Massively Overpowered

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...

Earlier this week, one of the founding designers of the MMORPG genre, Raph Koster, penned a blog piece arguing that alternate reality games like Pokemon GO and Ingress are the evolution of MMORPGs, the virtual worlds that have come to us rather than transporting us to them. PvP, economics, and player-generated content combine to turn our phones into our...

I'm currently bogged down in an over-the-shoulder crafting blur, vicariously depleting gold and recommending several YouTube-approved crazy material gathering runs as I get my husband acquainted with Guild Wars 2's crafting system. I've been ill for last week or two and have spent each night this week helping him through the experience as a wind-down activity to try and encourage my...

Death isn't the end of the road for the H1Z1 population, it's merely the beginning of something very gross and uncomfortable. According to a new producer's letter, the team is currently testing out a feature that will turn players' corpses into zombies (which will need to be killed again to recover their goods). Other projects that Daybreak is working on...

There are some subtle signs that you can look for when you're trying to gauge if you've become truly evil. Conquering small nations for spite is one. Flaunting doomsday weapons as a pick-up technique is another. And the last is, of course, erecting gigantic statues of terrifying visages. I am sad to report that reader Damien has fallen to the...

Action combat is a big thing for newer games. Instead of just sitting, targeting, and spamming abilities, you have to dodge hither and yon, aim your shots, and so forth. Action combat! Some people find this a lot of fun, some find it more of a strain than anything, but it's definitely something that's moved through all layers of...

This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Descent: Underground released a major AI update this week -- the Moon Collider’s advanced Kythera AI system -- plus "cooperative play against 'bot' opponents, new ship types, and additional gameplay enhancements." Meanwhile, Kickstarted science-laden sandbox ECO took home a climate science prize for its ecosystem simulation, which allows players to actually "create laws and policy...

Path of Exile's chat window is about to become a little more informative, as the team is preparing a few improvements for the system next week. When it arrives, players will be able to see time stamps for conversations and more clearly identify messages sent and received with others. Speaking of chatter, the developers fielded a whopping 37 questions from...

Don't be fooled by the voxels: This isn't SkySaga, Trove, or CubeWorld, but a new title entirely called Pixel Wars: Cube Matrix. According to the official description, Pixel Wars is "an adventure MMORPG for mobile devices that takes place in a fantasy cubical world. Using a vast system of portals, you can explore all the edges of the Sacred Cube,...

Move over Fallen Empire, Knights of the Eternal Throne is about to become the newest expansion on the Star Wars: The Old Republic block. BioWare confirmed this weekend that the next digital expansion for SWTOR is, as many thought, Eternal Throne. "The all new expansion adds more of BioWare's trademark cinematic storytelling, as well as exciting new game features in...