The MMORPG genre saw two big launches this past week: The Elder Scrolls Online released its Summerset chapter for PC players (to positive reviews!), while Worlds Adrift hit early access (to concerned reviews over its retention-unfriendly PvP system, though Bossa says it’s working on that problem).
Meanwhile, we’re in the calm before the storm for one more night as Bless Online’s early access headstart kicks off tomorrow.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
First impressions of Worlds Adrift: Innovation, Zelda, open-world PvP, and that sinking feeling - Worlds Adrift has been one of those games I've been closely watching but trying not to jump into until it was ready. I tried one of the alpha weekends, and…
The Elder Scrolls Online shares Summerset patch notes, trailer ahead of PC launch - [AL:ESO]You've heard all about the many, many features arriving in The Elder Scrolls Online when Summerset arrives, and it's arriving in force today. (For early access on the PC, anyway.…
The Survivalist: How Aberration saved ARK - It's no secret that plenty of people have felt disappointed by Studio Wildcard, disillusioned by decisions and direction. I was among that crowd. It reached a point where I had to…
LOTRO Legendarium: Why Mordor fails and Northern Mirkwood succeeds - [AL:LOTRO]When Lord of the Rings Online turned its sight toward Mordor, it had been running off of a rather hot streak. Not perfect, mind you, but the past couple of…
Leaderboard: How much time should you put in to become a great player in the typical MMO? - Earlier this week, GIbiz put out a piece on the Shanghai Dragons, the Overwatch League e-sports team representing China. In a letter to fans, the team appears to have inadvertently…
Star Citizen talks legacy armor and science gameplay - Strap on some legacy armor and check out the spiffy new helmet HUDs in Star Citizen, because this week's Around the Verse episode is all about advancements in the game's…
Overwatch climbs to 40 million players on its second birthday but won’t comment on a sequel - Blizzard isn't being shy about touting Overwatch on its second birthday. Not one bit. And you know what birthdays call for in the games industry? That's right: One big honking…
Massively Overthinking: The case for rarity and randomness in MMO monetization - Last week, Guild Wars 2's Crystin Cox gave a monetization interview to Gamasutra during which she made one specific argument I wanted to pull out and re-examine. She was trying…
Meet Ascent: Infinite Realm’s Assassin and Gunslinger - Before you take flight with Ascent: Infinite Realm, you are going to need to choose the best possible class for you. Bluehole gave a tantalizing teaser of the first two…
Data show that battle royale gamers tend to spend more money on games - So, how are battle royale fans different from any other sort of competitive gamer? A recent study put out by market intelligence firm Newzoo finds that they're more dedicated. In…
Funcom Q1 2018 financials: Conan Exiles will be the studio’s ‘bestselling game of all time’ - A year ago, MMO fans were thrilled to find out that Funcom had had its best quarter in ages thanks to the early access launch of Conan Exiles. The first…
Dauntless clocks 1M registered players as it launches its F2P open beta - [AL:DNT]Dauntless has officially launched into open beta as of today. The co-op ARPG is free-to-play and out on PC, so everyone can basically jump right on in and download the…
EverQuest II’s Seeds of Vengeance has launched with a double XP event – go getcher free level 100 toon - [AL:EQ2]Live in EverQuest II today is the long-awaited GU106: Seeds of Vengeance update. As Daybreak's previously noted, the update includes the new Shard of Hate zone, the item examine window…
Star Trek Online sets Deep Space Nine Victory is Life expansion for June 5 as players grumble over newest faction - [AL:STO]Star Trek Online has officially put a launch date on its Deep Space Nine-based expansion, Victory is Life: June 5th, at least for PC. "The Deep Space Nine-themed update takes…
Choose My Adventure: Two milestones at the start in Final Fantasy XI - If I have to summarize, in brief, how much Final Fantasy XI has changed since its launch in the United States? In half an hour before leaving the house I…
Call of Duty swatting murder sees three men charged in federal court - At the end of 2017, a Call of Duty swatting incident in Kansas took the life of a completely innocent man after police killed him following a fake tip to the wrong…
