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Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) upcoming MMO DC Universe Online (DCUO) was well-received at Comic-Con '08 and has the potential of connecting with gamers and comic fans on a whole new level -- allowing them to play alongside the heroes they grew up with in comic books and cartoons. Christian Donlan from Eurogamer has an interview with John Blakely, VP of Development at SOE Austin and Executive Producer of DCUO, from the 2008 Fan Faire in Las Vegas.

Eurogamer spoke with Blakely about keeping underperforming titles alive, remaining flexible in terms of DC Universe Online's vision vs. its evolution over time, and the fan reception to DCUO at Comic-Con '08. The interview touches on the choice to bar gamers from playing established heroes in the DC Universe like Batman and DCUO's payment model as well.

Massively Speaking Episode 16 focuses on Comic-Con 2008 this week as your hosts Michael Zenke and Shawn Schuster are joined by Joystiq Producer Barb Dybwad and Features Editor Dan O'Halloran for their impressions of the event. We cover some hands-on playtime experiences with DC Universe Online, Warhammer Online and the news of the rumored release date in September.

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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

As we reported from Comic-Con 08, NCsoft was quite the belle of the ball last week with their Adam & Eve 2.0 booth gaining its fair share of attention from attendees. At this booth, couples were seen swabbing their cheeks for some DNA samples to send into space with one of the grandfathers of the MMO, Richard Garriott.

Finally, the website for this campaign has been officially launched and all further details have been released. From now until August 31st, anyone with a PC and an internet connection (that's you) can participate in the site's weekly polls which will be included on an Immortality Drive, to be sent into space with Garriott. Not only that, but current Tabula Rasa players can actually leave a personal message to be included on this drive. Is this simply an outrageous commercial for Tabula Rasa? Sure it is, but has anyone ever done anything even close to this before for a game? Nope.

Last week we sat down with two representatives from 38 Studios, one of the highest profile of the stealth MMO developers. Headed by the triad of Curt Schilling, R.A. Salvatore, and Todd McFarlane, the studio is deep in the midst of content creation and is entirely under the radar. So under the radar we don't even know what the name of their game is ... just the code name for the project, floridly called "Copernicus."

Massively and WoW Insider's Dan O'Halloran spoke with Chief Marketing Officer Mary Kirchoff and newly-hired Director of Art Thom Ang. Though they couldn't share a lot of substantial insights with us, we did walk away with some great news: the studio will be annoucing their game title's name and launching a game-specific site around this time next year.

Now that we're all recovering from Comic-Con 2008, it's nice to sit back and check out some of the pictures from the event in the comfort of our own homes (or offices). Following up on some pictures we grabbed ourselves, Gamebunny.com has a few of their own that you might enjoy.

In these shots, you'll see a bit of the DC Universe camp, as well as Stargate Worlds' pimped out bus. There's also a few shots of Funcom's Erling Ellingsen showing off some Age of Conan, and more from NCsoft, Blizzard and 38 Studios.

We braved the jam-packed San Diego Convention Center show floor to bring you some eye candy from this year's Crowded-Con. Included in the gallery are MMO publisher booth tours, the palatial Upper Deck booth, and some general Con pics as well as highlights from a few of the panels and from the SOE block party Saturday evening. Sister site Joystiq has a gallery of some of the great costumes and gratuitous cosplay seen at Comic-Con, so be sure to check those out as well via the preview embedded below.



Gallery: Costumes of Comic-Con 2008

Last week at Comic-Con in San Diego, I sat down with Warhammer Online producer Jeff Skalski and got my hands on the beta for the first time. I could go in-depth on all the new features and functions of the game, but our own Michael Zenke beat me to the punch on that one. Instead I want to give my impressions of the game from the perspective of a long-time MMOG player with little time to play these days and even less interest in PvP.

You may be asking yourself why I would be drawn to yet another MMOG, much less one largely centered on PvP given my statement above. The answer is simple: revirginization. In a discussion I had with 38 Studios at Comic-Con, I questioned them about how they thought yet another fantasy-based MMOG could succeed in an already heavily saturated market. The answer they gave me was simple and true: gamers have had wonderful experiences when they've first played other fantasy-based titles, but the thrill has been lost by repetitive gameplay. Now, many of us are looking to recapture that newbie experience again with a new title. Warhammer Online may be that game for me, not for its PvE content, but for its Realm vs Realm PvP set-up.

The folks at Ten Ton Hammer met with Funcom Product Manager Erling Ellingsen at Comic Con over the weekend. Ellingsen described many of the planned updates to Age of Conan. We'd already heard about most of them, but this video interview is a good place to go for a round-up of what's to come.

