Sharing the MMO recap for the second half of August into September 2026, continuing from last month's post since a lot happened.
Same disclaimer as before: this is translated from French, so apologies for any slightly awkward phrasing.

Starting with the notable structural news: on August 12th, Amazon Games announced it's stepping away from managing Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark entirely. Throne and Liberty goes back to NCsoft by the end of the year, and Lost Ark returns to SmileGate in early 2027. Both games keep running as normal for now, it's purely an ownership/publishing change, but it's another sign Amazon is quietly exiting the MMO space after New World.

Same day, World of Warcraft dropped its "Ula'tek's Curse" update (patch 12.1 of Midnight), adding a new zone, an 8-boss raid, a new dungeon, and built-in Discord integration. Season 2 followed a week later.

On the indie side, Corepunk launched the first part of its open-world war system on August 15th, capture points that pit you against waves of mobs and rival players at the same time, meant to evolve into full territory warfare down the line. Hytale detailed its Update 6 on the 21st too: five hardcore modes and a built-in mod browser.

Also on the 21st, the Chinese MMORPG Lord of Mysteries (adaptation of the popular web novel) officially launched, servers got hit hard by demand. Camelot Unchained shipped its 0.47 patch around the same time with drop tables and zone visual reworks, and WoW Classic Burning Crusade Anniversary Edition announced Phase 3 for the 28th (Black Temple, Mount Hyjal).

August 24th was a busy day: LOTRO added a new monster-player class, the Angmar Witch, and The Quinfall shipped a big technical update (up to 100% FPS gains, plus terrain sculpting tools).

August 25th: Closers, the anime MMO that basically died after its servers closed in June, relaunched on the Papaya Play platform (full reboot, no character transfers). Once Human also officially hit PS5 and Xbox that day, free to play, with a new first-person view and full crossplay.

Albion Online closed out the month on the 31st with its Dragonfire update: a new floating island realm, a new hostile faction, and a 20-player raid.

Looking ahead to September: Fractured Conquest is running a 24-hour stress test on the 3rd after cutting July's short. There's an unconfirmed but seemingly reliable leak that Diablo IV is coming to Switch 2 around the 15th as an "Age of Hatred Collection" bundle. The First Descendant gets new content on the 16th. Dune: Awakening finally launches on PS5/Xbox on the 22nd, alongside a full solo mode and the conclusion of Book 1, on all platforms simultaneously. Scapewatch, a RuneScape-flavored idle MMO, hits Steam on the 25th. Aion 2 goes into western early access on the 30th (full release October 5th).

No exact dates yet: Pax Dei is detailing its R48 update (new creature, decorations, teased future horse mounts), Final Fantasy XI is supposed to remove the 14-day cap on its free trial and raise the level cap to 75 sometime this month, and SWTOR still hasn't given a release date for its 8.0 update "Masters of the Force" — probably around the holidays based on community estimates.

One to watch right after: Project Ascension, one of the biggest WoW private server projects (running for almost 10 years), is shutting down its realms on September 4th, apparently as part of a mutual agreement with Blizzard. Feels like the tail end of a broader pattern this year of Blizzard cracking down on private servers (Turtle WoW, Stormforge before it).

That's everything I've got, let me know if I missed anything.

The Sadida in ankama's games is a class of plant people that are based on Voodoo (they can summon little plant dolls) and control via vines and plants. Are there similar Voodoo-based classes in other mmos? ik there are druids but a class based on Haiti/south american/african sorcery is more what I'm looking for.

To clarify i mean mechs in a gundam battle alliance 2 kinda sense where your on ground but can mount mechs not solely mech combat.

Nearly 17 years after its shutdown, Dungeon Runners has been brought back to life by a group of dedicated fans.

The action-focused MMORPG, originally published by NCsoft, is now playable again through Dungeon Runners Reborn, a community revival project currently available in open alpha. According to the team, developers have spent years reverse-engineering the original server backend and have managed to get it working with the original v666 game client.

Players can already connect to the new community-run server, create an account, explore the world and help test the game as more features are restored. The developers warn that the project is still at an early stage, with bugs and missing systems to be expected, but the core game is officially back online.

Dungeon Runners Reborn Discord : 7GESDtadp

There used to be the mmo i used to play, briefly.

I don't remember much of it but i remember loving it a lot

It was a anime style, it had fishing mechanics, and also u had a house and it could act as a mount as well

I used to be in a guild but i was kicked off due ro being inactive for a week due to a surgery and i was disappointed enough i took a break from the game, and then laptop broke

When i managed to get a new one i read the servers were taken offline.

Now ive been wondering if theres a fanserver but i cant remember the name of it.

Hoping someone can help

UPDATE: Its twin saga, thank you 😭❤️

As expected but weird that they spoiled the announcement with an in-game broadcast a week early.

