Interviews

Tabula Rasa Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba is back with another installment of our ongoing Q&A series. This week she answers questions on instancing, the Bane, perspective and much more.

WarCry: The Beta is now underway, how is it going? Do you plan on opening the floodgates anytime soon?

April Burba: It's going really well. We opened one floodgate already with a batch of 10K invites recently, and we are pretty close to another batch of 10K soon, so everyone should be watching their mailbox. It's always interesting with your first big batch because until then you haven't really seen what your game might look like on launch day, with a large majority of the population in starting areas. It was an amazing feeling for the team to see so many people in-game.

Read more after the click.

On September 1st, 2007 NCSoft will officially close the Auto Assault servers. The news hit the community hard today as this post-apocalyptic car MMO meets an end shared by games like Earth and Beyond. It's rare for an MMO to shut down, but unfortunately for fans of the game, NCSoft just didn't see it as good business sense.

"After a while it gets to the point where the return we're getting on what we're putting into it is just not matching up," NCSoft Director of Public Relations David Swofford told WarCry after the news hit. "We just didn't have that many people in the service."

According to Swofford, NCSoft owns the Auto Assault intellectual property. If that does not change before September 1st, there is no legal way that the game can continue on. However, hope may not be gone. A few years ago, NetDevil opted to run their niche space MMO Jumpgate themselves after it found only a moderate audience.

Swofford told us that no one at NCSoft will lose their jobs as a result of this move. He was unable to comment on what chances the game might have of being sold back to NetDevil and would only say that at this time they plan to close the game on September 1st and that is all.

NetDevil could not be reached for comment at the time of publish.

North Carolina start-up Neogence Studios announced Immortal Destiny: Edge of Empyrean late last year. This new fantasy MMO that hopes to carve itself a niche in a crowded genre. CEO Robert Rice took the time to answer our questions at great detail and thus we bring you his interview in two parts.

WarCry: Since UO, many games have tried open skill systems. How do you hope to balance it and avoid "tank mage" syndrome?

Robert Rice: What is wrong with a tank mage? While this goes against the grain of the typical Tank/Caster/Healer stereotypes that we have become so used to that it would shock a designer to even contemplate something new, there is nothing wrong with the idea, provided that it was designed properly. In a skills based system, you deal with individual skills, not classes. A class could be defined as a set of skills and abilities that are specific to that class and are usually balanced. Designers that try to make a skills system and create it around a class concept (unintentionally I would assume) will end up with templates that are overpowered, imbalanced, and that everyone copies (or "flavor of the month"). In other words, they remove the class, but still have "tank skills", "mage skills" and "healer skills". These are then balanced the same way they would balance the classes, which opens up opportunities for the min/max crowd to come in and create a legitimate character type, a tank/mage, and obliterate everyone they come into contact with. Another problem that usually occurs, is adding a bunch of relatively useless "fluff" skills to the game that have little impact and really aren't worth learning unless you are bored, or you got tired of the "high level" content and want to start over and try something new.

Read more after the click.

Mad Mozak is one of the most memorable encounters in Auto Assault and many questions have appeared asking about his story, origins and, most importantly, Wagner's The Valkyrie that loops endlessly from his chassis!
WarCry goes the extra mile and asks former lead designer Adam "Snipehunter" Maxwell and he never disappoints:

WarCry: Can you tell us about Mad Mozak, his told (and the untold) story, and who was behind the musical chassis?

Snipehunter: Heh! That was actually Richard Dekkard's idea, the music and audio guru for the game. I had mentioned to him that Mozak would drive up on you the first time you saw him and he thought the music would make it a more memorable moment. We had to make a few changes to what we'd intended to fix a few bugs, so Mozak ended up posting a roadblock instead of intercepting you, but I think the music still worked well.

Read More for the full story!

We're back with another exclusive Q&A with the people behind World of Warcraft. Lead Designer Jeffrey Kaplan drops in for this latest Q&A where our own Whitney Butts quizzes him on the latest things from the world of Norrath.

