stargate
Latest
Inspecting the Asgard drone
The Senior Systems Designer for Stargate Worlds is Chris Bernert. In an exclusive (to SGW forum members) chat he reveals the inner workings of the Asgard drone. Referred to as "The Little Grey Dude Enabler," it does all the dirty work for the Asgards, who aren't the most agile or physically formidable race you'll run across. As such, the drone is the "backbone" of the Asgard archetype. Want to know more? Well, since it's an exclusive to forum members only we don't want to steal their thunder (or piss them off). So head over to the site, sign up, and get reading!
A Stargate Worlds progress report
MPOGD.com recently interviewed CME's Senior Marketing Manager Kevin Balentine and asked him for a progress report on the highly anticipated Stargate Worlds. Here' a few brief highlights from their interview: SGW won't offer player-controlled vehicles - at launch. While the sci-fi MMO will be solo-able, it's designed for community play. The enemy AI will react like first-person shooter opponents, flanking and using cover to engage the player. During a new video trailer showed to them (which did not show any in-game combat or PvE involvement) , the MPOGD guys said the graphics sported by the Unreal 3 graphics engine looked good. When asked how SGW would exist along side the MMO King, World of Warcraft, Balentine responded with: "We co-exist nicely with WoW...because sometimes, you know, you just want to take your P90 and shoot things up." Nice! Head over to MPOGD to read the full interview and see some exclusive screenshots.
Chat with a world builder
Ever feel like chatting with a world builder? I'm not talking 'bout the religious Almighty who "built" this world in seven days. Hey, wouldn't it be nice if MMO worlds could be built that fast?Seriously though, if you want to know what goes into building an MMO world here's your chance. The world builder for Stargate Worlds - Derek Sunshine (what a bright, happy name!) - will be the special guest on this Saturday's SG1-Radio program (5pm EST). Derek will be there to answer your questions (log in to http://sgwirc.com and fire away!), discuss gaming, talk about the Stargate franchise, and generally illuminate listeners by revealing what it is he does at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment.
Stargate's Comedy Line Countdown contest closes
If you were paying attention way back on February 1, you'll recall that we gibber-jabbered about the Stargate Worlds Comedy Line Countdown contest. In that post we mentioned that you had 30 days to work your mad video and comedy skillz. Well, time's up. Hopefully you were one of the nearly 200 videos made and submitted by fans. If you didn't, too bad. You might want to skedaddle on over to the SGW YouTube Group and see if you could have done better. Although submissions are no longer accepted you can still post your own "hilarious" lines to the group. But they better be funny. You don't want to look like a Jaffa now do you? Expect to see a SGW video podcast featuring the finalists later this month.
How to get into the Stargate Worlds beta
Oh, so you want to jump headfirst into an untested Stargate do you? Well, listen up soldier. Right now the ONLY way to get into the beta (keep your knickers on - it hasn't begun yet!) is to be a member of the Stargate Worlds Forum. According to Katie Postma (Senior Community Manager), until such time as they (they being Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment) actually has a beta capture process implemented all you have to do is register on the forum website. They'll be sending out invitations over the upcoming months based on the emails found in their forum database.Why are you still here reading this soldier? Go register already!
CME wants to know: How do you want your Stargate?
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment wants to know what you want to see in the upcoming Stargate Worlds Collector's Edition boxed set. Both inside and out. Everyone has to have a collector's edition boxed set, and I'm all for them... as long as their is intrinsic added value. And I'm not jut talking about some flashy collectible cards, a glossy concept art book, or an extra DVD full of behind the scenes whatnot. Those are nifty baubles that Gollum-like folk might be entranced by, but I want something more pertinent. Something that's really worth my money.So if you're like me and want extra bling for your in-game characters, things like rare weapons, a vehicle, special emotes, equipment, buffs and other stuff that really sets your character apart from the pack... the discussion is already underway over in the official Stargate Worlds forums. Let them hear your opinions! Kudos to the CME gang for actually wanting player input on this. Don't squander the opportunity.
Behold the Jaffa!
