Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

While the Marvel Universe Online game doesn’t benefit from the years of actual play CoH/CoV has under its belt, the game does have a whole host of people who have been following it for decades. It’s an old property, and the developers have realized this. When I asked them whether they felt any pressure from dealing with an IP as big as Marvel, Shayne was quick to respond:

“Pressure? There’s no pressure.”

When we finished laughing, Victor pointed out that Marvel still had the end-voice concerning their characters, which translates into a form of quality control for the comic book side of things. Even with this licensing agreement, however, the two men were confident about the relationship between Marvel and Cryptic.

“They (Marvel) have a lot of faith in us,” Shayne said. “They trust Cryptic because they can see what we’ve done, and what we’re trying to do. Jack Emmert can answer Marvel Universe questions better than a lot of Marvel fanboys or Marvel designers. He’s extremely knowledgeable.”

In the end, I wanted to know why a fan of the Marvel Universe should have confidence in the MMO designers at Cryptic Studios. I thought their answer was right on the money and shows the desire to stay true to the source material that they’re pulling from.

“Once we show players our plans, they’ll know that we’re going to make a true Marvel experience,” Victor said. “When they see how much detail and knowledge of the intellectual property has gone into this, they’ll know that they need to have confidence in us.

“However, we also know that we should never doubt the collected intelligence of our users. We will listen. We know to listen. They’ve been playing the Marvel game for years – in their minds and in other venues – so we know that we should listen.”

Our entire talk lasted a bit longer than half-an-hour, but while I was there I felt like I was privy to a great deal of knowledge about Marvel and Cryptic’s upcoming “secret project”. Both projects will be unveiled in further detail towards the beginning of the fall, so keep your eyes peeled. If you’re at all interested in the “secret project”, please visit Cryptic’s main site to see some concept artwork from the game.

Also, while you’re perusing, make sure you check out our quick descriptor page for Cryptic’s Animation Rig (Cryptic AR). It is the FULL version of the toolset used to animate the characters in Marvel Universe Online.Check it out, and toy with it a bit. It’s free…why shouldn’t you?

I’d like to thank Victor and Shayne for a wonderful interview session, and I hope to bring you more information on Cryptic’s upcoming games as soon as anything becomes available.

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