WarCry: The complication and difficulty of getting keyed and attuned for many instances has risen quite a bit. What is the reason for increasing the complication for attunements and keys?

Jeffrey Kaplan: I'm actually a big fan of how the Heroic keying process worked out. We want there to be a sense of progression and something to look forward to, but at the same time we don't want the process to get so complicated that it becomes too daunting. When you group with people in a Heroic instance, you know that they have a certain level of understanding when it comes to that particular dungeon because they needed to do it a few times. As time goes on, we'll continue to tweak and balance the attunement processes in response to player feedback and our own observations.

Read the full interview over at WoW WarCry.

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This is part 3 of our exclusive interview with Jeff Hickman, The Senior Producer, and Paul Barnett, The Design Manager, for Warhammer Online. If you missed part 1 you can read it by Clicking Here!
You can see part 2 by Clicking Here!

mattlow: We keep hearing about the Tome of Knowledge, but we don't actually have many details about it. It's not like a database for the game, so you have to unlock it, you have to find the things to fill it?

"The Hickman" Absolutely, so when you start the game the Tome of Knowledge is empty, except for a little bit of information about yourself. So as you move through the game, through quests, public quests, through exploration, through killing enemies and monsters, through discovering secret things in the world. Through basic discovery...

You can read all of Part 3 by heading over to Warhammer on WarCry!

We're back with another exclusive Q&A with the people behind World of Warcraft. Lead Designer Jeffrey Kaplan drops in for this latest Q&A where our own Whitney Butts quizzes him on the latest things from the world of Azeroth.

WarCry: The complication and difficulty of getting keyed and attuned for many instances has risen quite a bit. What is the reason for increasing the complication for attunements and keys?

Jeffrey Kaplan: I'm actually a big fan of how the Heroic keying process worked out. We want there to be a sense of progression and something to look forward to, but at the same time we don't want the process to get so complicated that it becomes too daunting. When you group with people in a Heroic instance, you know that they have a certain level of understanding when it comes to that particular dungeon because they needed to do it a few times. As time goes on, we'll continue to tweak and balance the attunement processes in response to player feedback and our own observations.

Read more after the click.

We continue this week our look into Auto Assault's development days and go deep into the blue neon faction! We talk to the Biomek actual himself, former Lead Content Designer Hal "maRaider" Hanlin, who shaped the Biomek history, their draconian Doctrine and the biomechanical concept:

WarCry: More than a year passed on Auto Assault, and it is still one of the most unique games in the MMO playground. Can you tell us how you got involved in this project and what lured you to join the AA team?

maRaider: I was told about the company and project by two friends from my previous job who were joining NetDevil. When I met with the owners and learned about the details of Auto Assault, I was hooked. I was sick to death of fantasy already (this was before the mighty WoW, imagine where I am now) and really wanted some gritty subject matter to chew on. Biomeks suited my mindset: Do what must be done. Do it well. Do not let anything get in your way. The Order uses slightly more draconian methods than I do, but we understand one another.

Read More for the full interview!

SOE and Flying Lab Software shocked some people when they announced the SOE's Platform Publishing would bring Pirates of the Burning Sea to market. We wanted to find out what the deal meant, so we go FLS CEO Russell Williams and SOE VP of Business Development David Christensen on the phone to find out the details.

Read on for our exclusive interview:

Throughout the interview, Williams reiterated his enthusiasm for the package SOE offers through Platform Publishing. Williams comes from the single-player industry where traditional publishing deals are nearly universally one-sided and spoke of how most other companies wanted to have the control that is typical of those deals without the financial investment or risk. Flying Lab Software does not need Sony's money to finish the game, they need their marketing and sales network. According to Williams, this deal provides them with access to that and lets FLS keep its focus on the game.

Further to their marketing and sales network, FLS is gaining acces to the Station Pass. SOE revealed for the first time that Pirates of the Burning Sea - unlike their Platform brothers Gods and Heroes - will join the company's All Access Station Pass when it launches this fall. The pass provides subscribers with access to the full SOE library of titles for one monthly fee.

To read more, click below.

