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SOE Live 2014: H1Z1 is a full-fledged survival experience
With an event like Zombie Prom, it was hard not to notice a certain undead theme at this year's SOE Live. That's all courtesy of the studio's upcoming apocalyptic survival game H1Z1. And thanks to plenty of panels, interviews, and the keynote, we learned even more about the game: The new sandbox is so much more than a zombie shooter; it's a full fledged survival experience. There were even opportunities for fans to nab some hands-on playtime. We had the chance to mix and mingle with Producer Steve George, Senior Game Designer Jimmy Whisenhunt, Art Director Bill Yeatts, Technical Director Tom Schenck, and Game Designer Adam Clegg to discuss where H1Z1 came from, where it is going, and how far it has gotten. Delve into the new air drops, the heat and temperature systems, and so much more. We've also embedded the full keynote panel for you.
SOE Live 2014 in pictures: H1Z1's Zombie Prom, a costume contest, and attendees galore
Every year there seems to be something different at SOE Live. IN 2013, there was the big reveal of the new EverQuest Next and the surprise announcement of Landmark, complete with sand art and champagne. This year, one popular festivity focused on another new title in development: H1Z1. Attendees got all dolled up and put on their best undead faces for a night of dancing at the Zombie Prom (those who preferred the living enjoyed a pool party). It was quite the evening, complete with a wedding proposal! But even as some things change, some stay the same. Friends and guildies meet up (or just plain meet!), games are played, tournaments are won, costumes are shown off, swag is collected, and folks have a good time geeking out with devs. There were also plenty of heart-warming moments, from stories of players helping players to actual weddings. If you weren't able to attend the festivities, or you just want a little pick-me-up as you come down from your convention high, here's a quick look at the weekend in pictures.
SOE Live 2014: Thursday keynote liveblog announces EQ and EQII expansions, more
Are you looking forward to getting a hint of what's to come for your favorite SOE games this next year? SOE Live's Thursday keynote has just kicked off, and SOE notables like John Smedley are taking the stage to give fans a hint of the announcements coming over the course of the weekend. We're here live to give you the scoop directly from the devs, and we'll be keeping this post updated as it progresses. You can also can watch the presentation streamed live below. Keynote announcements on Friday have all the juicy details, so don't miss them! Four awards for Player Studio: Highest creator - BeastBuster with over $25,000 to date; Most Prolific creator - Rollen; Most Improved Creator - Jerry "Rawl" Dechant; and Most inspirational - Neko Zero. Player Direct awards -- you can see all full-length film on the official site. H1Z1 is coming out on the PS4. The Play it Forward initiative is gamers helping others, in game or in life. Tournaments: Prize money on the line for participants. Dragon's Prophet is introducing a new system where you find and raise dragon hatchlings. EverQuest is introducing a new category to Player Studio. EQ working on a new advanced looting feature. EQ's next expansion is The Darkened Sea. EverQuest II's 10th anniversary in November, the 11th expansion Alter of Malice is launching on 11/11. New classes for EverQuest Next will be announced tomorrow. A touching video tribute to EQII's Ribbitribbit was presented. SOE encouraged support for AbleGamers, Gamers4Life, and Military Gamers.
SOE Live player panels include support for military gamers
SOE Live posted its list of player panels today for its convention, with topics ranging from supporting military gamers to fansite management. The full list is as follows: Friday, August 15 11:00 am - 12:00 pm -– EQ2U & Dragon's Armory 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm –- Live Together, Die Alone: Surviving H1Z1 as a Group 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm –- Inter-Outfit Operations in PS2 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm –- Become Your Character: Tricks and Tips for Cosplay 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm –- Military Gamers: Taking Care of Each Other Saturday, August 16 10:00 am - 11:00 am -– Social Media/Steaming & Fansites 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm -– Effective Guild and League Management 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm –- Improving Your EverQuest 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm –- DCUO – Advanced Raid Tactics 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm –- The New Conglomerate 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm -– Hardcore Decorating in EQII 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm –- EQII Game Macros, ACT Triggers, and You!
H1Z1 releases E3 gameplay demo
Unless you were personally at E3, you didn't get to see the H1Z1 gameplay demo shown to the media, but SOE rectifies that injustice today with a new video in which Senior Designer Jimmy Whisenhunt walks viewers through a version of the same demo shown at the con. Clocking in at over 11 minutes, the video demonstrates resource acquisition, crafting, driving, scavenging, archery, dynamic weather, and more gameplay elements. You know -- killin' baddies, choppin' trees, just a day in the life of a dude with a rusty jeep and a zombie plague chasing him down.
