‘Twas a juicy week for MMORPGs, as we got a tease for Hello Games’ new survival MMO, Light No Fire, plus Throne & Liberty launched in Korea, EverQuest released its 30th expansion, The Wagadu Chronicles made its way to early access, and EVE Online studio CCP Games pushed its FPS spinoff EVE Vanguard into testing.
And in site news, we’ve begun rolling out our awards for the year, set to run for the next couple of weeks! So far, we’ve crowned the best MMO rogue server, most underrated MMO, and best new MMO class.
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
The Game Awards 2023: Light No Fire, Warframe, Skull and Bones, Palia, Bellwright - (Scroll down to the end for the recap of everything MMOsy!) The Game Awards have become one of the key games industry productions of the year, not so much for…
The Soapbox: In defence of World of Warcraft Cataclysm - When Blizzard announced Cataclysm Classic servers for World of Warcraft, there was some bemusement in the broader MMORPG community. Cataclysm has always been controversial, and to this day a lot…
Indie Afrofantasy MMO Wagadu Chronicles has opened its early access doors today - "Today is a big day. The Wagadu Chronicles is finally accessible to the world." So begins Twin Drums' announcement that its Afrofantasy MMORPG has officially entered early access. Readers will recall…
Massively Overthinking: Best and worst MMO developer quotes of 2023 - I have to thank all the MMO developers and industry veterans out there for talking long past the time when they should stop talking. Their fine contributions to the Discourse…
Light No Fire aka No Man’s Skyrim might be the survival MMO you’ve been waiting for - Far and away the most interesting new-game announcement to come out of last night's The Game Awards was Light No Fire. Granted, it wasn't the best show for multiplayer titles…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s strange and fascinating journey through 2023 - There's a shot right at the end of Empire Strikes Back that's always struck me as the most profound in the entire franchise. The good guys spent a bulk of…
MassivelyOP’s 2023 Awards: Most Improved MMO - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Most Improved MMO, which was awarded to New World last year. All live MMOs, regardless of release…
MassivelyOP’s 2023 Awards: Best MMO Rogue Server - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO Rogue Server, which was awarded to City of Heroes' Homecoming last year. Readers will remember that…
Working As Intended: The hits and misses of our 2023 MMO predictions - We've been offering up an MMO predictions list for Massively Overthinking for years upon years now as our writers and readers prognosticate on the future (and also take some wild…
WoW Factor: The content issues World of Warcraft must address in The War Within - Last week, I talked about the story issues that World of Warcraft really needs to address in some form as we move forward into The War Within, but you probably…
MassivelyOP’s 2023 Awards: Most Underrated MMORPG - Welcome one and all to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards, our multi-week celebration of everything good (and bad) the genre bestowed upon us this over the last dozen months. Every…
Monster Hunter Wilds shares an in-engine trailer, promises more details summer 2024 and launch in 2025 - While this year's Game Awards didn't offer too many big reveals for MMO players, there were certainly a few multiplayer announcements among the lot, one of which being the next…
Throne & Liberty launches in Korea, still has its eyes on the West for 2024 - Considering how huge and influential the Lineage series has been in Korea over the past three decades, we'd say it seems fitting that NCsoft decided to launch the latest chapter…
First Impressions: Nexon’s THE FINALS blends the best features of Overwatch, Valorant, and Titanfall - As a true gamer through and through, I’ve played my fair share of games. By now I’ve probably played every genre of video game that has ever existed – yes,…
The Day Before actually launched – and it’s already being savaged in reviews - Does anything inspire faith in a game more than the developers coming out to specifically say that their game is not a scam or asset flip? Because The Day Before…
Vague Patch Notes: Waiting for the MMORPG endings that are never coming - It took some real courage for Naoki Yoshida to get up and announce that Final Fantasy XIV was ending. After an enormously successful run, the MMORPG had reached a natural…
EverQuest’s Laurion’s Song, the MMORPG’s 30th expansion, brings players to a fractured inn of heroes - Releasing 30 expansions is a significant milestone for any MMORPG, and few others can claim that crown, including EverQuest, which has released the Laurion's Song expansion this week, which invites…
Sea of Thieves releases its stripped-down Safer Seas PvE mode, and the servers are already buckling - Today is the day when players who want to sail the Sea of Thieves with a vetted crew of friends and without the potential of other players ruining their fun…
EVE Online begins its four day-long Vanguard FPS mode test today - [AL:EVE]It's time to experience EVE Online from a different perspective: from inside of the skull of someone with a gun. For at least the fourth time. The EVE Vanguard "first…
