Interviews

Mark Kern is the President and CEO of Red 5 Studios, a start-up of experienced game developers who hope to bring the world the next big MMO. Kern, a former Blizzard developer, took some time to answer our questions in this WarCry exclusive.

WarCry: You guys have a lot of experience on the team, but while you highlight former Blizzard developers, when going through the profiles, it becomes apparent that your team really came from all over the industry. Talk about what some of the less direct experience - in terms of MMOs - brings to your team.

Mark Kern: We actually tend to avoid MMO experience. World of Warcraft did not have a fleet of experienced MMO developers, in fact, almost all of us were brand new to the genre. And I think that helped. MMOs had been steeped in a tradition of do's and don'ts that didn't sit well with what we wanted to do. It's hard to imagine now, but grinding, long leveling times and steep death penalties were considered essential to MMO design. If you want to innovate, you need fresh thought, and that's what we accomplish by recruiting people from other, related industries.

Read more after the click.

In the third part of our twice-monthly Q&A series, Community Manager April Burba answers five more questions from our staff on the status of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

WarCry:How will PvP work in the game? We know we are all human, and fighting the bane, so how do you handle any PvP?

April Burba: Throughout human history in spite of the presence of a common enemy, humans still fight amongst themselves. Humans still love, they still lust, they still fear. Our humanness does not disappear in war, rather it is amplified. The world (in-game and out) is not black and white. There are ethical shades of grey that can make you wonder which side is really good or evil. Where there is doubt, there is conflict.

But if shades of grey aren't your thing you can always call it training.

There will be 1v1, small team vs. small team and clan vs. clan PvP .

Read more after you click.

The Icarus Platform was developed both to power the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMORPG Fallen Earth and as a technology solution for other developers. We got a chance to get a look under the hood from Icarus Studios EVP David Gardner. This interview focuses solely on the platform and not the game itself.

WarCry: Icarus Studios recently relaunched it's website with a major announcement: "launching a next generation platform and RAD tool suite for 3D virtual worlds". Can you give us a quick overview of the engine and tools offered for developers?

David Gardner: We have a complete system for building, hosting, and managing virtual worlds. Our platform includes many integrated development tools, asset management systems, network monitoring and data mining modules, as well as customer support tools.

We have also integrated the best of breed middleware products right into the platform. In short, it is everything a studio needs to build an MMO or virtual world application in less than half the time and expense traditionally associated with these projects.

Read more after you click.

Today we have a brand new interview with Gaute Godager, the Producer and Director of Age of Conan. The game, which is developed by Funcom and published by Eidos, is easily one of the most anticipated upcoming MMORPGs. It is based on the Robert E. Howard novels. Find out what Godager had to say about the game's development, story, pvp and other features.

WarCry: What is the risk vs. reward for PvP, is there anything to be feared in death while PvPing in AoC?

Gaute Godager: We have a ranking system we have a blood coin looting system. We want to have item looting, but haven't yet decided the exact balance for this, so it is not something I can promise right now. Will we be able to loot everything, one item, items from the back-pack? We shall see.

We want risk. As to reward, this is much better ;) We have a levelling system for PvP. We have a ranking system. We have special PvP feats and equipment. You can revel in PvP goodness. You can build your own PvP battle keep, mine PvP only resources and focus on minor objectives.

You can even drink yourself into a near-stupor and hammer your friends in a proper bar-brawl through our drunken brawling system. Isn't that a sweet reward all in itself ;)

Read more after the click.

A few months ago we got going on a community driven Q&A series between you the fans and Cryptic where fans around the world, but primarily on WarCry, get to ask questions of specific game developers. Here is the latest Q&A and be sure to get your questions in for Melissa Bianco, the World Designer.

Community Qestion (Belga): Can we be given access to the NPC costume pieces? Many players would love to use the Carnival of Shadows pieces, for example, and I'd really like to have access to the Mu Mystics costumes.

