MMO Week in Review: Aeternum, Fippyfest, and Equinox

New World has continued to dominate the MMORPG genre conversation all week as Amazon doubled down on insisting it’s now an ARPG and annoying its existing MMORPG playerbase on PC.

But of course, much more happened in our genre this week: Wayfinder is back, EVE Online Equinox launched, we got our hands on Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road in the wild, Aloft caught our eye, Runefest’s return was stymied, Fippyfest brought big news for the EverQuest franchise, and everyone’s gearing up for Tarisland and Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

New World’s new Q&A struggles to explain why a massively multiplayer online RPG isn’t an MMORPG - Amazon's New World Aeternum announcement last Friday did not go to plan, unless getting reviewbombed to oblivion by PC players and confusing mainstream gaming journos into thinking your MMORPG is…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with New World’s controversial Aeternum reboot, which is still an MMORPG - How's everyone recovering from all this New World Aeternum news coming out of Summer Games Fest? It's been kind of a confusing time for me, as I had spent a chunk of…

SGF 2024: Amazon discusses New World Aeternum on console, swimming, solo content, and archetypes - In case there's anyone out there still confused: New World Aeternum is not a single player or co-op game. I know the Summer Game Fest announcement of the "new game" was confusing, frustrating,…

First Impressions: Elder Scrolls Online story, not scribing, is Gold Road’s apex - If you followed my series of Choose My Adventure columns from last month, you'll know that I ended up making Elder Scrolls Online my second home game -- a feat…

Fippyfest 2024: EverQuest and EverQuest II reveal 2024 expansions, Anashti Sul Origins progression server opens June 19 - The celebration of all things EverQuest and EverQuest II that is Fippy Fest 2024 has come to a close, but not without a gaggle of reveals during the opening hour…

SGF 2024: Aloft is a cozy Ghibli-inspired PvE-centric survival sandbox in the sky - When I first heard about Aloft while planning for Summer Games Fest 2024, I figured it would just be a cute multiplayer survival game; with a cap of eight players,…

Wayfinder returns to Steam today with buy-to-play Echoes update and slick new animated feature - Airship Syndicate is putting forth all of the stops to call attention to the return of Wayfinder, as the action RPG has now shifted from a live service game with…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with PvE-centric sci-fi horror survival shooter MMO Once Human - For those who saw Once Human and thought, "Gee, that kind of looks like a mix of H1Z1 and The Secret World," you're not wrong based on what I saw during my hands-on…

LOTRO Legendarium: What will happen when Lord of the Rings Online dies? - You know that old hypothetical of "Would you want to know when you die or would you rather be ignorant of it?" A slightly less morbid version of that is,…

Final Fantasy XIV reveals its Dawntrail launch trailer on the last Live Letter before the expansion - If any Final Fantasy XIV fans were worried about a last-minute Dawntrail delay you can breathe easier after today's Live Letter; director and producer Naoki Yoshida confirmed that everyone is…

Vague Patch Notes: Housing is really back in MMORPGs - I haven't really had anything to say about Guild Wars 2's upcoming Janthir Wilds expansion thus far because... well, I'm not our GW2 columnist, it's not one of my main…

Massively Overthinking: The New World Aeternum debacle - You know that feeling when you can see a trainwreck coming, but you know you can't do anything to stop it or even warn everyone that it's coming? That's how…

EVE Vanguard brings a new map, customizable weapons, and new missions in June 20 test - It's probably been the burning question on the lips of those who have been playing EVE Vanguard: When will the FPS hold its next test? We now all have an…

Pax Dei bluntly outlines what it is – and is not – ahead of next week’s early access release - In a world where games have waffled about their MMO-ness, the devs at Mainframe Industries have made it very clear what kind of gameplay to expect in Pax Dei -…

With June patch inbound, Project Gorgon is safe and will see content through at least early 2025 - Project Gorgon got a lot of attention at the tail end of last year, owing to the fact that its husband-and-wife dev team - the latter of whom has been…

World of Warcraft general manager John Hight leaves Blizzard ‘to explore new opportunities and challenges’ - The World of Warcraft team and Blizzard at large has seen another one of its long-standing senior devs leave the company. After 12 years, general manager John Hight announced on…

‘Multiplayer conquest adventure’ MMO Havenhold readies an alpha test for next week - If you like a good dose of martial arts with side portions of PvP and coop PvE, then we're here to put Havenhold on your radar. This "multiplayer conquest adventure"…

Star Citizen suspends over 600 accounts over ‘illicitly gained’ credits earned thanks to an exploit - It would appear that some mass gold duping was going on in Star Citizen recently as a result of an exploit found within the recently released alpha 3.23.1 patch, which…

MapleStory’s ‘exclusive, localized updates’ begin with this week’s Go West content patch - MapleStory has been making a lot of noise about the fact that its western version will be completely separate from the Korean version, starting with its earlier presented two-part Go…

Guild Wars 2 details spear techniques for Warriors, Thieves, and Engineers - The next Guild Wars 2 expansion has the wrong date listed because Janthir Wilds should obviously be coming out in October. Why? So you can have a Spear-It Halloween, of…

Lost Ark’s roadmap heralds dungeon and raid solo mode, T4, and the North Kurzan continent - Lost Ark's really been churning out the content previews this week; just yesterday, Amazon's video on the June content blast was making apologies for the roadmap not being out. Well,…

Fight or Kite: 33 Immortals continues the trend of pseudo-MMO gaming - Even given the general pullback in the games industry from using the term MMO, I sure am noticing a bunch of other games that have drawn a whole ton of…

