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GDC09: The rise of the MMOs
Here we are in the midst of another epic Games Developers Conference and we can't help but reflect on how much importance MMOs and Virtual Worlds have in the gaming industry these days. Everywhere we look, there are new ways to integrate the online experience with having fun and meeting new people. Throughout the week and beyond (as embargoes get lifted), we're bringing you more MMO panels and interviews than ever before. This is promising for those of us who happen to love MMOs.So even though the convention isn't over until tomorrow, we wanted to take this opportunity to fill you in on what we've already seen, and what is yet to come later in the week. You can check out our GDC09 tag page for the ongoing panels and exclusive interviews we've already conducted, plus look forward to more goodies from Runes of Magic, Hero Engine, Funcom, Mythic, Earthrise, CCP, Global Agenda, Aion [catch breath] and much more!%Gallery-48610%
Vuzix dips toes in augmented reality, makes video eyewear cool again
Nintendo ain't the only company making waves at the Game Developers Conference this year -- oh no, we've also got Vuzix gettin' down and dirty with a brand new addition to its video eyewear segment. Said outfit has teamed up with metaio in order to showcase a new Augmented Reality Accessory Kit for the VR920 head-mounted display. The bundle will include the CamAR -- a clip-on USB camera that is designed to accurately track objects and the user's position in three-dimensional space -- along with the PhasAR wireless augmented reality input controller. When these are used in unison, users are able to simultaneously see what's going on in the Matrix and in the display. For instance, imagine reading a book that's tied into a program on the VR920; as you read along, images can pop up and complement the text. Far out, right? The full release is after the break, and we've been told that the attachment should sell for around $100 on top of the $399 VR920 when it ships around mid-Summer.
The Daily Grind: What announcements do you expect at GDC this week?
The Game Developers Conference is all this week and we'll be there to report the latest MMO news on your favorite games, old and new. Last year's conference revealed some exciting news on fresh projects like Love, as well as unexpected hits like the reveal of APB. As we gear up for a week of interviews, panels and hands-on play time, we can't help but wonder what the big announcements will be for this year. We already know about Funcom's unveiling of The Secret World, as well as goodies from Blizzard, Mythic and CCP, but what secrets lie in store for us hungry MMO news junkies? Let us know what you think will be the biggest surprises of GDC 2009.
Eskil Steenberg on developing the Love MMO solo
Massively multiplayer online games are the result of millions of dollars of investment and the collective efforts of a large team of developers to produce... right? Not according to Eskil Steenberg, who has the distinction of being the only individual we've heard of who's developing an MMO by himself, titled Love. No doubt this is a Herculean task before Steenberg, but Love is by all indications rather far along in development, particularly in light of the video footage we've seen in the past. Steenberg recently did an interview with GameSource, discussing aspects of Love ranging from his motivations to take on a project of this scale by himself to the tools he's using to make his game concepts a reality. Eskil Steenberg will be in attendance at this month's Game Developers Conference, so it's a safe bet you can expect to hear more about Love at Massively in the coming weeks.
Fallen Earth MMO tour will bring devs to GDC 09
We've mentioned a rather unique approach that the Fallen Earth team is taking to promote their upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, a national tour across key cities in the United States. The Fallen Earth publicity tour began in North Carolina last month, meeting with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), and they've just announced that they'll be working with the IGDA again at this month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Fallen Earth will co-sponsor the IGDA networking event at GDC on March 24 and developers will be on hand to speak about the game. Key Fallen Earth devs planning to attend include project manager Colin Dwan; associate project manager Dave Haydysch; content team lead Marie Croall; product manager Jessica Orr; and lead game designer Lee Hammock.
