RuneScape developer Jagex has canceled RuneScape Reignited, a recently announced and hugely controversial plan to soft-reset the MMO by spinning up forked servers with fresh economies and characters, after widespread player criticism.

Jagex only just apologized for neglecting players and announced plans to pause and revisit this whole idea. Now, RuneScape Reignited is well and truly dead.

"It is clear that we missed the mark on this, and so we are not moving forward with it," a blog post from associate creative director Mod Ryan reads. "Our goal is to see Runescape grow again, with returning players coming back and new players joining, but never at the expense of our existing community."

The main complaint with Reignited, as acknowledged and summarized by Jagex, was that the players who've kept RuneScape alive all these years would be forced to leave their accounts behind if they wanted to enjoy the fresh Reignited servers which have not been tainted by all the microtransaction sludge that Jagex has been trying to scrub out.

It was positioned as a glorious refresh, but veterans felt left behind and worried that this version of the game would only split an already fairly small audience. People also complained about needing yet another membership subscription for a new account, as RuneScape subs don't cover multiple characters in the way that World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 subs do.

"We received a ton of different perspectives from all of you, and we truly appreciate everyone sharing their views," says Mod Ryan. "It is super important to us because the last time we didn't listen to player feedback, combat changed forever. And it has taken us over a decade to recover from that."

Mod Ryan is, of course, referring to the Evolution of Combat (EOC) update which ultimately split RuneScape into two games. Overnight in November 2012, the bones of the game changed dramatically, with Jagex crowbarring in a more World of Warcraft-like skill system that caused many players to quit. (As you may have deduced, I was among the quitters!)

As a result, we now have Old School RuneScape, which has revived and iterated on the RuneScape MMO that we had before EOC, and what's now known as RuneScape 3, which is what was incubating the Reignited project. Somewhat confusingly, RuneScape 4 was just announced.

Not wanting a repeat of EOC, but still very much wanting to grow the RuneScape audience and attract new players in the way that Reignited might have, Mod Ryan says, "I truly believe that December remains a fantastic time to start or continue your journey in RuneScape."

"So we're still going to open the gates on December 2nd with a 10 day free trial that runs for 10 days between December 2nd and December 12th," he adds. "New characters, or any character that on December 2nd has not been in membership since the 2nd of June, will be able to freely access RuneScape Members worlds and content during the 10 day period."

The rest of the RuneScape 2027 roadmap, which Mod Ryan worries was "overshadowed" by Reignited blowback, remains untouched.

"Now I'll round off by saying that the future of RuneScape is still extremely bright," he concludes. "RuneScape will always be built for and defined by its community. So please keep letting us know when you feel we're getting it wrong and shout with that same energy when you think we're getting it right too."

The early response to this particular cancellation appears positive overall, but not universally. Some people are understandably disappointed to miss out on a new day-one boom via Reignited, but crowds of veteran players have praised Jagex for listening to the community and acting quickly and decisively.

Especially since the appointment of new CEO Jon Bellamy, Jagex has been loudly pushing to clean up RuneScape and bring it closer to the popularity of Old School RuneScape, which attracts many more players.

One MMO player spent 6,572 hours setting a new world record – which is about 30% of the last 4 waking years.

World of Warcraft: Forever hasn't come without its controversies, with the most notable of all perhaps surrounding the new Skyborne race – but the Beta proves it's not that unpopular.

The WoW: Forever Beta has been underway for nearly a month now, giving fan-led projects like Classic.io, which collects player data from the game, a chance to bloom.

So, what do the numbers on the site tell us so far, then? Well, perhaps most interestingly, the Skyborne aren't even the least popular race. In fact, the Alliance-aligned Skyborne are the fourth most popular race, with their Horde-aligned counterpart following close behind.

They've got the Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Tauren, and Trolls beat, too. The only races ahead of them are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Undead, Humans, and Orcs, with the Skyborne making up nearly 20% of all World of Warcraft: Forever players.

Heck, Skyborne Druids also make up the fourth most chosen race and class combination in the game, and folks have had some less than positive thoughts about that combo to say the least.

Blizzard actually had to step in recently and promise to make World of Warcraft: Forever's Skyborne less "jarring" to look at, specifically mentioning Druid animations in its statement. So, yeah – the stats are a bit mind-boggling, as they don't line up with all the controversy.

I suppose it's not too surprising, though, when you consider the fact that the same $30 that grants you access to the WoW: Forever Beta comes with the Skyborne included.

I'm happy with the periwinkle-skinned elf race myself (the pink hair goes hard, y'all), and I doubt Blizzard regrets its introduction, either.

Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said the team always "knew we wanted to add some sort of elves" and the Skyborne had apparently stemmed from veteran Chris Metzen himself – so, there you go. They're here to stay and it doesn't seem the community is all that broken up about it, honestly.

I am, however, disappointed to see Night Elves so low down. If it were up to me, we'd all be donning some sort of elf character – lore be damned.

World of Warcraft: Forever aims to "aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold" – but Blizzard warns there "may be false positives" at first

On the journey to the big World of Warcraft: Forever release next month, Blizzard has been working hard on social media advertisements for the new MMO – advertisements it assures fans do not contain any generative AI content.

The company's digital marketing manager confirms as much on X, explaining that they've seen some of the controversy the WoW: Forever ads have sparked online, with allegations of gen AI use – but it's all unfounded.

"Not seeing much discourse here on X, but there have been comments on whether or not we use AI in these videos," they write. "That's a big hell nah." Why would they, when they have real creatives at hand?

As they put it, "We have real team members writing scripts, getting and editing footage, and I've been in recording booths with our VO actors every week."

They're not alone in assuring the community of it, either. World of Warcraft's social media manager chimes in with his own post, stating, "To add, we don't use AI on ANY social content we make. Big hell nah indeed." And, honestly, that's great news, to say the least.

It's a bit of a strange time right now in the game development scene and elsewhere, with many suddenly announcing their support of gen AI amid widespread layoffs.

Epic Games immediately springs to mind, having unveiled a new "vibe coded" version of its launcher just yesterday while company CEO Tim Sweeney spoke on a "huge pivot" at the studio toward "maximum AI acceleration" – so, yeah.

I, for one, am pleased to learn that other developers and publishers – like Blizzard here – are shying away from the controversial tech and opting to support their own creative staff, even if it's for something as simple as social media advertisements.

World of Warcraft: Forever aims to "aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold" – but Blizzard warns there "may be false positives" at first

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom is pivoting to focus on its two ongoing online projects, Conan Exiles and the more recent survival MMO based on Frank Herbert's universe – a pivot that means reshuffling the team and, unfortunately, layoffs.

The news comes from GamesIndustry.biz alongside a direct statement from Funcom CEO Rui Casais, who says he's stepping down at the end of 2026 after 11 years as studio lead. Chief product officer Scott Junior will step into his role – but that's not the only change in the books for the team.

"Dune: Awakening has been the biggest project we have ever undertaken, requiring many years of significant development resources across our studios," Casais says. "Moving from full production into long-term post-launch development and operations requires a different organization."

In other words, layoffs.

"While we would have wanted everyone who helped build Dune: Awakening to continue with us, we cannot sustain the size and structure required during peak development as we move into this next phase."

As for how much of the team these layoffs will affect… Well, that remains uncertain.

Casais concludes, "My focus now is ensuring the process is as supportive as possible for everyone affected, and to treat our colleagues with the respect and transparency they deserve."

It's undeniably difficult news to take in, especially when considering how Dune: Awakening just saw the arrival of its single-player mode and console release – it's not a "dead" or dying game by any means, but I suppose that's not enough.

It's not the first round of layoffs Funcom developers have faced, either. Last October, the team lost "cherished colleagues" following a similar statement to GamesIndustry.biz.

Those previous redundancies also accompanied words on how Dune: Awakening "has already shown incredible potential" and was "the biggest release we've had in our 32-year long history of making great games."

Dune: Awakening boss reveals movie director Denis Villeneuve once feared the survival game's name "could be a little too close to Star Wars"

Although World of Warcraft: Forever is still only available to play via its Beta – a Beta which won't see any player progress carry over to Blizzard's full release, mind you – it's not enough to deter folks from purchasing in-game gold with real money.

You know, real money trading. If you've played any MMO at all, whether that be retail World of Warcraft or something like Final Fantasy 14, you know it's a problem. And even though it doesn't really make sense financially, the WoW: Forever Beta offers no exception.

A little while ago, Blizzard took $200 in gold from a streamer after suspicions of real-money trading. Shortly after, an add-on targeting gold purchases made rounds.

In other words, it's an ongoing issue, "Beta" be damned – and the community has looked to Blizzard for a harsher crackdown against it… Something the developers are evidently aware of.

A new update from the studio proves as much, with Blizzard outlining measures it's currently implementing to counter real-money trading before it really takes off in-game, as part of its "latest weapon" against illicit gold purchases.

"If your account is suspected of being involved in RMT, either the selling or receiving of illicit gains, you may find your account subject to a Temporary Economy Hold," the post reads. "You will have restricted use of trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House while this economic hold is in place."

It sounds just like the tough crackdown the doctor ordered, honestly – and Blizzard doesn't seem to be playing around.

"Our aim with this new system is to aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold before it has been transferred or put into circulation into the economy, while providing us the time needed to investigate more thoroughly," the dev explains. "If you are just playing the game normally, it is unlikely you will ever see this restriction applied to your account."

And, if you do see it, things will progress in one of two ways.

"If this restriction is applied to your account, it will be either automatically removed when the actions that triggered it have been investigated and found false, or you will receive account actions if found to have been involved in RMT," as Blizzard says… but it might not be 100% clean at first.

"This system is new. There may be false positives while things are fine-tuned," the studio admits – but you don't need to worry too much.

That's because "merely having a Temporary Economy Hold will leave no permanent strikes against your account unless also later proven to be RMT motivated."

It's not such a bad deal, in my opinion – but I'd also never engage in real money trading, especially during a beta, so my take makes sense, I suppose. I'm just happy to see Blizzard taking further action against those who are, even if it'll include wrinkles that need ironing out.

Blizzard is "committed to ensure that WoW: Forever is not marred by the Real Money Trade" – and that's not all, either. "All of these systems will also be deployed to all versions of World of Warcraft if proven successful" – Forever, retail, Classic, you name it.

As Blizzard launches yet another version of World of Warcraft, lead says "our hope is to grow the audience, not to fracture it"

Almost nowhere but in MMOs will you find speedruns measured in months, not minutes or hours. One Old School RuneScape diehard recently shattered one of the most time-consuming records around, racking up 6,572 hours played on a quest to collect every pet in the game as fast as possible.

Our champion is Coxie, an OSRS player who, three years after getting all of these pets the old-fashioned way, decided to do it again on a timer. The first chapter of the video series chronicling this was uploaded in April 2023.

OSRS pets are cute little companions that are generally dropped by bosses, tied to minigames, or awarded for completing skilling actions like chopping logs and catching fish. Exact pet drop rates can vary wildly, but even the most common pets are fairly rare among players. Most high-level players probably only have a few pets to their name at most, and the true chase rares among the pet collection can – demonstrably – demand months of RNG hell, not to mention substantial and wide-ranging game skill.

A lot of pets come from difficult bosses that are slow to kill, and with pet drop rates sitting in the 1/5,000 range a lot of the time, you'll have to kill them a lot. It can also be scary when pets appear to have generous drop rates. For example, the little obsidian wyrm Jal-Nib-Rek has a drop rate of just 1/100. Sounds easy, right? However, that is one out of every 100 Inferno completions, and the Inferno is the kind of grueling PvE challenge that only a tiny percentage of OSRS players can beat at all, let alone many times.

Coxie managed to get all 71 pets in just over 273 days of playtime, or 6,572 real hours. His final pet was, amusingly, a little cow named Beef, which is among the easiest pets to acquire at a drop rate of 1/1,000 in trivial content.

In an October 10 Twitter post marking the finish line, Coxie explains that he made this pet hunting account "3 years, 9 months, 23 days ago." Some quick math shows that, since creating this account, Coxie has spent approximately 30% of his waking hours (generously assuming eight hours of sleep) playing OSRS, and about 20% of all hours.

OSRS developer Jagex verified Coxie's achievement and his playtime. The developer also shared just how far ahead Coxie is compared to his competition. As of now, the second-place all-pet speedrun sits at a staggering 572 days, or 13,728 hours. I've learned not to doubt the tenacity of RuneScape players, but I have to imagine this record will hold for a good while.

"He was one of us": Unexpected tributes to RJ Mitte pour in from MMO fans saluting a fellow maxed player after Breaking Bad star dies.

Actor RJ Mitte, known to many as Walter White Jr. in hit drama Breaking Bad, has died at age 34 reportedly by suicide. Tributes from Breaking Bad leads Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul soon arrived, and have now been joined by countless online messages shared by players who knew Mitte as a lover of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and RuneScape.

In a July 2013 Comic-Con interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mitte was asked about his deep-cut obsessions. He explained that, "Before World of Warcraft had like 30 characters, I had level 85 on all the characters, along with maxed out all the levels on RuneScape. Every time a new video game would come out, I would have to beat it within six hours or I would never play it again."

Though he's best known for his acting and disability advocacy, this video alone earned Mitte lifelong notoriety among MMO fans. More than a decade later, that same video interview has received new comments from other players. "RIP from the Old School RuneScape community," one user wrote just hours ago.

The World of Warcraft level cap was 85 back in the Cataclysm expansion of 2010, but Old School RuneScape wasn't released until February 2013. Before that, we only had – and Mitte would have been playing – plain old RuneScape, now colloquially known as RuneScape 2. (Developer Jagex just announced RuneScape 4, and yet another World of Warcraft is in the works at Blizzard.) This means Mitte maxed out his characters in much more difficult versions of the games we have today, investing thousands of hours into those games.

