MER Episode 16 – The One Where We Visit PAX East!

Holy crap PAX East was a blast! Between playing new games, sitting in on some great panels, and listening to the best in nerd music, we had our weekend cut out for us. The conference was a resounding success, and we’ve chosen to highlight some of the best games and panels we saw. But don’t fret! There’s also a solid amount of The Old Republic news to get caught up on, including discovery of the game testing portal, the addition of the Biographies tab, and a word from Damion Schubert on group XP versus solo XP. All that and more! Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net
Transition music for this show was provided by Metroid Metal. You can hear more of them at metroidmetal.com

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News from the Galactic Republic
Genocide and Jedi: Why the Sith may be right in The Old Republic (via Ars Technica)

Game Testing Portal Discovered (via Darth Hater)
-Found by forum members Ianril and Zechio
-Confirmed shortly thereafter by Sean Dahlberg

Damion Schubert on Balancing Group & Solo XP (via Darth Hater)

Friday Update for March 26th (via SWTOR.com)
-Added new Biographies tab to the Holonet
-Short story “Smuggler’s Vanguard” by Threat of Peace writer Robert Chestney at StarWars.com

April Fools!
-Sarlacc Enforcer Class
-Hilarious class interview with Daniel Erickson and Damion Schubert (via GameSpot)

PAX East Panels
Journalists vs. Developers: The Ultimate Grudge Match
Panelists Include: Chris Kohler [Editor, Games, Wired.com], John Drake [Publicist, Harmonix Music Systems], Patrick Klepek [News Editor, G4], Jeff Green [Editor-in-Chief, EA]

The Death of Print
Panelists Include: Russ Pitts [Editor-in-Chief, The Escapist], Julian Murdoch [journalist, freelance], Jeff Green [EA], Chris Dahlen [Managing Editor , Kill Screen], John Davison [Editor-in-Chief, Gamepro]

The Future of PC Gaming (Yes, there is one!)
Panelists Include: Joe Kreiner [Terminal Reality], Jeff Kalles [Penny Arcade], John Abercrombie [Lead Programmer, Irrational Games], Mitchell Shuster [Co-owner, LanSlide Gaming PCs]

NVIDIA Unveils the Next Generation of PC Gaming
Panelists Include: Drew Henry [General Manager, GeForce – NVIDIA]

PAX East Games
Red Dead Redemption
Developer: Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Release: May 18, 2010

Breach
Developer: Atomic Games
Platform: XBLA, PSN, PC
Release: Early Summer 2010
Some guy attempted to steal the source code…
Update: Turned himself in…

Shank
Developer: Klei Entertainment (published by EA)
Platform: XBLA, PSN
Release: TBA

Mafia II
Developer: 2K Games (Czech)
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release: August 24, 2010

Friday Update for April 2nd, 2010

With the transition away from news about the story pillar of The Old Republic starting to ramp up, this week’s update brings us a Developer Blog from Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert. The blog outlines Bioware’s approach to creating the overall feel of an MMO, either from the “world” philosophy or the “game” philosophy. Both approaches differ greatly, wherein the world approach focuses on an open sandbox and players’ imaginations, and the game approach tightly holds players hands through a fine-tuned experience.

Schubert went on to explain that the Austin development team approaches MMO development with a third philosophy: community. The community-oriented approach allows them to bridge the gap between world and game, providing opportunities for players to both interact and explore the world around them, and also to be engaged in stories surrounding their characters and the galaxy as a whole. From the article:

“To me, as an MMO designer, community is the whole ball of wax. Let’s face it, if you wanted to play just a ‘game’, you’d be off playing a single player roleplaying game. If you wanted a ‘world’, maybe you’d play a life-simulation game. But community – well, that’s the whole ‘massively multiplayer’ part of MMO. When you look at it this way, ‘community’ is at least as important as ‘game’ or ‘world’ in this debate.”

This should at least help to calm the fears of some fellow gamers about the focus thus far on single player content. While he couldn’t give any specifics, Schubert noted that we will be hearing from both him and “other systems designers in the coming months as we talk about the systems and features that are getting locked down inside of the game”. Some of these features include crafting, where he said that they want to allow players to create items in the game that will benefit the community as a whole, rather than just the individual.

The entire entry is a great read and you can expect us to cover in more in depth in episode 17. Read “Community: The Third Element”