Continuing our celebration of Everquest's tenth anniversary, WarCry is pleased to present "The Old Guy and the n00b", a paired interview with environment artist Kevin Burns and senior programmer Jennifer Chan. Today's installment features general questions aimed at both Chan and Burns. Monday will feature questions specifically for Burns, the "old guy" and Wednesday's installment will feature Chan, the 'n00b'.
Keep reading!
In honor of Everquest's tenth anniversary, WarCry will be featuring several days' worth of interviews and a screenshot retrospective.
Today, WarCry begins with an interview with Lydia Pope, who has been with Everquest from the beginning. In her role as Community Manager, she has the inside track for great anecdotes. Lydia will be featured prominently in this week's celebration.
Keep reading to find out more about Lydia, read a few hilarious stories and get a look at her awesome cubicle!
Suzie "Kalia" Ford speaks with Andrew Schneider, co-founder and President of legitimate and authorized (!) EQ2 RMT (Real-Money Transaction) company, Live Gamer Exchange.
Earlier today, Sony announced that SOE would move under the Sony Computer Entertainment (aka their game division) corporate banner. We wanted to find out what, if anything, that meant to SOE. So, we got on the horn and got some reaction from SOE President John Smedley. Here is what we learned:
"Nothing has changed inside SOE at all," Smedley said. "It's nice to be part of the Playstation group; we're excited about it."
Practically speaking, this is apparently a simple change in who Smedley calls boss. Previously, SOE had been under the Sony Pictures corporate umbrella and its President Yair Landau. Now, SOE is under the SCEI group, which is the corporate name for the Playstation or gaming division, and its President Kazuo Hirai.
Read more after the jump.
Some of the most impressive and innovative developers at GDC do not directly make MMOs, but instead operate behind the scenes to make games better. Every year, these companies seem to fill two booths for every one that has a game in it. This year, we took the time to see a few of these companies and present a round-up of some of the more noteworthy stories we heard.
In the first part, we look at VOIP providers Vivox, MMO importers CDC Games, the novel PlayXpert and a riddle from Scott Foe of Nokia:
PlayXpert is a non-obtrusive user interface overlay that can be used in any PC game to control essential windows programs without changing screens. That's a fancy way of saying it lets people bring their instant messengers, media players, web browsers and other key programs into their favorite MMO. And, of course, they have a deal with Vivox to be their default VOIP provider.
According to CEO Charles Manning, PlayXpert has been carefully designed to play well with both in-game EULAs and system resources. While the explanation got quite technical, the basic idea is that the program insinuates itself over the game at such an early level that game operators do not mind and PlayXpert have worked with developers to make sure all is on the level.
Read more after the jump.
At the Game Developers Conference, WarCry had the chance to sit down and talk with SOE CEO John Smedley. The conversation revolved around their deal with Vivox and what it could do to the way gamers VOIP, as well as some tidbits on business models, DC Universe and The Agency.
SOE's software will support huge numbers of people in a single channel and frills like telephone call-in support (which likely won't incur long distance thanks to a network of local call-in numbers), and voice fonts. It will not require a fee, nor any bulky hosting software and it will be high quality Vivox sound.
SOE has not worked out all the details that hardcore VOIP gamers will need to know, but if they keep on their current path, this has the potential to be an extremely user friendly, multi-game application that could put a serious dent in Ventrilo's business. The win for SOE is that every user will be a single click away from any of SOE's many games, which reduces the barrier to entry and potentially makes them more money.
Read more after the jump.
Earlier today, news broke that SOE had partnered with Live Gamer to replace their existing Station Exchange service in EverQuest II. This company specializes in a platform that facilitates the exchange of virtual items for real world currency.
In this article, we hear from SOE CEO John Smedley on what this deal does for their gold farming, fraud and secondary market problems and from Live Gamer President Andrew Schneider on what their service provides.
What's more, as these claims accumulate, the company must pay penalties. "We have been fined; just the fines alone are over a million dollars, and a lot of those are from Station Exchange," said Smedley.
In response to these problems, SOE announced today that they have partnered with Live Gamer, a company that specializes in the integration of secondary market solutions into existing MMOs. The company, founded by veterans of gaming and financial services, operates a single platform, which they hope will extend across multiple games and companies.
Read more after the leap.
Earlier today, news broke that SOE had partnered with Live Gamer to replace their existing Station Exchange service in EverQuest II. This company specializes in a platform that facilitates the exchange of virtual items for real world currency.
In this article, we hear from SOE CEO John Smedley on what this deal does for their gold farming, fraud and secondary market problems and from Live Gamer President Andrew Schneider on what their service provides.
What's more, as these claims accumulate, the company must pay penalties. "We have been fined; just the fines alone are over a million dollars, and a lot of those are from Station Exchange," said Smedley.
In response to these problems, SOE announced today that they have partnered with Live Gamer, a company that specializes in the integration of secondary market solutions into existing MMOs. The company, founded by veterans of gaming and financial services, operates a single platform, which they hope will extend across multiple games and companies.
Read more after the leap.
The period on December referred to as the "holidays" has come to mean many things and in this article, Robert Cox looks at what people can expect in some of the major MMORPGs. How do these virtual worlds celebrate this time of the year when so many have the time off work to peek inside?
If there's one thing the Horde and Alliance can agree on, it's a party. All across Azeroth and Outland, festive decorations adorn towns and cities as both sides begin their annual celebration of the Feast of Winter Veil.
Read more after the click.
A few weeks ago, we interviewed SOE CEO John Smedley and a casual reference to their four and a half year old Playstation 2 MMOG EverQuest Online Adventures set off a bit of a furor on the forums. Today, we follow up on fan demands for an EQOA expansion pack in this interview with Senior Producer Clint Worley. Click on to find out SOE's plans and get an update on this below-the-radar MMOG.
"We have a steady player base that's there, but early on with the Playstation 2, EQOA faced a lot of challenges," Worley admitted. When it first launched, the Playstation 2 network adapter - something that would become internal in the next generation of consoles - was expensive and difficult to find. "The whole online gaming with the Playstation 2 console was an admirable attempt, but it was still ahead of its time."
Read more after the click.
