MMO Week in Review: Season of (Queue) Discovery

So it turns out that everyone wanted WoW Classic Plus! Who knew? Oh, everybody knew? Literally everybody? Right on. Well, you’ve got a version of it now in Season of Discovery, if you can wiggle past the queues.

Meanwhile, this week saw the anniversary of WildStar’s death, EverQuests II’s 20th expansion launch, the revival of the Tribes franchise, and the merge of ArcheAge Unchained back into regular flavor ArcheAge. And in other news, the MOP team finished its awards planning for the month this weekend, and I just want to sleep! Stay tuned!

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Why I Play(ed): Remembering WildStar’s sunset, five years later - Time shouldn't zip along as quickly as it often does, especially when it taps us on the shoulder to look back and see how much has passed. The loss of…

WoW Classic opens new servers to meet Season of Discovery demand - It looks as if the launch of the Season of Discovery for WoW Classic is getting pretty popular, as Blizzard now has two more servers in order to meet the…

World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery officially launches today - If you think that you're pretty familiar with World of Warcraft in its classic incarnation by now, you probably are; it's not as if this is new content. But the…

Casually Classic: Which version of WoW Classic is right for you? - Choice is a double-edged sword: Too little of it is restricting and frustrating, yet too much can lead to decision paralysis and feeling overwhelmed. Before 2019, your choice to play World…

ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained officially merged this morning, sending Unchained into its last sunset - The great failed experiment that was ArcheAge Unchained is officially over. This week, Kakao merged the alternate business model version of the game into the default version, while also using…

Vague Patch Notes: MMO gameplay by enhancement - A while back, I was talking in the comments of an article about how bad The Secret World's combat was. It was the game's real weakness and why most people…

Star Wars The Old Republic’s GU 7.4 Chains in the Dark launches December 5 - Get excited, Star Wars The Old Republic fans: Broadsword has just announced that GU 7.4, Chains in the Dark, officially launches on December 5th. "With Game Update 7.4, players will…

Ship of Heroes buffs up its travel powers in the service of this weird thing called ‘fun’ - On this week's MOP Podcast, Justin and I derailed into talking about superhero powers and travel powers, so it's perfect timing that Heroic Games' City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMORPG Ship…

‘Shared-world puzzle adventure game’ Islands of Insight gets February launch window and releases a free demo - Back in June, one of the Not So Massively games we highlighted was Islands of Insight, a self-described "epic shared-world puzzle adventure game" where players work cooperatively to explore floating…

Ashes of Creation offers an hour-long look at its current gathering and crafting gameplay - Ashes of Creation isn't only an FFA PvP sandbox; it also has some crafting and gathering to do (likely designed to create sheep for PvP wolves to feast on). That…

It’s raining blood in Diablo IV — and pay-to-win rebuttals - When the weather forecast in Diablo IV calls for a torrential downpour of blood, it's time to grab that Umbrella of Demon-Slaying Might and get to work. Blizzard announced that…

Massively Overthinking: Penalties for failure in MMORPGs (beyond death) - MMOs generally have one big obvious penalty for failure, right? You die. Oh, usually not forever, not unless it's some niche hardcore realm, and usually it comes with some minor…

Wandering Wraeclast: Introducing Path of Exile 2’s Mercenary crossbow class and WASD - Looking forward to new Path of Exile updates has been a quarterly spectacle for many years. It's only recently, however, that fans also can start looking forward to more regular…

Palia teases its winter festival rollout and puzzle-oriented Temple of the Gales - You had to know a cozy co-op game like Palia would be decking the halls with some winter festivities, and that's exactly what this week's dev update heralds. Yes, it's…

WoW Factor: The story issues World of Warcraft must address going into The War Within - It's telling that we're now very much in the back nine for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, and the general consensus has not shifted much beyond "it was fine, I guess."…

Destiny 2 swiftly stops sales of a baffling Starter Pack after players drag Bungie for the bundle - What do you think would be included in a Starter Pack for Destiny 2? Do you envision some currency? Perhaps access to an expansion or two? Or do you think…

Baldur’s Gate 3 will add a new epilogue and two new game modes in today’s Patch 5 update - Larian Studios' single-player/multiplayer mega-RPG Baldur's Gate 3 continues to heap on the goodies for players with its Patch 5 release, expected later today; it will introduce some more narrative for…

Diablo IV surveys suggest Vessel of Hatred bundles will sell early access to ‘functional items’ and stash tabs - While Diablo IV's Vessel of Hatred expansion isn't expected until sometime later next year, Blizzard has decided to apparently burn some goodwill early. According to a video report from YouTube…

Hi-Rez’s Tribes 3 Rivals aims to resurrect the classic capture-the-flag franchise next year - Cast your mind all the way back to 1998, unless you weren't born yet, in which case you may play with your fidget spinner for the duration of this article.…

World of Warcraft’s Classic servers are removing Honor decay altogether with the next weekly maintenance - The classic World of Warcraft PvP system involved a whole lot of grinding for ranks, then continuing to grind forever to make sure that you didn't have your rank decay…

Destiny 2’s nearly seven month-long Season of the Wish has officially gone live this week - It's time for one of the longest seasons in Destiny 2's recent history thanks to the now-confirmed delay of The Final Shape to June 4th: The Season of the Wish…

Nightingale opens Steam stress test signups ahead of 2024 launch - Like many of you, we were sad to learn back in August that steampunk sandbox Nightingale was being delayed yet again - its third delay, as it was originally meant…

