Champions Online @ Cryptic Studios media day

It seems that Cryptic Studios had a media day where they showed and talked a lot about their upcoming game Champions Online – there is an entry on the game’s website here about the coverage they have recveived.

Some of the material are similar, being different media entities reporting on the same thing of course.

Jack Emmert provided some basic background for the Champions Intellectual property and  talked some about the games features. It is good to see that it is aimed for to be a social MMOG rather than one that focuses on collecting items and that they intend to use and improve upon some of these features (like sidekicks) from City of Heroes. I think that is promising and encouraging to hear.

Every hero character is able to have its own arch-nemesis and it was also indicated that players would be able to have some control over that character. This was also mentioned when PvP was brought up, so maybe they will be going for something similar to PvMP in Lord of the Rings Online? But will the nemesis character be controlled the the player that created it, or will it be possible to let another player control it and then fight it with your hero in PvP fashiopn? They did not provide more details, but will be interesting to see what it turns out as.

PvP will be in from start but an optional feature. This sounds like a good choice.

Playing a villain will be through the arch-nemesis and not as a separate game/area as in City of Heroes/Villains. This is also something I think is for the better also.

Cryptic also indicated their view of empowering the players, one part being the “total customization” of characters and their powers. But they also hinted at player generated content and giving players tools for that – not right away perhaps, but they are aimign in that direction and not only with Champions Online, but it seems they want to provide similar features in all of their games.

Among the material provided in their news segment is also a video showing some gameplay from the game, which looks quite neat. And it does include the comic style “Zap”, “Bam”, “Pow” when fighting…

A good set of material. I think Cryptic does a good job of portraing that it is a fun place to work at and that there is a team of talented people, emphasized by the “Meet the team” segments on the Champions Online web site.