Filed under: Interviews

GDC10: ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu discusses the art of Guild Wars 2

by Rubi Bayer Mar 16th 2010 at 11:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, News items, Guild Wars 2

Daniel Dociu, Senior Art Director for Guild Wars 2, was one of the panelists at last week's GDC, and Massively was fortunate enough to sit down and chat with him about the art coming up in Guild Wars 2. The information on this highly-anticipated game is starting to increase bit by bit, and Daniel had some interesting things to say about designing art for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. As a bonus feature, we've got a video slideshow of some of the gorgeous concept art featured at his panel at GDC. Keep your eyes peeled -- you might just see something you've not seen before. (Check Youtube for the HD version as well.) Follow along after the jump, and enjoy!

GDC10: Erebus hands-on impressions

by Jef Reahard Mar 16th 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Hands-on

This year's Game Developer's Conference featured a ton of free-to-play titles, and one of the most intriguing was Erebus: Travia Reborn, a classically inspired dungeon crawler with retro graphics and a distinctive Diablo-esque feel. We sat down for a hands-on demo with the developers from Outspark and came away enthused about trying the full version of the game when it releases later this year.

This free-to-play MMORPG, as its subtitle suggests, is inspired by the Korean game known as Travia, but has been heavily modified for western audiences. "We've updated the graphics, changed game play, added in faction warfare, new classes and skills, and rebalanced the game, making a ton of changes. Erebus is a really unique dungeon crawler for North American and European audiences," said the Outspark team.

Hit the jump for our impressions as well as the teaser trailer.

GDC10: Our chat with Echo Bazaar's Alexis Kennedy

by Beau Hindman Mar 16th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Interviews, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual

We caught up with Echo Bazaars's Alexis Kennedy to ask him about the wildly successful Facebook style game. It's hard to describe, easy to pick up and addictive to play. Picture an underground city populated by murderers, spies and all types of shady characters, add in a unique story and Twitter functionality and you wind up with this little gem.

"It's more of a single player experience than I'd like." said Alexis, who is the Chief Narrative Officer for the game. "We are always looking at ways to make it more social, we want to give more direct ways to interact with other people. I want to get as much variety in there as possible. But it's finding the right balance of making somebody's experience unique to them without going crazy trying to cater at every possible stage." But how to combat a player feeling as though his or her experience is devalued by seeing the same thing come up in their friend's streams? "The way to deal with that, really, is just to write more content."

GDC10: Torfi Frans Olafsson gives details on Tyrannis, Incarna and more

by Brendan Drain Mar 14th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Professions, PvE

For the last few weeks, EVE Online players have been getting excited about the up-coming Tyrannis expansion with its Planetary Interaction feature. We received our first taste of what Tyrannis will hold last month when the expansion was announced and since then we've speculated on how its planetary interaction feature might work. Although CCP haven't answered our interview questions on Tyrannis yet, we caught up with EVE Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson at GDC 2010 to get the inside scoop. Torfi was keen to point out that a lot of what CCP are doing in Tyrannis is laying the foundation for future updates and expansions. He calls Tyrannis "a stepping stone toward something even bigger."

In addition to providing some inside info on the upcoming Tyrannis and Incarna expansions, Torfi revealed that there are more people working on EVE today than ever before. In contrast to MMOs that cut down their development team sizes once the game is out, CCP's ranks have been increasing at a huge rate in recent years. The ever-increasing revenue generated by EVE subscribers allows them to fund a large development team dedicated to making the game better for EVE players. "We've never had as many subscribers as we have today", says Torfi, "330,000 subscribers, like actual paying subscribers, not counting trials." It's thanks to all those subscribers that CCP are beginning to realise dreams they were never able to achieve when the game was less popular.

Skip past the cut to see what Torfi Frans Olafsson had to say about Tyrannis, Incarna and more.