So far, the Old School RuneScape community has been especially vocal in tributes to Mitte. Orbiting discussions of suicide, many players encouraged checking in on people and showing unconditional compassion.

"A lot of us use OSRS as an escape. He was one of us," writes one Reddit user. "I know when I’ve been alone in life sometimes. Discord or Friendschat got me through it. Hold your brothers."

"I work with people with disabilities, and this one just hurts extra fucking bad. I didn’t realize he was a certified gamer as well," replies another user.

"I rewatched all of Breaking Bad grinding out 99 Runecrafting during my maxing grind a few years back. He will be missed," says one player, referring to an infamously tedious RuneScape skill.

Other players shared stories and photos from meetups with Mitte. "Super down to earth, never acted like a 'celebrity.' Won’t forget it," one fan says of meeting the actor at a South by Southwest convention.

The top response to a separate OSRS Reddit thread reads: "So sad, if anyone ever feels like this - please reach out to someone. You are worth it and you deserve to live, please don't let a permanent solution be the answer to a short term thing. I have been there, there are brighter days ahead. Feel free to reach out if you ever need anything."

For more support and resources, please visit the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/).

World of Warcraft: Forever is the third mainline World of Warcraft MMO Blizzard's bringing to the table to stand alongside retail and Classic – but the developers aren't trying to cause a rift in their community with yet another version of the game.

In fact, they actually want to draw more players into Azeroth's welcoming hands, as game director Ion Hazzikostas tells PC Gamer in a new magazine interview.

"Our belief is that Forever will offer something that appeals to a lot of folks who maybe aren't currently well-served by what they see from WoW," he explains – and that lines up nicely with what Blizzard's been saying, honestly. World of Warcraft: Forever is for fresh faces and old fans.

"Maybe modern Wow isn't quite their speed, and when they look at Classic, they played that game already, or it's a little bit too janky and too 2004," he continues. World builder Matthew Armstrong said similar before, that WoW: Forever is "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic – that plus newcomers, of course.

Blizzard wants to reach more fans across the board, and Hazzikostas assures the community of this. "Our hope is to grow the audience, not to fracture it," he states. And "it's not something we take lightly."

This isn't the devs' first go at revamping World of Warcraft, after all, considering Classic. "For years now we've had two distinct flavors of the game, with different paces to them, and they've appealed to large but distinct audiences," as the lead puts it.

We've got retail and, of course, Classic. Soon, we'll have three.

Much like with Classic, WoW: Forever will hopefully bring people who've never touched a WoW game in their life to the MMO universe, Hazzikostas says – and, you know what, I'd argue it already has.

I'd never been willing to dive into World of Warcraft prior to the new Beta myself, having suffered from some serious FOMO. Now, I'm all in, and I doubt I'll be any sort of exception to the standard.

Here's hoping World of Warcraft: Forever indeed doesn't "fracture" the community. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he's witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" however, so I've got a good feeling.

World of Warcraft: Forever may take us to Northrend and Pandaria one day as "Azeroth is a big place," Blizzard teases, even if it's all about the first year of the MMO for now

If there's one department that Final Fantasy 14 fans are lacking in, it's reading, apparently – particularly the MMO's own settings.

It's a tale as old as time: players want certain options, and Square Enix either delivers them or doesn't… or, you know, already has, but folks don't check the settings to make sure what they want is or isn't already implemented in the game before asking for it.

Global community producer Toshio Murouchi jests about this phenomenon during a panel at this past weekend's PAX Australia event, explaining that it happens all the time. "Some of the player group loves A, the other group loves B, so you guys tend to say, 'Okay, how about making it selectable in the config options?"

That's when Square Enix does just that, with a "let's make it happen" attitude" – there are more than 10 years, as Muruochi says, of work poured into the MMO, after all, so the existing settings are "tremendous."

So tremendous, in fact, that players don't bother going through them.

They "don't like to read any play guide or the manuals," Moruochi jokes, which… guilty as charged – but we'll want to do just that for the new expansion Evercold.

"In preparation for Evercold, please take time to read through the config options," as the developer kindly tells the community. "That will help raise your quality of life in Eorzea." He's probably not wrong, considering all the new configurations and tweaks coming.

From new jobs like the Bastion to housing changes, Evercold's packing quite the punch of content, and knowing your way around pre-existing settings can't hurt. Some fans think that Square Enix should make them easier to navigate, however.

Over on a Reddit thread about Muruochi's recent words, one person comments that the devs "should redesign the horrible options menus" if they expect players to explore them.

Another suggests the Final Fantasy 14 team "just add a search bar" to make navigation a bit simpler – something I wouldn't be opposed to myself. For now, though, we'll have to make do with the old-fashioned click-and-browse method, I suppose.

Final Fantasy 14's Beastmaster has fans experiencing the MMO as Pokemon trainers for the first time in its 16 years, and they love it so much they "wish it was a standard job"

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever beta is in full swing and Blizzard's public release is quickly approaching, it comes as no surprise that fans are wondering where the MMO might take us in Azeroth – and the possibilities sound endless.

Speaking to Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft, and associate production director Clay Stone, content creator JackedIQ learns more about what Blizzard has in store for us regarding zones and the like – you know, whether we'll ever see Northrend or Pandaria – and the developers' answers are exciting, to say the least.

"I mean," Longdale says first, "broadly speaking, nothing is off the table." And, yes, she means nothing.

"It's more what the team decides to do, where they want the narrative to grow." Much of this will come from what Blizzard gathers from us as players, but "another piece of this is the original continents too can change in and of themselves."

As the lead puts it, "You could spend a lifetime in the two continents as they evolve." However, once again, she reiterates that "everything is on the table at this point."

As it stands, Blizzard is simply focused on "the best story to tell," which does mean "there's plenty of opportunity." Longdale jokingly concludes, "We just wanted to see if anyone was going to play it first."

Considering how well the beta is going – so well, in fact, that senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he's witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" – I'd argue we can hold our breath.

Stone echoes Longdale's teases, too, adding, "Azeroth is a big place – and this time period that we get to play with is a really cool time period, basically staying in that first year of World of Warcraft…"

And, with all of the available lore, "there's some really cool creative ideas that the team has for how we can play in that space." Stone repeats that "Azeroth is a big place," perhaps filling me with too much hope now.

All in all, though, I'd wager we'll see a lot more of Azeroth than we may have initially gone into Forever thinking we'd see, and I'm thrilled to hear it. How will Blizzard pull it off while remaining faithful to its 2004 MMO? Well, that's for time to tell… not us.

World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes leave fans asking Blizzard "why" and hoping for more class adjustments.

A new patch for the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is upon us, bringing everything from the new City of Dalaran dungeon to various class changes – but it's not exactly landing well with all of the MMO's early players, it seems.

The World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes outline a lot, and that's a bit of an understatement – we're entering the fourth week of the Beta, after all.

You'll find them over on Blizzard's official forums, beginning with bug fixes and leading into a plethora of class changes which are, unsurprisingly, stirring quite the storm in the community. The first point of contention has to do with looting, however.

As the WoW: Forever patch notes read, "This build reintroduces Classic looting behavior, where creatures that dropped no loot can still be interacted with." In other words, enemies are now professional time wasters as you can interact with them whether or not they have loot.

To say the least, it's pretty annoying – and I'm not alone in thinking so. Over on a Reddit thread on Patch 5.01, one person simply asks, "Why?"

They continue: "I mean, what purpose does this have beyond 'it's how it was?' Is it just masochism from thinking you got a quest item?"

Honestly, I get it. It's already confusing folks, too, with another commenter saying, "I found it mildly annoying/confusing at first when I killed a mob and I couldn't loot it. Took me a bit to realize what was going on." Perhaps this is one thing they should've axed from the original game.

Players are also unhappy with the new World of Warcraft: Forever class changes – and lack thereof. It's looking especially rough for Rogue fans specifically, with one reply joking, "Sick Rogue changes" (spoiler alert: there are none).

Caster classes like the Druid, Priest, and Shaman do see tweaks – but they're apparently, uh, not the greatest. "They're committed to making casters feel bad at low levels," as one fan amusingly puts it.

For example, Blizzard has adjusted the Shaman's Lightning Bolt and its "base points and points per level of ranks 1-5" so as "to make the growth rate of ranks 1-6 more consistent, and new ranks always an upgrade" – but it feels like a non-change.

As one fan writes, there are "0 meaningful changes" in reality. All in all, it feels like the developers opted to nerf lower, currently preferable ranked skills than "making the higher ranks better."

It's worth a browse through the full World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes to see it all for yourself if you're interested, but something tells me Blizzard might be delivering even more changes following fan feedback soon.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is entering its fourth week, Blizzard's got some new content in store for us – like the exciting new City of Dalaran dungeon.

Yes, that's right… we're finally heading to Dalaran, and we'll get to test a new dungeon, too – one that's already managing to stir up some chaos, it appears.

If you're familiar with World of Warcraft, then you likely know that Dalaran belongs to the Alliance and not the Horde. Well, it seems that the latter is somehow able to enter the city regardless after the dungeon's introduction to WoW: Forever, as per Wowhead.

Apparently, Horde players just need to complete the City of Dalaran, accompanying dungeon quest "Heart of Disruption," and get the Dalaran Sewer Key – the item that grants us entry to Dalaran. It's at that point that folks are then tasked with bringing the loot they got from the dungeon into Dalaran, in fact, through a new quest titled "Shrewd Negotiations."

Whether you're Alliance or Horde, you'll be safe in the city following this sequence.

All of the guards that should be hostile will act neutral toward you, should you be a Horde player, and offer safe passage (as long as you defeat the Archmage in the City of Dalaran and so on, so forth).

What's more, you can freely explore the city after completing everything, much like an Alliance player – but although you can stock up on supplies, you won't be able to access every NPC's services, apparently.

As Wowhead amusingly points out though, you can fish for coins in the Dalaran fountain – heck yeah. Not everyone is pleased with the Horde being in Dalaran, however.

Over on Reddit, players find it so mind-boggling they say it's "probably just a bug." Others argue that, as it's tied to a quest, it "doesn't sound like a bug." Nonetheless, it's stirring up some lore-related discussions, which aren't exactly new to World of Warcraft: Forever.

There's the whole controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race, from its $30 price tag to its lore implications, and the fact that Blizzard has just revealed it's changing the elves to better fit the rest of the MMO, for example.

It's never easy dealing with source material that's this old and beloved, I suppose, but I do think Blizzard's well aware of this and how fans feel about the legendary 2004 game that started it all.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

World of Warcraft: Forever won't be emulating the retail or Classic versions of Blizzard's beloved MMO when it comes to PvP – it's got its own way of approaching it.

The studio outlines as much in a new post about how PvP works in WoW: Forever over on its official website, and it's somehow easier than it was back in the early 2000s but also… a tad grindy?

Blizzard first describes it bringing "a refreshed sense of purpose to every match-up" with an approach that "gives players more reasons to take part throughout the season while preserving the spirit of competition that defined PvP in the original World of Warcraft."

The developers explain that they "wanted to keep the design pillar of 'Approachable and Familiar' firmly in view: simplifying the original Honor System while staying true to its roots" – so, how does it work?

Well, there are two parts to World of Warcraft: Forever PvP: Honor and Rank Points. Honor is a form of currency you earn by taking part in PvP content, with Blizzard promising to ensure that "acquisition rates are more consistent across the board."

You gain Rank Points from specific PvP activities, like battlegrounds and certain quests. This system is similar to the original World of Warcraft's own, as you'll be working toward titles like Grand Marshal or High Warlord (depending on which faction you've chosen, of course).

There's a catch, however: "Ranks have a weekly cap, retaining the foundation of the original system while making the journey more accessible." That makes it easier, sure, but it also feeds into a weekly grind – and as a Final Fantasy 14 player myself, I'm all too familiar with (and not really a fan of) weekly grinds.

There are more layers to this, too, with Blizzard going on to detail how seasons function: "During a PvP season, players can progress through the ranks and earn Honor. Each season also includes a journey with weekly tasks to complete." Sigh. Yes, weekly.

"Successfully completing those tasks grants Honor and Rank Points, and three tasks each season also grant a Legacy Point," the devs continue. "Completing these tasks is part of the seasonal journey, and because they are tied to the Legacy System, they remain available to complete in future seasons."

In other words, it's definitely a bit simpler to get where you want in PvP rank-wise, but I'll feel more inclined to be consistent. You know, whether I want to be or not – and I'm evidently not alone.

A comment sees a fan saying, "Please don't do the weeklies thing." Another adds, "One of the things I'm trying to avoid is weekly checkboxes I feel I need to hit. Just having X item cost Y Honor and Z rank is enough." A separate response reads, "Please don't do that system. It's unhealthy at all. Having to farm every freaking week without taking any break is not fun."

Overall, though, it's admittedly certainly an accessible PvP system. Blizzard seems to know it as well, concluding, "With more ways to make progress each week and meaningful goals to pursue throughout the season, PvP in World of Warcraft: Forever gives players a clear path to jump in, compete, and keep building toward what comes next."

Fingers crossed it all plays out smoothly come the MMO's November 4 release.

To make World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne less "jarring" to look at, Blizzard is going back to 2004

Since Blizzard first unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026 last month, one thing has been weighing particularly heavily on fans' minds about the revamped MMO: the Skyborne race.

It's hard to deny the controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race, from its $30 price tag to its lore implications, but Blizzard doesn't seem to necessarily agree with fans critical of the blue-skinned elves.

In fact, senior game designer Josh Greenfield said the team always "knew we wanted to add some sort of elves" and the Skyborne had apparently stemmed from veteran Chris Metzen himself.

That doesn't mean Blizzard isn't open to any change at all, however.

As it stands, folks can opt for HD or SD player models in WoW: Forever. Put simply, HD is a "newer" style, while SD provides that old beloved 2004 look. The Skyborne don't have that option in the Beta right now, though – but that'll change.