Jay Doherty: When NPCs where first made there was no intention to give players those costume pieces, mostly because they would not work with other costume pieces (ex: clipping, overlapping) When the PPD exobot guys were first put into the game, players really wanted those pieces for themselves. Unfortunately all those pieces where made to work with each other not as separate pieces, and they look really silly if you don't have all the pieces on. So to address this we have come up with a few solutions. First, while not completely copying the carnival of shadows I have built a completely new costume set with the flavour of the carnival. Second, there will be a new NPC group that was built with the player in mind, all costume pieces from this NPC group will be something players will be able to wear. Now depending on how the players respond to this is how we'll handle more things in the future. Please don't think that every NPC costume group from this point on will be given to the players, but I will put forth the effort to do as many as possible.

Read more after the click.

It's been a while, but we're back on track with our City of Heroes Community Quiz series. This time, we're talking to Melissa Bianco, the World Designer for City of Heroes / Villains. If you have questions about this game's unique world, she's the one to ask.

Click below for a full profile then ask your questions in our comment thread.

In the third installment of our twice monthly Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Q&A series, Community Coordinator Richard Duffek gets talks about lore, the kinds of quests, instancing and much more! We've also got an exclusive new screenshot to go with it.

WarCry: Without the extensive use of instancing, how will you handle certain areas that are camped for XP or loot, how will you make sure people aren't sitting around waiting for a spawn?

Richard Duffek: Really, the game is being built in such as way to alleviate this problem. You'll certainly gain items from killing monsters, but the best places for loot and XP are going to be RvR and Public Quests. It is near impossible to camp in RvR and we want you hanging around to participate in the Public Quests. PQs are at their best when a group is present to complete all the stages.

Click below to read more.

Jeffrey Steefel looks forward to the launch of Book 9: Shores of Evendim in our weekly Ask Turbine interview. The Executive Producer tells us what to expect on launch day, how Turbine plans to tackle its launch and turns an eye to future Books.

"This is no different than any other launch," Steefel told us and added that he's worked to ingrain that into the culture at Turbine. "[We're] treating it just like the launch of the game."

In the post-World of Warcraft MMO world, this is a commitment to quality that is longer impressive, but expected. Steefel told us that they had spent 10 weeks developing the content for Evendim and roughly another 10 weeks testing, polishing and fixing it. In an industry that seemed like it would patch a game within minutes of finishing the last quest, this is a marked change in philosophy.

Read more after the click.

We're back with another edition of Ask Turbine. This week, we get back on track when we chatted with Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel about the upcoming Shores of Evendim add on, core features and how they're doing and even how well the game itself is selling.

"We are probably the second highest volume ever for an MMO," Steefel told us, ranking them behind WoW. While it is impossible to confirm this, we did inquire about their lack of new servers. World of Warcraft has over a hundred servers and older games like Dark Age of Camelot still count 22. Lord of the Rings Online only has 11, a number that seems to contradict the happy sales reports. He told us that differences in technology make the comparison of number of servers impossible, as each company's technology is different. The NPD numbers back him up here.

Read more after you click.

Today we have a rather unique interview. Pål Frogner Hansen is the Project Director of Age of Conan and our resident techie caught up with him to get some insights into the nuts and bolts of their game. They're a bit on the technical side, but they provide an interesting peek behind how these games are truly built.

WarCry: How do the programmers integrate with the artists work?

Pål Frogner Hansen: Some artists work by their own and just work with huge lists of work to crunch through, while others sit next to programmers where they tailor make content for each other. The whole team is very dynamic and flexible. People walk around a lot in addition to communicate via email, icq and our task-tracking tools.

Read more about the development of this MMO after the click.

Kevin Saunders recently served as the Lead Designer for Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer and today we have an interview with him where we learn about his job, Obsidian and how he got to where he is.

WarCry: What is your gaming background? Have you always had an interest in gaming and RPGs?

Kevin Saunders: Yes, and I imagine my gaming background is similar to that of many of your readers. I started playing basic D&D when I was 4 or 5. I loved games like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin for the Intellivision. The Bard's Tale, Zork, Wizardry, Phantasie, Ultima, "Gold Box" D&D titles, etc. were all a big part of my childhood. I loved Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set.

