Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood caught up with Hilmar Petursson, the CEO of CCP. During the interview, the two talked about EVE Online, the new office in Atlanta and the future of the company.

While 2008 Game Developer's Conference I had the opportunity to talk to Hilmar Petursson, the CEO of Crowd Control Productions, better known to the world as CCP, the makers of EVE Online. While Keith and Laura each had interviews on specific aspects of EVE Online, I took this opportunity to ask the tall, red-haired CEO about the company in general while my colleagues talked to others about specific aspects of EVE.

For those who might not know, CCP is currently running three offices: one in Iceland, one in Shanghai, China and one in Georgia here in the United States. The most recent addition is the American branch, opened after the MMO company merged with White Wolf, the company behind such games as Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Awakening and other games set in the proprietary World of Darkness. I had hoped that this GDC would be the show where someone from CCP could be coaxed into talking a little bit about the upcoming (though still officially unannounced) MMO based in that universe. Unfortunately, San Francisco in February is still not the place, and even though many of the CCP devs were walking around in World of Darkness shirts, nobody was talking, including the CEO.

With the subject of the Atlanta office already on the table, I asked how the company had fared in integrating the new office into their international family. Hilmar told me that while they (CCP) had been expecting and bracing for a difficult assimilation, the process went very smoothly for which Petursson credits the "strong people and managers" that joined the company with the White Wolf merger.

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Jon Wood, Keith Cross and Laura Genender had the opportunity to record this new episode of the MMORPG.com podcast featuring Cabal Online.

In a special episode of MMORPG.com's podcast, regular co-hosts Jon Wood and Keith Cross are joined by Community Manager Laura Genender as they interview David Hoffman, the Executive Producer at OGPlanet about their release of the North American version of Cabal Online. This interview took place at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Check out the show here.

Recently, News Manager Keith Cross had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Tony Hilliam, the CEO of Auran and Lead Designer on their game, Fury. As you may or may not recall, after Fury's launch, Auran announced that they would be pulling back significantly on staff and resources for the PvP game. Today, Keith talks to Tony about the progress that has been made since then.

While at the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference I had the opportunity to talk to Auran CEO and Fury Lead Designer, Tony Hilliam. During the interview we discussed what happened at Fury’s launch, their subsequent business model change and the Age of the Chosen expansion in the months after launch, as well as the future course for the game.

When Fury launched back in October it was billed as the MMO for PvP fanatics. The PvP fans came out to play, but to Australian developer Auran’s disappointment, not enough of them stuck around. Early users ran into a number of problems which helped drive players away from the game. Many players complained they had a hard time getting the game to run with the high level of graphical quality of which the game was capable, even on high-end machines. Because the game was PvP focused, any choppiness could be a death sentence, thus some players who could run the game on its higher settings would be forced to opt for lower quality visuals as well. Tony informed me of one particular bug that caused a lot of headaches in the first few weeks after launch. Apparently there was a sound bug that could cut the game’s frame rate in half. After a few weeks they solved the problem, but the damage had already been done. In the business of MMOs, the first few weeks are critical, and can direct opinions about the game for years to come.

Read the whole article here.

MMORPG.com News Manager Keith Cross caught up with Lee Hammock, the Lead Designer from the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMORPG, Fallen Earth and asked one simple question: What's new in Fallen Earth since the Austin Game Developer's Conference?

While at the Game Developers Conference I had the opportunity to chat with Lee Hammock, Lead Designer for Fallen Earth. My first look at Fallen Earth was at the Austin Game Developers Conference, where Lee gave me the beginner’s tour. Before that, all I knew of Fallen Earth was that it was a post apocalyptic MMO built on the topography of the Grand Canyon. I said in a blog last week that it was great talking to Lee because he’ll answer your questions before you ask them. At the GDC in San Francisco my first, and pretty much only question was, “What’s new since AGDC?”

Lee told me that 75% of the game’s content is in, though much of it still needs polish. So far they have between three and four thousand missions ready to go. These missions will take players beyond the desert terrains that we’ve already seen in Fallen Earth, and move them on to greener pastures, and I literally mean greener pastures. At the Fallen Earth booth they had a demo of the game running, and a trailer running on a loop on another screen. In the demo, Lee took me to a grassy field that stretched far off into the distance.

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Community Manager Laura Genender had a chance to sit down with David Perry and Howard Marks of Acclaim to talk about their upcoming MMORPGs.

