This weekend has been all about Final Fantasy XIV, whose Las Vegas Fanfest served as ground zero for the announcement of a brand-new expansion for the game: Stormblood. Massively OP’s Eliot Lefebvre has been reporting back from the event, covering so far the keynote address, the Q&A, and the speculation floating around the trailer’s mysterious lady in red.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Return to Karazhan in World of Warcraft on October 25 - Blizzard announced this afternoon that World of Warcraft's first major post-Legion patch, 7.1: Return to Karazhan, will launch on October 25th. During this afternoon's livestream, newly minted Game Director Ion…
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas replaces Tom Chilton as game director - Blizzard is losing yet another veteran developer from the World of Warcraft team today: Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, who says he's staying on with the company and "focusing on another project"…
We still don’t really know how many people play The Elder Scrolls Online - How many players does The Elder Scrolls Online have? We don't know -- ZeniMax is coy about that. But we do have a better idea of the scale thanks to…
EVE Online player promises $75,000 reward for thwarting enemies - [AL:EVE]If yesterday's CCP crackdown on gambling and RMT in the EVE Online universe wasn't enough drama for you, order some more popcorn for this one. An EVE player says he's…
Revelation Online’s closed beta begins October 25; here’s the new trailer - [AL:Rev]Revelation Online announced this morning that its closed beta will kick off on October 25th and run through November 8th. If you've picked up a key from us in the last…
Tamriel Infinium vs Hyperspace Beacon: Three ways to make lockboxes work better in MMORPGs - Last week, I stirred up a hornet’s nest by bringing up the topic of lockboxes and how I really didn’t mind them in general. [pullquote]Hyperspace Beacon and Tamriel Infinium are…
Overwatch tops 20 million players in five months of live play - Even if World of Warcraft is back up to 10.1 million subscribers, that's far short of what its studio brother Overwatch has accomplished. The multiplayer team shooter recently crossed its…
Today’s Black Desert patch brings life to the seas, awakening to the Ranger - [update]Update: And it's live, but it's a trainwreck, so it's down again under emergency maintenance.[/update] Margoria is coming to Black Desert this winter, but in the meantime, Kakao is fleshing…
CCP outlaws gambling in EVE Online, bans RMT organizations - [AL:EVE]Changes to EVE Online's EULA coming in November with the launch of Ascension and the free-to-play conversion will effectively outlaw gambling, which has been a popular and lucrative in-game pastime in…
Revival’s universe developed as Theleston, might return to MMO space - While Revival the MMORPG was "indefinitely suspended" back in March of this year, there's an interesting coda to this story that might be of some comfort to fans. Following the…
The Secret World inspires a new hacking simulation game NITE Team 4 - If you think a story-driven military hacking simulation game sounds right up The Secret World's alley, you'd be correct. In this case, TSW is the inspiration behind a new game…
Working As Intended: A tour of 19-year-old Ultima Online - Wanna feel old? Three years ago, I wrote a Second Wind piece for Massively-that-was on Ultima Online, which had recently been turned over to Broadsword and was celebrating its 16th birthday.…
Turbine previews LOTRO update 19, says Mordor will come in a 2017 expansion - [AL:LOTRO]Next week in Lord of the Rings Online, the banners will fly, the forces of the Enemy will quake, and the king will march. Update 19: March of the King…
Riders of Icarus will allow players to trade cash shop items on the AH - Riders of Icarus' economy is about to experience a seismic change with the next update, as the game will allow for the resale of some cash shop items to other…
Guild Wars 2 warns of incoming balance adjustments - [AL:GW2]Will Guild Wars 2 ever attain perfect balance with all of its classes and skills? Probably not, but such is the way of all MMOs. The GW2 skill team posted…
Massively Overthinking: The classes MMORPGs never do - No one wants to play Uncle Owen, a certain MMORPG exec famously said -- except, you know, for all the people who really, really do. Including me! Massively OP Patron…
Perfect Ten: Incompetent leaders in MMORPGs - Leadership is difficult. You have to get a group of people to work together when they may or may not be naturally inclined to do so, and on top of…
EverQuesting: Could Daybreak’s new FPS be an EverQuest? - With the constant clamoring from fans for Daybreak (or someone) to create an honest-to-goodness next-gen sequel to the EverQuest franchise, you'd hope that it would actually happen someday. Obviously EverQuest…
Daybreak registers ‘Mythwarden’ domain name - Strange things are afoot over at Daybreak Game Company. Not only is the studio recruiting for an unannounced FPS title, but it has recently registered a new website domain: Mythwarden.com. According to…
Gazillion to sunset Marvel Super Hero Squad Online in January 2017 - When I first joined the Massively crew back in 2010, the very first long-form piece I did was on Super Hero Squad Online, a Marvel-themed kiddie game out of this cute…
The Elder Scrolls Online will have a Halloween event this year - Long-time Elder Scrolls players know that the calendar, months, seasons, and holidays play an important role in the lore of the series, but The Elder Scrolls Online hasn't done much…
WildStar brings back Shade’s Eve, plans November Redmoon Mutiny update - As Halloween creeps up on us with arms outstretched and claws open wide, WildStar is embracing the return of its spooky Shade's Eve festival. New toys and rewards join the reappearance of…
Exploring real-life PUGs, the Plus, and the antisocial nature of Pokemon Go - Although Pokemon Go isn't advertised as an MMO, both experts and players have noted it does present some interesting similarities: Both have tons of players on servers where player locations are tracked. Both…
Epic MMO Battles of History: World of Warcraft vs. Final Fantasy XIV - You know what I usually hate? Superhero fight discussions. Any fight discussion, really. Asking "who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk" always has the same two…
Overeager Overwatch researchers hack actual accounts to find a fictional character - Account hacks happen. They're unpleasant, but they happen, and you can at least usually point to them happening for logical reasons. Your account got hacked because you bought gold? Understandable.…
MMO Mechanics: Enhancing MMORPGs with experiential learning mechanics - Ever since I considered the responses to a Massively Overthinking article in which a developer asked if a prestige system to encourage replaying an MMO from level 1Â would be a…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 86: One Tamriel, two voices, three expansions
Battle Bards Episode 84: Ultima
The Stream Team: Thar be a Pirate101 birthday today!
The Stream Team: Taming extravaganza in ARK
The Stream Team: Halloween haunts in Trove
The Stream Team: A Black Thursday in The Secret World
The Stream Team: Managing SWTOR’s mind-controlled minions in Ziost
The Stream Team: Our second live interview with Hero’s Song’s John Smedley
The Stream Team: Unlocking Marvel Heroes’ Pirate Deadpool team up
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Running of the Gnomes on October 15 benefits breast cancer research
Adorable fishing bobbers come to WoW in patch 7.1
The latest WoW hotfixes improve emissary quest rewards
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.
