MOBAs dominate Raptr’s January rankings as WoW playtime falls

44
According to a Raptr press release posted today, MOBA League of Legends dominated the service's January rankings with just under 20% of total playtime share. World of Warcraft held onto second place with not quite 11% of total playtime share, but it "lost 5.28% of play time in January compared to December." DOTA 2, SMITE, and Hearthstone scored well; Diablo III,...
Here comes trouble.

Wisdom of Nym: Starting new in Final Fantasy XIV

118
Starting out fresh in Final Fantasy XIV can be pretty intimidating, I freely admit. I find it all old hat at this point, but I'm coming at the game as someone who has leveled every single available class to 50. It would be more surprising if I were still starting out and wondering when I can get my first...
Destiny wallpaper

Former Guild Wars 2 writer becomes Bungie’s ‘loremaster’

28
Former ArenaNet writer John Ryan is now Bungie's "editor/loremaster," according to his Twitter account. Ryan started at ANet in 2010 and worked on Guild Wars 2's dialogue, lore, and narrative. He explained his past and present role to fans on Twitter: First, my new job at Bungie will be editing and riding herd on lore. I'm not writing, per se,...

Dream of Mirror Online returns from the dead

17
After several years of being out of commission, Dream of Mirror Online (DOMO) is coming back for a second shot at success. The closed beta of the anime fantasy MMO began on February 13th under the Suba Games umbrella. DOMO originally launched in North America in 2007 and operated by Aeria Games but was cancelled in 2012. Since then, the title...

Black Desert makes $2M in cash shop sales in one week

127
Wait, what did that headline say? Did Black Desert really make a cool two million in just a week? Apparently so! According to FreeMMOStation.com, the Korean fantasy title made 2.3 billion KWN ($2 million) in its first week of open beta in the country. Those sales were powered by Black Desert's impressive 1.5 million registered users. Now the question is, when...
Not actually my character.

The Daily Grind: What’s your favorite MMO character for PvP?

76
I've been spending my gaming time lately PvPing in Guild Wars 2 in an attempt to reinkindle my old obsession with World of Warcraft battleground-style gameplay. It's working: I really love the GW2 maps, and it thrills me that it's one more fun facet of a game I already enjoy more than most titles still alive today. (Of course, there's no...

MMO Week in Review: February 15, 2015

9
Were you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered's Week in Review! Daybreak dominated the headlines during MOP's first week back online, with layoffs, resignations, and DDOS attacks that had former devs defending the team and players hoping for reassurance. Our own MJ Guthrie discussed the fate of SOE...
SotA - Verdantis Shardfall

Shroud of the Avatar previews Necropolis dungeon, new world areas

38
What's new with Shroud of the Avatar? Quite a lot if you're judging by the latest lengthy update (#112 for those keeping score at home). There's an early look at the Necropolis dungeon, which backers will be exploring in "a few short weeks." The post also contains some gorgeous pics of a new "marshy island" region called Verdantis Shardfall as...

The Soapbox: The crowdfunding conundrum

129
As I type this, Massively Overpowered's Kickstarter campaign sits comfortably at $54,323. We hit our initial $50k funding goal in roughly 48 hours. We're on pace to smash through our $75k stretch goal before the month ends. Thanks to the miracle of crowdfunding, the Massively team and I get to keep doing what we love to do instead of...
Love you to death Camelot Unchained

Camelot Unchained hires a sound designer, preps for alpha

69
Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs says that his team is currently in "soft crunch" mode as CU moves closer to its alpha phase. Said alpha will be "tech-heavy and feature-light," and the devs will need "large crowds" to log in and break stuff. City State has also hired a full-time sound engineer by the name of Daniel Beck, who has helpfully...