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Yearly Archives: 2010
The Cost of Keeping Players in Check
The Cost of Keeping Players in Check
By Neil Kewn (Murxidon), OnRPG journalist
It is doubtful that any player reads the Terms of Service or End User Licence Agreement when signing up to an MMORPG. The endless scroll of player obligations and legal nothings is enough to put anyone off their game. We all know the rules by now. Be nice, play nice, don’t gank people. We are also petrified of breaking the rules. The punishments some companies dish out for disregarding the terms of use are just downright cruel! But, unfortunately for the humble MMO player, that isn’t going to stop scammers from creating new opportunities to wreak havoc on your online world.
Those rules you never read
Did you know that it’s against the rules to embarrass another player in Warhammer Online? Or that you are not permitted to do anything that is against the “spirit of the game” as defined by the developers? Vague will be too much of an understatement to describe some of the rules companies implement into their code of conduct. But that doesn’t really matter to the average MMO Joe, the faster they can scroll through the agreement and hit that greyed out “Accept” button, the better.

Scroll… Scroll… Scroll…
Yet breaking a rule that gets our account suspended is something we all want to avoid. We just assume we know the rules and get on with our virtual lives. It’s no surprise that people are going to cash in on laziness by targeting players who don’t know their ganking from their spanking. If you’re new to a P2P MMO, that’s just one more juicy credit card assigned account for someone to try and snatch.
When rules attack!
RuneScape is the world’s most popular free MMORPG, and has attracted some of the smartest, most daring villains the MMO-sphere has to offer. Gold selling is all well and bad, but when players start using the rules put in place to protect players from doing the exact opposite, the game changes.
RuneScape has very strict rules that ensure players are kept in check. A mandatory chat filter replaces anything that can be deemed remotely offensive with a row of asterisks. The game is youngster-friendly, that’s for sure, but it’s also notorious for its scams. The chat filter proved to be the downfall for many an honest player in the end.
“Look! Jagex now blocks your pass in chat! *******”
That quote, however unbelievable it may sound, has been a common sight in the towns and cities of Gielinor for many years. Painful chat encounters between dastardly felons and the melons that fell for it was the highlight of any levelling session, and is not something I would ever fall for. I mean, come on. Who would, right? Anyway, their items were swiped before you could say password change. I mean, pass change. The term “password” is banned in RuneScape.
Imitation is the most sincere form of scamming
Staff impersonation is common in a lot of MMO games. Whilst being spoken to by an actual staff member from your favourite game is startling, it’s more surprising when they start prying for your password. The fear of having your level 40 warrior taken away from you because you broke some vague guideline referenced in a rulebook you haven’t read (but said you did) is too much to handle for some.
The way the impersonators go about their goal of, well, stealing from you, can be quite ingenious at times. I was once fooled into believing I had been approached by a GM to take part in an in-game satisfaction survey. I happily obliged but eventually realised where it was headed, and it wasn’t a place that offered me a month’s free subscription.
Capitalising on people’s refusal to read agreements is an interesting tactic, but a seemingly effective one with the amount of phishing e-mails that get forwarded my way. Phishing is the practice of forwarding e-mails that replicate something they’re not, in order to solicit personal information from people. Common messages for MMO players range from “suspicious account activity requires account verification” to the more sneaky “policy updated, log in to view changes”.
No doubt many of you have received a dodgy looking e-mail in your inbox one morning, blabbering on about your account’s security being compromised and ordering you to click this link or the world will end. Unfortunately, the less experienced players can often fall victim to these genuine looking articles. The like of which cannot be seen below.

