Filed under: Massively Interviews

Free Realms to introduce new job, pets, player housing and more

by Shawn Schuster Nov 3rd 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, MMO industry, Player Housing, Free-to-play, Casual, Free Realms, Massively Interviews, Kids

The world of Free Realms is about to get a bit bigger this holiday season as even more content is being added and improved for the game. According to Sony Online Entertainment's Creative Director for Free Realms, Laralyn McWilliams, the game is about to see a new job, new job structure, new pets, player housing and more added by mid-December.

We caught up with Laralyn to get a few more details on the upcoming improvements before the first stage of these updates goes live this week. Follow along after the jump for the complete interview, and in our gallery below for some exclusive screenshots of the new content.

Gallery: Free Realms

What do you want to know about Alganon? Ask the CEO!

by Shawn Schuster Nov 3rd 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Massively Interviews, Alganon

After our Alganon Q&A fell flat on its face yesterday, we decided to lick our wounds and proceed with something we've been planning to do for developer interviews anyway: let you ask the questions! We ran the idea by the folks at Quest Online, and they're up to the challenge.

So if you have something you'd like to ask the Alganon developers, send an email to shawn AT massively DOT com by Friday, November 6th at 8am EDT with the subject line "Alganon questions." Questions asked as comments to this post will not be considered. We're going to pull 10 of the best questions from the bunch and toss them at the Quest Online team. We're looking for thought-provoking questions, not just general bashing or praising, so be constructive. Negative or positive, they are ready for what's on your mind.

Once the answers are back, we'll post them on the site as a reader-submitted pre-launch interview. So don't be shy! Get those questions in.

Massively's pre-launch interview with Alganon

by Shawn Schuster Nov 2nd 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Massively Interviews, Alganon

After a newly-announced launch delay, we now have just under a month before Quest Online's Alganon releases to the public. Now in its beta stage, Alganon has enjoyed mixed reviews since the NDA was lifted two weeks ago. We thought we'd take this opportunity to ask some of the questions floating around about this new fantasy MMO, and how it sets itself apart from existing fantasy MMOs.

Quest Online's president and co-founder, David Allen, was kind enough to answer our questions, which include everything from those of PvP content to his thoughts on being compared to World of Warcraft. Keep reading below for the complete interview.

Gallery: Alganon

Massively's Star Trek Online beta interview

by Kyle Horner Oct 31st 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Betas, News items, Star Trek Online, Massively Interviews

With beta now beginning, we shot some relevant questions at Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich, executive producer on Star Trek Online. He gave us his insight on what the team's goals are during beta and what some of their toughest challenges were from their point of view. Plus, we even got him to spill the beans on when Klingons would be entering the fray for beta testers -- hopefully the rest of us get to see and hear more about the warrior race soon thereafter.

It's a short interview, mostly because we kept our questions on topic and well, also because we didn't want to distract Craig from working on his game for very long. Someone's got to work on fulfilling our childhood fantasies!

GameX 2009: Inside Global Agenda's PvE and AvA persistent content battles

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 30th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Video, Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, PvE, MMOFPS, Global Agenda, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

As we've said before, we got to see many, many people at GameX 2009 this year. But one of the main reasons we went to the expo was to catch up once again with the team from Hi-Rez Studios and ask them some more questions on their "spy-fi" MMOFPS, Global Agenda.

On the top of our burning question list was what exactly made Global Agenda into an MMO, so we set out to ask associate producer Michal Adam all about what made their AvA and persistent world battles so special. Along the way, we also inquired as to what their PvE content will hold, and what rewards players could expect to find from participating in Global Agenda: Conquest.

For our full video interview with Michal, look no further than after the break!

GameX 2009: 1.3.2 decision making, streaming client, and unlimited trials for Warhammer Online

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 30th 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

We saw the Warhammer Online booth at GameX, and we wagggggghed ourselves right into a video interview with James Casey and Matt Shaw from Mythic Entertainment that pulled no punches. We wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes with their decision making in patch 1.3.2, shooting James and Matt the hard questions.

Why were fortresses pulled from the endgame? Why choose 1.3.2 for performance fixes and not fix these things earlier? While we interrogated, Matt and James were also happy to tell us about the new stuff for WAR, including the new-user experience added in 1.3.2, the awesome unlimited trial that starts today, and the new streaming client option that trial users will receive.

So for the answers to some burning WAR questions, jump with us after the break and check out our video interview!

GameX 2009: Victorian spaceships with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 28th 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Video, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of the infamous Zero Punctuation reviews on The Escapist is a bit tricky to track down, but we were able to get some time in with him at this year's GameX in Philadelphia.

We pitched the fast talking reviewer some questions to get his opinion on the MMO genre beyond his reviews of Tabula Rasa and EVE Online, and found out some interesting things -- like victorian steampunk spaceships are awesome. So what breaks the MMO genre for Yahtzee? Will more MMOs be smash... er... featured on Zero Punctuation? If you're wondering the answers to these questions, then wonder no more! Just click on through after the break to check out our video interview!

