Tagged News: agdc 2007

Raph Koster went from Creative Director at SOE to the head of a web-based MMO start-up Areae Games. What prompted the change in thinking? Koster shares his rather controversial thoughts on the gaming industry's shift from AAA games to web-based titles in this article.

"I think the big MMOs," mused Koster, "in some ways, they are becoming the next text games."

It's a radical statement from a man whose opinions run contrary to many of the other respected names in this industry. During AGDC, he was on the usual panel of industry leaders and as per usual, he showed his fundamental disagreement on where gaming is going.

More after the jump.

John Blakely, the VP of development at SOE Austin, gives us some insights into the DC Comics MMO they're working on. It's still absurdly early in the process, but it's never too early to turn our eyes towards their coming battle against Cryptic's Microsoft backed Marvel MMO.

What about a rivalry with their counterparts at Cryptic Studios who are hard at work on Marvel Universe Online for the PC and Xbox 360? One company is backed by Sony (Playstation 3) and DC Comics. The other is backed by Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Marvel Comics. Clearly, there are going to be some comparisons.

For those who sometimes get confused by the brands, DC Comics includes characters like Superman, Batman, Flash Gordon and the Green Lantern. Their competitors at Marvel have the rights to Spider-man, the Hulk, Captain America, the X-men and the Fantastic Four. Both are big properties.

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Our own Robert Cox took some time at the Austin Game Developer Conference to speak to Lee Hammock, the Lead Designer of Fallen Earth, a post-apocalyptic MMORPG in development over at Icarus Studios.

"Every sector has something new," Hammock said. "The Road Warrior movies were one of our primary influences and we've tried to incorporate all the elements we can of all the post-apocalyptic movies."

During the demo, Hammock took his avatar through a few combat sequences in a zombie-filled factory, where stealth was just as important as firepower. Make too much noise, and the zombies swarm... slowly, true, but they still get the job done.

Read more after the jump.

As our AGDC coverage comes towards a close, we relate our conversation with CCP Games CEO Hilmar Petursson. He talked to us about EVE Online, the cheating scandal, it's coming graphics upgrade, the next expansion, democratic reforms in the game and the integration of CCP and White Wolf.

One of these developments will be evident in the next free expansion to EVE Online when players finally get to take their pilots out of their ships. Last year, CCP introduced the concept of "walking on stations" with much hype, but few details. It was part of a long range plan that had no timeline. Now it does. Petursson said that he hopes to launch the expansion that lets players walk on stations by the end of 2008, a goal he admits is a bit ambitious.

Before they get people on stations though, CCP will launch their much-hyped graphics upgrade by the end of November. It is almost done - Petursson showed off a bank of images on his laptop - and will revolutionize the ship graphics. EVE has always looked very good, but once they show the before and after images, it's impossible to imagine it any other way. These graphics and shader upgrades completely change the look of the game.

Read more after the jump.

John Young is a VP of Gala-Net, a North American video game company that localized Asian games for the North American market and distributes them through GPotato.com. At AGDC, he spoke to us about Upshift StrikeRacer, their latest game.

"[Gala-Net provided] localizations and culturalization," for the game. It's originally developer, the Korean company NChannel, made a game that was at its core fun, but likely not of much interest to the average North American. Young explained some of the ways they made sure it would be.

One way they made the game feel more Western was through its music. They hired composer Kevin Manthei to do the first pass at the music. A traditional composer, Manthei has made a reputation through his work on Resident Evil, Twisted Metal and City of Villains, among others. Then to create a kind of contrast and mood that felt appropriate, they brought in Dan Spitz, the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Anthrax. The combination of their two styles, according to Young, perfectly sets the mood of the game.

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Austin's GDC gave us a unique and fun opportunity to interview not one or two members of the Pirates of the Burning Sea development team, but five! We spoke about their goals prior to launch, what they want to do after, dismemberment and their expectations for commercial release.

When it comes to hook fighting though, it begs the obvious question: how does one get a hook? Well, in Pirates of the Burning Sea, players must earn their dismemberments. It sounds absurd, but it really makes sense. Right now, players can undertake a quest in the game and earn themselves a peg leg - although Tynes mentioned that there is an "artificial limb" players can wear if they basically want their leg back - which obviously changes the look and feel of a character. In time, once they add hook fighting, they'll also be able to earn a lost hand and thus a hook to fight with.

Read more after the jump.

Icarus Studios EVP David Gardner took the time at AGDC to discuss his company's MMO solution: The Icarus Platform. This is a set of tools companies can license to build games and according to Gardner, they can do it without writing a line of code.

"We believe you can take an excellent product to market without actually writing any code," Gardner explained from the second floor of his AGDC booth, yes AGDC booths now have two floors.

Their tools eliminate the necessity of programmers. Instead, a comprehensive scripting language enables designers and content creators to directly implement content. For those who have or are programmers, don't worry, they're not obsolete. People can get under the hood and fiddle with whatever they want if they wish.

Read more after the jump.

Age of Conan Product Manager Jørgen Tharaldsen met with WarCry at AGDC to discuss the PvP aspects of Funcom's upcoming MMO. Due to launch in March 2008, Tharaldsen talked about siege warfare, duels, drunken brawls, arena combat and the game's mature slant.

"[If it was not mature] it wouldn't be a Conan game," Tharaldsen said.

To them, this is an advantage. He pointed out that while some assume that only kids play video games the evidence doesn't support it. The average age of an Anarchy Online player (their other product) is 27 years old and - using pre-WoW numbers - the general MMO gamer was well into their 20s. This stands to a certain level of logic since to play these games players usually need a credit card.

Read more after the jump.

Designers Scott Youngblood and Rob Garrett took some time out of their busy recruiting schedule to talk to us about Red 5 and some of the goals their company has for its debut project. Topics include their desire to innovate, a global focus and more.

"Players will be important in our world in ways that they never were before," Youngblood guaranteed.

They also hope to bridge the gap between Asian and Western MMOs in a way no one has tried since the first aborted version of Tabula Rasa. Just a few weeks ago, a Red 5 sister studio opened in Shanghai. They made it very clear this is not an art house, but a fully integrated part of their development team. Both studios are linked and have people who work on all aspects of the game. They believe this cross pollination of ideas strengthens their game.

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Today we bring you the story of our chat with Jeff Anderson, Turbine CEO, at AGDC 2007. He talked about Lord of the Rings Online, it's recent updates, Book 11, its first expansion and the future of Turbine as a whole.

The upcoming Book 11 is Turbine's top priority. This free expansion is the first of a wave of vastly new content - Book 10, to Anderson, finished the work that the launch began - and concentrates on player housing.

In Lord of the Rings Online, housing will be placed in instanced neighborhoods called "streets". The streets, within themes, will be roughly the same in each area of the world, but with different names. To access their house, the player talks to an NPC in the correct part of the world and "asks for directions" to, for example, Cherry Street. The NPC then gives those directions when he teleports the player to that street, on which their house resides.

Read more after the jump.