MMO Clerks

Massively’s very own Shawn Schuster had a chance to catch up with Warhammer Online Creative Director Paul Barnett and RvR Producer Jeff Skalski at GDC 2009. They chatted about the recent player (re)acquisition campaign, server merges, Land of the Dead, and much more.
There has been a strong push to attract new and ex-players to Warhammer recently. Are we witnessing the rebirth of WAR?
Skalski: The title of our live expansion arc is Call to Arms and this has meaning both inside and outside the game. Outside, we have the recruit-a-friend program, free trial, and retrial. We are trying to make potential players aware of all the improvements we have made to performance, game mechanics, bugs, etc.. We are heavily focused on this free live expansion and have no immediate desire to release a boxed expansion.
Continue reading GDC09: WAR interview with Paul Barnett and Jeff Skalski
Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, Warhammer Online, News [...]

Original post by SUPPORT@WEBLOGSINC.COM (Brooke Pilley)

Years ago, in the early days of CD-ROM, live actor video footage was very common. Today, this is almost completely unheard of. Computer generated graphics are the standard. I recently tried the PS3 demo of Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and was shocked to see live actor footage in a new game.
During it’s popularity, live actor footage had a bad reputation among gamers; it was the quick time events of the early 90’s. Gamers generally disliked it for a few reasons:

It’s presence implies games that you watch rather than games that you play.
It creates a discontinuity between gameplay graphics and cut scene graphics. In other words, playing a 3D rendered character and then switching to watch a live actor can kill the immersion of the game.
Part of the allure of video games is that they are a showcase for flashy technology and programming. CG cut scenes show of the [...]

Original post by Darrin

Publisher Electronic Arts has released a De-Authorization Management Tool for PC gamers afflicted with one of its many catalog titles packaged with SecuROM for digital rights management. This is for…

Original post by Michael McWhertor

VanillaWare’s gorgeous looking Muramasa: The Demon Blade makes up for a lack of polygon pushing power by going 2D, resulting in probably the most visually exciting Wii game we’ve seen yet.
And…

Original post by Michael McWhertor

Players of both Asheron’s Call and Dungeons & Dragons Online have until very recently been experience a significant amount of unexpected server downtime. Being right gentle- uh, developers (gentledevs?) Turbine is offering up significant compensation to players as a way of apologizing. While simply extending all player subscriptions by the time lost (one day) would’ve been enough, it doesn’t end there.
Here’s the breakdown of the additional goodies players are getting:

Asheron’s Call
Bonus rare drops!
+25% bonus XP

Dungeons & Dragons Online
+25% XP
+1 bonus to loot
A special in-game item when Mod 9 launches!

Those will be for the coming weekend, so if you were a lucky player who’s been too busy the past 24 hours to even notice the downtime… lucky you! We envy your uncanny ability to receive wonderous gifts. Hey, can you hook us up with some four-leaf clovers?
Filed under: Asheron’s Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Server [...]

Original post by SUPPORT@WEBLOGSINC.COM (Kyle Horner)

…we’re trying to make a game for the casual market. We’re trying to open this game up to a lot of new people who maybe don’t know the Punch-Out franchise at all, so it has to be accessible to them. How do you do that? You keep it simple. The motion controls that we use, they are responsive, but they don’t need to be precise. People say a lot of times, “Oh, Punch-Out would have been perfect with the Wii Motion Plus.” Really? – Ken Yeeloy, producer
We also find out in this Game Informer interview that the Bruisers aren’t going to come back this time…
Yeeloy: Some (characters) were pulled because in the overall scheme and vision of the game, some of the characters—like the twin guys…
GI: The Bruisers?
Yeeloy: Yeah! The Bruiser Brothers! We had them in there for a while. They were part of our roster for a while, but [...]

Original post by The News Team

Last year, the -Minus World put its talents to good use on Atari Modern Classics, de-making box art for BioShock, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Portal in the Atari 2600 style. Ready for the sequel?…

Original post by Michael McWhertor

Online game developer Nitrogen has just announced L.A.W., a post-apocalyptic multiplayer online game for adults designed by the lead artist for Diablo II and a “well-known movie director from the…

Original post by Mike Fahey

A portion of a VentureBeat interview with Reggie Fils-Aime…
VB: How high can the WiiWare storage cards go?
RFA: Right now, the highest is 32 gigabytes. That’s not to say it couldn’t go higher if flash memory prices drop.
VB: Why did Mr. Iwata take that sensitive issue head on in his speech about the complaint that Nintendo dominates its own platforms with its own games?
RFA: To be candid, what Mr. Iwata wanted to do was share facts and dispel myths. Fact: Wii is the platform that hit 50 million the fastest. Fact: The DS has surpassed 100 million. Here’s a fact for you. After 52 months in the market, the installed base of the DS in the U.S. is larger than the installed base of the PlayStation 2, at the same time frame. Fact: In the U.S., third-party publishers sold more Wii games than any other home console. In fact, third-party publishers [...]

Original post by The News Team

Insomniac is hiring and to get you to apply they’re mocking everything that most boring jobs hold sacred.
Hit the jump for the second two videos and remember, jerky talks at Insomniac.

Original post by Brian Crecente