We continue this week our look into Auto Assault's early development days and go deep into the blue neon faction! We talk to the alpha-Human himself, former Lead Content Designer Chris "Homie" Holtorf, also known as Ombwah, who molded the treacherous Human faction with all it's shiny colors, idols and nukes!

WarCry: More than a year passed on Auto Assault, and it is still a unique game in the MMO playground. Can you tell us how you got involved in this project and what lured you to join the AA team?

Ombwah: Hey, no fair - more than one question there. =) Anyway, I guess it goes like this. My father, knowing I was into games, referred me to an MMO he had heard of from a friend of his at work. Turns out this guy had recently been working at NetDevil finishing up Jumpgate. I gave it a run, told Snipe (Adam Maxwell, Mutant Lead) about it, and the two of us got hooked pretty quickly. We soon had a lot of ideas for Jumpgate content, and talked about it often. See, we were of the opinion that the company handling content for ND at the time wasn't doing a great job. We wanted to do better things, so we put together a proposal for NetDevil that we do some content work for them, maybe starting with Jumpgate. So, imagine our surprise when ND got back to us, not to work on Jumpgate, nor on contract -- but to hire us on a new project. This new project was, of course, Auto Assault. It was an easy choice.

Read More for the full interview!

Monumental Games has been on our radar as a developer of an MMO engine for quite some time, but only last month did they finally announce their own game. They've partnered with CyberSports to create Football Superstars. This unique MMO combines on-field action, with the off-field pursuit of fame and fortune as a true "superstar". We interviewed Creative Director Steve Marshall about the project.

WarCry: The goal of the game is to attain fame and fortune on and off the pitch. Can you talk a bit more about the off the field side of things. How will you make it both alluring and entertaining?

Steve Marshall : We have the luxury of having an MMO based on the real world, and as such our potential scope for what is applicable for off pitch entertainment is pretty much unlimited. However, we are focusing on getting the football game itself as perfect as we can and then build on the lifestyle world introducing new features regularly.

Early on players will be able to shop to customise their look, enjoy a social drink (maybe even a boogie), compare their success on the pitch with each other using replays, share a story with the media, scout players for your team or have a good pep talk via headsets before a key match. We have an abundance of additional plans for rapid introduction such as a variety of mini games, the opportunity to buy and personalise a penthouse flat to owning a full on estate as well many others lifestyle features. The lifestyle side will be very much community focused with a range of opportunities that we hope will attract even those that would not normally call themselves traditional football game fans.

Sports Interactive has for years been at the forefront of text-based sports simulations. They invented Championship Manager, one of the world's most popular games, and then continued to define the genre with Football Manager under new publisher SEGA. Beyond soccer (football), they've also redefined hockey management with Eastside Hockey Manager and take in the top team in baseball and their Out of the Park franchise.

Now, they're moving forward with their plans to bring their most popular franchise into the massively multi-player arena. Football Manager Live combines the gameplay of Football Manager with an MMO in an innovative design. We spoke to Sports Interactive Managing Director Miles Jacobson about this brand new idea.

WarCry: The cynical reaction to this announcement is that this is just a fancy version of your traditional network game. Talk about some of the key differences that make this unique?

Miles Jacobson: It really is a completely different game. In FM, you all have to be online at the same time, leading to lots of pre-arranging of times to play, and it's also quite a slow experience as you have to wait for people who play the game differently to you. And is based on real seasons, with real teams.

With FML, you are your own team. You have a fantasy squad, using real players, and a wage cap at start. Apart from that, you can play matches as and when you want to, as well as taking part in organised and disorganised tournaments.

It's difficult to describe how different the experiences are - so we advise everyone out there to try it, and find out for themselves!

For the full interview, click below.

Today we have the third part - the second on WarCry - of our interview with Richard Garriott. We began on Tuesday with the Escapist interview and then showed you some extra stuff on Wednesday here on WarCry. Now we polish it off here today.

The final part is all about balance. Not game balance, but how he balances making points with preaching and commercial success with meaningfulness.

