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Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen restarting with volunteer team
The last major update posted regarding Brad McQuaid's dream MMO, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, didn't leave a lot of ambiguity. The game had no prototypes to be shown off, it had failed at its Kickstarter campaign, and the funding raised by fans had completely worn out. So you'd think that would mean it was the end of the road, but instead McQuaid has posted an update on the state of the game's development, and according to the post, the team is being rebuilt and progress will be made. McQuaid explains that the new development team will be working as volunteers for three main reasons: There's no money to pay this new team, McQuaid doesn't want to go through the same stresses that were involved in putting together the last remote team, and as the team will also be remote, it will require a certain amount of adjustment and uncertainty. If you're still hoping for the game's eventual release, you should take a look at McQuaid's full update on the official site. [With thanks to Cederhill for the tip.]
Shroud of the Avatar team adds Starr Long to the mix
Fans of the Ultima series should be happy to hear that Shroud of the Avatar has added Starr Long to its roster as executive producer. Don't recognize the name? You should; according to Richard Garriott, Starr Long is the reason that Ultima Online existed in the first place. As Garriott puts it, while there had been discussions about doing an online installment of the series, Long was the one who was insistent that Ultima Online needed to happen. He was so much the driving force behind it that Garriott points to him as the push that kept him working on the game. A formal announcement will be made on Saturday at RTX 2013 alongside a special demonstration of Shroud of the Avatar, which will be available via livestream. If you've been hoping to see some of the key players behind UO back together, it looks as if you're in luck. [Source: Portalarium press release]
Brad McQuaid returns to EverQuest
It's like getting the band together again. Less than a year ago, Brad McQuaid returned to Vanguard, the game that he had created. But McQuaid had room to go even further back to his first position of note... and now he's done it. It's been confirmed on the official forums that Brad McQuaid is now back with EverQuest, a fact that has resulted in no shortage of fan shock. McQuaid says that after 12 years, he couldn't resist the chance to rejoin the team and get back to work on the game, which he feels still bears many traces of work he did back when he was first involved in development. He also hints that some of his first projects will involve elements of the game that have been hinted at since launch, although he avoids further explanation. Whether you're happy or sad about it as an old-school EverQuest player, you can't deny that it's big news. [Thanks to Tess for the tip!]
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A personal tribute to Paragon Studios
When I started my career at Massively, I wasn't hired to be the City of Heroes guy. I wasn't hired to be the anything guy, although I quickly earned a reputation. It was a few months after I got hired that I got the opportunity to start doing a pair of weekly columns, one on City of Heroes and one about the online Final Fantasy installments. This was due to the fact that my affection for City of Heroes was well-known on staff, and I was already knee-deep in the game, so... It wasn't quite three years ago, but it was close enough. And I've said many times that my professional career has been tied in directly with City of Heroes because of that. As I've grown as a writer and a journalist, I've been working alongside City of Heroes. So today I'm not going to talk as much about the game itself. I'm going to talk about the people of Paragon Studios, some of whom I had the good fortune to interact with over the years and all of whom seem to be absolutely astonishing human beings.
