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A write-up at Gamasutra of an AGDC panel featuring MMO developers who have begun working on web-based projects gives us an opportunity to explore the new (some would say it's actually the old) frontier of massively multiplayer gaming.

There are many MMOs that are experienced via a web interface (such as Sherwood), but traditional gamers have largely shunned the trend. Why, then, did some of the most hardcore MMO developers (including Dan Ogles, Raph Koster, and Scott Hartsman) abandon the traditional MMO in favor of this new frontier? Some of their work, like Ogles' Loudcrowd, is barely recognizable to traditional gamers.

They offered some answers on the panel. For example, Koster (originally of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies fame, now working on the creative platform MetaPlace) said that game devs have more to learn from web devs than vice versa. Ogles talked about using Adobe Flash so anyone can embed elements of the game anywhere on the web they like. It's worth a read if you're able to work through some pretty technical development speech.

If you're anything like the average MMO gamer, you click through that 'shrinkwrap license' without even batting an eyelash. The End User License Agreement, or EULA, is just a speedbump in the logon process for game players. For game companies, though, they're extraordinarily important documents. They require legal consultation, careful thought, and even more careful wording. They do exactly what the name says, spelling out the rights a player has in an online world.

Noting that he really enjoys it when panel participants argue and disagree, Erik Bethke brought together a group of people to debate and discuss the issue of user rights. Along with Bethke, author Erin Hoffman, legal representative Greg Boyd, startup VP Scott Hartsman, and noted industry designer and analyst Raph Koster filled out the panel. Read on for notes from their fascinating discussion, which covered everything from government intervention in online worlds to the 'ownership' of virtual property.

Massively Speaking Episode 13 is a special episode covering a unique topic. The summer pre-E3 slumps left us wanting to do something a little different, so this week Shawn and Michael are joined by three very special guests. Darren and Karen of the "Shut Up, We're Talking" Podcast hop on to help us put some questions to former EverQuest 2 Senior Producer Scott Hartsman. We talk about the transformation of EQ2 from the game at launch into what it is now, run down some of Scott's favorite moments from his time at SOE, and even dance around what he's working on now. Join us!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

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What happens when one of EverQuest's most famous players and one of the the MMO world's most respected designers spend ninety minutes talking about the current glut of "leveling/raiding" MMOs, the good and bad points to them, and how they could be improved? Qhue from the Fires of Heaven forums and Scott Hartsman, former lead developer for SOE's EverQuest II, did just that. Find out why mid-level raid content is a bad idea, what World of Warcraft players expected to find in Age of Conan (and what they found instead), why a solo path to max level is important, why betas must spoil things, and why trying to keep the WoW players you lure away with new shinies is nearly impossible.

If you've ever wanted to sit down with a designer and have him explain exactly why today's most popular MMOs are the way they are, you have to read this conversation about MMOs.

He is an EverQuest 2 player that rose to power leading one of the largest fansite communities. He earned the esteemed "Community Influencer" rank that opened the gates to game designers and allowed him to forge ties with prominent SOE staff. With his connections it wasn't long before the site he administrates, EQ2 Flames, served as a clandestine outlet for EQ2 developers to post on. Behind the scenes "LFG" played a role working with inside sources to leak information that resulted in the EQ2 Test Server scandal. The forum also resulted in leak of the news (almost a month before it actually happened) that former Senior Producer, Scott Hartsman, was to part ways with Sony Online Entertainment.

His actions wouldn't come without serious ramifications. Last week SOE terminated his "Influencer" membership, citing a lack of participation and misconduct as the reasoning behind their decision. In the destructive wake that followed an ugly entanglement by both SOE developers and EQ2 players has surfaced. Allegations of cheating, developer corruption, and other scuttlebutt permeate forum posts. This is a drama that pits community against community, developers against players, and more than likely developers against developers. It is a story that has shaken up a very large community and that has once placed SOE in a questionable spotlight. I contacted "LFG", the EQ2 Flames administrator, to help bring some clarity to it all.

In the interview below several allegations involving SOE employees are levied. These along with other accusations on EQ2 Flames also raise other questions regarding SOE's internal policies. At the time of this posting SOE's community team had not yet responded with an official comment. When SOE does respond we will post it in full.

On his personal blog, Scott Hartsman has reposted a farewell letter to the EQ2 community. Originally put up on the official boards, Hartsman has been EverQuest 2's Senior Producer for some years; prior to that he worked on the game in a technical capacity. In the letter, he has glowing things to say about his time with Sony Online Entertainment but remains vague about where he is going next.

It's time for me to see what else is out there waiting to be built. It might even end up being something involving SOE. Regardless, I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet up again, whether I'm making new MMOs, continuing to play them, or talking about them on the internet. I wouldn't be leaving SOE if I wasn't positive that the responsibility for EQ2 was being left in the right hands. Taking over for me is Bruce "Froech" Ferguson. Some of you will remember his name from EQ2 beta, others of you may have met him at Fan Faires. If you have met him, you know he's one of the most straightforward guys you'll ever be lucky enough to meet.