Escapist: You've mentioned that you're not necessarily trying to evangelize on either side, but you have also said in the past that you've occasionally been accused of preaching. So a couple questions. One, do you think you preach? And secondly, even if you did preach, would that necessarily be bad in a video game?

Richard Garriott: I work hard to not take very many, if any positions, but there is no question, I know for a fact that I do on some subjects. I can give you a case study on that. If you look at the cover of Ultima VIII, the cover of Ultima VIII has a pentagram on the cover of it. That was something I insisted by on the front of the cover, but interestingly a lot of retail outlets wouldn't carry. And so we actually had to make a second version of the box to put on store shelves at certain stores because they thought that a pentagram was so potentially inflammatory that they wouldn't carry the box if it continued to have a pentagram on the front. And that fed directly into the reason I put it on the cover. If you look at the actual, true history of a pentagram - which interestingly even has a little bit to do with Tabula Rasa.

Read more at the link below.

Following more than a year of Auto Assault, WarCry is taking a look back at the creative team who was behind the wheel of Auto Assault. And what's better than asking Lead Content Designer Adam "Snipehunter" Maxwell, who pioneered in Auto Assault taking upon the Mutant faction and it's complex story of persecution and survival:

WarCry: Auto Assault has survived more than a year in an online gaming scene that's brutal and unforgiving, which ironically fits the theme of the game itself. This unique project was born and raised in the hands of NetDevil in which you designed and developed the Mutant faction. Will you tell us about your involvement in this project and what lured you to join the AA team?

Snipehunter: I guess I'll start with what drew me to NetDevil and AA, since that really is the beginning. Another designer I worked with at the time (who we all know and love as Ombwah/Homie in the AA community) and I were avid Jumpgate fans, but we weren't incredibly happy with the amount of content the game had. Events were rare and often scheduled at times that my job made difficult to attend. Well, the two of us figured we could do content for Jumpgate, and we wrote up a pitch package selling our services as a content team to NetDevil. To our surprise, they got back to us, but not about JG, instead they wanted to talk about this new project of theirs... a post apocalyptic MMO featuring cars armed to the teeth. They said some other stuff, but I got a little woozy and had to check to see if this was a dream. It gets fuzzy after that, but I think I said, "You had me apocalyptic." One of my pet peeves about the MMO scene is how fantasy driven it is. I love me my sci-fi and my most favorite sub-genre of all is definitely Post Apocalyptic fiction, so when Scorch was telling us what he wanted to talk to us about, I knew that I was going to be involved, if they'd let me.

Read More for the full interview!

Yesterday, our sister magazine The Escapist published an interview we did with Richard Garriott on mythology and story in video games. He provided a fascinating look at a subject he is uniquely qualified to comment on, but he also had a lot more to say.

Today, we give you the first part of a two part series where we reveal what else Garriott had to say during that chat. In today's portion, you can read Garriott's thoughts on the roots of the Ultima series, the future of MMOs, the concept of the Avatar and why Tabula Rasa changed directions so dramatically. Tomorrow, we'll return with more words from Garriott.

Escapist: OK, those were where you went, is there anywhere you ever wanted to go with the series that you never got to?

Richard Garriott: Absolutely. These games as you know take us years to develop and so there are generally a lot more ideas than you ever get to put into a game. In particular, even though everyone always thinks of me as a medieval fantasy guy, as you can tell from those earlier games, I'm just as enthusiastic about science fiction and frankly even old west, like the movie Westworld, which I thought was hot stuff when I was quite a bit younger. I'd be very happy playing in almost any fictional genre or time period setting. For me though, the common thread is two aspects. It's the highly detailed world crafting, trying to make sure that the world we create is as believable, diverse and rich as possible. And then the second aspects is what I will call the creation of the 'why am I there and why do I care?' In other words, what is the story-based emotional hook that keeps you as a player desiring to go to this virtual world. I'm a big virtual reality fan, as well as I'm a big virtual reality skeptic. In the sense of, wouldn't I love to be able to just plug in and go play in a virtual world? Yes. But do I think the hardware to make that practical in a lot of the high end movies, do I think that's going to happen anytime soon? Absolutely not.

Read more after the click.