James Egan
Shanghai, China - http://www.massively.com/bloggers/james-egan
James has been wandering the earth and lost in Asia for some time now. But somewhere along the way, he re-discovered his love for gaming. His home is wherever his laptop is and- more often than not- it’s running iTunes and EVE Online. He is a huge fan of comics, animation, and all things sci-fi. In those respects, he’s not so different from how he was at age 14... and he's quite proud of that.
He can be reached at james AT massively DOT com.
by James Egan 
Feb 1st 2010 (8 days ago)
Massively has been following the development of the sci-fi MMO
Black Prophecy very closely, and was pleased that the title's developer
Reakktor Media wanted to do a series of focused Q&As with us on several aspects of the game. Our last such Q&A
started at the beginning with character creation, but in our second installment of the
Black Prophecy interview series we discussed the game's mission design. To that end, we posed some questions to Lorenz Dames, the Lead Game Designer on
Black Prophecy.
Lorenz explained a great deal about how
Reakktor is approaching solo content vs. group-oriented gameplay. He also told us how Reakktor Media is merging the completion of mission objectives with dogfighting your fellow players through PvP missions, where other players will try to counter your efforts to complete goals. Our interview should provide
Black Prophecy fans with a solid overview of the game's mission design, which will be an essential aspect of the sci-fi MMO's gameplay.
by James Egan Jan 31st 2010 (9 days ago)
The latest info about the sci-fi MMO
Black Prophecy, currently in development at
Reakktor Media, comes in the form of a
series of dev blogs from the game's Technical Director, Cyrus Preuss. As with his two previous blogs, Cyrus gets down into the nuts and bolts of how the game's physics work, which may be of interest to those who'd like to know more about the underlying systems that will govern
Black Prophecy's space combat.
His rather technical dev blog is all about interaction with the physics engine. It especially deals with balancing the realism that some players want with the need to throw aspects of that realism to the wind, in favor of
game mechanics that are simply more fun. He also discusses how the physics engine will relate to space stations, capital ships, and weapon physics.
Black Prophecy fans interested in this kind of a look at the game can read all about it in "
Interaction with the Physics Engine" on the game's official site.
by James Egan Jan 31st 2010 (9 days ago)
Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London is one of those games that has really divided opinion from our readers. Some brand it as a deeply-flawed game, or were burned by that costly Founder's lifetime subscription when the game shut down after a rather short life. Others -- like some of us on the Massively staff -- truly miss the game's blend of horror and sci-fi elements and have been hoping that
Hellgate: London would one day return in some form or another.
Although the
future of the game has been murky, the most recent (and most straightforward) announcement is that
Hellgate: London is slated to return to Western shores.
HanbitSoft has secured the worldwide publishing rights to the game from Namco-Bandai, so now it's just a matter of time before it returns. We're interested to hear what you think about this. Would you welcome the return of
Hellgate: London? For that matter, how would you feel about playing the game in its current free-to-play incarnation,
Hellgate: Resurrection?
by James Egan Jan 30th 2010 (9 days ago)
MAG is a PlayStation 3-exclusive
MMOFPS title we've been keeping our eyes on at Massively.
The inevitable debate aside about whether
Zipper Interactive's title is an MMO or not -- yes, tanks and guns replace dragons and magic spells -- the game accommodates up to 256 players in a zone at a time. The idea of FPS gameplay with that many people at such a high degree of graphical detail is pretty mind-boggling, and it's something
we've explored a bit in the MAG beta. Our parent site
Joystiq recently sat down with the game now that it's officially launched and wrote a short
MAG review.
Joystiq's Griffin McElroy gives a brief overview of
MAG's gameplay and his assessment of the title's merits and flaws. That idea of 128 players per side doesn't mean you'll all be charging towards your opponents in one awesome wave, he notes. Rather, you'll typically be interacting with your fellow soldiers on a squad level (4-8 people) to achieve objectives, with multiple squads comprising platoons, and four such platoons forming an army.
by James Egan Jan 29th 2010 (10 days ago)
EVE
CCP
The
EVE Online-focused
Planet Risk Show returned this week after a planned holiday hiatus. For those who've never heard of Planet Risk, it's a live weekly
Split Infinity Radio program that's also released as a podcast. Planet Risk differs from most
EVE podcasts in that it's largely focused on wormhole colonization, which only became possible after the
Apocrypha expansion was released, allowing players to pull back the curtain of known space and head into uncharted expanses. Hosts Luminus Aardokay and Quivering Palm spend most of their
EVE time in wormhole space, so they're fast becoming experts on the subject. Indeed, they
broadcast The Planet Risk Show from within their colonized wormhole system, which is a rather unique one in the game.
