The Escapist reports on the recent outcry from the Elven community regarding insensitive treatment toward their kind in Global Agenda’s No Elves Video.

On Wed., November 18th, Hi-Rez Studios held a developer chat using Vivox Voice on Facebook. The chat featured Q&A between the Global Agenda Community and members of the Global Agenda Developer staff, including:

• Todd Harris, Executive Producer
• Chris Larson, Product Developer
• Michal Adam, PR & Marketing
• Chad Heath, Community Management
• Stewart Chisam, Operations

The developer chat features Q&A on a wide range of Global Agenda-related topics and lasts about one hour.

To listen to the chat visit: http://hirezstudios.podbean.com/#

Global Agenda is kind of hard to describe. Part Call of Duty, part Eve Online, its creators promise that it will deliver a satisfying experience not just for shooter aficionados, but also for MMOG junkies. You can buy it once, or you can choose to subscribe. You can hop online for a quick match with strangers, or your can put the time and effort to creating an Agency with your friends. Trying to mesh two distinctly different types of gameplay seems like a herculean undertaking, but according to the game’s executive producer, Todd Harris, it just makes sense.

"We wanted to remove subscription as a barrier for people to try the game," he explains. Players who might find Global Agenda’s shooter-style gameplay appealing might not want to dive headfirst into an MMOG experience, especially if they’re more used to deathmatches than raids. But Hi-Rez is confident in what their game has to offer. "We thought that we could carve out enough from the Global Agenda gameplay that it would stack up very well as a multiplayer shooter," Harris continues.

He’s quick to stress that Global Agenda isn’t some sort of MMOG-ized shooter, where you click on an enemy and wait for the fight to sort itself out. "You freely aim your reticule, in our case when you do a melee attack, you actually have to land it on your opponent. [There's] a lot of player skill involved. It plays like a multiplayer shooter would, whether that’sTF2 or Battlefield." Or maybe even a little bit like Tribes - each player has a jetpack, but you can’t fire while jetting around, so it’s more for transport than aerial combat. (Still…jetpack.)

Playing the game in its non-subscription form gets you access to "match-made PVP, or also PVE content so you can level up your character that way." You’ll also get loot drops, there’s a social area, you can visit vendors, customize character with new suits and dyes, and make use of the built-in voice chat. And if that’s all you ever do, you’ll have a very satisfying shooter experience comparable to other online shooters, but as Harris puts it "We also say come for the action gameplay, then stay for the game of territory control."

Can a single game please both Shooter and MMOG fans?

Weigh in on the comment thread!

Read the entire article http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/6763-Global-Agenda-You-Got-Shooter-in-my-MMO

ATLANTA, GA, November 10, 2009 — Hi-Rez Studios, currently developing the action MMO Global Agenda, announced today that the game includes built-in voice chat and a number of other voice features powered by Vivox. 

The feature set upon release will include:

• In-Game Player Voice Chat - push to talk voice chat enables team communication within co-op player-vs-environment missions as well as competitive player-vs-player missions.
• In-Game News Broadcasts -  delivery of voice broadcasts within the game that describe key victories and events associated with Global Agenda’s persistent territory control gameplay.
• Out Of Game Player Voice Chat (Subscriber Only):  Subscribers gain the ability to talk with Agency members and other Global Agenda players while playing other games or simply browsing the web.  Players can use a variety of access methods including the Vivox Web Voice within the toolbar controls, Vivox Voice on Facebook, or calling into a specified chat channel from their phone.

"Global Agenda’s combat is very team oriented, requiring close and real-time coordination between teammates in a mission," said Todd Harris, Executive Producer at Hi-Rez Studios. "Voice provided by Vivox allows our players to easily communicate with each another without requiring a separate, non-integrated solution.  Our beta community has rated the voice quality to be superb and we are excited to work with Vivox to bring this capability to our player base."

Global Agenda is a fast-paced massively multiplayer action game set in Earth’s near future, a spy-fi world of advanced technology and player-driven conflict. Players determine which factions to aid and which to oppose.

“Global Agenda re-defines  fast-paced MMO gameplay,” said Rob Seaver, CEO of Vivox. “With Vivox voice built into the world, players will be able to link up, strategize and coordinate their battles in real-time.  It is a pleasure to work with Hi-Rez Studios to craft a distinctive universe where player experience ultimately rules the world.”

Upon release in Q1 2010, players can experience Global Agenda’s award-winning multi-player PvP and PvE content after a one-time purchase of the game at retail or digital distribution outlets without a monthly fee, supporting character progression to max level and unlocks of full device inventories.

For those that subscribe to the optional "Global Agenda: Conquest" package, additional elite-level missions will be available that benefit your agency in the Alliance vs Alliance campaign for persistent territory control and scarce resources.

Hi-Rez Studios will be hosting a dev chat in their Vivox Voice on Facebook room on Wednesday, November 18^th – 10:00pmEST/7:00pmPST. RSVP to the event at http://www.facebook.com/globalagenda.

To participate, download the Vivox Voice app at http://apps.facebook.com/vivoxvoice/ then join us at http://bit.ly/TC4Hy

Not near a computer, call-in with your phone! +1 646-727-4472 x365884

About Hi-Rez Studios

Hi-Rez Studios, Inc. was established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment and is located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.   For more information, visit www.hirezstudios.com.