Anarchy Online's director leaves the game
Parting is such sweet sorrow, and fans of Anarchy Online are receiving a full dose of that sorrow. Fia Tjernberg, the game's current director, has announced in a forum post that she is leaving her post as director due to the deteriorating health of a family member and the numerous Funcom layoffs. As she puts it, her departure ensures that the existing staff will have less pressure to reduce its numbers, which she feels is better for the health of the game in the long run. Tjernberg stresses that the team behind Anarchy Online has completed or nearly completed a number of wonderful projects that improve the overall game experience, including the graphical revamp, which is slated to be released in the near future. At this time there has been no announcement of who will be the game's next director. This comes in the wake of Tjernberg's previous statements regarding the layoffs and Anarchy Online and last week's announcement that senior content designer Brad McAtee is departing the game. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
Captain's Log: Preparing for launch (and farewells)
Hello, computer (and players)! As we are all now aware, the development team at Star Trek Online is busy making its preparations to re-launch the game with a hybrid, free-to-play model. Currently, the Tribble test server has been taken down as a beta build is being prepared for testing. In the meantime, Red Shirt, originally a Closed Beta test sever, has been opened up to current subscribers to continue testing new releases that will occur between now and the F2P launch. While there is still no date set for when this will be happening, many signs point to an October or November launch period. To add to the craziness that must be going on at Cryptic's headquarters in Northern California, on Tuesday, Dan Stahl, Executive Producer of STO, publicly announced that he would be vacating the Captain's Chair as he moves on to a new endeavor in his career. Effective immediately, Stephen D'Angelo, Cryptic's CTO, will be taking temporary command as the search for a new EP begins. While this came as a shock to many and was completely unexpected even by me, it may not be the "end of the world" as some players are calling it. Let's explore more. Ensign, warp 10! Set sensors to maximum range as we explore a little bit more about this change...
Naoki Yoshida hints at future developments in latest Final Fantasy XIV letter
One of the promises that Naoki Yoshida made to Final Fantasy XIV players upon taking over the job of producer was regular, open communication. It's an easy promise to make, but the producer has also followed through in the delivery with his regular letters to the community as a whole. The newest letter has just been released, promising a variety of changes and updates in tomorrow's patch 1.17 and beyond -- including hints of an additional job system supplementing the existing Armoury system. The main thrust of this particular letter is explaining the division of labor in the game's development, with teams working on battle system revamps and improvements alongside quest teams and art teams, allowing for the game's current pace of small, rapid patches. There's also a promise that the Grand Companies will soon be unveiled on the official site, organizations which Yoshida states will be extremely important in the game's upcoming content. Final Fantasy XIV fans can read the full letter on the official forums.
Win a developer's heart, win a date in Fallen Earth
Are you feeling lonely today? Kind of understandable -- as much as we like to say that this is the most commercial and pointless holiday ever, it's still hard not to feel a pang of loneliness, especially if you're wandering the wasteland of Fallen Earth alone. But the day's not over yet, and if you can scrounge up enough poker chips, you might just be able to buy yourself a date for the night with a developer, albeit via Skype. Yes, the development team behind Fallen Earth has decided to take the heart-ripping antics to the next level, placing the hearts of several developers on the Auction House for players to purchase. Winning a heart means winning a 10-minute date with the team member on Skype, and while you probably won't be asking what the other person is wearing, it's still a fun chance to get in on the spirit of the event. Besides, it's cheaper than roses, right?
Player poll results and future plans for Final Fantasy XIV
After a week of silence, it seems the new development team has finished putting together data from Final Fantasy XIV's start-of-year player poll. Naoki Yoshida makes as much clear in the first few lines of his incredibly dense producer's letter, which contains a broad outline of what the team is targeting first in the game's development, as well as the results of the first poll. The results alone merit a great deal of discussion, with the responses charted out for ease of viewing and Yoshida devoting much of his letter to his interpretation of the results. Among the more interesting takeaways are the plans to implement official forums starting in early March, with Yoshida stating he will be posting regular updates on the front page until the forums launch. Several items are under close examination, including jumping, increased stack sizes for several items, and the addition of an auction house -- all of which are very real possibilities for the near future. There's also plans to add in more story-based quests and mini-quests, the addition of public companies (no word on how this will interact with the previously promised company system or if it replaces it), and so many changes that it's hard to summarize. Final Fantasy XIV players should take a look at the full letter, which boasts a lot to get excited about.
The Daily Grind: Are you mollified by developer apologies?
