Gamecloud - What new improvements and content updates have been put into the game since Sony Online's takeover?

Dan Myers - As far as the story goes, we arrived at SOE during Episode 1.3 and are now at Episode 3.2 with 3.3 scheduled to release later this month. Each chapter has three episodes and includes a cinematic and new Organization-based critical missions.

The ongoing storyline work is only the tip of the iceberg, though. In September, we introduced a new storyline mechanic called Pandora’s Box. This included a series of four “arcs” in which players earned boxes that release groups of incredibly tough opponents that drop special rewards.

In October, the players finished off the Assassin during the Death of the Destroyer event. Each world had to kill four aspects of the Assassin and the four players on each world who landed the final blows met with Seraph who presented each with a unique item.

We also had a week-long Halloween event where players activated special Jack-O-Lanterns that spawned Lupines, Blood-Drinkers, Nightmares, and Succubi on nearby players. When players defeated their opponents they earned special mask items that changed player RSIs to look like one of these Exile types. There was also a rare mask that changed player-RSIs into Gargoyles—one of our construct bosses. (I even have a screenshot some of our players took as my desktop background.)

In November we redesigned the content “flow” in the Slums and Barrens areas to simplify progress through those areas. Before, players could step out of an area occupied by enemies of their level into one where enemies were much higher-level. Now there’s a more obvious progression through the Districts. We also added special new-player NPC contacts near the initial hardline who give out special missions that explain game mechanics.

We also added an in-game email system that allows players to send persistent messages to other players in The Matrix Online and will soon allow messaging to players in other SOE games. Players can also send items and Information (money) to other characters on the same server.