ALL THE POSTS
Star Citizen pushes back alpha 3.23’s new hangars and cargo missions, adds in water physics instead
For the past several weeks, Star Citizen has been talking up the features of its upcoming alpha 3.23, often calling it one of the sandbox's largest content updates yet. However, it looks as though CIG made some adjustments to just what features will land for the initial alpha build, as the game's newest roadmap roundup post confirms some major...
World of Warcraft shares the patch notes for its first phase of The War Within alpha testing
The time has come for those who signed up or bought in to test the next expansion of World of Warcraft: The self-described "public alpha one" version of The War Within has opened up to testers this week and brought with it its first set of patch notes for the current build.
Major features for this test include the new...
Lord of the Rings Online begins testing Update 40’s load balancing changes
Even as Lord of the Rings Online's 17th anniversary gets underway this week, Standing Stone Games is already laying the foundation for the MMO's next big chapter. Last night, the studio announced that it began testing Update 40 on the Bullroarer server, primarily to see how some load balancing changes affect the performance of the game.
"We have implemented some...
Ghost dev Brian Holinka broadly discusses the MMO’s combat model
The name of Brian Holinka will very likely be familiar to MMORPG fans, primarily for his work as lead combat designer for World of Warcraft, so naturally it stands to reason that combat design would be one of his major foci as the gameplay design director for Fantastic Pixel Castle and its developing MMO Ghost and that it's his...
Elder Scrolls Online hands out a generous compensation package for locked accounts
In one of the darker chapters of Elder Scrolls Online's history, this past week saw the game lock down and roll back many accounts due to an issue with the PTR that spilled onto the live servers. As ZeniMax continues to unlock and restore accounts into this weekend, the studio revealed a very generous compensation package to those affected.
This...
The Daily Grind: Do alternate and classic servers risk alienating existing MMO fans?
Back in December, Guild Wars 2 boss Josh Davis told fans that "alternate servers and hardcore modes aren’t a priority for ArenaNet," as the team believes it's just "trend chasing" that runs the risk of "alienat the game's existing fans" and "usually doesn’t pan out." At the time, we opined that it was an incongruent idea in the genre...
The Stream Team: Looking for lore in DDO’s Ravenloft
Diaries litter Ravenloft. Massively OP's MJ wants to read them... er, clean them up. Who wants stuff strewn around the landscape? Besides, privacy is not an option when you are a bloodthirsty villain! With lore bits lost all around DDO's best zone, of course MJ is going to seek out as many pages as possible so she doesn't miss...
Massively Overthinking: MMOs and ‘fresh piece of gum’ syndrome
Back in March, MOP reader Exarch Cathedra posted a comment to a Daily Grind about daily logins and sticky MMOs that caught my attention, and not just because it was a cute pun.
"If I care enough about a game that an inducement gets me to log in it will generally prove sticky, especially if I haven’t played in a...
Neverwinter runs down Adventures in Wildspace’s upcoming battle pass and its ‘spill-over XP’ feature
Since 2021, Neverwinter has been trying to do new things with the battle pass model, and now it's looking to try out a new layer to the whole system when the Adventures in Wildspace module releases, as the upcoming Sidereal Voyages battle pass will introduce a "spill-over XP" mechanic that adds the potential for more rewards.
This new battle pass...
Tarisland answers more questions about PvP, monetization, economy, and cross-platform progression
Tarisland is continuing its multi-day lineup of answers to Discord member questions, as days two and three have brought another couple of rounds of insight specifically about PvP, economic matters, and play between PC and mobile, among other things.
While PvP is mostly contained to a 3v3 arena, there are plans for "big-scale PvP actions in the wilderness" as...
Sea of Thieves marks 40 million players to date as it preps its PlayStation 5 launch
Many live service games would give anything to see success numbered in the tens of millions, which makes Sea of Thieves' current accomplishment that much more special. This week, Rare announced that the pirate PvP sim has enjoyed 40 million players across all platforms since its launch in 2018.
" million players across Xbox, Windows 10, and Steam is an...
V Rising demos its new Dracula-themed endgame zone, Ruins of Mortium
Vampire survival sandbox V Rising continues its efforts to drum up hype as it seems certain to lap Valheim when it fully releases on May 8th, and the latest comes in the form of a new trailer for the game's impending new endgame zone, Ruins of Mortium.
"As the story unfolds, players discover the legendary Dracula's plot to reclaim his...
Skull & Bones is already on 50% discount two months after launch
After being delayed approximately four thousand times, to the point that we were even making jokes about it to the date it released, how has Ubisoft's piratical online adventure Skull & Bones worked out? Well, it has been two months since the launch and the game is on sale for 50% off already. That is not what we in...
DC Universe Online adds Fortress of Solitude base and themed missions to celebrate Superman Day
I was today years old when I learned (or more likely, re-learned) that there's an official Superman Day, and that day is April 18th. Not coincidentally, today is April 18th! Hey, that would make today the perfect day to celebrate Superman in DC-themed video games, wouldn't it? Daybreak obviously agrees with my extremely reasonable assertion.
"April 18th marks the official...
Post-layoffs, Palia is celebrating its alpha anniversary with a new buyable bundle
We've all been figuratively holding our breaths to see what would happen with Palia after the last month of mess, and now the game is taking a few tentative steps forward - but maybe not the ones players might hope for.
Readers will recall that Palia studio Singularity 6 raised a whole lot of eyebrows by launching its very much...
City of Heroes Homecoming unveils huge community-driven base building initiative
If you've been enjoying our tours of our favorite City of Heroes supergroup bases and portal hubs on the officially licensed Homecoming servers, then you're in for a treat as the Homecoming community team has unveiled a new project to help players find and access cool bases in-game, complete with a themed tour of some newer bases - some of...
Entropia Universe announces plans to have an ‘AI president’ manage its MMO
Entropia Universe has not been one to ignore a big shiny bandwagon - remember that this MMO has tried to hawk egg NFTs and seen its players pay eye-watering amounts of real-world money in some cases for absurd digital ephemera - so now it's decided to join the chorus of AI faithful by announcing the creation of an AI...
Not So Massively: Godsworn made me break my ‘no early access’ rule
I'm pretty blasé about most monetization in games, but there are a few things that I don't like, and charging for early access is near the top of the list. I don't like the idea of paying for an unfinished product, and far too many early access games never launch or limp across the finish line in a still-broken...
Fractured adds new playable demon races and cash shop with its May 8th Invasion update
Dynamight Studios formally announced Fractured Online's next patch last night: Dubbed The Invasion, it heralds the arrival of two new player demon races, specifically blood demons (vampires) and hellfire demons (infernals).
"It’s official: The Invasion, the second major update to Fractured Online since our Early Access launch, will be released on... Wednesday, May 8, at 2pm UTC! YES, IT'S...
Vague Patch Notes: Getting meta in MMORPGs
This week, MOP's Chris ran afoul of the MMO meta when he was going through New World. Only he... didn't, not really. He ran afoul of something that looks a lot like the meta, but it really isn't; he ran afoul of bad design. But it ties into ideas of meta and balancing that I've talked about before (in...
