square enix

The MOP Up: Warface heads to PlayStation 4 (August 19, 2018)

Leave a comment

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 line!

Maybe you’ll discover a new game in this space — or be reminded of an old favorite! This week we have stories and videos from Final Fantasy XIV, Soulworker, Elder Scrolls Online, Pokemon Go, Hellion, The Cycle, MU Online, Warface, Battlerite Royale, Dauntless, Worlds Adrift, SMITE, and Prosperous Universe, all waiting for you after the break!

Read more

Mortgage company analyzes the price differences between video game housing, including Final Fantasy XIV

2 comments

How much is your house worth in The Sims 4? Obviously, the game attaches a value to it, but that’s just game terms and doesn’t really match what we think of as the value of these things. This is why the UK-based mortgage company L&C Mortgages looked at the housing market in eight separate games to compare the costs and availability of a house in all of them, including the exceedingly market-limited houses in Final Fantasy XIV.

The comparisons are not perfect, since games like Fallout 4 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are single-player titles without players competing for a house. Still, if you’d like to see how the cost of virtual real estate stacks up, it should be at least mildly amusing. And hey, it also means you can mention your home is worth millions of dollars before muttering that it only applies in Eorzea. (Or Othard, if you want to be really pedantic. At this point you might as well be.)

Source: L&C Mortgages

Comment

Rumor: Players are losing their houses in Final Fantasy XIV in error

5 comments
Housing in Final Fantasy XIV has some issues with limited space, so almost no one who has a home in the game wants to lose it. So if you want to spread chaos in the game’s homeowner community, claiming that people are losing their houses without warning is a good way to do it. There are more reports than usual of players logging in to find their houses gone, while they claim they had been in there and active in time to reset the timer.

Time to panic? Maybe not. That shiny “rumor” tag is there for a reason, chiefly the fact that at this point there’s no real confirmed reports of this happening to people. Reddit users have taken the opportunity to keep tabs on the house watchers on Balmung, and as of yet nothing has surfaced as abnormal there. (Balmung is one of the game’s largest servers and the unofficial RP server, which means housing is closely watched.) If there is a bug, it appears to be highly limited, but it’s still disconcerting to think about.

Read more

Global Chat: Everybody’s burning up about that Sylvanas thing

24 comments

Yes, just about every MMO blogger was sharing heated opinions about last week’s World of WarCraft WarCrime. “It’s such a sad event and I’m particularly mad at Blizzard at the way they chose to write this,” wrote Aeternus.

Moonshine Manor was equally appalled, saying that she was “not sad at the story, but at having to mourn my fandom.”

“The storyline strips players of agency, it’s not a good feeling,” wrote Mmosey.

And Leo’s Life couldn’t make sense of it: “The lore nut in me sees no logic in this.”

In An Age sympathized with the outrage but noted, “This cinematic short is amazing in isolation.” And Atheren doesn’t want this to be the beginning of the end of Sylvanas: “I hope she gets a redemption arc.”

And Wolfy felt that the community reaction was too much for an outsider: “The level of the freak-out was above and beyond what I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing as someone barely remotely associated with the WoW playerbase.”

Read more

Final Fantasy XIV has a new season of the Feast after the end of championship preliminaries

Leave a comment
Fans of PvP combat in Final Fantasy XIV will be able to find out who is the best among them when the Feast finals take place, but if you were hoping to qualify for that competition… well, your time is up. The preliminaries have ended, and with that contest season 8 of the Feast has come to a close. The next round for would-be champions is the semifinals, with the North American finals taking place at this year’s Fan Festival.

Those who didn’t qualify or didn’t wish to in the first place can still find something new to fight over, though, with season 9 starting now and running until the game’s next major patch. There’s also new armor available to players who rank highly, so if you’d avoided striving before because you disliked the old armor or already had it, you can get new rewards now! Assuming you amass sufficient victories to climb to the top of the rankings, of course.

Source: Official Site

Comment

Wisdom of Nym: Hunting the monster in Final Fantasy XIV

One comment
Patch 4.36 sure seems as if it’s has been dragged out. Realistically, that’s not what has happened at all; the time between patches has remained pretty consistent, and with the next big Final Fantasy XIV patch planned for September this is just about the right time. But something about 4.36 having big content just makes the whole thing feel overextended, as if we’ve been sitting and spinning our wheels for an extended time however untrue that may be.

My big plan for this week was to try out the Monster Hunter World crossover because I was honestly less interested in Pagos. (Yes, I like the idea behind Eureka, but there are only so many hours in the day.) I honestly found the experience a bit… not bad, necessarily, but just underwhelming. It was neutral. And I think some of it comes down to how the game has been increasingly handling its crossovers and whether or not those are, well, good things or less-good things.

Read more

One Shots: Selfie school

37 comments

I certainly did not have to twist readers’ arms to get them to bring out a mountain of MMORPG character selfies set against interesting backdrops. Of course, everyone had their own definition of what that should mean…

“When it comes to character selfies the backdrop becomes less important if there is an important lore character in your picture,” said Ryuen. “Case in point: My humble Monk managed to snare Firiona Vie herself in EverQuest II for a quick pic before she had to attend to more pressing matters.”

She had more box art modeling to do. It’s exhausting, being one of the last of the Midriff Elves in the game.

