MMO Week in Review: A Feast for MMOs

Thanksgiving and Black Friday week may have been a short one for MMO studios, but there was still news! We took a long hard look at Tarisland, World of Warcraft provoked player grumbling over its cash-grabby expansion headstart, Lost Ark delayed class balancing updates for the west into 2024, and indie MMO Ethyrial admitted that a devastating hack had resulted in the loss of 19000 player accounts.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Black Friday sales and Thanksgiving events around the MMO world, 2023 edition - I'm sorry but it's Black Friday all week. In fact, some brands went ahead and made last week Black Friday too, and next week will also be Black Friday. Really…

First Impressions: Tarisland has some rickety bones but some solid muscle - I admit that it can be kind of hard to process Tarisland without immediately comparing it to a certain title. I've had no emotional or mental link to anything that's…

World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas claims War Within early access won’t grant long-term advantages - So let's recap for people who have missed out on this. World of Warcraft's next expansion, The War Within, is available for pre-order. This is not unusual. There are three…

WoW Factor: Fine, let’s talk about Blizzard being dumb with early access - All right, let's get it over with. I didn't really want to write this column, not because I didn't think there was anything to talk about here but just because…

LOTRO Legendarium: Six very tiny LOTRO details that I love - It's a sign that you're a passionate fan of a franchise when you get so familiar with the source material that small details delight you just as much as the…

Fractured Online sold 5000 copies, devs post short-term update roadmap and more stats - Most of the time we're left to educated guesses, supposition, or cutting through the Gordian knot of investor report double-speak when it comes to figuring out how well an MMORPG…

EVE Online’s FPS module Vanguard will have its first test on December 7 for subscribers - When CCP Games announced EVE: Vanguard, the FPS module that claims to link itself to EVE Online, many people expressed skepticism, particularly since the studio has tried to create modules…

EverQuest players are raising the alarm over an economy-crushing dupe exploit - The EverQuest community is up in arms over what's being perceived as a meager response to a major problem that has reportedly crashed much of the economies in the MMORPG's…

Corepunk hopes to have early access launched by the end of winter - Momentum is building for Corepunk this season. The long-in-the-coming cyberpunk MMOARPG ran through two limited-scope tests earlier this fall and is gearing up for a much bigger one come December…

Massively Overthinking: The MMOs we’re happy still exist – even if we don’t play them - Earlier this month, following the news that Project Gorgon was in dire financial straits as the MMO wasn't making enough for full development and the indie couple behind the title…

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore loses 17,000 player accounts in ransomware hack - Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore is currently on track to emerge from 2023 as one of the most battered and bruised MMORPGs on the market. It's certainly seen its share of…

Blade & Soul rebalances Bloodshade Harbor, launches a new event, and details an NPC’s creation - Have you seen a tiny girl wielding a massive five-bladed chainsaw in a game and thought to yourself, "Wow, I really wish I knew how the developers concepted this character?"…

ARK Survival Ascended arrives to Xbox consoles, delays its PlayStation launch to early December - It's a bit of good news and bad news for console fans of ARK: Survival Ascended, which is wholly dependent on which console those fans own: Studio Wildcard confirmed this…

Perfect Ten: Why I’m grateful to be an MMO gamer in 2023 - To me, Thanksgiving is a much-needed reminder to acknowledge and express the gratitude we have for all that is right and good in our lives. It seems that it's so…

Guild Wars 2 Necromancers are finally getting swords, Anet kicks off experience boost event - Guild Wars 2's ninth and final weapon reveal - the sword for the Necromancer - rolled out amidst a bunch of other announcements last night, and it really takes me…

Throne & Liberty unloads seven (!) new class videos at G-Star - If you're a Throne & Liberty fan, then this week is nothing short of an early Christmas for you. With NCsoft's latest Lineage entry launching early next month in Korea…

New World is merging nine servers into seven others as the Rise of the Angry Earth population boom is over - When Amazon launched the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion for New World at the top of October, the large influx of new and returning players led to the inevitable bloating…

Palia’s latest beta update adds a new character storyline, fresh decor, and a quirky critter - Happy patch day for Palia! It looks as if you'll be joined by a new character for Thanksgiving: Her name is Subira. "This patch marks the first time in Open…