Blizzard reveals as much in a new update on its official website, explaining that the developers "focused on the pre-existing races from original World of Warcraft" first, regarding the SD and HD toggle.

That's because, you know, "many people have an attachment to those models." The studio is aware that it leaves the Skyborne looking a bit… different.

"We have heard feedback that the HD Skyborne can be jarring by contrast when placed in the same world as the SD models and world, and we agree."

The solution? "Skyborne player characters (and yes SD Druid forms) are in development and arriving early 2027." Attached is an in-progress image of models.

So, the SD Skyborne won't be available when World of Warcraft: Forever fully releases on November 4, but they're coming.

Is it enough for disgruntled fans, though? Well… is it ever? Comments show that plenty of players are still, erm, displeased, to say the least, with some asking Blizzard to just "please remove Skyborne druid" altogether – which is a tad extreme, if you ask me. There is some positivity among the replies, thankfully, however.

I'm of the (evidently unpopular) belief that the Skyborne are stunning, and have their place in WoW: Forever, so I'm thrilled. And, you know what? A huge chunk of the Beta players I see myself are playing as the race, so take that as you will.

WoW Forever player beats Blizzard to the punch, builds add-on that catches real-money trading on the spot

It has been zero days since an Old School RuneScape update gave players a heart attack. Following the rollout of a new training arena led by the NPC Pete Kayer, ironically meant to help players practice their PvP skills and survive, OSRS fans quickly noticed a bug that was interfering with the MMO's death mechanics and causing incredibly valuable gear to vanish.

"DIED WITHOUT DYING AND THEN DOUBLE DEATH," exclaimed understandably panicked Reddit user Rsnks earlier today. As they hastily explained, and as other players and Jagex developers corroborated, the problem was that the game would skip steps in the normal post-death item retrieval process and immediately delete those items instead.

Per the OSRS wiki, when you die outside of limited safe zones, your valuable items are stored in a grave marker for 15 minutes. If you don't reclaim those items within that time (for a fee), they're sent to Death's Office, where they can be collected for a larger fee at any time.

However, some boss fights have their own death storage called item retrieval, which is typically accessed through NPCs or chests near the entrance to those fights. When you die to a boss that has this unique death storage, your valuables are placed there instead, and if you die an unsafe death before collecting those items, they're gone for good, which is an extraordinarily rare and punishing system for an MMO.

Somehow, wires got crossed today and players were being punished with two unsafe deaths after mistakenly respawning inside of some boss arenas and rapidly being killed twice. "I lost a ridiculous amount of gear," said Rsnks.

Jagex confirmed this issue earlier today, warning players to "avoid doing any PvM content for the time being" and promising to restore items to affected players. Game worlds were taken offline for repairs, impacted players were identified, and items were reissued. "It appears all items have been returned. Thank you so much!" reads the latest update from Rsnks, who was far from the only bugged player.

This whole mess reignited discussion around the steep punishment tied to the death mechanics of high-end PvM content, with many players growing tired of asking Jagex to do away with the storage system and instead shuffle everything into Death's Office for permanent retrieval.

Countless Old School RuneScape players have undoubtedly quit the game, or at least had their experience worsened, after misunderstanding or forgetting these death mechanics and losing hard-won items. To make matters worse, the runback to some boss arenas can also easily kill you if you aren't careful. (Long ago, you lost almost everything almost instantly on death. It completely sucked and really should've been changed sooner.)

Jagex dev Kieren Charles waded into some of this chatter on Reddit. "We fully intend to get to this and are exploring it as the next direct focus for [the quality-of-life] team once the last few Gathering Efficiencies changes are out," he confirms. "It'd have been nice to have had this done before today... perfect highlight of why we should get this tidied up."

RuneScape devs apologize for plan to reset and divide the MMO: "We have made you, as existing players, feel like you are no longer our focus."

RuneScape developer Jagex is reconsidering its plans after one of the biggest announcements at its recent RuneFest event sparked widespread outrage among the game's player base. RuneScape Reignited, a proposed plan to fork the MMO into new worlds with fresh economies and leaderboards, is going back to the drawing board.

"We are re-evaluating RuneScape Reignited," a fresh Jagex blog post begins. "Let’s not mince words here. We have made you, as existing players, feel like you are no longer our focus. That’s entirely on us and of our own making, and it’s only right we open by saying sorry."

RuneScape Reignited would, players rightly feared, split RuneScape (not Old School RuneScape, which is its own game) into two different versions: Reignited and legacy, or Veteran, worlds.

If Veteran players, who've survived years of dire monetization, community exodus, and stringing along from Jagex, wanted to engage with the Reignited worlds being pushed as a relaunch for the game, they'd have to start over completely.

"Treasure Hunter is gone," entreats the Reignited trailer, promising new players a game world never ravaged by horrible pay-to-win slop but leaving current players to twiddle their thumbs.

The idea of saving this long-struggling MMO by soft-resetting everyone, in a game explicitly about long-term account progression, was not received well.

In its post, Jagex reiterates that "an option to play with a fresh economy and progression is a big draw for new and returning players. We’ve seen its potential play out with the reach of the announcement and intent to play comments across social media, which have far exceeded our initial expectations." (I do have to wonder how those sentiments would convert to real Reignited players.)

However, the studio admits, "We missed our mark on making Veterans a clearer part of this idea. Not just in the execution, but how we revere your accomplishments, champion your legacy and ensure you benefit from every player who comes through the door."

Jagex singles out some of the key concerns players have shared in response to the Reignited news. (In a classic form of protest, players also shared a lot of screenshots of canceled memberships.) The list reads:

• "As a Veteran character, you will no longer matter. New players are seen to be more important than existing players.
• Veteran worlds will atrophy if the playerbase shifts to Reignited worlds.
• By splitting the community, what you believe is an already small playerbase will be overly fragmented.
• That Veterans are considered tainted for being part of a previous era of RuneScape through no fault of your own.
• The restrictions placed on how Veterans and Reignited characters can interact with one another do not feel good.
• Untradeable items and cosmetics that are locked to your Veteran account feel cut off
• Reignited is pressuring you to restart your character to keep playing and remain relevant, whether you want to or not.
• Needing to pay for a new character subscription does not feel good."

That first point about sums it up: Reignited is great news for new or extremely lapsed RuneScape players, but it's actively bad for active players who stand only to lose newcomers who could have joined their worlds instead, and who are staring down the barrel of a totally new account.

The cost and benefits of a RuneScape membership have also been scrutinized more seriously in recent years, with Jagex now charging premium prices relative to other MMOs but distinctly not putting multiple characters under that subscription as those other MMOs do.

Without committing to specifics, Jagex says "we're exploring a heavy set of revisions to Reignited based on your feedback," from "more ways for the progress of a Veteran to remain intact and be represented meaningfully" to "ensuring that a hard split in community does not persist." How the studio would thread this needle and still go through with the core pitch of Reignited is a real conundrum.

Additionally, Jagex says it is "exploring possibilities" around membership, and the need to yet again pay for a separate membership sub.

"It all ties together, but we ultimately want to remove friction that our veteran players may have engaging with or co-existing alongside Reignited," it claims. "This is hugely important to us and is something we will keep coming back to."

RuneScape devs take down trailer, apologize to players, and blame "partner" for gen AI after promising not to use gen AI.

The Elder Scrolls Online is undergoing a bit of a "renaissance" this year and beyond, as the MMO's developers put it – and much of that involves introducing new types of content that break the game's old formula, so to speak.

2026 has not been easy for ZeniMax Online Studios with Microsoft's plan to cut over 3,200 employees at Xbox coming into action. Heck, Bethesda's union representatives reported a loss of "dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers" – and the chaos is ongoing.

Despite it all, however, game director Nick Giacomini confirmed that the MMO is "here to stay" with extra help from Bethesda… and boy, is it.

I was able to sit down with the director and other leads, including associate design director Jason Barnes, to discuss what direction The Elder Scrolls Online is taking now, in fact – and as difficult as it's been for the developers, it's an exciting time for the community with regard to all of the new content coming nonetheless.

There's the season system, of course, and the ever-puzzling Nowhere Vault, Rumors, and High Seas of Tamriel event.

It all marks a break away from the game's usual mold – one that involves yearly expansions and hardcore content (think Veteran difficulty and the like) – in honor of experiences that far more flavors of player might enjoy.

As Barnes puts it, experiences that "let players figure it out" for themselves… no combat skill required. Plus, "people love secrets," he says. "They love uncovering things." And, there's plenty more to uncover now.

ZeniMax saw success with content like the Nowhere Vault during playtests, even, as Barnes tells me engagement "was extremely high because everyone was looking in every nook and cranny and trying to figure out "what does this mean" and "does it have a secret to it?"

The devs didn't want to only cater to "the more causal player," though – don't get it wrong. This new format is for everyone, casual or hardcore.

They wanted to create "something that everyone could invest in, like, everyone could hop in." And, although "the combat's not extremely hard," it's a different kind of tricky. "There's still enough that you're feeling engaged," as Barnes describes.

I get it, honestly. I do love a good trial and Veteran-level dungeon here and there myself, but the Nowhere Vault is downright cool. It, and the other new content, offers a new way to engage with the MMO.

It's only the beginning, too. Between the more puzzle-oriented features and bigger events like the High Seas of Tamriel, it's all just a "foundation," according to the dev. ZeniMax plans to "layer on to it as much as we want," and the creators "already have some ideas floating around."

He can't tell me what they are, but I'm admittedly already pondering what might be next for The Elder Scrolls Online. Between that and the mysterious return to Skyrim… I can't wait.

This shift, "renaissance" or whatever you'd like to call it, in content brings back immersive Morrowind-style gameplay (I mean, come on, Rumors) and a fresh take on engagement – and it may just be precisely what the MMO needs.

Searching for other new games to look forward to? Read through everything we know about The Elder Scrolls 6 before it finally arrives.

Aion 2 has finally arrived and is proving quite popular as this month's shiny new MMO, with hundreds of thousands of players enjoying its stunning character creator and visuals – despite developer and publisher NC's use of generative AI, that is.

In case you've missed it, Aion 2 is here as the ambitious sequel to Korean MMO Aion: The Tower of Eternity – a 2008 gem that's maintained a dedicated fanbase despite its age.

It's got quite an active community already, too, hitting nearly 400,000 players on its first official day (it was available pre-release to folks who paid, after all), according to SteamDB figures. A solid 397,905 players, to be precise… which is no small feat.

The official Most Played charts on Steam mark it as the fourth most popular game currently, too, with the MMO coming in ahead of Apex Legends and Wardogs. It's also apparently the third most downloaded title on Valve's platform as well, so, yeah.

It's clearly seeing a good bit of activity. As for what players are thinking of Aion 2 so far… well, that's a little bit more complicated. Feedback so far isn't exactly positive.

In fact, the game currently has a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with many reviews discussing its pay-to-win features.

One dubs it an "extremely predatory monetization" system and says Aion 2 is "the complete opposite of what a good MMO means." Others complain that it's got "slop" vibes, perhaps alluding to NC's use of generative AI during development.

There is a disclaimer outlining as much on the page. "Some in-game assets were created with the assistance of AI tools," it reads. "Arcana card designs and some icons use AI-generated assets."

Not everyone is a fan of gen AI, of course, but again, that doesn't seem to be the topic dominating players' feedback. And as someone who gave the game a go, I can definitely understand why – pay-to-win is a big concern in the MMO community, and Aion has historically been no stranger to it.

There is plenty of positive discussion surrounding the sequel as well, however, and I'd be lying if I said there weren't good qualities myself. The character creation is wonderful, and the world is gorgeous. Plus, it's clearly plenty populated.

Searching for some more new games to dive into? Browse through our roundup of the best MMORPGs out there right now if so.

The potential for real-money trading in World of Warcraft: Forever has been a concern since the new MMO's reveal at BlizzCon 2026 – and despite Blizzard already taking action against alleged rule-breakers, fans are coming up with their own ways to deal with it.

In case you missed it, Blizzard took $200 in gold from a streamer last week after players flagged it as having been accumulated through real-money trading. Many fans thought the developer's punishment should be stricter, with some calling for "permabans" and the like.

One of the most pressing issues here, regardless of punishment, is how to actually tell which way somebody's gold was made.

Sure, when a lot of money is made in a short period of time – like during the Beta – it can feel a bit obvious… but it isn't always. Fans have figured out a workaround, however: an add-on that can tell whether or not gold was legitimately accrued.

It came up during a stream on Twitch (hosted by Ziqo, the very same content creator whose $200 worth of gold was nabbed back by Blizzard), in which a viewer said they've created just that.

They dub it IRS, amusingly enough, which is short for "Illicit Riches Scanner." Although it hasn't yet gone live for public downloads, its creator apparently sent Ziqo a beta file directly.

He commented on the add-on himself, saying it ensures "all gold that we receive in the future is fully natty" while calling it "a fucking add-on that compares their gold income to see if it looks sus" – with "their" meaning different players here, of course.

Ziqo describes the add-on as "bugged," but it's pretty interesting. It essentially scans through an account's historical gold against income statistics to flag any money that can't be spoken for legitimately.

The add-on looks at in-game trades in action, too, so I can see how it'd catch real-money trading, honestly – and, yes, it does indeed flag the majority of Ziqo's gold as illegitimate, so, uh, take that as you will, I suppose.

I do wonder what Blizzard's next move will be, and whether or not it'll deem the add-on all right, come its full release. The studio has been targeting inappropriate names recently and more, so it's clearly paying close attention.

Blizzard warns WoW Forever players that its stance on real-money trading is "crystal clear" following beta ban spree: "We will continue to take action"

"RuneScape is so back," creative director Ryan Philpott tells me at RuneFest 2026. Having axed the MMORPG's unpopular microtransactions earlier this year, Philpott took the stage to reveal the next step in its comeback tour: RuneScape Reignited, unique servers where hi-scores, characters, and even the player-driven economy will be given a fresh start to entice new and returning players into Gielinor.