Their home is one of the most
hostile types of wormholes in New Eden -- a Class 6 -- where the Sleeper NPCs are especially deadly. The
ship setups and tactics used against the Sleepers in such a solar system differ greatly from how it's done in lower class wormholes. They explain some of the tricks that allow them to overcome the Sleepers in their Class 6 wormhole this week in
Episode 13 -- right around the 1 hour 11 second mark. It's a good listen, particularly as there isn't a great deal of information available on such high level encounters in the game.
by James Egan Jan 29th 2010 (10 days ago)
MAG's official launch was
only a few days ago, but developer
Zipper Interactive is already explaining some of the benefits to having a high level character in the MMOFPS. Players who hit the level cap of 60 can enable "Veteran Mode", which
Zipper Interactive has mentioned
in the past. Now, they've clarified what exactly the advantages to doing so are in a blog post -- essentially it's an incentive to reroll once you've maxed out your character, and experience more of the game.
If you're looking to try something new, you'll be able to keep your past accomplishments (medals, ribbons, and related stats) when you reset your character to level 1. Even though your experience counter resets to zero, your lifetime experience will show everything you've ever earned -- a permanent record viewable on the stats page of your barracks. Players after trophies for hitting max level in all private military companies (PMCs) in
MAG will want to take advantage of Veteran Mode and the experience boost it imparts. Veteran Mode gives players a permanent 10% bonus added to the experience total for each match, provided that players sticks through the entire round. Other players can easily recognize a Veteran by the gold insignia displayed beneath that character's rank. While we suspect it'll be a while before most players hit that level cap, Zipper Interactive
detailed MAG's Veteran Mode on the game's official blog.
by James Egan Jan 29th 2010 (10 days ago)
EVE
CCP
The devastating January 12 earthquake which struck the Republic of Haiti claimed many lives, and has left even more people homeless. It's a terrible situation, but at the very least there are numerous aid efforts underway, and
some companies in the MMO industry are finding ways to help as well.
CCP Games now ranks among them, with their
PLEX Aid for Haiti initiative. The company is offering a way for the
EVE Online playerbase to get involved and
help with donations.
Here is the message from Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, in its entirety:
by James Egan Jan 28th 2010 (11 days ago)
Fans of the upcoming urban crime game
All Points Bulletin may have noticed there's been a bit of a hiatus with the video podcasts that
Realtime Worlds has been releasing. (Although Massively did have a
good interview with Chris Collins and EJ Moreland about APB this week.) The
APB video podcasts are back for 2010 now, though, and Collins has announced that the next few will focus on the game's audio features. They're beginning the series by showing fans the game's music editor, demonstrated by Stuart Ross,
All Points Bulletin's Senior Sound Designer.
These in-game audio tools in the Music Studio will allow players to create "death themes" -- very short sound clips that play when you take out another player -- or even create loops and tracks from scratch using software instruments. While the tools look fairly comprehensive, there are simple preset themes for those not familiar with audio tools. Even better, player-created themes and songs are fully tradeable. Players will be able to place their tracks on market for other Criminals or Enforcers to purchase. Stick with us after the jump for a video embed of the
All Points Bulletin podcast episode 16:
The Music Editor.
by James Egan Jan 28th 2010 (12 days ago)
EVE
CCP
Our friend and
EVE Online fanatic
CrazyKinux periodically runs an
EVE Blog Banter, where the growing number of bloggers focused on the sci-fi MMO tackle discussion topics. The end result is usually some well thought-out commentary or lively debate about an aspect of the game experience. His latest Blog Banter has a different twist; it's actually a contest where the top ten winners can score merchandise from the
official EVE Store. (The prizes: $100 worth for first place, $50 for second place, $25 for third and fourth, fifth through tenth place winners will each get 14 days of
EVE time.)
Entering is pretty simple. CrazyKinux asks:
"What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see continuous growth in its subscribers? To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online
so much?" Answer this question on your own blog while linking back to
CK's contest post in your intro, then let him know about it in his contest post's comments. Be sure to check out the contest rules first, but you've got until January 31st to enter. Winners will be announced on February 5th; the contest will be judged on the merits of quality, structure, approach, and originality.
So there you go -- if you're an
EVE Online player and a decent writer as well, this could be easy money for you. Good luck to any Massively readers who decide to go for it.
