Bill Roper moves on from being the Executive Producer on Champions Online to other projects within Cryptic. He is replaced by long-term Cryptic man Shannon Posniewski, also known as Poz. It’s an interesting move and one I take as a strong indicator that Cryptic either 1) has another MMO in development that they want an … Continue reading
Tagged with Champions Online …
The (Near) Future for Paragon Studios
Given the current state of CoH/V, what does the future hold for Paragon Studios? A few things, but some haven’t been as discussed as others. Not The Sarah Palin Book Or Gay Slang The obvious ones to mention are Issue 17: Dark Mirror and Going Rogue. The Dual Pistols powerset is going through an open … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have Anyway?
The core metric for assessing the size of a MMO is the number of active players. It’s a simple metric that is easy to understand and compare, even if it isn’t perfect (after all, revenue and profitability are probably more important regardless of player base size). It’s power is such that good numbers are trumpeted … Continue reading
One Simple Step To Becoming The Hero of the Revolution
Get your head chopped off. The sudden disappearance of Daeke from the Champions Online forums, followed by the announcement that he’d “moved on to other things” was an interesting set of events. Not because Cryptic saw another Community Manager pass through ChampO – they’ve had Sporkfire, IronAngel, Kestrel, Awen (popped up but mainly Star Trek … Continue reading
Star Trek Online Overview (Now That the NDA is Gone)
I’ve been beta testing Star Trek Online as best I could, given time zone differences and game stability problems. Here’s my opinion at this point: Conclusion: – An “action Trek” rather than a “diplomacy Trek” that is probably Trek enough for most people. It’s a bit light on, but fun enough. – In a better … Continue reading
The Failure of Beta – Testing and Marketing
The whole alpha / beta situation around MMOs is an interesting one. It’s a critical area of both testing and marketing for any MMO which is a curious place to be since ‘testing’ and ‘marketing’ are really at opposites ends of a gaming scale – testing is about fixing bugs and dealing with a rough … Continue reading
Cryptic’s 100k Plan?
This could just be an interesting coincidence, but I also think it answers a number of questions about Cryptic’s MMO development strategy. In July 2009, G4TV asked Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer (and fan favourite punching bag) Jack Emmert how many players Champions Online needed for success: G4: Speaking of it being successful, when you’re launching … Continue reading
Looking Back At Advice on a Star Trek MMO
Way back in the dark mists of January 2008 Eric Heimburg, who was Perpetual’s Lead Systems Designer on Star Trek Online back before that company folded, wrote a few points out to Cryptic / whoever might get the Star Trek MMO. With Cryptic’s STO launching just a few short months away in February 2010, I … Continue reading
How Many Players Bought Champions Online At Launch?
Massively.com recently asked the question about how important subscription numbers are to consumers. On an immediate level they probably aren’t vital, but longer-term they point to a game’s survival and potential to be a success. This is especially true for MMOs launched since 2008 – their typical active player numbers have seen sharp declines since … Continue reading
City of Heroes / Villains 2009: Running Twice As Fast To Stay At The Same Place
UPDATE: I’ve repeated /facepalmed myself over getting Cryptic and Paragon Studios mixed up a few times in this article; Cryptic used to develop CoH/V but that is all handled by Paragon Studios now. Hopefully fixed! Also probably should have mentioned that DC Universe Online might launch in 2010, but this is still open to change. … Continue reading
World Class Villains 