Features

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.

In his latest article, community columnist Sean Bulger looks at "The Site Beyond the Game". This community management focused column looks at official sites, how different games do it and what else is out there.

Every game has an official site for various reasons. The official site of a game is either an important hub of information and activity or it is simply a marketing page trying to draw players in. Or sometimes it is both, like how Sony Online Entertainment sets up their websites - the main page being a flash page used to draw players in, while also retaining forums and the Players websites.

Read it all after the leap.

In Sean Bulger's latest column, he looks at the idea of competition between players as part of building an MMO community. Every other Wednesday, Bulger chimes in with a new community focused column here on WarCry.

One of the most controversial topics you'll run into with online game development - but certainly far from the only one - is competition between players. The very idea of Player versus Player (PvP) content can scare off a number of players and make plenty more question the potential community of any game with it. It would seem that a fairly large amount of MMOers believe that PvP is detrimental to their enjoyment of the game, that it draws in a fairly bad crowd, and it hurts the community for a game. Between the PvP severs of most games and the popularity of primarily PvE games and PvE content, tends to showcase this mindset.

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.

The chat's officially over. Were you there? If not, you missed a great one! Fortunately for you, however, we have the log. Here's a sample:

WarCry: AnnraThannar: When will trial island be ready and is trial island also dedicated for old buddy key owners. I hope so, because it may help reducing spam.
Phathom: Trial Island is a name that has a poor association with it at the moment. The Trial Island was started with the intention of having a stand alone client that new players can try out. Our current intention for the Trial Island is to use it as the new starting location for most of the races and new players.
Phathom: The Isle of Dawn is the actual name now "Spoiler Alert"
Phathom: We plan on restarting work on the Isle next month and expect to have it out to you near and around April
Phathom: Spam -- We are looking at issues at the moment with this but we want you to be able to get your friends back in the game to experience a much better starting experience
Phathom: and allow you to be there to share the new experience without having the content too low for you to play. We're still working out the details

You'll just have to click on "Read More" to devour the rest. A huge thank you for everyone, especially the developers, for taking the time to join us tonight. We look forward to doing it again!

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes gone through some tough times. Original developer Sigil was absorbed by SOE to keep the game afloat. Now we turn our attention to the game itself in this new interview.

WarCry: Sigil had been planning a number of additions to the game for the future, such as with expansions, such as mounted combat, ship-to-ship combat, new classes, and "RTS-Style city building". Are these still planned for the future?

Vanguard Dev Team: They are still on the big list of exciting things we want to integrate into Vanguard. However, the main focus for the upcoming months will be spent on performance, optimizations, bug fixes and polish. Once we have resolved those issues to our satisfaction, and more importantly our customers, we will tackle the huge list of features. That includes expanding our core gameplay mechanics as well as adding new ones where it makes sense.

Read more after the click.

The news hit like a train today. SOE bought Vanguard and Sigil. The move meant that just under half of Sigil Online Games employees are without work, the other half have been offered jobs by SOE. Those that stay will continue development of Vanguard in what is now SOE's Carlsbad office. We spoke to Courtney Simmons, SOE's Director of Corporate Communications and PR, about the deal and found out what happens to Jeff Butler, a new MMO prototype he's working on and where SOE sees Vanguard in their portfolio.

This new Carlsbad office is led by Director of Development Dave Gilbertson, formerly a Sigil VP and Producer of Vanguard. Former head Brad McQuaid was retained in an undefined advisory role, while Jeff Butler - the other titan of the Sigil team - is moving to SOE's San Diego office to prototype a potential new MMO project.

Butler will lead a team of five developers on this unidentified MMO prototype. However, Simmons was careful to point out that this project is by no means in full scale production. It is anyone's guess what it is or whether it ever sees the light of day. At best, it is years away from public eyes.

Read more after the click!

SOE looked to the future at an event this week in New York and WarCry was there. Dana Massey reports on where the business is going and gives an overview of where its at in the first of several articles from that event.

COO Russell Shanks summed up the focus of SOE in three words: "diversifying, globalizing, hiring." These echoed Simmons' statements and also hinted at the larger theme. SOE is a company that wants to bring MMOs to the mainstream in a way no one has yet to accomplish.

Read more after the click.

Splarf, yet another one of our growing number of columnists, writes up a fantastic article detailing Vanguard's crafting system.

From the moment I tried to craft my first work order, I was sold on Vanguard. Although there were so many aspects of the game to steal me from other MMO's, the crafting system was one that just impressed my socks off.

Check out the full column here.

Every gamer and fan of fantasy certainly knows Keith Parkinson's art. He was the man behind the original EverQuest's iconic cover art, as well as a cover artist for fantasy authors like Margaret Weiss, Tracy Hickman and Terry Brooks. Parkinson later went on to become the Art Director for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

It was then appropriate that in early February, Sigil Games dedicated their launch party to Keith's work and that of his close friend Larry Elmore. Held in San Fransisco, the event marked the start of a cross-country tour to celebrate the two men's work. At the party, their works lined the walls and showed the range of both men's talents. It was surprising to see that so many iconic scenes could belong to one man.

In October of 2005, Keith lost his battle with Leukemia and was taken from his family much too soon. As the tour commemorating his work continues onto its second stop in the coming days, we were lucky enough to have his son Nick Parkinson - the Community Manager for Vanguard - to take the time and tell us about his father and his art.

To read the interview with Nick, click the link below.