World of Warcraft’s prestige mount in Battle for Azeroth costs nearly $500 - Would you pay $500 to have access to an auction house anywhere in World of Warcraft? Based on the current prices for WoW Tokens, that's what it would cost you…
PlayStation 4 heads into the end of its life cycle, making console MMOs nervous - No console lives forever, although it seems like the more recent generations have enjoyed lengthy runs. Sony delivered some disconcerting news to fans this week as it said that the…
Guild Wars 2 posts small patch, plans Classic Guild Wars retrospective Q&A - [AL:GW2]Guild Wars 2's patch this week isn't a whopper like the balancing patch, but it does fix the nasty event bug in Bugtide Coast that plagued MJ and me during…
Tamriel Infinium: Eight things you need to know before jumping into Elder Scrolls Online’s Summerset - [AL:ESO]Monday, the Elder Scrolls Online's Summerset chapter went live for early access accounts. For the first time since 1994, players can visit the island of Summerset. And needless to say,…
Perfect Ten: The unique pitfalls of licensed MMOs - Making a list of the "biggest" MMOs currently running is always an exercise in frustration. It's easy to put a few things on the list - no one's going to…
Entropia Universe studio wants to let us live on forever inside an MMO – literally - [AL:Calyp]If you're a fan of Altered Carbon or Westworld, you're going to love what MindArk says it's working on: The Entropia Universe studio aims to use the game as a…
Bless Online posts Q&A on pre-loading, regions, and how long founder packs stay up - If you grimace at the idea of getting important game news on Facebook but you still want to know what's up with Bless Online, buckle up buttercup because that's where…
Worlds Adrift admits early-game PvP griefing is a big problem and vows to address it - In Andrew's hands-on with Worlds Adrift published Monday, he expressed some serious concerns over the title's approach to PvP. Even as a hardened sandbox PvP player, he found that the…
Star Wars: The Old Republic doubles your rewards with its latest patch - [AL:TOR]The latest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic is doubling your rewards. Your experience? Doubled. Command XP? Also doubled. Other things? Doubled. Incoming damage? Probably not doubled, because that's…
The Flower of Knighthood has launched a $600,000 Kickstarter, is still discussing female toons - A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about The Flower of Knighthood, a hyper-realistic MMORPG set in the European Middle Ages. And I do mean realistic: There's no hitpoint system;…
Jetpacks woosh into Fortnite, while Epic Games puts $100M toward tournaments - Players can take to the skies in Fortnite today, thanks to Patch 4.2 and the long-awaited introduction of jetpacks. Unsafe? Environmentally unsound? Chaotic? Probably -- but most assuredly fun as…
Bless Online’s monthly subscription puts some countries at a financial disadvantage - The controversial business model of the upcoming Bless Online continues to perplex and disturb potential players. Neowiz posted a list of nine items that will be sold in the game's…
Wild Buster will reboot as Champions of Titan under new owners to get back on Steam - Back in February, Valve took action on MMO studio Insel Games, which published hybrid MMOs Wild Buster and Guardians of Ember, booting the company off Steam having determined that the…
Tencent gains majority stake in Path of Exile’s Grinding Gear Games - [AL:POE]Path of Exiles has a new boss this week. Grinding Gear Games announced that Chinese mega-publisher Tencent has purchased a majority stake in the studio. While this undoubtedly will raise…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 171: Bless you, my subscriber
The Stream Team: ARK’s save the sheep initiative
The Stream Team: A Gigantic step out of the comfort zone
The Stream Team: Opening the gate in Secret World Legends
The Stream Team: Springing into LOTRO’s Spring festival encore
The Stream Team: Bigger and better Conan Exiles builds
The Stream Team: Let’s talk Path of Exile’s buyout by Tencent
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
The pros and cons of each healing class in WoW’s Battle for Azeroth
What path is World of Warcraft on?
Know Your Lore: The Lightbound and High Exarch Yrel
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 little bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
