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DC Universe Online General Article: DCUO Comic Con Panel
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh attended the DC Universe Online panel at this year's Comic Con San Diego. While there, she compiled this report of what was said.
By Carolyn Koh on August 05, 2009
At the DCUO panel at Comic-Con 2009, Wes Yanagi and Jens Anderson of SoE and Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman of DC Comics spoke about the game and the challenges of bringing the DC universe from the printed page to a 3-D online game environment. DC Universe Online carries the tag line, "The Next Legend is You." But just what did that mean? As Wes explained, to them, it was about a player building their own legacy as they step into DCUO, and promised the means to do it in game.
To build DCUO, Jim Lee spoke of trying to pick the coolest of 70 years of DC continuity to be placed into the game and has created the structure of the DCUO world. Geoff Johns works on the story and triggers of why the world suddenly requires an influx of heroes - the players, and Marv Wolfman fleshes it out. He fills in the story content.
"If you look at it as a house," said Marv, "Jim has built the structure; the foundation, the posts and beams. I'm filling in with the windows and doors, the plaster and paint. Each of us comes up with an element of the story, and we then weave it all together."
DCUO will launch on Earth. Specifically, in the cities of Gotham and Metropolis, and yet Jens was careful to remind us that DC Universe is not a game played only in cities. "We aren't just a city game, but we do have the two coolest cities in the DC Universe," he said. "We have a Save the World / Rule the World concept, but are specifically focusing on Earth right now. The other cities, areas and worlds will come in as updates and expansions."
;)
"I can't wait for the Kandor expansion!" quipped Jim, "But there is just way too much cool stuff to get it all in at launch."
DCUO is a Hero and Villain game, not just a hero game and there will be Hero headquarters and Villain lairs. The hero and the villain both take different journeys. There is an overarching storyline, but there are different narratives and missions in game that will connect, and specific points the player will find themselves coming back to.
"Missions in game actually work well since comic books are serialized," said Marv, who confessed that he had a hard time wrapping his mind around the concept that a villain could win, after writing hero stories for so many years. "It's great because it's so much fun to come up with villain missions."
"I've learned more about DC than I ever knew," said Jim. "It's a challenge to translate 2-D to 3-D. I had to think for the first time about the texture and length of Superman's cape. It was always just... shiny red!" Not to mention that in drawing the cloak, it often did change length and volume depending on how dramatic the pose needed to be.
There was also the challenge of matching the concept art in game. There's no guide to Metropolis to work from to fit the pieces together. SoE's Austin studio built Metropolis, then during review with Jim, entire neighborhoods would be moved. "For 70 years, there's no street level map," agreed Jim. "Now we had to think of how we moved from neighborhood to neighborhood."
;)
"We also had to make the neighborhoods and cities as iconic as possible," said Jim. "When you are on street level and looking down a street in Gotham City, you need to know that you are in Gotham City. Not Metropolis or anywhere else."
The same challenge applied to buildings. Take Star Labs, for example. "In comics, we only have to think of the one room we're going to be in," said Marv. "In 3-D reality, Star Labs is huge! It's a larger environment than we had expected."
"And of course the challenge," Jim quipped, "was to make it NOT look like the Watch Tower."
The panel wound up with a favorite question, "What sets this game apart from others in the genre?"
To Wes, it was the combat. "It's the visceral feel of combat," he said, elaborating on the connection one had when playing the game. DCUO doesn't have auto-attack. Players have control of their avatar's swings and powers. "You don't just press an attack button and watch your avatar fight. You have to actually hit the guy." There's also the use of Physics in-game as players can pick up and throw almost anything in game that is not nailed down, and some things such as parking meters, that are.
Jens talked of the customization. Fluff choices are actually meaningful as players collect custom pieces throughout out their career. The game's Appearance System can either choose to make the pieces look like their original costume or choose to show the new costume piece.
"Take Batman for example, and his different costumers," said Jens. "He has a heavy armored look and a regular look."
From there, we went into a general Q&A where some points were elaborated upon:
Story & Gameplay:
Geoff: The DCUO story focuses on the new player. Perhaps the player that doesn't know a whole lot about the DC Universe, and we lead them through it.
;)
Marv: Players will get involved immediately with the major, most iconic characters, then they will get introduced to the others as they move along in the game.
Jens: There will be solo play missions as well as groups and groups of groups. In the DC Universe, the teams are about dividing and conquering, and that's what the content is about in DCUO. Players may team up, but then split up into perhaps twos and threes to accomplish different objectives. Of course there is the big bad guy that will require all to pile on to defeat.
