Previews

Chances are, if you enjoy even a passing interest in MMOGs, you know Richard Garriott. You know Lord British, his online alter-ego from Ultima Online, is a name he takes seriously. So when he walked into the presentation room in which I was sitting in sci-fi military regalia - with a beret and black cowboy boots and spurs - and introduced himself as General British, I had to stand up and salute.

In our first article from E3 2007 we focus in on NCSoft Seoul's Aion. This high fantasy MMO has been unwrapped for a while, but besides being beautiful, not much was known. At E3, they let us look at the first of the playable factions.

Last year, NCSoft introduced the graphically spectacular Aion to the world. This year, at E3, they've begun to show some of what makes Aion a game, rather than just a pretty face. Produced at NCSoft's Korean office, is a traditional MMO in a cinematic high fantasy setting.

The world in Aion was shattered in half. On the bottom half of the broken planet are the "Elyos" and on the top are the "Asmodan". The Balaur live in the middle. Players can play as either the Elyos or Asmodan, while the dragon-man Balaur are NPC only.

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Hero Camp last Thursday offered WarCry the chance to sit down and play Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising and then interview Perpetual Entertainment President and Co-Founder Chris McKibbin about the game. We file this hands-on preview:

"The majority of people who play MMOs have never raided," Perpetual President and Co-Founder Chris McKibbin explained. The sometimes absurd time commitment of raids is why. In World of Warcraft, players need to spend hours organizing dozens of real people. For anyone outside the hardcore, that means high-end raids are a wealth of content that they simply cannot hope to experience. Gods and Heroes turns that dynamic on its ear with its minion system, where a single player can represent six characters on the screen. The result is that a simple five man group can experience raid content in Gods and Heroes, a development that severely cuts into the organizational time required for that kind of epic content.

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Recently, we got a sneak peek at The Agency and today, with SOE's announcement, we bring you our first look at the upcoming spy MMO/FPS. Developed at the new SOE Seattle studio for both the Playstation 3 and PC, The Agency represents SOE's attempt to bring MMORPGs into the mainstream and move away from an endless stream of swords and sorcery fantasy games. Earlier today, along with their press release, they put out an introductory trailer, some screenshots and some concept art for you to enjoy.

Now onto our preview!

In the mission we saw, the players went into an instance to meet someone who had some information for them. As they entered the instance, their target - briefcase in hand - stood on a street corner outside a trendy Prague nightclub. Seems too easy? It is. In true spy fashion, the operative was eliminated just before the players got there and the briefcase taken.

The players then ran in pursuit, only to met by gunmen who jumped out from behind barrels, popped their head out of windows and materialized seemingly out of nowhere organically. Slowly, the team made its way through the cramped European alleys and towards their ultimate goal.

Intrigued? Read more after the click.

Recently, WarCry had the chance to speak to EverQuest Producer Clint Worely about this most venerable of MMORPGs. At eight years old, they're on a hard march towards a November expansion and have changed the way they approach things a bit. Find out what they're up to, how they're tackling it and what awaits in Secrets of Faydwer in this new look forward.

Right now, their focus is squarely on those players who've stuck with them and continue to pay the bills. In contrast to EverQuest II, which clearly seeks new fans, EverQuest is all about the hardcore. New people come, but in a game this established, they are just as likely to be returning players.

"EverQuest has always been a hardcore game," Producer Clint Worely told WarCry. It has a steep curve and while they have made efforts to correct this, the new player experience is not really their current focus. Specifically, he characterized the churn of players out of the game as extremely low, a major reason for them to focus on keeping those long lasting subscribers happy.

Read more after the click.

Today we build on part one of our preview and get a look at some more unique aspects of Tabula Rasa, issues in the game and more comments from Richard Garriott, the man behind this title.

"In most MMOs, the level grind is life," Garriott told us, using his now signature introductory clause.

In Tabula Rasa, the relative power curve is much flatter. Players can kill enemies many levels higher than themselves, they just need to play smartly. The difference, as Garriott illustrated, is between careful tactical combat and being able to run through like Rambo.

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Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has entered its home stretch and recently we got the chance to travel to Austin, TX and talk to Garriott, his team and play this unique game. In many ways, it is an answer to the long-standing norms of the MMORPG genre. We look at how its different in this new preview.

Tabula Rasa, there is no question, is different from any MMORPG that's been released to date. Innovation is a noble pursuit, but innovation for its own sake is a waste. With Tabula Rasa, Garriott and his team in Austin have struck that balance and have created a game that will undoubtedly expand the way players think about MMORPGs.

"In other MMOs..." Garriott would begin as he explained each core feature of Tabula Rasa. He used this strategy an innumerable number of times (I tried to count, but lost track quite quickly). He would explain the way almost every MMORPG did things such as combat, then explain why Tabula Rasa did it better.

For the full article, click below.

Intrepid reporter Carolyn Koh missed out on a few hours of sleep this morning to go to the Seattle, WA launch party for Lord of the Rings Online. Held in a GameStop that sells the most MMOs of any store in the United States, according to Turbine, this was bound to be a big one. The article looks at the event and gets comments from Turbine reps on hand.

To their huge surprise and pleasure it was so well received that the system has been expanded greatly. At launch, players may purchase five different instruments in game - the harp, lute, flute, clarinet and horn. In their first monthly update, the bass and drums will be added. The will also expand the range of the instruments to three octaves, and implement ABC notation and Freeplay - the ability for players to synchronize their instruments in order to create music together as a band.