Follow Hi-Rez news and updates:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hirezstudios

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/globalagenda

About Vivox, Inc.

Vivox is the leading provider of community-building voice services for online games,virtual worlds and the social web. Supporting over 15 million users in more than 180 countries, and over 2 billion minutes of voice chat per month, the Vivox Network is the world’s largest voice network for gamers. Vivox customers include game and virtual world developers and publishers such as CCP Games (EVE Online), EA, Gaia Online, Icarus Studios, Linden Lab (Second Life), NCsoft, Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. For more information on Vivox and the power of voice, visit www.vivox.com.

Follow Vivox news and updates:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Vivox_Inc

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vivox 

Lead Environment Artist Eric Hartz on using film based production principals and visual effects when creating environment sets for Global Agenda

How did you get into the gaming industry? How did you get to Hi-Rez Studios?

I have been working in the gaming/real time simulation industry for 5 and a half years and have worked various CG artist positions since 1999.

Describe your video game experience; when did you start playing/making games?

I started playing games back in the early 80s with my Atari and who could forget the late nights trying to win Rygar on the NES.

What is your favorite class/character to play in Global Agenda?

Assault

What are you most excited for in Global Agenda?

PvE

What experiences do you draw from when creating content for the game?

I continually draw from my education in  visual effects.  All of the film based production principals apply. You just have to be even more efficient in how you solve a visual problem for games. For instance, tackling building a massive cityscape for an introduction movie, my first thoughts would be - if I was making a miniature set like you’d see on film, how could I stage it so I build the least number of assets to yield a massive shot?  Thats when you get into “tricking” the viewer/player by using greeble pieces and matte paintings for set extensions, atmospherics to separate foreground, mids, and backgrounds,  thrifty choices of set scaling to yield appropriate parallax. The list could go on and on, but in the end all of these approaches are rooted in the old non-digital visual effects techniques used all the back in the 1930s.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

Get a solid background in art history and theory.  Master your toolset, if it’s Max, Maya, Photoshop, you should know how to troubleshoot. Network and be open to all potential projects when starting off.

Favorite game(s)?

Rygar - Nostalgia

Legendary Wings - Nostalgia

UT99 - Visuals for the time and frantic play

Half Life 2 - Great story

What do you do in your free time?

Sadly, I work.  I try to fill my time with contracts that range from character rigging for commercials to particle simulations for medical animation, I find that contracting in totally un-related fields keeps my mind limber and skills up to date.   When I am not working though, I spend a lot of time walking my dog Blue, he is a big old Husky that needs many miles.

What is on your iPod/MP3player?

James McMurtry - Live, Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mid, Garcia & Grisman, Old & In The Way

As part of their continuing series on the Global Agenda Character Classes, TenTonHammer has published a Q&A with Executive Producer Todd Harris on the Assault class. Read the full article here. Excerpts below.

Ten Ton Hammer: It seems like the assault class fills the gaps between the classes - assaults can anchor an attack, they can draw fire away from more fragile teammates,and  they have the ammo capacity, firepower, and durability to pin down enemies and hold objectives on defense. Is that an accurate assessment?

Todd Harris, Executive Producer: I would say it’s accurate that he’s flexible and can cover the gaps. But I’d also categorize the assault class as being all about damage - whether dishing it out or soaking it up. Recon really excels at concentrated offense (against a single target or location, typically using surprise). But the assault class is typically the class that is doing the most damage overall, and over a broad area using a lot of area of effect weapons. They’re all about damage.

Ten Ton Hammer: We’ve seen assaults carrying rocket launchers, grenade launchers, miniguns, and various melee weapons as well. In other games, this class packs a punch but burns through ammo quickly. What kind of ammo considerations does an assault class have in Global Agenda?

Todd: All the weapons in Global Agenda draw off of the common power pool mechanic rather than using ammunition. Being that assaults are all about damage, they really do have to carefully manage their power pool to make sure they’re not caught in the wrong spot at the wrong time with low power. That’s something that players can spec (using the talent trees) to have either higher maximum power or faster recharge or have particular weapons draw less power. All of those are popular  choices for assault players.

Ten Ton Hammer: What options does an assault class have at melee?

They wield basically a futuristic battle axe that also has the ability to set opponents on fire. So as compared to Recon, which has the more precision instrument of the katana, Assaults are definitely more brute force.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there chaining with the fire damage in melee?

Todd:  No, not at this time, it’s strictly single damage. There’s no contagion or chaining of the fire right now. But in general, as far as characterizing the class, Assault is always very much in the middle of the action. Not many characters can survive long under direct fire, but the Assault players typically thrive on being in the middle of everything.

Ten Ton Hammer: Another popular motif with big guys wielding big weapons is the ability to catch several enemies with one swing. Is that something that’s a part of the class as well?

Todd: Not as much with melee, but with the primary and off-hand weapons they’re able to deal out damage to more than one player at a time, moreso than any other class.

Global Agenda’s Assault class in action.