Customization & Looks
Jim: There will be a wide range of body types and yes, you will be able to make a version of the Teen Titans if you want.
Jens: There will indeed be "fake" billboards, or rather, billboards advertising the product of this earth.
Jim: It looks dazzling. I can't wait for fans to be able to walk in the world we've built.
What's most exciting to you?
Wes: The breadth of the environment. Metropolis is a fascinating city. The neighborhoods have different characters, just like different neighborhoods in a large city in real life.
Geoff: To delve deeper and deeper into the game and see all of the DC characters. I'm excited to see all of the minor characters come to life.
Marv: The size of the missions. These are huge concepts. To see them connect. Jim: It's stunning and unique, like a comic book come to life. Jens: It's the total package. This is the greatest super-power experience you are going to have.
So there we have it, the DCUO Panel at Comic Con which showed us the depth of the passion this team has for the DC Universe and the depth of their experience in bringing it to the MMO world.
I find it kind of sad that after all the time I spent hating some of the core concepts of DC UO like the fact that it looks and seems to play much more like a console game then a MMO.... and yet here I am tracking it hoping I am wrong.
Damn you CO, why couldnt you have been a decent game!
No shortage of hype or excitement there. As always, I read the hype and pre-release stuff with a buckeful of salt. We'll see where this goes.
What's wrong with console games? I play lots of them and they are fun.
What's wrong with console games? I play lots of them and they are fun.
Hardcore MMORPG players want to be sucked in a living experiance. Not play and pause to take out the garbage. In other words, no theme parks but worlds to explore and grow with. The sad thing is those concepts proven Niche market and wont sell to the big companies. They all want the maximum bang for their investment and no one has proven a World Simulator to be a WOW killer/competetor.
Don't get me wrong, I have a Xbox 360 myself and probably buy more games for it then I do for my PC. (Of course with MMOs I spend more on PC games)
I like my console games for when I want to spend a hour or two messing around, When I want a game I can pick up and drop over the months. While the PC is better for when I want something I can really dig my teeth into. (Or play a FPS, I have no idea how console people put up with the crazy sluggish game controller in a FPS)
Having said that the reason I do not want to play a game that is developed for consoles is that console games are VERY simplistic. They have to be due to the very simplistic controler.
With a console game we have the sluggish game controller to turn us around (Taking 10x as long as the slowest mouse), we get what 8 buttons? And that's it.
With a PC game I turn with a mouse and can turn as fast as I wish. I get a full keyboard plus the buttons on the mouse. And most of the better MMOs allow for a very open interface allowing us to customize our game experience to how we like it.
Add to that there has been strong indications that this game plans to mix console players with PC players... They are 2 completely different types of players.
For example go on Xbox Live and listen to the people in just about any game, the bulk of them are kids or teens who seem to think that they can win any game if they are simply foul enough.
On PCs when you jump into a Vent or Teamspeak server (Or just the built in voice if the game has it) you will find some of those kinds of people, but only a tiny fraction of the total.
And then what about communication that voice does not handle well? Like broadcasts to a whole zone or raid? Then you have to type... But console players do not generally have keyboards (Some PS3 users have Keyboard and Mouse but for some reason they seldom work in games)
I'll keep buying console games, but until a new input device is developed for them I can not see using them for MMOs.
Sounds promising, though there is little detail. Still, is it just me, or do those screenshots look exactly like CO screenies? o.0
So far there is Good Things and Bad Things about this game. I think it will have a tough time trying to beat out CO. The only thing DCUO has over Champions is that you can be a Villain.
perhaps DCUO will actually be fun. The two games may have similar trappings but there are many games that look the same on paper but the actual play is very different. It could be something as simple as zone flow or how quests are put forward, but just a checklist of game features does not tell you how it will play.
Hardcore MMORPG players want to be sucked in a living experiance. Not play and pause to take out the garbage. In other words, no theme parks but worlds to explore and grow with. The sad thing is those concepts proven Niche market and wont sell to the big companies. They all want the maximum bang for their investment and no one has proven a World Simulator to be a WOW killer/competetor.
I think it has much more to do with the average mmo player being the "geek" because we have all heard "afk" a thousand times, for some reason the mmo community seems to feel the need to be better, or more sophisticated and it's to our detriment. I don't play console games nearly as much as I used to but I have been able to get the same feeling from many, no more console games of immersion as from most mmo's too many Final Fantasy games to count,Zelda,Civilization,GTA and the list goes on and on while for every good mmo I've played I've played two that don't hold my interest long enough for me to not get pissed for having wasted my money and time on them.