GDC10: gPotato talks PvP and open beta for Aika

by Rubi Bayer Mar 13th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Interviews, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Aika

Aika, the upcoming free-to-play game from gPotato, is one that's been attracting quite a bit of attention lately at Massively. The free-to-play MMO arena is rapidly losing the stigma of shallow, uninteresting games, and Aika is shaping up to be a perfect example of that. Innovative features such as the Pran -- the fairy familiar that is proving to be one of the most popular parts of the game -- and an intricate PvP system have given Aika a solid seat in the "one to watch" category.

We recently took a look at Aika in First Impressions, and enjoyed a talk with Community Manager Christina Kelly during Aika's second round of closed beta testing. Now the game is on the verge of open beta (which will bring some fun new features to the game), and the Aika team was very busy at GDC this week, but Christina found some time to sit down and chat with us again.

Follow along after the jump as we delve into the PvP and politics of Aika, as well as what we have to look forward to in open beta and launch.

GDC10: Massively's day 4 roundup

by Jef Reahard Mar 13th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Video, Aion, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, Champions Online, DC Universe Online, Black Prophecy, Vindictus

Day four of the Game Developer's Conference is in the books, and was one for the books as well. Massively managed to score a number of interviews, hands-on features, and we even got our mug in front of the cameras at one point during all the craziness. As you're aware by now, there is still much more to come from our trip to San Francisco, so take this opportunity to catch up on any stories you may have missed.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for our final day coverage as well as a wrap up of all our favorites from the show.

GDC10: Massively's interview with DC Universe Online

by Rubi Bayer Mar 12th 2010 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Interviews, New titles, DC Universe Online

GDC continues in San Francisco this week, and today we were fortunate enough to get some time with Michael Daubert, the Studio Art Director for Sony Online Entertainment. We chatted about upcoming MMO DC Universe Online, and Daubert had some pretty interesting things to say about the game. Follow along after the jump to see what's in store for DC Universe Online.

GDC10: NCSoft speaks out on Aion 1.9

by Jef Reahard Mar 12th 2010 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, News items

We've covered a lot of newly released (and as yet unreleased) games this week at GDC 2010, so it's always good to check in with an MMORPG that's been around for awhile to see what's coming down the pipe. Today we caught up with NCSoft's Andrew 'Tamat' Beegle, North American Community Manager for Aion, and asked him all sorts of questions about Aion's big 1.9 patch.

The update, already live on the game's Korean servers, will be coming to the States and Europe in short order, so read along after the jump to get a taste of what NCSoft has in store for it's loyal Daevas.

GDC10: Massively's interview with Dungeons and Dragons Online, part 1

by Rubi Bayer Mar 12th 2010 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Business models, Interviews, Free-to-play

Nine short months ago, Dungeons and Dragons Online was "the forgotten MMO": "a game that really doesn't jump to the forefront of the MMO market, but stays quietly in the background, chugging away with a loyal fanbase and consistent content updates." The timing of that story on Massively was uncanny, because ten days later Turbine dropped the news on the gaming community that Dungeons and Dragons Online was going free-to-play. Opinion on the decision was sharply divided, with many players saying they'd take a look at the game and a small but vocal minority declaring this to be the death knell of DDO.

Today, the numbers speak for themselves. Their revenue is up 500%, they've had over one million new players, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who would refer to the game as "forgotten." Turbine has arguably set the standard for a hybrid free-to-play business model, and it's paid off very well. However, it wasn't always a sure thing and it certainly wasn't a snap decision. Follow along after the jump for our interview with Executive Producer Fernando Paiz at GDC as he explores the thoughts behind the business model and where it's taken Turbine.

GDC10: Massively's day 3 roundup

by Jef Reahard Mar 12th 2010 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play

We're back with the latest edition of our GDC10 roundup. Yesterday was another big day in the world of MMORPG news, and Massively staffers were working overtime to bring you fresh scoops on the latest projects from your favorite developers. As always, there's a lot more to come as the Game Developer's Conference rolls on, but take a moment to check out these stories you may have missed.