Fallen Earth dev chat answers barrage of player questions
We don't know about you, but we can feel the era of post-apocalyptic and sci-fi MMOs fast approaching. Definitely on our 'ones to watch' list is Fallen Earth, currently in development at Fallen Earth LLC (formerly known as Icarus Studios). We mentioned the other day that the Fallen Earth devs would participate in a live Stratics 'House of Commons' dev chat, and among the five Fallen Earth team members on-hand was lead game designer Lee Hammock. The Fallen Earth devs responded to a blitz of questions from the game's future players in the Stratics dev chat, ranging from the benefits of capturing 'conflict towns' in PvP to mounted combat on horses and vehicles. In addition, Lee Hammock stated that game play videos should be released at some point in the next few weeks, and more info about the game will be coming out in tandem with this month's Game Developers Conference.Be sure to check out the Stratics House of Commons chat transcript for more on the kind of game Fallen Earth is shaping up to be.
Funcom to reveal The Secret World at GDC '09
There's clearly an imbalance in the genres represented in massively multiplayer online games in the current market climate. Fantasy reigns supreme, but fans of sci-fi are going to see more MMO titles geared towards their interests in the coming years. One genre that's still underrepresented, though, is horror. The Secret World is a horror MMO in development at Funcom that we've heard precious little of. That is, until now. Reporting for ShackNews, Chris Faylor writes that Funcom's Ragnar Tørnquist, game director for The Secret World, will present at the Game Developers Conference later this month. We're hoping his presentation will explain more of the game's premise. Presently, it's rumored to have secret society and Cthulu-esque elements to it, but we're excited that we'll finally be able to hear more about The Secret World when we cover GDC later this month.
GDC's Design Challenge panel tackles sex in games
How does "My First Time" sound as this year's topic for GDC's time-honored Game Design Challenge panel? It may sound like something we cooked up ourselves, but it is, in fact, legit. This year's theme is all about the dilemma of designing games centered on "sex and autobiography." Obliviously, this won't be a discussion on how to peddle porno games; instead, it'll be about tackling the taboo and coming out with something both artistic and unique ... and probably about how to avoid a situation like this.Eric Zimmerman (chief design officer at Gamelab), Steve Meretzky (game design VP at YouPlus), Kim Swift (Valve level designer) and Sulka Haro (Sulake lead designer) will all be speakers at the panel on March 25. Those who are attending the industry-only event might want to stop by Room 135, North Hall at 2:30pm to see what's going down ... no innuendo intended there.[Via G4TV]
EVE's Council of Stellar Management to be discussed at GDC 09
We mentioned that CCP Games plans to have a presence at the Game Developers Conference this year, but they've opted to give another presentation about EVE Online as well. CCP's Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson and Researcher Petur Johannes Oskarsson will speak about player governance in the virtual space, as exemplified by EVE Online's "Council of Stellar Management" (CSM). For those who haven't heard of it, the Council of Stellar Management is something unique to EVE Online. It exists to convey the sentiments of the playerbase to EVE's developer, CCP Games. The idea is that it will ensure that CCP Games is developing and balancing the game in ways that fit the interests of the subscribers. It also allows for concerns between the players and developers to be addressed in a direct way by CCP Games.CSM representatives are not selected by the developers, who largely maintain a hands-off stance on how the CSM is run. The players themselves organize their own election campaigns and the playerbase votes for who the best women and men are for the role. Each CSM term lasts for six months, during which time regular meetings take place, one of which happens in Reykjavik, in 3-days (or more) of face-to-face sessions with CCP Games. The GDC 09 session is titled: "The Council of Stellar Management: EVE Online Bridges Worlds for a Society".
CCP Games to present at Game Developers Conference 2009
CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, has announced that they'll have a presence at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next month. The company's CMO, Ryan Scott Dancey (aka CCP RyanD), is slated to speak about how CCP uses social network engineering to reach out to more subscribers. Specifically, he'll describe how the company puts Tipping Point theory (about how information spreads) into action. That session is titled: "Network Marketing: Leveraging Social Networks to Grow an MMO".On the technology front, CCP's CTO Halldor Fannar will speak at GDC 2009 in a session geared more towards programmers and technical artists, "From Evolution to Revolution: Upgrading the Graphics Engine of EVE Online". Fannar will lay out the issues CCP has faced with upgrading EVE's graphics engine, and explain how their ideas went from being on paper to a shipping game. His presentation will show the tools in action that allowed them to "take the required generational leap in art production." Game Developers Conference 2009 runs from March 23-27 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, and as we've mentioned previously, will have a lot to offer MMO fans of all genres.
