Features

Our Jordan Deam recently spoke to The Matrix Online Producer Dan Myers about the movie-inspired MMO that recently turned three. After a shaky start, MxO was snapped up by SOE and has since gone on to carve out its own niche as part of the larger SOE family of MMOs. We find out how they've found their footing and where they're headed in this update.

Unlike most MMOs, The Matrix Online has primarily been about linear story development rather than providing a sandbox-style environment for unlimited player choice. The game picks up where the movies left off, and the developers are very serious about preserving that continuity while giving players an opportunity to keep the plot moving in new and interesting directions. When I slipped up and mentioned Neo in passing to Myers, he was quick to admonish me.

Read more after the jump.

John Smedley is the President and CEO of Sony Online Entertainment. We had a chance to talk to him by phone last week about his company, the games they make and where they're going. Here's a sample:

"We are very focused on taking the grind out of our next round of games," he said simply. "Our next generation is not trying to do what we did in this generation." He cited The Agency, with its more mature theme, FPS elements and cinematic-storytelling as an example.

It's been a turbulent path for Smedley and SOE. The online game division of Sony began when the company purchased Verant, the studio behind EverQuest of which Smedley was a co-founder. That blossomed into "The Station", a game hub that has since been the model for the entire industry. It included EQ and a host of smaller games, like Tanarus, an online tank-combat game, whose mechanics were a forerunner to games like Battlefield.

Read more after the jump.

We're back with another story journal from the developers of The Matrix Online. After each major installment of this MMO's story, the developers deliver to us a great big journal that recaps all the developments.

The Matrix Online's continuing story progresses in chapters, each subdivided into three subchapters. A new subchapter comes out every six weeks, beginning with a new cinematic movie, and then bringing the latest twists and turns of the Matrix story to players via a series of five weekly critical missions for each organization, and daily live events.

Here we'll quickly recap the major new plot developments of Chapter 7.3, and then get an update on the progression of the story from the point of view of each of the five player organizations.

Find out the details of Chapter 7.3, along with pictures after the click.

We're back with another story journal from the developers of The Matrix Online. After each major installment of this MMO's story, the developers deliver to us a great big journal that recaps all the developments.

The Matrix Online's continuing story progresses in chapters, each subdivided into three subchapters. A new subchapter comes out every six weeks, beginning with a new cinematic movie, and then bringing the latest twists and turns of the Matrix story to players via a series of five weekly critical missions for each organization, and daily live events.

Here we'll quickly recap the major new plot developments of Chapter 7.3, and then get an update on the progression of the story from the point of view of each of the five player organizations.

Find out the details of Chapter 7.3, along with pictures after the click.

In our latest update from inside The Matrix, the SOE Seattle development team chimes in with an update on their story-drive MMORPG. Chapter 7.2 is just past and after each one they give us a summary and loads of images from their ongoing story.

The Matrix Online development team over at SOE Seattle have released a new developer blog, exclusively to MxO WarCry. This is a recap of Chapter 7.1, that was recently released by the team.

Click below for more.

The Matrix Online developers have chimed in with their second developer journal, exclusively on WarCry. In this article, the team looks at Subchapter 6.3 that they recently launched and recaps what it included.

The continuing story of The Matrix Online progresses in chapters, each subdivided into three subchapters. A new subchapter comes out every six weeks, featuring a new cinematic movie at the beginning, and then introducing the latest twists and turns of The Matrix Online story to players via a series of five weekly critical missions for each organization along with daily live events.

Read more below.

Today we're lucky to have Matrix Online developer "Rarebit" take the time to pen a developer journal exclusively for MXO WarCry. In this article, he looks at the state of MxO's story.

Early in the development of The Matrix Online (MxO), the powers behind the game decided that it would do something significantly different than most other commercial massively multiplayer online games: It would tell a single, continuing story--the story of the Matrix. It would pick up right after the end of the third Matrix film and continue to evolve the exciting world and characters that had proven so popular in the Matrix movie trilogy.

The series' creators, the Wachowski Brothers, developed a general theme for the first year's plot (Peace and the things people do to wreck it), ideas for a new character or two, and some thoughts on how to kick things off. They hand-picked Paul Chadwick, well known for his comic book series "Concrete" and one of their favorite writers, and put the franchise firmly in his hands. Armed with this creative blessing and plenty of encouragement to take the Matrix to places it had never been before, Paul began writing the first year or so of the story.

More can be read by clicking below.

Today we're lucky to have Matrix Online developer "Rarebit" take the time to pen a developer journal exclusively for MXO WarCry. In this article, he looks at the state of MxO's story.

Early in the development of The Matrix Online (MxO), the powers behind the game decided that it would do something significantly different than most other commercial massively multiplayer online games: It would tell a single, continuing story--the story of the Matrix. It would pick up right after the end of the third Matrix film and continue to evolve the exciting world and characters that had proven so popular in the Matrix movie trilogy.

The series' creators, the Wachowski Brothers, developed a general theme for the first year's plot (Peace and the things people do to wreck it), ideas for a new character or two, and some thoughts on how to kick things off. They hand-picked Paul Chadwick, well known for his comic book series "Concrete" and one of their favorite writers, and put the franchise firmly in his hands. Armed with this creative blessing and plenty of encouragement to take the Matrix to places it had never been before, Paul began writing the first year or so of the story.

More can be read by clicking below.