MMO Week in Review: Stars (Wars Galaxies 2) Reach

In my MMO guild, whenever somebody mentions a new game, it’s tradition to absurdly announced that we’re all moving to whatever it is, and right now, it’s oh my god we’re moving 2 SWG2, all thanks to Playable Worlds and Raph Koster’s announcement of Stars Reach this week. Hey, the MMORPG genre deserves good things.

Meanwhile, we got other good things – the early access for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail and Guild Wars 2 fully revealed its housing system – and some bad things too, as we said farewell to ArcheAge and pondered a new theory for New World’s bizarre Aeternum debacle.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Raph Koster’s new MMORPG is called Stars Reach, and yes, it’s basically Star Wars Galaxies 2 - It's June 26th, Star Wars Galaxies' 21st birthday, and I'm sitting on Google Meet talking to none other than MMORPG founding father (and SWG progenitor) Raph Koster about the new…

First Impressions: Tarisland’s interesting gameplay isn’t enough to surmount shoddy temport quality - When we issued our 2024 predictions for the MMORPG genre during our annual year-end articles, I said that Tarisland would be a sleeper hit, mostly because I'm stupid and bad…

Guild Wars 2’s new housing looks like WildStar’s islands plus the old Hall of Monuments - Ever since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2's Janthir Wilds expansion, there's been considerable debate among core Guild Wars 2 players and dedicated MMORPG housing aficionados about just what the game's…

Perfect Ten: The MMORPG terms we use but never define, from murderhobo to sandpark - Over in Vague Patch Notes, I have an ongoing series of columns that I describe as being primarily about having useful notes for us to refer back to. They're ideas…

Vitae Aeternum: A new theory on what went wrong with New World’s 2024 plans - The New World fanbase is still reeling from the fallout over the announcement of its soft relaunch on consoles as New World: Aeternum. Something I'm really struggling with is how…

XLGAMES’ messy masterpiece ArcheAge has officially sunsetted - Back in April, we got the sad but not entirely unexpected news that XLGAMES had decided to sunset the remains of ArcheAge, including the western version of the game that…

WoW Factor: MMORPG raiding is not special - You all remember The Incredibles, right? I know that these days the hot take is to try to spin the film as some sort of revanchist Randian take on superheroes,…

Neverwinter announces Mountain of Flame module, coming July 16 - Where my Neverwinter peeps at? Cryptic's Dungeons and Dragons MMO has a big announcement for you today: It's announcing its next season and update, dubbed Mountain of Flame. It heads…

Four Winds: Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact, and the burgeoning gacha gaming industry - In the early days of the pandemic, I spent a lot of time covering the then newly released Genshin Impact. The first piece was an article about how the game…

Massively Overthinking: How ‘massively multiplayer’ do we expect MMORPGs to be? - Earlier in June on the MOP Podcast, Justin and I took a stab at answering the age-old question of what, exactly, constitutes an MMO. If you're hoping for a concrete…

Vague Patch Notes: Many kinds of challenge and many kinds of fun in MMOs - Earlier this week, MOP's Bree and I were discussing my plans in Final Fantasy XIV as part of the Dawntrail early access launch. Now, needless to say I have a…

Final Fantasy XIV posts its brand-new Tural tourism site ahead of Dawntrail’s early access - Some companies, when given a large enough marketing budget, make some commercials and promotional materials that seem oddly disconnected from the spirit of the game. Final Fantasy XIV, by contrast,…

Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis preps a 12th anniversary, in-game card game, and new weapons for July - Wait, didn't Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis already celebrate an anniversary? Yes, but that was the third anniversary for NGS specifically; the month of July will be marking the…

Star Wars Galaxies is 21 years old today as the rogue server community marches onward - Well well well, look who's finally able to go drinking in all the states: Star Wars Galaxies is turning 21 today, having originally launched on June 26th, 2003. Incidentally, we…

First impressions of ASKA, Sand Sailor’s brand-new colony-building survival sandbox - Thanks to the press preview hosted by Thunderful and Sand Sailor, I recently had the opportunity to play around with survival sandbox ASKA a few days before it entered early…

Tarisland opens its first 10-player raid boss, readies a new instance and bug fixes in next patch - We are now officially into the post-launch content patch season of Tarisland. Even as the MMORPG has initially unimpressed our staff, Tencent is pushing forward with new additions and updates…

Final Fantasy XIV fans assemble 300 fans to play an Endwalker tribute medley - As of this point, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is officially done. The game is down for maintenance for 48 hours for the early access for Dawntrail starting on Friday. But…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with The First Descendant, plus a chat with the Nexon devs - You thought our Summer Game Fest coverage was over, didn't you? Well, in all fairness, Nexon not only brought The First Descendant to SGF but provided a post-event code to check out…

Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds teases housing, planetary governance, and languages for the unnamed MMORPG sandbox - It's pretty clear now that Raph Koster and Playable Worlds are not just counting down to something dumb and we're going to get something big when the team runs out…

