World of Warcraft’s new Forever offshoot hit beta this week, and no surprise at all, it was just as messy as any other beta, and the whole dang MMORPG genre still stormed the doors.
Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2’s Visions of Eternity Code of Creation officially launched as the last big update for the game for the immediate future, Diablo IV is looking abandoned-ish, RuneScape Dragonwilds slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and EverQuest Legends laid out some ambitious post-launch plans.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
World of Warcraft Forever’s first day of beta sees massive queues, lag, bugs, and plenty of early opinions – We were pretty confident that the first day of beta forWorld of Warcraft Forever was going to be absolutely slammed, as were the devs at Blizzard (very likely), but everyone…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands on with Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity’s finale, Code of Creation – With all the buzz surrounding Guild Wars 3, it would be easy to forget that Guild Wars 2’s latest expansion, Visions of Eternity, still has one more update left in…
Casually Classic: Basking in the glow of World of Warcraft Forever – I like to think that it’s good form and basic graciousness to be excited about game reveals that aren’t for you but bring a lot of joy to a certain…
WoW Factor: The lingering questions that hang over the head of World of Warcraft Forever – When it comes toWorld of Warcraft Forever, MOP’s Justin and I are largely simpatico. We both tend to play our games in very different ways, sure, but my initial assessment…
World of Warcraft Forever aims to combat dungeon boosting, says ‘no plans’ for WoW Tokens – Even with multiple panels at BlizzCon this past weekend, Blizzard still hasn’t revealed all of the important information about its upcoming World of Warcraft Forever. Case in point, during an…
BlizzCon 2026: Diablo IV will not receive any further expansions as efforts shift over to Diablo V – Poor Diablo IV. It was sadly hilarious to see the game propped up at last Saturday’s keynote address with the announcement of the Amazon class… only to have the reveal…
Survival RPG RuneScape Dragonwilds leaves early access and launches on PC and console – A year and a half after debuting in early access, RuneScape: Dragonwilds finally launched in its full, undiluted 1.0 glory. Jagex called this release a «momentous occasion» for the survival…
Blizzard says it announced some major games early in order to ‘convey confidence’ in its releases – StarCraft in 2030.Diablo V in 2029. These don’t feel like release windows; they seem like years plucked from the introduction of a film set in some far-flung future. It begs…
EverQuest Legends plots new areas, new race, and a new-look Rulers of Kunark in a producer’s letter – Have you been waiting patiently (or perhaps even impatiently) for more new things to do inEverQuest Legends? It doesn’t look as though you’re going to have to wait too long,…
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs that rebranded along the way – As might be totally expected, not every video game ends up shipping with the same name that it had during its development. Games get code names or encounter copyright issues…
LOTRO Legendarium: Looking back at Rise of Isengard – In my mind, at least, Lord of the Rings Online’s third expansion marked the separation from «old» LOTRO and «modern» LOTRO eras. This was due to the game having gone…
Guild Wars 3 takes a lore-focused closer look at the Mavenwrights enemy faction – It’s pretty inevitable that you’re going to have to get into some fights inGuild Wars 3. After all, what good is all of the MMORPG’sfancy momentum-based combat if you don’t…
World of Warcraft follows up BlizzCon with WoW retail and Forever Q&A – Even with all of the keynote reveals, major panels, and interviews, BlizzCon 2026 couldn’t cover every question and topic concerning the major announcements. As an effort to follow up with…
Black Desert PC brings the final chapter of its main quest line to the realm of Inner Edania – Evidently, the main story line forBlack Desert on PC is just wrapping up Act I. It may come as a surprise to us, but if you’re a fan of the…
Hyper Light Breaker developer Heart Machine lays off ‘nearly everyone at the studio’ – We had already reported on the unfortunate fate of the early access multiplayer action RPGHyper Light Breaker, which saw developer Heart Machine put forthone final update last year and effectively…
