carbine posts

Fallout's Tim Cain promoted for unnamed Carbine MMO

by Shawn Schuster Oct 7th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Real life, MMO industry, Rumors

NCsoft's Carbine Studios has just announced the promotion of Tim Cain from programming director to design director for an unannounced project that is in the works. Tim Cain, for anyone keeping score at home, is the former producer and designer for Fallout and Fallout 2, and has been with Carbine Studios since its inception in 2005. Before you get too excited about Carbine's MMO project being a Fallout-themed MMO, that has already been claimed by Interplay.

So what does this promotion really mean for Cain? Our friends at Joystiq pondered this very question and asked Cain to clarify: "As the programming director, I was responsible for trying to realize the ideas of the design director. I would take his requests for features and system specifications and coordinate my team of programmers to create those features and systems. If game development was a train, I was shoveling the coal into the engine to keep it chugging along. Now as the design director, I am the conductor of the train. I get to decide where we go and where we stop."

We wish Cain the best of luck in his new position as we anxiously await more information on this new project.

Tags: carbine, carbine-studios, fallout, interplay, nc-west, ncsoft, tim-cain

Massively's E3 Week Prediction Bingo

by Michael Zenke Jul 12th 2008 at 2:30PM

Filed under: At a glance, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor


AoC is Huge!	Firefly MMO News	No BioWare MMO News	MMOs the Future of PC Gaming	Red 5 Announces Their Game
Consoles are the Future of MMOs	"We're not after WoW Numbers"	Animal Crossing: the MMO	Free Realms Info	Microtransactions - Future of MMOs
Guild Wars 2 Info	Cryptic's Star Trek Online	Free Space	The Agency Info	Secret World Info
DirectX 10 Compatible!	Social Tools the Future of MMOs	Champions Online Info	APB Info	DCUO Info
Free to Play the Future of MMOs	Valve MMO Announced	38's Copernicus Unveiled	Carbine's Game Announced	Turbine's Next Project

Every year it's customary to roll out predictions on what will and won't show up at the current year's E3 event. With Massively heading in the direction of the LA Convention Center already, we thought it might be fun to offer up some likely (and highly unlikely) predictions of what might get talked about next week. In reality, this is sort of a "future of the MMO industry list" as everything on here is more-or-less a current or upcoming trend. The only question is whether any given item will get discussed next week.

Each of those nice images is a link, which will take you into our E3 Predictions Gallery. Don't know who Carbine or Red 5 are? Not sure about Copernicus? If you don't understand one of our bingo squares, be sure to dig down and find out what all the fuss is about. We'll be bringing you all the MMO dirt you can stand next week, so hopefully this will tide you over until then. Enjoy!

Gallery: Massively's E3 2008 Bingo

Tags: age-of-conan, all-points-bulletin, animal-crossing, apb, bioware, carbine, champions-online, consoles, copernicus, dc-universe-online, directx-10, e3, e3-2008, e3-bingo, e308, featured, free-realms, free-to-play, guild-wars-2, joystiqfeatures, massively, microtransactions, predictions, red-5, secret-world, social-networking, star-trek-online, the-agency, turbine, valve, world-of-warcraft

The top 20 most influential people in the MMO industry

by Shawn Schuster May 29th 2008 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Real life, Events, real-world, MMO industry

If you've ever searched the web for a comprehensive list of the biggest and the best in the MMO industry, Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine has done it for you in a recent article entitled "Top 20 Influential People in Massively Multiplayer Video Games of 2007". The top half of this list should reveal no surprises for you, including such industry celebs as John Smedley, Scott Hartsman, Raph Koster and number one on the list: Rob Pardo. But the bottom half of the list may contain a few names you don't yet recognize. Interestingly enough, NCsoft makes an appearance four times on this list with James Phinney of ArenaNet, Richard Garriott and Starr Long of Destination Games and Jess LeBow of Carbine Studios.

This list highlights the most talented people in the industry and how they've influenced the future of MMOs, as determined by Beckett. You can find more details on each of their stories in the printed issue itself (Issue #13 for July-August) which hit newsstands on May 28th.

Tags: acclaim, areae, arenanet, beckett, blizzard, carbine, ccp, cryptic-studios, ea-mythic, linden-lab, ncsoft, nexon-america, soe, square-enix, sulake, top-20, turbine, vivox

Massively's chat with Jess Lebow of Carbine Studios

by Michael Zenke May 27th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Guild Wars, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Culture, MMO industry, Massively Interviews

You may not be familiar with Carbine Studios, the new home of games industry veteran Jess Lebow. That's not too surprising as Carbine is still in stealth mode, working furiously on a project that we couldn't touch on at all in a recent discussion with the company's Lead Quest Designer. Mr. Lebow has had a storied past in the industry, just the same, and our discussion touched on a number of different issues.

Join us as we quiz Jess Lebow on his work with Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast, reflect on his time sailing with Flying Lab, and look ahead to what the future of the industry might hold. Plus, for Guild Wars fans, a few insights into what the granddaddy of the setting thinks about how his offspring is doing nowadays.

Tags: carbine, carbine-studios, featured, guild-wars, gw, jess-lebow, joystiqfeatures, pirates-of-the-burning-sea, potbs, wizards-of-the-coast, wotc

The Digital Continuum: Star Wars mystery developer

by Kyle Horner Feb 16th 2008 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Opinion, The Digital Continuum, Rumors

In the last couple of weeks, a lot has changed in the future outlook for upcoming massively games over the next few years. Marvel Universe Online is officially canceled, but in its place rises Champions Online like a shining beacon for fans of the superhero MMO -- although there is always the chance that Marvel could continue to pursue MUO with another developer.

However, the change I'm most curious about involves the Star Wars IP, which according to rumors is definitely being developed, but not by Sony Online Entertainment or Bioware. If true, that changes a lot of things. It partly changes Bioware's upcoming massively game into something else entirely. However, the biggest change is that a Star Wars MMO is coming, but from somebody we haven't thought of yet. After the many woes of Star Wars Galaxies and the later success World of Warcraft has seen financially -- Lucas Arts wouldn't want this done in any way other than impeccably well.

So then, who have they chosen?

Tags: bioware, blizzard, carbine, city-of-heroes, featured, kotor, lucas-arts, marvel-universe-online, soe, sony-online-entertainment, star-wars, star-wars-galaxies, turbine, world-of-warcraft, wow