As a counterpoint tradition to last night’s tossing of all the reasons we can’t have nice things into the metaphorical bonfire that ended 2025, we present you this morning the warm fuzzies list – that is, our list of all the stories we binned under the “warm fuzzies” category because they actually added something positive and constructive and happy to the genre. They’re not all happy stories, mind you; for example, for every charity post, there’s a tragedy under the surface. But MMORPG gamers and studios found a way to make it tug at our heartstrings.
More of these in 2026, please.
World of Warcraft is adding a third tribute to Mats ‘Ibelin’ Steen in the form of an NPC in patch 11.1
Warframe studio Digital Extremes donated $10000 to support California wildfire relief efforts
Riot Games, still closed in LA thanks to the wildfires, opens aid fundraisers in Valorant and League of Legends
Activision releases charitable cosmetic bundles in Call of Duty games to benefit LA fire relief
Blizzard donated one million dollars to a relief charity supporting California wildfire victims
Black Desert starts new arena season on PC and new high-tier content on mobile as players raise $70K for charity
There’s a Final Fantasy XI zine on Kickstarter right now for your Vana’diel nostalgia tour
Neverwinter Nights persistent world Arelith hits a new player concurrency record after 22 years
Guild Wars 2, Overwatch 2 compensate players for recent tech and sale bungles
Conan Exiles is selling an exclusive art print to benefit LA firefighters through February 6
World of Warcraft’s charity fox raises over $2 million for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research
Project Gorgon’s Sandra Powers is memorialized in World of Warcraft – twice
Team Fortress 2 updates its SDK to effectively make the shooter highly moddable and customizable
Star Citizen fans have put together a size comparison of in-game planets and real-world ones
Wholesomeness alert: Sky Children of the Light has a spring-themed collab with The Little Prince
Marvel Heroes’ emulator project has a playable test server in Project T.A.H.I.T.I.
Riot Games asks gamers to join it in donating for Myanmar earthquake relief
ZeniMax Workers United, the Fallout and Elder Scrolls QA union, has voted to authorize a strike
Obituary: Bill Petras, art director for original World of Warcraft and Overwatch, passes away
Albion Online’s longtime game director, Robin Henkys, is stepping down
Overwatch 2 devs discuss how they effectively create and portray disabled characters
Guild Wars 1’s community is organizing a massive 20th anniversary playthrough
Aloft celebrates 200,000 copies sold by donating to protect rainforests in honor of Earth day
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen devs mark the passing of Brad McQuaid with memorial messages
A YouTuber chronicles his 30-day journey to find players and throw a party in ‘dead’ social MMO There
Sandbox MMORPG BitCraft hopes to ‘democratize MMO development’ by going open-source
Embers Adrift is finally live on Steam months after being screwed over by its payment processor
Diablo IV’s team has added over 50 accessibility features, from pings to a screen reader
Internet Road Trip invites you to pile into a virtual car with hundreds of opinionated drivers
Modders put out a call to help rebuild and revive a Borderlands MMO that released only in China
ZeniMax QA workers reach tentative contract agreement with Microsoft after nearly two years
Pride events, player celebrations, and support nods begin across multiplayer and MMORPG titles
RuneScape fans push back against Jagex’s abrupt abandonment of Pride with their own events
World of Tanks plans Twitch drops and weekend missions for Tankfest 2025
The modder trying to revive the Chinese Borderlands MMO hopes to have it playable before July
Lord of the Rings Online’s Great Hobbit Run finally makes it to Mount Doom in a six-hour race
Blaugust 2025 is gearing up once again for the MMO blogging community
The Borderlands MMO resurrection team has finally revived a functioning build for the game
MMORPG Loftia hasn’t even launched and its devs already have a theoretical end-of-life preservation plan
Daybreak kicks off Extra Life 2025 fundraising efforts with loot for EverQuest and EverQuest II donors
Elder Scrolls Online will fundraise for a pet charity at QuakeCon – there’s a minipet pup in it for you
Dune Awakening players have successfully found Ben and ensured that his base’s power is on
Fallen Earth Classic has finally booted back up after half a year offline
Unionized QA workers at Raven Software secure labor contract with Microsoft after three years
EverQuest Online Adventures Sandstorm rogue server adds in tradeskills and fishing
EVE Online begins an open test of updates to rendering and internet ship position tech
Adorable desktop widget Bongo Cat introduces ‘co-op meowtiplayer’ that lets up to 100 Steam friends bongo together
YouTuber sparks a minor revival of Dark Ages, an obscure Nexon MMO from 1999
Fans of The Crew 1 have tied down a release date for emulator The Crew Unlimited
Legends of Aria custom server Shards of Britannia is now testing a newbie island
Community-driven Internet Road Trip makes it back to the USA after bot attacks and 18K miles
Former Project Blackbird developers band together to found – wait for it – Sackbird Studios
Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet is fundraising for Extra Life 2025, promising to match $25,000 in player contributions
More Blizzard workers unionize as the World of Warcraft housing stress test opened (briefly)
Guild Wars 1 and 2 fans are putting on their own Halloween festival, the 20-year-old Horrorween
WildStar’s composer makes the game soundtrack available once more
RIFT’s community is organizing a fresh reroll event starting this Friday – here’s how to join in
City of Heroes Homecoming players host a contest for creating missions to help mid-level players
World of Warcraft’s legendary Ibelin story will ascend in a new film starring Anthony Hopkins
Lord of the Rings Online player posts epic video of a 10-hour trek from the Shire to Mordor
RuneScape officially ends lockbox monetization January 19 with a suite of 2026 revamps
Classic Guild Wars announces hi-res ‘Reforged’ update with SteamDeck and controller compatibility
EVE Online devs will livestream inside of an Icelandic lava cave today to promote Catalyst
DC Universe Online applies sweeping updates to the water powerset, raises over $8K for Extra Life
PvP MMORPG Gloria Victis is apparently coming back from its sunset after two years
ARC Raiders booby traps rooms to literally roast exploiters – happy holidays!
Fan revival of multiplayer RPG The Last Stand: Dead Zone gets official license from original creator
Warframe’s Tennobaum kicks off with players giving gifts to support charity
Arc Games finally confirms it acquired Cryptic, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, and yes, the teams behind them
World of Warcraft players have built everything from robots to Safeways on their housing plots
ArenaNet will mark 25 years with a special documentary about the making of Guild Wars