Pokemon Company’s threat of potential legal action against Palworld appears to have fizzled out - During the height of Palworld's popularity, gamers threw a lot of accusations in the direction of developer Pocket Pair, claiming plagiarism of Pokemon's designs that have been assessed by legal…

Fractured’s latest early access patch adds an optional sub, token exchange, and cosmetic perks - As promised, Fractured Online is rolling out patch B.2.1 today. It's got a low-key name, but it's a pretty sizable offering out of the early access MMORPG sandbox, as it…

War Thunder apologizes for accidentally using imagery of the Challenger shuttle disaster for its keyart - While there were plenty of things to pay attention to in War Thunder's recently released Seek and Destroy update, players were paying attention to something else that ended up being…

Fight or Kite: Battle Crush is a snack-sized take on the mythological battle royale scene - Imagine taking a bit of the theme from SMITE (really the only good part about SMITE in my estimation), the common battle royale grab-and-go looting and ring of death you…

Corepunk preps for an early July alpha test with some massive changes - The next bout of testing for mixed genre Corepunk is almost upon us, as studio Artificial Core prepares a third alpha test to run from July 1st through 7th. It…

Mad World is offline thanks to a ‘major system failure’ just a week from its sunset - Earlier this month, we learned the sad news that Mad World was destined for sunset, as developer Jandisoft was giving up on the game just over a year after launch…

Final Fantasy XIV posts the preliminary patch notes for Dawntrail - There are just a couple of days remaining before Final Fantasy XIV players will be heading on a boat to reach the land of Tural in Dawntrail during the game's…

Sigh, yes, a man tried to bludgeon another man with a hammer IRL over ArcheAge - File this one under "why we can't have nice things:" Yahoo reported last night that a feud in ArcheAge went way too far, as a man has been arrested and…

Second Life celebrates 21 years of operation with town halls, music events, and exhibitor showcase - While techbros on some serious stuff dream about a metaverse (or more specifically how to turn it into a monetizable hellscape), Second Life has arguably been doing the metaverse thing…

Wisdom of Nym: MOP’s last-minute prep checklist for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - You have two days left to get your prep work done for Final Fantasy XIV's next expansion, and in case there's some stuff you have still forgotten or have not…

Blue Protocol’s fate up in the air after Bandai Namco Online declares insolvency - It's probably wise for us to severely ratchet down any expectations or hopes of seeing a triumphant release of Blue Protocol in the year 2024. At this point, the signs…

Throne & Liberty KR showcases updates to progression, new activities, a new region, and artifact system - Earlier this week, NCSoft brought a four hour-long smorgasbord of information out of Throne & Liberty's Korean version, with devs hosting a TL meet-up showcase that outlined multiple updates and…

Guild Wars 2’s land spears beta is officially underway – even for F2P accounts - As promised, Guild Wars 2 is offering MMORPG players who maybe aren't about to be preoccupied with something else all weekend a taste of Janthir Wilds thanks to its beta…

Anarchy Online gets a nod from Funcom on the occasion of its 23rd birthday - While last year saw an in-game celebration for Anarchy Online's 22nd birthday, so far there hasn't been much more than a brief acknowledgement from the studio that the long-lived scifi…

Kickstarted MMO Fractured Online to fully launch on July 24th - While an official launch date is cause for celebration under normal circumstances, it seems doubly so for the rough road that MMO sandbox Fractured Online has experienced. After being Kickstarted…

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail’s early access sees predictable queues, emerging issues - Final Fantasy XIV's latest expansion, Dawntrail, is weathering its first day of early access. And as with all weather, there are sunny patches and nasty downpours. Probably the worst (if…

Amazon Games shares its long focus approach while saying that the Lord of the Rings MMO is ‘not too far away’ - It can be pretty easy to assume that the strategy of Amazon Games is to throw handfuls of anything at the wall to see what sticks, but according to a…

Heidel Ball 2024: The streets of the real Heidel of Black Desert - [AL:BDO]Have you ever wandered around an interesting or beautiful area in a game and wished that you could traverse such a locale in real life? I have! So when Pearl…

Star Wars: The Old Republic celebrates its first year under Broadsword’s banner - Star Wars: The Old Republic's streamlined dev team faces the daunting task to keep the game looking active and healthy as it crosses its one-year anniversary with Broadsword this month.…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 474: Taking Tarisland to task

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming goes solo mining in Deep Rock Galactic

The Stream Team: Bunny-based roguelike raiding in Rabbit & Steel

The Stream Team: Prized Possessions of Guild Wars 2’s Heart of Thorns

The Stream Team: Returning to co-op FPS Starship Troopers Extermination

The Stream Team: Finding a Needle in a Fey Stack in Dungeons & Dragons Online

The Stream Team: Peeking in to the tiny battle royale brawler Battle Crush

The Stream Team: A newly minted Viper arrives to Final Fantasy XIV’s roulettes

The Stream Team: Touring Heidel in Black Desert and real life

The Stream Team: Payback in AQ3D’s Deep Grotto dungeon

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.