Massively Overpowered

This winter, we've been chronicling the escapades of Nick Yee-founded game analytics consulting firm Quantic Foundry, which published what it's calling the Gamer Motivation Model. Researchers compiled user-submitted profiles from thousands of gamers to develop a sort of modern Bartle quotient that groups gamer types into three "clusters of motivations" rather than the standard socializer, achiever, killer, explorer archetypes. Earlier this month, we invited our...

Lord of the Rings Online is releasing a medium-weight patch today tailored to Minas Tirith gameplay. Of note, there are new quests scattered throughout the White City in iconic locations as well as Sandson's Farm. There's a new "public endgame space" in the Cisterns and new stable points too. Expect tweaks to the Dol Amroth endgame tokens, melee mounted combat...

The "jack of all trades" indie MMO Sacrament is still in its design docs stage, occasionally releasing batches of information and concept art to whet fans' appetites for this title. This month's focus is on explaining how the world is structured. Since Sacrament is forging ahead without player levels, the designers have decided to split the game world up into...

Hello, friends, and welcome to the penultimate installment of Choose My Adventure: Shroud of the Avatar. Last week, in addition to giving the game's combat system a piece of my mind that I will never get back, I also asked you fine folks to vote on how I should build my character and how I should spend my playtime...

Were you a little puzzled by the fact that the Kickstarter for Smed's OARPG Hero's Song was offering a $25 base pledge when the game will be only $20 at launch? Well, you weren't alone, and Pixelmage is addressing it today. "We're also listening carefully to feedback from our backers, and so we've added a $15 tier that gets you...

Sci-fi and fantasy post-apoc fans are in for a treat today as Hanmaru Soft and InselGames have formally announced Trinium Wars for PC. Touting ex-SEGA and ex-Blizzard artist Jang Wook Lee's involvement, the MMORPG has launched its Steam's early access program page today and will launch for play on February 17th. Trinium Wars is a post-apocalyptic Sci Fi MMORPG set in...

If you've listened to Massively's staff and readers talk about Star Wars Galaxies a little bit, you might come away with the impression that the now-sunsetted, pre-WoW Star Wars sandbox was perfection in every way -- that classic SWG was all fun, all the time, with no bugs and no problems, and that all MMORPGs should aspire to be it in...

Yesterday's release of the standalone character creator for Black Desert has prompted the internet to play dress-up dolls en masse, some in the service of winning the ongoing contest and possibly pocketing a closed beta key and a stack of cash shop currency, and some in the service of pure trollish insanity and/or exploration. This guy is clearing gunning for...

If you heard an earth-rumbling boom this morning and didn't know the source, let us tell you: It was the arrival of Firefall's 1.6 update, Razor's Edge. The massive patch makes a lot of changes to combat while feeding both the PvP and PvE sides of the game. Some of the update bullet points include the new Jetball arena PvP mode,...

Last March, Korean investment firm KDB Daewoo Securities wasn't that hopeful on the financial future of WildStar. Little has changed in the firm's opinion for 2016, as it predicted that WildStar's profits will drop almost to nothing this year, even after its free-to-play transition in the fall of 2015. Guild Wars 2 isn't off the hook in the firm's eyes, either. The...