Frank Ross: With most of the gaming world trying to outdo each other with their wide variety of 3D looks, we chose to return to the “classic” look made famous in some of the Disney epics. We wanted our graphics positioned somewhere between cartoons and photo-realistic. We think we have achieved that goal, and from the early critiques, it appears we have appealed to a broad spectrum of players.

By definition there is no actual 2.5D, but we differentiate in that the scenes are all rendered in “vanishing point perspective” as opposed to the more common isometric perspective. This means that characters, objects, critters, and landscape are scaled dependent on the distance from the foreground and they use the correct perspective for accurate portrayal. Landscape items and other permanent objects can be walked around and behind. The game is room based and the camera view is always 3rd person.

We suspect that if successful, someone will come out with a 2.6D version. :)

Melissa Meyer: Actually, even a game without instances missions has the same issue: quantity of content! Whether it’s quests, hunting areas, creatures to hunt, or whatever. The thing that makes Hero’s Journey different is that we use a large team of GameMasters and give them the tools to constantly enhance and expand the content of the game.

We are currently working with a core team of 30 GMs. In the next few weeks we’ll be expanding the team to about 50. Then over the next year we’ll be hiring at a rapid rate to well over 100 development GameMasters. We are hiring; so if you have level design experience or programming experience and you would like to get your foot in the door of the gaming industry, send in an application. Applications are available at: http://www.play.net/hj/info/apply/home.asp.

Our unique and innovated GameMaster system, as well as our ability to update game content dynamically will enable us to update the game on a daily basis with new content and additional Quests. Hero’s Journey development does not stop when the game goes live. It’s only the beginning!

We're also making solid progress on the design front. Glen (STO Lead Designer) has put much of the design into focus - at least most of the major pieces. We've been running the key design points through our internal review process and the feedback has been largely positive. Two of the most difficult and important design tent-poles remain though: combat and player ships. We've been doing a lot of thinking on both of these topics, but I can't say that we've gotten either to a stable place yet. The debate boils down to how much action to put into away mission combat vs. more traditional turn/rules based models. And on the ship front: how and when we give players access to ships, including the issue of supporting both solo and group oriented players. Though I think we're close to solving the ship issue and I'm hoping that we can start sharing some of our ideas with the community soon.

Durham, USA — July 25, 2005— Funcom, developer and publisher of top video game titles like Anarchy Online and The Longest Journey, has once again broken away from the pack to bring a bold new direction for advertisement in videogames. By working in conjunction with Massive Incorporated, creator of the world’s first video game advertising network, Funcom is now offering dynamically delivered video ads in Anarchy Online. The new advertising elements accompany the dynamic billboard ads introduced earlier this spring.

In Anarchy Online the video and audio ads start playing on billboards or other appropriate locations when gamers enter select areas or zones within the game. This ground-breaking new advertising element has two distinct applications; it can be used to dynamically deliver television equivalent 15-second advertising spots, as well as audio messaging. The advertisements, using a combination of code created by Massive Incorporated and Funcom coders and utilizing technology licensed from RAD Game tools, do not increase latency, interrupt gameplay or gather personal information from players. Like the prior advertisements, those opting for the entirely free version of Anarchy Online will see the videos as a natural part of the city environments, while paying subscribers may opt in to view the content. The first video ads were unveiled to players at the four year anniversary for Anarchy Online in June, and brought fictional video advertisements from the warring factions in the game. Now the first paid video advertisements are in, with Panasonic and Channel 4 being the first companies to kick-start the new era for advertising in games.

David Bowman: Critics exist in every entertainment industry. I personally listen to them but do not let them sway me from what I need to do in order to make entertaining worlds happen. I have made mistakes, and I'm sure I will make mistakes again in the future. Every decision that I have made has been based on a desire to build these worlds with a talented team. I have successfully launched these worlds while others have tried and failed. My contributions to them have made them more entertaining. I have often had people who did not know who I was mention their favorite experience in Horizons or Asheron's Call and they were elements that would not have existed if I had not kept moving forward. One lesson that I'm still working on, is to not prematurely share my excitement about some aspect of Horizons until it has had enough testing to make sure it will reach the audience.

