Well, it took us more than 2 years, but we’ve finally made it to 20 podcasts.  I’m not sure of the significance of that milestone, but it’s a nice round number, so YAY! WE HAZ 20 PODCASTS NAO!  In this episode, Grimmy and Krystalle are a little… less inhibited, when it comes to snark.  We manage to keep things serious long enough to discuss…

• Cross-realm Dungeon Finder premium service coming soon
• Atari to Divest Champions Online Developer Cryptic Studios
• Funcom planning Age of Conan: Unrated F2P launch this summer
• Rift is getting ready to provide free server transfers
• Guild Launch is sponsoring the MMO Track this year
• Dragon*Con News

We’re also looking for feedback on the idea of going live with the show. If you’d like to chime in, please leave a comment here, or email us at podcast@dc-mmo.org

This week we touch on a series of MMO highlights and news stories from both GDC and PAX East. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ve added some links and videos behind the break for those who want more information on the games we’re talking about this week!

SW:TOR Trailer:

The Secret World GDC writeup & trailer:

UFO Online: Fight for Earth:

Grimlands:

You can check out all this news and more over on Massively!

Music used:

• Opening: “Yellow Cake (Healflouride) by Ministry
• Bed: Tavern music from WoW (sampled and looped)
• Ending: “Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой” by Eduard Khil

Questions? Comments? Hatemail? Contact us at podcast [AT] dc [DASH] mmo [DOT] org or catch up with Krystalle & Kevin on Twitter

Hey everyone! Krystalle from Massively.com here. I hope you all made it home safe and sound and are enjoying being back at home with your gaming computers, in your comfy chairs/beds. I know I’ve missed my beloved office! (That’s an old picture of it above. Much more filled with geekstuff now.)

I’d like to take a moment to thank all our awesome sponsors and contributors, as well as the many guests who came to lend their own brand of awesome to our track this year:

Track sponsors:

• Artix Entertainment
• Comcast /Xfinity
• Sony Online Entertainment

Guests / Panelists:

• Battle & Brew
• Brandon M. “Oxhorn” Dennis (who wrote up a great post about his adventure!)
• Brian “Psychochild” Green
• Cartoon Network
• CCP / EVE Online
• CK Knight / Curse.com
• Hi-Rez Studios / Global Agenda
• Jeff Lewis
• Kingdom of Loathing
• Lessons in Lore / Chad and Megan Tindale
• Sandeep Parikh
• Sean Becker
• Seraphina Brennan / Massively.com
• Shawn Schuster / Massively.com & GuildCast
• Star Wars Combine
• Romily Rilynn, our mistress of Machinima

And those who, while unable to make it, contributed prizes for us to give away!

• Bigfoot Networks
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Funcom
• Gazillion Entertainment
• Icarus Studios
• Kingsisle Entertainment

Without our above sponsors and guests, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off the epic win of this year’s MMO track. Many thanks, everyone!

Also, I wanted to take a moment to post some of the information from my panels, since some people did not grab the handouts I’d made. You can find it all after the break!

Kid-friendly MMOs / Virtual Worlds:

• AdventureQuest Worlds
• Club Penguin
• Digimon Battle
• Fantage
• FusionFall
• Free Realms
• Hello Kitty Online
• Jumpstart World
• Kung Fu Panda World
• LEGO Universe Online
• Maplestory
• Moshi Monsters
• MyMiniPeeps -  (Note: beta! Reg code “mmpfriends”)
• Pixie Hollow
• PopTropica
• Puzzle Pirates
• RuneScape
• Super Hero Squad Online
• WebbliWorld
• Wizard 101
• ZulaWorld

Free-to-play & Freemium MMOs:

• Allods Online
• Battle of the Immortals
• Black Prophecy
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
• Digimon Battle
• EverQuest II Extended
• Face of Mankind
• Forsaken World
• Free Realms
• FusionFall
• Godswar Online
• Hello Kitty Online
• Kingdom of Loathing
• Lord of the Rings Online
• Mabinogi
• MapleStory
• Need For Speed: World
• SoulMaster
• Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
• Taikodom
• Vindictus
• Wizard 101
• Zentia

Upcoming MMOs:

• Black Prophecy
• DC Universe Online
• Earthrise
• End of Nations
• EverQuest II Extended
• Fallout Online
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Forsaken World
• Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising (rezzed, no joke!)
• GuildWars 2
• Jumpgate Evolution
• LEGO Universe
• Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdoms
• Poisonville
• Super Hero Squad Online
  *Note: There is another Marvel MMO with a classic comic art style currently under development*
• Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Taikodom
• Rift: Planes of Telara
• TERA
• The Secret World
• Vindictus
• World of Tanks

If you have any questions about materials covered during any of my panels, feel free to ping me. You can email me at krystalle AT massively DOT com, or say hello on Twitter.