RuneScape Reignited has proven controversial for ongoing RuneScape players, with some fearing the servers will fragment the playerbase. Others have pointed out that a separate membership will be required to play – which I personally don't agree with. Jagex has since published a blog on RuneScape Reignited's future, acknowledging backlash and stating: "When you next hear from us, it will be a Reignited with that same level of care and devotion to you."

Having long since traded RS3 for its separate offshoot Old School RuneScape (OSRS), I'm tempted to start fresh with anyone in the same boat. Speaking to Philpott ahead of the announcement, the creative director tells me it's an "opportunity to relaunch RuneScape."

"When I was given the opportunity to lead the game towards that brighter future, I got to focus on removing those elements that I, as a player, didn't feel were right for the game," says Philpott, who has been playing RuneScape since the age of 10. "It's been a privilege of my career to be able to steer the game back in the direction we think the game should have always been in."

Halfway to 99

As part of RuneScape Reignited's launch on December 2, all players will have access to its premium membership for 10 days to explore the full game. The offer feels like Jagex putting its money where its mouth is – which Philpott had the studio's full backing on.

"We believe – going as far as to say we know – this is the right time to relaunch RuneScape in this way [and] show everyone how great a game RuneScape is again, after ripping out some of those egregious features," he says. "We want everyone to have an opportunity, no matter who you are, to come and experience it because we know you're going to love it. I would love to remove barriers to entry as much as possible."

RuneScape has made a number of efforts to win players back over the years, including 2022's divisive Fresh Start Worlds. RuneScape Reignited will be the first attempt made since gutting microtransactions and efforts to make daily content – dubbed 'DailyScape' – less overbearing. Still, what makes Philpott think people will stick around?

"Because honestly, RuneScape is so bloody amazing now [...] We've done so much over the last year, we have so many plans for the future," he answers. "There is no better time to play RuneScape than now – without a doubt, [I'm] 100% confident. There's a level of confidence that this is the right thing to do, that this is the right opportunity for everyone to come play."

Some of those future updates include a conclusion to the Gnome storyline – which fans have waited 15 years for – along with a new raid and an Agility rework. I'm also keen to see how the newly-announced Dragon Slayer 2 builds upon the iconic original quest, having spent hours battering Vorkath in OSRS' equivalent. More importantly, I'm excited to start RuneScape from scratch – in recent years it's felt overwhelming and, frankly, noticeably quieter than OSRS.

Ahead of December 2, Jagex will need to mend the rift between RuneScape Reignited and RS3's existing players – many of whom remain unconvinced on the MMO's subreddit. But looking to next year, Philpott's goal is to put RuneScape "firmly on the map as one of the MMOs you should be playing." It's ambitious, given a new Final Fantasy 14 expansion is around the corner and World of Warcraft: Forever is poised to breathe new life into Azeroth, but Philpott knows there is still work to be done beyond Reignited.

"We must keep fixing the things we need to fix – it's a marathon, not a sprint – and bring the players on that journey."

We'll be sharing more from our conversation with Philpott, along with a chat with the OSRS team, later this week. Until then – here are the best MMORPGs we're playing at GamesRadar+

RuneScape developer Jagex hastily removed a trailer promoting one of the MMO's upcoming quests after players clocked its egregious generative AI use, which the devs say came from a "trusted external partner" whose work was not adequately reviewed.

Dragon Slayer 2, the sequel to one of the most iconic quests in MMO history, is coming to RuneScape, several years after retro branch Old School RuneScape continued this decades-old arc. However, this news, shared at Jagex's big RuneFest event over the weekend, was severely weakened by a trailer showing a knight with six fingers, steel-plated tennis shoes, and several other obvious AI tells.

In a post to the Old School RuneScape subreddit, Jagex moderator Sween says, "We’re aware of the concerns raised about the Dragon Slayer 2 trailer and have taken it down, while we investigate urgently." The same post, clarifying "RuneScape's Position on Gen AI," was also posted by Mod Anvil in the mainline RuneScape subreddit.

In a January 2026 statement to GamesIndustry, Jagex product SVP James Dobrowski promised a "hard line stance" on AI within Jagex, assuring fans that "no generative AI will ever be present in any asset that a player can touch, hear or feel."

Sween says this Dragon Slayer 2 trailer wasn't made by Jagex. "This trailer was produced by a trusted external partner who had explicitly confirmed that GenAI would not be used. But, among other things, there’s a sixth finger and, well, that’s pretty hard to explain away. For that we apologise."

Your guess is as good as mine as to how marketing materials for RuneScape's biggest annual event were shipped without granular review.

Jagex's statement reiterates the stance shared by Dobrowski: "Our position is clear at Jagex: we don’t use GenAI to create our games, artwork or creative assets, and will not knowingly allow it to be used on our behalf. This is the second time in quick succession that concerns about generative AI have arisen through partners we trusted, and for us that highlights an issue with our own processes which we must address."

This seems to refer to another recent AI fiasco: esports giant 100 Thieves landed in hot water after an OSRS collaboration timed with RuneFest yielded ugly, AI-generated designs. "The design clearly had AI in it and we missed it," 100 Thieves said on September 30.

After the 100 Thieves blowback, Mod Sween issued a separate statement, also on September 30. "We're as angry as you are about this. We wouldn't have approved the use of AI in any designs. We don't use generative AI to replace the artists and developers who make our games, we don't use it in our marketing materials, and we won't use it in our merchandising or allow its use in partnerships," he said.

This statement was brought up by players following RuneFest. In response, Sween says, "I didn’t knowingly lie, I feel awful, and I understand why you’d think the way you do. It’s crap."

To prevent this from happening yet again, Jagex now says, "Immediately following RuneFest we’re overhauling our review processes, and we’re going to work with and commission creators from the community to make sure that the story of Dragon Slayer II is told to the standard befitting of such an update."

It's unclear when the Dragon Slayer 2 trailer will be reposted or in what form. This incident has cast doubt on other RuneScape news and trailers, with YouTube comments on the reveal for the Temple of Ah Za Rhoon also interrogating potential AI use.

Meanwhile, we're getting a whole new RuneScape MMO. Dubbed RuneScape 4, Jagex's next major release is being built in Unreal Engine.

Why so many game developers don't want to use generative AI.

Developer Jagex has announced a fourth Runescape MMO that's planned to sit alongside all the other games in the long-standing fantasy series.

Jagex revealed the "entirely new Runescape MMORPG" at RuneFest Birmingham this weekend with the apt working title of RS4. The studio stressed that RS4 won't be the name this MMO launches with, but it makes sense for now considering it's the company's "fourth generation" of Runescape. All we have is a short teaser trailer - take a look below.

So, what's different the fourth go around? This time, RS4 is notably being built on Unreal Engine and is set in Gielinor - during the sixth age but years after the recently-released Runescape Dragonwilds - with the adventure starting in Ashenfall.

"Our ambition is for this adventure to grow far beyond Ashenfall over time, moving into places you know and love, as well as opening up new places and stories across Gielinor," the studio writes in a new blog post.

Runescape 4 - or whatever it's eventually, officially called - is "still a few years away," according to the developer, but Jagex announced this new project so far in advance so it can build the MMO alongside the fans: "For 25 years, RuneScape has been shaped by its players. We've learned that our games are at their best when we build with you, not just for you. So we want to do that from the beginning, and that means bringing you into the development journey earlier than you might expect - sharing ideas, testing things, listening and learning as we go."

Jagex was also keen to stress that RS4 won't be a replacement for any of its existing Runescape games, including Old School, Runescape, or Dragonwilds. Each of those games will apparently still hold on to their own "dedicated teams, exciting roadmaps and continued investment."

"25 years ago, Runescape began with a world, a small team and a community that helped turn it into something far bigger than anyone could have imagined. Now we get to start another adventure together."

RuneScape Dragonwilds isn't getting a price increase when it leaves early access: "We hope this small gesture goes some way to showing our endless appreciation"

World of Warcraft: Forever is all about preserving the original, vanilla WoW experience as it was back in 2004, but there's one quest from 2007 that the MMO's community has been asking Blizzard to make an exception for, and now their wishes have been granted.

For the uninitiated, the Kyle's Gone Missing quest was originally added to WoW during its Burning Crusade era from 2007. It was a Make-A-Wish request from a young player named Ezra 'Ephoenix' Chatterton, who had been battling brain cancer at the time. Blizzard did the right thing and let Chatteron design and perform the voice lines for the quest, which tasks you with helping Chatteron's NPC, Ahab Wheathoof, find his dog. It's an absolutely adorable and extremely heartwarming quest, but as WoW Forever only includes content from the original 2004 release, Kyle's Gone Missing has been, well, missing from Blizzard's new MMO until now.

Chatterton sadly lost his battle with cancer in 2008, but almost 20 years later, his memory is being honored in WoW Forever. Users on Blizzard's forum have been requesting that the quest to be added, and earlier this week a community manager indicated it was happening. Now, WoW Forever principal game designer Johnny Cash has confirmed in a tweet that Kyle's Gone Missing and Ahab Wheathoof have been added to the game in an emotional moment for the developer and anyone else who's familiar with Chatterton's story.

"I had the honor and privilege of bringing 'Kyle's Gone Missing!' into WoW: Forever," says Cash. "Ezra Chatterton was an enormous WoW fan, the creator and voice actor behind Ahab Wheathoof, and the creator of Kyle.

"A tear was shed during this one, my friends. Rest in peace, Ezra."

If you want to take on Ezra's quest and help find his dog, you'll find the character in Bloodhoof Village in the Mulgore region, which is actually the starting zone if you're playing as a Tauren. I won't spoil anything about the quest itself if you've yet to experience it, but you'll need to hit level 5 before you can start it.

I'm a lifelong MMO fan since the early days of Ultima Online and EverQuest, but WoW has always been a massive blind spot for me. I'm being sincere when I say I'm more compelled to dive in now than ever after researching and writing this story. It being the biggest MMO in the world, I'm no stranger to issues like player toxicity, but it's hard not to be just a little bit won over by gestures like this.

After 20 hours with World of Warcraft: Forever, I'm convinced it gives old school fans nearly everything they could want

Blizzard has issued a statement on real-money transactions in World of Warcraft: Forever as the new MMO continues its journey through beta, and it's clear the devs want to stamp out the issue before it gets more commonplace.

Over on the official forums, community lead Randy "Kaivax" Jordan confirms that developers have been taking action against accounts "found to be botting to amass gold in the WoW Forever beta, as well as the accounts of those who were found to have purchased or knowingly received illicit gold."

Moving forward, Jordan confirms that Blizzard will continue to do so and will also add a warning to the MMO that'll appear whenever you trade with strangers.

"Our stance on RMT in World of Warcraft is crystal clear: any account belonging to any player that is found to have participated in generating, selling, buying, or receiving illicit gold is subject to the gold being removed, account suspensions, or permanent account closures," Jordan says.

Blizzard stance on RMT in WoW: Forever is something it's tried to be firm on since the fresh take on the classic MMO was announced at BlizzCon 2026. Touching on why something like GDKP – Gold Dragon Kill Points – isn't allowed, senior game designer Josh Greenfield said it's largely because it can encourage RMT, and that devs are taking the economy in WoW: Forever "very seriously."

Did that stop WoW Forever beta players from engaging with RMT? Absolutely not. As we previously reported, one WoW streamer who really caught the attention of the wider community found themselves losing $200 worth of gold for allegedly breaking the rules. They aren't the only one, and others have cried foul and maintain they didn't knowingly do so.

Regardless, if you find yourself with ill-gotten gold in WoW: Forever, it would appear that Blizzard will come down on it sooner rather than later.

WoW: Forever isn't about the MMO's many expansions, but Blizzard is making an exception for a Make-a-Wish quest from Burning Crusade in response to fan feedback: "Stay tuned."

The Elder Scrolls Online is changing as ZeniMax Online Studios moves the MMO further away from its old annual DLC formula toward new content drops that incorporate a greater variety of playstyles – a "renaissance" of sorts, if you will.

It's no secret that The Elder Scrolls Online has suffered a difficult year following Microsoft's plan to cut over 3,200 employees at Xbox, with Bethesda's union representatives reporting a loss of "dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers."

Its remaining developers are pushing on with work on the MMO, however, with game director Nick Giacomini having said that it's "here to stay" with extra help from Bethesda along the way.

As work carries on, the game is making a move away from its usual yearly expansion release, bringing a new season system to The Elder Scrolls Online with less combat-focused content.

I got to sit down with Giacomini and discuss this path forward myself, which he describes as a "renaissance" for the MMO "where we took a look at this game that's been going for 12 years and decided to make some changes."

It hasn't come "just for the sake of making changes, but because it was something the players were asking of us," as Giacomini says. Folks wanted the devs "to excite them" and "surprise them again" – something that was lost in the old "formula," so to speak.

That's why "breaking that formula was really important for us to excite our players." How, though? Seasons, sure, but also new types of content like the Nowhere Vault, Rumors, and High Seas of Tamriel.

"Games haven't stood still," after all. "New games have come out. Great games have come out. That's raised the bar of expectations for players." That led to ZeniMax having to "evolve and revise our own design ethos," and it's a welcome change, in my opinion.

Some more chaotic Morrowind-esque exploration, brain-scratching puzzles, and community events slot nicely into Tamriel, helping gap the bridge between expansions.

Because, you know – even though the studio is trying a new path, it's not entirely abandoning everything we've grown to love the MMO for.

Associate design director Jason Barnes tells me as much, alluding to the mysterious return to Skyrim that ZeniMax is cooking. "There's still a time and a place for some of the like kind of the bigger, more grand type of releases," as he says – "like the new Skyrim zone that we're working on."