Game Developers Choice Awards finalists announced
The finalists for this year's Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced, with Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet adoring judges with nine nominations, including one for Game of the Year. Other titles up for the prestigious award include Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto IV and, of course, Fable 2. The Joystiq darling is also a shoe-in for snub of the year with Lionhead's opus going overlooked entirely in the Best Writing category. Seriously, what's the deal?Braid, Far Cry 2, Spore, World of Goo, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War 2 are all up for multiple awards, with winners set to take the stage during next month's gala event as part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The show will be hosted by Grim Fandango and Brütal Legend's Tim Schafer, promising a tongue-in-cheek good time even if our personal faves leave empty handed.
Earthrise dev chat discusses beta and first in-game video dates
For anyone who missed it, the guys over at MMORPG.com have posted the transcript from last Saturday's Earthrise dev chat. The two big pieces of information to come out of the talks were beta start and in-game video dates -- both of which seem to be happening around GDC09 or sometime shortly after the end of March. Although other topics were discussed, such as weapon customization and the issue of having no friendly-fire in PvP combat.In fact, that last question came up twice during the chat, with players wondering how PvP zerg tactics were going to be dealt with by the developer. The general answer was that it will be looked into during the beta testing phase and dealt with then. If there's one thing we've learned from past experiences, it's that players will go to immense lengths to break a balanced system. To that end, we wish developer Masthead Studios the best of luck in balancing this particular issue, as they're probably going to need it.
Satoru Iwata to deliver GDC 2009 keynote
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata will be putting his oratorical skills to the test, delivering a keynote entitled "Discovering New Development Opportunities" at this year's Game Developers Conference. There are no other details provided, and trying to discern any surprise announcements based on that speech title is pretty much a fruitless endeavor.Iwata last gave a GDC keynote in 2006, when he showed Brain Age and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Company man Miyamoto gave the 2007 speech and revealed ... the Everybody Votes Channel. As for last year, the House of Mario's presence was limited to a handful of sessions. Get your bingo cards ready, Iwata's keynote is set for Monday, March 25 at 9 a.m. PST (that's noon, Joystiq Standard Time).
Kaplan to speak at the Game Developers Conference
Jeffrey Kaplan (also known as Tigole) is scheduled to speak at this years Game Developers Conference, which should prove to be really, really interesting for us WoW players. The conference is aimed at sharing knowledge among game developers, and Kaplan's panel is aimed at discussing World of Warcraft's questing system, as well as how gameplay has an effect on lore and story.As someone who regularly geeks out about the lore of Warcraft, it disappoints me that I can't be there to listen to it in person. Gameplay always has a really large effect on how the lore of a video game world is allowed to play out (especially in MMOs) but a lot of those constraints have been overcome with the advances made in Wrath of the Lich King. The things they've done to overcome those issues largely come from Tigole's team of developers.I very much hope that transcripts of GDC's panels find their way to the web shortly after the conference. One of my favorite parts of BlizzCon and BlizzCast is the somewhat behind the scenes look into the process, and the philosophy that goes into how and why Blizzard does what they do. This pretty much sounds right up my alley, and I know a lot of you have expressed the same sentiment each time a new BlizzCast has gone live. I'll definitely be watching for any transcripts that pop up.