Early access co-op horror title Lethal Company tops Steam’s sales charts and rakes in over 100K players - By now most gamers of all stripes have heard of Lethal Company, a multiplayer co-op title from solo developer Zeekerss that casts players in the role of scavengers arriving on…

EVE Online’s Havoc release sees player numbers swell over its launch weekend - Sure, a new major update bringing in lots of players could be considered "water is wet" news, but the fact remains that last week's Havoc update launch for EVE Online…

Choose My Adventure: Character and comfort levels continue flowing in Tree of Savior - I don't know whether I really like Tree of Savior yet, but I also have to admit that the dopamine hit of making it from class level 15 to about…

World of Warcraft may be considering a Vampire Survivors-style bullet hell mode - World of Warcraft seems hell-bent in destroying any predictive bingo cards for 2023. At the tail end of a year of surprises, the fantasy MMO may have one more waiting…

Not So Massively: Eternal Card Game’s gauntlet problem - A little over a year ago, I discovered digital CCG Eternal Card Game and sung the praises of its robust solo content. Since then I've played more than three hundred…

Kickstarted superhero MMORPG City of Titans releases new test build with massively expanded map - Big news for superhero MMORPG fans today, as the crowdfunded City of Heroes spiritual successor City of Titans has released a new development update - and a trailer to go…

Some Assembly Required: Grand Theft Online roleplay is a tough nut to crack - A few months ago, I discovered the world of Red Dead Online roleplay. The possibility of interacting with other players and discovering mechanics in the world of RDO was an…

Fractured Online’s player city restoration is underway following malicious hack last weekend - Since this past weekend, the fledgling second early access of Fractured Online has been tarnished by the actions of a malicious hacker, who according to Dynamight Studios hacked his way…

One More Game ends dev on multiplayer battler Spellcraft after failing to find a ‘financially viable’ prototype - Things have been worryingly quiet over at developer One More Game and its self-described "real-time battler" Spellcraft. The multiplayer tactical title was first unveiled by the studio back in April…

Pirate 101 has a surprise mobile spinoff called Pirate101 Plunder Hunt - Every so often, something comes across our desks at Massively OP that makes us go, "Huh," and then say louder across the office, "Did any of you know that this…

Wisdom of Nym: When will Final Fantasy XIV head back to the Void? - Some fans were not super happy with the amount of time that Final Fantasy XIV spent on our little trip through the Void with Zero and such, but I feel…

As of tomorrow, World of Warcraft will gate buying WoW Tokens with gold behind a formal purchase history - This Tuesday, November 21st, is going to see a change to the World of Warcraft WoW Token. That's when Blizzard will impose a restriction on the purchase of a WoW…

Smilegate unveiled a playable version of Lost Ark Mobile at G-Star 2023 - Remember back in 2019 when we were all still waiting on Lost Ark's arrival to the west? Then you perhaps also remember that we reported on the potential of a…

Destiny 2 peak player concurrency hits a new all-time low on Steam - Bungie has already acknowledged the deep player disappointment in Destiny 2, but now we're all able to see at least a part of that greater picture thanks to SteamCharts, which…

World of Warcraft celebrates 19 years with a free goodie box, daily quests, and revived classic bosses - It's the 19th birthday of World of Warcraft this month, and that means there's a celebration going on in-game. That's hardly a surprise, and neither is the event itself, but…

Lost Ark’s Korean class balance updates won’t land in the west until January 2024 - Last week saw a bit of bad news for western fans of Lost Ark when Amazon Games confirmed that class adjustments made to the Korean version wouldn't be coming in…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 446: Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of MMOs

The Stream Team: Dancing for the rhythmic pigeon crown in Headbangers Rhythm Royale

The Stream Team: Time for Turkey Day coma play

The Stream Team: A Party Animals Smashgiving Day brawl

The Stream Team: Cat and dog multiplayer adventuring in the RPG Cat Quest II

The Stream Team: Time for a talk in Guild Wars 2’s Secrets of the Obscure

The Stream Team: Bumbling about Blackwood in Elder Scrolls Online

The Stream Team: Character creation for a modded Conan Exiles one-shot

The Stream Team: Exploring Final Fantasy XIV’s Binding Coil of Bahamut raid at long last

Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.