shannon-posniewski
Latest
Shannon "Poz" Posniewski leaving Champions Online
After stepping into the leadership role for Champions Online and launching the game's conversion into a free-to-play model, Shannon "Poz" Posniewski is waving goodbye to Cryptic Studios, at least for now. In a recent news post, it was announced that Posniewski was heading off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and in his own words, possibly face death by exposure. Rob Overmeyer has been announced as the man to fill Posniewski's shoes and continue to lead the game into the future. Although the absence is termed as a vacation (which certainly implies that it's a temporary affair), all signs point to Posniewski's departure being a permanent one. The rather tongue-in-cheek style of the announcement certainly doesn't help matters. While some fans are clamoring for a clarification, it appears the man behind the past year of development is departing the project, which makes it a sad day for Champions Online players pleased with Posniewski's leadership. We wish Poz the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Massively interviews Shannon Posniewski about Champions Online's F2P changes
Champions Online has made quite the big change with the recent decision to go free-to-play. We got together with Shannon Posniewski, Executive Producer for CO, and asked quite a few questions about how the F2P changes will impact new, current, and returning players. In addition to these questions, the CO devs have compiled a huge FAQ covering many of the common queries regarding F2P, as well as a primer on how archetypes will work. We tried to avoid asking many of the questions that have already been answered somewhere else, so be sure to check those out as well.
Captain's Log: A glimpse of Cryptic's free-to-play philosophy
Welcome to another edition of Captain's Log, everybody. I hope y'all enjoyed the weekend's festivities, both in-game and real-world. I've only just woken up from my sugar coma to discover a bright new November Thursday, so I guess it's Star Trek Online time! The folks at Cryptic Studios dropped a big ol' bomb last week. A free-to-play bomb! Sometime soon, Champions Online -- y'know, Cryptic's other MMO, the one about superheroes -- will adopt a fabulously free-ish payment model. What does that mean for the future of STO? Let's speculate!
Behind the Mask: The Silver Archetype
In all my time playing Champions Online, never in a million years would I have expected the game to go F2P. Considering just two years ago, Jack Emmert said "microtransactions make me want to go die," I don't think anyone could reasonably anticipate this bold of a financial move. On top of this, Cryptic is adding Archetypes -- essentially premade character classes -- to streamline character creation for new players. For players used to the classless gameplay of CO, this is going to be more than a little weird. There's so much ground to cover on this news. I'm sure you all have a lot of blind speculation, and I do too. A lot of people will be doomsaying about the future of CO, but I think this is the biggest set of positive things for the game we've seen since... ever.
Champions Online going F2P
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/10/26/champions-online-going-f2p/"; reddit_target="gaming"; Tweet It's a pretty wild day for fans of Champions Online. In a surprising move, executive producer Shannon Posniewski announced in his most recent State of the Game that Champions will be adopting a free-to-play model. This announcement isn't the only shocker for fans of the superhero MMO. New heroes in CO will be able to choose an "Archetype," a class-like build that streamlines the character creation process and makes the elaborate power selection mechanics a little easier to use. Existing superheroes and new fully-customized Champions will require a paid subscription, but the majority of the game's content, including the costume editor, the zones and expansion packs will be completely free. Cryptic has included a full list of all the various features that Silver (free accounts) and Gold (subscriber accounts) will be able to access. This is definitely a bold move by the game's producers, and only time will tell if it pans out for them. What can be sure is that it will get a lot of new users to take the plunge and try the game out.
Massively interviews Champions Online's Shannon Posniewski
Although it has been quite a while since the last big content update for Champions Online, Cryptic is moving forward with the Demonflame adventure pack slated for release next week. We previewed the adventure earlier this week, but we also snagged an interview with Executive Producer Shannon Posniewski, who talked with us about the new adventure pack. Poz also gave an enlightening view on the state of things to come in CO, as well as the development hurdles the team has to go through designing content that scales for all levels and team sizes. We also talk with him about player housing, voice acting, and the future of some old zones. Hit the jump to read more!
Champions Online looks back and ahead
After the anniversary earlier this month, it's been fairly quiet within Champions Online. Shannon Posniewski, the game's executive producer, recently sat down to talk a little bit about the game's past and future. It includes some interesting tidbits about the game, such as Posniewski saying that the game wasn't quite ready for launch a year ago, and he would have preferred for the game to be either delayed or to cut out some features and polish more vital elements. Moving beyond the past, however, he outlines some of the plans the team has for the game as a whole moving in to the next year, which includes a general re-evaluation of all powers and an ongoing expansion to lower-level content. Coupled with the continued focus on adventure packs that can be played at any level, it looks as if Champions Online players will have plenty of things to enjoy over the next year of service.