If you're playing Final Fantasy XIV or just following news about the game, you've been witness to developers repeatedly eating crow for any and all flaws with the game. In the eyes of some players, of course, the damage has been done, and no amount of apologizing will help. For others, however, a simple apology makes things more palatable. Whatever flaws the game might have are made more bearable when you know the people in charge are working on cleaning them up. There are a lot of times when development teams have been forced to take public blame, putting out letters and dispatches to assuage player concerns.. The real question is, does it make a difference? If you get a heartfelt apology from the development team and a promise to fix things up, do you feel placated? Or do you just wonder why the problems that prompted the apology weren't addressed in the first place? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The development team of Final Fantasy XI shares insights with players
If you asked Final Fantasy XI players to describe the usual nature of the development team, "taciturn" might be thrown around, as would "mute" and "uncommunicative" and "sadistic." Which makes the newest dispatch from the development team uncharacteristic in many ways, because it represents a heretofore uncommon level of transparency from the team. Addressing several topics that arose from the December version update, the full sessions of questions and answers includes a number of interesting tidbits for players. One of the stated goals within the dispatch is that the team wishes to have the widest variety of players able to access the widest variety of content, an attitude that hasn't always seemed to be at the forefront of Square-Enix's priorities. There's also a promise to make Pet Food Eta easier to create and a quick discussion of the numerous hard drive problems noted for PlayStation 2 players. Final Fantasy XI players should take a look at the full set of questions, hopefully heralding an upswing in communications.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: 2010's roguish review
I joked once, long ago, that I should never answer WRUP truthfully, because it will invariably result in a total lack of doing what I announced. Lo and behold, I had the time to play through a single Mission Architect mission amidst an intensely obnoxious virus (just at that level where you're sick enough to know it but not sick enough to avoid work) and the preparation needed to get my house ready for hosting an entire family. For the record? Never agree to do that for your family, no matter who your family is. So instead, we're going to take a look through the big news of the year, the five biggest stories that have affected City of Heroes in the past 12 months. I had originally planned to save this one for next week, but I doubt that we'll get an enormous piece of news between now and next week. It's been an interesting year for the game as a whole, so between an expansion, major updates, and tumultuous times in the larger MMO world, let's look at the five biggest stories pertaining to the city.
More details on the last City of Heroes meetup for the year
Unfortunately, enormous war machines from a parallel Earth will not be in attendance at the City of Heroes meet-and-greet scheduled for this Saturday in California. (Although depending on how much you were hoping to get stomped, this might really be a net positive.) There will, however, be several members of the game's production staff on hand, and the Paragon Studios team has revealed details on just what fans can expect from this final gathering. As is tradition, the staff will be raffling off several prizes, including the recently unveiled wall prints to help decorate your home. There will also be a pair of roundtable discussions with the team regarding powers and costumes, as well as a short presentation by the senior design staff. David "Noble Savage" Nakayama will also be at the event to provide sketches of player characters chosen at random, encouraging players to bring a color screenshot of a character to the event. City of Heroes players in the area are encouraged to attend, as it promises to be a pretty fun chance to meet the team.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: All the news that's fit from PAX
The revelations at PAX East were pretty darn big for City of Heroes, but they had a big advantage over PAX Prime. At the time we sat down in Boston, Going Rogue was months away, and we knew almost nothing about what it would bring us. This time around, it's been out for a couple of weeks, and most of the fancy pieces of knowledge are pretty well established. It would be hard, if not impossible, for the development team to hit us with the same one-two punch. I wouldn't argue that the team quite managed that -- there's no comparison to revealing two new power sets, the endgame system, and video demonstrations of much-awaited sets -- but Paragon Studios sure did manage to drop quite a bomb on us. As I've done frequently in the past, we're going to take this point by point, with a full collection of neat pieces of news that leave me wondering just how much interesting stuff is yet to come from the development team.
