Last night, we offered up our traditional list of all the reasons we can’t have nice things in the MMO genre and digitally roasted them in our New Year’s Eve bonfire. Not really, though. We need those posts for posterity. But this morning, it’s worth remembering that this genre is a nice place to be, actually.
As we chronicle in MJ’s Massively Uplifting and our “warm fuzzies” category, this genre plays host to some incredible gamers and devs, generous charities, touching tributes, and player contributions, and it’s important that we never lose sight of that even when we’re shining a spotlight on its deepest shames. So to usher in 2024, we’re recapping some of the happy MMO stories that 2023 delivered to us and the rest of the gaming community, from that time players saved a game whose dev was sick to the time gamers raised truckloads of money for earthquake relief in Türkiye.
Happy New Year, everyone. May our 2024 warm fuzzies list far exceed the bad one!
Microsoft’s ZeniMax QA just formed the largest games industry union in the country
Halo Infinite gets Skyrim’s Whiterun as a player-created map
Final Fantasy XIV is among the games showcased at Awesome Games Done Quick charity speedrunning marathon
Evony’s community mourns the death of a beloved player after begging police to investigate
Star Citizen’s player-run Daymar Rally wraps up, CIG preps Squadron 42 monthly report and returning videos
The Daily Grind: When has an MMO community impressed you?
PUBG Battlegrounds’ Krafton Türkiye donates $100,000 to earthquake relief
Final Fantasy XIV suspends European housing demolition in wake of Turkiye, Syria earthquakes
Bungie and Destiny 2 players have raised $150,000 for earthquake aid in Turkiye and Syria
EVE Online leverages its PLEX for Good charitable drive to aid earthquake victims in Turkiye and Syria
EverQuest Online Adventures fans toast the console MMO’s 20th anniversary
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight sees its first level 70 character that has never left the boat to Exile’s Reach
Lord of the Rings Online is adding the infamous wayward rock as housing deco
Artifact Krewe, a Guild Wars 2 exploration fan game, is out now
RuneScape will be getting quest list filtering and sorting updates thanks to a game jam test
EVE Online players raised over $26K to benefit earthquake victims in Turkiye and Syria
Korean Elyon fans have already created a rogue server of the shuttered MMORPG
Lord of the Rings Online players are putting on a 30-person adaptation of Sondheim’s Into the Woods this weekend
Destiny 2 actor Lance Reddick was an active player of the game right before his passing
Guild Wars 2’s ArenaNet named Extra Life Partner of the Year for its 2022 April quest and $253K fundraise
Red Cross launches an initiative that challenges FPS players to follow real-world humanitarian laws of war
World of Warships announces a collab with Popeye the Sailor Man in support of World Ocean Month
Original Guild Wars maps can be explored outside of the game thanks to a community project
Dungeons and Dragons Online creates a memorial for a late developer, preps the next hardcore season
World of Warships brings back Longest Night of Museums event this week
Top Pokémon Go community site The Silph Road calls it quits after seven years
Toontown Rewritten’s fan festival will host original Toontown Online devs on panel
Annoyed with LOTRO’s scaling and launcher issues? An MMO dev has tips for solving them yourself
Star Wars The Old Republic players hold in-game vigil to commemorate the passing of actor Ray Stevenson
World of Warships kicks off ocean conservation charity collab with Popeye for Force Blue
Trove joins the Green Game Jam with in-game initiative to clean up trash from land and sea
Warframe celebrates Pride Month with a charitable donation and fan-made cosmetics
SWG Legends launches Empire Day, plus check out this player’s amazing Star Wars Galaxies swag collection
Final Fantasy XIV fan builds Eorguessr to let you guess where spots are throughout the game
Destiny 2 kicks off fishing rally in Savathun’s Throne World, preps charitable Giving Festival
Massively Uplifting: Spring and summer philanthropy and farewells in MMOs
Destiny 2 applies mid-season balance adjustments for weapons and kicks off the Bungie Day charity drive
Workers at SEGA America officially form their own multi-department union after supermajority vote win
Lord of the Rings Online’s player concert jam Weatherstock returns for its 15th year
Blaugust returns for its 10th year of MMO blogging – here’s how you (yes you) can participate
The Daily Grind: What was the most wholesome thing a stranger did for you in an MMO?