That, Barnes describes, won't be "a return to form" entirely as "it's definitely not the same as our traditional zones" – but "it's going to be that kind of spectacle that the chapter model essentially gave us."
Honestly, I'm personally thrilled they're retaining a bit of ye olde Elder Scrolls Online goodness, while also making room for something fresh… and it's already upon us. Heck, we just got Update 51 and the High Seas of Tamriel.

I'm ready for more, and I'm equally as ready for more Skyrim – whatever form it might take.

Massive bit of Elder Scrolls lore from Morrowind is actually because of "a typo," former Skyrim designer believes: "Someone just typed a date wrong in the timeline"

Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 11? It now has an expanded free trial which you can play up to level 75 for free with no restrictions on playtime. Yes, devotees of Final Fantasy 14 have had good times with their own free trial memes over the years, but Square Enix's older MMO is finally bulking up its own trial in an effort to get more players in the door.

There is no longer any time limit on Final Fantasy 11's free trial. Previously, players would be locked out after two weeks and forced to upgrade to the full game. Additionally, the level cap on the trial is now 75, up from the previous cap of 50. These changes were first announced earlier this year, and have just gone live as of today's update.

Notably, the trial still only includes the base game, with no expansion content, and there are some key restrictions on access to social features. Notably, trial players can't access the auction house, trade with other people, or carry more than 100,000 gil, all of which are presumably meant to limit gold farming activity.

Trial players also aren't allowed to start parties, but they can join parties started by owners of the full game. All these sorts of restrictions will sound pretty familiar to FF14 players, and just as with that game, this trial is probably best paired with an experienced subscriber to the full game who can show you the ropes and help you party up.

In any case, Final Fantasy 11 is long overdue for this kind of free trial expansion. The memes are easy to reference, but the real reason I keep evoking Final Fantasy 14 here is because it's the MMO I know, and that's in large part thanks to its generous introductory trial. But Final Fantasy 14 is very much a post-WoW theme park MMO whose biggest hooks are a strong story and accessible gameplay loop.

Final Fantasy 11 is a lot crunchier and more player-driven, with esoteric gameplay systems and a big emphasis on letting players explore at their own pace and find their own fun. Some players swear by it, which is why FF11 is still running 24 years later. But when I tried it out many years ago with the original free trial, I found that the two-week time limit was far too intimidating to make much progress in understanding how the game works.

I'm not sure I can find space in my life to take another run at understanding FF11 these days, but the new free trial goes a long way toward making the possibility realistic.

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World of Warcraft: Forever fans have worried about the potential of real-money trading since Blizzard first unveiled the new MMO during BlizzCon 2026 – but, thankfully, it appears that the studio is cracking down on it prior to the full release.

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is out in full force, some players have begun to suspect certain content creators for engaging in, well, real-money trading for in-game gold.

The suspicions have risen to an all-time high after fans spotted the gold that Twitch streamer Ziqo ("ziqoftw" on the platform) supposedly accumulated naturally – or at least not via any illicit means – as he somehow boasted some 380 gold or so.

That's a lot… so much so, in fact, that it comes in at $200 or so in real-life money, as one user points out over on X (that is, if you use shady websites to purchase it – websites I will not be linking to here).

Players immediately called for Ziqo and others they suspect like him to face in-game bans or some other form of punishment from Blizzard. In the words of the linked fan above, "I call for a 12 months ban, including the tournament."

They add that the developers "promised us even 20 year old accounts would get banned," referencing how Blizzard previously stated that World of Warcraft: Forever's economy is "something we're taking very seriously" – which, honestly, it seems it is.

That's because the studio did indeed take action against Ziqo, as a separate thread with a clip of the streamer attached points out. It actually took back his gold.

In it, Ziqo confirms as much, saying, "Blizzard did sweep up all my gold." He goes on to describe how "they cleansed it; they left me with nine silver," showing his inventory – and, yep, he's no longer rich… that's for sure.

So, there you have it, Blizzard is cracking down on fans likely engaging in real-money trading, and it's a welcome sight. Some players think the devs should be even more strict, though.

Comments show calls for "permabans" and the like – but Blizzard itself hasn't done so, as far as I can tell. Will they? Perhaps. They've been targeting inappropriate names recently as well, so it's not outside the realm of possibilities.

WoW: Forever dev says quest drops aren't changing in the MMO, but Blizzard has added " a bit of under-the-hood functionality" that makes them fairer

There's another version of Azeroth on the way in World of Warcraft: Forever. This iteration goes back to the first year of the MMORPG's timeline, but with extra flourishes and contemporary design elements, in contrast to how WoW: Classic brings back the old school gameplay. As a result, a fan-favorite quest from an old expansion isn't available, but Blizzard's remedying the situation.

Almost 20 years ago, a special mission was added in The Burning Crusade, known as Kyle's Gone Missing. You're tasked with helping Ahab Wheathoof find his dog. That's cute and sweet as is, and it only becomes more so when you know that it was the result of a Make-A-Wish request from one Ezra 'Ephoenix' Chatterton.

He designed this questline for Blizzard, and provided the voice work for Ahab, cementing himself as part of World of Warcraft eternally. It's been a rite of passage for players ever since. The Burning Crusade isn't in Forever, but there have been enough requests to include Chatterton's work that the devs are going to anachronistically make it happen.

"We're working on it," reads a response from community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan to a comment thread on the official forums asking for the mission. "Stay tuned."

The thread was started by one player who was asking on behalf of their partner, who managed to get some beta time. Forever is currently in a closed preview for members of the community, before going fully public on November 4. The area containing Kyle's Gone Missing, Mulgore, is accessible, making this a smaller leap than you might think.

I find it distinctly heartening to see so many rallying behind maintaining this commemoration. Even after 19 years, they're keeping Chatterton's memory alive. May we all enjoy such a legacy.

WoW: Forever dev says quest drops aren't changing in the MMO, but Blizzard has added " a bit of under-the-hood functionality" that makes them fairer.

World of Warcraft: Forever has made rounds online for seemingly standing as Blizzard's own take on Classic+ – but how faithful does the new MMO truly stay to its 2004 predecessor?

Well, as showcased during BlizzCon 2026, it does feature some quality-of-life improvements alongside its cozy revamped visuals. One of these, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, has to do with the way that quest-related items drop for players in groups.

He explains as much in a new post over on X, first stating that drops aren't totally changing – but that doesn't mean they're not improving at all, per se.

"Someone asked me something earlier about how quest drops work in WoW: Forever and if we are changing that," writes Greenfield. "The short answer is no; however we did do something cool that we haven't really had a good opportunity to talk about yet. In the interest of our Pro-social approach, we added a bit of under-the-hood functionality to quests to more predictably round-robin quest items to people who are grouped."

Thank the Light – if there's one thing I think we all hate, it's feeling left behind while every other player in your group is getting drops left, right, and center… and Greenfield gets it.

"There's nothing worse than killing a million furbolgs and having one guy in your group have 8/10 furbolg butts, and the other guy has 1/10. In WoW: Forever we've got something in place that makes it a bit more consistent that everyone in the group will get drops evenly."

The World of Warcraft: Forever Beta's ever-changing, though. As Greenfield puts it, "We are still dialing in this system" – but folks should still give it a go.

"If you are afraid to group on drop quests, I'd encourage you to give it a try. It's still going to take time, just like vanilla WoW, but it'll be less feast or famine, and you'll definitely kill things much faster." And, again, the developers aren't completely overhauling the old in favor of the new.

"A bit of grind on these drop quests are part of the vanilla magic we are maintaining, but we can do small things to help it feel more natural and encourage grouping while still maintaining that original design, and that's our goal," as Greenfield concludes.

He expands on this in the comments, too: "There's still some randomness, but it's more like a bad luck protection if you haven't seen a drop in a while and others are pulling ahead."

Honestly, I'm fairly pleased with group play in the Beta myself so far. Drops do feel even enough, and if one person does get a lot more of something than another, they can trade.

Here's why we think World of Warcraft: Forever gives old school fans nearly everything they could want after spending just 20 hours in the stunning MMO.

Following Blizzard's big reveal of World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026, the MMO's official Beta release went live – and it's almost too popular.

So much so, that senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he was witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" as the studio's servers kept breaking thanks to the WoW: Forever Beta.

The developers remedied the issue by, you know, simply increasing the MMO's population cap – something they've just had to do again over the weekend, because folks apparently can't get enough of it.

World of Warcraft executive producer and vice president Holly Longdale reveals as much in a new post over on X, writing, "So… we had to increase the WoW: Forever Beta population cap again. The wild ride continues." It continues, indeed.

Although Longdale doesn't specify whether Blizzard lifted the population cap for EU or US players, I'd wager it's for both. Despite costing at least $59.99 to access, the Beta boasts plenty of fans worldwide from what I've seen.

Heck, the initial launch was a bit of a debacle itself, as senior game producer Tom Ellis dubbed it "a bit excessive" as countless fans struggled to get into the game.

Although the devs figured the release out eventually, it seems as though the World of Warcraft beta is just as popular as before – or even more so, seeing as Blizzard is actively raising the population cap over time. It spells a good future for the MMO, honestly.

Its popularity makes sense, too. Devs previously described World of Warcraft: Forever as an edition of Blizzard's decades-old MMO that's "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic – and I'd say that resonates.

Not only that, but it's managing to reach entirely new audiences as well, like myself… and after spending all weekend playing the Beta, I can safely say that it's also succeeding there.

Here's why we think World of Warcraft: Forever gives old school fans nearly everything they could want after spending just 20 hours in the stunning MMO.

I've been playing World of Warcraft since its 2004 launch, so I've somehow been playing it for half my life. There's a familiarity there which is pivotal to why I enjoy it so much, but I also don't want things going stale. It's a tricky line to tread, but I think World of Warcraft: Forever has nailed it, reviving the original spirit of World of Warcraft that captured the hearts and minds of myself and millions, while simultaneously feeling like a new step forward.

Cliches exist for a reason, and I can't lie when I say that playing World of Warcraft: Forever genuinely feels like a homecoming – if that home had just been redecorated and tidied up a little. Home really is where the heart is, and between live, laugh, loving, and slaughtering through Azeroth from low-level upward once again, it feels like playing spot the difference between it and other incarnations of World of Warcraft. Ultimately though, it's just a lot of fun! Who says you can never go home again? The good old days are forever.

Classic, again

World of Warcraft: Forever has already been affectionately called Classic Plus by fans, and that sums up the new, third WoW pillar well. It has the slightly harder original difficulty level of World of Warcraft Classic, but with a bundle of quality of life improvements that come from the 'other', core WoW experience (AKA: Retail) with its most recent expansion pack, Midnight. If you haven't played in a long while, think of Forever (and its Classic cousin) as recreating the version you're most likely to remember. It's an approach that bridges the gap between modern and old school, and effectively gives Blizzard a second chance at improving upon the Classic formula.

Forever revives WoW as it was many years ago, like Classic did. However, it does so with a new race (Skyborne), improved visuals, some quality of life additions, and a hard level cap of 60 so you won't see any expansion packs like with Classic and Retail. Instead, progression will eventually be horizontal with new gear and new max level zones and dungeons. Think Classic but more, and without any expansion packs in the future. Confused yet? I don't blame you. The message could be a little clearer. Regardless, an MMO that stubbornly promises to never go past level 60 is a bold move, especially for a game called Forever.

This particular beta only allows you to level up to 20 but that's a strong start. Particularly bearing in mind that when the game officially launches on November 4, the servers are wiped and you're starting all over again. At some point, the level cap will increase to 30 before the beta ends in late October, but even with the lower cap there's plenty to get stuck into already.

Right now, the beta is incredibly busy. Instead of using traditional server realms, Blizzard has opted for realms based on how you want to play. There's a PvE, PvP, and Roleplay realm (Permadeath Hardcore mode is to follow) and in theory, you'll always have someone to play with because each one is packed with players rather than being spread across multiple servers.

After a long time of feeling like I was alone on my previous WoW server, the population brings back memories of when the game launched. There are players everywhere! From small towns like Auberdine to the sprawling city of Stormwind, I've witnessed people working together, buffing each other, and yes, still throwing out trash talk because it is WoW after all. But, good-spirited ribbing can still give me a fuzzy feeling. World of Warcraft feels like an MMO again.

A couple of times when I die, someone even resurrects me just because they can. There are glimmers of kindness and so many signs of virtual life. Blizzard has tapped into that further with its camping system. A form of crafting, you can place a campsite down and others can share special buffs while gathering around the fire. It's surprisingly heartwarming to see and feels so community spirited.

World of wishlists

Adding to the 'let's do what we've been meaning to do for years' attitude that Blizzard seems to be demonstrating, there are so many more quests in starting zones and beyond than before. WoW veteran, Rob Pardo, once told me that during playtesting of the original game, the team quickly realized there needed to be a lot more quests added to the game. Well, now there's even more than that.

Better still, they tend to link together better, leading you to new zones or teaching you new and valuable skills. For instance, one quest in Darkshore gives me water breathing potions which previously felt like gold dust to acquire. Many additions feel so natural that veteran players will find themselves racking their brains to remember which quests are new and which were always there. Also, you can keep 40 quests in your log instead of the very paltry 20 of before. One of the many subtle quality of life improvements you'll soon end up adoring. I liked stockpiling myself with quests from different zones so I could wander freely and always have something new to do.

There are things that don't entirely impress me though. The lighting and water effects are much improved, bringing vibrancy to the visuals, but other graphical improvements feel much more subtle rather than revolutionary. This isn't the WoW 2.0 we all hoped for. The only new zone in this beta is the starting zone for the Skyborne race, Zephras Isle, and that's very pleasant and more modern to look at. It's also a sprawling zone that is potentially a little too vast for starting out in. The Skyborne race itself is best described as elven smurfs but as a night elf main, I feel at home.