Behind the Mask: Six editions of legacy can't be all bad
Before we get into today's discussion on the merits of Champions Online's lore, I want to do a quick brief on the pet pass and the Demonflame update for those not hounding the forums. Demonflame is a little under a week away on PTS and about two weeks on live; you can get the skinny from Poz here. The pet patch is currently on PTS, and it's not bad, but it still needs some work. If you're interested at all in bashing out pets I strongly advise getting on PTS, going to the boards and dropping some feedback. A few other things have been tweaked too. This week on Behind the Mask, we're going to talk about lore. I'm not talking about the game's lore, although I'll cover some of that too. I'm talking about the book lore! I finally gave in and picked up the PDFs (you can buy them from the Hero Games website), and I browsed through a lot of the lore content. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the content in Champions Online consists of parodies of comic and MMO culture, and those elements dilute the serious and interesting lore content that is available. If you've read the lore entries that you can find throughout CO, you'll find that most of them actually sound kind of cool. Unfortunately, that lore is scattered and doesn't show a lot of the big picture. Fortunately, I blew a ton of cash on PDFs (including even the rulebooks) to get a good sense of the game's lore.
One full year of being a Champion
If you read about Champions Online in its first days, you would not have thought of it as a triple-A title. The game was full of bugs, the community management was not the best, and it just seemed like the devs were intent on shoveling out more broken stuff that barely worked. I think that, in particular, the first three or four months were the worst. If you were to go back in time and ask me about whether or not I thought CO would make it to its first anniversary, my response would have been: "Maybe, but it'll be bleeding subs if it even makes it that far." Since then, a lot of things have changed. I talked about the first six months of CO, but it's been a full year since that painful launch day patch. I'm not sure I'm even playing the same game anymore.
Shannon Posniewski on the development of Champions Online's first adventure pack
It's been a quiet couple of weeks for Champions Online -- at least, from the news side of things. Players have had plenty to do in the form of the recent Serpent Lantern adventure, offering an experience for players of nearly any level and any group size. Shannon Posniewski sat down for a recent interview in which he detailed some of the work that went into the adventure pack, from the challenges in design to the lessons learned. The overhaul of the perks system and the changes made to VIPER are both cited as elements that the development team was working on without the adventure pack, both of which dovetailed nicely with the new content. Posniewski describes the biggest hurdle as the scaling issues, however, which doesn't simply translate to adding more hit points to higher-level enemies. It's part of what contributes to the four-month design turnaround he describes in the interview. If you've been enjoying the new adventure, it's well worth a look at the interview for a peek at what makes Champions Online's development tick.
Champions' State of the Game: Demons, high heels and super supergroups for all!
While the summer days are hot and those hammocks in the shade are inviting, Cryptic Studios is choosing to spend the season gearing up for hefty content releases. In the latest State of the Game report, Champions Online's Executive Producer Shannon "Poz" Posniewski outlines a number of features, fixes and fluff that's going into the next patch and beyond. For August, Champions Online plans to implement a number of quality-of-life improvements to the game. These include more supergroup features (such as a better UI and supergroup advertisements), overhauling pet powers, an improved C-Store, and giving Millennium City's Ren Center a much-needed visual update. They're also slipping in a few new costume options, so if you've been waiting for the latest in Champions high heel shoe fashion, then wait no longer! Moving on to the fall, Posniewski is excited to announce a new adventure pack entitled "The Demonflame." The pack is based on a Champions pen-and-paper module, and involves bad people opening portals to places better left alone. Check out the full point-by-point Poz poetry at Champions Online's site!
Shannon Posniewski talks about CO's plans for the summer
Not to be outdone by the recent launch of the Serpent Lantern adventure pack, Shannon "poz" Posniewski released a new State of the Game, outlining the final tweaks to the Serpent Lantern launch and what is in store for Champions Online over the summer months. The first thing on the discussion list is some big tweaks to supergroup functions, including a place to put news, a roster, and an interactive guild calendar that officers can post events on and players can leave feedback for. It's the first announcement for this new feature, and players are already excited. Poz also announced plans for redesigning the look and feel of Renaissance Center, giving the central player hub a needed facelift. Pet powers, also a major issue for many heroes, will be getting a look in the coming months as well. All in all, it looks to be a very exciting summer for heroes protecting the streets of Millenium City!