Tarisland showcases its gender-unlocked female Paladin, promises better community management - Today's Tarisland teaser video is a bit of good news bad news: It's good because it shows off the female Paladin (including her shiny boots, for some reason), a newly…

Perfect Ten: MMOs where you travel back in time for some reason - We're all time travelers! We travel to the future at the rate of one second per second. Every single machine you will ever operate is a time machine because it…

Dungeons and Dragons Online’s Myth Drannor expansion is coming next month - Clearly, Summer 2024's theme is "Let's see how much MMO stuff we can pack into three months!" Joining this effort is Dungeons and Dragons Online, which aims to have its…

‘I have to run a sustainable business’ – Microsoft’s Phil Spencer addresses layoffs and studio shutdowns - Some new statements out of Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer during this year's IGN Live gaming presentation can be absorbed as either admission of the burdens of leadership or a whole…

Hands-on with V Rising: PC vs. PS5, multiplayer, and progression impressions - You might think given the last few pieces I've written that I might have a thing for vampires. I vehemently deny this. It is pure coincidence that I recently purchased…

Fallout 76 expands its game map to the south with today’s Skyline Valley update - What's happened to Shenandoah National Park in the aftermath of nuclear war? Players of Fallout 76 get to find out as the new Skyline Valley content update is going live…

WoW Factor: The streak The War Within needs to break for World of Warcraft - On November 13th, 2008, World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was released to an eager population. The prior expansion, The Burning Crusade, had been well-received across…

SGF 2024: Monster Hunter Wilds is a dynamic Worlds-like game - Guys. Guys. GUYS! I am so excited about Monster Hunter Wilds. I don't own a console that can play it, and I haven't enjoyed any PC port of an MH title to date, but…

Pax Dei releases new in-engine trailer, talks about its business model and housing plots - Last night, Mainframe Industries dropped another new trailer for MMORPG sandbox Pax Dei, showcasing its gorgeous characters and world - admittedly, in all their pop-in glory. There's no narration, so…

Tarisland has officially launched in China ahead of next week’s global rollout - Even though Tarisland's big global debut isn't scheduled until next week, Tencent's anticipated fantasy MMO already launched in its target country of China. The studio reported that the game is…

SGF 2024: Path of Exile 2 is fun and satisfying, but it’s still no cakewalk - MJ is MOP's resident Path of Exile person, and I'm sure she'll get the core-fans some red meat once she gets her hands on the new build, but since I…

SGF 2024: Ubisoft unveils new content for The Crew Motorfest, Skull & Bones, and The Division 2 - The final breathless gasp of this year's Summer Game Fest presentations has occurred, as multiple days' worth of gaming showcases has ended with Ubisoft Forward and the developer's update plans…

Progress Bar: Wayfinder is in a much better place as an offline game - Normally we're the sort of gamers who advocate for more MMOs and multiplayer games, not less. We're also all about games being preserved. Therein lies some of the conflict that…

EVE Online: Equinox launches today with a rejuvenated nullsec - EVE Online's big summer expansion, Equinox, is here to "rejuvenate nullsec" and give players some new ships to enjoy. To celebrate, CCP is granting all players seven free days of…

SGF 2024: FragPunk is a 5v5 hero shooter from NetEase featuring power-up cards that ‘bend the rules of combat’ - It's a widely held belief that competitive team shooters must achieve a perfect sense of balance, tuning weapons, abilities, maps, and mechanics in a never-ending chase for gameplay harmony and…

Wisdom of Nym: Looking for support in Final Fantasy XIV - Final Fantasy XIV does not have a support role... technically. People have been asking for a dedicated support role for years, of course; people always ask for a dedicated support…

SGF 2024: Airship sandbox Echoes of Elysium releases new trailer about the fun of sky captaincy - Ready to take to the virtual skies in your own hand-crafted airship? After its initial reveal earlier this spring, Echoes of Elysium is making a pitch for the attention of…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with NetEase’s team shooter Marvel Rivals - There are lots of Summer Games Fest embargos still in place and more coming this week, but fortunately NetEase's Marvel Rivals is something I can talk about immediately. I don't want…

Stormforge is a new multiplayer survival sandbox inspired by D&D and The Stormlight Archive - Among the new multiplayer games announced this weekend during not-E3 is a fresh "open-world fantasy survival crafting game" called Stormforge (you might have heard of it back when the team…

LOTRO Legendarium: Is Lord of the Rings Online’s new birding hobby a flight of fancy? - My father-in-law is an obsessive birdwatcher. He took it up as a hobby a few years ago, and now he travels all over the country looking for specific, hard-to-find fowl…

Jagex postpones RuneScape’s in-person RuneFest event after showrunner company implodes - If you're a RuneScape fan who was looking forward to the return of the in-person RuneFest this year after its four year-long hiatus, we unfortunately have some bad news to…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 472: Guild Wars 2 and New World’s wild ride

The Stream Team: How is Gigantic’s Rampage Edition doing?

The Stream Team: Searching for info on the needle of Hyrsam in DDO

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming previews Nexon’s The First Descendant

The Stream Team: Hopping into the multiplayer raid roguelike of Rabbit & Steel

The Stream Team: Bash the demon, smash the demon in Guild Wars 2

The Stream Team: SWTOR’s Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival event

The Stream Team: On the path to AQ3D’s new Oracle class

The Stream Team: Boss beat down for better building in V Rising

The Stream Team: Back to Bozja Southern Front 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.