Bungie devs face the ‘soul-crushing’ pressure of financial targets, a Sony takeover, and threat of more layoffs - It's already been reported that life within Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie is extremely unhappy in the wake of recent layoffs and the missed target of leadership's sarcastically high…
Team vs. team hero FPS Gundam Evolution has unfortunately sunsetted - Fans of the team vs. team hero shooter Gundam Evolution already knew that the game's closure was coming, but it doesn't make it any less hard. As of November 29th,…
Tree of Savior gets a new Pontifex class… and stuffs its unlock into a lootbox - Tree of Savior is most definitely not hurting for classes as a quick look on its site can attest, but as of this week's newest update, there's one more class…
End-of-year Eleven: The healthiest live MMOs at the end of 2023 - When it comes to making a judgment call about the "healthiest" MMORPGs on the market at any given time, there are always plenty of rebuttals on hand to denounce such…
Star Trek Online now has third-party ship model NFTs as new Cryptic boss DECA opens hiring - Remember back when Star Trek Online announced that it was ending its six-year partnership with GamePrint, bringing to an end the service that allowed players to pay money for a…
World of Warcraft players lose a minipet and inventory perks if they don’t migrate their authenticator to the new Battle.net app - You might remember that back in July, Blizzard announced that that it would be moving its Battle.net Authenticator services over to the Battle.net mobile app, especially migrating its two-factor authentication…
Wurm Online completely overhauls its visual gathering system - Wurm Online is about to change up its gathering game for the better. Currently in testing, a complete overhaul to resource acquisition offers new visual representations of different nodes, replacing…
Lost Ark previews not one but two patches for December, with a new continent and elixir system - December's destined to be a strange month for Lost Ark, as it's due for two major updates, not just one. The first update is slated for December 13th and comes packed…
Fallout 76’s Atlantic City Boardwalk Paradise is live with two new expeditions - Fallout 76 is betting that you'll be back for Atlantic City Boardwalk Paradise, which is officially live today to send you to the Jersey Shore - specifically, to the Neapolitan…
Ahead of launch, Fntastic tells players The Day Before is not a scam or an asset flip - Many players have cast a wide assortment of aspersions against developer Fntastic and its upcoming survival shooter The Day Before, particularly in light of the red flag-filled lead-up to its…
Global Chat: Why does CCP keep trying to make EVE shooters? - We're not the only ones who keep wondering why CCP continues to push for an FPS game set in the EVE Online universe. Long-time EVE player The Nosy Gamer listed…
Choose My Adventure: Project Gorgon once more proves both engaging and agitating - That headline might sound like I'm about to spend a whole lot of digital ink dumping on Project Gorgon, but I am happy to report that most of my time…
Star Wars The Old Republic’s Chains in the Dark update is live – here are the patch notes - Broadsword's latest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic is live today as promised, and that of course means that the update's patch notes are similarly available for players to…
Aika Online’s global re-launch officially begins today - It's the MMORPG we're unsure people missed but one that's coming back from a two year-long sunset. It's Aika Online, the 2009 MMORPG from developer Hanbitsoft, which was picked up…
Grand Theft Auto VI announced for 2025 – but PC and multiplayer mentions are missing - Following last night's unfortunate leak of Grand Theft Auto VI's promised video debut, Rockstar came out this week to officially confirm that it is bringing the next major game in…
World of Warcraft Classic players have already found all 108 of Season of Discovery’s phase one runes - Never let it be said that MMORPG players won't absolutely blitz through new things at breakneck pace: Players of the Season of Discovery that's going on in World of Warcraft…
Wisdom of Nym: Why Final Fantasy XIV fans look for messages in tea leaves from trailers - If you are not on the sinking ship that is Twitter Dot Com at this point, you have, objectively, made a good decision. But it does mean that you have…
Path of Exile Affliction contends with bugs, crashes, and over 160K concurrent Steam players - Last night, Path of Exile opened the doors to the Affliction league, and with about 24 hours now under the OARPG's belt, it's time for the customary look at how…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 448: The holiday MMO rush begins
The Stream Team: Peeking in on the development progress of Wayfinder
The Stream Team: Watching and live reacting to the reveals of the Game Awards
The Stream Team: A first look at The Wagadu Chronicles
The Stream Team: Demoing co-op puzzle adventure game Islands of Insight
The Stream Team: Operation killing for Kryptis trust in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Making my way back to Elder Scrolls Online’s main quest
The Stream Team: Playing a fantasy one-shot campaign with Conan Exiles mods
The Stream Team: The further leveling adventures of a Final Fantasy XIV Summoner
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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