Just one week ago, Turbine invited us on a guided tour to check out their latest free content update (Volume II, Book 7: Leaves of Lórien) for their award winning MMO, Lord of the Rings Online. While we were amazed by the visual beauty of the game (check out the screenshots if you don't believe us!), we were far more impressed by the passion and dedication this team has for their stunning MMO. So, once more, we'd like to say thanks to Aaron Campbell and Adam Mersky of Turbine for their tireless enthusiasm in answering all our questions, and their absurd amount of patience whenever we fell off a cliff (or jumped off, or climbed up the mountain face, and then jumped off). In the end, while there was a good amount of discussion on the ideas that went into Book 7, we also took the opportunity to steer the conversation to their views of Lord of the Rings Online in general, and what it's like to create an MMO out of a behemoth of a novel. Since tomorrow is the launch day of Book 7, however, today will be all about their newest content, and we'll post about the latter topics on another day!

It's not just every day an MMO turns ten years old. In fact, it's somewhat of a new thing. This week we're going to be extremely busy stalking members of the EverQuest team, both new and old. Join us all week as we celebrate ten years of EverQuest and please don't forget to join us tomorrow as we celebrate ten years of EverQuest at the official developers chat.

Our first victim is Game Designer, David Ford; who's been with the team since the summer of 2005.

ZAM : Hey David Ford! Thanks for celebrating EverQuest with us!

David Ford : Thanks! It's a real honor to be a member of the EverQuest team as we reach this milestone!

ZAM : How long have you been working on EverQuest and how did you get started?

Last month our very own Christopher "Pwyff" Tom decided to to explore the post launch state of Atlantica Online. After the article was published, we decided there was more to be said. Fortunately for us, we managed to snag Atlantica Online Producer, Kim Tae Gon to further elaborate about the direction Atlantica Online is heading.

ZAM : Hello Kim Tae Gon. Thanks for sitting down with us to talk about Atlantica Online. How have things been going since launch a couple of months ago?

Kim Tae Gon : It's been a whirlwind. Even after launching the game, we don't feel like we're finished. We're still busy coming up with all sorts of new things for the game.

ZAM : First of all, why turn based combat? More and more games seem to be moving towards a more fast paced style of fighting, but Atlantica Online, from the beginning, chose the slower (arguably) route of turn based combat. Did you guys choose turn based combat because of its uniqueness, and then develop the game from there, or did you create the game first, and then decided that turn based combat would best compliment the system? What motivated your choices behind this game mechanic?

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to preview the new Architect system that will soon be making its way to City of Heroes. This new system that will be included with Issue 14, gives players the ability to create their own missions from the ground up. As I mentioned earlier, we were able to sit down Matt Miller and Joe Morrissey to talk about the addition in more detail.

ZAM: Will you be giving the players the individual ability to create environments? A map creator, if you will. I did notice that there are a limited number of environments -- I mean, there are still a lot of places, but there is a limited amount, and that's not something you can create more of.

Matt Miller: Right, when it comes to the map creator, we're very much interested in pursuing that and seeing exactly how we can make that and get it into the mission creator. We have experience with that with our base building, so we do kind of have some 'backbone' technology for getting that done. The real question is like with anything we anything we ever add to mission architect; any more level of customization that the player gets, we have to completely re-think rewards again. Because now it's like "well, how can this be exploited?" And the thing is, at the end of the day, we're only 70 or 80 developers trying to out-think hundreds of thousands of people, so we're going to fail, a lot. Hopefully we can plug holes pretty quickly.

Recently, we managed to grab an interview with Shawn Silverman, Chief Game Operations Officer for MAYN Interactive. For those of you who don't know, MAYN interactive is the European publisher for the GigasSoft's TwelveSky 2, an in development MMORPG set in Ancient China. While TwelveSky 2 is slated to begin closed beta testing on February 23rd, players can read all about the features they're missing out on in the interview!

Pwyff : Hello Mr. Silverman! It's a great privilege to talk with you today.

Shawn : The pleasure's all mine. It's not every day we get a chance to sit down and have a nice few moments with you and your wonderful community, especially this close to Beta!

Pwyff : To quickly introduce our audience to your game, what in-game features really separate "TwelveSky 2" from your average MMO?

If you've been following Free-to-Play titles in development, chances are you've heard of Runes of Magic, a new F2P MMO that's being published by Frogster America, Inc. The game is currently in it's final stages of beta so we decided to load it up to see what it was all about. Turns out, it's a rather enjoyable game. So much so, we sat down with the President and CEO of Frogster, Sean Kauppinen, to talk about the games features and similarities to other popular mainstream MMO's.

