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After a month off to tend to various injuries (Krys hurt her wrist, and Grim busted up his knee), Krys and Grim are back with another SnarkCast.  Everyone and everything is fair game for our snarktastic duo this time around.  If you, or the game you love, find yourselves in our cross-hairs, take solace in the fact that you aren’t alone.  We snark because we love. (Except Gold Farmers, nobody likes those little idiots.)

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

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

Ok, it occurred to me that we didn’t quite have enough questions in our initial survey, so I added a few more, clarified a few others, and decided to give it another shot.

In case you haven’t noticed, the link at the top of the page that says DC*MMO Survey will take you to the survey page.  I promise you that these answers will be used for something fun at Dragon*Con, but we need at least 100 people to answer the survey. (What could it be?!?)

Let’s play the Feud! Um, I mean, it’s a secret. Yeah, that’s it!

It has been a relatively light week for the DC*MMO crew.  There hasn’t been a lot of movement in terms of new companies or games coming to Dragon*Con, but we  are going to focus our efforts on some of the non-Blizzard companies out there this week.

Jumpgate Evolution from NetDevil is high on our list of targeted companies.  It seems like everyone and their fairy godmother is looking for a Sci-Fi themed MMO, and these guys will be going live in June.  With a little luck, we’ll be getting them to Dragon*Con to give you guys an up-close and personal look at the game.

We will also be talking with 38 Studios this week about their game, code named Copernicus.  Since I am a notorious Boston Red Sox fan, you can imagine that I’m really looking forward to this release.  If you don’t know what the Sox have to do with this game, 38 Studios’ CEO is Curt Schilling, former pitcher, and major gaming fanatic,  for the Red Sox.

Our tireless crew of motley mischief makers is working hard on a couple of art projects for this year’s convention.  I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think you’ll like it.   We are in a deep debate on what we should call our WoW-themed competition event at this year’s convention.  Last year, we had Gnome Punting, Gnome Tossing, a dance contest, and other activities that set members of the Horde against members of the Alliance.  This year, we are going to expand on that theme and plan a party around it.  If you have suggestions for what we can call this little festival of mayhem, please let us know.

We also have our first podcast under our belts.  Krystalle and I give you all the inside scoop on what’s happening in MMO land.  Make sure you listen all the way to the very end for some entertaining outtakes. (and since this was our first podcast, there were more than a few to choose from)

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!.

Join us for thrills, chills, and more as the two snarky emcees from Dragon*Con’s MMO track settle down and talk geek. For this, our first-ever D*C MMO podcast, we touch briefly on some of the lessons learned from running the track last year, and some of the things we’re doing to make this year rock much harder. Curious as to who we’ve booked as guests and who we’re in talks with? You’ll get the behind the scenes scoop on all the latest MMO track happenings with a hint of general MMO news as Kevin and Krystalle wander across the Dragon*Con landscape.

Also, as this is our first-ever attempt at actually making a podcast, we welcome your thoughts. You can contact Kevin and Krystalle by dropping an email to them at podcast [at] dc-mmo [dot] org. Gifts are accepted in the form of beta keys, money, or chocolate covered espresso beans.

Feel free to follow these two crazy monkeys on Twitter as well. Kevin can be found [here] and Krystalle lurks around [over here].

This episode features music from around the MMO landscape: City of Heroes, EVE Online, EverQuest II, Age of Conan, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and a bit of audio silliness here and there. See if you can figure out which is which; or if you’re truly hardcore, what the track names are. (After all, we have an MMO Trivia panel to plan for… You never know.)

We’ll see you in two weeks for Episode II; and not the one where Anakin is a whiny, emo QQer.

Welcome to the first weekly installment of the DC-MMO Update.  Now that we’re about 5 months away from Dragon*Con, and preparations are underway in earnest, it makes sense for us to keep everyone up to date on where we are.

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!.

Our “month off” is almost over, which means we will be starting our plans for next year’s Dragon*Con soon.   I’ll post some feedback on what we thought worked well, and what we thought we could do better on for next year.  It would really help us out if you guys did the same.

What do you want more of?

What can we do without?

What can we do differently?

What games would you like to see represented next year?

I’m fairly certain that we will not be in the Sheraton next year, but that determination isn’t up to me and is quite a way off.  Assume, for the time being, that we will be in an unknown location.  What kinds of things will improve our track regardless of where it is held?

Also… One of the things we can ALWAYS use more of is “Subject Matter Experts”.  This year, for example, I had to run the Warhammer Online panel because nobody on my staff played the beta, and Mythic/EA had to cancel at the last minute.  If you are willing to run a panel, and have some expertise on an MMO, then step on up and let me hear from you.   As much as I might try, I can’t play more than 2 or 3 MMO’s at any given time.

-Grim

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