Jack Emmert has been interviewed at Gamasutra, again spending a fair bit of time explaining what Neverwinter isn't and not so much explaining what it is:

So was Neverwinter originally conceived as a co-op RPG, or as an MMO?

JE: Neverwinter was, at least initially... I'll be honest, my initial version is far different. My initial version was a flat-out MMO that would essentially be different zones in Neverwinter, and there would be various entrances and critters scattered throughout. And my initial idea -- and again, we flushed this down the toilet because this was a while ago -- but it was essentially going to be a dungeon that would be instanced between you and your friends. Any real story, per se, was all about exploration.

And there would be stories you would stumble upon, like, "Oh hey, these goblins are trying to relocate the tribe," or "Oh hey, these bandits are trying to look for a particular artifact." But you wouldn't go to a contact to get a mission, per se, as you would in World of Warcraft or Champions Online or whatever. It would be more exploration. But we decided that it would be something else, and I'm entirely for that, because it makes sense.

Thanks, Lucky Day!

Lucky Day notes another interview with Jack Emmert on Neverwinter, this time at a site called Zam.  This is the first part of two, apparently.  A snip:

ZAM: What else will Neverwinter share in common with MMOs, and in what ways will it be completely different?

Emmert: I think in a typical MMO you go out and you'll get a mission to kill 10 rats or whatever; it's very difficult to create scripted quests for hundreds and hundreds of hours. We're not doing that; everything that we're doing [with Neverwinter] includes a storyline and narrative like Oblivion and Dragon Age… a more traditional RPG. There's a beginning, middle and an end. There are no killing fields and you're never requested to just go kill 10 orcs, or collect five torn pelts. We don't have traditional crafting with resource nodes that you click on to collect stuff. A lot of those mechanics are simply born of the fact that you want people continually playing hour after hour. We're looking for great gameplay with a great story that's [going to be] a lot of fun.

As a side note, the tension between Atari and Turbine - developers of Dungeons & Dragons Online, is increasing with a $30M lawsuit.

For a not-an-MMO, they sure do a lot of interviews with MMORPG sites.  Jack Emmert has popped up at MMORPG.com in an article-style interview, explaining how Neverwinter will work in such broad strokes, it doesn't reveal a lot.  Apparently we're in for Borderlands meets Dragon Age meets Oblivion, if you can get your head around that:

The other thing Jack mentioned is that the game will follow the play style of something like Borderlands with a Dragon Age/ Oblivion feel to it. The game won’t have to live up to the MMO expectations that have become so widespread in online gaming. Instead of having a full on MMO, Cryptic wants the game to be a place where old D&D groups can get together no matter where they are and play a night of gaming without having to deal with grinding monsters or endless repetition. They want the game to be a fun experience to have with your friends.

Jack explained that after Champions and Star Trek they realized that the studio had to shift gears from the typical MMO template. This new style of game is working with a tested engine and allows Cryptic to make the games they want. After the feedback they got from their most recent MMOs Jack explained that the studio is now moving in a new direction, “It’s a brand new Cryptic.”

Thanks, Lucky Day!

Here's another Jack Emmert interview on Neverwinter, this time at MMO site TenTonHammer.  His answers are rather general but here's a snip on the Forge tools:

Ten Ton Hammer: Aside from the game reveal itself, the most intriguing thing about this press release is Forge, the ability for players to craft their own storylines and quests. What can you tell us about Forge?

Jack Emmert: Neverwinter, like the previous Neverwinter games, is not only a great RPG, but will also make it easy to create user-generated content. You’ll have the tools you need to effectively become a virtual dungeonmaster.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will players be able to progress in the core Neverwinter story with player-created content, or are these side quests? How extensive a story can players create?

Jack Emmert: They’re side quests, but frankly, somebody can build their own campaign within the Neverwinter setting. We’re really hoping that players can create their own set of content that runs parallel to ours, that interleaves with ours, however they want to do it… really bring their imagination to life.

Thanks, Lucky Day and Kalniel!

Lucky Day sends in this handful of Neverwinter items.  First, Massively has an interview with Cryptic's Jack Emmert.  Let's try to tie down what this game is:

You've described the game as not an MMO but a cooperative RPG.

(laughs) An OMG.

Right, an OMG, the online multiplayer game, yes. We also have these open spaces, public space, and privatized spaces. They aren't instances, and it's not an open world, and I'm trying to wrap my head around this, could you explain it a bit more?

We'll have worlds that are certainly cooperative. How many players will be in a particular area will be a little bit up in the air. There will be, for lack of a better word, dungeons, that you and your teammates go in, that will just be for you and your teammates, so more like a traditional instance would be in an MMO. Players will have lots of controls over whether something's public or private and so forth, and we're working on those various options now. As we go into beta and get feedback from people actually using the tools, we'll add more, but the idea of a large zone with hundreds of players, that isn't what Neverwinter is, no.

An example would be like Phantasy Star Online, perhaps, where players can meet up and play in these open spaces but move into privatized areas?

Yeah, that's not a bad analogy.

GameSpot also caught up with Jack:

GS: And along those lines, we understand that the game will let players choose to play as one of five character professions. Can you share which professions these will be? How closely will they approximate the 4th Edition rules? Will we see heroic feats, paragon paths/epic destinies…?

