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With the initial wave of discussion following the announcement of City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect beginning to die down, SI Radio pokes the fire with an interview from PAX. In the spotlight is Back Alley Brawler, aka CoX Senior Animator Christopher Bruce. The interview's not all that long, but fortunately interviewer Chris 'Chaotica' Carkner is on the ball and asks pertinent questions.

BaB ends forum speculation by explaining what Pain Domination will entail. This set, the villainous counterpart of the heroes' Empathy, is being tailored specifically in order to offer parallel benefits in zone PvP to what Empathy offers. It has long been a complaint of villains that they don't have anything comparable to Empathy's buffs when fighting in the level 20-30 PvP zone Siren's Call. Since it's received wisdom in some quarters that the developers not only hate PvP but hate Villains, we wonder what impact this latest announcement will have.

At PAX08, we were able to catch up with NCsoft's Dane Caruthers, the Associate Producer for Tabula Rasa, for a quick interview. While the TR booth was busy and Caruthers was swamped with showing attendees all about the sci-fi MMO, he was kind enough to answer a few questions.

With Deployment 12 now on the Public Test Server, Caruthers talks a bit about what to expect with Deployment 13 and how it should make many Tabula Rasa players very happy. He also goes on to explain a bit about the recent contests they've been holding, including an explanation of Operation Immortality. Plus, Caruthers talks candidly about Tabula Rasa's beta through to its launch, and despite the fact that he says it was "quite possibly the smoothest MMO launch in history", they realize the mistakes that were made and are confident that the product they have to offer currently will win back those who tried the game and have since left.

Check out a transcript of the entire interview after the cut.

During our time at PAX08 this year, we got together with Jon Radoff, Founder and CEO of GamerDNA, a company that focuses on the community aspect of today's online games. Radoff was kind enough to give us an overview of what the company is about and how it pertains to the ever-growing MMO market. Originally this rough audio was meant for notes only, but it came out fairly well, so we thought we'd go ahead and post it for all to hear themselves.

So in this audio interview that you'll find enclosed below, Radoff explains something that we found quite peculiar. "Interestingly, a high percentage of those people who quit Age of Conan didn't go back to WoW, they actually just went off MMORPGs in general," he explains. This is the type of number-crunching that they do at GamerDNA to discover not only subscription numbers and box sales, but who is actually playing what, and how dedicated they are to their games. We encourage you to learn more about this truly unique company at their website, and be sure to listen to the complete interview below.

Gaming site Strategy Informer recently spoke with CCP Games about what the future may hold for EVE Online. The interview focused on two facets of the game: EVE's economy, and the fact that with other sci-fi MMO titles like Jumpgate Evolution on the way, EVE may face increased competition in the coming months and years.

CCP's Lead Economist, Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson talked with Strategy Informer about the game's economic depth, which dwarfs other titles, despite having a subscriber base that's a fraction of what Blizzard enjoys. The interview touched on the possibilities of new trade hubs being established by players over time, the scarcity of certain technologies and their increasing prices, and how the market moves in general. However, the main aspects of the game he discussed were the player-run financial services that have sprung up in EVE, what the community has come up with on its own.

Twin Skies is a brand new MMO still in development from Meteor Games, which is fronted by two of the co-founders of the wildly-successful Neopets. Despite the fact that Twin Skies is still in its early stages, their presence at PAX08 seemed to be well-received by gamers. This was the first public showing of the MMO that was only first announced a month ago from a company that was introduced to us only two months ago!

So we took this opportunity to sit down with the CEO Adam Powell and Lead Designer Aaron Matthew for a bit of an exclusive look at what this game is all about. Despite the fact that the surrounding PAX booths were competing for attention all around us, we were able to get some great information on this upcoming game.

Follow along on our exclusive tour of Twin Skies>>

This weekend at PAX 2008, Massively had the opportunity to be a part of the first-ever public preview of Mines of Moria with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel. During this showing, Steefel showed us many of the main features of this first expansion for LotRO, including the Legendary Weapon system, the two new classes, the vastness of the mines themselves and much more.

The overall impression we got from this presentation was that this expansion is going to be epic. Just the sheer size of the world, which includes the mines themselves, more of Eregion and into Lothlorien, will be immense. This, combined with the game mechanic changes and additions to just about every aspect of gameplay, will speak volumes (pun!) about the potential of Turbine with this franchise.

Follow along on our journey through Moria>>

Frank Pearce, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, sat down with GamesIndustry.biz for an interview during Games Convention a few weeks ago. He had a number of interesting things to say, with the piece's discussion ranging from StarCraft II's progress to the challenges of jugglng three successful franchises. In a comment that World of Warcraft players might be particuarly interested to hear, Pearce describes the success of their incredibly popular MMO as 'exhausting' more than anything else.

If you've ever wondered why there aren't more patches, more often, to World of Warcraft, Pearce answers your mental query: "We've got almost 3000 employees worldwide now, and the majority of that growth is due to the success of World of Warcraft. As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin - because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content. That development team is 130 people, they're working on content patches, they're working on an expansion set, they've got their hands full - and then we've got the other development teams that we need to continue to support as well." Be sure to read the full interview for more on Pearce's view of their runaway mega giant.

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	One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John, speaking with head of Mythic Entertainment Mark Jacobs, has been exploring a line of questioning about the MMO industry in general. They noted the high failure rate for the genre, and the equally high expectations that are now placed on new games by fans and industry commentators. Jacobs offered up, as part of this discussion, some analysis on why Hellgate: London didn't make it, and why Funcom's Age of Conan has been having so many problems over their long first summer of launch. Of Hellgate, Jacobs noted that it's not sufficient simply to have really talented people on the team. That's a straightforward process. In addition to that, "sometimes just having talent is not enough. You need leadership and you need patience. And what's most important - something that so many developers forget - is you also need to deflate the ego a little bit."