Hopefully, we’ll see you all next year!

We WTFPWNED! the old Thriller Dance record set at William & Mary (Bill and Buffy) University.  They had just over 200 people dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  Dragon*Con had over 900.

Comic-Con took the record for largest charity blood drive from us…briefly.  We retook the record with over 1900 units of blood donated.  DC*MMO’s own “Horde vs. Alliance” blood drive saw 250 donors step up and bleed for a good cause.  My most sincere thanks to everyone who gave. (even if it did make you a cheap drunk for the rest of the weekend… Don’t think we didn’t notice.)

50 panels and events on the MMO track this year, and hardly a “bomb scare” in the bunch.   Thank you to our guests and panelists for making this year’s DC*MMO track such a success.

Felicia Day is amazingly cool, and apparently had a really good time at Dragon*Con.  Thank you Felicia, and thank you fans for showing her a good time this year.  Felicia screened all of seasons 1 and 2 as well as the first episode of season 3 which debuted last week just before the convention started.

Thank you Funcom for throwing a killer party on Friday night!

Thank you Sony Online Entertainment for throwing a killer… well… all day Sunday!

Thank you CCP, Cartoon Network, Wardog Studios, Artix Entertainment, Hi-Rez Studios, Massively.com, and WoW.com for hosting excellent panels and events for us.  We look forward to working with you again next year.

Thank you, WoWTCGLoot.com, NCSoft, iZ3D,  and Turbine for donating prizes for us to give away this year.

Most of all, thank you to my staff of unpaid volunteers who busted their humps for me all year long in order to pull this weekend off.

My assistant directors, Trevor Legg and Krystalle Voecks.  I could not have done this without you two by my side to keep me sane and remind me of all of the things that could have slipped through the cracks.  Trevor’s ideas and ability to think creatively (I hate the term “outside the box”) and Krystalle’s organizational skills and industry knowledge were both absolutely essential to our success.  I thank you both.

To the rest of the gang, Michael McGreevy, Rafe Brox, Ian Wickenkamp (I didn’t forget you this year!!!), Jonna Crane, Doug Keller, Scott Blanks, Jay & Sheryl Sturrock, Sam Levine (Happy Birthday!) and all of the folks who stuck around and chipped in to help us even though they didn’t have to… You have my thanks, and that doesn’t even begin to cover it.  I put you guys through a pretty brutal wringer this year, and you all came through shining brightly.  Rest well, you have earned it.

Planning for Dragon*Con 2010 starts next week.

-Grim

That means we’re close. 3 weeks to go, in fact!

To give you guys an update as to what’s going on, we’re starting to receive prize packages from some of our “Friends of DC*MMO” (see the column on the left) including t-shirts, posters, boxed copies of games, loot cards, and other assorted goodies that we’ll be giving away. Most of this stuff will be given away during our WoW party (WoW Stuff) and MMO Trivia Contest (Everything Else) during the weekend, but we’ll also be tossing out some swag during our panels. Which ones? Could be any of them!

It looks like the Digital Gaming Lab (DGL) will be moving up to the 3rd floor in the Hilton this year. Normally, that doesn’t affect us since we’re in the Sheraton, but if you actually want some “hands on” time with some of the games that we’ll be highlighting this year, the DGL is the place to be. We’ll be hosting “All-nighters” with Global Agenda and Age of Conan in the DGL this year.

We’ve updated the look of the website just a bit, and included links to the companies and people who have helped us out this year and in the past.  These folks have donated time, merchandise, and effort into making Dragon*Con successful, and I’d like to thank them all on behalf of the DC*MMO staff.

Finally, we’re steadily dwindling our supply of DC*MMO 2009 t-shirts.  We only have a few of the larger sizes left!  We’re also going to have a new SnarkCast available for you later today or tomorrow, and Krystalle and I will try to squeeze in one or two more before the convention.