All hail Glorbo: The WoW community baited and trapped AI scrapers with a Reddit prank
Star Wars The Old Republic gets another canon nod, this time from an official comic issue
Revisit Lord of the Rings Online’s Weatherstock XV player mega-concert
World of Warcraft introduces new charity pets to support BlueCheck Ukraine
Glorbo lives on thanks to the mischievous scamps in the Destiny 2 community
Lord of the Rings Online players are putting on a ‘summer musical review’ this weekend
Elite Dangerous Update 16 adds a mystery feature, squashes multiple bugs, and pays tribute to a former dev
Obituary: Beloved Pantheon Rise of the Fallen customer service rep passes away after a vehicle accident
Blizzard champions Undaunted, a World of Warcraft guild for hearing-impaired players
This WoW Classic addon adds AI-generated voiceover to every quest NPC in the game
SMITE runs charity sale to aid Maui wildfire relief efforts
The Pokémon Company is donating $200,000 to Hawaii in the wake of wildfires
A Fortnite player has made an MMORPG-like raid boss fight within the shooter’s creative mode
Hawaii-centered Fractured Veil pitches in with disaster relief following last week’s wildfires
Warframe’s Digital Extremes joins other studios in raising funds for Hawaii wildfire relief
Hamilton Simulator lets Roblox players defeat the British with official songs from the musical
Bungie and Destiny 2 players empower relief for Hawaii with fundraising campaign
Pirates Online rogue server operators open an archive that preserves assets from Pirates of the Caribbean Online
Final Fantasy XIV puts its voice actors to the ultimate test of assembling an anniversary cake
WoW Classic shares ‘gruesome data’ from hardcore’s first week
SWGEmu celebrates Star Wars Galaxies’ 20th birthday year with a tribute video
14-year-old golf MMO Sega Splash Golf is slowly being reassembled by one dedicated fan
You’ve Got Flail: New World’s flail ability names deliver a smorgasbord of puns and dad jokes
A multiplayer Bluey videogame is coming to PC and console in November, and your kids want it
Terraria dev commits $200,000 plus monthly donations to open-source engine Unity rivals
Destiny 2 wrestles with overpowered crafted weapons and DDoS attacks
EVE Fanfest 2023: EVE players will help cure cancer with new Project Discovery minigame
The Cycle Frontier sunsets today as studio YAGER says goodbye to players, literally
World of Warships debuts a Captain’s Club benefits program as Wargaming donates to Maui wildfire relief
A Final Fantasy XIV player snagged 100% of the game’s achievements… just before the 6.5 patch
TennoCon and DragonCon raised over $200K apiece for charity this summer
Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is an adorable free-to-play ‘multiplayer pumpkin carving simulator’
World of Warcraft’s charity pets for Ukraine raise more than $1.5 million
EverQuest, Guild Wars 2, LOTRO, and more fundraise for this year’s Extra Life push
Wargaming launches multiple charitable bundles for its slate of titles to benefit Ukraine
Diablo IV wants your actual blood – for a good cause, of course
Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs as Saturday morning cartoons
Final Fantasy XIV puts together a highlight reel from this year’s London Fanfest
Former SWTOR lead Damion Schubert urges devs to prioritize accessibility in MMOs
EverQuest II celebrates 19th birthday and $216K Extra Life fundraising with in-game events
MMO Week in Review: How to help Project Gorgon and its devs
Project Gorgon, buffered by player donations, has been spared from maintenance mode – for now
Massively Uplifting: MMO gratitude, goodness, and giving, from Elder Scrolls Online to Guild Wars 2
Kind Words 2 expands multiplayer note-writing into a real social sandbox
Final Fantasy XIV fans recreate the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in the game
The Daily Grind: What’s a small piece of MMO news from 2023 that makes you happy?
Valve issues gift-wrapped permabans to Dota 2 cheaters and smurfs this holiday season
War Thunder player goes undercover and busts cheating source code and scripts
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