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City of Heroes kicked off the MMO superhero genre back in 2004. For several years it's led the field, due to being the only superhero MMO out there, but now direct competition is appearing. Cryptic Studios, the original developers of CoX, recently sent their own title Champions Online into Closed Beta. Sony's DC Universe Online, which at one point had gone so quiet that people wondered if it was still being made, has recently produced gameplay footage, stacks of art and a detailed analysis of how the game will work.

So what's with all the cape games? Although the superhero genre has been a steady burner outside of the MMO context, it's not the most obvious kind of world to set an MMO in, and designers trying to adapt comic-book themes and events to MMO gameplay face some pretty stiff challenges. We're going to walk through all three games, explain the differences, and try to answer that question.

Studio creative director Chris Cao (aka The Biggest Designer in the Building) has tossed up some initial details on PvP in SOE's upcoming DC Universe Online. It sounds like plans are being drawn up to create a varied and worthwhile system for heroes and villains to duke it out within. We're going to be getting some open world PvP, arena-based PvP and even a system allowing heroes and villains to battle over control of the world itself.

Basic PvP will be over stuff like protecting cops, or trying to beat them down in the case of baddies. Arenas are going ot be instanced content where both sides struggle over things like downed alien spacecraft --- mmm, alien technology. Finally, control over the world wasn't delved into very much. All we know is that strategic points in the world play a role in who controls how much of what.

Chris ends it with a few notes, stressing things like the availability of PvP servers, opt-in PvP and designated zone. He also touches on SOE wanting to make the experience more skill-based in lieu of purely stat-based. So the better fighter should usually win in DC Unvirse Online.

We've been exploring the game mechanics and design philosophy of DC Universe Online for the last week. We've talked about superpowers, factions, and questing, among a host of other issues. Today we want to be sure to highlight a fascinating exchange we had with DCUO Creative Director Jens Andersen and SOE Austin Creative Director Chris Cao about the role of fun in DCUO. Check out our back-and-forth on this issue in our new interview-style format below.

What is it about DCUO that's compelling the team to concentrate on the amount of fun a player is having moment by moment? It seems as thought that's a major focus for the the game.

Jens Andersen: It's a design philosophy. The key to us is: the most valuable thing the players have is online time together. So anything we do that provides an obstacle to that means we're wasting your time. It might be a great way to keep players in the game, when we ask you to run across an entire continent to go get something for your group. For you guys, it stinks. We don't want to waste your time.

The big question behind a game about superheroes is pretty blunt. How am I going to feel powerful? How are my powers going to work? If you don't feel superheroic there's been a failure right from the get-go. That's entirely the point behind the development process at SOE Austin, for the DC Universe Online project. We've been running our lengthy look at the game all week, talking about the game's approach to questing and how you'll be interacting with the iconic DC comics heroes.

All of that pales in comparison to your own personal superhero story, your own tales of daring-do. Join us as we talk with the heads of the DC Universe Online project about just that. They'll lay out how you can combine a power source, a movement power, and a stylistic origin to create your own unique hero. Or, how you can ape the powers of your favorite iconic hero to live out your dream of being the next Batman. They'll also give us a little bit of guff about movement powers, and hint at big things to come! Read on!

Jens: So in this area right here, I can change these out as I said, but I also have these reactive defences, or reactive powers. These are my active powers, the ones loaded out on the trigger and the face buttons. The reactive powers are things that I load out that automatically happen. They're like procs. And those also have an offensive or defensive slant to them. Right now I have them all loaded out for defense.

So I have a block, which is the orange one with a shield and a fist; I have a dodge, which is the blue one with the shield and a projectile. And I have an evade. So you'll see that as I'm getting hit by certain things, my guy might do a little flip, as the evade goes off. Now, it overrides what I'm doing with my character moment to moment. Bizarro has those kinds of things too, like he may evade (once in a while) my ability, which has a cooldown timer attached to it and I need to try it again.

So I can change that loadout to be more offensive as well. I can put in things like 'aimed attack' or 'critical strike' or things like that, that would actually increase my DPS. So with my reactive powers and my active powers, I can really tune the kind of tactics that I want to do as a solo player, or as a group player. And it really gives me the ability to not get pigeonholed into one role or another, only to find out that my class is less than desirable, or that people only want one of me on a forty man raid.