"Tolkien's world was one filled with music. We had this unique opportunity and we jumped on it. I would love to see bands and concerts. For players to utilize this system in ways I didn't think of," Geoff added.

Read more after the link.

Hero's Journey has been in development for a number of years and more recently the HeroEngine has taken center stage as one of the fastest growing MMO engine solutions on the market. Recently, Senior Editor Dana Massey met with representatives of the St. Louis developers to discuss the game, the engine and their progress. HeroEngine is now in use by five different developers, including BioWare Austin and Virgin Games.

Over the last year, the team has developed the resources to support both the HeroEngine and their proof of concept MMORPG Hero's Journey. Before, it always seemed like they had to pick one or the other. Their St. Louis studio now has 45 to 50 people on site and at work on the two projects simultaneously. This is nothing compared to the roughly 200 people on EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, but it crosses the line from independent production to a well-funded player.

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In the third and final article from Tim Turner's visit to Turbine's Boston HQ he looks at the soon to launch Lord of the Rings Online. In this article, he talks about the game, where it's going and some of its neat features including the in-game music system.

Next we discussed the music feature where a player can create and play music in game. I am sure many of you have seen some of the awesome videos such as the guy playing Dust in the Wind in game. You can also jump on the YouTube and do a search for LOTRO music for even more examples. So how can a music newbie such as me play a song in game? Well enter the new music feature coming in one of the first updates after launch. Basically using a standard format known as ABC Notation and using many of the free MIDI to ABC converters on the web any musically challenged person can convert a file and save into a special directory where all you have to do is play the song in game. Now obviously there will be some restrictions such as not all of the ABC Notation features are supported. I am sure we will start seeing more on this incredible feature soon.

Read more below.

2Moons is the second major MMO headed our way from Acclaim this year. At GDC, we spoke to Howard Marks about this import being adapted for our audience by David Perry. The game promises a truly grown up and violent experience for its users.

While 9Dragons has blazed the advertising supported game trail, 2Moons has taken a more controversial approach. Both games feature advertisements built into the user interface and an item mall for an extra edge, but 2Moons seems to have struck a chord and inspired some emotions among the development community with their decision to go with optional advertisement display. The catch is that if a player chooses to turn their ads off, they do not gain experience as quickly as those who have them on.

At the Austin Game Conference last fall, famed game ranter, former Mythic Entertainment employee and current NCSoft MMO designer Scott Jennings openly ridiculed the plan during the MMO Rant session.

You can read more below.

During our time in San Francisco we took some time to catch up with Howard Marks, the man who brought Acclaim back to life as an MMO company. In the first of three articles based on this interview, we learn about 9Dragons as it approaches commercial service in April.

"The game is doing well, it's a niche game as you know," Marks told me when asked about the progress in beta. He alluded briefly to a plan that he thinks will "make heads spin" to improve the game's content prior to launch.

He also emphasized the company's belief in consumer feedback. Earlier this year, they commissioned a large survey of questions about 9Dragons. These spanned from gameplay to economics to presentation and with the results in, the team have been hard at work bringing these suggestions to the players. The full results of this survey are available on their website.

You can read more at the link below.

JR "razor" Sutich took the bus to play Fury at GDC and files this report on the action oriented MMORPG. PvP is the order of the day for Australian developers Auran and they delivered a hefty dose to Sutich.

Early build or not, the games graphics were impressive, and the flow of battle was fast-paced. Almost like a FPS, so much that I caught myself doing a bit of jumping and circle-strafing. Attack animations were well done, and I had a favorite attack. Thankfully it was not only a debuff, but it charged a powermeter that allowed me to follow it up with another special attack, doing a great amount of damage. This is what allowed me to exact revenge on my nuker friend shortly before the time ran out on the DM. I didn't come in dead last, and fared somewhere near the middle of the group.

You can read more after the click.

Richard Garriott's brainchild is on the way in 2007, NCSoft promises. This sci-fi shooter/RPG was on display at the Metreon in San Francisco during last week's GDC. Garriott showed off the game, his language Logos and much more. Here is our report.

With a unique combination of shooter and RPG mechanics, Tabula Rasa tricks the user into a fast-action mentality, while preserving the integrity of the underlying RPG mechanics. Guns in RPGs are one of the toughest things to pull off and in Tabula Rasa, they seem to have done. The palyer controls their crosshairs with the mouse, just as in most shooters, but as they pass over enemies, the targeting sticks. To fire, they click and then the game mechanics determine the rest. Thus, while players quickly move from target to target with their attacks, there is no fear that a bullet will pass between the enemy's knees and miss. It's all about the player's stats vs. the enemy's.

You can read more at the link below.

JR Sutich on the Razorwire got to peek at the upcoming changes in Issue 9 of City of Heroes. He filed a preview on his site for everyone to enjoy.

Costume pieces aren't the only thing that players can make however. Enhancements that are better than Single Origins and Temporary Powers can also be invented. The cool part about the Enhancements is that there will be named sets. These work to give additional bonuses the more pieces of the set you decide to put in your slots. That's right, it's like player-crafted raid gear.

Of course, once you make this stuff, you may want to sell it. What better place to do so than in the new Auction Houses for Heroes and Villains. Sure the Villains get their stuff off the back of a truck, but that's where I get most of my best deals anyway.

Check out the full article here.