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The twisting tale of Champions Online's Dennis Adams
This week we get to meet an ex-Star Trek Online team member who made the move to Cryptic Studios last February, becoming Champions Online's associate producer. Who is this man? It's Dennis Adams and we have to say he seems like a very cool-headed cat.With a mind for art, Dennis got his start as an animation production supervisor for Walt Disney Studios. He spent five years there before getting a gig on The Simpsons Movie. Dennis finally made his dream-breakthrough into the videogame industry with Perpetual Entertainment, the then-developer of Star Trek Online. Of course, we all know how that unfortunate ship sailed. Not all was lost, however, as Dennis found a home at Cryptic Studios and is working diligently to bring all of our super-powered dreams to life. When asked to give his advice for anyone wanting to break into the industry his response was, "Love the craft -- you owe it to the gaming community." We always appreciate an impassioned videogame developer. So hats off to you, Dennis.
Cryptic is hiring ... but for what?
Cryptic Studios has announced that they're hiring people "to work on our upcoming next-gen MMOGs." This alludes to Jack Emmert's earlier remark at GDC 08, when he mentioned a "secret sci-fi project". And now that it's clear that Cryptic is growing, it just adds delicious fuel to the fire.A look at their Current Openings page reveals that every department has openings, which is good for would-be respondents, but reveals nothing for clue-seekers. As always, we'll let you know as soon as anything leaks, but this blogger dares to hope for the official resurrection of Star Trek Online. [Thanks, Christine!]
Top 10 games we'll never see
When an anticipated MMO is said to be cancelled, it takes a little piece of us right along with it. As a Star Trek fan, you may have been excited to hear the news of a Star Trek Online MMO, but upon the news of its cancellation, you've wept quietly under your desk ever since. The same goes for Darkfall. Seven years is a long time to wait for a game's release, only to have it continuously put on hold indefinitely.Despite the fact that most of this Cracked.com list does not consist of MMOs, it's still an appropriate homage to the possibilities we've missed out on when it comes to our voided games on any platform.
The Daily Grind: Who's got the best UI?
There's something to be said for a good user interface. Look at the ugly UI of Second Life, for example. Compare that to World of Warcraft, or what would have been (and might still be) Star Trek Online. Looks are important; at the very least, the interface should match the aesthetic of the world in which you're playing. But beyond that, there are other considerations.Obviously, you want to be able to quickly find the commands you're looking for, and perhaps even customize the UI to match how you think. Assignable keyboard commands are a time- and sometimes life-saver. And although its growing increasingly rare these days, sometimes monitor size and screen resolution are important too. So, when they're all stacked up against each other, who's got the best UI?
TrekMovie claims confirmation of Cryptic STO rumors
TrekMovie.com, the web's foremost Star Trek blog, claims that it has "confirmed with sources" that Cryptic is the new developer of Star Trek Online. Just a couple of days ago, some forum-dwellers connected a lawyer representing STO back to Cryptic. A couple days before that, the STO website mysteriously relaunched. The clues don't end there, either.TrekMovie is a fairly credible blog. It has an outstanding track record of inside scoops about the new Star Trek movie, at least. So: you know when two friends in your circle are sleeping together, and they want to keep it a secret, but every one knows, and it would just be easier for all involved (and not involved) if they'd just fess up? This Cryptic/STO relationship is looking a bit like that.
Lawyer might be link between Cryptic and STO
We've got on more tiny little piece of evidence to add to the mountain that already says Cryptic has been chosen as the developer for the new Star Trek Online game. Apparently a lawyer representing the unknown developers of the game sent a C&D to the folks at the Star Trek Games board saying that there is a developer with rights to the property, and that they should stop posting the IP of said developers. But those wacky forumites then connected that lawyer, one Timothy J. Harris of Morrison and Foerster LLP, with none other than Cryptic themselves, by way of Champions Online's privacy policy (he's down there in Part VI -- the first one, since there's two).So. Nothing is still officially confirmed, and to be fair, Morrison and Foerster LLP (or "MoFo" as their webpage designates them) is a huge worldwide firm, and it could be that Timothy J. Harris is their guy for a number of videogame clients. But considering all the other evidence, it's a pretty good bet that Cryptic is working up concept art for an MMO featuring Klingons and the Borg.[Via WarCry]
Rumor: Perpetual Entertainment closing down
MMO news network Warcry has confirmed via unnamed "multiple sources" that Perpetual Entertainment has closed its doors. The posting corroborates similar information provided to Joystiq from a few secondary tipsters, and the company's web site has recently been replaced with a static contact page, but we're still labeling this one as a rumor until we hear official word from the company.Perpetual has has its share of troubles recently, facing its second round of layoffs in as many years last September, putting fantasy MMO project Gods and Heroes on hold, facing a lawsuit from its PR firm and, last month, giving up the rights to the highly anticipated Star Trek Online.