As a final treat, I wanted to share this picture of the winning team (posing w/the Bling Gnome Trophy) from last year’s Hardcore MMO Trivia Contest.  The winners of each year’s trivia contest will win a fantastic set of prizes and have their picture immortalized on the base of the trophy. (last year, we had no base because my crafting skill is 0)

Scheduling is pretty much complete and now we turn our attention towards our giveaways, contests, and other events. One such bit of news, for those of you who are interested in attending our WoW Party on Saturday night, is that we will have a cash bar inside the ballroom this year.  You will not have to leave the party to obtain performance enhancing substances for our contest this time around.

Our new friends at Comcast (yes, THAT Comcast) have decided to sponsor our WoW party this year and will be adding some fantastic prizes for us to give away.  I could tell you… but I’d rather keep it a surprise.  You will not be disappointed.

We will also have some goodies to give away during our MMO Trivia contest on Sunday night, courtesy of Sony Online Entertainment, Funcom, Hi-Rez Studios, and a cast of dozens.  More details to follow, but I can say that we will probably have more free stuff to give away this year than we did last year… And last year, we had a LOT.

In this week’s show, we snarkify (otherwise known as “show notes”):

• E3
  • Booth Babes
  • Underwear as Swag
  • A “Stripper Game”
  • News from Sony Online Entertainment
    • Free Realms
    • The Agency
    • Hong Kong Shuffle
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Global Agenda
    • Bogus “Awards” given at E3
    • DC*MMO takes a studio tour
    • “Open All Night” demo at Dragon*Con
• Sony Fan Faire
  • Star Wars Galaxies
    • Zombies
    • User-created content
    • The Gungan Gun
  • SOE’s big party at Dragon*Con
• Blizzard
  • No LAN play for Starcraft II
  • What’s Wrong With WoW?
  • Special Interview w/Dr. Tran
  • WoW Faction changes
  • WoW may be an MMO with training wheels, but it serves an important purpose.
• EVE Online
  • Yet another bank scam
  • BoB is dead
• Age of Conan
  • Huge upcoming patch
  • “Fixing” stats and itemization
  • Problems with questing in AoC
• Warhammer Online
  • How to “Kill 10 rats” correctly
  • Public quests
  • Mark Jacobs leaving Mythic
  • Mythic is now part of Bioware
  • How will Bioware change WAR?
• City of Heroes
  • Issue 15 is coming
  • The 5th Column is back!
  • New costumes and facial options
  • Is it better to look good? or have uber stats on gear?
• Dragon*Con stuff
  • Schedule is done!
  • 50 panels and events scheduled on MMO track
  • WoW trivia event being combined into Hardcore MMO Trivia contest
  • 5 different parties planned on the MMO track this year.
• Closing Music and gag reel.

(Opening music, courtesy of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, “Isis Unveiled”)

That puts us dangerously close to 50 panels and events for this year.

We also found out that we will, in all likelihood, be in the Capital Ballroom at the Sheraton (same ballroom we had last year) for most of our big events this time around (10 on the schedule)

The notable exception will be Fun*Con 2009, Funcom’s meet and greet party on Friday night, which will be in the Marriott (A601-602, which is where our Saturday party was last year).  The guys at Funcom are bringing MAD amounts of stuff to give away, so don’t miss it.

This week, we’ll be talking with Blizzard, 38 Studios, and Netdevil again in attempts to get them on board.  We are also working on some events with our friends at Battle & Brew, a local gaming pub in Atlanta.  We’ll be providing additional details on that in upcoming weeks.

Finally, we spoke with Funcom last week, and they have got a lot of plans for Dragon*Con this year.  We are adding a Friday Night Party to the schedule, and they’ll be presenting panels on Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and possibly a panel on their upcoming title as well.  They will also be providing some prizes for our contests and live-action quest as well.

Now that Dragon*Con is only a couple more months away, we’ll be updating the site more frequently.  Stay tuned.

I managed to find an MP3 of Dragon*Con’s “Gathering of the Guilds” panel from 2002. This was a good solid 2 years before anyone had heard of World of Warcraft.  From the program guide…

Gathering of the Guilds
MP3

Gathering of the Guilds is an event whose goal is to attract members of the guild community as well as MMORPG players in general. To facilitate this, we will be inviting organizers of some of the more highly recognized guilds and members of design teams from various gaming companies. We plan to have these teams demonstrate some of the games they have in development, hold discussion panels, and meet the MMORPG community.