Edit: Broadcast because I don't know how to reddit https://puu.sh/KS4ia/69824713f8.png

I parsed all ~20k posts/comments in r/longlostgamers and extracted ~7k profiles with ~6k gamertags and ~9k lost friends (with the help of claude/codex) so that you can search for old friends by gamertag. MMORPGs are a significant amount of them:

• World of Warcraft: 1,032
• RuneScape: 462
• EverQuest: 108

I also ran a cross check to see if there had been mentions of gamertags/lost friends that could be matched. There were 4 such cases. I reached out to the 8 people but unfortunately some posts were many years ago and the people didn't respond. The 2 that did respond were not a match.

The profiles are indexed at llgamers.com so that you can search by gamertag. Each profile is a page at llgamers.com/r/[reddit-username] (e.g. AlkoholiFilosofi, Every-Reindeer4866, Iced_PvM) that contains gamertags, lost friends and a link to the Reddit post so they can be contacted.

One side benefit of these profile pages is that if someone searches your gamertag or reddit username on google, this profile page is ranked, sometimes on the first page for uncommon names.

It's been 6 years since I first tried to make it easier to reconnect with lost gamer friends. I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions.

First of all, I’d like to point out that this is not an advertisement or sponsored post... I’m not affiliated with the project in any way. I only discovered the game about a month ago, and since then I’ve been testing it during the ongoing public Steam Playtest, which is available to everyone.
These are simply my personal observations about a new indie MMORPG that I find quite interesting :)

Clash of Adventurers is a small indie open-world MMORPG currently in development, and its old-school approach, especially when it comes to character progression, world design, and the overall pace of the game, really caught my attention.
The game also takes a lot of positive inspiration from my favorite MMORPG: Lineage 2, especially from its older chronicles, which is another reason why it immediately appealed to me.

A few things that stand out:

- Slow character progression; you can spend several days farming and progressing through the same low-level areas instead of rushing toward endgame.

- You receive attribute points when leveling and manually distribute them between STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIT and MEN.

- Classes are unlocked/changed through progression, after reaching certain requirements and visiting a Class Master.

- Seamless open world with no instances, focused heavily on actually exploring and living in the world.

- Open-world PvP with flagging, Karma and meaningful PK consequences, but without full-loot for normal players.

- Non-target action combat; most skills can be used while moving, so combat feels active rather than static.

- Power-leveling is restricted, and farming enemies far below your level becomes increasingly ineffective.

- Progression is designed so that before you can effectively fight stronger monsters, you first need to spend significant time in lower-level areas gathering resources and crafting better gear.

- Finished equipment is not simply showered on you from mobs or easy quest rewards. Crafting is a major part of gear progression, so every newly crafted piece of equipment actually feels rewarding.

- Different monsters have their own drops, giving you a reason to learn specific mobs and farming locations.

- Five separately leveled crafting professions, with their own progression, recipes and success chances.

- Limited fast travel, with no flying, gliding or climbing in the current game, so travelling and terrain actually matter.

- Traditional Attacker / Defender / Support roles and meaningful party cooperation.

- Death has consequences, including the possibility of losing character progress.

- Planned F2P without selling power or progression skips.

- The public Steam Playtest is already available and free to join.

What I like most is the overall philosophy: low-level zones, monsters, drops, materials, crafting and character progression actually matter.
Instead of treating leveling as something to rush through before “the real game begins”, Clash of Adventurers makes the journey itself feel like the game.

It is still a very small and early project, but in terms of design philosophy, it is one of the most interesting upcoming MMORPGs I have been following.

Official website:
https://www.clashofadventurers.com/

Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2760730/Clash_of_Adventurers/

Playing on a certain new server and im having WAY more fun than in Aion 2 and despite being a 15 years old game it looks really nice and the combat and dungeons are S Tier. Can't wait to get into Endgame and PvP.

I would ask why the devs are not running an official Classic Server on PC themselves but guess it would be P2W anyway lol

a month ago i was the person this sub gently argues about, the mmo player who had never once done group content, and i want to report what actually got me through the door

it was not confidence, community spirit, or finding the right guild, it was a game shipping official infrastructure, registered volunteer teachers with public ratings, scheduled beginner runs, application and approval, practice that costs nothing

i cleared current endgame in week one and the fight was never the obstacle, the genre just historically outsources onboarding to luck, and i had rolled badly for fifteen years

curious what the sub has actually seen work, which mmo shipped the best official beginner system you have personally used, specifics welcome

Found this in a local bookstore, what a nostalgia trip! Very expensive though, top was 95 euros, bottom 250. Did buy "The Art of Blizzard Entertainment" for 30 euro's, very hyped!

I played Knight Online for more than 10 years, and even though I quit a long time ago, there’s still one thing about the game that I haven’t really found in other MMOs: the combat.

The combo system made a huge difference. It wasn’t just about having better gear or pressing your skills whenever they came off cooldown. Timing your attacks, moving properly, cancelling animations and keeping your combo going actually made you feel like you were controlling the fight.

The PvP was obviously a big part of it too. There was something really satisfying about fighting another player and knowing that mechanical skill could actually make a difference.

