Interviews

Pirates of the Burning Sea Lead Designer Kevin Maginn gets our Q&A series running again with another set of questions and answers. This week we learn about population imbalance between the nations, the stress test and more.

WarCry: Your game lets people play as French, Spanish, English or Pirates. It seems likely that you'll face some population balance issues. Have you seen them so far in Beta and how do you plan to keep things fair after release?

Kevin Maginn: We're seeing the same population numbers consistently through every stage of the beta. 35% of the players choose Pirate; a similar number choose Britain. 15% choose Spanish, and 15% choose French. Obviously, those numbers aren't balanced, but they're not a failure state either. That said, we are working on some population balancing tools, with two goals: make the game more fair if your nation is underpopulated, and make underpopulated nations more appealing, particularly to large PvP guilds.

Read more after the leap.

World of Warcraft Lead Designer Jeffrey Kaplan talks to us today about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion in this new WarCry Q&A. Jason Rice finds out about raids, story, reputation and more.

WarCry: The death knight is being billed as a tank/dps (damage per second) hybrid. How do you see them fitting into raids alongside protection warriors, feral druids, and protection paladins?

Jeffrey Kaplan: We made some really good strides in The Burning Crusade to improve the feral druid as a hybrid tank/dps class. That will be the general direction we'll be looking to go with the death knight. Obviously, the protection warrior is in a good place in terms of dungeon and raid tanking. And the protection paladin is hands-down the best multi-target tank. Of course, there's always room for improvement, but you can see the general direction the tanking classes are headed. While all of these classes are capable of fulfilling similar roles, they offer very different abilities and playstyles.

Click through to read the full interview.

Shot Online combines the MMOG world with golf and today we talk to Christopher Yamauchi of Shot Online about their game. He gives us a general update on everything that's been going on with this Korean title that has carved out a strong niche in North America.

WarCry: For those new to Shot Online, explain how your game is different from traditional golf games like EA's Tiger Woods series. What do you offer that they cannot?

Christopher Yamauchi: At its very core, Shot-Online is a traditional golf game similar to EA's Tiger Woods series, but the similarities stop there. We also built a unique MMO system that promote community interaction through trading, chatting, tournaments, and auctions. Multiplayer is key in Shot-Online where we have players from all across the globe. We have missions, levels, guilds, stores, clothes, and many other elements you would find in RPGs, but not necessarily a sports game. We believe these attributes really enhance the game for the user as they personalize their in game persona.

Read more after the click.

EverQuest II Rise of Kunark went to stores today and represents the culmination of more than a year's work from a range of SOE developers. As it launched, we spoke to Lead Environment Artist Tim Heydelaar and Lead Character Artist Chad Haley about their role as they bring the graphics of EverQuest II to life.

This article is based on an interview with the two men and includes a wealth of concept art and screenshots from the expansion.

With Rise of Kunark, fans get to sample what the SOE team can pack into an expansion when it's had a full year to simmer and both Haley and Heydelaar believe that the extra time has done wonders for both the quality of the product and the team who builds it.

"It was great, it was the best piece of news we'd heard in a long time," said Heydelaar. "You stress a little less and get more done...You get to polish more and work with design more."

Read and see more after the leap.

Brian Clayton is the new Studio Manager of NCsoft NorCal and took some time to talk to us about Tuesday's announcement that NCsoft had bought full ownership of City of Heroes/Villains from developer Cryptic Studios. What will it mean to the players and what are NCsoft's plans for the game's future? Find out.

"We love the IP, we believe in the IP and for us it was all about focus on the IP," said Brian Clayton, the new Studio Manager of NCsoft NorCal and Executive Producer of City of Heroes.

Ever since Cryptic Studios announced that they had partnered with Marvel and Microsoft to produce a next-gen super-hero MMOG for the PC and Xbox 360 some variation of Tuesday's announcement seemed only like a matter of time. Whether or not it was the case, there was no way for Cryptic Studios to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest as they managed two competing IPs. The sale to NCsoft, according to both studios, is the best thing they can do for fans of the first super-hero MMOG.

Read more after the jump.

Lead Designer Paul Sage joins April Burba to answer the latest in our Tabula Rasa Q&A series and the first since they launched the game on Friday. Burba and Sage tackle questions on humor, differentiation and what launch day was like.

WarCry: One underplayed part of TR is that the game actually has quite the sense of humor, such as the messages played over the PA systems in human bases. Talk about some of the ways you guys have taken the destruction Earth and made it a touch less than serious.

April Burba: That's nothing. Have you seen the Mini-British running around? He is on a quest to find his rat-tail. There are tons of little 'easter-eggs' if you want to call them that all over the world. There are Apple IIe's that have the opening lines from Akalabeth. There are also some pretty funny NPC chatter/actions. There is one NPC standing precariously on several chairs welding directly into a pipe. Another NPC has some funny commentary about it.

Read more after the leap.

It's been a long time in the making, but Tabula Rasa launched today. Earlier this week, we sat down with Starr Long of NCsoft to talk about the new MMORPG and what people can expect from it as it appears in stores today.

"[Tabula Rasa] is intentionally easy to understand and get into, but definitely evolves over time," Long told us in an interview just prior to the launch. The base mechanic of aim and shoot is obviously simple, but as they advance in levels, players need to do more than just aim and shoot. Many enemies are puzzles unto themselves. In effect, there is a rock/paper/scissors game, where enemies don't deal well with one kind of weapon, but are extremely vulnerable to another. If the player doesn't consider these factors, they can make their life quite difficult. Elements like that are what Long believes helps give a rather simple premise long term appeal.