The Digital Continuum: Statistical Anxiety Separation
One thing I've taken to recently is lurking over at the Nerfbat forums, where many great minds discuss a lot of different things concerning massively games. One idea in particular has given me a spark of -- probable -- insanity in regards to something I've been giving plenty of thought to lately. The insane idea is this: What would a massively game be like if character avatars had no stats?After reading though several different concepts presented in the thread responsible for this lunacy of mine, I started to wonder why every one of them focused on keeping with the fantasy motif. To me, it seemed obvious that if you're going to delve into a massively game where the characters have no numerical (or numerical-like) levels, stats or personal equipment it, was going to have to happen in something other than your standard fantasy adventure. That's when two unexpected things came together for me and I realized something. A game where characters don't have any stats attached to them could exist with a difficult-to-design IP that's quite near and dear to me. What's the property, you ask?
Kohnke drops its lawsuit against Perpetual
The breakup of Perpetual Entertainment has been a messy, messy affair. The death of Gods and Heroes, the uncertainty over Star Trek Online, and former Perpetual PR representatives Kohnke's lawsuit were all signs of MMO development gone horribly wrong. Thankfully, it seems as though these threads are quickly sorting themselves out. After Perpetual made some cranky throat-clearing noises early yesterday, saying the whole thing was "ambiguous and unintelligible", they must have decided it wasn't quite that ambiguous after all. Shacknews is reporting that Kohnke has dropped its suit after the two parties found some sort of mutual resolution. As might be expected, the particulars of the agreement are not forthcoming. The initial suit was for some $300,000, and with its conclusion that sounds like it may be some of the last news we'll hear about Perpetual for the time being.
The Digital Continuum: A Cryptic future
These days, if you don't keep your head down, a rumor about Cryptic Studios is bound to hit you in the face. In fact, quite a few of them probably already have at this point. It all started with a letter to the community. After that plural hit, it wasn't just Marvel Universe Online that people were chattering about, but upcoming "projects" from Cryptic Studios as well. Ever since they managed to take one of my favorite things in the world -- superheroes -- and turn that world into a fun and successful massively game, I've loved the people at Cryptic.So it was with plenty of excitement that I discovered Cryptic would be handling the Marvel Comics license for their next massively game. Unfortunately for all of us excited fans -- of Cryptic, Marvel or both -- the entire operation went into super-secret-silent mode. Aside from CoX news, (which came from a different team at Cryptic, now NCsoft NorCal) we haven't heard even a faint murmur of information. After a while, this leads to lots of speculation about whether or not Marvel Universe Online is canceled. So far, there still hasn't been any additional official information on the game and all we are left to is pure speculation.What could be in the future for Cryptic Studios? Nobody knows except them, but that shouldn't stop anyone from guessing.
Star Trek Online dev team laid off yesterday
According to WarCry's sources at P2 Entertainment, yesterday was the last day at work for the members of the Star Trek Online development team. We already heard that some of the team went over to Cryptic Studios for job interviews, but we didn't hear what they might be working on. It might be STO if Cryptic are the ones who purchased the license and content from P2.Everyone at Massively is anticipating specifics about the fate of STO, but the internet community is sitting in the dark for the time being. While we wait for the lights to come back on, we want to wish all the STO refugees the best of luck as they boldly go to whatever strange new worlds await them.