H1Z1 working hard on Steam early access prep
SOE Technical Director Tom Schenck penned the first dev blog for H1Z1 yesterday, saying that the team is in overdrive preparing the title for its debut on Steam Early Access. However, in regard to a specific date as to when H1Z1 will be publicly available, Schenck wasn't sharing. Schenck said that the team is strongly focusing on getting the antagonists to look and play the part: "High priority on our Early Access feature list is polishing group behavior and tuning Emergent AI systems to the entire ecosystem. Our AI team is going nuts regulating interactions for all of the NPC characters in the game including zombies, deer, wolves, and more." Other stated priorities for the team right now include fine tuning melee combat, maxing out performance, and bug hunting.
Smedley plays H1Z1 on Steam, talks early access
John Smedley tells Reddit that he has played H1Z1 on Steam. "It's our first step toward early access launch," he writes, though the date is still up in the air. "We don't mean to be coy about the date," he says. "We just realized after that initial date it would be smarter to announce it after our feature list was complete. So expect to hear more on the date fairly soon." Smedley also mentions a few features that the dev team is currently working on, including bow crafting, "shooting a deer in the eye with the bow," and more. [Header image by H1Z1Jane via SOE]
E3 2014: The Division recaps its demo
Eager to hear more about The Division in the wake of the E3 media blitz? For those of you not on the ground during the convention, the latest development blog recaps the fine points on display in the game's E3 demo. As the blog explains, the core conceit of The Division is that you're not accepting the collapse of civilization but pushing back against it, chiefly by shooting the heck out of bandits and creeps until they're not a problem any longer. As described by the blog post, the game utilizes a complex AI for enemies -- sniping a bandit but not his friends results in the others running back for reinforcements, leading to a pitched firefight and a chance to use special unlocked abilities. The demo also showed off using the support app to take control of a drone, allowing you to see around walls and provide important data to allies even without being directly in the game. Check out the full recap for a thorough breakdown of where the game is right now in terms of game mechanics. Massively's on the ground in Los Angeles during the week of June 10-12, bringing you all the best news from E3 2014. We're covering everything from WildStar and Landmark to Skyforge and H1Z1, so stay tuned!
E3 2014: Hands-on with H1Z1
I'm coughing. My head hurts. I'm tired, hungry, and thirsty. I'm not hearing things anymore, but when I close my eyes for too long, I feel disoriented. And this was before I got my hands on H1Z1! I'm sick at E3, but well enough to see through some spin while looking at a winner. If you're tired of hype, false promises, and pay-to-play alphas, come read between the lines with me as I recount the experience of my H1Z1 demo.
E3 2014: SOE's evil ways on display in this H1Z1 teaser
SOE has taken the wraps off "My Evil Ways," a new trailer for zombie sandbox H1Z1. The clip is comprised of gameplay footage and seems to endorse the kill-or-be-killed mentality that typically permeates apocalyptic fiction. View it in full after the break!
H1Z1 floats possible server rulesets
A short Reddit post from SOE revealed a few possible server rulesets that the team has been discussing for H1Z1. While these aren't set in stone, it is an interesting peek into the possibilities of both official and player-run servers. The possible server rulesets include: Hardcore ruleset (wipes all ownership and recipes upon death) PvP vs. PvE Military weapons toggle Guns toggle (melee/bows only server) Roleplay (VOIP attracts zombies and other tidbits) World chat vs. area chat Hardcore ruleset #2: Starvation! (food and water consumption are much higher) Hardcore ruleset #3: Zombies and wolves are deadlier, faster, and hardier Base destructibility (easy, hard, not at all) SOE also indicated that it would be possible to create rulesets that mix-and-matched between these ideas.
The Division developers explain the 2015 delay
A lot of people weren't particularly surprised to learn that The Division was being delayed until 2015, but it's still nice to find out exactly why. After all, if you're looking forward to the game at all, you would like to see it sooner rather than later. Gamereactor recently spoke with the development studio, and the developers explained the core reason behind the delay as simply being a matter of properly exploring the concept rather than releasing an unfinished game on a tighter schedule. According to the interview, the development team was upset at the original announcement of a 2014 release, as there had been no in-house discussion of release dates. The game's engine is quite powerful, but even the 2015 date may be overly optimistic, with The Division's multiplayer components still having major issues with implementation. Hopefully the delays will help ensure that the game is more polished and playable when it does release, whether that's in 2015 or later.
Special H1Z1 livestream event going on right now
SOE is planning a special livestream event covering H1Z1 starting at 2:00 p.m. EST today. President John Smedley tweeted, "It's a surprise. It's entirely live. Its either going to be epic awesome or epic fail. Either way it will be worth tuning into. Either way, it's not going to bore you." You can watch it on H1Z1's Twitch channel or after the jump.