Friday night's all right for fighting with Champions Online developers
Champions Online, like any game developed by a smaller studio, is fundamentally produced by people who enjoy the game that they're making. So it's not exactly surprising when they decide to host a night for players to play directly with the development team. They've run a few in the past, but this time they'll be taking on the largest new piece of content in the game at the moment: the still-infamous mini-expansion in Vibora Bay. A couple of players are a bit surprised in the discussion thread that the developers are opting for PvE content rather than the PvP nights that had been fairly well-established. An official response was quick to come, explaining that while the developers also like the PvP encounters, they want to get a chance to play with the members of the community not necessarily interested in the PvP side of things. The event will be running from 4 PM to 7PM PST (7 PM to 10 PM EST), making it an excellent chance for Champions Online players to enjoy the game on Friday night with the team behind it.
Ask us questions for the City of Heroes developers!
As the game's fans are no doubt well aware, City of Heroes is hosting a developer Q&A via forumspring.me on Friday. They'll be answering live questions from the players, which is all well and good... but we all know that there's the chance, however slim, that your question might not get answered. Luckily for our readers, we've got the opportunity to ensure that your questions get heard by the development team. And all you have to do is leave us a comment with your question! The three best questions, as chosen by our staff, will be submitted for an assured answer during the question and answer setting. Leave a comment here by 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, April 22nd if you want it to be up for consideration. We'll take a look at all of them, and the results will be visible for everyone. It's not quite as good as having a burning whip to force the team to answer questions, but it's probably the next best thing for City of Heroes fans. (We hear those whips cost a fortune anyway.)
Fallen Earth developers want you to be their valentine
Assuming the Prairie Chickens, scavengers, and warring factions don't get you, the Grand Canyon of Fallen Earth is a pretty romantic place. And the wide open spaces give a real sense of of inspiration, even if they just inspire you to get down behind cover before you test your clone's survival ratio against buckshot. So it makes perfect sense to compose a poem in the vein of Valentine's Day, and send it to some of the people closest to your heart in the wasteland... the game's developers. From now until the end of February 14th, there's a thread on the official Fallen Earth forums for players to submit their most original and interesting wasteland-inspired love poetry. Three winners will be chosen on the 15th, based on the quality and originality of each entry, and will be rewarded with a t-shirt and special valentines directly from the development team. But even if that doesn't warm your heart, they've even given out an early gift of affection through a special discount when you purchase the game in the official store. Ain't love grand?
Beat Fallen Earth developers at their own game for sweet, sweet prizes
It's not very often that you get the chance to beat developers at their own game. It's even rarer when you get the chance to beat developers at their own game and win prizes for it. If you want our advice, take the Fallen Earth team up on their current beta contest -- Dev Hunt.Beta testers are going to get the chance to hunt down the Fallen Earth developers and kill them in-game for a shot at some nice prizes, including an Nvidia GTX 260 video card, Logitech G11 keyboard, Razer DeathAdder gaming mice, and Fallen Earth swag. If you're a beta tester, all you need to do is log into the Grand Canyon Province on August 8th at 12 PM EDT (GMT-4 for those who need time conversions) and start hunting a developer that's around your level. You get points for being logged in and points if you're present when a developer dies. The event will last until 3 PM EDT.Not a beta tester? Not to worry! Fill out the registration form and you can still get in on the developer destruction! Just make sure to register before August 6th, or no developer hunting for you!
Aion receives a new community manager
Who speaks fluent Klingon, played Counter-Strike competitively, won Star Trek trivia contests, and is the community manager of NCsoft's upcoming MMORPG, Aion? Why it would be Lani Blazier, aka "Liv!"Lani is no stranger to the gaming industry, if you hadn't noticed. Not only does she have all of the accomplishments above, but she's also a graduate of the Game Art and Design program at the Art Institute in Vancouver, BC. Before her new home at NCsoft, she was an assistant producer at Threewave Software, adding her name to six games during her stay there. While she was at Gamehouse, she switched from the production angle to the community angle after being exposed to game communities by a variety of online social games.We happily welcome Lani to the Aion development steam, and wish her and the rest of the team the best of luck with their new game. If you want to know more about her, check out her community profile over at the Aion main site!
