Having played Champions Online to a middish-level point and based off my 6 odd years of experience in playing City of Heroes / Villains, I’m starting to get a very clear idea of how much the second systems effect burdens ChampO. It’s obvious that when Cryptic tried to improve on CoH/V and add in numerous … Continue reading
Tagged with Star Trek Online …
Catching Up: Employment Moves and Console Non-Moves
Two interesting things I saw recently: 1) Cryptic bows out of trying to get either Champions Online or Star Trek Online onto consoles. There are some out there who saw these moves as vindication that Cryptic is a horrible company who deserves to fail, but it is probably more a case of Microsoft being incredibly … Continue reading
‘Tis the Season For Replacement, Apparently
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
Rise from Your Grave, Gods and Heroes
In a curious bit of news, Heatwave Interactive have bought the MMO properties (including game and middleware tools) of the defunct Perpetual Studios and are planning to bring Gods and Heroes back. This makes sense – Perpetuals MMO toolset exists and was good enough for Bioware to option it on the MMO they were working … Continue reading
The Laziest Star Trek Online Review EVAH.
It belongs to The Independent. Let’s review the review (so it’s fair use for me c’n’p it below): “The launch of a MMO is always beset with woes. Glitches, lags, server meltdowns and unfavourable comparisons to World of Warcraft tend to be the norm, and Star Trek Online is no exception. Despite the hiccups, though, … 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
Trivial Things I Hope Don’t Happen In 2010
Star Trek Online launches too early. I know I’m going to be disappointed here. Cryptic Studios announces another title in development. Seriously, work with the ones you’ve got for 12 months. The “Barbarella” remake happens. Dear me, but I HATE that movie so much. “Iron Man 2” isn’t as good as the first one. It … Continue reading
We Do It To Ourselves, We Do – Why MMOs Are as They Are
Psychochild made an interesting post recently – why haven’t MMOs lived up to their early potential? Why hasn’t the early potential of games like Ultima Online or Meridian 59 with all their freedom and player-driven worlds been built on? Why have more controlled experiences like Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft dominated the genre? Some … 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
World Class Villains 