Tagged News: interview

In our latest Warhammer Online Q&A;, we talk to Joshua Drescher, Adam Gershowitz and James Nichols of EA Mythic about preparation for the latest Beta phase, whether they'll shut down again, careers and - of course - RvR.

WarCry: When you sack an enemy city, what type of bonuses and rewards will you get for doing so, and are these only for those who sacked the city?

EA Mythic: To get to the benefits of capturing an enemy city requires a tremendous effort from your entire Realm. We're still working on the exact rewards you get for capturing an enemy city, but expect to see buffs and items you can only get through siege and events that help to encourage Realm pride in all players.

Read it all after the jump.

Our sister magazine, The Escapist, had an opportunity to sit with Jumpgate Evolution's Lead Producer Hermann Peterscheck, and talked about NetDevil's plans to take the franchise into the next level:

TE: So how did you guys decide on a sequel to Jumpgate as opposed to a new expansion or property?

HP: The reality is that most game companies that are started, or at least the independent ones, are just started on vision and dog work. It's a few people get together and they say, "hey, wouldn't it be great if there were a game that did this, this, this and this?" And that's really how Jumpgate was started. At that time the big game that was played was Air Warriors, but we were also big fans of Wing Commander and later on Tie Fighter, so Scott's idea was always, "Imagine that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where all the ships jump in and there's the big fight around the Death Star, like I wanna play that!"

This was before "MMO" was even a word, so it's interesting the process when you go to pitch it to publishers and there's no mainstream MMO like World of WarCraft or EverQuest or any of that. And you say you're gonna make this game and there will be all these people playing, and they ask if you mean 32 people in a map and you say no! A thousand people!

So after Auto Assault we all sat down and wondered, well, what can we do? And, a lot of ideas got bounced around, but the reality is that a lot of the quality games come out of iteration. You'll notice that a lot of the really successful studios tend to make similar kinds of games over and over. So we talked about this love of space games and the people out there who still like playing them, so we wondered what we could do if we really spent some time and resources with that game.

Originally it was supposed to be an update, but as we worked on it more and more, especially with the visual quality coming out of the art department early on, we decided we should make a completely new game. It evolved from there, and has grown into what it now is.

Read the full interview at The Escapist.

Masthead Studios announced Earthrise earlier this week, a skill-based, PvP focused science-fiction MMO slated for launch in 2009. We spoke to CEO Atanas Atanasov about the game, why he believes they'll deliver on their ambitious design and more.

WarCry: For those unfamiliar with the project, give us a basic overview of who you are, the origins of Masthead and what Earthrise is all about.

Atanas Atanasov: Masthead Studios was founded in 2005 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Our goal was to create a top quality game development studio, consisting of the best graphic artists and programmers in our region. There are a lot of IT specialists and graphic artists in our country who are involved in outsourcing; all we had to do was to pick the right people for the right job.

Being a MMORPG fan since Ultima Online and knowing that virtual worlds are the future of PC gaming, it was an easy decision for us to focus on the realization of Masthead's first project - Earthrise.

Read more after the jump.

In the first of what could be a few new takes on the developer journal series, Associate Producer Tasos Flambouras goes to a straight Q&A; of questions he selected from his community. This is obviously a week early of the regular bi-weekly timeslot, not that any fans will complain, I am sure.

Community: With the more advanced AI of enemy monsters, how relentless will they be when it comes to pursuit? Will they follow us a set duration of time or distance, would they be smart enough to stop if we ran to a city? Also, along a similar line, if an enemy monster is outnumbered and out matched will it flee to find nearby allies?

Tasos Flambouras: They'll follow you around but they won't follow you forever, they'll return to their area. They will call for help, and they'll also flee when the odds are stacked up against them or if they're damaged. The AI constantly assess the situation and will react accordingly but not in a consistently predictable manner. This is something I have personally never enjoyed in other MMOs that I've played, but it's fun fighting AI in Darkfall.

Read the Q&A; after the click.

Joshua Drescher, Adam Gershowitz and James Nichols of EA Mythic team up to answer the latest set of questions on Warhammer Online: age of Reckoning. Population balance, respecs and other topics get their attention in this twice-a-month series.

WarCry: What tools will be available to help guilds manage their teams?

