On August 20th, KingsIsle’s Fred Howard (VP of Marketing) and Ben Conrad (Public Relations) sat down with me and answered all of my fan-boyish questions regarding the Wizard101 MMO.  This family-oriented game is currently coming up to its second year anniversary and a massive expansion release as well.

I was able to badger the both of them into giving up lots of information about the upcoming content as well as what could be expected of the game in the future.  The news of the up and coming content was exciting and very informative.  Browse at your leisure.

Everyone playing Wizard101 was thrilled about the revelation about the existence of Celestia.  Is there any word on the final release date of the expansion?

Fred Howard:  Well, we’ve not released the final word but late summer / early fall is when it’s going to come out, so not too far away.

Continued…

MMOCrunch.com was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with Allods Online development team and they provided some interesting insights into their popular free-to-play MMO. Let’s get right to it.

MMOCrunch: The big news with Allods Online is the recently released patch, Revelations of Gipat. Can you tell how the launch of the patch went? What are some of the bigger changes the team thinks are playing out nicely?

Allods Online: The launch was both an exciting and challenging one for us. The Allods Team has been working incredibly hard for the last two months to make sure the launch was as smooth as possible.

Patch 1.1.0 brought a ton of improvements, new features, and completely overhauled some mechanics that many of our players were used to in the previous version. One of the bigger changes was the removal of Fear of Death and the introduction of a new type of death penalty – the cursed item system. It’s no secret that some members of the Allods community were not pleased with this change, but we’ve been doing our best to keep players educated and informed about how the entire cursed item system works.

To date, Patch 1.1.0 is the biggest Allods Online patch, and in terms of new features, Patch 1.1.0 introduced a new zone called Gipat.  From ghostly beasts to a worm-faced army, the monsters in Gipat are incredibly awesome.

The patch also added new audio, new animations, significant UI changes, and a complete rebalancing of certain archetypes. The new mounts – The Xadaganian Steed and the Kanian Runner have also been huge hits.

Continued…

Soul Master is an MMO from publishers GamesCampus and developers NPLUTO that mixes RPG elements with RTS elements.  Players create avatars that, like in all other MMORPGs, walk around towns, talk to other players, and can dish out a major punishment to its enemies. The game changes when the player gets to certain missions, in that the player not only controls their character but they can also make a base and pump out units that they can control.

Continued…

World of Warcraft developers recently sat down and held a Twitter Q and A with fans with some sweet results. The dev team at Blizzard tried to keep the focus mainly on Cataclysm class, talent, and Mastery systems designs. Yet, the devs covered everything from questions about the updated talent tree, to ideas surrounding new glyphs, new pets, defended arguments against certain PvE and PvP encounters using the new skill sets and much more.

This only scratches the surface, however. There were dozens of questions the devs took and answered if not a few hundred. They really put some effort into this one.

Head on over to the WoW Forums and have a look for yourself to check out the WoW Developers Chat via Twitter.

Cryptic Studios, the developer of Star Trek Online, periodically publishes a feature called Ask Cryptic. This takes the form of a community-submitted Star Trek Online Q&A session, and the latest one is chock-full of interesting tidbits for the STO fan. Among the most exciting responses for me are those that explain a little about the future Klingon episodes, detail the new ships, and give a little more information on the upcoming Federation Diplomatic Corps missions.

This is definitely a Q&A that will most benefit those that are already subscribers, but for the Star Trek fans out there that are still not sure about STO, you may want to take a look in case anything strikes your fancy.

It’s once again time for Ask Cryptic, the feature in which Cryptic Studios answers player questions regarding the future of its games, in this Champions Online Q&A. Despite the fact that it opens with the disappointing, though understandable, news that there won’t be any four-armed player characters appearing in the game, there are bright spots. This is particularly true if you’re into Champions Online’s character and costume creation system, and frankly if you play that game, chances are that you love that stuff. The focus of the community on costume pieces and effects comes through in how many questions are asked about them, but there are also answers on subjects such as event vs persistent content creation and future powersets.

Overall, there’s nothing in this Q&A that’s going to light anyone’s hair on fire with excitement, but it implies a great deal of careful planning within Cryptic. The tone is that of an experienced developer focusing on the long-term success of its game, and that’s never a bad thing. To check it out for yourself, head to the official site.

MMOCrunch.com was lucky enough to be able to grab an interview with Nexon Marketing Associate Chris Van Hook. Nexon is the developer behind such popular and upcoming titles as Maple Story, Dungeon Fighter Online, Dragon Nest and Vindictus. Chris let us in on some exciting news both concerning Nexon and the possible future of free-to-play MMOs.

MMOCrunch.com: How did Nexon feel its E3 showing went?

Chris Van Hook: It was a great success and we are elated to welcome more gamers into our fold. Considering it was Nexon’s first time as an E3 exhibitor and our first party at E3, we are really humbled with how much excitement our games attracted. After all the hard work to setup the booths and the party, seeing the crowds of people enjoying the projects and the press attention we garnered was extremely rewarding. Looking back, it motivates us to be bigger and better at the next opportunity.

Continued…

Who are Elysian Council you might ask? Well, there name deserves some recognition because they became the first guild to organize over 300 people and successfully capture the Divine Fortress on the Triniel Server – something no North American server has ever done.

To honor this event, Aion Online’s team decided to interview some key members of the team and asked them how they managed to pull off such a rare feat. The various heads of the guilds were introduced and talked about their characters in the game, their legions, what the capture means to them and more.

Check out the full interview with the Elysian Council over at Aion’s official website, here.

(Fun Fact: The Elysian Fields is the place great warriors go when they die in Greek mythology.)

Blizzard Insider brings us this interview with WoW’s production director, in which he explains how the development team has changed since the game’s release, and what lessons he and Blizzard have learned since. J. Allen Brack joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2006 as a senior producer for the Burning Crusade expansion pack for World of Warcraft. He eventually became the lead producer on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and now that the latest expansion, Cataclysm, is in the works, he is the production director.

Continued…

GameTrailers brings us a new DC Universe Online features video, including an interview with DCUO’s Creative Director Jens Anderson. There is plenty to be seen in the footage, shown below, but one of the most interesting features to me is the “inspired by” character creation option mentioned. While I doubt I will be using it myself, as I’m a little too obsessive about my character creation options, I think the ability to directly link your character to a famous DC hero will definitely up the accessibility factor of DC Universe Online in general. If developers Sony Online Entertainment can pull in the crowd who know and love the DC heroes, from comics or films, but haven’t yet bought in to an MMO environment, it could be an incredibly successful venture.