Guild Wars 2 plans a patch to improve the pacing and difficulty of the controversial Solitary Throne fractal – If Guild Wars 2’s latest fractal is whooping your butt, don’t feel too bad about your skills — they’re still quite elite — as ArenaNet confirmed that more work needs…
Warframe of Mind: The big guide to picking a frame – Nezha, Inaros, Titania – All right, after last week I aminvigorated. We’reso close to being done with every single frame in Warframe! (We aren’t.) I can be done with this very soon! (Doubtful.) But…
EVE Vanguard enters 24/7 paid alpha November 10, pushes early access back into next year – Fans of the PvPvE shooterEVE Vanguard probably already guessed that its Steam early access launch would shiftpast its target of this summer, but now they know for sure thanks to…
Final Fantasy XIV delays its Crucible of the Unbroken rankings for a Beastmaster balance pass – The bright side of a limited job likeFinal Fantasy XIV’s Beastmaster is that it doesn’t need to be balanced against other jobs. But it does need to be balanced in…
Massively Overthinking: Does the MMORPG genre have a nostalgia problem? – This week’s question comes courtesy ofa social media post from reader Avenrise, whose reaction toWorld of Warcraft Forever brought to mind a trend that seems to be unfurling a lot…
No, Bungie’s Marathon is not becoming a stealth sequel to Destiny 2 – There are a lot of people who are deep in their feels about the end of active support forDestiny 2, or at least deep in their feels about the end…
ArcheAge Chronicles responds to issues during the network test and confirms gender locking will remain – The executive producer ofArcheAge Chronicles has taken to Steam to pen a letter about having a direct relationship with XLGames’ Western players, and that means talking about how the game’s…
Lord of the Rings Online subscription rate hikes set to finally hit next month – The Hobbit-bred chickens are finally coming home to roost. Earlier this year, Lord of the Rings Online announced that it would be raising the price of its multi-month subscriptions that…
Fight or Kite: Gloria Victis’s combat simply doesn’t land – The last time we met on these hallowed grounds I found myself having a pretty good time playing Gloria Victis. My piece detailed some of the game’s history and how…
Lost Ark shares its roadmap for the next three months with new raids and new equipment – Bad news,Lost Ark fans. With the upcoming end of Amazon’s service of the game in North America (which means it will transition to Smilegate to operate in this region as…
Dune Awakening releases its single-player mode and begins its head start for console players – Today is the day whenDune: Awakening fans can explore the desert in peace and quiet. At least, in terms of facing its threats and dangers by themselves without other players…
Not So Massively: Reacting to the Not So Massively news of BlizzCon 2026 – This year’s BlizzCon has been packed with surprises, especially for smaller scale multiplayer titles. There’s so much to talk about, so let’s not waste time with a lengthy introduction. If…
Monsters & Memories gears up for its October 1st early access with name reservations and advance billing – With beta wrapping up next week, Monsters & Memories is about to turn its full attention to the exciting business of early access. The launch is set to go live…
Elder Scrolls Online’s rumors system offers ‘an old-school questing and narrative scavenger hunt experience’ – Most of the time if you stumble across a quest inElder Scrolls Online, it’s because your character was in earshot of an NPC openly muttering to themselves or you were…
World of Sea Battle is an early access open-world MMO offering PvE and PvP fighting in the Age of Sail – Well, here’s a pretty pleasant surprise: an indie game set during the Golden Age of Sail that fully calls itself an MMO without tap-dancing around the subject like it’s a…
Dungeons and Dragons Online activates its newest raid, Terror of the Demon Lords – Who’s rrrrrready to rrrrraid in Dungeons and Dragons Online? Hopefully it’s you, because otherwise the new Terror of the Demon Lords raid will be sitting there twiddling its thumbs, feeling…
WarCraft III devs say its new always-online requirement improves network play for the majority of fans – The new campaign forWarCraft III Reforged was certainly one surprise reveal during BlizzCon this year, but another one that’s been met with less joy is the fact that the RTS…