David Perry and Howard Marks at GDC At GDC, Laura Grenender got a chance to sit down a talk with David Perry and Acclaim CEO Howard Marks. They discuss 2Moons, 9 Dragons, Top Secret, the Free to play model, Acclaims goals and plans.

You can watch more videos over here.
Check out more GDC here.

The third question that Managing Editor Jon Wood asked of the GDC Panel discussing "The Future of MMOs" revolved around MMORPG business models and whether or not Free to Play and microtransaction games were going to take over the more traditional subscription fees.

As those of you who have been kindly following the series know, I recently moderated a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference. The panel was titled, “The Future of MMOs” and consisted of some of the biggest names in the MMO industry: Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios, Matt Miller from NCsoft, Ray Muzyka from Bioware, Min Kim from Nexon and Rob Pardo from Blizzard.

So far, we’ve talked about 3rd party IPs and we’ve talked about the console question. That brings us to the half way point of questions that I was able to ask of the group. My third question revolved around the business model. While there are a significant number of people out there who totally discount item shop, or free to play based games, there is no arguing that this business model is expanding. As a result, my question to the developers was simple: With the North American MMOs of the future be paid for using an item mall and micropayments, or will they continue to use the subscription model.

Read it all here.

Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood caught up with Hilmar Petursson, the CEO of CCP. During the interview, the two talked about EVE Online, the new office in Atlanta and the future of the company.

While 2008 Game Developer's Conference I had the opportunity to talk to Hilmar Petursson, the CEO of Crowd Control Productions, better known to the world as CCP, the makers of EVE Online. While Keith and Laura each had interviews on specific aspects of EVE Online, I took this opportunity to ask the tall, red-haired CEO about the company in general while my colleagues talked to others about specific aspects of EVE.

For those who might not know, CCP is currently running three offices: one in Iceland, one in Shanghai, China and one in Georgia here in the United States. The most recent addition is the American branch, opened after the MMO company merged with White Wolf, the company behind such games as Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Awakening and other games set in the proprietary World of Darkness. I had hoped that this GDC would be the show where someone from CCP could be coaxed into talking a little bit about the upcoming (though still officially unannounced) MMO based in that universe. Unfortunately, San Francisco in February is still not the place, and even though many of the CCP devs were walking around in World of Darkness shirts, nobody was talking, including the CEO.

With the subject of the Atlanta office already on the table, I asked how the company had fared in integrating the new office into their international family. Hilmar told me that while they (CCP) had been expecting and bracing for a difficult assimilation, the process went very smoothly for which Petursson credits the "strong people and managers" that joined the company with the White Wolf merger.

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Jon Wood, Keith Cross and Laura Genender had the opportunity to record this new episode of the MMORPG.com podcast featuring Cabal Online.

In a special episode of MMORPG.com's podcast, regular co-hosts Jon Wood and Keith Cross are joined by Community Manager Laura Genender as they interview David Hoffman, the Executive Producer at OGPlanet about their release of the North American version of Cabal Online. This interview took place at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Check out the show here.

Recently, News Manager Keith Cross had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Tony Hilliam, the CEO of Auran and Lead Designer on their game, Fury. As you may or may not recall, after Fury's launch, Auran announced that they would be pulling back significantly on staff and resources for the PvP game. Today, Keith talks to Tony about the progress that has been made since then.

While at the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference I had the opportunity to talk to Auran CEO and Fury Lead Designer, Tony Hilliam. During the interview we discussed what happened at Fury’s launch, their subsequent business model change and the Age of the Chosen expansion in the months after launch, as well as the future course for the game.

When Fury launched back in October it was billed as the MMO for PvP fanatics. The PvP fans came out to play, but to Australian developer Auran’s disappointment, not enough of them stuck around. Early users ran into a number of problems which helped drive players away from the game. Many players complained they had a hard time getting the game to run with the high level of graphical quality of which the game was capable, even on high-end machines. Because the game was PvP focused, any choppiness could be a death sentence, thus some players who could run the game on its higher settings would be forced to opt for lower quality visuals as well. Tony informed me of one particular bug that caused a lot of headaches in the first few weeks after launch. Apparently there was a sound bug that could cut the game’s frame rate in half. After a few weeks they solved the problem, but the damage had already been done. In the business of MMOs, the first few weeks are critical, and can direct opinions about the game for years to come.

Read the whole article here.

MMORPG.com News Manager Keith Cross caught up with Lee Hammock, the Lead Designer from the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMORPG, Fallen Earth and asked one simple question: What's new in Fallen Earth since the Austin Game Developer's Conference?