Ten Ton Hammer: At first look, the Assault class seems pretty straightforward. How were you able to mix up the talent tree options of this class?

Todd: At the highest level, you’re basically going for a tank build to soak up the damage versus an explosive build to deal out damage. Those are the two names of the class-specific trees, and then there’s a balanced tree as well. You can go extreme down either of those trees or go more hybrid. The talents combined with devices really do let you spec a number of different ways. For those familiar with Team Fortress 2, you could basically spec our assault class similar to a demoman (using grenades and sticky grenades), or a soldier (using a rocket launcher), or a Heavy (using a minigun). But you could even go more exaggerated - our tank would be much more of a tank than a heavy, and you could also come up with hybrid builds.

Finish the article on TenTonHammer.

Phill Cameron at RockPaperShotgun spent time playing Global Agenda PvE while at the Eurogamer Expo in Leeds, UK, last week.

Read the full article from his experience here. Below are some excerpts.

Global Agenda is a game straddling two worlds. It has two different payment schemes, and two different games within itself, almost. It’s a multiplayer third person shooter, with a class based system and jetpacks. But it’s also a huge sprawling PvE/PvP MMO, with the PvP driven by player Agencies that can form and break alliances on the fly in a bitter battle for territorial zones that grant bonuses and benefits.

By providing a far more engrossing experience in the persistent side of the game, Global Agenda seems to be moving well on the way to becoming the first truly hybrid MMO. It’s a big show of confidence that they consider the actual mechanics of their game solid enough to support a multiplayer shooter, especially considering the competition they face on the PC, most of whom they cite as influences. The impression of having such a thriving world just a subscription away could sway people to taking the plunge, and having them interact with the subscribers is a similarly clever move.

The writers at Massively.com were busy during Global Agenda’s recent visit to GameX in Philadelphia. They published a video interview with Hi-Rez’s Michal Adam, as well as a two-part look at the game – one focusing on PvP in Global Agenda and one focusing on the game’s PvE system.

See the full write-up on the PvE and PvP gameplay here.

For the video interview with Michal, visit this link.

Below are some key quotes and messages pulled from the article.

Global Agenda was easily the game of the show at GameX, hands down. Its polished gameplay (even in beta) combined with a great sense of fast-paced fun kept a constant stream of people sitting down and learning the ropes. Some people even came back for second or third matches, eager to try out a new class or just play the game more.

I spy a fun game. This deeper look into Global Agenda makes me more excited to see exactly what the game has to offer at launch. Both PvP and PvE are lots of fun, easy to get into, and simultaneously connected and unique experiences. If you’re a Guild Wars junkie, a TF2 trooper, aBorderlands resident, a Tribes soldier, or a PlanetSide refugee, you’re going to find things to love.

The transition from PvP to PvE is close to seamless. PvE encounters teach you the fundamentals of your class while still being loads of fun and a great team building exercise. The PvE’s focus on team play is a great counterpart and learning experience to the focus on teams in PvP situations, letting new players learn the ropes without being humiliated by more experienced troops and still gaining bouses for their characters.

These modes play very much like Team Fortress 2 crossed with Tribes. Jetpacks are very, very useful, as well as setting ambushes, traps, and other sorts of insanity. Robotics players and recon players can set the stage for ambushes using the Robotics turret and the Recon’s mines, as well as the Recon’s decoy ability to distract enemies.

The gameplay is also very fast paced. Don’t expect downtime or waiting around for something to happen — something is always happening. The matches are very tight, very chaotic, and very fun. I wasn’t expecting the game to be so easy to pick up, with its toolbar of imposing, nameless abilities, but after playing around with the items for a minute or two you get the hang of them.

Here is the interview with Michal Adam.

"After showing off our award-winning player-vs-player content during the Global Agenda Tour at venues across North America, we are excited to unveil player-vs-environment content in the UK at the Eurogamer Expo," said Todd Harris, Executive Producer of Global Agenda. "We are working hard to craft a PvE system that maintains the same high replayability and addictive gameplay as our player-vs-player gameplay. And our beta testers and early Eurogamer participants have reinforced that this will be a fun and important part of the game."

Gamers that play Global Agenda may earn experience points, in-game credits, achievements, upgrades and loot through either player-vs-player (PvP) or player-vs-environment (PvE) missions.  Reinforcing the game’s team-based gameplay, PvE missions feature teams of four player agents infiltrating Commonwealth facilities and working cooperatively to defeat an end boss.

Upon release in Q1 2010, players can experience Global Agenda’s award-winning multi-player PvP and PvE content after a one-time purchase of the game at retail or digital distribution outlets without a monthly fee, supporting character progression to max level and unlocks of full device inventories. 

For those that also subscribe to the optional "Global Agenda: Conquest" package, additional elite-level PvE missions will be available that benefit your agency in the Alliance vs Alliance campaign for persistent territory control and scarce resources.

The Eurogamer Expo continues through Oct.31 at Old Billingsgate in London. This is the final stop on the Global Agenda pre-launch tour. For more information, please visit www.globalagendagame.com

About Hi-Rez Studios, Inc.

Hi-Rez Studios, Inc. was established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment. It is located just outside of Atlanta, GA. For more information, visit http://www.hirezstudios.com.