Shannon Posniewki talks level cap and mid-level content for Champions Online
There are ways that the current Champions Online Executive Producer, Shannon Posniewki, doesn't follower in the footsteps of predecessor Bill Roper. But much like Roper, Posniewki loves talking about the game, and almost always has something interesting to say as a result. In a recent interview, he talked about some of the issues of the game's present and future that are doubtlessly on the minds of many players, not the least of which is the level cap. Unfortunately for players who just can't get enough leveling, the cap is staying put for now -- the team likes it right where it is. However, they also recognize how popular it is to move a new character to max level and then start rolling up alts, and are looking into ways to make doing so more rewarding. They also want to buff out mid-range content a bit, with possibilities of something in the 20-30 range. Adventure packs, the first of which is due out in June, will help expand the content by being repeatable and runnable by any hero above Level 11. Champions Online players might not be hitting Level 70 any time soon, but it looks like they'll have plenty to make up for it.
An interview with Champions' new Executive Producer, Shannon Posniewski
With Champions Online getting a brand new Executive Producer, you knew we had to sit down and conduct an interview. Shannon "Poz" Posniewski was gracious enough to give us some of his time, which is most certainly something he's got very little of now that he's in charge of a superhero MMO. We discussed what exactly Poz's role as Executive Producer is, as well as what the change means for Champions Online players. Most importantly, we asked which aspects of the game needed the most love going forward. Find all his answers below the cut.
Bill Roper made Cryptic's CCO, Jack Emmert switches to COO
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Bill_Roper_made_Cryptic_s_CCO_Jack_Emmert_switches_to_COO'; We here at Massively have recently discovered that Cryptic Studios' -- the developer behind Champions Online and Star Trek Online -- new Chief Creative Officer (CCO) moving forward will be Bill Roper, who was previously Executive Producer on Champions Online, a position now held by Shannon Posniewski. As for the previous CCO Jack Emmert, Cryptic informed us that he's moved into a new position as Chief Operations Officer for the developer. What all this means and what you can expect in the future from Cryptic will hopefully be answered in our forthcoming interview with the two men. You should expect to see that interview in the next day or two, right here on Massively.
Cryptic's Jack Emmert: No Plans For Consoles, STO over 100K subscribers
"100% of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be. There are no current plans for a console version of Champions." Thus sayeth Cryptic Studio's Jack Emmert on the official Champions Online forums, ending speculation when or if this event would happen. Over the past couple years, it looked as though Cryptic had console ports in its plans, from bringing on board console engine programmers to public plans of expanding their subscriber base into the console market. However, when the date for the supposed console release kept getting pushed back, players grew worried, and now it seems that the concern was justified. This might have been compounded by the fact that recently Champions Online experienced a major transition as executive producer Bill Roper stepped down and Shannon "Poz" Posniewski took over. The folks over at The Big Freaking Podcast grabbed a bit of face time with Jack Emmert, Cryptic's Chief Operating Officer, to expand on this news as well as the future for Champions and Star Trek Online. Read on for the highlights of this interview!
Champions Online talks about their new executive producer
The change of leadership on Champions Online produced some pretty strong reactions, nearly all of them aimed at Bill Roper. Fair or not, there was a general sense that many of the game's problems were linked to him being in charge, and in the midst of everything it was a bit easy to lose sight of the new executive producer. Shannon Posniewski, known to forum regulars as "Poz" and former Lead Programmer, has inherited the job and all that goes along with it, good and bad. That means it's a fine time to learn a little more about the person in charge of the game's direction. Posniewski has been with Cryptic for some time, having worked on City of Heroes before the studio left the game behind and moved on to Champions Online. He discusses a fair bit about his experience working on the games, as well as some of his own tips for working in the game industry and what sort of challenges are faced. What he doesn't mention are his plans for the game's near future -- but those facts are fairly public knowledge at this point. Considering how much impressions of the game were based upon Bill Roper's personality, it seems more than fair to give the new guy his own turn at the helm.
Bill Roper no longer executive producer of Champions Online, game improvements promised
Most of the news coming out of Cryptic Studios of late has centered around Star Trek Online, which has garnered quite a following and looks to expand with the upcoming Season 1 patch. But Champions Online hasn't gone anywhere, and the game is gearing up for its mini-expansion and for the future. A state of the game letter has just been released, announcing both what's coming for the game as well as some management shakeups. The latter comes last in the letter but is worth noting early -- Shannon Posniewski, known as Poz on the forums, will be assuming the Executive Producer role for the game, taking over from Bill Roper. In terms of actual in-game changes, the letter reiterates many things we heard at the GDC: the team knows there are level bands that are a bit thinner in terms of content than the players (or the developers) would like. While they're not prepared to reveal details, they are looking to expand those areas with more content and more to do. There's also the promise of new Adventure Packs, which sound similar in concept to the packs of Dungeons and Dragons Online. The full letter also mentioned updates to powersets and melee damage that should be welcome news for all Champions Online players, a clear sign the game is moving forward and not forgotten.
