The video game industry trade shows are really like great big reunions. Everyone knows everyone and there’s always an interest to hear about what’s been going on with the development of upcoming games. So at GDC 2010, the ZAM staff had a chance to sit down with DC Universe Online’s  art director, Mike Daubert, who filled us in on some of the more key elements of DCUO’s art direction and what’s planned for the future.

All that and more awaits after the break, so what are you waiting for? Keep on reading!

Derek Smart took over as president of Quest Online with the sudden departure of co-founder and CEO David Allen. A post by Smart in the Alganon forums alluded to much more going on behind the scenes, so we tracked him down to get the details on the game that has had some of its own controversy since its ill-fated launch in December.  

Last week, Cryptic Studios finally released the widely-anticipated Star Trek Online. It was well-received by the majority of its followers, earning praise from Star Trek fans as well as veteran MMO players. However, just prior to STO's official release last Tuesday, a handful of community-driven issues were consistently popping up in Cryptic's forums and in-game, during its beta-testing phase. We rounded up about a dozen of the most commonly-raised gameplay issues we've noticed throughout the past few weeks, hoping to get some answers from the developers.

Fortunately, ZAM was able to take our questions straight to the top; Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich responds in this exclusive Q&A, which we submitted a few days before the MMO's official release. Zinkievich talks about STO's future content and gives us a rough idea of how often Cryptic will deploy new "Episodes" and other endgame material (including confirmation that an encounter with Borg Queen is in-the-works).

He also responds to some of the community's most commonly-asked questions regarding Klingon PvE gameplay, explaining why Cryptic originally designed the Klingon aspect of STO the way it did. Zinkievich also talks about the balancing STO's combat and solo play, as well as fixing the commonly-addressed "corkscrew" ship-maneuvering issue. Finally, Zinkievich explains why fans shouldn't be too quick to lose faith in the "exploration and diplomacy" aspects of Star Trek Online.

As gaming technology marches forward and MMORPGs get more and more complicated, sometimes it's nice to take a step back from all of it to remember the good 'ol games. In particular, does anyone remember the classic days of Bomberman on the SNES? Well, apparently so does Nexon, as their next MMO to hit North America is a cutesy, light, bomberman-esque game they call "Pop Tag!"

Now, while Pop Tag! might not be on par with Nexon's incredibly popular Maplestory and Dungeon Fighter Online (in terms of MMO depth), the game does make up for itself with some addictive gameplay and some great MMO additions that allow players to have a great time playing with each other. We decided to sit down with Pop Tag!'s producer, Jaeho Hwang, about their new game, as well as Nexon's "lighter" MMO direction, and their decision to rebrand themselves within North America. Read on to find out more!

As technology marches forward, gamers have come to expect more, graphically and technically, from their MMORPGs than ever before. It's funny, however, how even though we demand prettier pictures out of our games, there are some of those classic RPGs that still hit us with waves of nostalgia, every time we think back to those countless hours spent playing on our Super Nintendos, Playstations, or even PS2s. In fact, it was really only a matter of time before a someone decided to tap into those classic sprite graphics to bring us some pure, good old fashioned fun in an MMORPG format.

That game, of course, was Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online, a 2D sprite-based, side-scrolling MMORPG that was released a few months back in September, 2009. Since then, DFO has seen two large-scale updates, in the form of their "Dawn of Retribution" patch, a month or two back, and their latest, the "Threshold of Power" patch, which saw a level cap increase to 50, and a plethora of new abilities added into the game. Of course, we, here at ZAM, were already enamored with the nostalgic fun of Dungeon Fighter Online, but now that the game is firmly moving forward into 2010, we decided to sit down with Luis Reyes, the Associate Producer for Dungeon Fighter Online, to dig deeper on their classic 2D MMORPG.

Battleswarm: Field of Honor is a unique free-to-play MMO that combines the first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres by pitting FPS Humans against RTS Bugs. We got the chance to sit down with Reality Gap's Mark Hood to discuss how the team balances these gameplay styles and what the company's MetaTIX virtual currency system means for players.

Hood hints that they have big plans to launch a new type of in-game tournament in a couple months and discusses an upcoming patch that will make it easier for new players to get into the game. You can read all the details after the jump!

Gaming mice and peripherals are pretty standard fare for MMO enthusiasts these days. Every mouse manufacturer seems to have a product that could be utilized in one of our games, but only a select few companies have the real passion to deliver mice, keyboards, headphones and other products that really put an emphasis on what’s best for the competitive PvE or PvP player. One of the most passionate companies in the business is Steel Series, and at CES 2010 they had a handful of new products that exemplified this focus.

In many ways, the Consumer Electronics Show is like a circus. It has three main showcase areas, plenty of food and drink for everyone at the event and its fair share of bombastic individuals trying to draw the eye of the audience to their act. The atmosphere is almost electric, and not from the current running through the latest Samsung flatscreen TV.

So it was a relief when the ZAM staff met with Michael Howse and John Drewry, the CEO and VP of Marketing of Bigfoot Networks, in an area just off of CES’ North Hall. If you’re not familiar with Bigfoot Networks, you may at least be familiar with their flagship product, the Killer NIC, which unburdens your CPU from the effort of networking through the motherboard and instead pushes it all through the Killer NIC card. Think of it like onboard graphics versus an Nvidia or ATI card, you’d see a substantial difference almost immediately with the change.

We've been keeping a eye on Warhammer Online recently; in late 2009, Mythic rolled out patch 1.3.2, which drastically changed and enhanced many core gameplay mechanics. A bit later, Mythic took the community by surprise and launched its new Endless Trial, converting the Tier 1 experience (Ranks 1 to 10) into a free-to-play MMO.

Earlier this month, WAR's newest patch 1.3.3 was deployed on live servers, adding more enhancements to the game. Before the patch launched, ZAM was able to get in touch with Andy Belford (Community Coordinator for WAR) and ask him a few questions about the most-touted features introduced in patch 1.3.3. In this Q&A, Belford explains how the new "Underdog" system works in RvR campaigns, and sheds some light on the in-game "WAR Report." Belford also explains the benefits of the client's new Bloom and HDR lighting techniques, and gives players the advice they need to get the most out of this year's "Keg End" in-game holiday event. Read on for the full interview!

Perfect World International is the North American and European version of the popular MMO The Perfect World that launched in China in 2005. Its theme and story are based on Chinese mythology and the legend of Pangu, a 1000-year-old creation story from the Zhou Dynasty. In China, The Perfect World enjoyed widespread success for quite some time as a subscription-based MMO. Later, the developers (Perfect World Entertainment) reworked the MMO into its current, free-to-play incarnation as Perfect World International, which boasts more than 50 million registered players.

As we reported a few days ago, the developers recently launched The Rising Tide, PWI's third and largest expansion. The Rising Tide is an aquatic-themed expansion that introduces a new race called the Tideborn, and opens new zones including islands and underwater areas. Just prior to The Rising Tide's launch, ZAM interviewed Product Manager Jon Belliss, who told us about the expansion's two new classes (the Assassin and Psychic), new dungeons and endgame content and more. We also asked Belliss about some of the additional changes to the PWI client, and brought up a few of the hotly-debated community issues we've seen raised lately.