Global Agenda, the debut title from Hi-Rez Studios, is a fast-paced, action-oriented, massive multi-player online game set in the Earth’s near future — a spy-fi world of advanced technology and player-driven conflict. To learn more visit:http://www.globalagendagame.com.

Media Contact:

Michal Adam

madam@hirezstudios.com

+1 (404) 550-4756

Following up on last week’s Global Agenda pricing announcement, the editors at TenTonHammer have published an in-depth Q&A with Executive Producer Todd Harris that provides in-depth information on the new pricing model, as well as more information on the Global Agenda: Conquest gameplay.

Read the full article at: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75772

Here are excerpts:

Ten Ton Hammer: The pricing options really seem like an interesting way to offer subscription-phobic gamers more than just a window into the game, but a complete standalone game that works hand-in-hand with the MMO portion of the game. Do you view the pricing options as a way to layer in or introduce the game to an unfamiliar audience? What makes the non-Conquest experience of Global Agenda different from what some gamers might be used to with a typical lobby-and-instance online shooter?

Todd Harris: Whether or not you view it as layering in the MMO experience - we’ve always thought of the game as an MMO from the beginning, and always thought of the AvA [Alliance vs. Alliance campaign game] as a big draw- I think about it more as carving out the really fun multiplayer gameplay and making that available in the core single-purchase package. 

Ultimately we wanted to give people an experience on-par or better than online shooters or even multiplayer shooters that are adding a little bit of persistence. We get a lot of comments that ‘Wow, this game really is different… the gameplay is super fun… I’m not sure if it’s an MMO, but I really like it.’  With that core game, we wanted to remove any obstacle that people might have about a subscription or hangups about what an MMO is or isn’t, because it’s instanced.

And again, just really capitalize on the strengths people have recognized: really fun multiplayer gameplay. We looked at the feature sets of multiplayer games that are single-purchase - Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty, Battlefield - and we wanted to make sure that core single-purchase package stacked up really well against them. You can level up your character to max level by doing PvE or match-made PvP or mixing them as you choose. Obviously we do have a city that we think compares well to just a menu-based lobby, we have currency, vendors, and allow those players to not create their own agencies but join other agencies and members of a persistent group, we’ve got built-in voice chat. A lot of the features that are listed there measure up well against other games in that category.  So if people just want that experience of fun online mulitplayer combat, they can buy the game once and try it.
Of course, we’ve always thought that the real stickiness of the game comes from not only ongoing content, but competing in the conquest gameplay. That’s where the MMO aspects come in, plus other features common to MMOs like auctionhouse, crafting, and some of the other features.

In their round up of activity at GameX 2009 in Philadelphia, Oct. 22 – 25, PixalatedGeek.com gave Global Agenda “Game of the Show” honors, commenting:

The addiction of the convention and clear winner of Game of the Show in my mind was not from the industry juggernauts of Ubisoft, EA or Sega.  No, the winner was Global Agenda from Hi-Rez Studios.  Global Agenda is addicting, promising, fun, pulse-pounding and seems to being crafted by people with a passion for the game they are making.  I’m going to give a detailed write-up on it very soon, so I’ll leave it at that for now.  Watch this game, it is going to be epic, mark my words.

For more photos from GameX, check out the Global Agenda Facebook page.

ATLANTA, Oct. 20, 2009 - Global Agenda players will be able to experience the major features of the game after a one time purchase via digital download or box sale, with no monthly subscription required. An optional subscription package called  Global Agenda: Conquest will be available for those players who wish to participate in the persistent Alliance vs. Alliance territory control game-play and access ongoing content updates.

"Throughout our Beta process, our fans, players and reviewers have consistently told us that Global Agenda’s combat system is exceptionally fun and that they would love to play it as a multiplayer shooter" said Todd Harris, Executive Producer. "This single-purchase, non-subscription model will enable players to fully experience Global Agenda’s award-winning persistent shooter gameplay."

"At the same time, many players are seeking a deeper experience, and want to engage in large-scale campaigns between player-created groups over limited territory and resources.  These players can opt for the Conquest subscription plan which includes our persistent AvA world domination gameplay, and other features typically associated with MMOs."

The specific features associated with each pricing option are as follows:

Global Agenda (one time purchase - $49.99 MSRP) includes:

• Creation of up to eight different agent characters
• Character visual customization
• Access to all combat weapons and devices 
• Cooperative Player vs. Environment missions against the Commonwealth NPC faction, AI-controlled enemies, and Boss Fights
• Matchmade Player vs. Player missions with five different game types and over 20 unique maps
• Character progression through 30 levels
• Achievement and unlocks system for individual characters
• Player Inventory for suits, flair, dyes, upgrades, and loot
• Virtual Reality practice fighting area
• Vendors and accumulation of in-game currency
• Text chat with multiple channels
• Built in voice chat during missions
• Ability to join an established player-created agency
• All play is on our single-shard, hosted server environment to ensure convenient and consistent gaming experience. 
• Ability to sign up for one free month of subscription at registration (credit card required, can be cancelled at any time)

Global Agenda:  Conquest ($12.99 per month, $11.49/mo for 3 month, $9.99/mo for 6 month) includes:

• Access to Alliance vs. Alliance (AvA) World Domination gameplay
• A massive scale campaign between player created agencies and alliances over scarce territory and resources on a persistent world map.
• Attack and Defend Territories in zones that match your agency’s schedule
• Agency and Alliance Management – Create and maintain persistent player groups and officer ranks
• Creation and Upgrading of Facilities - Control production and output
• Base Raids – involving up to 60 players per side; coordinated between 6 different strike teams within linked territory instances
• Agency Achievement System, Leveling, and Recognition
• Auction House with bidding and buyouts
• Mail System
• Upgrade Text and Voice chat to support multiple channels and strike teams
• Player Crafting with blueprints
• Additional character customization options including elite character suits, dye colors, and seasonal flair
• Ongoing Co-Op content at max character level
• Ongoing AvA content, multiplayer PvP content, and new social areas

Global Agenda is currently in closed beta testing and scheduled to be development complete by the end of this year toward a Q1 2010 release.

For more information, please reference the Pricing FAQ in the Global Agenda Answer Center..

While this all makes it sound like purely player skill-based combat, part of the results are also governed by your character’s skills. There is an underlying skill tree which allows you to allocate a total of 13 points into specific areas of specialization. For example, as an assault trooper, you can choose to be a pure tank and put your points into strengthening your defense, or you can specialize in explosives, increasing the range and damage they do. Alternatively, you can choose a balanced spec which allows you to be a little bit of both.

See the full article on IGN at this link.

Global Agenda’s Sr. System Architect, John Dew talks with us how he helps keep the game going, his first video game experience and his excitement for Global Agenda.

John, tell us a little about what you do at Hi-Rez Studios.

My main focus is the design and implementation of the platform services that run on our servers.  This includes everything from handling the initial handshake from the client running on your computer, placing the player in the correct world space, connecting the player to the chat and voice, all of the coordination that goes on until the client disconnects.  In general things that are not part of the actual in game play / combat.  I guess you could call me the unofficial Sr. System Architect.

How did you get into the gaming industry? How did you get to Hi-Rez Studios?

I have been a professional game developer for about 5 years.  I worked for the company that Erez owned prior to starting Hi-rez Studios.  I heard some talk that Erez was wanting to start a game company so I ‘volunteered’ to be a part of that endeavor.  We started out playing with game concepts and learning the ropes.  A few months later, Erez made it official and formed Hi-Rez Studios, Inc.

Describe your video game experience; when did you start playing/making games?

I played my first video game at the local hamburger joint, so many quarters ago.  Later came the Odyssey, Atari, and the Apple computers.  It was when I learned about programming on the Apple that I became more interested in how to make a game and AI’s verses just playing a game.  I later got into  playing the RTS games and started thinking about how one could design a game where a lot of people could play against each other in a persistent environment instead of a hand full of players going through rounds or levels that started over.  Of course I was paying the bill writing point of sale / restaurant software so the game programming remained in notebooks and little test apps.

What is your favorite class/character to play in Global Agenda?

I used to play the medic class a lot, then switched to the robotics, but I think I’m going to go back to the medic.  So until I change my mind - again, it’s the medic.

What are you most excited for in Global Agenda?

There’s the gameplay itself which is very fun and I’m excited to play it once its released.  I am also excited  for the big puzzle of networking, multiple servers and game logic to come together as a world — the world of Global Agenda.

What experiences do you draw from when creating content for the game?

Most of past work experience has been related to platform level, networking, and high through put code so performance and writing tight code comes in handy when implementing services that will handle all of the players that are online.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

Really, I do not have anything new and enlightening to add to what so many others have said before.

The standard stuff: work on projects to be familiar with the technology; keep an eye out for opportunities in the industry.

Favorite game(s)?

The game that I have invested the most time in is World of Warcraft.  WoW is good for just going out solo and grinding when you want and has the social aspect when you want to play with friends.

A classic I fall back to is Transport Deluxe.  Occasionally I just feel like doing some micro management and construction.  I know there are some new RTS games out that have my name on them, but I really do not need another time-sink.

What do you do in your free time?

Play with my kids, play WoW, work here and thereon a project in the wood shop…

What is on your iPod/MP3player?

Maybe one day I’ll get one and then I’ll let you know.  In general I have a very eclectic taste in music.

Global Agenda Executive Producer Todd Harris recently met with MMORPG.com to discuss details on the games’ Agency vs. Agency Campaign system.

Read the full article here.

“[We wanted] a gameplay style that would be more emergent, as far as the politics that come into play,” explained Harris. “We thoughts the community would enjoy the shifting alliances, diplomacy and backstabbing that come from that.”

At a high level, this end-game revolves around territory control, resource management and a dynamic, player driven war over that territory and those resources.

The game will feature a series of HEX Maps. These are collections of instances linked together in a group of roughly 100 or more per map. At the map level, players will be able to see which guild controls each area, what is in that area in terms of resources, and what structures await them.

There will be multiple HEX Maps for players and guilds to fight over, each with its own engagement rules. This largely divides players by how hardcore they want to be about the entire enterprise.