Despite 3.4 million downloads, PlayStation Home announced too early
The new virtual world we've written about at Massively, PlayStation Home, seems to have garnered itself a large user base despite getting off to a rocky start. Kaz Hirai of Sony Computer Entertainment mentioned in his Consumer Electronics Show speech that 3.4 million PlayStation 3 users have downloaded Home. It was, however, announced too early according to key members of the Home team in an interview with Develop.Announcing Home back at the 2007 Game Developer's Conference had the effect of stoking the interest of third parties (not to mention gamers and virtual world residents), but there was no where to run with their projects, given the early stage of Home's development at that time. Indeed, Home's Game Director Peter Edward feels that initially some developers were reluctant to get involved, but that situation is beginning to change. Edward says, "The feedback we've been getting is that, in the early days, it was a bit thin on the ground in terms of support and tools, but now it's mature and everybody's starting to produce some really interesting stuff."
GDC looks to Canada in 2009
As our neighbor to the North continues to grow in size and scale within the games industry the group responsible for the Game Developers Conference has taken notice.Think Services' Game Group has announced a partnership with Reboot Communications to bring GDC to Canada in association with New Media BC's Vancouver Digital Week in May 2009, according to GamesIndustry.biz.After breaking attendance records at the recent Austin GDC, organizers hope to bring its popular networking and learning conference to the North with a similar level of success.*Yes, we're aware of the irony in this post considering it was written by a Canadian.
Mythic's Barnett rails against GDC's 'peacock display'
With the demise of E3 proper some two years ago, there's been a tectonic shift in the way games are announced, developed, and shown off. Where once the entire development year revolved around having a polished trailer or playable demo available at the conference in May, the burden has shifted a bit. One of the events that has really assumed some of the burden up to this point has been the Game Developers Conference, an annual event where game developers get together to network, discuss design philosophy, and occasionally show off their wares.According to Mythic's Paul Barnett, that might be less worthwhile than it sounds. For long-time attendees like himself, the conference is the repetition of a tired, old "peacock display," where people come to argue about the same things they've always argued about. For someone in his position, nothing productive stands to get accomplished. While our gut feeling was to dispute the point, his argument isn't entirely unfounded. The difference, we suppose, is that as outsiders we rather enjoy the peacock display.
Rob Pardo to keynote at the Paris Game Developers Conference
Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Senior Vice President of Game Design, has been recruited to keynote the Paris GDC this summer, which will take place on June 23rd and 24th at the at the Coeur Défense Convention Centre in Paris. He'll participate in a Q&A session in which he will discuss his inspirations and challenges, as well as Blizzard's future plans. The official press release should appear soon on the Paris GDC site. The Paris GDC will be taking place a few days before Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in the same city. We're expecting a lot of choice WoTLK news to drop there, but certainly, Pardo may say something juicy ahead of time at the Paris GDC, and we'll be sure to find out if he does.
The Daily Grind: What would you pay for?
At this year's Game Developer's Conference, a lot of hay was made over the concept of microtransactions and the free-to-play model. Attendees seemed split right down the middle, some for, some against. It wouldn't be a stretch to characterize the Massively readership as similarly split. But for those of you who love your free-to-play MMOs, is there anything that would get you to pay a monthly fee?Many titles have the option to both play free and pay a monthly; Dofus, for example, and Second Life too, to polarize the offerings. Are there any such models that have shot themselves in the foot by making the paid content not appealing enough to energize users to pay? If not, what will it take?
GDC08: Cartoon Network's FusionFall
We were invited to check out Cartoon Network's upcoming kid-focused MMO FusionFall, and while clearly still in development, it shows a lot of potential. Developed in part by Korea's Grigon Entertainment, makers of Seal Online, QRing, and Gambledon, this is a title with a great deal of pedigree under the hood. Among the notable names on this project are Sam Lewis, former systems and content designer for Star Wars Galaxies; Robert Knopf, recently of Ultima Online; and Richard Weil, the community relations manager for many MMOs, including City of Heroes/Villains, Lineage I and II, Tabula Rasa, and Auto Assault.With so many experienced and creative people behind it, FusionFall definitely stands to make a splash in the 8 - 14 year old demographic that Cartoon Network is shooting for. This isn't to say they don't have a few challenges ahead of them, however. We'll explore this, and show you the trailer, after the break.%Gallery-16922%
