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Sony Online Entertainment's Wes Yanagi recently sat down with Gamasutra
to discuss where things are in the development process for href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407"> style="font-style: italic;">DC Universe Online,
Jim Lee's involvement with the project and what kind of beta we might
see closer to launch.  They also discuss how gameplay will
differ from traditional MMOGs, and how that will effect the UI and DC
Universe's accessibility.

We give more decisions on where you should be moving
and how you're
controlling your character because we're a much more action-based game.
And strategically, what powers you fire off if you're hiding behind
something, if you're picking up a bus, or if you have to dodge a bus.



And that's much different than more traditional MMOs, where it's less
movement based and it's more picking a combination of powers or
reacting to powers, or watching someone's health go down and then
hitting the heal button, or casting the heal spell.

While asked about possible release dates and business models, Yanagi
said it's still a bit too early to announce anything
concrete.  If I had to guess, those details will begin to
emerge right around the launch of DC Universe's competitor in
super-hero space, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860"> style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online
which is set to release this year.



Be sure to read href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21469">the
rest of the interview to learn more about DCU's
development process and interesting take on combat mechanics.