Multiplayer creature capturing RPG Aniimo officially goes live – here’s what its monetization looks like – It’s a sad fact of our modern gaming life that we have to learn more about monetization before we check out a game. After all, what’s the point of investing…
Sci-fi sandbox Stars Reach is throwing a raging party (system) this week – To put it mildly, the cosmos is a bit of a big place, so it’s a good thing to have a friend or two by your side whilst you explore…
Aion 2 is holding a ‘launch scale’ open stress test that anyone can hop in to this Thursday and Friday – If you’re curious about the soon-to-releaseAion 2 and are OK with helping NC America absolutely beat its servers into a twitching pulp while doing so, then you’ll want to line…
World of Warcraft Forever elaborates on its campsites feature and horizontal progression plans – WhileWorld of Warcraft Forever is doing as much as possible to keep the feeling of Classic Plus (or just what people consider Vanilla) alive, there are also several new additions…
Final Fantasy XIV previews and elaborates on same-region matching starting with the Japanese data centers – The data centers ofFinal Fantasy XIV are going to be executing a massive team-up starting with the Japanese centers. Starting on October 13th, the Japanese physical data center will have…
Lost Ark adds the Dimensionalist class and applies several changes to high-tier progression in latest update – We’re going to just come out and say it: Calling a class the Dimensionalist is a bit of a mouthful. But then again, consideringthe new class that’s arriving toLost Ark…
Heroes of the Storm previews Xal’atath’s capabilities as a new ranged assassin character – Look, it’s time to reveal the truth: Xal’atath joiningHeroes of the Storm isn’t really about adding a new character to the game, it’s a test to see if people can…
Lord of the Rings Online dev explains why MMOs are so much easier now: ‘The market changed’ – If you’ve been around in the MMORPG space since the turn of the century and have the opinion that these games are a whole lot easier than they used to…
WoW Factor: BlizzCon 2026 paints a bright future for retail World of Warcraft – While everyone is all abuzz with the announcement of World of Warcraft Forever, mainline WoW was by no means left out of the BlizzCon announcements. We got a lot of…
Old School RuneScape takes a zero tolerance stance on crypto-fueled market manipulation – Despite all but the most established cryptocurrencies having the cash value of a speck of dust (almost like a pyramid scheme, weird innit), people are still apparently trying to use…
Diablo V will have multiplayer, but it sounds like the devs haven’t tied down how it works yet – If you and your friends are already discussing how you’ll be playingDiablo V together, first, we truly hope that your friend group sticks around into 2029 (and beyond), and second,…
WoW Forever discusses addons, party forming, PvP progression, and how it effectively negates WoW 2 – Yep, we’re still getting drips and drabs of information aboutWorld of Warcraft Forever from multiple sources as the runoff from BlizzCon 2026 continues to pour, and that means we’re duty-bound…
BlizzCon 2026: World of Warcraft Forever encouraged Blizzard to ‘go again!’ with its hardcore mode – One of the many surprises of World of Warcraft Forever’s announcement at BlizzCon this past weekend is that the new version of the MMO is, in fact, getting its own…
Wisdom of Nym: Reacting to the big job reveal and Beastmaster in Final Fantasy XIV’s patch 7.56 – As I was more or less guessing, the second part of the MSQ revealed what the new job for Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion is going to be. Obviously, it…
BlizzCon 2026: StarCraft confirms a single-player focus but is also seeking devs with multiplayer know-how – You’d be forgiven for feeling perhaps a bit underwhelmed (or maybe just whelmed) to learn that the unveiled open-world shooter coming out ofStarCraft only got a trailer and a 2030…
Cozy MMO Loftia confirms early access release date of November 3 – The start of this month saw the crowdfunded cozy and communal MMO Loftia offeran early access launch window of sometime this fall, and now developer Qloud Games has just unveiled…
Darkfall Rise of Agon shows off its updated visuals and features in a new trailer ahead of its September beta – Earlier this month we reported on a major update forDarkfall Rise of Agon as the revived PvP MMORPG announced a shutdown of its 32-bit servers and a move to 64-bit…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
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.
