MMORPG News: Bless Online Shut Down, Destiny 2 F2P, New MMOs Genshin Impact, League of Maidens

Let’s start this off with some good news.
Who here has played through the Mythwright Gambit raid? Oh, you have? Then this might be of interest to you! ArenaNet announced earlier this week that they’ll be introducing the new Key of Ahdashim raid on June 11th.
Supposedly, Qadim has invaded the home of the Djinn, Ahdashim, seeking to hijack the mythical power found within and you know.. do what bad guys inevitably all want.
Accompanying this is a temporary open-world event that will have players hunt down Ley-Line Essences from bosses spanning the entire game to trade in for Shiny and Ultra Shiny Skritt weapons.
This event lasts up until June 25th so if you have plans on participating, then now’s your chance.

If you never made it far into Neverwinter then this might not mean much to you but for those of you that have dedicated a fair amount of time to the game you’ll probably know that monsters in-game are a little powerful.
Or, were.. slightly more so until recently. With the addition of the most recent patch enemy HP has been reduced by 10% across the board.
Admittedly, 10% didn’t seem like nearly a large enough reduction to be impactful but they’re still ironing things out.. I hope.
Additionally, player scaling has been reduced within campaign zones and events, scaling players down to level 40 instead of level 60 and character levels no longer being scaled down in several outdoor zones in an attempt to keep things balanced.
Then there were balance changes, bug fixes, and… still the community believes not nearly enough was done to improve on what they ruined with the last large patch introduced.
So that may or may not be good news to you, I dunno.

If you weren’t aware then earlier this week My.com’s new tactical MMO Conqueror’s Blade went into open beta.
Technically, the game had a “soft launch” which means that any and all players are capable of getting in-game to try the game out. It’s completely free, after all.
My.com promised, and I’ll forewarn you to take My.com promises with a grain of salt, that there will be plenty of 15v15 battles against other players, lots of customization for your warlord and an ecosystem that is completely player-driven, including resources and trade in an open world.
So when the games population dries up in the near future, the world will dry up with it. If you want to jump in-game then you can right now and take the game for a ride while it lasts!

If you weren’t satisfied with the current Battle Royale’s at your disposal, then you might be interested in this one!
APB Reloaded revealed their intention of launching their very own Battle Royale mode called APB RIOT into open beta a couple days ago.
The developers behind APB have stated that the new mode will bring a “new generation of gameplay to APB Reloaded with its introduction of a team-based collapsing map mode.”
The new mode will offer players the ability to rank-up, earn free rewards and a brand new weapon. They went on to mention that they don’t call it a Battle Royale mode, insisting that it’s its own thing.
So if you’ve been avoiding APB Reloaded and wanna check it out.. keep an eye on it. Or me, since I’ll keep an eye on it for you and update you.

I feel like Blade & Soul is included in almost every single news video because it just receives so damn many updates. Which would be amazing for a free to play MMO if it weren’t such a pay to win mess.
Regardless, Blade & Soul’s latest update, Empyrean Shadows will pick up right where the Scarlet Tears update left it, introducing Chapter 10: The Gathering Dark.
The update will introduce a new instance, the Warped Citadel with the Kung Fu Master and Blade Master classes both finally receiving their third class specializations, the Way of the Iron Claw and Way of the Spectral Blade, respectively.
Additionally, both the Shadowforge and Skyforge weapons are receiving updates to assist with upgrading while introducing the new Thornbreaker weapon.
Empyrean Shadows launches on June 19th. No update on a North American release of the Archer yet though unfortunately.

It’s been a long time coming but TERA is finally getting little furry fisters of frightening fury.
En Masse revealed that on June 11th when their Skywatch: Call to Arms update releases, a new race and class combination will become available.. the Popori Brawler.
Honestly, that wasn’t something I knew I needed but seeing them in action is potentially the greatest thing I’ve seen in TERA to date. Oh, also, we’ll be getting some Kitten Hittin’ Mittens, as well.
Not to beat up innocent little felines with, but instead to.. well, they’re a weapon skin so you very well might take them kitten hittin’, I don’t know you, I don’t know what you do in your spare time.

