VirginWorlds MMORPG News Host: Brent VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online and many many more. The VirginWorlds MMORPG Podcast is the flagship podcast of the VirginWorlds MMO Podcast Collective found at http://www.virginworlds.com
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VirginWorlds Podcast #72Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:59:00 GMT [download/play]
In the 72nd VirginWorlds Podcast you'll find some brief MMORPG news followed by a wonderful interview with the CEO of Icarus Studios,
Jim Hettinger. He answers a slew of questions related to Icarus's newly
announced virtual world toolset which can be used to build MMOGs,
simulators and collaborative and educational products. Following the
interview you'll hear why Brent thinks MMORPG designers could learn a
few tricks from that lovely spelunker Lara Croft.
VirginWorlds
is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild
Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, and many many more. The
main site can be found at http://www.VirginWorlds.com Login to post a comment
'Short and Sweet' by scytale2 Submitted on 2007-06-11 05:22:22 CST Really interesting show and at last we get to hear the voices of some people who are making visions happen in the industry. It's also great to hear that these "game" tools are being used to make something useful, such as virtual global landmarks. How many people haven't dreamt of jumping off the top of the Empire State Building?
Virtual holidays for the paupers amongst us....
Good news that CCP feel confident enough now to market their game - hopefully this will lead to some more radical development, once more money starts to come in.
As a last point, someone mentioned the idea of forums on the site. I think this is a critical development for the site - when are they starting? Who needs a blog, when useful groundbreaking threads can be brought together on the one site?
'3D worlds and forums' by Akely Submitted on 2007-06-11 06:04:01 CST I remember playing the first Toomb Raider game. I loved the ledgeclimbing, swinging etc. Thief also had some elements of that that was fun. It would be fun if a MMO had anything like it. The things that are implemented is... not that great (thinking about the EQ2 climbing here).
It would be awesome if a characters skill/class/equipment played a part in it too. Having someone great in climbing (scout class?) climbing up the very hard path to secure a rope for less skilled players to use. Using Levitate spells to float up, or down, a steep cliff....
Essentially it is like Brent says, the feet are to stuck on the ground. I remember hearing Turbine not including Fly in DDO becouse the engine did now handle it.But how fun it would be to be able too.
The world is in a MMO (heck most computer games) feel a little 2D. They look #D, but you seldom can use the Z axis.
Forums:
I suspect that setting up a form from scratch will take a while. There are lots of things to consider...
What Forum Engine to use.
Setting it up on the servers and adapting it graphically.
Framework for different sections and subsections of the forum.
Admin rights and considerations.
Moderator rights and consideration.
Legal considerations and rules for the Forum.
...and thats just from the top of my head.
I feel confident that VW would gain from it, in the long run. But basically it is a Admin (Brent) decision. There is a lot of work involved. Spambots, flamewars, backups... you name it. These things take time. Time is precious.
'An Akely-inspired idea' by scytale2 Submitted on 2007-06-11 07:07:38 CST One thing that did cross my mind, reading Akely's idea, was that how much fun it would be to be part of a Thieves Guild and going up the levels to becoming Guildmaster. You'd then carrying on playing until you were fed up with it.
Now I wouldn't want to do just this, but it would be fun to be part of a Virgin World which was devoted to just this activity. I could probably list about 10 "adventurous" activities which I would like in my portfolio and I woul;d be prepared to pay about £1 each per month to do them = £10/month (or maybe 5 at £2/month).
These mega developments we are seeing that take 5 or so years to develop and you are forever adding new content. If you take the view that there is an end to the game/limited content and people can play them until they are fed up with it and then you make another one, surely we'd get a bit more diversity?
'microsoft' by Burro Submitted on 2007-06-11 10:05:24 CST ccp uses sql server or something like that, so that's what they probably want microsofts help with.
'Nice...' by darrenl Submitted on 2007-06-11 13:58:27 CST I really liked that interview Jim. Nice information of what is needed from an MMO infrastructure perspective.
'Criticism!' by ktin Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:34:54 CST meh. i think you need a new some new music to play as your music.
loved it for a while, but.. well .. i think picking a new theme for a while could help brighten the podcast ;)
god forbid you take my suggestion! =D
'music as..' by ktin Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:36:15 CST music as your intro, that is
'RE: Ktin' by scytale2 Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:37:56 CST ....desperate to keep my title as VW Chatterbox
The VW music is part of the podcast branding. It's a bit like saying change the music to The Simpsons....