The Assistant Art Director for Stargate Worlds, Nick Heitzman, chatted with StargateWorlds.com about the inspiration behind the look of the Jaffa. At first blush I'd say steroid enhanced NFL linemen. But that's just me. Heitzman said he wanted them to look "strong, sexy and exuding an aura of command." Welp, I'd say he hit it right on the head. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to meet up with these guys in a dark alley! The Jaffa will be bigger, more muscular and militarily precise in their movements. Heitzman compared them to Spartans in both their clothing and armor choices, preferring function over form, with color tones hearkening back to Greece and Rome. Endowed with peak physical conditioning honed by constant training and a fanatical devotion to achieving higher levels of effectiveness, the Jaffa really will be like the "Steel Curtain." All I know is, if I can be a Jaffa... that's what I'll be playing! In addition to this nugget o' knowledge, the Stargate Worlds Gallery has been updated with pictures of the Jaffa (see above), vehicles, and containers for Anima Vitru.
Ask the SGW Creative Director anything... really
The great thing about the myriad of fan sites and official community forums for games these days is that they give gamers unprecedented access to those people actually making the games. Back in the early days, when this industry was still crawling around on it's hands and knees, gamers were lucky to even know the name of the development company let alone have direct communication with the men and women down in the trenches.Chris Klug (Creative Director for Stargate Worlds) is literally giving players the chance to ask him whatever they want. "Ask me anything, really," invites Klug. "Personal, game-related, whatever you want. If I know and can tell you, I will. If I know and I can't tell you yet, I'll tell you that. I'll tell you why we did stuff... this is a 'no b.s.' zone." Gotta love frankness like that!
SGW's Sean Dugan chats with MMOZone
Sean Dugan, the content lead and head writer for Stargate Worlds, recently sat down with MMOZone and revealed a Pharaoh's tomb worth of info regarding their upcoming MMO.At launch the level cap will be 50, and the plan is for players to be able to achieve this by running just the main story missions. It should take approximately 200 -250 hours of gameplay to reach. When asked about the endgame, Dugan stated it will be significant and engage the players for a considerable length of time. When asked how much time one could expect to spend on each world Dugan said it will vary because some worlds are huge, while other are "gigantinormous." MMOZone also asked if he could reveal any spoilers. Normally, the pat answer is - "what are you smoking?" This time though Sean actually revealed a few things. Players will apparently get to re-visit forgotten allies, see places only hinted at in the show, explore Ancient cities devastated by the plague, and witness the formation of the Lucian alliance.I so hope this game pans out to be as good as it sounds! For the whole rucksack o' goodies, check out MMOZone's full interview.
RPG Vault: Stargate Worlds Diary #4
Chris Klug, Creative Director for Stargate Worlds, continues his chat about the power of choice in a new dev diary on RPG Vault. In it he deconstructs a mission from Earth & Beyond wherein the player must listen to his conscience -- and make an important choice.Chris says that to successfully deconstruct the mission it is imperative that we understand what emotion the writer wanted for his audience. At the heart of any well written story... be it anything, is this: a creator manipulating the audience to feel something. Sure, it happens all the times in books, movies and television shows... but how often does that happen in a video game? When was the last time you actually felt something - something with emotional complexity, not the adrenaline rush you get from fragging 17 people in a row - during a video game? For me it was playing Bioshock. More specifically, when was the last time you felt a true emotional response during an MMO?Morality and player's conscious have been a hot button topic of late. In his weekly column, Building a Better MMOusetrap, our own Dave Moss talks about morality in video games. In fact, he asks: can there really be moral choices in an online world? From a purely creative standpoint all of this "esoteric" thinking is fascinating. I'm glad to see that these philosophical questions are being asked because they will have to be answered if video games are to evolve to the next level, one that requires a true moralistic choice to be made. Check out Chris' fascinating article (which includes three brand new pieces of SGW concept art), peruse Dave's article then let us know what you think.