Rumor: Cryptic only wants talent from Perpetual, not a license
Put another checkmark in the evidence column for Star Trek Online not going to Cryptic Studios. Trekmovie.com reports that while Cryptic was in talks with Perpetual, they very likely were only trying to pick up new talent for their work on Marvel Universe Online, not looking to pick up a whole new license.Of course, this doesn't confirm or deny anything-- Cryptic hasn't said they aren't doing it, and the truth is that there may not be someone chosen to do it yet. We're still in the rumors and speculation mode (and isn't it fun?). But the original report-- that the license is going to a developer in the Bay Area-- still stands.Meanwhile, Star Trek fans have to keep holding their breath, and hoping that this game gets made by the right people to make it.[Via CSG, who's right-- whoever's doing it, at least it's not Perpetual]
Star Trek Online MMO switches to new developer
P2 Entertainment -- formerly known as Perpetual Entertainment -- will no longer be developing the Star Trek Online MMO. Instead, the IP has been passed on to an as-yet-unnamed California-based studio, who will be continuing development while P2 refocuses on the casual games market.WarCry reports that the unnamed studio will be receiving rights for the Star Trek IP, and the game's content, but will not have access to the code previously developed at P2. This will inevitably slow development of the MMO even further, as the new studio must start from scratch with the title's back-end.Star Trek Online was the only title currently in development at P2, following news of Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising being placed on "indefinite hold." P2 is also embroiled in a legal battle with former PR firm Kohnke Communications, who are suing for finances owed them after the effective cancellation of Gods & Heroes. Coupled with news of Spacetime's MMO cancellation, we're beginning to think that it's not a good time to be a MMO developer (unless, of course, you're Blizzard).[Via Massively]
Rumor: New STO developers being Cryptic
Word has come down the wires from Jester at w00tstudios that Cryptic is the as-yet-unnamed developer in the Bay Area who have taken on the Star Trek Online title from Perpetual Studios. Now, admittedly we can't confirm this, as Cryptic decided to enter "radio" silence some time back in the intent of working on some new projects. That said, after looking around, we found only a handful of MMO developers in that area that we thought could likely pull it off: Cryptic Studios -- Possible. They brought us City of Heroes and City of Villains, so you could argue that they've done sci-fi already. Also, with the cash they landed in selling the CoX properties to NCsoft, they could certainly afford to snag the license. Of course, there is that troubling thing about MUO being MIA. (And the nasty rumors saying we won't likely ever see it.) Linden Lab -- Extremely unlikely -- and you can stop laughing now. There again, we have to admit, Mudd's Women and the Orion slave girls would fit in splendidly on-grid. NCsoft North -- Possible. They've got the money, and the only thing we've heard for sure out of that office was ongoing CoX development. The job listings look interesting, too. EA -- They've bought up some MMO companies. That would be a cherry IP to land to go with them. It might actually be a good game, too. Of course, that's assuming they'd give it enough time to be developed properly. Most of their job listings are for Sims, though. We'll remain cautiously optimistic, as Cryptic is definitely a company with great vision and style. Hopefully they'll opt to break their self-imposed silence and let us know if they did indeed pick up Star Trek Online. Until then, we're still keeping our fingers crossed that the eventual developers remember that we really really want to be able to play as a Klingon. Q'apla![Thanks, Jester!]
Star Trek Online is under new management
According to WarCry, The Studio Formerly Known as Perpetual Entertainment -- or just "P2 Entertainment" if you want to be less facetious -- has passed or sold ownership of the Star Trek Online project to a new studio headquartered in (fittingly) the Bay Area. This comes after a rocky history for the title, starting with the cancellation of Perpetual's other title Gods & Heroes, all sorts of corporate maneuvering, and a lawsuit.WarCry did not reveal the name of the new steward, but it did learn that while the game's license and content (such as artwork, one presumes) were transferred, the code wasn't. So the new STO team is starting from pretty close to scratch. If you were hoping for a 2008 release, it's time to be disappointed; though at this point none of this is a huge surprise.We don't know if the new owners are related to P2, if any of the old team will be moving with the project, or anything else, really. More info and some clarifications are sure to come eventually, though, so sit tight.