Another thing to tick off the 'I always wanted this' list is gamepad support. It's in alpha right now and I wasn't entirely sold but I can see the promise. It's a lot like Final Fantasy 14's gamepad support so the potential is there, but undoing 20 years of using mouse and keyboard is going to take some time. I'm hopeful it means you'll be able to play on a ROG Ally or Steam Deck more effectively one day.

So early on into its beta, it's hard to tell what the future holds for World of Warcraft: Forever. It's clearly very popular right now with certain imbalances compensating for that such as super fast respawns of even 'rare' mobs. There are still many new items to find with some cool rumors floating around, from weapons that open up brand new class strategies, to a series of strange books. Just this week, an item that allows you to mine without possessing the mining skill has been found, along with an experience boosting sleeping bag.

There are new zones for higher levels too, yet to be explored. I'm intrigued to see what the account-wide Legacy system will look like too which unlocks at level 25 and presumably the next stage of the beta. It promises to be kind of like the current achievement system but with rewards such as buffs or new pets and mounts. I'm hopeful it extends longevity once you hit level 60.

What I do know is that I'm really enjoying my time with World of Warcraft: Forever. As a big Classic fan, it still scratches the itch from being a veteran player but offers quality of life fixes that save me from needing to install add-ons, all while giving me a genuinely active community again.

A little like World of Warcraft: Midnight did for Retail, World of Warcraft: Forever feels like exactly what old school players need to revitalize and re-excite. Forever, Classic, and Retail will all co-exist as separate branches of WoW – and Forever feels like it's eating Classic's lunch a bit after playing – but I'm beginning to suspect a lot of players after a traditional MMO experience will flock to Forever unless they're true purists. As a veteran player, it feels like the obvious option. Whichever you favor, 2026 is shaping up to be a very good year for World of Warcraft fans.

Room for more in your world? Check out our best MMOs and best RPGs rankings for further adventures!

Although it feels like Blizzard only just unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever during BlizzCon 2026, some time has passed now and the beta is out in full force – and, unsurprisingly, folks are already catching bans for inappropriate behavior.

What inappropriate behavior so early on, you might ask – and it all boils down to character names. People are choosing, erm, less than respectful titles for their avatars, and it's caught Blizzard's attention.

As the studio writes in an online post, "Reminder to keep your character names in the Forever Beta respectful and within policy. Forced name changes are going into effect and users with the most extreme violations have been removed from the Beta."

While that all sounds valid enough, some fans aren't having it. There are various threads circulating the web with claims of overaction from Blizzard, as players say they're mildly crude or silly names have been targeted wrongfully.

The developers disagree, though – as per a statement over on Twitter from senior game producer Tom Ellis, the team is not just taking accounts down willy-nilly. Not at all, in fact.

Ellis explains, "Anyone saying they were removed from beta for naming their character 'Billy Mcsuckmahballz' is telling little white lies. That character likely just received a forced name change. Multiple unfortunate humans read through every name that was removed from beta today. If you're genuinely confused, remember that it's our database, we can see every character you've created, not just the one you're playing."

He then concludes, "I read the list. No sympathy. Be a better human next time." That checks out, honestly – and it's hard to counter the devs when they've got an active database of the bans they've issued.

A handful of fans are still upset, judging by the comments, but I see plenty more celebrating Blizzard's crackdown on its initial announcement. As one reply puts it, "Based. Thank you." It can't be easy keeping things SFW, after all.

Especially not within such a massive MMO community. There are responses noting that the devs have missed some inappropriate names, for example – but they are only getting started here. World of Warcraft: Forever's full release is on November 4.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic, dev says.

When Blizzard first unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever during BlizzCon 2026, many fans saw it as the MMO developer's answer to their Classic+ prayers – and, according to world builder Matthew Armstrong, it sounds like it basically is just that.

The dev goes into detail on who Forever is truly "for" in a lengthy new thread on Twitter, saying that he had a very particular type of player in mind while helping design Blizzard's revamped take on its 2004 gem: the hardened Classic fan who didn't feel satisfied with the non-retail version and how it deviated from the original game.

"I'm seeing a lot of discourse about who WoW: Forever is being made for," he writes. "While I cannot speak for anyone else on the team I can speak for myself. I am making WoW: Forever for the Classic gamer and for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse over the years because they were not satisfied with changes that were made to the game. Whether those changes were to the art style, the story, social aspects, game design, or changes to their favorite class."

World of Warcraft: Forever is no retail, that's for sure. "I did not spend the last year of my life relearning and mastering how to do things like we did it 20+ years ago for retail players," as the world builder puts it.

"I could have taken it easy and just kept doing things like I had done for the past eight years on retail… because I was much more familiar with it and it actually takes a lot less time to do (height maps on textures do a ton of heavy lifting)."

And, as Armstrong points out, "because the reality is that the majority of retail players wouldn't care and would probably actually prefer it." That's not what he did, though.

"I felt I had a duty to uphold an artistic vision and integrity that millions of people expect from us" – both players and fellow devs "past and present who worked on it over 20 years ago." He wanted to "create something that resembled their work.

That's what Forever is – an Old School RuneScape-style upgrade to the original World of Warcraft MMO many folks know inside out and love. And, Armstrong clarifies that it's not a diss aimed at fans of the retail version.

He simply "wanted to make Forever as authentic of a vanilla experience as possible," which is "wildly different" than retail, obviously. There are three "sayings" he says he's followed throughout development, too.

"Convenience is the death of the journey" is the first – which checks out. Then, "If you're making a game for everyone then you're making it for no one." Again, that aligns well with what Armstrong says regarding Classic and retail fans. Finally, "Every change we make incurs a debt to the authenticity of the game and sooner or later that debt will be paid." I suppose Classic (and all the Classic+ requests) proves this point.

"These are my core beliefs and I had a specific group of people I was targeting with my work," he concludes. "These beliefs cannot be shaken and I will try to hold the line against anything that goes against them and will continue to pester the team about things that feel out of place."

Armstrong does still hope World of Warcraft: Forever "will pull in as many people as possible," Classic, retail, or otherwise.

"I hope you can all remember what made this game so special in the first place and that starts with understanding why we are so passionate about keeping it authentic."

I certainly do, and judging by the comments, it's safe to say the majority of players do.

"You can't tell me this isn't WoW 2": Blizzard says World of Warcraft doesn't need a sequel thanks to Forever, but MMO fans say it already made one.

Following the big reveal of World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026, many fans dubbed it Blizzard's answer to their Classic+ prayers – but others see it as such a strong revival of the original MMO, it might as well be a sequel in its own right.

World of Warcraft: Forever is many things: a revamped take on Blizzard's beloved 2004 gem, an MMO with new content that nobody has previously experienced, and an all-around cozy game to pour hundreds of hours into between school or work.

What it technically isn't, however, is an official sequel – but fans enjoying its paid beta period feel it's got enough bang for its buck that might as well be World of Warcraft 2, apparently.

One fan taken aback by Forever's stunning nighttime visuals declares as much, writing in a post on Twitter, "You can't tell me this isn't WoW 2." Over on Reddit, commenters discuss how the new game "opens up so much potential," with a response calling it "a pretty smart way to develop WoW 2."

Threads on the official World of Warcraft forums echo this sentiment, as folks write that "WoW Forever feels like WoW 2.0 and it makes sense."

It's certainly an interesting take to read, especially seeing as Blizzard itself essentially said that World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because the developers aren't sure what a sequel to the old MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you" – so, yeah.

It's undeniably a downright huge project for the studio, and it seems that even they liken it to a successor of sorts… even if it'll coexist with Classic and retail.

Honestly, I'm personally thrilled with the beta so far myself. Blizzard has nailed everything from the ambience to the quest design, placing me in the shoes of a giddy child booting up their new game for the first time ever once again – and, yes, I even happen to like the controversial Skyborne race, regardless of its hefty $30 price tag, and its opening story.

The devs have something very good cooking here, y'all.

That, plus the fact that Blizzard is waving goodbye to combat add-ons (much like it did in retail before) and GDKP – thank the Light. I just can't wait until everyone gets to hop into World of Warcraft: Forever on November 4.

World of Warcraft: Forever dev tells fans concerned by datamines and screenshots to "reserve judgment" until they play Blizzard's new MMO.

World of Warcraft has been running for 22 years, and even now Blizzard sometimes struggles to keep up with demand. Yesterday, the WoW: Forever beta launched and immediately broke under the weight of everyone trying to get in at once. How is this still happening when Blizzard has decades of experience with launching new MMO content? The devs themselves say they were genuinely taken aback by just how popular the Forever beta has been.

"Man, it was hard to sleep last night, I was so excited," senior game designer Josh Greenfield says on Twitter. "Beta has been... crazy. The craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard and almost 8 years on classic. We've got something really special here."

Maybe that sounds hyperbolic, but senior game producer Tom Ellis has posted a more exhaustive technical breakdown of what went wrong for the opening hours of the Forever beta. "It's not a Production stack by a long, long, long, long, long, long shot," Ellis explains on Twitter. "Betas for WoW aren't usually huge meter movers so this environment just isn't that powerful."

Because "our little BETA environment only uses one REGIONAL realm," Ellis says, math on the servers started getting screwy as this one little connection point was suddenly having to funnel in so many players. This is why people kept getting disconnected after sitting through the lengthy login queues.

It took the devs "around half an hour" to figure out that this was the bottleneck, because the game and Battle.net services both showed very little load. "We all recognized we need more logging and notifications when this system is kicking in, but this is the first time anyone's seen it kick in when [there] wasn't an obvious CPU issue to go along with it," Ellis explains. "20 years, always something new."

Ellis also addresses the long times players were experiencing while looting, accepting quests, and performing similar server-bound actions. "Our intrepid Oracle Database Engineers had to perform a manual analyze on all the tables and setup some automated jobs to periodically keep doing it," but because the servers were being hit so frequently, the typical rate wasn't sufficient. As soon as the devs addressed that, the database performance "cleared up instantly."

There were the restarts. "A few hours in, we noticed our WORLD pools that run, well, the game simulation you play on, were running crazy hot on CPU and almost out of memory," Ellis explains. Empty maps were not being correctly shut down, and those were slowly – or, actually, "not that slowly" – clogging up CPU and memory on the servers. The devs figured out a fix, but that fix needed restarts "to pick it up." Blizzard also took the opportunity to add additional worlds and expand the regional service for further stability.

Back in 2019, we interviewed numerous devs about why big online games always seem to break at launch, and it seems that all the same problems inevitably crop up. We heard one dev say "it's just impossible" to fully solve these kinds of launches, and WoW: Forever demonstrates how new issues crop up every single time. But hey, at least the fixes are coming faster. I'm old enough to remember when people were struggling to play Diablo 3 for weeks after launch…

WoW: Forever doesn't allow GDKP, Blizzard says the new MMO's economy is "something we're taking very seriously."

World of Warcraft: Forever has been on many a fan's mind since Blizzard's big reveal during BlizzCon 2026, especially as it's essentially a take on the long-requested Classic+. But how exactly will it differ from the other branches of WoW?

Well, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, there's one glaring difference: GDKP will not be a part of Forever.

In case you're out of the loop, GDKP stands for Gold Dragon Kill Points – an auction-based loot distribution system that sees a raid party's treasure go to the highest bidder, only for all of the accumulated gold to then be split across the players. It's controversial because lots of folks feel it encourages real-money trading.

So, what does Greenfield have to say about it? In a new Q&A session over on YouTube, the lead first explains that World of Warcraft: Forever won't allow GDKP.

"The short answer is no, we are not going to allow GDKP," he says. "I think the most important aspect of that to us is our first pillar – to nurture and protect social experiences. I think a lot of the concerns around GDKP start to get bundled up into that conversation, around things like that."

Is Blizzard making this choice because of real-money trades? Not entirely.

"The actual main reason that we are not going to allow it in WoW: Forever is that it has that sort of tendency we've noticed in the regions where [GDKP] has been popular for longer to reach a level of ubiquity," Greenfield says. "That can kinda overtake the traditional guild structure, and that's one of the really difficult decisions about being a game designer, managing this game at this scale."

It's not an easy decision, as Greenfield states. "Sometimes, you have to make difficult choices. We never really want to tell people how to play" – but systems like GDKP can get in the way of others' experience with the MMO.

They can act as a "big barrier to entry for new players, or players that do not have that many resources," he says. Longtime fans can quickly make some gold, while newcomers end up feeling forced to "buy gold."

That's no bueno, and "something we're taking very seriously in WoW: Forever," Greenfield explains. Plus, it feeds into the whole economy and real-money transaction debacle.

"GDKP is an excellent way for bad actors to launder large sums of gold," as he says. This complicates everything for both players and the developers alike, as they struggle to target bots and such. In World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard will "be very, very actively monitoring the economy."

Honestly, I'm happy to hear that Blizzard's settled on no GDKP runs in Forever – here's hoping the economy remains healthy, and the studio stays strong in its decision to restrict the auction-based raid loot system (and, it seems, combat add-ons, too).

World of Warcraft: Forever beta struggles to launch as devs say "the number of people hammering at the door of the Beta is... insane"

World of Warcraft: Forever is here in beta form, and the true WoW experience is intact, right down to the infinite queues and disconnects as players start banging on the door to get in. Even the devs seem a bit taken aback by the number of players lining up to participate, but they promise eager fans that everybody will be in soon.

"Thank you to everyone waiting to get into the WoW: Forever Beta," the official Warcraft account begins. "We're working through some final issues, and we expect the doors to open soon. Thank you for your patience!"

"Yeah, ok that’s a bit excessive for a beta," senior game producer Tom Ellis adds in a separate post. "Calm down now… give us a minute, this environment is taking a beating and we’re scaling various services up."

"Wow, the number of people hammering at the door of the Beta is... insane," associate production director Clayton Stone says in another tweet. "Thanks for showing up, everyone! We're scaling up and up and up (and up). You will all be in soon."