You can’t launch a rocket in a first-person shooter these days without clipping an MMO influence - whether it’s Call of Duty 4’s world-conquering perks and persistent stats, the elaborate intra-team relationships within Team Fortress 2, or Battlefield Heroes’ reliance on microtransactions - but developers heading in the other direction are fewer and further between.

Hi-Rez Studios, with its mixed background in shooters, strategy games and MMOs, is an exception. In fact, on the surface of it Global Agenda resembles an MMO with its feet merely dangling in an action pond. You level up your character by grinding player-versus-environment missions for resources that can be crafted into stat-boosting implants, and combat delivers experience points that go toward improved skills, all of which benefits your Agency (guild) in a hex-based metagame that sees you fighting for territory in "seasons" of gameplay that last just over a month. It floats along on Unreal Engine 3, leaving Tribes-shaped ripples in its wake, but it’s treading water on the shoulders of goblins and will charge a monthly subscription.

Except a brief hands-on at Penny Arcade Expo last month suggests it’s a lot closer to games like Team Fortress 2 when it comes to player-versus-player combat. Thrown into a "ticket game", where two teams of eight compete for ownership of three control points, it’s very much a team-based shooter, albeit a third-person one rather than first.

The Assault class works well either as a Tank or a Destroyer, stomping around doing lots of area-of-effect damage to people defending control points, and had I not been thrown in at the deep end while simultaneously trying to interview game designer Andy Harmon, I’m told I would have been striking up good relationships with a nearby Medic, whose speciality is a healing gun, or perhaps Recon players, whose stealth speciality allows them to infiltrate objectives while my bruising Assault character draws the enemy’s attention.

"There’s an interplay of rock-paper-scissors to it," says Harmon, sporting an impressive moustache, "but it’s not class-based, because sometimes we’ve done some so that just as often as there’s a counter to another class, there’s a counter within your class - so a Robotics can be one of the most effective Robotics-killers, and Assault Tank and Assault Destroyer face off against each other very well."

[…]Global Agenda is currently in closed beta, with a couple of thousand people feeding war and bug stories back to the developer, but an open beta isn’t far away according to Harmon. Anyone heading to the Eurogamer Expo in late October can play it there too. My advice would be to do so; not unlike APB, it’s a game that sounds like an MMO but stretches the definition considerably, and in considered fashion.

Read on at http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/global-agenda-hands-on

Executive Producer Todd Harris sat down this week with TenTonHammer for a detailed review of the Recon class within Global Agenda.

Some excerpts are below, but be sure to read the entire article.

Ten Ton Hammer: It’s natural to think of the recon class as a bunch of snipers, but recon is a lot more than just headhunting through a scope in Global Agenda. What are the various roles the recon class performs?

Todd Harris: Recon is definitely a very versatile class. Probably the easiest way to explain recon is to tell you how some of the different people here in the studio play the class. One of the tasks recon is particularly good at is hunting the beacon of the other team. In Global Agenda, both teams in PvP have a beacon, which is basically a chance for a forward spawn for their team. They only have one; the entrance to the beacon is in their drop ship or defensive spawn area and then they place the beacon aggressively in the map. That allows players to step through and make a big difference between winning and losing. Since recon can go stealth and easily get behind enemy lines, hunting the other team’s beacon is a task they do often. Travis, our QA lead, is particularly adept at doing that.

Another common task is taking out heavily fortified areas, such as turret farms. When the other team has set up a fortified area - medical crates and multiple turrets - recon has a lot of tools to deal with that. So taking out those turrets is a second task, and Dan, our lead animator, is particularly good at that.

Clearing out blobs of people is another task. If the other team has a lot of momentum and is kind of clumped up around the objective, recon can stealth in and use bombs to clear those people out, since getting caught in a bomb’s radius could mean being rooted for a short period of time (which usually means death). Nick Larkin, our Technical Artist, does that quite often.

Another interesting task is just being a spoiler against other recons. One of the offhand devices a recon can take is a scanner, which will show other recons even if stealthed for a limited period of time. Andy, one of our weapon designers, will often play that role and when recons think they’re immune, he’ll go behind them with a rifle and finish them off.

Recons can also play more of a traditional scout role. They can take bionics, which gives them additional speed, agility, jumping ability, and also the ability to place a decoy of themselves and spec high in melee, basically causing a lot of chaos around the objective. So those are just a few of the recon tasks that we see people in the office taking with the recon role in addition to sniping, which of course is a valid role too.

If this gets you jazzed about the Recon class, be sure to check out this video, which was created by one of our fans (MasterSaji) as part of our Fan Video Contest earlier in the year.

Global Agenda’s FX and Environment artist, Scott Warren talks with us how he got started with Hi-Rez Studios, lighting environments and his excitement for AvA battles.

Scott, tell us a little about what you do at Hi-Rez Studios.

I’m an FX and Environment artist. While I don’t directly build environment assets, I focus on adding the final lighting and effects passes to the playable maps of the game.

How did you get into the gaming industry? How did you get to Hi-Rez Studios?

This is my 3rd year at Hi-Rez Studios, which has also been my first industry job. I found out about the studio in late 2006 thanks to a website called Beyond Unreal. They had a tiny little one-sentence blurb about a new startup developer in Georgia that was using the Unreal Engine who were looking for artists of all kinds.