Ellingsen did reveal a tantalizing new detail about the Kingship system, though. If you're not familiar with Kingship, that's not surprising; it was only mentioned in one interview before now. It allows guilds to form alliances. Those alliances can build and fight over "legendary battle keeps." The new info: alliances can build "wonders of the world" in those keeps. We're intrigued by that idea; it sounds like something from Sid Meier's Civilization.

Ellingsen also talked about plans to add more NPCs walking around guild cities, and to greatly expand visual customization options for the cities.

We stopped by the NCsoft booth at Comic-Con 2008 and had the chance to chat with City of Heroes Community Manager Alex 'Lighthouse' Von Minden, who noted that a number of community members were disappointed about not being able to attend the Con for a chance to snag the exclusive in-game item from the VIP Pass. We thought it would be fun to give players not in attendance a chance to pick one up, so we're happy to present Massively readers with 10 chances to win a unique in-game CoH Comic-Con item. This contest is open to all ages and locations -- you'll just need an active City of Heroes account to claim it. To enter, just leave a comment in this thread by 5pm EST Wednesday, July 30. We'll choose 10 winners at random to receive a code for the unique in-game item. Good luck!

Update: contest closed! Thanks to everyone who entered -- we'll be announcing winners ASAP!

A banner atop the NCsoft booth at Comic-Con 2008 read cryptically: "DNA Test Site: Adam & Eve 2.0." Several rows of brightly-colored buttons arrayed on a table, there for the taking, were emblazoned with the same message. Even more puzzlingly, couples were lining up to swab their cheeks with Q-tips to be stored in plastic pouches labeled with their names and today's date. What kind of crazy cabal initiation was underway at NCsoft's booth?

Without fully revealing the mystery of Operation Immortality, an NCsoft representative shed some light on the cheek-swabbing activities of the fans lining up two-by-two. Five couples, one per day of Comic-Con festivities, will be chosen to have their DNA sequenced and stored in a hard drive that will be jettisoned into outer space -- and why exactly? In case the horrifying possibility of a Bane victory renders the human population of Earth annihilated, we'll be able to repopulate it with the human DNA kept safe in the off-site storage of space.

Sony Online Entertainment released a handful of new official screenshots for DCUO at Comic-Con this past weekend, and also had a playable pre-alpha demo on the show floor for us to get our grubby mitts on. Check out the galleries below for the official shots plus some screens we culled from play sessions on the floor, and stay tuned for our hands-on impressions, gameplay videos, and coverage of the DC Universe Online Comic-Con panel with Jim Lee.

Mahalo spoke with DC Universe Online Executive Producer John Blakely at Comic Con this week and videotaped the conversation, along with a whole bunch of gameplay. The gameplay includes a player running around at lightning speed, scaling walls, picking up and throwing cars, and some gunplay.

In the interview, Blakely said that to watch DCUO's MySpace page for updates about the release date and other news. Specific gameplay info was thin, but he did suggest that player skill will matter just as much as your character's abilities. They all say that, though, and unfortunately it's usually only half true.

Mahalo also recorded video of a panel on which famous comic book writer Stan Lee glowingly talked about storytelling in video games. We've embedded both parts of that video beyond the jump.

Today at Comic-Con, Cartoon Network has announced the release of the first-ever MMO for kids which will be entirely browser-based. Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall is a futuristic adventure set during an alien invasion of the Cartoon Network universe. This means that players will not only be able to team up together to defend the universe from this alien invasion, but the game will incorporate all of Cartoon Network's most popular characters including stars of Ben 10: Alien Force, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls and more!

This game will consist of 60 play areas and utilize the Unity Technologies game engine. This engine has been the cutting-edge choice for several gaming projects such as Freeverse, Shockwave.com, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Flashbang Studios and more. Look for FusionFall to release later this fall.

Firesky, MGM Home Entertainment, and the United States Armed Forces will be showing Stargate Worlds at Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego. The convention will run from July 24th to 27th. Firesky plans to deploy a full-sized stargate replica outside the convention center for photo ops. Fans will also get to be among the first in the public to see gameplay footage. Check out booth 3525 if you're going to be there.

Footage is exciting and all, but we're intrigued by the partnership with the Armed Forces. Presumably this means recruiters will be present at the event as well. The Stargate franchise has always had a close relationship with the military; its central characters have mostly been members of the Air Force. In fact, Stargate SG-1 has featured a handful of cameos by real-world military figures, including Air Force chief of staff Michael E. Ryan, who played himself in the episode "Prodigy."

[Via Ten Ton Hammer]