Massively^™

Since Massively reported Melissa 'War Witch' Bianco's comment (from the Heroic Weekend at Omega Sektor) that the City of Heroes/Villains live team had been cut to only fifteen people in the days after CoV's release, the reaction from the player base has been surprise, appreciation and gratitude. They are as impressed as we were that a drastically cut-down team had managed to deliver some of the best content so far, including the Invention System and auction houses.

So who were those fifteen stalwarts, now dubbed the 'Surviving 15' by the forums with a nod and a wink to the 'Surviving 8' of CoH backstory? After some debate, Matt 'Positron' Miller has taken a moment off working on Issue 12 to settle the issue.

Over at the Lord of the Rings Online European forums, the developers gave players a chance to ask any questions they had about the new Forochel region that will be introduced with Book 13. All sorts of things were asked over a number of days, and the question time is now over. We've had a read through the thread, and compiled the answers that the developers gave in bullet-point format, so check after the break to see what the players managed to find out -- short answer, a lot!

Want to see what the developers of Dungeons and Dragons Online have been up to? The Weekly Developer Activities list on the official forums keeps you in touch with the latest happenings behind the scenes at DDO. It's also the place to look to see some of the things that are coming with Module 7, as that's the next big chunk of game that the devs are spending time on at the moment.

This week you'll find a number of changes and additions to the game's spells, feats, enhancements, items, and quests, and some other miscellaneous updates. Check out the full list at the forums.

Excited for Vanguard's Game Update 4? Then consider attending the upcoming developer chat which will take place at 8pm EST this Tuesday, the 12th of March, and will focus on this major update. MMORPG.com will play host to the event, and they invite anyone to come along with a question for the Vanguard devs about the upcoming patch, or the future of the game in general.

You can join in the chat by visiting MMORPG.com's live chat room, or by using an IRC client to go to the irc.coldfront.net server, and join the channel #mmorpg.

As you may already know if (like me) you are an iPhone owner, Apple spent the better part of this morning laying out just what will be in the iPhone SDK, which is basically a set of tools program developers can use to create applications for the shiny little touchscreen cell phone. Wait, did we say applications? I certainly meant games -- Apple (which is not, as of late, known for their gaming prowess) had EA and other game companies appear on stage to show off what kind of games can be based on the platform. I also spend some of my time blogging on TUAW, which is Weblogs, Inc's Apple blog, and I went on record there a while ago saying that the iPhone is the best handheld gaming device ever. Given what we saw today (along with the fact that programmers will have access to the gadget's multitouch, accelerometer, and even microphone and camera features), I believe that more than ever -- all we need is some games to play on it.

So what does this all mean for massively multiplayer games? Lots.

You may or may not be familiar with the "ghostly wolf" debacle that occurred in the World of Warcraft recently. It involved a pet wolf that would not have been able to be tamed by Hunters without some clever usage of game mechanics and some costly preparation. Blizzard confirmed that they would not be changing this, prompting many players to begin their time and money investments into obtaining a "Grimtotem Spirit Guide" pet. Then a hotfix was released that meant the wolf could no longer be tamed, and a resounding "WTF?!" was heard across the land.

Sandra at Elder Game discussed this case, and having had experience as producer of Asheron's Call, decided to write a hypothetical story of what the whole ghostly wolf situation might have been like behind the scenes at Blizzard. It's a tale of miscommunication, internal drama and politics. The point she makes at the end is that it is extremely difficult for a large development team to work as a single entity, and that internal communication is the key to avoiding scenarios like the above. The full article is definitely worth a read, and gives an insider perspective on the sort of challenges these teams face that aren't directly related to development. Also, for a bit of history on the ghostly wolf story, WoW Insider covered each of the stages, from discovery, to the announcement that Hunters would be able to continue taming them, to the hotfixing.

Warhammer Online, which is probably (as is often claimed) the most anticipated MMO of 2008, will be having a developer chat next Wednesday, January 30th, at 8pm EST at Warcry. Details about this game are still a bit thinner than I would like, so any information we can get on it is nice to have. To connect, join #WarCouncil on irc.chatspike.net:6667 (#warcry for discussion), or use one of the web clients available on Warcry's page.

Personally, I'm not that interested in the game, since it seems quite PvP (sorry, RvR) heavy, and I'm more of a PvE guy. It is, however, still the strongest competition I can see on the horizon for WoW, at least until Blizzard announces their own "next-gen MMO" that they keep trying to hire folks for.

A few days ago, the Warcry Network hosted an IRC chat with some of the developers and the team involved with Vanguard to hit them with some of the community's questions, and find out about the state of the game in general. There is now a chat log of this discussion available for you to find out exactly how the interview went.

