Tagged News: interviews

In our latest Warhammer Online Q&A;, we talk to Joshua Drescher, Adam Gershowitz and James Nichols of EA Mythic about preparation for the latest Beta phase, whether they'll shut down again, careers and - of course - RvR.

WarCry: When you sack an enemy city, what type of bonuses and rewards will you get for doing so, and are these only for those who sacked the city?

EA Mythic: To get to the benefits of capturing an enemy city requires a tremendous effort from your entire Realm. We're still working on the exact rewards you get for capturing an enemy city, but expect to see buffs and items you can only get through siege and events that help to encourage Realm pride in all players.

Read it all after the jump.

Joshua Drescher, Adam Gershowitz and James Nichols of EA Mythic team up to answer the latest set of questions on Warhammer Online: age of Reckoning. Population balance, respecs and other topics get their attention in this twice-a-month series.

WarCry: What tools will be available to help guilds manage their teams?

EA Mythic: We have an extremely robust set of Guild tools that will allow leaders and officers to efficiently manage and coordinate their members. These tools include a Calendar system, news feed, and an in-depth roster feature. These, plus the addition of the living guild system (your guild actually gains levels and benefits), make guilds an integral and rewarding part of the game.

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In today's Warhammer Online interview, we talk to Associate Producer Josh Drescher and Senior Designer Justin Webb who team up to give us a set of answers. This edition includes questions about the launch delay, longterm appeal, individuality and why they believe they will succeed where other MMOs have failed in recent years.

WarCry: Your big headline recently was the decision to push back launch. This is not the first time WAR has been delayed. Why do you believe this release date is one players can expect you to meet?

EA Mythic: MMORPG fans have come to expect top tier titles to launch smoothly with finished, highly polished content across the board. This second adjustment of the launch date is intended to give us the time we need to make sure we deliver a product that meets those expectations. We're all but finished with feature and system integration right now, but Mark Jacobs (Lead Designer and GM of our studio) wanted to give us months, rather than weeks, to polish, balance and tighten things up prior to launch. As a result, between the December relaunch of the WAR Beta and the second quarter launch of the game, we're going to be able to focus the entire team on making sure everything feels perfect, looks perfect and plays in a way that will blow gamers away.

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It's the holiday season and Chapter 8 is on the horizon. As an early Life Day gift, SWG Lead Developer Thomas "Blixtev" Blair gave WarCry an early preview:

Space is big. Really big. And, at least in the Star Wars: Galaxies universe, it just got a bit bigger.

Fresh on the heels of one of the largest updates since the NGE, the SWG development team is in the final testing stages on Chapter 8, which was scheduled to be added to the Test Center servers today.

Click below to read the rest and check out some exclusive screenshots.

In the latest installment of our ongoing Tabula Rasa Q&A; series, we get a special treat. Richard Garriott parachuted in for one answer in this edition to talk about Logo. The remainder of the Q&A; is answered by Lead Designer Paul Sage and Community Manager April Burba.

WarCry: Have we asked "Why did you pick "Logos" to describe the psionics and language in the game? Are you referring to the ancient Greek philosophical concept or to the more Biblical connotation"?

Richard Garriott: The word "Logos" is used in our game both for the symbolic language and for the force-like super powers our players learn to wield. "Logos" is often used to describe god-like powers that manifest reality with the power of your mind and spoken words, such as "Let There Be Light and there was." Added to this is the concept of a logogrammatic language, which uses pictographic symbols for communication.

Read more after the click.

Warhammer Online Community Coordinator brought together some answers to our latest set of questions to the EA Mythic developer team. This time we learn about public quests, changes to their community team and some more insights out of the recent development letter update.

WarCry: In the last few months, the community management team itself has undergone a number of personnel changes. What will people notice about the way you deal with the community today vs. how it had been historically?

James Nichols: While change can be difficult, we feel it opens new doors and great opportunities, too. The community team is always here for the players, to keep them informed and to listen and respond to their concerns. They act as the eyes and ears of both the community and the dev team, and work tirelessly to keep both parties informed of what the other is thinking and doing. While the faces might be new, our approach to working with the best MMO communities around is not.

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Lead Designer Paul Sage joins April Burba to answer the latest in our Tabula Rasa Q&A; series and the first since they launched the game on Friday. Burba and Sage tackle questions on humor, differentiation and what launch day was like.

WarCry: One underplayed part of TR is that the game actually has quite the sense of humor, such as the messages played over the PA systems in human bases. Talk about some of the ways you guys have taken the destruction Earth and made it a touch less than serious.

April Burba: That's nothing. Have you seen the Mini-British running around? He is on a quest to find his rat-tail. There are tons of little 'easter-eggs' if you want to call them that all over the world. There are Apple IIe's that have the opening lines from Akalabeth. There are also some pretty funny NPC chatter/actions. There is one NPC standing precariously on several chairs welding directly into a pipe. Another NPC has some funny commentary about it.

Read more after the leap.

Following up Neverwinter Vault's Part I interview with Ossian Studios, NWN 2 WarCry is proud to present Part II.

The new premium module program has been reintroduced by Atari and re-branded as the adventure pack program. Using the NWN 2 toolset, Ossian Studios, creators of the NWN 1 module Darkness Over Daggerford, has been slated to create the first NWN 2 adventure pack. Titled "NWN 2: Mysteries of Westgate," it is considered a city-based adventure with a strong slant towards role-playing. Working through The Vault's and WarCry's answers are from:

• Alan Miranda: CEO of Ossian Studios, Producer and Co-Lead Designer on Mysteries of Westgate.
• Luke Scull: Lead Designer on Mysteries of Westgate.
• Larry Liberty: (Senior Producer, Atari)

In our latest set of questions and answers from EA Mythic's Warhammer Online development team, we learn about tactics, speed, storage, public quests and much more. As usual, the questions are answered by members of the WAR Community Team.

WarCry: Are their any speed buff, or classes that increase speed like the Minstrel in DAOC?

WAR Community Team: All players have a default sprint ability which allows a short period of increased speed at the expense of your action points, in addition several classes also get an enhanced sprint which uses fewer action points and allows you to run faster than the standard sprint.

Read more after the click.

Posted on the official COH website:

As autumn arrives and the climate starts to cool, many of the superpowered denizens and ordinary citizens remember that Halloween is coming, a time of festivity and celebration. While the famous Heroes are no strangers to wearing fantastic costumes, this year the emphasis is on costumes of an entirely different sort: the various types of citizens, law enforcement organizations and villain groups that many heroes are intimately familiar with.

For example, one may be able to dress up as a Coralax Minion, a Paragon Protector or even a Vahzilok Eidolon. Heroes can collect these Classical Costumes (and wear them) for Trick or Treating throughout the city. New badges will be available for those who collect the most Classical Costumes. Not to be outdone by the Heroes of Paragon City�, Villains of the Rogue Isles� may take part in the festivities as well, where Trick or Treating and Classical Costume collection has been virtually mandated by Lord Recluse�.

Click here to read the full article.

Sounds like fun!