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DC Universe Online screenshot

What do you get when you take the studio behind legendary MMO Everquest and give them the DC Comics license? Well, you get the exciting looking DC Universe Online from Sony Online Entertainment. At E3 this week we used our super powers to grab Chris Cao, the game's creative director, in order to talk to him about how you go about making a DC Comics MMO and how it's going to work on PC and PS3.

VideoGamer.com: Could you explain your role in the development of DC Universe Online?

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Chris Cao: I'm the studio creative director, so I was the lead designer on Everquest 2. So I'm basically the MMO designer in this action MMO equation. Jens Anderson, who is the creative director of the project, is from battlefront and he's the action guy. So together we've made a game where you're a super hero moment to moment and month to month, playing in an MMO.

VideoGamer.com: It's an exciting concept. Why has it taken so long for someone to make a game like this?

CC: I don't know. It takes a while to build a universe I guess is the answer (laughs). It depends on many factors. Quality is obviously the first one. It's funny because we could have announced the game when we just had concepts and whatever, but we waited until we actually had it playable, and we're putting that playable in front of the fans next week at Comic-Con, because they're ultimately our customers. If we've learned anything, we've learned to serve those customers. Get their hands on it and get them playing it.

VideoGamer.com: Why is now the right time for DC Universe Online?

CC: You've never had the chance before to actually step into the universe. You've always been able to play a single story or single character, but you've never been able to, from your own imagination, create a hero or villain and jump in. Never before have you really walked the streets of Metropolis with millions of other people. It's going to be a completely different experience.

VideoGamer.com: What does the PS3 bring to the equation? How are you working around the challenges of MMO development on a console and PC?

CC: Actually we designed it originally and intentionally as an action game, moment to moment. So you have the four face buttons and powers - you have 1, 2, 3, 4 on the keyboard. We've actually modelled it much more closely after a superman or batman game you might find on a console than a typical MMO. Moment to moment it's going to feel like Hulk: Ultimate Destruction or a Spider-man game. That's how fast it is, that's how much skill it takes. It's just that over time you get all those persistent elements where your level matters, your loot matters and what you've done with other people matters. So that's really why it's not so much a challenge for us, because at Comic-Con you're going to be able to pick up the PC or PS3 controls and play it both ways. It's just that from the very beginning we knew we were making a game and a universe that could be accessed from either place.

VideoGamer.com: Everyone is a fan of the characters from DC. How are players going to be able to interact with those?

CC: In lots of different ways. We basically take the rule that is, if you actually were a new hero and you step into the streets of Metropolis, how would you run into Superman first? Probably not as a talking head right. Instead, what would happen is you could see him in the skies, you'd see him fighting crime, but you would start your own hero's journey, sort of at the bottom and work your way up. As you become more noticed, then he'll actually come and talk to you. Then you'll go on instanced adventures with him. Ultimately your goal is not to be Superman, but to be so good that Superman relies on you. Or as a villain, so good that you can defeat Superman. That's what we're talking about and that's what the Universe game gives you that no other game can. Sure, I can play Superman in other games, but can I ever make my own guy who is the equal of Superman in those games? No, and only in DC Universe can you really do that.

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