Hartsman goes on to describe some of Ferguson's credentials. He also uses the term 'we' when describing his new venture, indicating he's already associated with a new project. Whether that's an all-new game or one of the numerous companies currently in 'silent running mode' isn't clear. For more on this, check out our discussion of the rumours of his departure from late last month and expect more as it becomes public.

If this rumor turns out to be true it would be a huge blow to the EverQuest 2 development team and the EverQuest 2 community. Scott Hartsman is a class act, and is one of the best in his field at what he does. Whoever steps in to try and fill his shoes will have a hell of a time as Hartsman has not only set the bar high when it comes to running the show, but his superb ability to manage community relationships and wax philosophic with the players. During his tenure as on EverQuest 2's, Senior Producer, Hartsman has established a remarkable reputation not only amongst his peers, but also among the more tight-knit MMOG forum goers, which by any means is no easy feat.

I'm a bit shocked, especially to see this coming so shortly after Rise of Kunark's launch, and various recent interviews conducted with Hartsman about the expansion, including our own with Michael Zenke regarding grouping concerns in Rise of Kunark. What do you guys think about all this? I wonder if Hartsman will go on to work on another MMOG. If the rumor turns out to be true is EverQuest 2 screwed or is this rumor unfounded, and shouldn't have been reported by Massively? Let us know in the comments.

There's been a lot of back and forth in the EverQuest II community about the xp gain via grouping in Rise of Kunark dungeons. Fingers were pointed, and we gave Scott Hartsman (EQ2's Senior Producer) a chance to rebut. Said Mr. Hartsman, in our discussion piece from last week:

EverQuest II is not a game about sitting in one place and grinding. You find the activity that defines the core of your game, then you make sure it's the part you polish the most, then you make damn sure it's rewarding. That activity is questing.

Tipa's response to Mr. Hartsman's statement clarified the issue from a segment of the player population:

EQ2 was always about two things: Dungeon crawls and getting loot. Quests were just things you could do to make the effort more rewarding ... Most of the quests in my journal I never get around to doing, unless they result in an upgrade for my character. I don't think I'm alone in this.

Apparently, she's not. Today, the word on the official forums from Mr. Hartsman is that dungeon XP is going to be increased, at least through this holiday weekend. He is clear about the reason: bringing parity to quest xp gain for dungeon grouping.

We've been keeping an eye on both the objective, globally recorded experience data from the first week of Kunark being live, as well as the subjective feedback regarding Kunark experience grants, through the many styles that people play. Many of you have pointed out that the exp given from dungeonning feels too low. In the live environment, we agree that is the case. The data backs this up as well. In making the reality more aligned with the overall goal, Kunark dungeon experience gains have just been boosted on all of the live servers.

We'll keep up with this ongoing balance issue as the developers and players work this out.

Now that EverQuest II's latest expansion Rise of Kunark has been released, you'd hope that Senior Producer and Creative Director Scott Hartsman would be able to take a bit of a break -- but you can be sure it won't be too long, because its obvious that he really digs his job. TenTonHammer has a two-page interview with Hartsman that isn't so much about EQ2 as it is about the man himself.

In the article, Hartsman discusses how he broke in to the industry -- his first industry job was with a text-based online RPG at the age of 15! -- his favorite games of the past and ones that influenced him, things that he does outside of work, and even some tips for anyone that would like to get involved in the gaming business. On this, he mentions that being competent with algebra comes in very handy, something that not everyone may realize.

Even if you've never heard of Scott Hartsman, its a worthwhile read to hear what things are like on the other side of your favorite pastime. The link below will take you through to TTH's full developer profile.

One of the greatest things about Massively Multiplayer Games is that the dialogue about them isn't a one-way street. With most games, fans wait for the word from on high, and discussion about single-player games tends towards fighting over scraps. With MMOGs, the considered commentary of players make for interesting reading in and of itself. That's the case we find ourselves in today, just a few days after the release of Sony Online Entertainment's Rise of Kunark expansion. Mostly the buzz seems to be positive, but a pair of bloggers have given voice to players feeling a bit put out by the pack's core leveling mechanic: questing. Yesterday Tipa (of the West Karana blog) and Kendricke (currently writing at the Clockwork Gamer site) took issue with the fact that group grinding isn't as profitable as it has been in previous expansions.

Specifically they're raising this objection as it relates to the famed Karnor's Castle, a bastion of EverQuest Live lore and newly revised for SOE's new vision of Kunark. Tipa sums their issue up on her site: "Just doing quests and killing in a risk-free, outdoor zone, beats hunting in a semi-risky dungeon. How is that even possible. Dungeons are supposed to give you superior benefits for the trouble of grouping - better experience, better loot. Somehow that got lost ... When word of this gets around, KC will become a ghost town. People will do the Kylong Plains/Teren's Grasp quest lines, then move to the Fens and just skip Karnor's. SOE, it's not too early to consider tuning this zone. Grouping in KC should be more rewarding than questing outside."