I was working at Old Navy at the time and going to Kennesaw State University but I had very much wanted to work in games. I sent an email to Todd and basically said, "Hire me, I’m awesome!" I didn’t think he would take me seriously but a few days later I had an interview at the studio where I had an opportunity to speak with the small group of artists who were there at the time. And a few days after that I got an email telling me to show up for work the next week, and I’ve been here since :).

Describe your video game experience; when did you start playing/making games?

My first real gaming experience was with Super Mario and Duck Hunt on the NES console. I can’t remember how many ducks I shot out of the air but I remember having a great time doing so! From then on I moved onto the Sega Genesis and wasted many afternoons playing VectorMan and the Sonic and Knuckle games.

When Resident Evil 2 came out (I first played it on the N64) I was starting to become interested in how developers were creating game environments. Especially with Resident Evil 2 since, to me, it’s still one of the most interesting story lines in a video game that happens to take you to interesting locations. So I did some research but didn’t really pursue it. But when Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec was released, I couldn’t believe how real everything looked. The cars, the camera effects, everything. That was the point at which I downloaded a trial version of Autodesk’s Maya to see what the whole 3D thing was about.

What is your favorite class/character to play in Global Agenda?

Robotics. I get a cheap thrill out of watching my machines kill people. The idea that I can inflict harm from a safe vantage point is hilarious to me. Fight smarter, not harder!

What are you most excited for in Global Agenda?

Definitely the large scale Agency-vs-Agency territory control aspect. It seems like it will play similarly to a continent-sized king of the hill game. Who doesn’t enjoy king of the hill on a large scale?

What experiences do you draw from when creating content for the game?

For my lighting reference I use tons and tons of reference photographs of the real world. Light really only behaves in a certain way, and it’s useful to study how those interactions work in different environments. There’s a reason why a dark wine cellar feels different than a sunny day at the beach. When you learn why they’re different from each other, you can better understand what light is doing. Through everyday observation and educated guesses, you develop a good sense of how spaces should feel even though the locations you’re lighting may not actually exist in the real world.

And on the FX side of things, videos are invaluable. Making fire look like fire is relatively straight forward, but if it doesn’t move like fire, then the effect will look all wrong and will be strange to see in motion.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

I would say that the best thing you could do for yourself is to pick the one aspect of game development that interests you and to become skilled in that one thing by actually doing it. Want to be a character artist? Study anatomy. Build some character models. Want to be an environment artist? Study architecture and machinery. Learn how things work and how they’re put together. Develop a curious attitude toward the natural world and then be keen on making observations. There’s always something you can be learning from!

Favorite game(s)?

Resident Evil 2 - Great story and fascinating locations. Tons of atmosphere and lots of creepy moments.

Red Faction - I played this for over two years on my PC when it first came out. Being able to destroy the environment was a new technology at the time and it made the multiplayer so much fun!

Left 4 Dead - It’s a co-op survival horror zombie shooter game. What else needs to be said?

What do you do in your free time?

Traveling, taking photographs, learning and playing my guitar, listening to music and recording little riffs of my own, cooking, bike riding on the weekends… I try to stay off my computer when I’m not at work but I just bought a Mac so I feel like I’ll be on it more than ever!

What is on your iPod/MP3player?

The entire Incubus discography, Muse, Coldplay, The Bravery, Leo Kottke, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Aphex Twin, Bloc Party, Matt Costa, Melodium, Metric, Movits!, The Raconteurs, TV On the Radio, 311, U2 and a lot more.

Some Personal Art From Scott.

“World geometry constructed by Eric Hartz and Rick Ruiz, lighting and FX done by Scott Warren” –Scott Warren

Yesterday, the HexAgenda fan site published a new Q&A with Global Agenda Executive Producer Todd Harris on Player vs Environment (PvE) missions inside Global Agenda.

HexAgenda was one of the winners of our fan site contest earlier in the year. They are also technology innovators within the Global Agenda Community, launching such features as the Global Agenda Feed Aggregator, and the Global Agenda Dev Tracker. They are also leading the pack in helping us test the Global Agenda Stats API, which will allow fan sites, guild sites and other interested parties to develop custom applications from Global Agenda data.

Excerpts from the Q&A are below. For the full interview and more art, see the article on HexAgenda.

PvE Q&A with HexAgenda

1. Many MMOs are considered to focus more heavily on either PvP or PvE, with the other element being somewhat of a supplement to whichever takes center stage. What role do you see PvE playing in Global Agenda, which clearly has a strong PvP component? How extensive a role do you envision that being?

With Global Agenda, our ‘center stage’ focus has always been the AvA Campaign - the massive, persistent world conflict between player-driven groups over territory and resources. So, we really intend for the Campaign to provide the overall game context and then allow players to contribute to the Campaign and level up their own agent character via either PvP or PvE as they choose.

From a balance perspective we started with PvP for combat, classes, and devices. Once that felt fun and balanced we introduced PvE enemies and missions that were compatible and balanced against the core player gear and abilities. In this way we can continue to develop additional PvE enemies and content and give PvE a very rich role without watering down the PvP one bit.