There are so many MMOs out there right now ... why do we need yet another one? And why does the DC Universe need an MMO? What's the point of having a title where you can talk to Batman and Superman? You may have already gotten a taste of the team's rationale in our ongoing look at DC Universe Online, but the SOE Austin team is a passionate one. They've got a lot of strong ideas about why this game needs to get made, and how they're making it.

Join us below the cut for an exploration of why the DC IP is a great fit for MMO gameplay, even though we haven't seen much of the actual MMO parts yet. Find out why the product has already been out and seen by players at events like Comic-Con, and join us as we return to the developers' claim that the game has already launched ... inside SOE!

During our lengthy look at SOE Austin's in-development game, we asked a followup question about DC Universe Online's concept of factions. Called causes, we've already outlined for you what we know about them in our discussion of making friends with Superman. Our innocent question, though, netted an interesting response from SOE Austin Creative Director Chris Cao that we think is highly indicative of the studio's outlook on game-making.

Chris Cao: We always like to have someone play something instead of just talking about it. It's not a laziness thing, it's a clarity thing. That's why we started with this public event. The hardest thing to do in an MMO is to make an event that everyone can participate in, within a shared world. Arbitrary number of players, arbitrary space ... we tackled this hardest part first because we wanted to show we could do it.

As we put each of these components in, we can show it to you so that you can really understand what we're doing. We can give you an explanation, but it just wouldn't be the same. We put the factions in because we know it's important to be able to make decision about what kind of hero you are. We want the flavor of both the Batman vigilante hero and the Superman boy scout hero. Having made a few of these MMOs now, I'd rather not promise all sorts of things specifically. I'd rather just show you when we have something to show you. Paper isn't play.

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	Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!

One of the most compelling elements of DC Universe Online is the opportunity to interact with and fight beside the great heroes of the DC comics. Superman, Batman, and all the rest are going to be important and notable characters in this world, just like yours. The SOE Austin team felt it was important, though, that icons like Batman be more than just 'quest dispensers with legs.'

Instead, the personalities and idiosyncrasies we've all seen in the comics will be coming to the forefront of these characters through spoken and text interactions. If you blow off Superman by ignoring his pleas for help, he'll be cranky at you. Meanwhile, Batman will be spending his time just waiting for you to turn on him and his family ... poised to take you down. Some discussion of quests with personality, plus exploration of the DCUO faction system called 'causes' below the cut!

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	Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!

As we referenced in our post yesterday about DC Universe Online's concept art, the folks at SOE Austin are looking to change the playing field fairly substantially with their superhero MMO title. In fact, in a number of ways they're looking to re-examine a lot of the basic elements we think of as part and parcel with the MMO package. One great example is the concept of questing. Your average experience in a massively multiplayer game right now involves seeking out quests - essentially 'todo lists' - from characters a story-centric quest hub somewhere in the game world.

In DCUO, the goal is to let players do what they want to do with the time they have in-game. To that end, the designers are seeking to push content on players, rather than make players seek them out with their precious game time. Calling them 'encounters' rather than quests, these experiences are totally changeable based on developer intentions, and local conditions. DCUO offers traditional questing as well, with well-known quest givers and amazing quest content ... but they're definitely seeking something new in encounters.

We also chat with the developers about the ways in which their physics-based gameplay fits in, the game's death mechanic, and how the game 'feels' like a 3rd person action game more than an MMO. Read on for all the gameplay details!

Jens: Now, not only can I pick up physics objects in the environment, as you can see here, I can walk over and it tells me I need to use my – whoops, I got stunned when I picked that up. The cool thing here is I could have withdrawn if I wanted to, but if I also... We don't have a death mechanic, we have knock out. It's called a 'rally mechanic'. It allows me to get up on the spot if I feel the situation is going to be safe enough. I don't have to run away and spawn somewhere else all the time. I can if I want to, if I'm surrounded by five guys, but if my friends are still here fighting, I can clear the cobwebs and pop right back up again.

Chris: We can talk a bit about why we decided to have a timer mechanic instead of a death mechanic. Like how the death penalty isn't really necessary, with the timer mechanic?

Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter. Black Canary, Oracle, The Question. The world of DC Comics is populated with amazing characters and fantastic stories. The entire four-color experience is coming to fans of the MMO genre in the form of DC Universe Online, a title in Sony Online Entertainment's stable of next-gen MMOs. Alongside the FPS title The Agency and casual/kid friendly Free Realms, DCUO looks to reinvent the concept of massively multiplayer game for comic book fans. And Massively has had a lengthy first-hand look at this groundbreaking title.