Read more after the jump.

Project V.I.L.E. is the working title of an MMOG in development at Australia's VILE Studios. They hope to launch this PC (Xbox 360 may follow later) title later this year and promise a skill based system with unrestricted PvP, among other things.

WarCry: Is the PvP free-for-all or is it zone restricted?

Ashley Hodgetts: There will be absolutely unrestricted PVP against the other factions. For the first time the ability for players to be able to "switch teams" and backstab their team mates in certain PvP Arenas. Yes, you will most definitely be able to run a raid on the lowbies in their beginner areas but you're going to have to watch out for that faction's NPC and player driven defense networks. So many games say that they are PvP driven, but they seem to forget what Player-Versus-Player is all about, the mass slaughter and conquering all.

There is going to be Player-Vs-Player, vehicles, Mechs, fighter-craft as well as money to be made from the whole thing.

Read more after the jump.

While at E for All Warcry had the chance to sit down with Kevin Balentine of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, to talk about Stargate Worlds (SGW). Stargate Worlds is Cheyenne's upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), based on the Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis TV series. With a huge fan base and a great show providing continuous content, we are getting excited to see where this Stargate takes us.

Warcry: Everyone is very happy with the team's decision to allow other playable races beyond humans. What can you tell us about some of the changes to the races that we might not have seen in the series?

Kevin Balentine: Those familiar with the series will know the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld are these parasites that enter into a host, have godlike tendencies, and even godlike powers. If you watched the series you know that late in season 9 there was an episode called Strong Hold where Baal is talking to Teal'c. Baal is on a tangent were he believes that the Goa'uld need to rethink the whole god portrayal. The Goa'uld of Stargate Worlds have followed this line of thinking. They are still megalomaniacs, and lust for power; they have just stopped pretending to be gods.

Read more after the click.

Kevin Maginn is the Lead Designer of Flying Lab Software's Pirates of the Burning Sea and the subject of an interview series ran here on WarCry every other Monday. Today we get answers on mini-games, fan reaction, the story-arc and more.

WarCry: What has been the reaction from gamers at conventions who have never heard of the game before and are seeing it or playing it for the first time?

Kevin Maginn: Almost universally positive. We're aware of issues we still need to address in our game, but one thing that's always been true is that Pirates shows very well. I credit the amount of time we've spent polishing and re-polishing the ship combat experience; it's intuitive and easy to learn.

Read more after the jump.

In our latest set of questions and answers from EA Mythic's Warhammer Online development team, we learn about tactics, speed, storage, public quests and much more. As usual, the questions are answered by members of the WAR Community Team.

WarCry: Are their any speed buff, or classes that increase speed like the Minstrel in DAOC?

WAR Community Team: All players have a default sprint ability which allows a short period of increased speed at the expense of your action points, in addition several classes also get an enhanced sprint which uses fewer action points and allows you to run faster than the standard sprint.

Read more after the click.

John Young, the VP of Gala-Net, spoke to us about their recent deal with PlaySpan. PlaySpan is a third party company that integrates player trading markets that can include cash for item transfers. Young tell us why they're going this route for some of their games.

PlaySpan describes themselves as the "game industry's first publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network," which is to say, they work directly with MMOG publishers to create marketplaces similar to SOE's Sony Exchange for their games.

Their solution allows companies to have full control over what their game allows. For example, with this deal, one Gala-Net game could simply use PlaySpan to facilitate item for item trades, while another one could allow full item for cash transfer.

Read more after the jump.

In this article format interview, we get a preview of what NetDevil's re-make of their original space MMO Jumpgate has to offer. Producer Hermann Peterscheck talks about the game, its high-action combat, advanced AI and more.

"We created a separate AI server that handles all the behaviors of all the opponents in the game," Peterscheck said. "It's a way for us to make the world more engaging."

"Advanced AI" is a tagline most every game ever launched has thrown on the box, so what does it really mean for Jumpgate: Evolution? Peterscheck explained how they did simple things. For example, if one station is low on a particular product, it calls out for it and then other stations send cargo ships, loaded with the stuff. These ships must physically fly from station to station and that fact does more than just make the world seem alive, it created content for players.

Read more after the jump.

Tabula Rasa Community Manager April Burba has come back for another round of questioning. This time, Matt Lowery asks about medics, melee options and more in this soon to be released NCSoft product.

WarCry: How exactly do Medics work? Can they heal you in combat, do they have to stand next to you?

April Burba: Medics have a combination of ways to heal allies. They have Regen Wave that massively raises the health and power regeneration rates of all squad members within a 25m radius for a full minute. There is also a healing disc tool that can be a direct target tool, a cone, or an AoE around the medic. Medics also have a leech ability that when cast on a bad guy causes anyone who damages the enemy to gain health or power based on the attack damage type done. Further, Medics have an insanity ability that turns baddies against each other - if you make an enemy healer insane, it will heal the good guys in your squad.

The full interview after you click "Read More".

It launches and a week and we caught up with Jeffrey Steefel to talk about Book 11 of Lord of the Rings Online and much more.

"We stand in good shape or we wouldn't be releasing it," Steefel said. With only a week to go, Turbine is rapidly approaching the end of its QA cycle and is already hard at work on Book 12. But next week, all focus returns to Book 11 for its launch.

Read more after the leap.