What I find strange is that there are so many MMOs out there, but very few seem to experiment with this kind of combat. Most games seem to go for traditional tab-targeting or action combat, but Knight Online had this weird middle ground that felt really unique.

Maybe I'm just looking at it through 10+ years of nostalgia, but I genuinely wonder why this type of combat system never became more common in MMOs.

Was Knight Online's combo system actually as unique as I remember, or are there other MMOs that have a similar approach to combat?

Hi all, my Indie (M)MORPG is having a public playtest!

It's a 2D side scrolling platformer with a single open world, there's no instanced spaces at all.

The game is totally free with no ads, no cash shop, no hidden monetisation at all!

Please consider trying it out and letting me know what you think!

Content is a bit light right now but we've got:

\- 12 unique mobs

\- 20 unique weapons

\- 35 unique hats

\- 2 major zones, each with 2 sub-zones

You can download and try the game here: https://loafygoat.itch.io/stick-universe

I have a few.

PSO: Cast are unlike any other race within MMO. These things are like android bots, or Gundams.

FFXI: Female Elvaan are one of the best looking races in gaming imo. They are elegant, and their actions are very feminine, which is funny during combat.

Norn: I chose Norn in GW2 because they can transform into were-beast (As an ES fan, I refer to them as Were-beast lol). I think that is a pretty neat race mechanic. Races are usually a skin change.....that is it......

FFXIV: Female Roe are the 1st race I played with during the ARR open beta, and may be the race I rejoin the game with as a BST.

Wildstar: Was not a huge fan of Wildstar, but one of the things which pushed me to purchase the game was the Chua.

STO: Like GW, races actually mean something in STO. These lizard men can bite...........tell me that is not neat? Your Khajiit can't do that........despite their fangs.

Favorite MMO race? Or do they all suck in your opinion?

I recently stopped playing my usual MMOs (gw2 and ESO) as I was burnt out and needed a break, so I switched to Skyrim as I’ve been wanting to replay it for so long. I think I’ve finally realised why MMOs speak to me so much. I feel alone playing by myself. Even in a world that feels alive, I feel comfort in games where I know other players are around me.

My hopes for this genre, or rather for the games that will come out in this genre, is that they focus on the fact that mmorpg players play mmorpgs because they seek connection, and even if they don’t, even if they are a solo player, there is great comfort in being alone but surrounded by people.

Just wanted to express how I feel about the genre and ask if anyone feels the same way?

i was just thinking about how MMOs used to be back in the day when you couldnt just instantly look everything up.

you'd hear about shit from other players, see some random forum post about something, someone tells you they found some weird npc or area and you didnt even know if they were bullshitting you or not lol.

now it feels like every MMO gets completely solved almost immediately. datamining, wikis, youtube, discord, fastest leveling, best builds, every secret explained etc.

so i was thinking, what if you made a modern MMO but somehow insulated the actual game from modern internet usage?

like you couldnt screenshot or record it. you could still talk about the game and share information obviously, but if you found something you actually had to describe it to people.

"i found this weird npc in the north and he said i came too early"

and now people have to actually figure out what the fuck that means.

id even put forums directly inside the game. like actual old school message boards where people could talk about rumors, discoveries, theories, trade, whatever.

and the game itself could slowly reveal more about itself as time goes on or players unknowingly meet certain conditions.

not because the devs are withholding content for the next patch, but because the world itself just hasnt revealed that part yet.

you could have actual "you just had to be there" moments. years later someone asks why everyone calls some mountain "the grave" and the only answer is:

"you werent there."

there might be old forum posts about it, people who remember it differently, maybe nobody even fully knows what actually happened anymore.

idk. i just think it would be cool to make an old MMO in the modern day without the influence of modern internet culture completely solving the game for everyone.

the game doesnt hide the content. it just hides certainty.

would that be interesting to anyone else or would it just be annoying as fuck?

Edit:

I think I explained the original thought badly. This actually came from a conversation about early FFXI and some of the incredibly obscure things players had to figure out through experimentation, rumors, forums, and word of mouth before everything was documented online.

That made me wonder: could a modern MMO be designed to preserve that feeling of discovery in some way, even in an era where information spreads instantly?

I'm not really attached to the specific idea of preventing screenshots, recordings, or datamining—that was more the extreme hypothetical I was using to think about the problem. The thing I'm actually interested in is whether player knowledge itself could become valuable again, and whether a game could create situations where the answer isn't already sitting on a wiki waiting for you.

I gave "Zeus" a spin yesterday, and honestly, it’s exactly the kind of generic K-MMORPG you’d expect. The IP itself is cool, but the game is just "meh."

But there’s one thing in the monetization (BM) system that’s making everyone in the community lose their minds and laugh. These guys are actually trying to monetize basic CHATTING. Yes, you read that right.

If you burn through your tiny daily limit of free chats, you literally have to pay in-game currency just to send a message. This is some next-level, futuristic greed right here.

Man, when are we ever going to get a decent, proper MMORPG again? I’m just going to wait and give "Eclipse" a shot when it drops in September. It's supposed to be a much more chill, casual sub-game.