free to play

‘Free-to-play’ is a term that refers to games that do not have box or download fees associated with them and do not incur a mandatory subscription. Some have optional subscriptions and are more properly referred to as hybrid F2P. Most have cash shops and microtransactions.

Massively Overthinking: Do you multibox in MMORPGs?

11
Last week on Twitter, I saw someone refer disparagingly to EVE Online as "the multiboxing game." I want to talk about the concept of...

Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt introduces the Huntress, rogue exiles, a mount, and heaps of support gems

6
With Path of Exile 2 being in early access beta instead of launched, I was unsure whether Grinding Gear Games would be keeping to...

Lord of the Rings Online will begin reactivating housing next week – in phases, so don’t panic yet

2
Our long national nightmare will soon be over: Lord of the Rings Online is finally turning back on the housing system starting next week. OK,...

Vague Patch Notes: The MMO you play isn’t always the MMO that was designed

5
There was, for a brief period of time, a window when World of Warcraft was moving toward a more deterministic gear structure that de-emphasized...

‘We like to make really big games’: John Smedley teases Distinct Possibility by namedropping PlanetSide 2 devs

10
Our regular readers and followers of the MMO genre already know the name of John Smedley. He was the former head of Sony Online...

Lord of the Rings Online plans for two additional 64-bit realms, indicates housing reactivation is coming soon

6
While Lord of the Rings Online's new 64-bit servers were touted as being capable of holding a substantially greater amount of players, SSG is...

Aion Classic EU will merge its servers into one on April 9

0
The Great Ensmooshening is on the not-too-distant horizon for players of Aion Classic EU, as Gameforge has announced that it will be condensing the...
The yeller.

Perfect Ten: The challenges of running challenge servers in MMOs

1
So there has been a bit of a kerfuffle over in the World of Warcraft world, which is a bit like saying that the...

Lord of the Rings Online’s Update 43.2 tackles bugs while transfers trudge onward after three weeks

5
Lord of the Rings Online is getting a decent bug-squashing patch this morning with the launch of Update 43.2. SSG announced last night that...
I got spurs.

EverQuest II adjusts abilities, events, and zones as public testing for GU128 Lure of Darkness begins

0
Today has brought a little bit of fixing and tuning to EverQuest II, with the latest patch making adjustments to various things like events,...

Massively OP Podcast Episode 511: Heroes shall arise

9
Justin and Bree discuss Dune Awakening's monetization, Guild Wars 2 expansion delay, Marvel Heroes' rogue server, the decline of extraction RPGs (and demise of Seekers of Skyveil), and new MMOs Crosswind and Spirit Crossing, with adventures in LOTRO, World of Warcraft, and Sims 4.

‘It’s all coming back, just as you left it’: Fawkes hypes the return of Defiance with a new teaser video

8
Last week, we got the surprising but welcome news that Fawkes Games is unsunsetting Defiance, Trion Worlds' old "transmedia synergy MMO, come April 18th....

RuneScape polishes quests while Old School RuneScape goes Sailing

0
Have you ever felt as though your feedback was heard by an MMO studio? Some RuneScape players are going to answer in the affirmative...

Marvel Heroes’ emulator project has a playable test server in Project T.A.H.I.T.I.

8
When last we checked in on the Marvel Heroes emulator project, the developers were basically still in the "make code go and upload to...

The MOP Up: World of Peaky Tanks

1
When you think "World of Tanks," naturally you free-associate the TV series Peaky Binders along with it. And a good thing too, because Wargaming...
We are running out of roads.

LOTRO Legendarium: The virtuous world of Middle-earth

5
There are plenty of fantasy brands out there to suit any preference. If you arranged them on a spectrum, you might start at cozy...

One Shots: Light pollution over Bree

6
Are you under the assumption that light pollution is the sole product of the modern era? You've obviously never visited Lord of the Rings...

Dune Awakening confirms $50 box price with DLC and a direct launch with no early access

33
Before you know it, the May 20th launch date for survival MMO Dune: Awakening will be upon us all, but perhaps you were wondering...

The Stream Team: Looting Lord Malrick in AdventureQuest 3D

0
There's a new seasonal boss skulking about in AdventureQuest 3D, and Massively OP's MJ wants to go have a look. Or, more precisely, a...

LOTRO resumes 64-bit server transfers, but only to the roleplay servers as it works on ‘peak population concerns’

17
The trials, travails, and transfers of Lord of the Rings Online continue as the playerbase continues to move over to the four new 64-bit...

THE LATEST POSTS