We had extensive hands-on playtime with the game's combat and powers mechanics, and hours of face to face chat time with the developers at SOE Austin. Over the next week, Massively is going to fully explore this dyanmic in-development game. In the words of the developers we'll crack into the studio's philosophy of play and discover the value these developers place on your play time.

To kick things off we've got a fantastic gallery of concept art taken right from the walls of the SOE Austin studios. Explore the work of Jim Lee and the other DCUO artists, with commentary on what you're seeing and hints on what is coming in the next week. Plus! Read on below the cut for Studio Manager John Blakely's insights into 'future screenshots'!

Our discussions with Sony Online Entertainment's CEO John Smedley have touched on a number of issues. The changing face of Star Wars Galaxies, the company's connection to Live Gamer, and even the possibility of sequels to Free Realms. In a recent discussion with MTV Multiplayer, Mr. Smedley expanded on many of these issues and reconfirmed the innovative vision of SOE's future development. In the CEO's words, every game the company makes in the future will be playable on a console ... one would imagine Sony's.

The executive also notes the company's commitment to expanding the appeal of MMOs with non-fantasy titles. Smedley also notes the company's efforts to appeal more to women with titles like DC Universe Online. That said, fans of the company's headlining franchise shouldn't worry too much about its future: "It's pretty safe to say that "EverQuest" has not seen its last game. So we've got our own cards to play there, and I think we will play them at the right time. But the quality level will be something that people will be very happy with." Read on to MTV Multiplayer for the full interview.

City of Heroes is deservedly famous for its costume creator, which allows for a phenomenal amount of variety in character appearance. Champions Online may take that a step further, with multiple textures available for the same item. Obviously, being able to make your character just the way you want them is a very big deal in hero games. But what about the most mysterious of the superhero MMOs, DC Universe Online?

Art director Jared Carr has posted some early details to his blog. Jared explains that 'you can choose from a variety of body sizes, silhouettes and hairstyles', which isn't much of a surprise; however, DCUO will feature something neither CoX nor CO have, which is costume pieces limited by origin. 'If you are a tech-based character (like Cyborg) you will have different costume options than a magic based character (like Dr. Fate).' Jared also mentions that costumes can be altered over time if you wish, a feature CoH didn't have at launch and rapidly adopted.

DC Universe Online Creative Director Chris Cao told MTV's Multiplayer blog that SOE hopes to support cross-platform play between PlayStation 3 and PC DCUO players, but isn't ready to commit to it just yet.

Cao said that cross-platform play is still high on the priority list, but no definite promise has been made because delivering game updates to PS3 users is a very different process than delivering them to PC users. SOE is still trying to figure out how to do simultaneous updates on both platforms.

We've heard about this problem before, of course. Funcom is facing something similar as it works to port Age of Conan to the Xbox 360. SOE is in a good position to deal with it though, since it is actually a part of the company that's responsible for the PlayStation Network authentication process. "I think if anybody is going to do it and make it simultaneously seamless for people it's going to be us," said Cao. "It's just that we haven't done it yet, so we don't like to promise what we haven't delivered yet."

The MMO genre was born and raised in the PC culture. The reasons are obvious, of course -- personal computers have been connected to networks for a long time, the keyboard was more effective for communication before the advent of Voice-over-IP. That said, a lot has been done to make platforms like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 more attractive for MMO developers and players.

Funcom plans to release Age of Conan for the 360. DC Universe Online, The Agency, and Free Realms will all be available on the PS3. In fact, noted MMO developer SOE was not long ago moved into what is basically Sony's PlayStation division with the explicit intent to focus on console MMOs. Blizzard has hired workers with console experience to work on its unannounced "Next-Gen MMO." Clearly, this generation is going to greatly expand on the pioneering efforts of past console MMOs like Final Fantasy XI. Surely if the genre doesn't explode on today's consoles it will in the next batch, right?

Are you looking forward to leaving behind the mouse and keyboard so you can lounge on the sofa with a wireless controller, or are you concerned that too much will be lost in translation? Maybe you think that attempts like The Agency will fail, and the bubble will burst before anyone even really notices it. There are a lot of problems, such as the expense and hassle of the process of authenticating patches in a tightly-controlled service like Xbox Live. Are problems like that deal breakers?