Read more

Final Fantasy XIV starts its anniversary fiction

Leave a comment
The in-game events will arrive later, but at this point it’s as much of an event for Final Fantasy XIV to feature written fiction as it is to have a standard anniversary celebrations. Every year we get new fiction about the characters and stories we’ve been exploring for the past year, and it starts today with the first anniversary piece, “In Darkness Blooms the Lily.”

That title alone probably makes it clear what the story is about for anyone who’s completed the most recent portion of the MSQ, but let’s dispel any ambiguity: this is covering Doman viceroy and generally complex figure Yotsuyu. It’s not a happy story, in other words, but if you were curious about the course of events that led to this woman getting elevated to the position where players first meet her… well, here’s a peek into her past, a portion not explored otherwise.

Source: Official Site

Comment

Massively Overthinking: Should MMORPGs incentivize exploration – and how?

41 comments

Our Daily Grind on exploration last week sparked an intriguing follow-up from MOP reader Miol.

“When asking about sightseeing and exploration in MMORPGs, you also mentioned the lack of rewarding incentives for exploring those worlds, or worse, a poor implementation of such features, as you pointed out by Guild Wars 2’s vistas. Many of Wander’s mechanics also come to mind for me. You and many commenters in that article stated that their exploration mostly happened by their own initiative!

“So what features would you all wish in an exploration-heavy MMO? Is Trove’s Geode with its non-combat spelunking on to something? Would exploring other players’ curation and display of art already be enough for you, a la Occupy White Walls? What would an MMO need to simulate a fun road trip? Would looking for that one place with those until-then-unmatched resource stats, be a definite must for you, as in Star Wars Galaxies? Or is open-world housing more of a priority, so you can find that perfect spot for your porch? Purely just survival features? Or maybe even, as Andrew once mentioned, a certain mechanic for dying, as in Project Gorgon?”

Read more

Final Fantasy XI adds in new battle types for all tiers of play

One comment

There are two new battlefield types for players to challenge in Final Fantasy XI this month, starting with a challenge against the Rhapsodies of Vana’diel heroine Iroha. Players who have completed the story can take part in the more straightforward battle against her, while those looking for a greater challenge can enter the master trial version with a full party (you can enter alone, but alter egos cannot be summoned and you will probably get killed in short order).

Meanwhile, the new treasure trove content allows players to try their luck by opening treasure chests in hopes of getting a big payout; there are deadly mimics lurking there as well as the chance to lose everything, but success nets you a nice batch of rewards. Add in the updates to Ambuscade on its monthly rotation, and everyone should have lots to do with the game’s latest patch.

Source: Official Site

Comment

Perfect Ten: 10 MMO features that deserve widespread adaptation

22 comments

You know what gets me excited about upcoming MMOs? It’s certainly not the list of expected systems and features that have since become standard for most games in this genre. Good-looking fantasy online RPG? Neato, that’s terrific, but what else are you selling?

No, what truly grabs my attention is when a dev team uses its imagination and comes up with a creative feature that makes me sit back and say, “Wow, I wish they all had this!”

It’s a shame that we have seen plenty of these systems over the years that were tried maybe once or twice but never adapted into the greater sphere. Today we’re going to come up with 10 examples of such features that truly did try something revolutionary (or at least pretty cool) but haven’t seen follow-ups in games since.

Read more

Final Fantasy XIV brings monster hunting with its newest patch

One comment
The latest patch for Final Fantasy XIV has arrived today, and it brings all of the monster hunting you could possibly want within the game. Yes, it’s the crossover with Monster Hunter World, complete with new cosmetic gear, new minions, and new Orchestrion tunes for everyone. If you’re not interested in that, though, you can take part in the new Eureka – Pagos expedition, which brings characters to a snow-covered area to take on greater enemies.

Players also get a variety of quality of life bumps with the update, including the option to purchase weapon upgrade materials for Gougan currency, new crafting recipes, an experience buff in the original Eureka areas, and the removal of restrictions on Sigmascape Crystalloids. Check out the full patch notes to get an idea of what you’ll be able to do with the patch. You could, of course, also choose to totally ignore the patch if you’re over on the Faerie server as players put together an epic scavenger hunt for plenty of gil.

Source: Official Site, Reddit; thanks to Alex for the tip!

Comment

Final Fantasy XIV prepares for the Moonfire Faire and the Feast championships

3 comments
The summer is at least theoretically waning, and that means it’s time for Final Fantasy XIV’s annual summer event, the Moonfire Faire. That, of course, means another new swimsuit, more house decorations, and even a new mote this year for those who wish to splash your friends regardless of the situation. It’s starting in Limsa Lominsa as always, so we may assume it also means a new round of beachside fun, although some acrobatics are promised for this year’s event.

Let’s face it, when you have a beach resort in a zone your summer event isn’t going to take place in the snows of Coerthas.

For those with an eye toward more competitive events, you’ll want to keep your eyes on the US Feast championships, which are still being fought over until early September. The current front-runners for US data centers are highlighted in the most recent entry from the team, but there’s still a month to go before the semi-finals, so there’s still time for a new challenger to sweep in with a spectacular record.

Source: Event page, The Feast championships

Comment

1 2 3 … 88