While at the Game Developers Conference I had the opportunity to chat with Lee Hammock, Lead Designer for Fallen Earth. My first look at Fallen Earth was at the Austin Game Developers Conference, where Lee gave me the beginner’s tour. Before that, all I knew of Fallen Earth was that it was a post apocalyptic MMO built on the topography of the Grand Canyon. I said in a blog last week that it was great talking to Lee because he’ll answer your questions before you ask them. At the GDC in San Francisco my first, and pretty much only question was, “What’s new since AGDC?”

Lee told me that 75% of the game’s content is in, though much of it still needs polish. So far they have between three and four thousand missions ready to go. These missions will take players beyond the desert terrains that we’ve already seen in Fallen Earth, and move them on to greener pastures, and I literally mean greener pastures. At the Fallen Earth booth they had a demo of the game running, and a trailer running on a loop on another screen. In the demo, Lee took me to a grassy field that stretched far off into the distance.

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Community Manager Laura Genender had a chance to sit down with David Perry and Howard Marks of Acclaim to talk about their upcoming MMORPGs.

David Perry and Howard Marks at GDC At GDC, Laura Grenender got a chance to sit down a talk with David Perry and Acclaim CEO Howard Marks. They discuss 2Moons, 9 Dragons, Top Secret, the Free to play model, Acclaims goals and plans.

You can watch more videos over here.
Check out more GDC here.

The third question that Managing Editor Jon Wood asked of the GDC Panel discussing "The Future of MMOs" revolved around MMORPG business models and whether or not Free to Play and microtransaction games were going to take over the more traditional subscription fees.

As those of you who have been kindly following the series know, I recently moderated a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference. The panel was titled, “The Future of MMOs” and consisted of some of the biggest names in the MMO industry: Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios, Matt Miller from NCsoft, Ray Muzyka from Bioware, Min Kim from Nexon and Rob Pardo from Blizzard.

So far, we’ve talked about 3rd party IPs and we’ve talked about the console question. That brings us to the half way point of questions that I was able to ask of the group. My third question revolved around the business model. While there are a significant number of people out there who totally discount item shop, or free to play based games, there is no arguing that this business model is expanding. As a result, my question to the developers was simple: With the North American MMOs of the future be paid for using an item mall and micropayments, or will they continue to use the subscription model.

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, the guys from Funcom provided us with these thirteen new screenshots of their upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan.

Check out all thirteen here.

While at this year's Game Developer's Conference both Keith Cross and Laura Genender attended a seminar called "My First MMO". This seminar was about the upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin. While both Keith and Laura left the room impressed, Keith's impressions were pessimistic, while Laura's was through the roof enthusiastic. Today, we present both of their views as an MMORPG.com first look at APB.

Part One Sample

While at the Game Developers Conference, I attended a seminar titled “My First MMO.” I assumed the focus of the seminar was going to be on tips and tricks for those ambitious souls who want to take on the challenge of creating the fickle creature known as the MMO game. The seminar turned out to be more of a showcase for the graphics and game concepts for APB. If you haven’t heard of APB, or All Points Bulletin, it’s essentially cops and robbers online. Another way to look at it would be to think of it as GTA’s half sibling because the guy up on the podium is none other than Dave Jones, the creator of the original GTA and currently the CEO of Real Time Worlds.

The question of what exactly defines an MMO took up the first portion of the talk. The MMO world is currently dominated by RPGs, and the definition of MMO in the popular consciousness is blurred with that of the MMORPG. In my mind, the bare minimum you need to call you game an MMO would be a number of players, numbering in at least the thousands, playing together in a persistent game environment with unique characters. Of these minimum qualities the only one that I would put in the category of both MMO and RPG would be having unique characters.

Part Two Sample

This past Thursday I accompanied Keith to the “My First MMO” seminar. I didn’t really know what to expect; to be honest, I thought it would be ‘lessons learned’ about MMO-specific issues, like customer support tools, PVP vs. PVE balance, etc. As Keith mentions in his article, though, the seminar was more about speaker David Jones’ upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin, or APB.

The first half of the seminar, Jones discussed the definition of an MMO and how he was trying to break that mold. Keith gives an excellent description of that presentation, far beyond my power of memory, so I’ll just recommend you read his article and move on to APB.

The second half of the seminar was a showcase of APB, and here’s where my jaw started unhinging. Everything about the game seems fresh, detailed, and unique; whether or not it will actually work as an MMO is another question, but it’s Keith’s job to be jaded – I get to be a fangirl.

