With Summer Games Fest and E3, June was full of especially amazing MMO Gaming news! If you’ve been wondering what’s been happening in the MMOs of the world, wonder no longer because each month MMO Games brings the full rundown of the most amazing gaming news, updates, insights, giveaways, interviews, and articles.

In this month’s Gaming Highlights, we delved deep into the most hardcore MMORPG around, had one of our best interviews yet with the directors of EVE Online, explored the growing conflict between WoW and FFXIV, introduced another Indie MMO, and explored all the major updates in your favourite MMORPGs.

Popular MMO Gaming Articles, Interviews, and Reviews

“It is a full-loot, full PvP, first-person, hardcore sandbox MMORPG that wears its punishing difficulty as a badge of honour and makes no apologies for it.” We thought it was overdue that we check out the most hardcore MMORPG around, so we set our Head of Content on the case of reviewing the beta of Mortal Online 2. He found that its reputation for brutality was not unmerited, but he also discovered a whole wealth of potential in the stunning world of Nave. Read me!

“We reach our nervous little hands into the air, hoping for the warm embrace of a handy hint, a fraternal NPC, or at least a tutorial. “NO!” declares developer Star Vault, offering a clenched fist instead of a held hand, ‘You must fend for yourself!’” Given its unforgiving difficulty, we decided to follow-up with a Mortal Online 2 Starter Guide so that new players stood at least a small chance of survival and slaying those pesky zombies. #EndlessSagas Read me!

“For the dads who guided us through our first cooperative campaign or who still manage to squeeze in more World of Warcraft than we do.” Before we get onto our E3 news, we can’t forget the other major event of the month. We produced a Fathers Day Gaming Gift Guide designed with gifts for every kind of gaming dad. Fathers Day may be over, but this awesome gamer gear is still available. Read me!

MMO Gaming Giveaways

This month we ran a Star Trek Online giveaway competition with extra special gifts posted to those who shared the best Star Trek memes with us. Check out our giveaways page for more info and to browse our other active offers.

Do you know any amazing game artists or fan artists? We’re planning to launch an exceptionally large gaming gear competition containing almost $1000 worth of exceptional tech. To ensure they don’t miss their chance to enter, advise them to follow and favourite us on our social channels (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook group) plus our multi-channel hashtag: #ILoveMMOGames.

EVE Online Interviews

“Like Bandersnatch – the EVE Online version.” MMOGames has committed to bringing you a new EVE Online directors’ interview every single month. June’s edition was truly one of our best yet. Saemmi and Bergur covered a range of topics this month, from sex to technofascism to the EVE Online movie. Trust us, you really don’t want to miss this one. Read me! (or to check out our collection of EVE Online interviews, view the archive!)

Featured Artist: Darrien Kobayashi Gibson

In a brand new feature for MMOGames, we’re going to be sharing some of the amazing artwork of game artists, talented fan-artists, and remarkable engineers. Our most recent Featured Game Artist was the amazing Darrien Kobayashi Gibson whose stunning cyberpunk and horror re-imaginings of classic game characters like Samus, Link, and Raiden really took our breath away. If you know of any talented game artists who would like to be considered, just tell them to contact us. Oh, and one more thing - we have a huge game art competition coming up to celebrate this new feature - so stay tuned folks! View me!

The Pantheon Series

“The very first thing that really changed our attitude was the pure darkness of it all. Torches lit the cavern walls, or the fireball from our wizard would light the room upon impact and it really changed our behavior. This reminded me heavily of just how much slower and more careful you might tread through a dark, dank dungeon in a pen and paper RPG.”

Suffice to say, we’re all pretty excited about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. So much so that we’re extending our popular content segment, “The Pantheon Series”. If you’re an MMORPG lover looking for a more social, challenging title, we strongly recommend you check it out.

This month, we published a special guest article entitled “How “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen” Emulates Pen and Paper RPGs” from another super-fantheon extraordinaire; the legend that is theNathanNAPALM. We suspect a large part of that DnD-magic comes from their legendary in-house Wizard of the Coast / Creative Director, Chris Perkins. Word on the street is that we’ll be interviewing him soon, so let us know what we should ask him. Read me!

WoW Wednesdays

We’ve brought back a reader-favourite feature on MMO Games - WoW Wednesdays where you can discover all the need-to-know World of Warcraft updates, in-game events, and esports bonanzas.