GameX 2009: Massively talks with Lee Hammock on what's next for Fallen Earth

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 28th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Horror, Video, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

Content, community, and epic beards ahead fair readers! When lead game designer Lee Hammock walked into the media room at GameX 2009, we immediately tackled him into a chair and demanded he answer our many questions on what's coming up for Fallen Earth. What we got (after he figured out that we wanted to interview him and not kidnap him) were answers on the upcoming "social" patch for Fallen Earth, a look at the brand new crafting skill, construction, and the camps that will be added to the game, what lies beyond Sector 3 (hint: it's Sector 4) and how much the team loves their community.

So if you're interested in Fallen Earth, or are looking for a reason to get into the game, look no further than the interview that lies beyond the break! Unfortunately though, we must make a slight correction to what Lee says in the interview. Fallen Earth did send us 2,000 trial keys, but thanks to an overwhelming response, we're out of keys! This makes us sad pandas, but you can still enjoy what Lee has to say about the game, and be amazed by the hypnotic beard.

Massively interview with Aion's new community manager

by Kyle Horner Oct 28th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items, Massively Interviews

Aion is easily one of the biggest MMOs of the year, so when a new North American community manager took over recently we decided it was the perfect time for an interview with the new team member, Andrew Beegle -- known as Tamat to community members.

We asked Tamat about new methods of community interaction, the hotly anticipated experience boost patch and even some personal questions about our new community manager. You can never really know enough about the person serving as the conduit to your main MMO -- at least that's what we tell them!

Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2

by Kyle Horner Oct 28th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Massively Interviews

GameX 2009: Video interview with Nathan Richardsson and "Alli" Óttarsson

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 27th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

After their panel at GameX 2009 (and some free lunch) we got to sit down with "Alli" Ottarsson and Nathan Richardsson from EVE Online and talk shop about the future of the game. Where are we going directly after the Dominion expansion releases this year? What other product tie-ins can we expect from the White Wolf end of the company? And what's Neocom all about anyway?

Nathan and Alli were happy to take our questions and give some direct responses on what they hope to tackle in Neocom, how EVE's model is multiple game models, and what we might see take place in the highly-anticipated Incarna in regards to gambling and missions.

To check our exclusive video interview, jump after the break with the "continue reading" button below!

Massively Exclusive: Fallen Earth dev event transcript (and another party!)

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 27th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fallen Earth, Events, in-game, Interviews, New titles, Massively meta, Massively Interviews

This weekend we had the chance to hang out with a bunch of rough-and-tumble types in the wastelands of Fallen Earth. No, we weren't just doing our typical weekend gaming! We were lucky enough to get to spend some time in-game, hanging out with Marie "Arosei" Croall, Content Team Lead for Fallen Earth. During the evening, we asked her some of the great player submitted questions we solicited last week. She also tossed out a couple of interesting asides to the huge crowd that amassed to take part in the event - and to get some of the free goodies we were handing out!

For those of you who may not have been able to make it - or would just like to check it out without all the cross-chatter - we've transcribed the interview (and some interesting asides) behind the break. Also, remember that we have another Massively Fallen Earth event happening this Wednesday night at the Embry Satellite, starting at 9:00 PM Eastern. This time our very own Shawn Schuster will be dropping by to hold a Massively Reader Meet-up, with - you guessed it - more free stuff, and a special Halloween-themed show on Post Apoc Radio.

GameX 2009: Massively.com talks with The Guild

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 26th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Video, Culture, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

GameX 2009 was insane this weekend and we were all over the place, but one of the first groups that we set a chunk of time aside for was Jeff Lewis (Vork), Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), and Robin Thorsen (Clara) from The Guild. We weren't missing out on catching up with those three.

The interview that ensued answered some of the important questions in life, like how many MMO real life experiences get moved into The Guild's script, what it was like to work with Wil Wheaton and Jed Whedon, and is that a real Sandeep Parikh Backflip (TM) in the "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" music video?

If you're curious to these answers and more, then you should click that button below and continue reading after the break. We have an exclusive video interview for you!

Massively's interview with Atlus Online

by Shawn Schuster Oct 6th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Interviews, Lore, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Massively Interviews, Neo Steam

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Jeffrey Hong, marketing coordinator for Atlus Online and Neo Steam. It's been awhile since we were able to talk one-on-one with the steampunk MMO developer, so we decided to ask a few questions about the game's current progression, the often-overlooked deep lore and the recent addition of 100 new games to Atlus Online's portal.

So if you're a Neo Steam fan, or just curious about the game, keep reading after the jump for our complete interview with Atlus Online.

Champions Online's Bill Roper talks retcons, powers and more

by Kyle Horner Sep 21st 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Massively Interviews, Champions Online

We've been having a lot of fun with Champions Online here at Massively, but with the launch of any MMO there are always questions of how current issues will be handled and what's coming in the near future. So, we spoke with the game's Design Director Bill Roper on several subjects ranging from powers balancing to the upcoming free content update Blood Moon and the reinforcement system.