You can probably guess at the state of WoW discussion forums right now, and the WoW subreddit is predictably filled with memes about the queue times, early reactions from those lucky enough to get in, and big ol' threads for people to commiserate while they wait. And yes, everyone has already made the joke about it taking "forever" to get in.

World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne race came from Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen himself - "We knew we wanted to add some sort of elves."

An old university lecture from Valve boss Gabe Newell is making the rounds online, with clip merchant WebKnower racking up millions of views on YouTube sharing snippets of Newell's advice. The talk is still interesting today, and in one especially popular clip, Newell examines "the biggest mistakes game developers make."

The video circulating, "Gabe Newell Explains Game Developers [sic] Biggest Mistake," might be a bit of a reach, but Newell's argument is reasonable. You're better off watching the full talk on the YouTube channel for the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, where Newell spoke to students in 2013. This particular comment comes up around 51:30 into the video.

One presumed student asks Newell about security and tech concerns around games as interactive, digital products. "It sounds like, with building these worlds, that it would almost be easy for a hacker to figure out how to use your world to do something that you really, really, really don't want them to do," the off-screen person says.

In his response, Newell argues that, "First of all, there are multiple kinds of hacking. One of the biggest mistakes game developers make is to mistake a genuinely entertaining action by a player as hacking."

He brings up an "example game developers tell each other" with regards to hacking: "When Lord British was killed during his first speech in Ultima Online, they rolled the world back rather than recognizing that it was the coolest thing that had ever happened in Ultima Online."

On August 9, 1997, the character of video game forerunner Richard Garriott, often known as Lord British and embodied in Ultima Online under the persona, was killed by another player in what's come to be known as a grand assassination.

The Branson universe wiki has a useful summary of the event (there's also a good archive and video from Razimus Gaming). After a crash interrupted a server event, the invincibility for the character of Lord British was mistakenly left disabled when Garriott logged in again, leaving him vulnerable to other players. One onlooker, a player named Rainz, hit Lord British with a fire spell and killed him. Ever since, killing Lord British in Ultima games has become an Easter egg and a tradition.

"After Lord British was killed, fellow Ultima Online developer Starr Long (also known in-game as Lord Blackthorn) summoned some demons, who attacked innocent bystanders. This led to beta testers protesting both the indiscriminate killing and the banning of the assassin," the wiki adds.

Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida was actually present for the assassination of Lord British, a milestone in MMO history. Many years later, Yoshida would lead the Herculean effort to turn the MMO Final Fantasy 14 into a fun video game known as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn.

"They should have let that instance turn into whatever an instance turned into after they killed off Lord British," Newell said. "So you have to be really careful. Second, it's a general characteristic of social systems that people have to have confidence in the future, and that's true whether it's your house and the stuff that you have inside of your house – if property rights are provisional, then your value of property changes accordingly ... so yes it's important, yes there are a whole bunch of technical problems to it, and the degree to which you fail to provide adequate security, those consequences will ripple throughout the entire meta world."

Newell's argument – that the devs of Ultimate Online could've found a way to work this assassination into the MMO's story – finds support in the YouTube comments on the clip of his talk. "Yeah they should've moved forward following that," reads the top reply. "An assassination had happened. They should've rolled with the punches and incorporated that into the story moving forward."

The internet's new obsession: Gabe Newell explaining why Valve defied big tech by staying a private company and hiring "the most expensive talent."

Although World of Warcraft: Forever impressed many Classic+ hopefuls last weekend during BlizzCon 2026, some fans left Blizzard's big reveal wondering why the new MMO looked so much like its retail counterpart.

That is, anyway, in terms of its art style and models. Conversations soared on the likes of Reddit as folks pondered why World of Warcraft: Forever feels "too retail" and more like a "retail minus" than a "Classic plus."

It's an amusing but reasonable concern, I suppose, as the community is understandably attached to the 21-year-old world Blizzard first invited them into way back in 2004. Is it truly something fans should worry about, though?

According to Classic developer Josh Greenfield, the answer is no – or, at least, they should give World of Warcraft: Forever a chance come its November release.

In response to a fan on Twitter asking why the art direction follows retail's aesthetic rather than Classic's, Greenfield says players should wait to experience the MMO in person to fully judge it, as it's not the same as viewing screenshots or datamined models.

"I'd encourage you to reserve judgement on any model you see datamined or in screenshots until you can see it in-game and in context with the rest of the world," writes the dev. "I can't get too deep into it… but what you see in datamining might not be fully representative of how things appear in-engine."

Honestly, that's valid enough, I suppose – trailers, screencaps, and model highlights can't match the vibe of the full game itself.

Fans seem content with Greenfield's response, too, with the original post replying, "Sounds good, thank you for communicating, judgement reserved." Another chimes in that they'll also "reserve judgement for now" but are "still concerned that models like these are too different as to not fit into the Classic world and player models cohesively."
More commenters share this sentiment, expressing that they're still unsure about the aesthetic.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how it all meshes together come World of Warcraft: Forever's big launch in a couple of months. Fingers crossed it feels more like an Old School RuneScape take on Blizzard's original MMO than the retail one.

World of Warcraft: Forever takes page out of retail's book as Blizzard confirms access to add-ons will be restricted in the throwback MMO

World of Warcraft: Forever was unveiled this past weekend at BlizzCon 2026, giving us our first-ever look at Blizzard's official take on Classic+ (or, at least, the closest thing we'll get to it) – and much like the retail MMO, it won't be too supportive of add-ons, apparently.

Blizzard made waves in the World of Warcraft community after deciding to remove combat mods from the retail release, stating that it hoped to "level the playing field" with less outside help in raids and the like.

That decision wasn't too popular with folks at first, so it's not at all surprising that many of the discussions surrounding World of Warcraft: Forever online have pondered whether it too would cut add-ons out of the picture.

Well, as it turns out, the new version of Blizzard's 21-year-old MMO will indeed similarly restrict add-ons – even though they aren't in Classic.

World of Warcraft: Classic designer Tim Jones and lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals tell Kotaku as much in a recent interview, confirming that "computational add-ons" (think combat add-ons and those that automate communications and such) are something we won't have access to.

They tell the outlet, "the in-game or in-combat add-on disarmament where the programmatic, the calculations done to automate marking or communicating for players, we're going to bring that over so that players will not have access to those kind of computational add-ons."

In other words, Forever is taking a page out of retail's book here in restricting such add-ons – but it's not exactly a bad decision. Raiding in either isn't of the same caliber, after all.

Folks point as much out over on Twitter, with one person commenting, "Unless WoW: Forever combat is much harder and much more complex than I am expecting, this is not a big deal." Another adds, "The content isn't even hard enough to warrant it."

So, all in all, it's certainly not proving as unpopular a change as it did in retail – perhaps also because World of Warcraft: Forever is launching this way, rather than going on to remove a feature.

Here's hoping fans who want to use other sorts of add-ons are still able to, with all that said. Combat help is one thing, but quality-of-life is a whole other ball game – but I suppose we'll find out more when World of Warcraft: Forever releases in November.

World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne race came from Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen himself – "We knew we wanted to add some sort of elves."

Following our first look at World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026 this past weekend, Blizzard's answer to everyone's Classic+ prayers, a lot of controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race has made the rounds online.

From the $30 price tag to the ill-fitting lore, fans have shared quite a few concerns about the Skybrone. So, what prompted Blizzard to implement the pretty blue elves in the first place?

Well, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, it all boils down to Chris Metzen – you know, one of the fathers of Warcraft in its entirety, basically. He explains as much in a new interview with GameSpot, saying it "started with a lot of questions."

Greenfield goes on: "We were talking about WoW Forever early on and we knew we wanted to add some sort of elves. Everyone on the team is a big fan of elves. We all love elves. They're very popular… and we knew we wanted to do something and came to him with a bunch of ideas and pitches and different variants of elves…"

Metzen's response? He "was really like, 'Yeah, we should do something; we should get a little crazy with it.'"

And, the rest is history. Blizzard "agreed and we had a lot of fun kind of concepting it with him." So, there you have it – a Warcraft legend himself approves of the Skyborne… but, it's not enough for many of the naysayers.

Over on Reddit, plenty of folks discussing Metzen's role in the new race's creation still believe it to be ill-fitting in World of Warcraft: Forever. As one comment reads, "They still look very out of place, they don't feel right…"

I wonder myself whether Blizzard will respond to all of the backlash the race has seen thus far – but I suppose only time will tell. As of now, access to the Skyborne is purchasable and will release with World of Warcraft: Forever in November.

World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because Blizzard isn't sure what a sequel to the MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you"

Blizzard gave WoW Classic+ hopefuls the news they were hoping for this past weekend during the BlizzCon 2026 reveals with a first look at World of Warcraft: Forever – a reimagining of the 21-year-old MMO's nostalgic beginnings.

In case you missed it, it ticks all the boxes and then some, with revamped visuals, a plethora of new quests, and much, much more… including a never-before-seen race, the Skyborne.

While that sounds incredibly exciting on paper, there's a bit of a catch: the Skyborne will cost you, and it's not cheap. In fact, it's at least $29.99, as per the official World of Warcraft website.

I say at least because it's DLC of sorts, and there are a few options. There's the Skyborne Epic Pack for some $20 more, and the Warcraft Forever Collection for a whopping $79.99, for example.

While these two come with more than just the Skyborne race – which is admittedly stunning, appearing as a soft periwinkle-skinned take on elves – the base $30 purchase is just to access the Skyborne come World of Warcraft: Forever's release in November… and, unsurprisingly, folks aren't thrilled.

Just have a search over on Reddit, and you'll find countless threads discussing the Skyborne race and its hefty price tag. Heck, there's even a huge "Skyborne feedback" post, given how hot a topic this is.

"I'm extremely positive about WoW: Forever and I'll be playing day one with high hopes," one comment reads. "That being said, not a fan of this race. They dropped the ball on that part."

It's not just the price, though. Others take issue with the fact that the Skyborne just… feel out of place.

As one person puts it, "From the aesthetic to the druid forms and mostly the blue variant has a weird retail vibe I just can't describe." Another dubs this a "mindbogglingly strange decision" on Blizzard's part, while many more consider it counter-creative. "They are just blue elves," after all – much like Night Elves.

"Should have been something else," one fan complains. "Something more interesting and new."

Honestly, there's a lot more to read through regarding the Skyborne controversy, from the race's price to its potential lore-breaking implications, but I do still have to admit I'm on the fence about it all myself.

I don't like the paywall or the lack of faction identity, but I find the design quite nice aesthetically.

I suppose the community will be split on this one as it is on just about everything, and that's that – 'tis the nature of MMOs, I fear. Blizzard also has yet to speak on the Skyborne debacle yet itself, but I'd advise keeping an eye on its channels.

World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because Blizzard isn't sure what a sequel to the MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you"

Old School RuneScape developer Jagex was forced to make a hardline stance against cryptocurrency-driven market manipulation after the MMO's economy faced peculiar investments and scarcities driven by, of all things, a meme coin gauged against RuneScape items.

In a blog post, Jagex observes, "Recently, we've seen cryptocurrencies and meme coins appear that track, trade against, or otherwise attempt to tie themselves to the price or volume of items in our games. We want to be clear about where we stand."

Jagex stands firmly on the grave of meme coins, laying out a "a zero-tolerance approach" to cryptocurrency and market manipulation.

Because this practice sees real money "influence our economies and people are incentivised to act with the intention of real financial gain," Jagex writes, it's classified as real-world trading, which is banned in RuneScape and has seen increasing crackdown after OSRS tech and rule changes.

"Whether a given activity constitutes malicious market manipulation is at Jagex's sole discretion," the post adds. "Actions that have unintended consequences for the economy may also result in action against your account, the severity of which will be proportionate to the suspected intent of the user(s)."

This mess kicked up a few days ago after some crypto traders hatched the idea of hoarding OSRS' Robin Hood Hats, a fairly rare piece of headwear only obtainable from scavenger hunt-like clue scrolls.

The idea, it seems, was to stoke publicity and a market narrative, or at least a shell convincing enough to attract buyers to the coin and accrue trading fees. It's not far removed from common prediction market grifts. OSRS, which looks to be at its peak and has drawn quite some attention in the MMO space, simply provided a visible, searchable theater for the performance, and a fairly malleable open market.

As a post from Robinhood Alpha, shilling the now-radioactive coin, puts it: "The strategy uses its treasury to accumulate hats, reduce the available floating supply and build an onchain narrative around a real in-game economy."

In the past nine days, the in-game price of Robin Hood Hats has surged from 730,000 to about 1.1 million gold pieces (GP) in OSRS – not an all-time high, but a huge spike to the highest price seen in at least six months. However, the volume of hats traded went to the moon after this scheme broke: from an August peak of 1,158 in a day to a monstrous 5,744 in September, with multiple recent days tripling previous volumes.

A "Robin Hood Hat Strategy" account that was seemingly in on the coin boasts of collecting over 9,000 hats all for themselves, and now laments having nothing to do with the hats. "Not the easiest decision, but in line with recent events, it is now virtually impossible to truly collect hats, which was ultimately the goal from the start," says the apparent trader.

Normal OSRS players flagged this crypto manipulation from the get-go, and are unsurprisingly celebrating the death of the meme coin. "Jagex just owned the crypto bros and I’m here for it," says one user on a hot Reddit post.

ChatGPT employee makes a "RuneScape clone," immediately gets slapped by Jagex lawyers, then acts like he's leaving some great legacy behind in a goodbye post surely written by AI.

World of Warcraft: Forever has been making the rounds online after Blizzard's big reveal at BlizzCon 2026, standing as the closest official thing we'll get to the long-coveted Classic+, but it does also mean we probably won't see a retail sequel.

In other words, World of Warcraft 2 – which, honestly, feels a bit silly to even write. After all, World of Warcraft itself is an ongoing project as you know, standing as the biggest MMO to date… one that's over two decades in the making now.

With Forever underway, too, there's little reason for such a sequel to ever actually come to fruition, anyway, as principal designer Kris Zierhut tells IGN in a new interview.