Scott Hartsman, the senior producer of EverQuest 2, took a few minutes today to answer their concerns for us. Read on to see further discussion from the player's POV and Mr. Hartsman's response.

Massively's Rise of Kunark Beta Tour from early last week had a bevy of details on the just-released expansion. One of the hot-button items among the EverQuest 2 community, it seems, is the absence of the promised Epic weapons from Kunark's launch, a detail we first reported here on the site. TenTonHammer has followed up on player concerns in this area, speaking with EQ2's Senior Producer Scott Hartsman on the issue.

Hartsman reveals that, unfortunately, the Kunark Epics are yet another victim of the recent San Diego fires.

"What we were faced with was a bug count in which nothing had been touched in a week. When we are in our bug fix mode, the team is capable of fixing anywhere between 13 to 17 hundred bugs in a week, so losing a week is a big thing. At the end of the day it came down to well, we obviously need to focus on the overall launch of our expansion first. Epic weapons are something that yes, we've got a number of them in the bag, but the choice we had to make was, do we launch a game with 1500 bugs and epics that are 75% awesome and 25% less than awesome, or do we launch a game that's going to be as clean as we can make it and then push the epics out on an update? "

Folks looking forward to tackling the weapons need not worry, though. Hartsman states that the Epics update will likely be coming just after the holiday season ends. This will give the team time to give the important items the polish they need ... and likely will let designers have a few moments with their families as well.

Over this past weekend the EverQuest 2: Rise of Kunark NDA was taken out back and shot to death with erasers, mere days before the expansion launches tomorrow. Unfortunately, I only had access for a little over a week (QQ) and haven't had much time to play. This means any in-depth coverage coming from my brain is nil until I patch my sheepish brain later with more played time, but I do have some first thoughts. My first thought: I really should have played more. My second thought: I feel like I owe our readers a bit more than that, so, I ventured out and tracked down information dumps, thoughts, opinions, and screenshots from various sources who really delved in the RoK beta. The consolidated roundup is after the jump. In no particular order and without further ado:

[Last Updated 11/12/07 10:30PM PST]

We almost missed this one, but Massively's own Michael Zenke put together a terrific interview with Everquest II Senior Producer Scott Hartsman about Rise of Kunark, the upcoming expansion, which features lizard-men called Sarnaks. You know any game that features lizardmen already has a lot going for it, and from what we saw in Dan's walkthrough, lizardmen are just the beginning..

Zenke and Harsman talk about developing the game (this is the first expansion that's had almost a full year for development), and the ambitious schedule for all of EQ2's development-- Hartsman says that the advent of WoW was a kick in the pants for all MMO developers, and that it set the bar not just for competition, but for survival. They also cover what there is to find in Kunark-- Hartsman especially loves the storyline on the war between the Sarnak and the Spirroc (parrotmen, apparently-- what will they think of next?!), and the updated tradeskills, which should offer lots of interesting items for crafters and consumers alike.

Definitely a must-read if you're interested in the new expansion (or if you have fond memories of Kunark in the original Everquest).

Scott Hartsman posted a link to local San Diego TV station KUSI, who invaded the SOE studios there for a "special report" about the people who make these things called Massively Multiplayer Online games. As mainstream news reports about our favorite pasttime go, it's actually not too bad, though there are a few chuckle-worthy moments-- apparently saying Dad "wasn't too happy" turns into his "outright horror" on local news, and is it just me or did anyone else have the thought that Sasha Foo is probably the most attractive person to ever enter the SOE game testing room? I kid, I kid!

But otherwise, it's a pretty solid report on what it's like making MMOs at SOE. If you're an artist, you can probably drool over that paintbox they're using, and there are also shots of Everquest 2 in wireframe, the making of casting animations, a look at some concept art for Rise of Kunark and a few other games and even some news about a new MMO aimed at a younger audience due out next year called Free Realms. Even if you watch it with the sound turned off, it's a cool look inside SOE studios and what it's like to work there.

You may pick up the odd new word here and there playing MMO's, but a recent university study has used the game EverQuest II to reinforce the entire English language. The article was noticed by one of EQ2's senior producers Scott Hartsman on his personal blog. Hartsman muses that people will always find new ways to use code or software to achieve things that they had not been designed for, but also says that this particular use of EQ2 "wasn't something that was on the radar".

There were a number of reasons that EQ2 was chosen by the Northwestern University researchers for their project. They had considered World of Warcraft too, but in the end EQ2's clear descriptions and labeling made it the ideal choice. Everything is explained in detail in the game, and most items and places have extra labels on them. The researchers said that there is simply a lot more text in the game than in WoW.