I think the concept of mmo players ragging on consoles is foolish if anything we should be demanding that mmo devs come with the same type of quality of service as console devs do and right now they are nowhere near it. When we figure that out and embrace and remember the person in us who once loved to play a good working game without the expectation of certain screw up's we will be better for it and so will our games.
Have you played CO? It's complete crap. What DCUO has over CO is that we don't know yet whether or not DCUO will be any good.
This is smart:
Jens: There will indeed be "fake" billboards, or rather, billboards advertising the product of this earth.
This is one of the few mmo genres where you can incorporate in-game advertising and it adds to immersion rather than completely killing it.
This is the kind of alternative revenue raising that has potential. But they're also flirting with the idea of microtransactions. I like what I've seen of DCUO so far, but will wait to see how the payment model turns at.
Have you played CO? It's complete crap. What DCUO has over CO is that we don't know yet whether or not DCUO will be any good.
CO's NDA is still in effect. Comments like this don't belong on the forum (yet).
In fairness, I wouldn't even say it's accurate.
CO's NDA is still in effect. Comments like this don't belong on the forum (yet).
In fairness, I wouldn't even say it's accurate.
LoL, you can't wave the NDA stick at me and then argue against me! It's hypocritical.
That said, I obviously disagree with you.
CO's NDA is still in effect. Comments like this don't belong on the forum (yet).
In fairness, I wouldn't even say it's accurate.
LoL, you can't wave the NDA stick at me and then argue against me! It's hypocritical.
That said, I obviously disagree with you.
You claim CO is garbage but give no reasons.. Also if you are in beta, ITS A BETA... Things change and get improved during beta.. As a beta tester you should be finding bugs and giving feedback. Not come to gaming forums and makes claims like the game is complete...
LoL, you can't wave the NDA stick at me and then argue against me! It's hypocritical.
That said, I obviously disagree with you.
You claim CO is garbage but give no reasons.. Also if you are in beta, ITS A BETA... Things change and get improved during beta.. As a beta tester you should be finding bugs and giving feedback. Not come to gaming forums and makes claims like the game is complete...
I'm not going to spend time writing an essay for you, sorry. That said, the problem isn't bugs. You'll realize why it's lame for yourself when open beta hits. Be patient.
LoL, you can't wave the NDA stick at me and then argue against me! It's hypocritical.
That said, I obviously disagree with you.
You claim CO is garbage but give no reasons.. Also if you are in beta, ITS A BETA... Things change and get improved during beta.. As a beta tester you should be finding bugs and giving feedback. Not come to gaming forums and makes claims like the game is complete...
I'm not going to spend time writing an essay for you, sorry. That said, the problem isn't bugs. You'll realize why it's lame for yourself when open beta hits. Be patient.
I'm in the beta... so now what? Sorry we are not robots or part of the borg hive.. Just because you think its sucks doesnt mean everyone does. Also you opinion has no weight to it because you refuse to explain it..
You claim CO is garbage but give no reasons.. Also if you are in beta, ITS A BETA... Things change and get improved during beta.. As a beta tester you should be finding bugs and giving feedback. Not come to gaming forums and makes claims like the game is complete...
I'm not going to spend time writing an essay for you, sorry. That said, the problem isn't bugs. You'll realize why it's lame for yourself when open beta hits. Be patient.
I'm in the beta... so now what? Sorry we are not robots or part of the borg hive.. Just because you think its sucks doesnt mean everyone does. Also you opinion has no weight to it because you refuse to explain it..
Oh, okay. You win then, I guess? I have no interest in writing up a lengthy essay about why I think a game that I don't care about is boring as hell, sorry.
They're still being light on the details. Perhaps they're waiting until after Champions Online is launched before the explain more about actual game mechanics?
Look nice but too bad its SOE so a big NO for me
Cant do it.....I have seen SOE's track record and how they treat players...not very well.
Looks fine to me; despite SOE's track record, it may be worth a try, at least in my opinion. I've always sorta wanted to trot on through Metropolis and Gotham, alongside a lot of the other content they certainly may provide; though I don't know whether it will be any good, I'll still probably give this a try, sometime.
Who knows; it may be a good romp through good ol' DC Comics, and to me, that certainly sounds fun, but I'll wait and keep up my hopes for this until the Closed and then Open Beta arrive, before making -any- judgements.
-Syphon.