"I think one of the things that's singularly great about WoW is we have this game and this world and this design that has been continuously developed for the last 25 years," he explains – and, yeah, that checks out.

As Zierhut puts it, "We keep making it better. We made the graphics better, we made the rendering better, we made the lighting better," you name it. It's all better in retail, and, yes, Forever. All of that, plus the way things work behind the scenes.

"We've also made the way the engine draws things move more efficiently," Zierhut continues. "The way the server runs, handling players and moving them around, and all the things that handle spells and combat, all of that's been made more efficient and better over the years. We have this incredible engine and server infrastructure driving the game that is second to none."

So, "Why would you throw that away and start over?"

Why would you, indeed… not to mention the decades-in-progress lore that World of Warcraft sits upon. "It's not like there's something wrong with the story," as the dev says. "We love the story. So, going back to the beginning [with World of Warcraft: Forever], there's a chance to explore that story in new and different ways."

Considering all of this, Blizzard doesn't really have any motivation to move away from it all to try and conjure up a sequel.

As Zierhut concludes, "It's really hard to say, 'Well, what would a WoW 2 give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you?'"

I get it – it's not just a nostalgic rework with plenty of new features to look forward to, it's a chance to attract both fresh faces and longtime fans, too… the same way a World of Warcraft 2 would, except perhaps a bit better at grabbing the attention of the former.

I, for one, can't wait to dive into World of Warcraft: Forever come its November release – and, much like I'm not inclined to wish for a Minecraft 2, I'm not bothered about potentially never seeing a World of Warcraft 2 arrive.

World of Warcraft: Forever devs have "no plans" to implement Tokens or level boosts, confirms Blizzard, as "the journey is so important."

Blizzard finally lifted the veil on World of Warcraft: Forever this past weekend at BlizzCon 2026, giving fans a taste of the official Classic+ (so to speak, anyway) that we're getting – one that apparently thankfully won't feature real-money currency like Tokens.

Clayton Stone, associate production director on WoW Classic, confirms as much in a recent interview on Forever with content creator Destin Legarie (below). The lead also says that there won't be any purchasable experience boosts, either.

He describes how Blizzard has "no plans for anything like a WoW token or a boost" in any online shop – and, even though I'm thankful myself, I do wonder why… but Stone says it's all about the "journey" to the top.

"The journey really is what the game is," he says. "I mean, the endgame is amazing… the endgame is epic. It's awesome. And, all the stuff we've done with the endgame is amazing, but the journey is so important and you play the game or you get better at the game by playing the game and it's all about that level 1 to 60 journey and the people you meet along the way."

That's why Blizzard is staying away from quick boosts.

"We've implemented these systems to really reinforce that because there's some players who just love that journey."

Honestly, I do get it, and while I'm thrilled at the prospect of less microtransactions (if you can call Tokens that, I guess), I am a bit worried that this decision won't, well, last forever.

I'm not alone in my concerns, either, as folks over on Twitter discuss World of Warcraft: Forever's lack of Tokens and what it might mean.

"'No plans' doesn't seem too convincing or permanent to me," reads one comment. "I'm still pretty sure they will be in the game sooner or later." Another speculates, "No plans is basically 'next year,'" while various replies similarly ponder whether Blizzard's choice of words here could pave the way for such real-money purchases later down the line.

There are also some worries about bots and the like, which are more than understandable.

So, how will this all play out? There's no way to really tell until World of Warcraft: Forever releases this November, but I've got my fingers crossed that Blizzard is indeed making the right move… and will stick with it, too.

World of Warcraft: The Last Titan launches 2027 and Blizzard says it's the "culmination of over two decades" of MMO storytelling.

For months, World of Warcraft fans have been speculating that something is about to happen to WoW Classic. Blizzard Entertainment has now put those theories to bed and announced World of Warcraft: Forever - an all-new version of the MMORPG that lives alongside Classic and Vanilla. The best part? It comes out in seven weeks, on November 4.

Executive producer Holly Longdale revealed the game at tonight's BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony presentation, describing it as "a new beginning that never ends" and is set around the same time as WoW's Year One. Longdale even called it Classic Plus casually, if that makes it easier to understand.

A World of Warcraft: Forever beta begins this Thursday, September 17. The game is apparently "friendly [and] familiar" for both newcomers and oldheads alike, and it's aiming to return to what made WoW so iconic two decades ago. "There's no rush here," according to Longdale. "It's the journey that counts."

The upcoming MMO sounds seriously huge, so let's quickly list off everything it's promising. Four new zones including Mount Hyjal and Zephras Isle, which is intended to be a starting area of sorts. Zones from the original game that have now been expanded. New dungeons and new raids that accommodate 10-players or 20-players. New skills and talents, a new playable race called the Skyborne, over 1,000 quests, toggles for SD and HD character models, updated visuals, and so much more. Phew!

World of Warcraft fans were eating good even before the company got around to announcing Forever. BlizzCon's Opening Ceremony also revealed that WoW: The Last Titan is coming out next year, with Midnight: Eclipse giving us enough to chew on until then.

Blizzard takes rare World of Warcraft mount from players as the MMO's latest crack down on real-money transactions continues

The Worldsoul Saga comes to an end with World of Warcraft: The Last Titan, the MMO's next expansion that's heading our way in 2027. Blizzard Entertainment finally pulled the curtain back on The Last Titan at tonight's BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony stream, unveiling both a release window and a short teaser.

Blizzard first announced World of Warcraft: The Last Titan three years ago, alongside the two other expansions that make up The Worldsoul Saga's overarching trilogy - The World Within (2024) and Midnight (2026).

Senior game director Ion Hazzikostas told the crowd next year's expansion not only concludes The Worldsoul Saga, but it serves as "the culmination of over two decades of World of Warcraft." Don't expect The Last Titan to wrap up every storyline in a neat bow, though - Hazzikostas also explains it'll be "laying the groundwork for what comes next."

Well before we get our hands on The Last Titan expansion, the team will also be closing out its current storyline with Midnight: Eclipse, also known as patch 12.2. Eclipse will supposedly lead right into The Last Titan and follows antagonist Xal'atath as she stands before "her ultimate objective." Very ominous. Eclipse is the last major story beat of the Midnight era, and will introduce a standalone game mode, too.

The World of Warcraft: What's Next BlizzCon panel should dish out more info about next year's Remix later today, alongside whatever that standalone mode is. Big things happening across Azeroth, then.

Elsewhere during the ceremony, Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft: Forever, a new game that'll sit alongside both Vanilla and Classic. Diablo 5 is also coming in 2029.

WoW Classic players gang up to ban infamous PvP slayer on Twitch, immediately regret it after realizing they no longer know where in the MMO he's hiding

It's finally here – Final Fantasy 14 just got the very exciting Patch 7.56 earlier this week, and the star of the show is most definitely the MMO's new limited job: the Beastmaster.

In case you've not had the chance to experience the class yourself just yet, it plays a whole lot like Pokemon or Palworld in concept.

You capture creatures from all over Eorzea (yes, old A Realm Reborn regions are finally coming back to life), whip 'em out in combat and use all sorts of deadly combos and actions, try to catch more beasts, and… rinse and repeat. There's a handy little bestiary to help you on the way, too.

Put simply, you've gotta (and will wanna) catch them all – and it's genuinely good fun. I've spent hours grinding away in Central Shroud myself, looking forward to the Crucible, in all its painful roguelike-ish glory… and, of course, the glittery Tourmaline Golem mount you can nab by making the duty's official rankings.

I'm not the only loving Beastmaster, though. Discussions over on Reddit prove as much, with one thread dubbing the job "really fun!"

Its poster exclaims, "This content is great," adding that the achievements tied to the new job "are really cool" as well.

A separate post on the Beastmaster sees fans sharing a similar sentiment, with folks writing that they "wish it was a standard job" rather than a limited one – and, honestly, I agree. Another person chimes in that they've "been having a blast" with the job, with a plethora of replies backing their take up.

My favorite conversation so far stems from a screenshot of somebody's Warrior of Light dressed like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, personally.

"Had to use the appropriate glam," its accompanying words read – and I love it. I also stand with the responses declaring that "the Pokemon vibe is honestly perfect." What else does Beastmaster carry with it, if not a nice old Pokemon vibe? And, that vibe is why so many of us adore the job already.

Obviously, however, not everyone likes it. There are comments here and there about how Square Enix could improve the Beastmaster (and, of course, fears that it might end up a bit… forgotten, like the Blue Mage).

Overall, though, spirits seem high when it comes to the limited job, and I can't say I've found much else to want out of it aside from, well, more levels and more utility in other parts of Final Fantasy 14.

I'm excited to see what Square Enix does with Beastmaster and how it evolves over time. Fingers crossed it's more memorable than Blue Mage – although, for me, it already is.

Final Fantasy 14 fans spot Evercold character in the MMO's Patch 7.56 screenshots, immediately theorize the expansion's new DPS class: "Is that a crossbow?"

On September 6, ChatGPT employee Rohan Varma, who works on the company's Codex coding tool and previously worked at Palantir, proudly revealed Elderwood, a vibe-coded multiplayer game which he later openly described as a "RuneScape clone." By September 9, actual RuneScape developer Jagex had filed a legal notice "asking us to take down the website," and now Elderwood is no more.

"Elderwood has closed," reads the copycat's website. "We received a notice from Jagex asking us to take down the website. Following that notice, we are discontinuing Elderwood's operation, and the game is no longer available."

From the tearful goodbye letter – which is attributed to Varma but, given that he said he used ChatGPT to showcase the game, was likely written with AI assistance – you might think Elderwood was an original game, not a shambling pile of slop and broken copyrights.

"Thank you to everyone who joined us," it adds. "For the levels earned, the laughs in chat, the suggestions, the patience with bugs, and all the little moments in between: you made this a joy to build and a world worth sharing. We're keeping the high scores available as a record of what you achieved together."

As videos from Rohan show, Elderwood was flagrantly styled after early RuneScape, with many menus and items lifted one-to-one and the overall aesthetic mirroring Old School RuneScape closely. It goes without saying that there are several things wrong with it, and it looks noticeably worse than OSRS. But skills like Woodcutting, items such as gold pieces (GP) and party hats, locations like Varrock and Falador, and reams of other details make the ripoff obvious. This was surely a layup for Jagex lawyers.

"In [sic] asked GPT-6 Astra in Codex to build RuneScape and deploy it to a ChatGPT Site," Varma said at the start of this short saga.

Over on the Old School RuneScape subreddit, players are celebrating the death of Elderwood like it's an upstart gladiator that just got gutted in the Roman Colosseum after insulting all their mothers.

"VICTORY DOWN WITH AI SLOP!" declares a top post.

"'Inspired by.' The utter disconnect these people have to reality needs to be studied," reads one reply.

"Weird how inspiration just means stolen assets and AI generation of the game itself. How inspiring," a player agrees.

"Couldn't even write their announcement without AI," says another.

"This stupid project got 1000 times more attention as a result of this sub and we're all dumber for having learned of it," observes one user.

Earlier this year, dozens of game developers told GamesRadar+ why they don't want to use generative AI.

After 25% positive Steam reviews, Soulslike dev realizes people hate AI slop and admits "if it looks like the effort is not there, that is a fair reading of what is on screen."

Almost six years since its announcement, and with hardly anything said about it since, Riot Games' mysterious League of Legends MMO has been referred to as the studio's "Grail" in comments that aren't exactly inspiring the most confidence from fans.

Riot Games co-founder and co-chairman Marc Merrill has spoken about the MMO during a PAX West panel, where he was asked by Kinda Funny Games' Greg Miller whether he had anything to share about its release date (below).

Alas, Merrill doesn't, but he does speak a little about the game's thought process. "We know what players' hopes and dreams are," he begins, adding that it's all up to Riot whether the team can "succeed in the execution." No pressure for the devs, then, but Merrill calls it "a worthy quest."

"We jokingly call it the Grail internally because we're like, 'fuck it,' you know, many a brave knight are going to die on the Grail quest. But fuck it, it's the Grail, so let's go," Merrill continues. "That's the mindset that we really try to cultivate and that is hard to do at scale. But, you know, I think we're doing a reasonable job and I think the future's incredibly bright."

It's not the only promising news we've heard about the Riot MMO recently – earlier this year, it was announced that yet another World of Warcraft veteran had joined the development team, which bodes well. Before that, Merrill had stated that the idea of "making the next great MMO" is something that Riot is "more committed to than ever." But a more recent announcement to come from the home of League of Legends doesn't have fans feeling optimistic.

After its full console launch in January, it was announced last month that League of Legends fighting game 2XKO is ending active development in December. While it'll remain playable, Riot said "we haven't seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability," and ultimately couldn't see "any viable future."

The changes made to digital card game Legends of Runeterra back in 2024 are also fresh in many players' minds. At the time, Riot stated that the game had "faced financial challenges since launch, costing significantly more to develop and support than it generates," and, as a result, was "reducing the size of our team and renewing our focus on The Path of Champions," with a focus on PvE.

Needless to say, you can understand the distrust online regarding Merrill's latest comments about the MMO. "Hard to be excited for this because I wouldn't be surprised if Riot just cuts the team in half and then end support after less than a year when the League MMO doesn't have numbers like WoW or FFXIV within the first month based on how they're treating 2XKO," one user responds on Twitter.

"Hope this time you don't cancel it HALF A YEAR after release because it doesn't have the playerbase of WoW and FFXIV COMBINED," another says, while one tweet asks: "Didn't you guys just kill the fighting game that was barely released. What confidence are we supposed to have in an MMO?"

For now, we're stuck watching this space, but hopefully the League of Legends MMO is able to meet the expectations of fans and its devs alike whenever it does eventually launch.

League Classic might sound fun, but as a 15-year League of Legends veteran, I'm here to tell you: You want this less than you think.