It’s time for our MeinMMO format “MMORPG News in Two Minutes.” We summarize the most important news around the best genre in the world. Look forward to a big update for SWTOR, a community achievement in WoW, an important milestone for Pax Dei and much more.
The highlights of the week:
- Rather a lowlight for all fans of Elder Scrolls Online: In the data center of the MMORPG, there was a critical power loss, causing the servers to be offline for a long time.
- The community has solved one of the biggest puzzles of World of Warcraft. MeinMMO reveals how to unlock Incognitro, the Unreadable Demon Wheel.
- In Star Wars: The Old Republic, on December 10, 2024, one of the biggest updates in recent years was released. The game now has improved graphics and the names of inactive characters have been removed.
What else happened? A lot has happened recently in Throne and Liberty. While part of the community is angry about the harsh rune grind, other players are happy about the innovations of patch 1.11.0. The update introduces penalties for characters leaving their dungeon group and more loot. Additionally, the Star Tree Solstice event has started.
The player numbers of Throne and Liberty are falling – can Amazon Games stop the trend?
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This is what happened with the big MMORPGs:
- If you are in one of the top guilds in Throne and Liberty, you have no time left to try out new content. A player on Reddit complained that his life now consists only of PvP.
- In New World Aeternum, the Winter Convergence Festival 2024 has started. Additionally, you can grab new Prime Gaming loot (via newworld.com).
- In Final Fantasy XIV, the Starlight Celebration starts on December 16, 2024. You can find all the details about the event at finalfantasyxiv.com.
- In WoW Classic Fresh, the Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair went live this week (via worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com).
- Blizzard has plenty of ideas for new classes in World of Warcraft. 15 of them have now surfaced – and they all sound good.
- In an interview for the 20th anniversary, developer veteran Rob Pardo talked about the development of Vanilla WoW and that originally, many fewer quests were planned for the launch of the MMORPG.
- The cap for pre-bot emblems in World of Warcraft has fallen. From now on, you can collect infinitely powerful gear – in easy content.
- The shortage of tanks and healers in World of Warcraft is becoming increasingly severe. Only a return to old virtues can fix this, many in the community believe.
- A WoW player moves the community to tears with a tribute to her father.
- The WoW developers have announced the update Siren’s Island for December 18, 2024. The new patch for The War Within brings a new chapter of the campaign, a mysterious outdoor area, ear-related adjustments, cross-faction groups for dungeons, and much more. Here’s Blizzard’s feature introduction with Kelani:
This is what happened with the small MMORPGs:
- Josh Strife Hayes is one of the biggest YouTubers when it comes to MMORPGs. In a new video, the experienced player explains why there has thus far been no assessment of the 21-year-old online role-playing game MapleStory on his channels.
- The team behind Star Trek Online announced a modernized space dock for Earth on playstartrekonline.com, which will replace the previous model from ESD. The premiere of the Probert Station will be celebrated with the flight of the new Enterprise F.
- On December 11, 2024, update 71 for Dungeons & Dragons Online went live. Included are fresh quests, the Jester of Festivult, and more. You can find the patch notes on ddo.com.
- On December 9, 2024, the latest update for DC Universe Online was released, introducing Wonder Woman as a new ally. More information can be found on dcuniverseonline.com.
- Fractured Online also received an update this week to bring a festive mood into the game world. You can find all the details on Steam.
- In RuneScape, thanks to an update, you can now bring Woodcutting and Fletching to skill 110 (via runescape.com). Additionally, there was the announcement that the new sailing skill for Old School RuneScape is planned to be tested in the first half of 2025 (via massivelyop.com).
- In Lord of the Rings Online, the Yuletide Festival has begun, and you can find the official guide at lotro.com.
This is what happened with the MMORPGs in development:
- In a new trailer for the mobile spinoff of Final Fantasy XIV, the developers introduced the nine jobs. The scenes clearly show differences from the PC and console versions of the MMORPG.
- In January 2025, Blue Protocol, the anime MMORPG from Bandai Namco, will go offline in Japan. However, the universe of the game is expected to continue in a spinoff.
- Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street wants to rethink the MMORPG genre with his project “Ghost.” Now, after only one year of development, he has shown gameplay from the prototype of the game.
- Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen started early access on December 13, 2024. You can play the old-school PvE MMORPG on Steam. The EA phase is expected to last at least two years.
- The update for Pax Dei regarding market stalls and the currency gold, announced in early December, was surprisingly released on December 13, 2024. More about the patch can be found at playpaxdei.com.
- On Reddit, there was an AMA session with the developers of Brighter Shores. Topics included future plans for the MMORPG, which are supposed to involve mini-games, additional endgame content, cooperative content, a party system, and PvP.
With this, we have summarized for you the most important things that have happened recently in the world of MMORPGs.
What have you been happy about this week? What have you been annoyed about? Let us know in the comments. If you’re looking for a witty yet informative overview on the topic of online role-playing games, be sure to check this out: Report, columns, talks, and the top list of the best MMORPGs of all time – that was the MeinMMO theme week