2. Hi-Rez has stated that the goal for the game is to be "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master." How might this play into the design of the PvE side of the game?

One simple example is our implementation of tiered difficulty levels for PvE missions. So, when my team is playing the Rookie level difficulty we are facing NPCs that are fairly basic in their behavior and have relatively low levels of health and damage output. At the harder difficulties the bots do scale up in their stats, but we also introduce entirely new enemy types now protecting that same mission location. So, instead of just facing Commonwealth androids I might now be dealing with an Elite Assassin coming out of the shadows or a Hunter that targets and relentlessly pursues one specific member of my team.

3. How extensively do you plan to tie in a continuous storyline to the PvE (and possibly even PvP?) portion of the game? Should we expect something along the lines of Guild Wars’ campaign-long story arcs, or instead something closer to the free-form universe of EVE Online?

Global Agenda definitely presents a free-form universe closer to Eve Online rather than a scripted story arc, but at the same time we plan to provide narration around key world events and happenings. So, our continuous story-line is based upon the major in-game actions of players and player groups. Basically we intend to deliver an audio newscast summarizing the major conflicts and accomplishments across the persistent world

4. A common complaint among players of PvE content in many games is that the available content inevitably becomes boring since players can experience content far faster than developers can produce more interesting content to be experienced. What plans might Hi-Rez have to tackle this issue in Global Agenda and keep the content fun and interesting in the long term?

Well there is no escaping the fact that it does take a lot longer for us to develop new content than it takes players to go thru that content!

There’s really no silver-bullet solution, but we do have plans and tools that help with this challenge. First we have developed a fairly efficient PvE production pipeline thanks to our experience with the Unreal 3 engine and some additional homegrown tools. So, we can actually produce PvE content fairly quickly.

But, ultimately we are going for quality over quantity and that involves designing our mission spaces to have a high degree of replay-ability. A single environment supports multiple difficulty levels as we discussed earlier. And, even within the same difficulty level, the missions also have a degree of randomness in terms of which enemies spawn and even the distribution of cover objects. So you can revisit the same mission location multiple times and have very different experiences.

Finally, another defense against boredom comes with the nature of our shooter oriented combat. You really cannot auto-macro your way thru our combat since you have to target the reticule on your enemies and move your character to avoid enemy fire. You will be quite active in mission regardless of what class you are playing and this tends to keep our PvE very engaging rather than feeling like a grind.

5. What would you consider one of the "coolest" aspects you’ve implemented so far for Global Agenda’s PvE?

We have a bunch of cool new NPCs and encounters planned; but of the content currently playable in Beta I really like the Scanner. This hovering droid patrols Commonwealth areas and casts a rotating detection beam that players need to avoid or risk the Scanner calling in a wave of reinforcements. It is a cool mechanic and one that reinforces how our PvE involves managing environment aspects like cover in addition to the enemy bots themselves.

In terms of systems, we are also getting positive early feedback on the PvE auto-grouping support we recently added. Our PvE is built for 4-man squads and players can certainly pre-form their entire team, or use chat or Agent Search functionality to LFG. However, solo players and partial teams now have the option of selecting the mission type they are interested in and then be automatically matched with other PvE players. Grouping for PvE can be a hassle in some games and auto-grouping helps players find one another and quickly get into the action.

ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 - Global Agenda Community Members Sponsor Auction to Benefit Child’s Play

The Global Agenda Community Auction closed the bidding floor of its virtual charity auction last week after raising over $2,000 for Child’s Play charity, an organization dedicated to improving lives of children in hospitals with toys and games.

The auction event was organized by members of the Global Agenda community and Global Agenda fan sites - a society of enthusiasts around the upcoming massively multiplayer online action game, Global Agenda®, from independent developer Hi-Rez Studios - including Noxxious, OBC (the Orange and Blue Clan), AgendaSource, GA Wiki and CC Gaming who joined together to organize and accept bids on game-related items from Sunday September 13th through Wednesday September 16th.

"Child’s Play relies heavily on community events for our support, and we are deeply grateful to the Global Agenda Community and Hi-Rez Studios for putting together this successful charity auction on our behalf," Says Kristin Lindsay, Project Manager for Child’s Play. "We recognize the healing power of play, and thank our fellow gaming communities for sharing their love of gaming with sick children across the US and around the world.  When gamers give back, it makes a difference!"

The auction items included a limited edition Global Agenda Poster signed by the entire development team at Hi-Rez Studios, a Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse, a Genius G-Pen 450 Computer Tablet, a Nintendo 64, and 10 Global Agenda Beta Keys.

"This event was 100% driven by our fan community," said Stewart Chisam, VP of Game Operations. "The auction was primarily organized and run by one of our active Community members — Peebojam — who helped gain support from various fans and fan sites. We are grateful to our Community for this great display of generosity."

ABOUT HI-REZ STUDIOS

Hi-Rez Studios, inc. is an independent developer, established in 2005 to create exceptional interactive online entertainment and located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, Hi-Rez Studios is in development with an action based massively multiplayer online game titled Global Agenda. For more information, please visit www.hirezstudios.com and www.globalagendagame.com.