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Strange Company's documentary series about the making of their feature-length machinima, BloodSpell has come to a close. Over the six episodes of the documentary, they discussed conception, pre-production, animation, editing, going from series to feature, and their experiences making the film.

Today, we're focusing on the fifth episode in the series, on going from series to feature. Through their interviews, they provide helpful tips on taking your series and reformatting it into a feature-length film. Some of the topics they discuss are reshooting scenes and color correction. If you're looking to take your work to the next level, very few have come as far as feature-length in the machinima realm!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

While Neverwinter Nights wasn't quite an MMO, players were able to host up to 64 people at once on a home server. It was also extremely customizable in a way that few MMOs allowed for. That's why it served as the medium of choice for veteran machinimator Hugh Hancock to create his feature-length machinima, BloodSpell.

Making a feature-length anything isn't easy. It requires a lot of planning, time, dedication, and a large cast of supporting players. Hugh has been releasing documentaries once a week that go over everything from concept to development to preproduction, all the way to finish. These short films are extremely helpful to any aspiring machinimator plotting a large-scale project! For more information, check out the BloodSpell blog.

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

Bay Area game developer Stormfront Studios is closing its doors after 20 years of operation.

This is an unfortunate turn of events in the video game industry -- especially the MMO sector -- because in 1991 Stormfront produced the very first graphical online RPG, Neverwinter Nights. The company was helmed by Don Daglow, an esteemed developer who created arguably the first ever computer RPG. That game was called Dungeon, and it operated on the PDP-10 mainframe in the mid-late 1970s.

We're sad to see a studio of such pedigree go. We just waxed nostalgic about Neverwinter Nights on Monday, so we're a bit shocked to see the group behind it bite the dust. NWN was shut down long ago, but its influence -- and therefore, Stormfront's influence -- is undeniable. It was even even honored at the Tech & Engineering Emmy Awards in January. We wish Daglow and the other folks at Stormfront success in whatever lies ahead for each of them.

[Via Joystiq]

Several video games and their respective creators were honored at the fifty-ninth Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. The awards spotlighted some of the most groundbreaking titles in development of massively multiplayer online graphical role playing games as well as user generated content or game mods.

The winners of the first category for development of MMORPGs were Sony Online Entertainment for Everquest (Laura Naviaux), Blizzard for World of Warcraft (Mike Morhaime) and AOL/Time Warner for Neverwinter Nights (Don Daglow).

And the winners of the second category for user generated content/game modification were EA for Pinball Construction (Bill Budge), Id Software for Quake (John Carmack) and Linden Lab for Second Life (Philip Rosedale).

Pictured from left to right: Daglow, Budge, Carmack, Naviaux, Rosedale, Morhaime

We really only have just one thing to mention. If you're the representative of a multi-billion-dollar international corporation like Activision Blizzard, shouldn't you consider something other than raiding your dad's closet for a 1970's brown polyester suit? Although, only really rich people can afford to look broke, because they buy good stuff and wear it forever. So when Mike got it, it was probably very chic... in the 70's.

Arden, the MMO supposedly based around "the world of William Shakespeare," has been released... kind of. I've been waiting for this one for a while-- who wouldn't want to walk the halls of Kronborg Castle with Hamlet, or visit Banquo's banquet with MacBeth? But unfortunately, "released" is a little strong a word here-- the "game" consists of a Neverwinter Nights module, so you've got to have the NWN toolset up and running to even check it out, and even then, I'm not sure it quite makes the definition of an MMO.

I'm hesitant to actually call Arden vaporware, but I don't see how a Neverwinter Nights module can help "test political and social theories." Over on Terra Nova, Edward Castronova (who's running the project), admits that they didn't make it fun, and laments that testers wanted "monsters" to turn the thing into a game. So he's planning Arden II: Electric Boogaloo London Burning, a game that is designed to be fun from the beginning.

I take a little issue with the fact that he thinks only "monsters" can make a "gripping game experience," but seeing as I don't have NWN installed at the moment, I'll have to leave my analysis at that. If you get a chance to check out Arden, let us know what it's like. I'm sure there is a lot of interest in a "gripping" virtual world full of references to Shakespeare, but by the creator's own admission, it seems that Arden probably isn't it.

The latest Penny Arcade comic (which, for the record, also features a little hiring humor) has a news update that will probably be super interesting to those of you thinking about a career writing videogames, specifically MMOs. Daniel Erickson, the lead writer over at Bioware Austin, is looking for people from all walks of life to come help him write the new Bioware MMO.

Erickson says that it's the biggest project Bioware has ever done (ever), and that he expects the story to take the efforts of "a double digit writing staff working for years" to get done right. Additionally, he says that many of their greatest writers have come from weird career places, and so whether you're working the fry line at Dairy Queen or finishing up your own indie RPG, Bioware is willing to check out your work and see if you'd join them. There's more deets on their website-- basically, besides the normal job application stuff, they want you to create dialogue inside a Neverwinter Nights scenario, and make it good. There is one drawback, however-- if you do get the job, don't forget that you'd be working for EA.

Even if you're not applying, this little letter (reprinted after the break) is interesting-- they ask specifically for "Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights" style game dialogue. Does that mean that this isn't the KotOR MMO we've all been expecting? Is Bioware putting together a Forgotten Realms MMO? If so, I call Entreri!

The world of MMO-making is more and more competitive by the hour, with many big-name developers throwing their hats into the MMO development ring as time goes on. But where does this leave us? Are all of these games requiring subscription fees? Will I be left out in the street playing Star Trek Online because I'm paying hundreds a month in fees? Not if the "pseudo-MMO" has anything to do with it.

The pseudo-MMO is a game which is similar to an MMO, but lacks things that an MMO often has, such as subscription fees, a truly massive environment (as opposed to a very large environment), a centralized server, or non-instanced zones. They aren't "real" MMOs, but they come very, very close. By offering persistent worlds, large amounts of players on a server at any one time, and sometimes even single-player, these doppelgangers can capture the "feel" of an MMO without (or with, in some cases!) a subscription fee. So let's walk down the list.