Interviews

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.

In today's Warhammer Online interview, we talk to Associate Producer Josh Drescher and Senior Designer Justin Webb who team up to give us a set of answers. This edition includes questions about the launch delay, longterm appeal, individuality and why they believe they will succeed where other MMOs have failed in recent years.

WarCry: Your big headline recently was the decision to push back launch. This is not the first time WAR has been delayed. Why do you believe this release date is one players can expect you to meet?

EA Mythic: MMORPG fans have come to expect top tier titles to launch smoothly with finished, highly polished content across the board. This second adjustment of the launch date is intended to give us the time we need to make sure we deliver a product that meets those expectations. We're all but finished with feature and system integration right now, but Mark Jacobs (Lead Designer and GM of our studio) wanted to give us months, rather than weeks, to polish, balance and tighten things up prior to launch. As a result, between the December relaunch of the WAR Beta and the second quarter launch of the game, we're going to be able to focus the entire team on making sure everything feels perfect, looks perfect and plays in a way that will blow gamers away.

Click below to read it all.

Phaser Strike on Gorn Soldier (Exclusive: First Avatar Screenshot)

In this exclusive interview, WarCry chats with Daron Stinnett, the Executive Producer of Star Trek Online. What's more, we also debut the first ever in-game avatar screenshot since the company rethought its art direction. The image shows a human character in battle with a Gorn Soldier.

It's been a turbulent couple months for the folks at P2 Entertainment (formerly Perpetual Entertainment). They cancelled their anticipated debut MMORPG Gods and Heroes amid layoffs and concerns for the company's long term health. Now as the dust begins to settle, we find out about Star Trek Online the game, it's long term health and where it's headed.

Yesterday, their former public relations firm Kohnke Communications launched a lawsuit against them, which included allegations of fraud against Perpetual, P2 and the company's leadership. The following interview was conducted last week, but WarCry did seek comment on the lawsuit from Perpetual and Kohnke prior to publish. As is customary with pending lawsuits, neither company had any comment.

WarCry: Recently, rumors suggested that STO would become a more casual game, while others said it would simply adopt a more casual business model. At its core, do you believe that the Star Trek universe is suited a casual experience?

Daron Stinnett: We've always believed that Star Trek is an inviting world for more than just the enthusiasts so we've stayed focused on making a game that everyone can enjoy. We know that difficult to learn gameplay can be a barrier for some as is the $15/month subscription fee. It is true that we have been discussing different payment models internally to see if there is a way to enable more people to experience Star Trek Online while ensuring that we are able to pay for the ongoing operating costs of a triple-A MMO. We haven't yet come to any conclusions though.

Click on "Read More" to do so.

It's the holiday season and Chapter 8 is on the horizon. As an early Life Day gift, SWG Lead Developer Thomas "Blixtev" Blair gave WarCry an early preview:

Space is big. Really big. And, at least in the Star Wars: Galaxies universe, it just got a bit bigger.

Fresh on the heels of one of the largest updates since the NGE, the SWG development team is in the final testing stages on Chapter 8, which was scheduled to be added to the Test Center servers today.

Click below to read the rest and check out some exclusive screenshots.

In the latest installment of our ongoing Tabula Rasa Q&A; series, we get a special treat. Richard Garriott parachuted in for one answer in this edition to talk about Logo. The remainder of the Q&A; is answered by Lead Designer Paul Sage and Community Manager April Burba.

WarCry: Have we asked "Why did you pick "Logos" to describe the psionics and language in the game? Are you referring to the ancient Greek philosophical concept or to the more Biblical connotation"?

Richard Garriott: The word "Logos" is used in our game both for the symbolic language and for the force-like super powers our players learn to wield. "Logos" is often used to describe god-like powers that manifest reality with the power of your mind and spoken words, such as "Let There Be Light and there was." Added to this is the concept of a logogrammatic language, which uses pictographic symbols for communication.

Read more after the click.

Jess Lebow is the Content Director of Pirates of the Burning Sea, but in this latest edition of our Q&A; series, we talk to him about what inspires him and what made it into the game from history and reality. Lebow - who is also a novelist - gives us in-depth responses on all fronts.

WarCry: Sailing has been simplified for ease of gameplay. Is there anything there for the nautical purist to enjoy?

Jess Lebow: Oh sure.

Wind plays a huge factor in sailing and combat tactics. There are several different types of rigging in the game, and each changes the way a ship handles along with its angle of attack. Trying to sail close-hauled will reduce your effectiveness, as it would in a real ship. The sails will actually turn when you move through the point on the compass where the wind hits them in a different direction. And, among other things, our ships have been created using actual plans from sailing ships of our time period.

Read more after the click.

Asheron's Call was one of the three games that helped kick start the graphical online RPG genre and now as it hits its 8th anniversary, we talk to Turbine's Community Manager for the game, Andy Cataldo. He updates us on the game's status and future.

WarCry: Some of the often-requested to be added features include things like a quest panel, land control, and pets. Since some of these work fairly well in other Turbine games, are there any plans to incorporate this type of functionality? Or is the technology AC is founded on just too old?

Andy Cataldo: We absolutely have some ideas around all of these things. Pets, while still in their early stages, still have some great potential. A quest panel is a bit tougher. To make something like that work we have to go through every line of every quest ever put in to the game over the past 8 years...no small task. As far as Land Control goes, all I will say is we have some ideas.

Read more after the jump.

Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel spoke to WarCry about Book 12, localizing their game to South Korea, DirectX10 and much more in our latest "Ask Turbine" interview.

"We've always thought of this game globally from the beginning," he said. They have to make the user interface (UI) more familiar to the Korean gamer and completely reconsider the business model they employ in that region. A subscription service simply won't work in Korea, where the industry is powered off of micro transactions.

For years, North American games have had issues with the divergent business models. The big North American titles are designed for subscriptions and sometimes that makes it difficult to transition when it comes time to expand into Asia.

Read more after the click.

We recently took the opportunity to interview Kyle Rowley and Chris Dye of the RF Online community team. They addressed a wide range of issues in this interview that brings us right up to date on the progress of the Codemasters sci-fi PvP MMOG.

WarCry: RF Online has recently become free-to-play. Can you tell people that might be thinking of trying RF Online out, what they can expect?

Kyle 'Laeth' Rowley: RF Online is a PvP orientated game, so obviously new players should be aware of that before they download the game. A lot of focus is put on players working together as a faction, rather than PvP-ing solo, so players should at least be interested in working in a team. The games mechanics are very simple and easy to pick up, but there is a lot of depth there for players who want to dive deeper into other areas of the game.

RF Online isn't for everyone; we know that - so all I can suggest is you go ahead and download the client, set up an account and see how you get on. What have you got to lose? The game's completely free!

Read more after the click.

Warhammer Online Community Coordinator brought together some answers to our latest set of questions to the EA Mythic developer team. This time we learn about public quests, changes to their community team and some more insights out of the recent development letter update.

WarCry: In the last few months, the community management team itself has undergone a number of personnel changes. What will people notice about the way you deal with the community today vs. how it had been historically?

James Nichols: While change can be difficult, we feel it opens new doors and great opportunities, too. The community team is always here for the players, to keep them informed and to listen and respond to their concerns. They act as the eyes and ears of both the community and the dev team, and work tirelessly to keep both parties informed of what the other is thinking and doing. While the faces might be new, our approach to working with the best MMO communities around is not.

Read more after the click.