Cheyenne Mountain opens the Stargate for IGN
In a new (and very lengthy) interview with IGN, the guys at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (Chris Klug, Dan Elggren, and Howard Lyon) keep the PR machine rolling with more new info about their upcoming sci-fi MMO, Stargate Worlds. It's a fantastic read that includes some very intriguing nuggets 'o knowledge. Over the course of the game players will acquire many gate addresses (which are required to travel to other worlds via the Stargate) in various ways -- sometimes via quests (either as a reward or given when a player first gets a quest), and some are just given automatically. Each archetype starts out in different location and gets a short solo experience to help define who their character is. CME does this to bring all players (not just hardcore TV series viewers) up to speed with Stargate lore, as well as being able to walk them through the game play mechanics. PvP will have a staggered launch. Events and battlegrounds will be brought in slowly as the game matures. Some servers will be PvP only, and it will eventually have "world PvP" as well. According to Klug, players will enter queues to join staged battlegrounds with certain win/loss conditions. These battlegrounds will be military-styled battles rather than open melee (ala WoW). Perhaps one of the more reassuring statements (for me) came during questions regarding how the shows story was implemented into the game and how it was going to be presented. Dan Elggren said that one of the biggest hurdles for them was figuring out how to tell the story without players having to read the story via text. Chris Klug followed by saying that players will in fact be doing things during the missions that reveal the greater story instead of having it told via boring NPCs. I'm a writer, and one of the major tenants of writing fiction is show, don't tell. Thankfully, that seems to be exactly what the CME crew is doing.
More new screenies appear for Stargate Worlds
The Stargate Worlds website just updated their gallery (again) to include several new screen shots of an Egyptian themed Goa'uld world, along with several concept paintings of the Castle (an abandoned outpost that Stargate Command commandeered and uses as a prison), a primitive human settlement and a human planet.With each new batch of images my desire to jump through the Stargate grows. They're breathtaking. What's more, they continue to look better and better. While I watched the first few seasons of the acclaimed Stargate series, I haven't watched it in many years. But I still love the concept and lore. I think the TV show is a perfect fit to become an MMORPG because it's laid out just like one. Each episode is about a team of four characters with completely different skills that get sent through the Stargate to overcome challenges, defeat enemies and recover phat lewt! And ain't that what an MMO is all about?
Stargate fans launch an IRC chat room
The Stargate Worlds website is reporting that fans have launched a new chat room called the StargateWorlds IRC Network. Moderator Zoeff hopes it will help support simultaneous developer participation. Apparently they were having some legitimacy issues as multilple deveopers were pipping in from the same IP address. The StargateWorlds IRC Network is located on irc.SGWirc.com. If you've never IRC'ed before, grab the Java PJIRC client at www.sgwirc.com and get chatting!
New screenshots emerge from the Stargate
As we've been mentioning over the last week, this hotly anticipated MMOG based on the long running sci-fi series has burst from the gate with a bang in the new year. After all, 2008 is the year of Stargate Worlds. And with the debut of the official trailer during the season premier of Stargate Atlantis the other night, we can expect to see a hoary host of folks who have watched the show for years but aren't gamers start to get interested. With that, Ten Ton Hammer continues to drop the goodies on Stargate Worlds. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment just handed them six new screen shots showing off the two new worlds displayed in the trailer (Agnos and Anima Vitrus). They are stunning.