Palehorse
Elonka Dunin
Waylon Adams

Attendance: 70

For those of you who are curious, Palehorse is our very own Trevor, who is now the assistant director of the MMO track.  Elonka is probably the smartest woman on the planet.  Waylon is the gentleman who started running MMO panels as part of the EFF track WAAAAY back in the day.  Waylon was the guy who got Trevor and I involved, and his help and support is a big part of why we are here today.

If you listen REEEEEALY closely (hint:  I mention the fact that I played on the Druzzil Ro server…) you’ll hear a certain smartass who somehow managed to talk his way into a spot on the panel. (I can’t remember if it was that year, or the following year)

The rest… is history.  By 2004, I was a bonafide panelist, and Funcom  had joined us at Dragon*Con.   We started doing WoW panels in 2006, and last year, we managed to come up with an entire track for the first time.  Hard to believe it’s only been 7 years…

So, with no further ado, here’s where we stand.

We will definitely be back in the Sheraton this year, specifically in the Athens and Augusta rooms.

The following companies have already confirmed that they will be participating in Dragon*Con this year:
Sony (EQ, EQ2, Star Wars Galaxies, DC Universe Online, Free Realms, The Agency)
Funcom (Age of Conan, Secret World, Anarchy Online)
CCP (EVE Online)
Adventure Quest (AQ Worlds)
Gaia Interactive (Gaia Online)
Wardog Studios (Force of Arms)
Cartoon Network (FusionFall)

We are still in talks with the following companies:
NCSoft (City of Heroes, Guild Wars)
EA/Mythic (Warhammer Online)
Cryptic Studios (Star Trek Online, Champions Online)
Bioware (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
Blizzard (DUHHHHHH)
38 Studios (Copernicus)
Frogster Interactive (Runes of Magic)

We are planning additional panels on topics such as
Guild Management
Dead MMO’s
Free MMO’s
WoW Lore (with authors Richard A. Knaak and Keith R.A. DeCandido)
The state of MMO gaming (with representatives from several MMO companies)
The Guild, starring Felicia Day (not nailed down yet, but we’re working on it)

Of course, we are also planning a series of parties/events for our night time sessions…
Quest Givers (yes, we’re doing the weekend-long live action quests again!)
Kickoff Party on Friday Night
World of Warcraft Trivia Contest
Hardcore MMO Trivia Contest (all games)
WoW Olympics (Gnome Tossing, Dodgeball, Dance Contest, Emote Contest, etc)
Kingdom of Loathing Party
Sony Party (EQ, EQ2, SWG, etc)

We are also working on getting all of the MMO games that we will be discussing included in the computer gaming lab in the Hilton so that you guys can try out some of these games on your own time.  As with all convention preparations, things can (and often do) change at the last minute, but this is a snapshot of where we are as of right now.  We have our 12th, and final, staff member on board for this year and we plan on moving very quickly to finalize our plans for this year so that you guys will have plenty of opportunity to get ready for an outstanding Dragon*Con this year.

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please contact us and let us know about it.  If you’d like to buy a shirt to help us out, that would be great too!.

Funcom has also recently celebrated 7 years of Anarchy Online.  Congratulations, guys!

-Grim

Quick news bites for you:

CCP (EVE Online) has confirmed with us that they are planning on attending Dragon*Con this year.

So have the folks at AdventureQuest Worlds…

So has Funcom (Age of Conan, Anarchy Online)

Slowly, but surely, we are filling up our event schedule. If all goes as planned, there will be over 50 MMO panels and events for you to check out at Dragon*Con this year.

We’re going to be back in the Sheraton next year.  Main registration and a lot of the “behind the scenes” Dragon*Con stuff will be moving there as well.  Pat, Dave, and the gang met with the Sheraton folks and they’ve really bent over backwards for us and have learned their lessons from last year.

Sony has already expressed their intention to come back next year, as has Funcom. (obviously, not etched in stone yet…)

We’re going to have 2 trivia sessions next time around, one for “hardcore MMO players” and one that is for WoW players only.

Quest Givers will have their own party on Sunday as well as a lot more support from our staff during the weekend.

There will be a lot more WoW stuff going on. (theorycrafting, raid management, lore, newbie panels, etc)

Even at this stage in the game, we only have 6 panel slots left to fill.  That’s assuming that we have 1 big room and 1 small room.  We may add on another small room for more stuff depending on how many new games get announced early next year.

We have a lot of other stuff in the early planning stages, but too early to announce yet.

Gnome Punting (and throwing) will return next year.

-Grim