MassivelyOP’s 2024 Awards: MMO Expansion of the Year

December 30, 2024 11:00 AM

Welcome back to Massively Overpowered’s formal end-of-the-year awards!

Today’s award is for the MMO Expansion of the Year, which was awarded to Guild Wars 2’s Secrets of the Obscure last year. Every major update and expansion to an MMORPG was eligible for this award, as long as it launched in this calendar year. Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

And the MassivelyOP staff pick for the MMO Expansion of 2024 is…

GUILD WARS 2: JANTHIR WILDS

Andy McAdams: WoW The War Within

Brianna Royce: Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds, New World Aeternum. I wasn’t convinced at first by Janthir Wilds; it got me back into Guild Wars 2, but I wound up playing other GW2 content once I finished JW. But it’s in comparison to that other content – especially to SOTO – that JW started to grow on me. The massive pastoral maps especially feel like a return to form for the game after a whole year in the sky, and I’m with MJ – I’ll be thrilled if I never hear the word “rift” again. And while I had plenty of venom for the way New World Aeternum was revealed and marketed, the game itself has never been better, and the console launch was much needed.

Carlo Lacsina: World of Warcraft The War Within. I got chills when I heard about the next cycle of expansions for the game. Moving beyond the well-trodden war between the Alliance and Horde and into something the very soul of Azeroth not only has implications to the lore of the game but acts as a metaphor for WoW and Blizzard as they move forward from the controversies from the last 6-7 years and into a better tomorrow. The plot has a level of allegory and metaphor that elevates it into a higher plane.

Chris Neal: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail. Don’t believe the rancor because this expansion is a great one, especially if you came in to it with the right expectations. Yes, this was never going to match the soaring heights of Endwalker, but it also never tried to shoot that shot, and as I mentioned in my own write-up earlier this year, the story still has some impressive emotional impact. I cannot wait to see where this new story goes.

Eliot Lefebvre: Dawntrail is my personal favorite by a wide margin, but if you’re going to pit Guild Wars 2 against World of Warcraft? One expansion is made by a studio that finally figured out how to not set themselves on fire every other year. The other added housing, thus officially making WoW the last big game to add housing that it rushed to assure us was definitely coming. So that’s an easy pick, and it involves Janthir.

Justin Olivetti: WoW’s The War Within, New World Aeternum. Lots of great expansions this year, no argument there, but WoW’s latest expansion confidently topped the rest of the field with its engaging content, evergreen system growth, the warband system, and a genuine progression path for casuals and soloers with delves. We’re seeing Blizzard learn from its missteps and lay the foundation for a hopefully excellent trilogy of expansions. And I feel a little funny nominating New World Aeternum because of the massive disrespect shown to PC players and the many unforced errors that the studio exhibited. Yet it still brought this excellent MMO to consoles, implemented much-needed quality-of-life improvements, and was a solid performer.

MJ Guthrie: Guild War 2 Janthir Wilds. Besides just getting us out of the mess of rifts in SOTO, Guild War 2’s Janthir Wilds brought housing, a new weapon, a better way to get an adorable journeykin mount (which itself had been improved), and new raids for that end game love. And baby journeykins! And dancing bears! Sorry, this just has to win.

Sam Kash: Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds

Tyler Edwards: WoW’s The War Within is the clear choice here. This is not only the best expansion this year, but unless something calamitous happens over the patch cycle this is on track to be WoW’s best expansion ever. There’s no stumbles, no downside this time. They just nailed it across the board, and most importantly they finally created an endgame that’s truly welcoming of all playstyles.

Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds took our award for MMO Expansion of the Year. What’s your pick?

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How does MassivelyOP choose the winner?

Our team gathers together to nominate and discuss candidates and hopefully settle on a consensus winner. We don’t have a hard vote, but we do include commentary from writers so that you can see our thought process. The site’s award goes to the staff selection, but we’ll include both it and the community’s top nomination in our debrief in January. Reader poll options include all MMO updates nominated plus a few others we thought should be included.