Stick around as we're gearing up to bring you interviews with Bioware, En Masse, Gamigo, and The Secret World's Ragnar Tornquist later in the week.

GDC10: Massively's interview with Virtual Fairground

by Rubi Bayer Mar 11th 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Interviews, News items, Virtual worlds, Kids

The idea of virtual worlds and MMOs based on established brands is not a new one, and Virtual Fairground is a company that's been in the market for a bit. They've had the time to fine tune the concept and find exactly what they want to offer their audience. We spent some time with Maarten Brands and Ilja Goossens of Virtual Fairground at GDC this week and heard all about what the company is working on and what their goals are.

Follow along after the jump to see what they had to say.

GDC10: R.A. Salvatore talks Copernicus

by Jef Reahard Mar 11th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items

One of the great joys of game journalism is the opportunity to talk with a large cross-section of creative minds, all of whom share a passion for the art form. It's even more fun when you get to talk to something of a living legend, as Massively did today when we had the chance to interview multi-million selling author R.A. Salvatore at GDC 2010.

For the three of you who've been living under a rock since the late 1980s, Salvatore is the creative force behind 22 New York Times bestsellers, including the The DemonWars Saga, Star Wars: The New Jedi Order - Vector Prime, and the Dark Elf series, whose protagonist Drizzt Do'Urden is one of the more celebrated fantasy characters in the genre's history.

We sat down to talk with Salvatore about his role at 38 Studios, and how he's bringing his unique storytelling abilities to their top secret Copernicus project, an MMORPG sharing the same universe as the Project Mercury single-player RPG announced yesterday at the Game Developer's Conference. Hit the jump below for the full interview.

GDC10: An in-depth look at Battlestar Galactica Online

by Rubi Bayer Mar 10th 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Interviews, New titles, News items, Massively Interviews, Battlestar Galactica Online

Yesterday at GDC, Bigpoint announced their upcoming Battlestar Galactica MMO. Today, we had the opportunity to speak with Jan Wergin, the Chief Technology Officer from Bigpoint for a closer look at the game.

The initial announcement was met with a bit of apprehension from fans -- they love the IP but aren't sure how well it will translate into an MMO, particularly a browser-based MMO. Follow along after the jump as we take a look at that and much more in our interview with Bigpoint.

Earthrise's Atanas Atanasov on grinding and more

by Jef Reahard Mar 10th 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Earthrise

German fan site Onlinewelten.com managed to snag an interview with Masthead Studios boss Atanas Atanasov regarding the forthcoming science fiction MMORPG known as Earthrise.

Information on Masthead's post-apocalyptic sci-fi title is hard to come by, and we're always happy to see additional details come to light. The lengthy interview touches on everything from the player-controlled economy, to combat and exploration modes, to grinding.

"Grinding has its advantages and disadvantages," says Atanasov. "Its disadvantages are well known and boil down to repetitiveness that can dumb down a game when left out of control. In Earthrise grinding will be possible, as collecting resources and components from mobs will bring organic material needed for many technologies. Still, it will not dictate that the players must spend time grinding if they don't want to."

Hit the link to read the full interview.

GDC10: Massively's day 1 roundup

by Jef Reahard Mar 10th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, Fallen Earth, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Sword of the New World, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, MMORTS, DC Universe Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Taikodom

Massively staffers descended on GDC 2010 yesterday like a horde of....well, Horde. Our intrepid reporters are slaving away with microphones, tape recorders, and keyboards in hand to make sure you get all the latest MMORPG tidbits directly from the folks making the games.

We'll be bringing you a ton of content over the next few days, so fear not if your favorite forthcoming game hasn't received the red carpet treatment. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled throughout the remainder of the week, and in case you missed it, here's a brief rundown of yesterday's coverage.

Can't get enough of our GDC 2010 coverage? Check out our Sword of the New World GDC 2010 gallery below, and be sure to return throughout the week as we continue to bring you all the latest on your favorite games and developers.

Gallery: GDC10: Sword of the New World