It's no secret that I'm a pretty big fan of Atlantica Online. I love innovative spins on the MMORPG genre and I adore any game that has a solid amount of support and development behind its PvP meta-game. Not only that, but it's very rare to find a game that does all of the above and inspires a great deal of nostalgia within my cantankerous soul. Thus, it also follows that anytime I find a solid combination of the above aspects, I tend to like to check up on its development every now and then to see how it's going - and my curiousity is your gain! Today we managed to catch up with Peter Kang, CEO of NDOORS Interactive and altogether a swell guy for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with me about the future of Atlantica Online. So if you're at all interested in Atlantica Online, then read on to hear about some of the present development choices being made by NDOORS, and what direction they are planning to go in the future. Onward!
As we mentioned last week, we had the chance to interview Michael Weber, Community Manager of Cities XL. During the interview we went over the games core features and we talked about what players can expect in both online and offline modes. Additionally, Michael goes into detail about how the social networking features and the official website, will work with the game to keep players engaged.
The Cities XL beta is going to be starting soon and our friends over at Monte Cristo have promised us a large number of beta keys to share with our community! Keep your eyes glued to ZAM.com so you don't miss your chance to check out Cities XL.
ZAM: Hey Michael.
Michael Weber: Hi Tamat. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to present Cities XL to your community.
ZAM: Can you start by giving us some background information about the game and what players can expect other than another Sim City clone?
Michael: Sim City 4 has been the benchmark in the city building genre since 2003. So to us there is absolutely no shame in having Cities XL compared to an MMO version of Sim City. And there is actually some degree of truth to that statement as Cities XL obviously features the main gameplay mechanics you'd expect from any other city-builder.
Does the word Adol and Dogi ring a bell in your head? Does anyone remember playing a particular game where they taped down their A button and left their hero standing on a small hill (in a mine!), perpetually swinging their sword and smashing little bats as they infinitely respawned from the left side of the screen?
No?
Ok, well, maybe my experiences are a little bit too personal for you all, but nonetheless, we here at ZAM.com have snagged ourselves an interview with Kelbonim, the English Manager for Ys Online - The Call of Solum! (Why do I want to keep saying Quantum of Solace?). One of the neatest things that I got from this interview is the 'card system,' that will help players manage all of the complicated systems in the game, and the fact that you no longer have to play the game like you're a lawn mower set on automatic, running heedlessly into monsters as your character just keeps. swinging. that. sword. Read the interview below!
With Square Enix's Press Conference still fresh on the minds of MMORPGers around the world, ZAM continues to bring you coverage on the information released at this year's E3. The following is the full transcript of the Q&A session conducted with select press attendees on Wednesday.
Don't forget to check out the amazing in-depth summary of the interview that followed, written by our new FFXIV Content Manager, Elmer the Pointy.
Discuss the press conference in the new FFXIV forums!
According to QuakePrediction.com, there's a 97% chance that there will be an earthquake up to 6.3 on the richter scale in Los Angeles tomorrow. That's not enough to stop the ZAM team from bringing you the most exciting MMO coverage from E3 show floor however. Besides, Draknorr did a number crunch and he came up with a 32.33% (repeating of course) chance of survival. I digress....
During our DC Universe Online gameplay demo we had a few questions for Jens. As always, he was more than gracious with his time and he gave us some interesting answers. Make sure to check out the gameplay demo before you watch our interview with Jens Andersen, which is available after the jump.
Runes of Magic launched back in March, and the game has already topped one million users. With the game doing so well, we decided to track down Community Manager Jörg "Kerensky" Koonen for a chat about what has happened with the game over the last few months, and what Frogster has planned for future updates.
ZAM: Hi Jörg, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
Jörg "Kerensky" Koonen: Hello Sam, it's a pleasure for me. I have been reading ZAM as a fan myself for many years now and being able to contribute a bit to the site myself through this interview is a great pleasure.
ZAM: We all know that MMO launches often don't run to plan. What problems, if any, did you encounter when Runes of Magic was released in March?
Back in January, Cartoon Network opened the flood gates to their first MMOG titled "FusionFall". Since that time hundreds of thousands of players, both kids and adults have given the game a try. We caught up with Richard Weil, Community Director on FusionFall to see how the game was going and to try to get some information about content coming in the near future. What did we discover? College girls!
ZAM: Thank you for coming out with us and talking to us about FusionFall, among other things.
Rich Weil: Thank you.
ZAM: Let's start with the obvious question. How has the game been progressing since its release? Also, how is the in-game population growing?
Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent is a game that's gone unnoticed on our radar, until now. The game transports players into a Steampunk universe where two nations battle over a precious resource called "Neo Steam" and we're excited to get our hands on it when it enters its open beta phase tomorrow.
For now, we've been given an exclusive look at the game and we're pleased to share five new exclusive screenshots with the ZAM community. Additionally, we had the chance to sit down with Jason Ruper from Atlus to talk about the game.
ZAM: Hello! Thanks for taking some time away from the Shattered Continent to talk with us about Neo Steam.
Jason Ruper: It's an absolute pleasure to get out of the office and talk about-- Oh, nevermind, I guess we're still in the office, aren't we... Right, let's do this!
ZAM: To start, can you give us an overview of the game's storyline and some of the more prominent features?
You don't have to know me for very long to discover that I'm a total Sushiholic. Fortunately, Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, Online Community Manager for Turbine shares my passion. We caught up with her at the LOGIN Conference in Seattle last week to grab a bite to eat. During the meal, she went on record to talk about Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Asherons Call which is celebrating it's 10 year anniversary later this year. Check out what she had to say in between mouthfuls of yummy deliciousness in our exclusive interview with Meghan below.
ZAM: Hey Meghan! Let's order some Sushi and talk about Turbine!! I know you've been doing a lot of cool stuff with LotRO since Mines of Moria, but what's next in terms of major content?
Meghan: Yay for sushi! Volume II Book 8 is coming in June, and players will return to Moria. Book 8 will bring new raids, including a 12-man.
We're also overhauling the crafting system - its two years old now so we're going back and making it a little more thematic and a little friendlier. Right now you might get a crit item in loot and it'll just say "this item can be used in crafting!" but you have no idea which profession it can be used by, and you have no idea at which tier it can be used. Now each profession is going to have one crit item for a tier and when you mouse-over it, it will say what that item is used for. We'll be adding some of the level 60 recipes everyone's been asking for, too.
Every time we see Jumpgate Evolution, we walk away impressed and more eager than we were before to get our hands on the game. Walking away from our demonstration at the LOGIN Conference in Seattle last week, those sentiments remained unchanged.
Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you! In addition to our exclusive screenshots that we brought you yesterday, we have an interview with NetDevil President, Scott Brown. Enjoy!
ZAM: Hi Scott, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.
Scott "Scorch" Brown: No problem!
ZAM: Looking back over the games NetDevil has produced so far, we can see they're not what we'd class as "typical" MMOs. Is this something that was planned from the start, or is there another reason behind it?