I missed a whole generation of great games in the early and mid-90s when I was in college. Those days I mostly just played chess online.

Read more after you click.

Stieg Hedlund is the famed Design Director behind Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, the upcoming mythological MMORPG from Perpetual Entertainment. The Q&A looks over a range of core topics most MMO fans want to know about.

WarCry: It has been hinted at, that raids in the traditional sense will not be in Gods & Heroes. You will not be taking huge numbers to go out and kill a main boss, but instead will face lots of weaker mobs. Can you elaborate on what we can expect, and why?

Stieg Hedlund: Some of the god quests will most definitely pit you against larger boss enemies. There will also most definitely be raids in G&H, but instead of unwieldy twenty-player raids, which can be a nightmare to organize and execute, our minion system makes it so that even with a large-scale raid you only need 5 party members. If each party member has 4 minions in their active squad, that right there gives you 25 pairs of sandals on the ground. It's much more manageable but will still give players the opportunity to participate in some truly massive combat engagements.

Read more after the click.

Once upon a time, a company named Wolfpack Studios made an MMO called Shadowbane. Fast forward a bit and those same guys are back under the guise of Stray Bullet Games and they're working on a brand new HeroEngine-powered MMORPG. We talk to them about their new company and whatever it is they're working on (they're not saying yet!).

WarCry: Your original announcement mentions middleware from a third party developer. We now know this to be the HeroEngine, by Simutronics. Why did you choose this and what advantages does it give you?

Ala Diaz, Technical Director: After evaluating multiple engines for their suitability to an MMO project, we decided on HeroEngine because it gives us the most comprehensive set of tools and the best infrastructure for development. The power of HeroEngine lies in the collaborative real-time development model with a fantastic suite of tools and systems. There are too many individual features of HeroEngine to list and heroengine.net has an overview for those who are interested, but we have found that the overall sweep of the tools provided with HeroEngine allows for a level of rapid development and iteration that we have not seen with other engines. For example, imagine tweaking combat logic or fixing a bad texture and having it update dynamically during an internal playtest. That kind of instant feedback without any outside recompilation or data crunching steps has proven invaluable.

Read more after the click.

It's an odd phenomenon in a world that sees games announced, canceled and released every day, but Atriarch is now in its 9th year of development. This science-fiction MMORPG has been the passion project of WorldFusion and their leader Serafina for years. Today, we catch up with Serafina and find out what is going on with Atriarch.

WarCry: Your website says it all: "All Content © 1998-2007 World Fusion®". It's been roughly nine years since Atriarch began. What has taken so long and why should anyone still trust that this might one day be complete?

Serafina: You ask about trust? *big grin* I think you answered your own question.. After nine years of pursuing our dream to see Atriarch a reality, I think most would trust by now that we are stubborn, passionate and persistent enough to see it through :-)

Everyone seems to be stuck on the fact that it is taking a long time. I understand. Believe me when I say I want it to go a lot faster too. However, things didn't go as planned. I say so what? That's life. I'm not going to toss out a beautiful and epic world just because it took longer than seven days to create.

In a nutshell, World Fusion is an independent company (established 1987) that has had both ups and downs. During the ups we focus entirely on making our dream, Atriarch, become a reality. During the downs, we work on software architecture consulting, contracts and part-time on Atriarch. (Let's just say we prefer the ups.)

Read more after the click.

In the second of our twice-monthly interviews with NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba talks to us about the death penalty, level restrictions, raids and more subjects. Remember, check back in a couple weeks for more, as well as our report from an even they're holding this week in Austin.

WarCry: You have said that Tabula Rasa will use Instancing. Could you explain how often we will see instancing, and what kind of things we can look forward to seeing in the instances?

April Burba: Instancing runs about 40% of the game at the start and then moves to about 60% towards the end. Instances are more like single player games - lots of story, lots of amazing things going on. Instances in TR blow me away. There is more thinking going on in instances with cameras, alarms, and interacting with your environment and it's just cool as hell.

Read more after you click.