If you'd like to give the game a try, head on over to the official Runes of Magic website and take advantage of the open beta!

Tamat : Thank you for agreeing to talk to us about Runes of Magic. How are things going in beta?

Sean Kauppinen : The beta has been excellent, with great feedback from the community. We're really pushing for our March 19th launch.

Tamat : What sets Runes of Magic apart from other MMOs on the market?

Earlier in the week Sony Online Entertainment announced that famed comic book writer Marv Wolfman was joining the DC Universe Online team as the third major talent from the comic book industry. Fortunately for you, we were in New York for Comic Con and had the chance to ambush an unsuspecting Marv, talking him into sitting down with us and even answering a few questions. During the interview we discovered how much of a gamer Marv really is. Calico Vision for the win my friends!

Tamat : To start, welcome to the DCUO team. It's a cool project to be on, I'm sure.

Marv Wolfman : Yeah, I've been waiting for it to happen, because I've known about it for a while. But, now it's finally at the stage that I can come in.

Togikagi : To start off, how long ago were you approached with this?

When Cryptic announced that the famous Bill Roper was going to be joining the Champions Online team, I have to be honest, the first thing that popped into my head was the disappointment that Hellgate: London turned out to be. Most of his fans were excited and eager to give him another chance; however, some felt differently. We sat down to talk to Bill about his new project, the vision that he brings to the team, and what he learned from Hellgate: London.

Tamat : Hello Bill! Thanks for joining us today to talk about Champions Online. How are you settling in at Cryptic?

Bill Roper : Really well, thank you. Cryptic is an awesome place to work. The people are incredibly talented and passionate about what they're doing, the games we’re making are great, and I'm incredibly energized and eager to come into the office every day. It's also great to be able to focus on making games as opposed to dealing with the ins and outs of running a company.

Tamat : You've been in the gaming industry for more than 14 years. How do you keep the creativity flowing and maintain a high level of excitement for both yourself and the players?

Last week in an Interview with Lead Designer, Salim "Silius" Grant, we got the inside scoop about a series of massive content updates that is going to essentially be a 'free expansion' for Vanguard. We had the opportunity to talk with Jason "Ikik" Weimann, a Programmer on Vanguard, about some of the changes that he's made to the game's tools as well as some of his secret projects on the side. Ikik has been active in the games community by helping facilitate gameplay test sessions, as well as his well known personality during Vanguards beta back in 2006 that led to his original position at Sigil, and now with Sony Online Entertainment.

Tamat : You've been working on Vanguard for nearly two years now. How did you come to work on the game?

Jason : I started working on the game back in April of 2007.  Back in the day, I used to play a ton of the original EverQuest.  One of my server’s GMs ended up becoming the QA manager on Vanguard and one day I got a message from him while I was playing.  He asked me if I wanted to play the Vanguard beta, and I jumped on the opportunity.  After playing the beta for a year or so, he offered me a job doing QA & tools for the QA dept.  Then, after the SOE buyout of Sigil, the QA team got all changed up, and I switched off of there and started doing design tools.  From there, I got into gameplay code, and now I do a mix of gameplay, tools, db, and other stuff.

Tamat : You’ve also been responsible for some of the monumental additions and changes to Vanguard that your average player may not be aware of. In your mind which of those has been the most significant?

One of the clichés or stereotypes that has been commonly pinned on gamers is that, if you're a gamer, you must be a complete social reject or a nerd. This has always bugged me, mostly because that hasn't ever truly been the case. Over the years, the public's perception has changed drastically because of the attention that celebrities (read "influential people") and the media have given gaming. Additionally, the industry as a whole has grown up quite a bit since the "King's Quest" days. Not only has this changed the stereotype, but it's brought social groups together that in the past, wouldn't have been likely to associate with one another. 'Online Gaming' is something I'm passionate about because of what it does for diversity. Race, Religion, Occupation, Political View. None of that holds any relevance in a game. Instead of Black and White, you have Horde and Alliance. I think you get the point that I'm trying to make here.

Mia Rose is one of those closet gamers who at first glance, you'd never in a millions years assume has an 80 Warlock, and in a guild that has Malygos in farm status. However, that's the reality. She's an easy on the eyes gamer who speaks the language and would rather be at home raiding, then out at a party.

We had the opportunity to meet up with her at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) earlier in the month to get an idea as to just how big a gamer she really is. What we uncovered in the interview, might surprise you, excite you, and possibly even make you fall in love. If you thought Mia Rose was hot before, wait until you see her talk about World of Warcraft.

Make sure to watch our video interview with Mia Rose, after the jump.