Read Part One here.

Read Part Two here.

The folks from Earthrise were kind enough to provide us with these two new screenshots from their post-apocalyptic MMORPG.

Check out both here.

Managing Editor Jon Wood recently spoke with the guys from Masthead Studios, the company developing the post-apocalyptic MMORPG Earthrise. In the interview, they talk about advancement, setting, PvP and more!

 

The Setting

Earthrise is an appropriate title, as the game takes place at a time when the world was nearly wiped out and the few remnants of humanity that still exist either exist in a “utopian” society or live in a and work for a rebel distopia.

As the Masthead guys were explaining the game to me, they described it as a kind of post-apocalyptic world, but were careful to point out that while everyone, upon hearing post-apocalyptic, thinks of Mad Max. That’s a comparison that the guys tell me is inaccurate. While this game still takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, George and Nikolay said that we should think more of the movie Minority Report than Mad Max.

“The game,” they said, “just isn’t that dark.” Instead, the team is trying to present a setting that isn’t artificially dark or light, instead the Belgium-based team is focusing on a more realistic look. “People are tired of stylization,” said George. “We’re trying to make it as realistic as possible.”

 

Read it all here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Jon Wood moderated a panel called "The Future of MMOs" populated by some of the biggest names in the MMO industry. Today, he presents his impressions of the panel's answer to the question of whether or not future developers will need to worry about both a PC and a console version of their games.

In this, the second part of the report on The Future of MMOs panel, I ask the gathered developers if consoles are the way of the future for MMOs, and whether or not future MMOs will have to be developed cross-platform in order to be successful.

As a reminder to the readers, the panel was made up of developers much more knowledgeable than I: Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios, Matt Miller from NCsoft, Ray Muzyka from Bioware, Min Kim from Nexon and Rob Pardo from Blizzard.

The thought process behind this question, I felt, was fairly obvious. While up until now, it has been fairly easy to think about MMORPGs as a PC – only genre (they aren’t, games like Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star have been running on consoles for a while now), the upcoming launch of the PC version of Funcom’s Age of Conan and the pending Xbox 360 release of that same game, as well as SOE’s The Agency, are making more and more people question whether consoles will become the medium of choice for MMO developers.

Read it all here.

At the Game Developer's Conference, the folks from The Chronicles of Spellborn unveiled a new trailer showing off Slywood, an area in TCoS.

Slywood Video The Developers of The Chronicles of Spellborn have unveiled this new Slywood trailer.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, the team from Turbine sat down to talk with the team from MMORPG.com about the company and the games that they make.

While at the Game Developer’s conference in San Francisco, the MMORPG.com team had the opportunity to sit down with the folks from Turbine to talk about the company as a whole and even a little bit about the game. Joining us there were: Craig Alexander, the Vice President of Product Development for the company, along with Jeffrey Steefel Lord of the Rings Online’s Producer and Adam Mersky, the Director of Public Relations.

We began by talking to Craig about Turbine as a whole. He told us that the plan for Turbine and its games is evolutionary as they continue to build on what’s already in place to grow both the business and the games that Turbine produces.

These days, we were told, there are really four themes that Turbine follows:

Going Global – While many of us here in North America tend to look at the games industry from the perspective of the western market, Turbine is looking beyond that. The launch of Lord of the Rings Online in China and Korea are playing a large role in the company’s expansion.

Read it all here.

While at GDC, Larua Genender had the opportunity to sit down with Kate Paiz, the Senior Producer on Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach.

On February 28th, this upcoming Thursday, Turbine and thousands of DDO players celebrate the two year anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons Online. This past Thursday at the Game Developer’s Conference I had a chance to talk with Kate Paiz, Senior Producer of DDO. Not only did I get the dirt on the upcoming update 7, but we discussed the events planned to celebrate the game’s birthday.

First up in the line of birthday presents is a “price and lock” – users can purchase a 6 month subscription at the price of $9.99 per month, a total price of $59.94. This is almost $18 less than the normal monthly fee! This offer is available to past, present, and future subscribers, as long as they purchase during the anniversary celebration.

Read the whole article here.

While at the Game Developer's Conference, Jon Wood moderated a panel called "The Future of MMOs" populated by some of the biggest names in the MMO industry. Today, he presents his impressions of the panel's answer to the question of whether or not future MMOs will require companies to use outside IPs.

On Thursday, the fourth day of the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference, I was given the opportunity to moderate a panel called "The Future of MMOs". Over the next few days, I plan to investigate each of the four questions thoroughly, giving my impressions of the responses and the ideas behind the original question.