Former STO designer: Star Trek might be "hardest MMO IP ever"
Star Trek Online is one of the most anticipated MMOs on the horizon, but it's no secret that Perpetual Entertainment has had a rough couple of months. There's an ever-present air of uncertainty around STO's future.Most of that uncertainty stems from Perpetual's legal and financial troubles, but one former STO team member has written up a blog post suggesting that making a Star Trek MMO might be a Kobyashi Maru scenario to begin with. "At first glance, Star Trek seems like the perfect setting for an MMO," said former systems designer Eric Heimburg, "but appearances can be deceiving. It's actually a huge landmine of problems."Heimburg wrote that it's an expensive and difficult task to produce both a space game and a land game, that making space interesting is challenging, and that it's impossible to please all Star Trek fans because everyone has a different opinion about what makes the franchise great. All good points; we'll see if Perpetual has what it takes to make it all come together ... if it can even survive its financial and legal woes.[Via TTH]
The Digital Continuum: Activision Blizzard vs Electronic Arts, battle of the MMO titans
To most of us, the recent Activision/Vivendi merger that created Activision Blizzard is the gaming industry equivalent of a beef burrito filled with chocolate pudding. They're both pretty good on their own, but why in the hell would anyone think to put them together? I imagine these burritos are fed to all employees in an effort to fuel their creativity; or kill them as an example. The truth (which is way more boring) is that companies do things like this to better fund the development of titles as a larger entity. The cost of making Blizzard's next game is probably so immense that you need a nonsensical chocolate filled beef burrito just to finance the thing. ActiBlizzVision (That mash-up is growing on me) isn't the first major company to come to this realization either. Both Mythic (now EA Mythic) and Bioware -- creators of Mass Effect, Jade Empire and KOTOR -- have climbed aboard the Electronic Arts train in the hopes to better reach their destination, retail city. Warhammer Online is quite well into development and will be the first new fighter to the ring with a release sometime next year. EA Mythic will be torturing themselves (in a good way?) the next six months to get their game in fighting shape for that eventual big brawl with World of Warcraft. It's just unavoidable, you can't enter the MMO market with the intellectual property that WoW is essentially inspired from and not get tied up by the wrist with a knife in your hand.
STO interview comes with first non-space screenshot
WarCry interviewed Perpetual Entertainment's Daron Stinnett, the head honcho on the Star Trek Online project. The interview itself contains very little new information; it covers the reasoning behind the new art style, the interaction system described in the most recent devlog, and the balance between space and land combat. Stinnett also squashes (again) the rumor that STO is going casual and tries to alleviate concerns that STO's future might be in jeopardy. He doesn't convince us that Perpetual is totally out of the woods just yet, but there's no way to know for sure.Really, the best part about the interview is the new screenshot, and the best thing about the new screenshot is the revelation of how dead-on that old tongue-in-cheek fan video was.
Perpetual plot thickens: lawsuit filed
For a minute there, we thought Perpetual Entertainment was clear of the post-Gods & Heroes-cancellation mess and that Star Trek Online would enjoy (relatively) smooth sailing from here on out. It turns out that drama isn't over yet. There's been a new development that raises new concerns and sheds light on what's been going on over the past two months.A few days ago, Kohnke, the PR firm that promoted Gods & Heroes, filed a lawsuit against Perpetual. Kohnke believes Perpetual owes it up to $280,000. Just prior to the cancellation of Gods & Heroes, the bigwigs at Perpetual sold Star Trek Online to another company they owned. So in other words, Perpetual sold STO to itself. Kohnke has accused Perpetual of doing this so as to avoid paying up -- which would be a violation of the law.We here at Massively are game journalists, not lawyers, so don't take this as an expert opinion, but it looks like the worst case scenario for Perpetual is that it'll have to sell STO in order to pay Kohnke. Alternatively, Kohnke could settle for a stake in STO as payment, or Perpetual could find another investor for STO to make paying Kohnke easier. All that assumes that Kohnke wins the case, though. If it doesn't, it'll be just another day for Star Trek Online.If only Perpetual existed in Star Trek's 24th century, in which there is no such thing as money -- except for Latinum, of course!
Star Trek Online dev sued by PR firm
Dark days are ahead for Perpetual Entertainment. After placing their mythology-based MMO Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising on indefinite hold, the Star Trek Online developer is being sued by their former PR company, claiming thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices, breach of contract, as well as several charges of fraud against the developer and its employees.The public relations firm Kohnke Communications had been in charge of marketing for Gods & Heroes, and is now claiming over $10,000 worth of unpaid invoices for their work, in addition to bonuses that would have been due to Kohnke upon the release of the MMO. In total, Kohnke seeks to claim between $70,000 and $280,000, which, according to the law document, are reflective of what Kohnke would have earned after Gods & Heroes' launch, depending on sales numbers and other factors.Kohnke alleges that Perpetual Entertainment took steps to directly avoid paying the PR firm for services rendered on the canceled title. Perpetual placed Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold following numerous delays and layoffs. After acquiring new investors, the company shifted focus to Star Trek Online, taking the sci-fi MMO in a more casual direction.