Stargate Worlds Trailer plus further details on classes, story, and more
This is the big Stargate Worlds debut trailer that appeared last night on the SCI FI channel. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's IT Director popped by the Stargate Worlds forums and provided the following details about the video: The footage is CGI; however, it does use some in-game art assets and is intended to resemble the look and feel from the actual game. Two worlds are shown in the following order: Agnos and Anima Vitrus (new) Three races: Asgard and his drone, SGC Solider with improved body armor, female Jaffa solider with a staff weapon and Horus guard helmet Heavily modified P90 implies broad weapon customizations If that glimpse wasn't enough for the interstellar traveling junkies there is a very slight extended version over on Gamespot. The bigger news regarding Stargate Worlds comes from all the juicy details found in Gamespot's interview with Rod Nakamoto, CME's Senior VP of Product Development. Quick fact list from their exchange: Unreal 3 Engine and Big World back end Two factions Classes: Jaffa, Goa'uld, Asgard, human soldier, scientist, archeologist, and commando No vehicle combat or player controlled starships The MMOG will follow the events from SG1 but feature different stories: Replicator War, the Apophis War, the Tok'ra war with the Goa'uld, etc. Beta testing starts this spring and with the launch to follow in the fall 15 USD monthly subscription rate Possibility that SG cast members to do voice-overs Evolutionary Combat and Advanced AI The translation from the show to an MMOG might work well, certainly, better than other properties such as Firefly. I guess it also helps that you know Stargate Worlds is actually in development and Firefly MMOG will probably never see the light of day. No matter the content, I don't trust any MMOG that was only tested for a short period of time considering Stargate Worlds hasn't been in full production (announced in 2006) very long. It takes time to implement quality content, but maybe CME's Developers can pull it off. What do you guys think?
Stargate Worlds trailer offers chance for eternal fame
You might have forgotten the announcement of a Stargate-based MMORPG that's in production under MGM Interactive and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment -- and we don't blame you. For nearly two years, the game has been in development, and we've heard little to no news on release or beta dates, nor have we seen any gameplay footage at all. But fear not, Gateheads, the above trailer shows that the developers are still hard at work. You'll be deciding whether to roll Asgard or Jaffa soon enough.Don't forget -- diehard Stargate fans can also enter a sweepstakes to put their likeness in the final version of the game, a distinction that we're sure will win you all the ladies.
Stargate Worlds' website gets a new look
The folks at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment are proclaiming 2008 as the year of Stargate Worlds. Along with that proclamation they unveiled a brand spankin' new logo for their upcoming MMO set in the Stargate universe.With Stargate Worlds set to be released in the 4th quarter of this year, we should start seeing a massive buildup to what will hopefully be a grand MMO for all us Sci-Fi junkies. They're not waisting anytime either, as the new SGW trailer will air tomorrow night with the season premiere of Stargate Atlantis. The 4th quarter seems such a long ways away...
Watch the SGW trailer on Sci-Fi, become an NPC or something
If you're looking forward to Stargate Worlds, chances are that you're a fan of the franchise, and that means you watch Stargate Atlantis. So while you're probably going to be tuning in to January 4th's mid-season premiere of Atlantis anyway, we thought we'd give you this heads up: the first Stargate Worlds trailer will premiere during Atlantis this week.That's not all. Starting January 11th (they just love making us keep track of all these dates), the Sci-Fi Channel will be airing "gate codes" during Atlantis episodes, and those gate codes will let you enter a sweepstakes to have your "image or likeness incorporated into" Stargate Worlds.So there's your heads up.[Via GateWorld]
SGW's Chris Klug explains his storytelling philosophy
Chris Klug is Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Creative Director. He sets the vision for what kind of artistic and narrative experience players of Stargate Worlds will have. It's comforting for would-be SGW players, then, that Klug seems well educated in the basics of storytelling known to novelists and screenwriters.Klug describes his storytelling philosophy in an article at RPG Vault. He talks about driving the story and characterization forward with each moment of game-play, and evoking a wide variety of emotions. You'd find many of the techniques and concepts he describes in a screenwriting textbook at USC. The folks at Cheyenne have told us before that SGW will stand out for its approach to storytelling, but this is the first evidence we have that they are on the right track.Oh, and the article features two new SGW-related images.
Poll confirms six Stargate Worlds planets
A new poll is up at Cheyenne Mountain's official Stargate Worlds website. Normally this would only be worth a mention in passing, but the text and contents of the poll actually confirm the inclusion of six specific Stargate SG-1 franchise planets.The poll asks players which planet they're most excited about visiting, and then lists six "confirmed" planets: Agnos (an Ancient city which we've already seen some pictures of), The Castle (the Tau'ri prison planet), Lucia, Stargate Command (aka Earth), Tollana, and an "unnamed Goa'uld desert planet."So it looks like there will be a good variety of places to go. But where's Abydos? It's not Stargate without Abydos!