JE: Fighter. Wizard. Rogue. Ranger. Cleric. You'll see the powers, abilities, and spells from the latest Players' Handbook spring to life on the computer screen. Neverwinter is all about the heroic levels; the paragon paths and epic destinies will be something we add.

...and PC World's Matt Peckham (yes, that awful NWN2 review) weighs in with some general comments.

Vigil Games recap the E3 coverage for Dark Millennium Online which includes a gameplay trailer.

For those keeping up with Bioware's Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, Eurogamer posts an E3 interview with Greg Zeschuk which is primarily concerned with the latest hardware tech developments and the various platforms out there.

Here's a more general snip:

Eurogamer: How is SWTOR coming along?

Greg Zeschuk: It's going really well, actually. We've been very busy getting it ready for more people playing it, so it's largely about polishing the experience, and getting it to feel like how it'll feel when you play the finished game...

Eurogamer: Have you had any negative feedback?

Greg Zeschuk: Not really. The interesting thing is there's a surprise factor. One thing I heard was that up till now people never really got a taste for this whole story thing we've talked about. We've talked, talked, talked about it, and made it a big deal, but you couldn't actually experience it.

The feedback I'm getting is that now people have finally been able to play it, they get it completely. For us, that's very much a win condition because being able to experience and understand how the story is interwoven with the multiplayer experience is the whole point of the game. Just from playing for 30 minutes, it's evident that's really powerful.

Ubisoft has controlled the Might & Magic franchise for a few years now with underwhelming results.  The announcement of a Heroes of Might & Magic multiplayer browser game developed in China didn't exactly inspire excitement, either.  While we don't actively cover MMO games any more, VoxClamant's offer to tell us about the beta for HoMM Online sounded interesting.  Here's the introduction of his impressions after over 30 hours of play:

Be prepared to be surprised if you try Heroes of Might & Magic Online – this is actually a pretty good game.  By the time the open beta is finished it might well be a very good game.  For so many of us who still enjoy and replay the Heres oo Might & Magic series, the online version is surprisingly robust and addictive.  It is faithful to the original (right down to the music) with a few good enhancements and only a couple significant disappointments.

Read it all here.

Duck and Cover writes that Interplay has kicked up a Fallout Online website, complete with beta registration, although the Flash seems to be drowning under the weight of traffic at the moment.

As you might know RPGWatch is a site made by volunteers who invest their time and money into bringing you as much RPG information as possible and provide a place to discuss RPGs (and whatever else you like to discuss).

Our ads income are minimal and the operating costs for RPGWatch are not getting any less so we decided to open up a donations page where we ask you our visitors for a voluntary contribution. The link to this page can be found at the top of every page (a bit below the ads banner). On that page we give some more background information and the option to donate if you like. Alternatively you can also click this link to reach that page.

Update by Arhu: If the link at the top doesn't show up for you, try shift-reloading the site. One of the style sheets has changed.

The first actual screenshots of Interplay's Fallout Online codenamed "Project V13" have been published by the Fallout fansite Duck and Cover.

We've stopped covering MMOs but I'm sure some are still interested in Project V13 / Fallout Online and the various associated shennigans.  Duck and Cover has four new pieces of concept art.

This weekend RPGWatch turned 3. On October 17th 2006 the site went live and marked the start of a new adventure, bringing us to where we are now.

We are doing very well for a niche site as we are. We have a few million page views a month a continuously rising number of visitors and the feedback we are getting is increasing as well.

In the last week or so the team discussed the future of RPGWatch and decided that we want to keep our focus on RPG's and drop the support for online games. As a result we have ended our activities related to MMOWatch and, although the site is still active it will not be updated anymore. We will have to see if we will remove the link to the site all together or just leave it as it is now.

Another thing we discussed is the fact that we need more staff. It would help if we get some assistance in posting news and in creating articles for RPGWatch to make the site even better. An official announcement will follow, but if you feel you can contribute just message us by clicking on the 'Submit news' link at the top of the page.

We have other plans for the site but it is too soon to talk about them as we don't know if and when they can be realized. As you might know we are all volunteers and most of us have a full-time job besides keeping RPGWatch running, so the realization of the new features might take a while, but we hope that some of them will be realized before we turn four.

We want to thank all of you for visiting us so frequently and for your involvement on our forums. Without you our efforts would be meaningless and RPGWatch would be nothing. We hope we can continue to attract your attention and that (in the not too far future) we can enhance the site to make it an even better experience for you.

Runes of Magic recently hit the 2 million mark of registred users.

Runes of Magic hits million mark again
Now more than 2 million registrations

Frogster announces today that the online role play game, Runes of Magic has now recorded over 2 million registrations in Europe and the USA. Doing so the Berlin publisher reaches a further milestone in the marketing of its multi-award-winning MMORPG, just six months on from the release of the first chapter ‘Rise of the Demon Lord’’ in its German and English language versions. The second chapter ‘The Elven Prophecy’, launched recently in September, also saw the launch of additional French and Spanish language versions. The Russian language version is already in the starting blocks and preparations are on-going for further localised versions.

‘Runes of Magic has become a mega-seller in the few months since we launched. The 2 million registrations milestone we have now hit is yet further proof of the quality of our game and our communication strategy’, commented Rolf Klöppel, Director of Marketing & PR for Frogster Online Gaming.