The panel was made up of some of the biggest names in the MMO industry: Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios, Matt Miller from NCsoft, Ray Muzyka of Bioware, Min Kim of Nexon and Rob Pardo of Blizzard. My job as the moderator was to run the conversation, and to ask questions of the panel that would not only reflect the topic, but that would also appeal to an audience full of game developers. At first glance, you might say that this isn't really that much of a departure from what I do every day; ask questions of game developers about what they're doing. The catch here is that I'm used to asking questions from the perspective of a fan, and for a player audience. It isn't quite so easy to come up with questions to ask developers for a developer audience. How do you decide what's important enough to spend time on when you are limited to one hour with a panel as strong as the one that sat on The Future of MMOs.

Read the whole article here.

The folks at Hellgate: London have released their plans for the next three game updates at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.  The updates include two smaller patches and a major content update called "The Abyss Chronicles".

Perhaps the most sought-after information that Hellgaters are most interested in on our forums is insight into the future of Hellgate: London. After a great first day at the Games Developer Conference, we'd like to offer a kingly scoop on this very topic. And so, without further ado, we lift the curtain and reveal our plans for the next three Hellgate: London updates. Note that while the bullets outline the contents of each patch, they are actively being worked on and will have more thorough patch notes upon release.

Patch 1.2

• In-game mail with the ability to attach items.
• Marksman skill adjustments.
• Many bug fixes.

Previously known only for its sweeping changes to the Marksman class, Patch 1.2 will add in-game mail, a hotly desired feature. Additionally, a great many bugs are addressed in this build, many of them reported by the community.

Read more here.

At this year's Game Developer's Conference, Community Manager Laura Genender caught up with the folks developing Requiem: Bloodymare to talk about their upcoming MMORPG.

Your average MMORPG shows a definite appreciation of certain adult concepts: revealing female armor, enemies such as skeletons and zombies… hell, entire games are based around combat and killing. Today at GDC, though, I saw Gravity Interactive’s upcoming MMO Requiem: Bloodymare, a game that takes adult and mature concepts to the next level.

Gravity’s Joon Yoon (Marketing/Public Relations Coordinator) and Bohle’s Derek Asato (Vice President) gave me a tour of the game – and as the name suggests, its very bloody and very gory. Every swing of our character’s sword produced a spray of blood; deaths were heralded by flying limps and, on rare occasions, I was treated to the sight of creatures cut clear in half.

Read the whole article here.

On Tuesday night of the Game Developer's Conference, the team from Sony Online Entertainment announced that they would be providing money for a scholarship that will see one potential female developer awarded $10,000 toward their education at The Art Institutes.

On Tuesday evening, MMORPG.com attended an SOE gathering at the Game Developer's Conference. There, the company announced a new initiative that will see a $10,000 scholarship for The Art Institutes awarded to a deserving female candidate. On top of the tuition money, the winning candidate will receive a paid internship at one of SOE's numerous studios.

The purpose of the scholarship program is to try to draw more women into the gaming industry, an industry that is currently male dominated. It is the hope that the scholarship, named G.I.R.L. (Gamers in Real Life) will eventually help to close the gender gap that currently exists on the development side of the industry.

According to a press release, Torrie Dorrell (VP of Global Sales and Marketing for SOE) had this to say:

Read it all here.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced a deal with Vivox to provide voice communication tools for SOE's roster games.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, is poised to revolutionize the way gamers stay connected with sophisticated new voice services where fellow gamers and guild mates are never more than a shout away.

Need standard chat for groups and raids? Check. Don't want to tie up your own bandwidth? Roger that. Want your voice to sound completely different? Done. Late for your raid but want to take part in the group setup by cell phone? Can do. Dream of having in-game voicemail? There ya go. Playing a non-SOE game but want to use this service, free of charge? Aye.

These powerful community building features and tools are coming to SOE games at no additional cost to players and go far beyond basic real-time chat with the usual headset and microphone setup that is commonly used today.

In an agreement announced Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference between SOE and Vivox, Inc., an established provider of high quality voice communications, players will be able to access a suite of voice communication tools including voice mail, voice fonts to synthesize player voices into in-game character voices, and the ability to receive external calls in SOE games.

Read more here.

Today, the MMORPG.com team met up with David Hoffman from OG Planet, the company behind Cabal Online. While there, he was kind enough to provide us with these new screenshots.

Check them out here.