EA Mythic: We have an extremely robust set of Guild tools that will allow leaders and officers to efficiently manage and coordinate their members. These tools include a Calendar system, news feed, and an in-depth roster feature. These, plus the addition of the living guild system (your guild actually gains levels and benefits), make guilds an integral and rewarding part of the game.

Read more after the click.

In his latest column, Jonathan Steinhauer continues his look at what he calls "The Killing Experience". He began two weeks ago in part one and today looks at more recent examples of this trend. It's all about RPGs and how they use killing as the primary form of advancement, or experience.

A second, much more recent, example is with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series, particularly Oblivion. In this game which follows the standard RPG model, there is no experience gain from killing. In fact, there is no experience at all. Instead, character growth is built on an array of skills specific to a particular class. As those skills are used over an over again, proficiency grows. Once there are ten threshold increases in the class skills, a new level is gained. At that point health, stamina, magicka, and prime stats also improve.

Read more after the click.

Recently, WarCry took the chance to interview the people behind the Dragonlance animated movie, which comes to DVD on January 15th. The interview gave us the chance to hear from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the famed authors and creators of the Dragonlance series. We also heard from the film's Co-Executive Producer John Frank Rosenblum and Paramount Pictures Product Manager Chris Dreyer.

In addition, we also have an exclusive clip from the film that features Sturm Brightblade.

WarCry: You two did not directly write the script, but as the authors of the original works can you talk a bit about how it turned out and why you believe it is a good representation of your work?

Tracy Hickman: Adaptation of a novel into a screenplay is a tough act especially when you're dealing with fans of a well-know work. It isn't a question of simply portraying scenes from the novel - as I think most people assume - but rather of capturing the emotional core of the original work and being able to portray that in a new medium. Both Margaret and I were granted an unprecedented level of input on the script but in the end it was hardly needed: George Strayton's magnificent screenplay captured the essence of our vision beautifully realized in a new medium.

Read it all and check out a short trailer after the jump.

Recently, WarCry had the chance to talk to Acclaim CEO Howard Marks. We received an update on his company's quest to bring the Eastern MMO business model to Western shores and got a peek at how 2Moons, 9Dragons, BOTS!! and Dance! Online have fared on the open market.

9Dragons

What "free-to-play" really means is that all Acclaim's games are free to download and can be played without the player ever laying down a dime. In 2Moons, for example, the company makes money through in-game advertising that appears in the user interface. In 9Dragons, players can play for free, but also can buy upgrades and customization items securely through Acclaim.

Marks emphasized through that the company is committed to actual free-to-play. One common consumer complaint with the model is that while some games advertise their games as such, many build in an artificial gameplay wall where a player basically is forced to buy items or coin to progress in the game. He says that none of Acclaim's games do this, nor will there ever be any artificial walls.

Read more after the leap.

Gamasutra has an interview with Bioware's Brian DuBose about playtesting and maintaining Bioware's model:

'We're Not Looking To Integrate EA's Practices'

"QA is the voice of the customer within the organization," Dubose stated. It's also important, he said, because it's a service to developers and programmers. "It's important to remember that," he stressed.

Dubose recalled having seen antagonistic relationships before, when programmers see the QA staff as "in the way," while from the QA standpoint, they're just trying to get the game done.

"It's not QA saying 'you guys suck,'" Dubose reminded. "It's QA pointing out the problems and saying, 'here's where the game is.'" It's essential, Dubose said, because ultimately, quality affects the bottom line.

It's an interesting read and will set aside some concerns players have voiced after Bioware's merger with EA.

Fury launched in October and hoped to capture an audience through fast-action, PvP combat in a free-to-play/subscription hybrid model MMO. It has not gone quite to plan and last week the company was forced to layoff many of its developers. We caught up with Auran CEO Tony Hilliam and Lead Designer Adam Carpenter to find out how they got to this point and how they hope to turn it around.

WarCry: Layoffs cannot be spun as good news and shake player confidence. Why should someone who sees Fury in a store feel confident that the game they purchase will still exist in a few months?

Auran: The primary reason is that the smaller core team staff allocated to Fury means the project is now operating at the break even point in terms of salaries and overheads. The Director's decision to cut back on staff ensures that even without significant increases in player populations, the game can be maintained and improved.

Read more after the jump.