This week, CCP stunned pretty much everyone by selling off White Wolf and the Vampire: The Masquerade IP, including all of its work on the World of Darkness MMO, which it canceled last year. Paradox, to which CCP sold White Wolf, wasted no time teasing new projects, though precisely what mix of “multiplayer co-op” we might expect remains to be seen.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions, and don’t forget that Halloween festivities continue in many games for a few more days or weeks!
GUILD WARS 2: HEART OF THORNS
Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launch diary: How to fix an expansion iteratively - I know I promised you an entry that focused on the changes to the in-game economy as my next installment to the Heart of Thorns launch diary, but a juicy post went live last night on the Guild Wars…
ArenaNet is tweaking Guild Wars 2’s elite specialization system - ArenaNet's Colin Johanson says that the firm is updating Guild Wars 2 to reflect feedback received from players who are digging into the recent Heart of Thorns expansion. He says that the new endgame mastery system…
Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launch diary: Gaining masteries and lessening the grind - I've had the whole weekend with Heart of Thorns now, and I'm progressing very nicely in both the story and masteries. I've still yet to unlock an elite specialization, but I'm not actively chasing Hero Points at…
Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launch diary: Initial impressions - I've now put a solid day of playtime into Heart of Thorns, so I decided that it was finally time for the first of my launch diaries. There's so much to talk about and many features or elements…
SWTOR: KNIGHTS OF THE FALLEN EMPIRE
SWTOR subscriptions rose by a third after KOTFE’s reveal - [AL:TOR]EA's financials are looking "great," the company boasted in its latest quarterly report, thanks in part to its sports franchises, Star Wars Battlefront, and even Star Wars: The Old Republic. "Star Wars: The Old Republic subscribers increased…
Hyperspace Beacon: Spoiler-filled impressions of SWTOR Knights of the Fallen Empire - [AL:TOR]By now, everyone who was in early access for Knights of the Fallen Empire has played through the story at least once. If not, what are you waiting for? Don't you know how amazing it is?…
SWTOR: Knights of the Fallen Empire officially launches - [AL:TOR]"The galaxy as we knew it is gone," a familiar voice says in Star Wars: The Old Republic's latest trailer. And so the latest chapter of the SWTOR saga begins, as Knights of the Fallen Empire…
SWTOR: Knights of the Fallen Empire and the illusion of choice - [AL:TOR]Knights of the Fallen Empire, the latest expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, launched early access today, and SWTOR fans are elated. They have been waiting for months, wondering why this expansion was so important…
First impressions: SWTOR’s Knights of the Fallen Empire delivers - [AL:TOR]For the last few days, I have been playing the Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire. My expectations going into this expansion were low. I believed it would just be more…
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
The Park is not single-player The Secret World, but it might be even better - Let's just put our cards on the table: The Park is not the single-player offering that The Secret World fans have been clamoring for since more or less the dawn of the game. But I think…
Perfect Ten: Ten really great races from MMOs - Here I go, here I go, here I go again. Girls, what's my weakness? Non-human races. But oh, so many MMOs let me down in that department. Now, let's be fair: I greatly enjoy the usual…
LOTRO ushers in the Siege of Minas Tirith - Lord of the Rings Online players have finally made it to one of Middle-earth's most famous metropolises: Minas Tirith. Today the game has released Update 17: The Siege of Minas Tirith, which finds the titular city…
Camelot Unchained’s Scouts sound pretty badass [Updated] - Camelot Unchained has revealed its Scout archetypes, and they are the Arisen, the Wisp, and the Specter. Arisen are "the most powerful of the scouts," due to the sacrifice they make by taking their own life…
Marvel’s All-New, All Different initiative means new Marvel Heroes costumes - Marvel's All-New, All Different initiative is coming to Marvel Heroes. Entertainment Weekly has a new trailer that introduces team-up and character costumes for Spider-Gwen, Jane Foster's Thor, and more. The website says that X-23 and Scarlet…
EVE Vegas 2015: The future of PvE in EVE Online - While the focus of EVE Vegas 2015 was definitely on the new Citadel structures and the capital ship overhaul coming next spring, the topic I've been most frequently asked about by readers is what's on the…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Moral panic and online griefing - Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt’s book The Video Game Debate. As you can guess, the book itself focuses on games in general, not just MMOs and online games, so I was…
The Park promotion stirs controversy in The Secret World - Funcom's cross-promotion between The Park and The Secret World has raised controversy in quarters, with some players accusing the studio of opening the door to pay-to-win practices. The controversy in particular is over a pack of…
Black Desert will start selling pre-orders soon but won’t be having an open beta - While more closed beta tests will be coming before Black Desert's western launch early next year, Daum Games said that it will not be hosting an open beta. In an interview from Paris Games Week, the…
Steam’s Halloween sale includes The Secret World, ARK, and more - This week sees a big Halloween sale over at Steam, which includes several MMOs that you might want to pick up while they're at a discount. The sale ends on November 2nd. Both The Secret World's…
Star Citizen makes major flight model changes for alpha 2.0 - Modeling deep-space flight in Star Citizen involves thinking a lot about vectors, acceleration, and maneuvering thrusters. That's always been the case. The game is updating its flight model significantly in the next stage of development, detailed…
Overwatch knocks down the closed beta door - Heroes, suit up: Overwatch's closed beta test for both North America and Europe is now live. While the test for the superhero-themed multiplayer shooter has commenced, Blizzard said that it is still inviting players in waves, which…
ZeniMax seeks a million reasons to play Elder Scrolls Online - Are there a million reasons to play Elder Scrolls Online? ZeniMax thinks so, which is why it's come up with a new #MillionReasonsToPlay marketing campaign. The firm is spreading its message across its social and community channels, and…
Saga of Lucimia prides itself on group-based teamplay - Soloers, you are not welcome in Saga of Lucimia. At least that's the tone of developer diaries for the upcoming sandbox in which the team boldly asserts that group-based gameplay is the focus of the MMO. "There are…
Champions Online expands team, focuses on endgame - Perfect World and Cryptic Studios are actually expanding Champions Online's team. The companies announced new hire Kaiserin in a state-of-the-game post last night, telling players that she's a long-time community member. Recent updates, the studios report,…
Camelot Unchained’s terrain will adapt to realm control - The latest Camelot Unchained newsletter reveals that taking territory in the game will change more than just what's on the map: The terrain will physically change based on which realm is controlling a given point. This…
Massively Overthinking: Let’s take the classic Bartle test - Here's something you probably didn't know: Online worlds researcher Dr. Richard Bartle didn't actually write the Bartle test. His original research explored, analyzed, and defined the four player archetypes -- killer, socializer, achiever, and explorer -- but…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 35: Expansions galore
The Scream Team: A night in The Park
The Scream Team: Hunting the dead and the DodoRex in ARK: Fear Evolved
The Stream Team: Another date with Devilian
The Scream Team: Having Halloween nightmares in The Secret World
The Scream Team: Hanging out in WildStar’s Halloween dungeon
The Scream Team: Halloween and Haukke Manor in Final Fantasy XIV
The Scream Team: Storming EverQuest II’s Nektropos Castle
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Overwatch for the novice FPS gamer
Nerdist and Michele Morrow cover the lore of Warcraft
How to avoid content droughts in WoW
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 Monday’s Not So Massively for MOBA and multiplayer news, 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.