'Re: scytale2' by ktin Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:42:31 CST EXACTLY!
but. jeez. how many awesome good shows have modified the music and intros throughout their run and developement?
too many good ones to count. and i always took notice. and the end result? for me at least :: refreshing.
'relax' by Brent Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:53:31 CST You guys are forcing me to show my hand. My plan has been to rotate the theme song on show 100. And hey, if you think you're sick of that song, put yourself in my shoes. :)
'Short and Sweet' by scytale2
Submitted on 2007-06-11 05:22:22 CST
Really interesting show and at last we get to hear the voices of some people who are making visions happen in the industry. It's also great to hear that these "game" tools are being used to make something useful, such as virtual global landmarks. How many people haven't dreamt of jumping off the top of the Empire State Building?
Virtual holidays for the paupers amongst us....
Good news that CCP feel confident enough now to market their game - hopefully this will lead to some more radical development, once more money starts to come in.
As a last point, someone mentioned the idea of forums on the site. I think this is a critical development for the site - when are they starting? Who needs a blog, when useful groundbreaking threads can be brought together on the one site?
'3D worlds and forums' by Akely
Submitted on 2007-06-11 06:04:01 CST
I remember playing the first Toomb Raider game. I loved the ledgeclimbing, swinging etc. Thief also had some elements of that that was fun. It would be fun if a MMO had anything like it. The things that are implemented is... not that great (thinking about the EQ2 climbing here).
It would be awesome if a characters skill/class/equipment played a part in it too. Having someone great in climbing (scout class?) climbing up the very hard path to secure a rope for less skilled players to use. Using Levitate spells to float up, or down, a steep cliff....
Essentially it is like Brent says, the feet are to stuck on the ground. I remember hearing Turbine not including Fly in DDO becouse the engine did now handle it.But how fun it would be to be able too.
The world is in a MMO (heck most computer games) feel a little 2D. They look #D, but you seldom can use the Z axis.
Forums:
I suspect that setting up a form from scratch will take a while. There are lots of things to consider...
What Forum Engine to use.
Setting it up on the servers and adapting it graphically.
Framework for different sections and subsections of the forum.
Admin rights and considerations.
Moderator rights and consideration.
Legal considerations and rules for the Forum.
...and thats just from the top of my head.
I feel confident that VW would gain from it, in the long run. But basically it is a Admin (Brent) decision. There is a lot of work involved. Spambots, flamewars, backups... you name it. These things take time. Time is precious.
'An Akely-inspired idea' by scytale2
Submitted on 2007-06-11 07:07:38 CST
One thing that did cross my mind, reading Akely's idea, was that how much fun it would be to be part of a Thieves Guild and going up the levels to becoming Guildmaster. You'd then carrying on playing until you were fed up with it.
Now I wouldn't want to do just this, but it would be fun to be part of a Virgin World which was devoted to just this activity. I could probably list about 10 "adventurous" activities which I would like in my portfolio and I woul;d be prepared to pay about £1 each per month to do them = £10/month (or maybe 5 at £2/month).
These mega developments we are seeing that take 5 or so years to develop and you are forever adding new content. If you take the view that there is an end to the game/limited content and people can play them until they are fed up with it and then you make another one, surely we'd get a bit more diversity?
'microsoft' by Burro
Submitted on 2007-06-11 10:05:24 CST
ccp uses sql server or something like that, so that's what they probably want microsofts help with.
'Nice...' by darrenl
Submitted on 2007-06-11 13:58:27 CST
I really liked that interview Jim. Nice information of what is needed from an MMO infrastructure perspective.
'Criticism!' by ktin
Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:34:54 CST
meh. i think you need a new some new music to play as your music.
loved it for a while, but.. well .. i think picking a new theme for a while could help brighten the podcast ;)
god forbid you take my suggestion! =D
'music as..' by ktin
Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:36:15 CST
music as your intro, that is
'RE: Ktin' by scytale2
Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:37:56 CST
....desperate to keep my title as VW Chatterbox
The VW music is part of the podcast branding. It's a bit like saying change the music to The Simpsons....
'Re: scytale2' by ktin
Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:42:31 CST
EXACTLY!
but. jeez. how many awesome good shows have modified the music and intros throughout their run and developement?
too many good ones to count. and i always took notice. and the end result? for me at least :: refreshing.
'relax' by Brent
Submitted on 2007-06-11 16:53:31 CST
You guys are forcing me to show my hand. My plan has been to rotate the theme song on show 100. And hey, if you think you're sick of that song, put yourself in my shoes. :)