This month a key theme dominated our coverage: World of Warcraft vs Final Fantasy XIV. Here’s a rundown:

  • Day One takeaways from Outland, no problems here... Read me!

  • Things continued pretty civilly between the MMO giants as the FFXIV Director-Producer Naoki Yoshida (AKA Yoshi-P) spoke for the first time about how WoW inspired FFXIV. Read me!

  • Then a mass player exodus including leading streamers started flocking to Final Fantasy and things got heated. Read me!

  • WoW fought back with Chains of Domination release dates. Read me!

  • Then a poll on Reddit got involved to try to settle things once and for all. Read me!

  • But the poll caused more confusion, so we decided to get involved and make one of our own. Currently, FFXIV is winning. Your move, WoW. Vote in me!

Feelgood Fridays

We know times are dark for a lot of people right now, so we enjoy sharing some feel-good gaming news to give you some pandemic cheer. Our #FeelgoodFriday gaming news section talks about the games industry moves that make us happy: inclusivity, accessibility, sustainability, and diversity.

This month was Mental Health Month, we published Feelgood content on:

  • The charity LifePack helping to fight malnutrition with Krabby Patties. Yes, you read that right. Read me!

  • A free gamified app produced by world-class universities aiming to rewire gamers' snacking habits to encourage healthier eating. Read me!

  • E3’s Gamespot Showcase - Play for All - highlighted the games that put social impact at their core. So we highlighted them right back. Read me!

  • People the world over were celebrating their love through Pride. We highlighted the gaming companies that showed solidarity through symbolism and financial donations to LGBTQ+ causes. Read me!

Indie Spotlight

In our Indie Spotlight feature, we shine a light on the lesser-known games that are deserving of more love and attention. If you have an online indie game to recommend, let us know via comment or message. This month, we shone our light on a surprising MMO that, until recently, had been flying under the radar:

Palia is a non-combat MMO brought to you by a crackteam of developers from across your favourite game companies. They hope that through a more peaceful approach, it can become a hub for genuine, meaningful connections between gamers. While we might not be ready to lay our swords down just yet, it’s a welcome reminder to know that MMO games don’t always need to be about slaying pitfiends. Check it out!

Don’t forget to check out our previous Indie Spotlight features on Voidspace, Scars of Honor, Infinite Fleet, Key to Heaven, Project: Gorgon, Super Squad, Broken Ranks, and V Rising.

MMO Gaming Updates, Events, DLCs, and Patches

  • Lord of the Rings Online pitted players against an old flame in the Blood of Azog update. Read me!

  • Trove is encouraging players to party hard by introducing the bard. And frankly, we love the new class already. Read me!

  • Black Desert Online released a new class too, though this one is more sea-farer than C-major, say “aye aye” to the Corsair. Read me!

  • Ship of Heroes has a new beta feature - “Missions” - just in case superheroes in space weren't enough to keep you occupied. Read me!

  • ESO launched the highly anticipated Blackwood DLC on Stadia alongside a really cool two-month livestream event; the world is watching. Read me and read me!

  • Anarchy Online is the longest running sci-fi MMO of all time, that’s right, it’s even older than EVE Online. Here’s how they celebrated their twentieth birthday. Read me!

Upcoming MMO Games, Playtests, and Trailers

DnD Dark Alliance has officially landed and we were immediately ready to roll for initiative, our review is en-route to you soon. Read me!

Lost Ark is one of Amazon Games most anticipated releases, and it’s clearly got Bezos’ bankroll behind it; E3 brought us more details and a western launch date target. Read me!

E3 was full of new multiplayer game releases, we provided a rundown of the titles and updates that we’re most looking forward to. Read me!

Some More MMO Games News

We’re trialing two new content types:

  1. Endless Sagas - Where we solve the gaming conundrums and challenges you’re struggling with. Like our Mortal Online 2 Starter Guide, our clay-mining explanation for Stranded Deep, and our Valheim dedicated server walkthrough.

  2. Crafty Creations - Where we highlight the biggest, funniest and most impressive creations from games focused on building and crafting. Like this amazing Valheim Viking Village.

MMOGames.com is committed to bringing you all the freshest, funniest, and most insightful MMOGames news and content. If you enjoyed this recap, share it with your community. And make sure that you never miss our updates and exclusive giveaways by following and favoriting us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.