SOE's Jimmy Whisenhunt on the paranoia and potential of H1Z1
What's more dangerous to your survival after the apocalypse: undead abominations or your fellow humans? OK, that's certainly not a new question in the zombie gaming genre, although it's not going to stop H1Z1 from asking it. In fact, there's a haze of extreme familiarity that's settled around this title, even though it's the first full MMO on this scale to tackle a zombie survival sandbox. Is it almost too familiar for its own good? Will that familiarity be an asset or a drawback? Is SOE merely trying to cash in on the DayZ craze without trying much new? Or are these assumptions blinding us to the grander plan? To get a better feel for H1Z1, we got on the phone with Senior Designer Jimmy Whisenhunt. To start off, Whisenhunt gave us a quick summary of the game for those who aren't clued in to the whole. H1Z1 is a post-apocalyptic survival MMO that's more focused on physicality than stats. So instead of needing to level up, you'll find your initial challenges will be things like foraging for food, finding a shelter, building a campfire, and getting your hands on a weapon because everything wants to kill you. And when Whisenhunt says "everything," he means not just zombies but the environment, infection, weather, wildlife, and even other players.
Rust, H1Z1, and the emerging 'survival MMO' genre
I'm naked and alone again, but that's OK. After having to level up in other games a million times, deal with boring tutorials, repeatedly turn in quests that add no value to my play time, and then watch as my guild slowly bleeds members to the next MMO asking us to repeat the whole ordeal, "naked and alone" is actually nice. Well, maybe just the naked part. And that, my friends, is the horror-survival/post-apocalypse genre. I love MMOs, but recent themeparks and building games have left me wanting something a bit more dangerous but still not a pointless murderfest. For the most part, these games are less about levels and quests and more about finding items to make sure you don't die. Hunger meters, diseases, and limited supplies in a world filled with enemies who loot you certainly feels like a good throwback to classic RPGs mixed with the multiplayer I've been craving since Asheron's Call first hooked me on MMORPGs. But community-wise, these games have seemed more like lobby shooters than MMOs, which for a long time made me hesitate to try them. If you've been finding yourself in the same situation, hopefully my little plunge into this bloody genre will give you some ideas of what to expect.
Stick and Rudder: How Star Citizen is turning the game industry on its ear
When this column began, the first thing I talked about was Star Citizen's then-unique development model and how important it was both for fans and the game industry as a whole. Over a year later, the jury's still out on whether or not Cloud Imperium's opus will bring balance to the Force and give starving hardcores a home of their own. It's already safe to say that Star Citizen has turned the industry on its ear, though.
SOE is streaming H1Z1 right now [Videos uploaded now]
You know what goes great with lunch breaks (or breakfast, if you're one of those weirdo West Coasters)? Zombies, that's what. As such, SOE is serving up an H1Z1 livestream as we speak, so head to the game's official Twitch channel to see game designers Adam Clegg and Jimmy Whisenhunt laying the groundwork for this afternoon's content. This is a day-long stream, with dev interviews, office tours, John Smedley, and gameplay on tap. [Update: We've embedded the trailer and other stream highlights after the break.]
Here's a brief H1Z1 trailer
SOE sneaked a brief H1Z1 trailer onto the interwebs last week, and the clip features 58 seconds' worth of the night terrors typically associated with zombies and zombie video games. The trailer is called Will You Survive the Night. View it in its entirety after the cut.
The Daily Grind: How much paranoia should MMOs provoke?
A few weeks ago, SOE's John Smedley suggested that H1Z1's gameplay mechanics and atmosphere are intended make you "scared when you see someone" and that "your first instinct needs to be to hide." It seemed to me that what he was describing was not an MMORPG but the antithesis of an MMORPG. I usually log into MMOs to be surrounded by people, not to hide from them. Even in a game with open PvP, I don't want the entirety of my play experience to be summed up by sheer paranoia, especially a game that features so prominently a crafting-based and presumably social economy. What do you think -- how much do you want the feeling of paranoia and fear of your fellow players to dominate your play experience? [With thanks to SallyBowls and Space Cobra for the inspiration for this question!] 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!
John Smedley discusses H1Z1 monetization
Player characters in H1Z1 won't be concerned with money, seeing as how they'll be busy trying to fortify themselves against hordes of shambling zombies. Sony Online Entertainment, however, does indeed want to make money off of the game. President John Smedley took to Reddit to share the details of the team's first monetization meeting, and while it's not a decisive list of how the game will make money, it serves as a preview. The early list contains character slots, wearable items, crates with random selections of wearable items, and emotes. The team also intends to allow players to loot wearables from other players, but looted cash items will degrade over time rather than being perpetual acquisitions. Smedley makes it clear that resources like food, water, and ammunition will not be sold, nor will any boosts to those resources, since acquiring these assets makes up the core of the gameplay. Take a look at the post for the details and the community response.
