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Anarchy Online's Colin Cragg steps down as producer and game director
Anarchy Online players know Colin "Means" Cragg quite well at this point, as Cragg has worked at Funcom since 2004 and handled the roles of both producer and game director in recent years. Sadly, Cragg announced that he will be leaving the company at the end of the month to "pursue another challenge" and be closer to his family in Sweden. "When I look at the passion this team and the community has for Anarchy Online it has always made me feel privileged just to get to be a part of it," Cragg wrote in his farewell letter. "It has been an incredible honor to get to spend the last eight years working with Anarchy Online and being a part of the Funcom family." Two Funcom employees will split his former duties. Dave "Ilaliya" Williams, who has worked on both Age of Conan and The Secret World, will take over as producer. Filling the game director shoes is Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg, a long-time member of the Anarchy Online dev team.
Anarchy Online player hijacks GM account, runs amok in game
Many of us have mused from time to time what we would do if we happened to get our hands on coveted GM powers in our MMOs. While it may be tantalizing to think of slaughtering raid bosses with a single command, it's probably best that these virtual god-like powers are kept out of the public's reach. Unfortunately for the Anarchy Online team, this scenario went from hypothetical to chaotically real this past week. AO Game Director Colin Cragg labeled it an "unplanned and unwanted volunteer event" when a player managed to access a GM account and ran amok for over two hours in the game last Tuesday. Surprisingly, the player in question did try to "put on a spectacular show with special guest stars," as Cragg put it, although the event ended up causing a huge mess. Some players became unable to fight due to fear effects while others unwittingly received special items in their inventory. The team spent over 30 hours cleaning up the situation, and Funcom had to suspend over 140 accounts until these items could be removed. It is unclear if they caught the person responsible. Surprisingly, Cragg says that this wasn't the first time that someone took a GM account for a joyride in the game, due to the company's policy of trusting volunteers with this access. Even so, he had a few strong words for anyone who would do this: "If anyone is reading this who is responsible for these attacks GIVE US A BREAK. All we are trying to do here is trying to continue to develop a game we all enjoy. If you are mad about your accounts being banned, or something like that, please try to grow up and accept the fact that you very likely deserved it." You can read Cragg's full account of this event at Anarchy Online.
Anarchy Online announces new expansion: Legacy of the Xan
These days, most discussion of sci-fi themed massively multiplayer online games tends to focus on Jumpgate Evolution, EVE Online, or the hotly anticipated post-apocalyptic titles that are on the way. But Anarchy Online is still going strong, and Funcom has just announced a new expansion for the title: Legacy of the Xan. The Anarchy Online (booster) expansion will feature two new adventure areas and bring players to the hidden city of the Xan civilization. There are also new team instanced encounters including a 12-player raid encounter, and two new storylines -- "Dust Brigade" and "Alien Invasion." Anarchy Online will also give you new ways to boost your characters, through symbiants, spirits, and deck items.
All the World's a Stage: Adding flesh to your character
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the World of Warcraft is a stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. Michael Gray fills in this week for David Bowers to talk about how you can flesh our your character, and help it leap from the screen into everyone's imagination.As David's said before, getting into character can be a challenge. With the WWI right behind us and Death Knights looming around the corner, there's dozens of things threatening to water down our immersive roleplay. It can be frustrating, but the first thing you can control about your playtime is yourself -- and the character you've written.Your background sets up your character's story. It's where your character comes from, and often describes what motives your character's actions. But it's infinitely helpful to define more about your character than just the time the Horde ravaged your family and wrecked the estate, and maybe talk about...how he feels about children, or the summer holidays.Let's talk about how to flesh out a character, behind the cut...
