Last week was another giant week for the MMO genre. Landmark finally launched, WildStar rolled on out to Steam, we weighed in on The Elder Scrolls Online’s Dark Brotherhood DLC, Star Citizen finally pushed alpha 2.4 live, we previewed The Secret World’s upcoming patch, FFXIV and Neverwinter both patched… oh yeah, and the Warcraft movie made its big US debut.
More weeks like this, please.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls Online’s Dark Brotherhood DLC is sublime, brother - Well, folks, this is it. This is the way that The Elder Scrolls Online should have launched. As MOP's own Bree Royce says on today's Massively OP podcast, MMOs do…
Nostalrius team believes Blizzard ‘want[s] to have legacy WoW servers’ - The World of Warcraft vanilla emulator team Nostalrius, which undertook a mission into the depths of Blizzard's HQ this past weekend, has returned and posted a report on its adventures.…
Chaos Theory: An exclusive look at The Secret World’s Museum of the Occult opening June 15 - When Game Director Romain Amiel first revealed the Museum of the Occult for The Secret World, you better believe I was excited. I wanted mounts, and the game gave me…
SWTOR trailer reveals ‘The GEMINI Deception’ as next update - [AL:TOR]BioWare has just revealed the details of Star Wars: The Old Republic's next content date and the next chapter in the ongoing Knights of the Fallen Empire campaign: It's called…
Cryptic’s Jack Emmert now heads up DCUO at Daybreak Austin - Jack Emmert, known to MMORPG players chiefly for his role as co-founder of Cryptic Studios, has been appointed CEO of Daybreak's -- yes, that Daybreak -- Austin studio, according to…
Happy Steam launch day, WildStar - WildStar is officially live on Steam now as announced earlier this week. Carbine is kicking off the launch with the return of the Space Chase event, which runs until June…
Guild Wars 2’s Bobby Stein says raids won’t gate main story progress - ArenaNet's Narrative Lead Bobby Stein has hit the Guild Wars 2 forums to address some of the concerns raised this week when a forum mod suggested raids might be a…
Superdata: WoW, Lineage, SWTOR, TERA, and Blade & Soul top April P2P online games revenues - Superdata has a new seasonal report out on the state of the digital games market. The research firm's April figures show that World of Warcraft once again dominates the pay-to-play…
WoW dev vows ‘richer patch content lineup for Legion’ - More news is emerging from the Blizzard summit in Irvine this week. Kotaku's World of Warcraft interview touches on a number of topics, including Nostalrius and legacy servers (not much…
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs with distinct visual styles - Given the choice, I am always going to pick a game with stylized graphics over realistic ones. This is for many reasons; it's partly because "realistic" so frequently means "bland…
Star Citizen’s alpha 2.4 is live on the PTU for all backers with first iteration of persistence - Heads up, Star Citizens: alpha 2.4 is finally on Star Citizen's public test test server for all backers, not just the elite few. [Update: Now it's off the PTU and on…
Camelot Unchained shows environmental art, teases major announcement - Camelot Unchained fans know that there's always a lot to unpack from each week's lengthy newsletters. And while there's a lot to chew on from this Friday's report, perhaps the…
Paragon plans major gameplay overhaul, August 16 open beta - Epic has announced that "free open beta" for its gritty MOBA Paragon will begin on August 16th. Two letters to the community today suggest that radical changes are on the…
Age of Conan’s revamped item shop draws ire from players - Cash shops are pretty much a standard feature in most MMORPGs these days, whether you like them or not. It's always a tricky balancing act for studios to figure out…
Lord of the Rings Online reveals new raid bosses, starts spring festival - [AL:LOTRO]Like the tides and fashion, raids in MMOs fall in and out of popularity in any given title. Lord of the Rings Online has had a long and bumpy road…
The Division subtracts 30,000 cheaters from its playerbase - Cheaters are not wanted in The Division. They're not wanted in any game, really, but Ubisoft is taking a harder line against cheaters by taking action against 30,000 accounts. This…
ArcheAge makes it (temporarily) safer to regrade gear, drama llamas come out to play - [AL:Arche]One of ArcheAge's more... interesting features is its gear upgrade system. In short, it's a risky proposition to "regrade" gear because it costs money, it doesn't always work, and in…
Funcom releases Conan Exiles gameplay trailer, plans September early access - Funcom has just released the Conan Exiles trailer it's been teasing on Twitter all week. It's pre-alpha gameplay footage, but it's damn pretty, with slices of fighting in combat, marching through…
Bigpoint is still working on a Game of Thrones MMO - Bigpoint has responded to a Redditor to confirm that it is indeed still working on the Game of Thrones MMORPG. "The GoT MMO is being worked on \o/ Hopefully you…
Raiding might be a component in Guild Wars 2’s living story season three - If you were hoping that raiding will quietly disappear in Guild Wars 2 the way so many other features have over the years, you might reconsider. An ArenaNet forum specialist…
The Warcraft movie is going gangbusters in China - Poor overall film reviews or no, Warcraft is most certainly going to make some nice bank this summer. The movie opens in the US tomorrow, but it's already become a…
Black Desert warns cheaters they’ll be banned in ‘waves’ - In response to the growing perception that Black Desert is being overrun with cheaters, botters, and hackers, Daum has reiterated its commitment to cleaning up the game of such miscreants.…
Guild Wars 2 teases final wing of its first raid in new trailer - ArenaNet has just dropped a teaser trailer for Stronghold of the Faithful, Guild Wars 2's next raid wing. "In the third and final wing of Guild Wars 2‘s first raid,…
Warcraft movie premieres in the US, racks up huge ticket pre-sales - This is a huge week for the Warcraft movie. After releasing overseas, the motion picture adaptation of Blizzard's video game universe will be coming to theaters in the US this…
Blizzard and Facebook team up for streaming - Blizzard's just announced a new partnership with Facebook that will allow players to livestream their games on the social media platform and give Facebook some much-needed street cred amongst core…
Revelation Online is coming westward, taking beta signups - NetEase and My.com have announced that they are bringing Revelation Online westward. The steampunk-fantasy flavored MMO soft launched in China last year and boasts six classes with no gender locks, a flight system,…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 68: Dark and light
The Stream Team: ARK adds a party limo
The Stream Team: Landmark launches!
The Stream Team: Preparing for The Secret World’s Museum of the Occult
The Stream Team: Trailblazing Landmark’s head start
The Stream Team: Poking into Path of Exile’s Prophecy League
The Stream Team: Beckoned by Black Desert’s black wisp
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
The WoW: Legion beta introduction experience
The Warcraft movie is a must-see for WoW fans
Legion Guides: A look at trends
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.