For those of you eagerly awaiting Black Desert’s new questing zone to release – you’re in luck!
Star’s End rolled out a couple days ago and with it comes a brand new region for you to explore, brand new monsters for you to grind through because let’s be honest, that’s all you do in Black Desert, and the new Blackstar weapons.
Who here’s ready for some exciting new grinding? Only a few of you? Well, that sucks for the rest of you.

If you’ve been keeping up to date with Destiny 2 then you’d know that they have a brand new expansion, Shadowkeep, planned for a release on September 17th.
What you may not have known was that following their break-up with Activision, Bungie has made it abundantly clear that they are willing to move on with the game and officially launch separately on Steam under a brand new title: New Light.
That isn’t even the most exciting part – Destiny 2, with their New Light expansion will be going completely free-to-play while moving the focus of the game to the more “MMOish side and social elements of the game.”
Yes, not only did Bungie officially confirm that Destiny 2 is an MMO, but the game will be going free-to-play and will allow cross-save from the PC, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia with no exclusive content on any platform.
This is.. surprising, but a very welcome surprise nonetheless.

Players have been playing through the early access of ESO’s new Elsweyr expansion for a while now, but as of the 4th, the expansion launched officially for everyone, including console players.
The latest expansion takes players over to the Khajiit themed Elsweyr, featuring hours of new quests, story, characters, a continuation of the Season of the Dragon story, and of course.. the brand-new Necromancer class.
While some complaints have been lobbied against ESO regarding its theme, price or content included, the general consensus was that it was pretty good.
With Shadowbringers right around the corner for its main competitor though.. we’ll see exactly how good.

The Grimdark themed upcoming Mad World MMO recently made a.. slightly disconcerting Tweet regarding its development. “We are reviewing the idea of launching a crowdfunding campaign to make Mad World better. Yes or No?”
While the vast majority of people responded with “yes,” the question then becomes.. why do they feel they need the additional funding from a crowdfunding campaign?
Are they running low and need a new source of income to fund additional improvements and additions to the game? That’s a little.. alarming, considering the game is currently gearing up another Alpha test.
What do you think? Should they open the game to crowdfunding?

I actually just finished doing a video on this one but there’s a brand new MMO on the horizon – and it’s a pretty interesting looking one, too!
League of Maidens is a superhero themed MMO ARPG currently in development.
They’ve opted against crowdfunding until they have a game they believe is worthy of their fans so all they have is a Patreon account right now but the game looks to shake up the superhero genre for sure.
If you’re not a fan of Scarlet Blade for whatever reason, or, heck, any of the other superhero themed MMOs, then League of Maidens might be what you’re after.

Yes, it’s officially happening. Bless Online’s is completely closing down, first in Japan in August, then in North America in September.
The Russian version shut down, the original South Korean version shut down, the Japanese version is shutting down and the North American servers are following suit.
Neowiz went on to state that they want to express their deepest gratitude to all the players and supporters that wasted their money on a game they never intended to work on.
That after much deliberation and effort from everyone at the Bless studio, they are sad to announce the games closure.
But! They want you to stay in touch and remain connected to their loyal players and supporters through their newsletter to share upcoming news, games and future projects that you can also support.
Anyone that didn’t see this coming is blind as this month Bless has had a peak player concurrency of 200. Yup, 200 people online.
This is also likely why Neowiz recently merged the Neowiz Bless Studio back into its parent company. But don’t worry, the company isn’t going anywhere yet.
It still has Bless Unleashed for the Xbox One on the horizon, and Bless Mobile to follow after that.
But for any of you currently playing Bless Online through Steam.. yeah, I feel bad for you for supporting the game for so long to just get a slap in the face.

For those of you that play the Code Closers private server instead of the official Closers game you’ll be happy to know that the newest character, Seth, has made her way into the game!
Seth accompanies various additions and alterations to the game that En Masse’s version doesn’t have so if you’re interested in checking out the new loli, go ahead and jump right in!

And finally, a brand new upcoming Anime MMORPG from the creators of Honkai Impact, Genshin Impact. Genshin Impact is an open-world Action MMORPG that.. honestly doesn’t have too much information surrounding it.
But! They announced an upcoming Closed Beta in English so if you want to get in and see for yourself exactly what kind of game it is, then you’re gonna wanna follow this link over to apply.
I’m excited, though, and all I’ve seen is the synopsis and beautiful background here.
Plus, we need more Anime MMOs and open-world MMOs both.