Edge Online has talked to Tim Cain, who is lead designer for Carbine Studios’ announced MMORPG.

What are you playing right now?

TC: Let’s see, I’m playing Dungeons & Dragons Online. I’m playing City of Villains, I’m playing Warhammer Online and I’m going to cancel my [Age of] Conan account. I think that’s about it.

JG: Is your WoW account active?

TC: Yeah I play WoW. Everyone plays WoW. I have Fallout 3 preordered and Lich King preordered so I know what I’m going to be doing in October and November.

You can check out the full interview here.

1UP had the chance to talk to Leonard Boyarsky about the upcoming Diablo III. Here’s an excerpt:

1UP: Since you’ve worked on games like Fallout and Arcanum, can you talk about how your background in hardcore RPG design contributes to the design of the action-heavy Diablo III?

LB: Since you didn’t catch the world design panel, this isn’t going to be information you heard already. But in the panel, we talked about how you can argue that an action game doesn’t really need a story. I would then argue that even if you have an action game that concentrates on the action, if you have that story layer in there — which is opt-in of course because a bunch of players won’t care about the story in that type of game — but if it’s there for the people who do care, or if it informs all the art and the mood and the way people talk in the game, I think it comes across to the player. Even those who only peripherally encounter it through their quests, it gives them something to care about. They’re not only caring about the next piece of armor or the next level, but if we’re doing out job right, they’re going to care about the next plot point. That’s where I come in.

You can read the full interview here.

Zero Radius Games is a hobbyist game design group that consists of Chris Taylor, Tom Decker (he was part of the ToEE and Bloodlines teams) and Scott Everts. ZRG has finally a working website again and they have put up some of their games for download. The games are in PDF format (yes, these are board and/or card games) and you don’t use a PC to play them. As far as I’ve heard their games are pretty sweet, so have a look at their site!

By the way, I’ve found that piece of information at the Fallout 3 Blog! Thanks briosafreak!

Hell froze over and Blizzard finally announced Diablo III. This may be big news for all computer game fans but why here on Troika Chronicles? That’s because Leonard Boyarsky of Troika fame is the Lead World Designer of Blizzard’s upcoming Action RPG. Wow! I’ve heard rumors that Leon was working for Blizzard Entertainment but that he’s in charge of World Design just blows me away! Good luck, Leon, and try to smuggle some Brahmin into the Cow Level.

Some time ago I stumbled upon a great blog that I read almost every day: Briosafreak’s Fallout 3: A Post Nuclear Blog. In his blog he brings us daily news on everything related to the Fallout series with special focus on the upcoming Fallout 3 by Bethesda. One of the features on the site is a real blast from the past: Desslock’s interview with Tim Cain about ToEE. If you haven’t already read it, check it out and remember the good old days.

GameBanshee’s Thomas Beekers has talked with Jason D. Anderson of Troika fame who is currently Creative Director for the Interplay Entertainment MMORPG project. Although he couldn’t reveal much about the project he’s working on since it was not “officially announced”, it seems a sure bet that it’s a Fallout MMOG. Here’s an excerpt:

As I am interviewing potential employees for Interplay, I am not only taking a hard look at people’s skills, but at their overall attitude on game making and the gaming industry as well. I am very interested in people with a “we can do it!” attitude – something you see much more of at small development houses and top-rated companies like Blizzard. I am trying to put together the best hand-picked team I can so that we can create a really great game. Pessimists need not apply.

You can check out the full interview here.

According to this news post @ Blues News Interplay (yes, they are still around) has hired Jason Anderson. Jason will be working on an “unannounced MMORPG”. I am pretty sure that’s the Fallout MMORPG Hervé Caen has been talking about for some time now. Although it’s good to hear that Jason is back in the industry, I don’t think it was a good idea to work for Interplay again…

Update: According to the Fallout 3 Blog, Jason Anderson will not be working on the Fallout MMOG but on another yet unannounced MMOG. Hmm, I remember the unannounced part from the original news but assumed there hasn’t been a formal announcement of the Fallout MMOG yet. Hmm, I think I was mistaken. So Interplay is working on two MMOGs or has the Fallout MMOG been cancelled?

No Mutants Allowed, the (in)famous Fallout fansite has posted their interview with Troika co-founder Jason D. Anderson. Here’s an excerpt for your convenience:

When I was around 9 or 10, my mom read an article about Gary Gygax and went out and bought me the basic D&D set. (Remember the blue one? The one with the die that fell apart when you threw them?) I didn’t have anyone to play with, so I created characters and played by myself until I found some friends at school to play with. We played nearly every day at school during lunch. I remember when the Advanced D&D books came out, with the Monster Manual, it was such a huge deal for us. And I remember when we heard about the movie BladeRunner and the cool world it was taking place in, we used the D&D system as a model and made up our own RPG based on a BladeRunner-esque world. We also liked to play Avalon Hill games and sit around dreaming up our own RPG systems and talking about the games we’d make one day. At that time, home computers were pretty scarce. But one of my friend’s parents had a computer that we would play Space War on (I think that was its name).

Check out NMA for the full interview!

Tim Cain, one of the founders of Troika Games, is finally back in the industry. He is programming director of the newly founded Carbine Studios, a dev team consisting mainly of former Blizzard employees. Cabine Studios is part of NCSoft and is currently working on an unannounced MMORPG.

The concept art on the Carbine Studios website gives some hints on the nature of their project without revealing too much.
The “Troika Chronicles” will cover this new game in the future, so stay tuned! If anyone knows of any interesting projects by former Troika people please let me know.
P.S.: Many thanks to Friede for pointing me into the right direction!

Update: There is an interesting article at the Orange County Register website about the new studio and its unannounced project: “It will be an MMOG. There will be some fantasy thrown in but it’s a cross-genre game. And there will be dancing.”

Today I was surfing the ‘net looking for some Troika related articles when I found “The Rise and Fall of Troika“, a well written and researched article about the demise of our favorite game company. Here’s an excerpt for your convenience:

Developing Bloodlines was troublesome for the company. They found themselves having to wade through nearly government-level red tape to accomplish anything. Compared to the relative freedom they had with Arcanum, “design, by necessity, had to become a lot more structured in a game like Vampire, where we had to run everything not only by White Wolf but by the publisher as well.” On top of that, they were using a prototype of the Source engine, one that didn’t yet have Valve’s high-class AI built in, and Troika’s AI code didn’t play very nice with Source.

The complete article can be read at The Escapist.