About Conan, which the site categorizes as 'failing to deliver on promises to players, Jacobs states that he actually really wanted the game to succeed. Now, with a summer of frustrations and player unrest behind them, he thinks they're in a tight spot. Ultimately, he just wants someone to show the world that MMOs don't have to be World of Warcraft to succeed. As for Mythic, "If we don't succeed with EA behind us, the 'Warhammer' IP behind us, with one of the most experienced teams in the industry, that's not going to be good for the industry. We need to show the world that it's not just Blizzard who can make a great game, and that the audience is absolutely willing to try new things and to play a game other than 'WoW."

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

After speaking with John Layman at PAX08, our second Champions Online interview was with content lead Zeke Sparkes. We talked sound effects, travel powers, character creation, controls and zone creation among other things. In fact, we actually got a short period of hands-on time with the game prior to the interview.

So far, Champions Online had only been playable with the Xbox 360 controller, but we were able to finally try the keyboard and mouse controls at PAX. Instead of hitting a face button on the Xbox controller to do your basic attack, you tap an assigned number-key on your keyboard. As you do this, you build up energy and can move through the rest of the powers, which for us were set to the rest of the numbered keys. Overall, the keyboard and mouse controls feel tight and responsive for a game scheduled to launch in Spring of 2009.

The MMO industry is a battle with many weapons, and words are as powerful as code or quests in this field. Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel fired another salvo in a recent interview with Eurogamer, saying that he sees the company's Lord of the Rings Online as the next big mass-market MMO success story. Tie-ins with the upcoming Hobbit movie, the company's aggressive patching schedule, and the Mines of Moria expansion all have the game poised, Steefel thinks, for blowout popularity.

In that lengthy discussion with Eurogamer, Steefel also hinted at big changes coming to LotRO that might help with that blowout. The executive producer heavily hinted that their in-development console title is a console version of LotRO, which could be a big win for the MMO. He also intimated that the company's $14.99 subscription fee may be on the way out, with an alternative business model stepping in to take its place. Check out the full interview for all the juicy details!

Split Infinity Radio, a gamer-run internet radio station (with a noticeable sci-fi MMO bent) recently interviewed Scott Holden, Lead Content Creator of EVE Online at Gen Con 2008. Holden has been integral in building up all the mission content that's about to drop in the upcoming Empyrean Age expansions over the next few months. Split Infinity asks Holden a question that's been on the minds of a number of EVE players: Can player actions really influence the storyline?

Holden's answer is 'yes'... to a point. He discusses the initiative at CCP to create a system where events are announced in contested parts of space, prompting players to get involved. Their actions would be reported on through the in-game news, and in this way affects (or creates aspects of) the storyline. Participants in factional warfare, or anyone who reads the Interstellar Correspondents news pieces, know that this already exists to some extent in EVE, but Holden states that CCP would like to take the idea further as time goes on.

G4TV interviewed Publishing Producer Michael Rowland about Jumpgate Evolution at PAX this weekend. You can watch the video of the interview right now. Mixed in with the questions and answers are a lot of gameplay video clips.

The clips are the most attractive part of the video, but the interview is helpful too. Rowland suggested that the combat has a "more FPS feel" than the "turn-based" combat of other MMOs. He also said that players will be able to level up just by engaging in PvP with opposing factions. There will be three factions in all when the game launches next Spring.

Most of that information can be found at the Jumpgate Evolution website, but check out the video for the gameplay clips. Just try not to be too annoyed by Adam Sessler. Of course the game was actually playable on the floor at PAX. Bet you're sad you missed out on that!

Stargate Worlds France conducted a very substantial interview with Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/Firesky Studio Head Dan Elggren at the Games Convention in Leipzig. We say it's substantial because it includes a few new revelations about the game.

The most notable of those revelations: CME/Firesky will be raising the game's level cap (50 at launch) by two levels every three months to coincide with new content updates and episodes. The second most interesting tidbit is about teams. Teams are a social unit smaller than commands (guilds); think of them as persistently existing and organized groups/parties. Anyway, the big news about teams is that players will be able to name their regular groups. Cool!

Other topics included various Stargate inside jokes, Elggren plugging the gas-guzzling Hummer promotion, and some stuff about the Asgard, Archaeologist, Jaffa, and Go'auld classes that has already been floating around for a while. Watch the video for all that. Note that most of the video is in French with English subtitles, while the interview itself is in English with French subtitles.

The latest Blizzcast is live! This fifth outing is the post-Worldwide Invitational episode. The bulk of its running time is dedicated to Diablo 3. If you're interested in that pseudo-MMO, action-RPG goodness, then there is a ton of information in there. Diablo 3 Community Manager Bashiok interviews Lead Designer Jay Wilson about the game. It's detailed stuff (e.g., several minutes dedicated to Blizzard's reasons for abandoning the grid-like inventory management of the earlier Diablo games), so Blizzard fans should check it out.

Of course, here at Massively we have a special interest in World of Warcraft. We're sad to report that Blizzcast #5 is a little light on WoW or Wrath of the Lich King discussion. Community Manager Nethaera participates in the first half of the podcast, and she talks a little bit about WotLK, but she mostly shares in the post-Diablo 3 announcement glee.

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	One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!