19-year-old EverQuest II’s 20th expansion, Ballads of Zimara, launches today - Don't look now, but EverQuest II's 2023 expansion, Ballads of Zimara, is quietly launching today. Wait, no, look now. Daybreak is quiet, but we don't have to be. The game…

End-of-Year Eleven: The biggest MMO surprises of 2023 - 2023 was definitely a year of surprises for me. Not all of them were pleasant! If you've been watching my columns, you probably have a sense of some of it.…

Bossa Games’ post-Worlds Adrift co-op game, Lost Skies, heads into pre-alpha - We've had an eye on Bossa Games - again - ever since May of this year, when the company best known to MMORPG players for its sunsetted MMO Worlds Adrift…

Mortal Online 2 releases its big Unreal Engine 5 upgrade and gameplay adjusting patch - The time has come for players of Mortal Online 2 to enjoy crispier textures, shinier lights, and nicer-looking skies. The game has fully released its big 2.0 update, aka the…

Skull and Bones is now targeting February 2024 for its launch following eleventy billion delays - Insider Gaming is reporting that Ubisoft has finally narrowed down Skull and Bones' launch date to February 16th, 2024. And believe it or not, that's not a delay... not this…

Sony Interactive Entertainment and NCsoft announce a ‘strategic’ partnership - What exactly are Sony Interactive Entertainment and NCsoft doing together? Painting each others' nails? Plotting the destruction of their most hated of all animals, the rock-wallaby? Making video games? It's…

Quantic Foundry’s survey examines the motivations of gamers drawn to sci-fi settings - Quantic Foundry - aka the Nick Yee-backed analytics company that's most well-known for its Gamer Motivation Model - has shared some responses from an optional survey run between February 2022…

Fight or Kite: SMITE has the right vibes but the wrong gameplay for this PvP fan - SMITE is one of the largest MOBAs on the planet and has been for years now. In fact, it's currently celebrating its 10th anniversary! Quite the achievement. Honestly for several…

Guild Wars 2’s weapon proliferation beta has begun as ArenaNet ungates SOTO for alts - It's weapon proliferation day in Guild Wars 2! OK, OK, it's the "Expanded Weapon Proficiency Beta," otherwise known as your first chance to try out the new weapons coming to…

Project Gorgon dev says it’s catering to older players who remember the golden age of MMOs - Last night's Project Gorgon patch brought cheers to the game's Discord as what was represented as a bug-fixing patch also heavily revamped a skill that ought to be a staple…

Choose My Adventure: I still don’t know if I like Tree of Savior even after hitting triple-digit levels - You'd be forgiven for thinking that I would have made up my mind about Tree of Savior after making it to character level 150, but I'm afraid that you'd be…

NCsoft’s Blade & Soul unveils ‘Neo Classic’ servers with enhanced visuals and gameplay - Blade & Soul is getting into the "new throwback" mood, like bringing back Crystal Pepsi only with a hopefully better reception. NCsoft has pulled the wraps off of the Neo…

Diablo IV receives a sudden wave of positive reviews on Steam by suspected bot accounts - There are some strange things going on at the Steam page of Diablo IV. According to the eagle eye of a Redditor by the name of Nodimax, the game has…

Soulframe targets ‘pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha’ testing for mid-December, lets you pet the dog - While Digital Extremes' latest livestream was mostly focused on its one (and primarily only) game, there was a small spotlight granted to its upcoming MMO Soulframe, which offered a few…

CCP Games’ EVE Online-adjacent blockchain game Project Awakening confirms a December 6 playtest - Back in March we reported that CCP Games had begun development of Project Awakening, a blockchain game set within the EVE Online universe. The studio claims that the project will…

Bungie finally admits it’s delaying Destiny 2’s The Final Shape to June 4 - Confirming what leaks and rumors and layoffs a month ago had already implied, Bungie announced this afternoon that it's delaying Destiny 2's The Final Shape to June - June 4th,…

Vague Patch Notes: The myth of the ‘first’ MMORPG - One of the things I like to joke about every so often is various myths about the history of MMOs, and a lot of those myths tend to swirl around…

Wisdom of Nym: Why Final Fantasy XIV’s next limited job is (probably) not Pictomancer or Green Mage - Despite the fact that it is not coming out until significantly later, I'm willing to bet that a large part of the work for Final Fantasy XIV's next limited job…

Path of Exile’s Affliction adds new Ascendancies and brings back Ultimatum - Forget about setting clocks back: I set my clock to Path of Exile updates! And it is time for the final quarterly update of 2023, which dives deeper into this…

Massively on the Go: Planning your Pokemon GO December 2023 Community Day targets - Pokemon Go's upcoming Community Day round-up event from December 16th-17th is a bit daunting. It's not just because the event regularly puts a year's worth of CD 'mon into the…

Star Citizen breaks a crowdfunding record for November with over $28M in sales - In case it wasn't clear what Star Citizen was hoping for when it launched last month's IAE event, the sales numbers for the month of November are in and CIG…

Survival shooter The Day Before shows off Times Square ad space ahead of December 7 early access - Having personally been in Times Square for a couple of days, I can say that the giant video billboards that highlight the streets there are fascinating but eventually blend into…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 447: MMO hackers, headstarts, and proliferations

The Stream Team: A Friday afternoon frolic in the arcade gaming world of Tower Unite

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming hitches a space ride in Star Citizen

The Stream Team: Big spaceship time with a friend in Star Trek Online

The Stream Team: Peitha’s plan of resistance in Guild Wars 2

The Stream Team: Fun with Warframe’s Fomorian event

The Stream Team: Now on to the conclusion of AQ3D’s Nulgath Saga

The Stream Team: Exploring ICARUS for its free Steam weekend

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.