A: No and yes. This is supposed to be a fun, central point where people can fight for the heck of it. There are no keeps, control of the island doesn’t count on a scoreboard, and no targets to fight over. It’s like a battleground, but with one key difference: if your realm should come under attack, you’re only a run/swim away from defending it, and it will take very little coordination to switch from informal play on the island to serious siege warfare on the frontier. We wanted to leave the keep warfare immediately accessible, but as we all know, some nights it’s hard to coordinate a war and you’d just rather kill people.

Should a game attempt to cater to role-players via dedicated game rules or systems? I am of the opinion that games should not. For one thing, any game distinction between "role-players" and "typical players" is often a magnet for griefers. RP chat channels, visual indicators of RP or Non-RP players, RP "ranking" systems, and RP banning policies all introduce more problems than they solve for RPers, for they are all accessible to people who like to disrupt them. Even RP servers generally fulfill their roles with mixed success: many players join them solely to interfere with the serious role-players, or often simply for network latency or server population reasons.

TOKYO – July 22, 2005 – WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: WZEN), a leading global online entertainment developer, publisher and operator, today announced the company has started development of Endless Saga™, a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the PlayStation®3 (PS3) computer entertainment system. WEBZEN unveiled a first look at the colorful new MMORPG at the Annual PlayStation Meeting hosted by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ). Produced by WEBZEN’s D-Studio, Endless Saga is slated for release in 2007 for both PS3 Online and PC Online.

“WEBZEN is honored to be among the select group of third-party publishers invited to participate at this year’s Annual PlayStation Meeting,” said Nam Ju Kim, CEO, WEBZEN, Inc. “We’re excited about being one of the first publishers to bring a new online game to the PS3. We look forward to working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment Japan throughout the development cycle to ensure this new fantasy game appeals to MMORPG and PS3 fans everywhere.”

Luke Carruthers: Disconnects are the bane of every online game, and that’s even more true for one that revolves around direct competition between players. You have to allow for them, because sometimes people do legitimately have network problems, but there’s no real way to distinguish between a legitimate disconnect and a player deliberately trying to avoid a loss.

The only real solution is to allow those who have been disconnected a few minutes in which they can reconnect without penalty. If they don’t reconnect within that time, then they automatically lose the match.

The website for the upcoming massive multiplayer online role-playing game Seed is now online at www.seedthegame.com.

Seed is being developed by Runestone Game Development and is estimated for release next year. The game will feature interactive stories and advanced artificial intelligence techniques to create a unique gaming experience. Furthermore, the game is presented in a comic book-like graphical style.

"The graphical style from the game is reflected in the website. We want to give people a taste of the visual theme and atmosphere," Jan Roed, art director on Seed, says.

Seed takes place in a distant future in a colony tower on a planet far from Earth. The colony should have expanded to the planet surface long ago, but the terraforming process has come to a halt. The players take the roles of colonists and it is up to them to decide the future and fate of the colony.

The new website holds information of game features and game play elements. Later, a story section will go in details with the setting and background story.

"We will frequently add sections and subsections to the site. We are looking forward to presenting much more detailed information about the game than we have been able to on our forums so far," community manager Morten Juul says.

The website also holds a press section containing answers to frequently asked questions by the media.

The NetDevil team split into three groups, one of each race, and met us to convoy up at the exits of our race’s starting towns. As a Biomek Agent I started out in Fort Logan, the militaristic Biomek starter town. Here I met up with Hanlin, Lead Content Designer for the Biomeks and Booker, Lead Systems Designer and “crafting prince.”

However, the wasteland survivors continued to hoard bits and pieces of their past, and fights over old-world remnants were not uncommon. Over time, these things acquired value in the minds of the survivors of the apocalypse, and INC helped standardize the currency trade by accepting the items in exchange for various services such as storage facilities and airlifts. Hence the new post-apocalyptic currency system was born.