The log is 5 pages long, showing the extent to which the Vanguard team made themselves available, and the wealth of questions that Warcry had to ask. Some of the issues raised were PvP imbalances, leveling rates and the experience curve, notification of server downtimes and downtime length, and expansion questions, to some lighter stuff like what kind of scripted events the players can expect, and what "About Vanguard" comic the developers like best.

It's a worthwhile read for any Vanguard fan, or anyone that has been away from the game and wants to see how it has changed, and will change in the future. Also, don't forget that past account holders have had their accounts reactivated until the 17th of January, so you can experience the efforts that are being made to improve the game first-hand.

Earlier this week we gave you a glimpse of what went on during NCsoft's City of Heroes/City of Villains Meet & Greet held in Milpitas California on November 30th. Before going into detail about the event, however, we'd like to make one correction to our earlier article. When we said that "some in the audience seemed unhappy that all their enhancements and abilities would be viewable by their PvP opponents," we made it sound as though all of your build information would always be visible on the City Vault, and this is not the case. As noted back on the 20th of November, "you will have the option of hiding your Statistics, Powers, Badges, and Friends list from inclusion on the public web page." You'll have to live with knowing your character's name, image, level, server, archetype, and origin are searchable via the Vault, but -- based on what the developers have told us in the past, and what they reiterated at the Meet & Greet -- you'll have control of everything else. They also advised us that a Leader Board listing will be part of the City Vault: if you're a PvP fanatic, you'll always know where you stand.

In the past, Star Trek Online devlogs have been light on gameplay information. Perpetual's Mike Stemmle usually writes about the development team, concept art, and things of that nature. But this time it's different. Not only does Devlog #5 include juicy details about interacting with NPCs, but it also includes the very first in-game screenshot. Sweet!

We can learn a couple of things from this screenshot. First of all, the graphics are neither cutting edge nor outdated; they're right in the middle. This is arguably a sweet spot for MMOs. Second, the LCARS influence can be seen on the UI, but it's not overt. In fact, it's barely there. We do find it a bit alarming that the game features a standard MMO "1 through =" action bar -- a tired convention that's begging for innovation.

As far as the NPC interaction stuff goes, though, it all sounds good.

Jumpgate Evolution will feature joystick support, accessible system requirements, and a story by D&D Eberron setting creator Keith Baker. Those are the sorts of details you'll find in MMORPG's dev chat with three Jumpgate Evolution team members. There's a lot more info in the chat, as well, though some of it is stuff already covered in our own interview with Netdevil's Hermann Peterscheck.

It looks like Netdevil is delivering a more accessible, streamlined version of the basic game-play found in the original Jumpgate; for example, the flight model will be similar to that of the original, but there will be "more effective braking" to prevent the out-of-control feeling that intimidated some newbies in Jumpgate. But we'll see some totally new things in the game as well.

We're all getting very excited about this game, and the info is only just starting to roll out. Rest assured that we'll bring you every update as it comes!

CCP launched the website for EVE Online's Trinity expansion today. It's a sleekly designed website with a well produced promo-video (including clips of the shiny new graphics), video interviews with a few dev team members, a feature list, and screenshots and wallpapers. And of course it has EVE's usual dark, intelligentsia-aimed Sci-Fi motif going on.

None of the information is new if you've been following the news super closely, but hardcore EVE fans will undoubtedly want to check it out anyway, and if you haven't been keeping up with Trinity news, it's a good place to get the low down on what CCP will be doing in the expansion.

Sometimes, as bloggers, we feel bad for game developers. They try so hard to give us straight-forward interviews on their pet projects, and all we do in return is try and get them to slip us information on another, even bigger pet project. A Blizzard producer being interviewed about Wrath of the Lich King? I'll bet you ten bucks he gets asked about their "next-gen" MMO. Cryptic employee trying to discuss the terms of their separation with NCsoft? So, how's that Marvel Universe Online going? And in the case of a recent interview with CVG, Bethesda's Peter Hines came in to talk about Fallout 3 and the first question he's asked?

So is there any progression down that avenue with the franchise at the moment, with the MMO?

Oy vey! Well, in case you were wondering, Mr. Hines didn't have much to say on the subject of Zenimax Online, their new online studio, beyond that because they are a start-up, it's unlikely that we're going to hear any announcements for quite some time. Well shoot, it was worth trying, right? In the mean time, we're going to be left to sit and ponder on this cool Sunday evening about what kind of game they could make if NOT an Elder Scrolls MMO.

MMORPG.com will be hosting a live chat with the developers of EverQuest on November 15th at 7:00 PM EST. There will be a particular focus on the new Secrets of Faydwer expansion. You can either plug in through their web-based chat interface, or connect via IRC in the #mmorpg channel on forthegamers.org.

EverQuest set the stage for the contemporary, DikuMUD-inspired MMO experience. Its subscriber numbers have dwindled over the years but it still retains a hardcore following. The new expansion aims to satisfy some of their cravings for new content, and to win back some old-timers as well.

Also, check out our tour of the expansion.