layoffs - It certainly seems like we've in the thick of layoff season right now, what with Epic Games, Twitch, and Cryptic all letting personnel go over the past couple months. Adding…
Fight or Kite: Should PvPers return for New World’s Rise of the Angry Earth expansion? - All the talk going on around me about New World and its first paid expansion has caught my attention. There's been office chat discussing the most recent concurrent player counts,…
Bethsoft’s Pete Hines is retiring after 24 years to ‘enjoy life’ - The gaming industry is losing another big name this week - and this one's actually a loss. In the same seven-day span that saw announcements of planned departures for two…
Wisdom of Nym: Examining Final Fantasy XIV’s Growing Light story beats - Once again within this column, you will find spoilers for everything that occurred within Final Fantasy XIV's Growing Light patch, and I will not be spoiler-marking any of it because…
Microsoft reaffirms its neutrality agreement with CWA union following Activision-Blizzard buyout - With everything swirling around the events of Microsoft's $69B buyout of Activision-Blizzard, it might have been easy to forget that during the proceedings, Microsoft and the Communication Workers of America…
Ship of Heroes’ digital storefront leaks the MMORPG’s box price and subscription fee - Update 10/17/23: Ship of Heroes' Casey McGeever has clarified that the publicly accessible pricing page - which has since been removed from the game's website but is still available on…
Albion Online’s Wild Blood patch is live with shapeshifting weapons, tracking, and island updates - Albion Online's massive fall patch is finally rolling out today: Wild Blood is officially live, with its promised tracking system, new potions, awakened items, and shapeshifter weapons and forms. "This…
LOTRO delays Corsairs of Umbar to November 8, talks 4K upgrades and new legendary servers - It's a sword day, a red day, a Q&A day for Lord of the Rings Online! Executive Producer Rob "Severlin" Ciccolini appeared on this past Friday's livestream to tackle a…
Diablo IV wants your actual blood – for a good cause, of course - It's not every day that a video game comes after your actual blood, but if there's a title to do it, it certainly would be Diablo IV. The gore-soaked ARPG…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 441: A Blizzard trick or treat
The Stream Team: The hunt for Halloween coins and spooky activities in Tower Unite
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.21 brings new missions and a new bomber ahead of CitizenCon this weekend
The Stream Team: The truth about Neverwinter’s Masquerade of Liars
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming gets a multi-view look of Void Crew multiplayer in action
The Stream Team: More co-op cat and dog adventures in Cat Quest II
The Stream Team: Rescuing Mabon in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Building up faction rep in Warframe
The Stream Team: Discussing Final Fantasy XIV’s London Fanfest reveals
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.
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