The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!
This week Hearthstone released its Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion, making all of us wish that World of Warcraft had a town like this. We’ve got that plus stories and videos from Vainglory, Ingress, Final Fantasy XI, and more, all waiting for you after the break!
New Games and Testing
- Ragnarok Mobile: If you’re interested in the mobile version of Ragnarok Online, there are two new dates for you to know. Public testing is scheduled for January 17th, followed by a launch in China on March 7th.
- Tree of Savior Mobile: The studio assured players that development of this mobile spin-off won’t be affecting the work put into the main MMO.
Patches
- Path of Exile: One of the features coming with Update 2.5.0 is a change to map modifiers. Check out the dev post on this to see what this will look like.
- Lord of the Rings Online: A small patch this past week fixed an issue with players getting locked out of their houses and improved game performance.
- Hearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is now live, bringing a tons of new cards and mechanics to this popular DCG. A bug resulted in players getting more tri-class cards than Blizzard intended, and Blizzard couldn’t allow that.
- Eternal Crusade: The team pushed out a follow-up patch that is “mainly bug fixes, improvements to PVP maps and PVE, combat balancing, a new melee durability system, and of course, pirate hats for Orks.”
- Pokemon Go: The team is continuing to expand coverage for its nearby Pokemon feature and has rebalanced prestige rewards.
- GTA Online: More than 60 vehicle garages are coming with an update this month.
Events
- Final Fantasy XI: Celestial Nights are coming back to FFXI from December 15th through the 31st. Rescue presents and enjoy some new minigames to win seasonal prizes!
Odds and Ends
- Flyff: A second English server, Meteonyker, is coming to the game on December 6th. The studio has decided to postpone the merging of German and English servers until 2017 as well. [Source: press release]
- AdventureQuest 3D: The team is teasing concept art of a new villain that will be plaguing the upcoming volcano zone.
- Pox Nora: The first public demo of the PlayStation version of this game will be available at the PlayStation Experience convention on December 3rd and 4th. A launch date is still forthcoming. [Thanks EBreezy!]
- Final Fantasy XI: A player has documented how some of the game’s cutscenes have received voiceover and subtitles, only to not be added into the game. What gives? [Thanks Luis!]
- Ingress: Players are now able to give feedback on potential new portal locations in their hometowns. [Thanks Nordavind!]
- Vainglory:Â Super Evil Megacorp will introduce the Vainglory Team Franchise Program in 2017, allowing this MOBA to make inroads in the e-sports scene. [Source: press release]
- Skyforge: Read up on the lore behind Nerion’s Castle. Is this a place you’d want to visit? Probably not.
- League of Legends: Riot Games made the bold statement that it doesn’t want to prioritize professional players over casuals.
Videos
The MOBA Heroes of Newerth is about to receive a massive end-of-year update that will see (among other things) a hero revamp, balance changes, a new hero, UI improvements, and a new league system. [Thanks Kusaha!]
Paladins has open beta 39 coming soon, so stay on top of all of the latest changes with this patch video! [Thanks Nordavind!]