At least I don’t have to buy a Celestial Steed now
The people who have real authority
I was surprised to find that my former college tutor was a member of Jagex, the masterminds behind that popular browser-based MMORPG RuneScape. Although not as developer, he had a far more interesting job. Steve was the person who had the task of sifting through thousands of user generated reports that were sent in each day from players.
“Reports” in RuneScape are records of ingame incidents. The hard-to-miss Report button on the game’s UI can be used to tell Jagex about gold sellers, account scammers or just generally bothersome players (personally my favourite use for it). Steve went through almost 400 individual reports every hour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he detailed how the seemingly endless flood of complaints became tiresome. The only way to efficiently combat the plethora of the good, the bad and the gold sellers was by sifting through by keyword. “Gold selling”, “scamming” and “password” were the most commonly seen, and usually he wouldn’t give a second thought to dropping the ban hammer.
He showed dismay at the amount of player’s submitting reports on such a regular basis. The sheer number of password scams and staff impersonators gave a clear indication that even in the most family friendly MMORPGs, players are still susceptible to the most common scams. It’s up to the developers to take control of their Ts&Cs, end the endless EULAs and condense that Code of Conduct. Players need to know the rules; otherwise it’s the scammers who benefit.
Hero 108 Interview: The Winning Formula
Hero 108 Interview: The Winning Formula
Questions by Chen Fo Po (cinderboy), OnRPG Journalist
Answered by Kevin Crawford (CremeBrulee), Product Director, Gamania Digital Entertainment (US)
Hero 108 is an upcoming action MMO developed through the joint efforts of Taiwanese developer Gamania and Cartoon Network. A similarly named cartoon is currently shown on Cartoon Network in several countries, including North America, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.
Hero 108’s storyline is loosely based on Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China. In this interview, we will be learning more about the title and what it has to offer to the MMO players.
OnRPG: Hi, I am Fo Po (cinderboy), OnRPG journalist. Before we start, can you please introduce yourself to the readers.
Kevin Crawford: Hello there, I’m Kevin Crawford (CremeBrulee) from Gamania Digital Entertainment (US). I’m a little bit Moderator, a little bit Game Master, a little bit Product Director, and a whole lotta awesome! Not really, but I like to puff myself up a bit. *Stares deeply into hand mirror*. J/K!
OnRPG: Gamania is a big MMO publisher in Asia, particularly in Taiwan and Hong Kong. How did the collaboration with Cartoon Network come about, and why?
Kevin Crawford: Apart from licensing and developing popular online games, Gamania also began entering the animation industry in 2004 by developing original content through the Gamania Creative Center (GCC). The goal was to maximize the value of original content through animation, games and franchising, in order to realize the vision of making Gamania a platform for digital entertainment.
Hero 108 was also selected for broadcasting by the US Nicktoons Film Festival in 2004 and chosen for the 2004 Taiwan International Animation Festival. That was also when we got the opportunity to partner with MoonScoop Entertainment and co-produce an animated series based on Hero 108, along with Cartoon Network UK. The core content, story and characters were developed by Gamania in order to maintain its high level of originality.
So the MMO was actually based on the cartoon, so that kids of all ages from around the world would be able to have fun playing the Hero: 108 Online game after watching the Hero: 108 cartoon!
OnRPG: Hero 108 was created by Moon Scoop, a company from France. With the three companies primarily based in three different regions – Europe, North America and Asia – how hard was it to communicate with each other and develop the game?
Kevin Crawford: You got the three continents right, but not the companies in each continent! To produce Hero: 108 the cartoon, Gamania Creative Center worked with Cartoon Network UK, and Moonscoop Entertainment in the US to create the storyline, production of the cartoon. The MMORPG, Hero: 108 Online, was developed solely in Taiwan by our subsidiary company, RedGate Games.
Combat in H108
OnRPG: The game looks really colorful (in a good way) and cheerful. Is there a specific age group Gamania is targeting? Will the bright nature of the game keep older and more mature gamers away?
Kevin Crawford: Well our core target demographic is 13-16 year olds but we’re pretty sure anyone can jump in-game and have some fun. I think you’ll find some features in the game that can cater to the casual, the hardcore, the young, and the “not-quite-as-young”. Who doesn’t like pretty colors? Skittles are colorful. I like Skittles. I like turtle… tanks.
OnRPG: I was looking at some of the screenshots and I thought I saw gourd tanks attacking each other. Even the characters look really, really cool! What was the mindset applied when designing the game?
Kevin Crawford: The Redgate Games team in Taiwan really wanted to kick “Plain Jane” out the window and step it up a notch while still holding true to the show. Everything is extremely stylized which sets Hero: 108 Online apart. Quirky characters, interesting storylines, and fast-paced action-packed gameplay were top priorities in the development phase. As we add additional content, we’ll stick to that winning formula to provide non-stop fun for our fans.
OnRPG: Hero 108 is loosely based on Water Margin, where the main characters are a group of 108 renegade heroes. So will there be 108 playable characters to choose from in the game?
Kevin Crawford: 108?! Uh oh, time to call up the dev team. I think we came up a little short. Heh. The game and show are very loosely based on Water Margin and really focus on the exploits of the First and Second Squad, which brings us to a total of 8 playable characters at the launch of the game.

Character overview in Hero108
OnRPG: How is the character progression? Will players be able to add to their stats and choose skills to learn upon reaching a new level?
Kevin Crawford: You betcha! As players gain levels, either new skills or new ranks of existing skills will be available to purchase with in-game currency which will enable the characters to learn those skills. Each character has certain base stats which can be modified by wearing gear (armor, accessories, etc).
OnRPG: Will Hero 108 have an equal mixture of both open Player Vs Environment (PvE) and instances? Will there be a big difference in terms of experiences and drops between the 2 areas?
Kevin Crawford: Yep. The open world PvE is all about questing and exploring the environments of the different animal kingdoms while the mission instances are all about teamwork, strategy, and accomplishing tasks in groups. The drops tend to be better in the instances as the mobs are a bit tougher. You will notice the experience is better while trouncing enemies with your friends.
OnRPG: Let’s move on to the game features. Mission instances are a staple in most MMO titles. In Hero 108, up to 8 players can form a party and challenge the mission instances. How will the instances be structured? For example, will there be different level of difficulties?
Kevin Crawford: Now we’re talking about my favorite part of the game! These missions are really cool because they all have different objectives and you’re racing against the clock to complete them. The rewards are great (experience points, money) and you have to work as a team. I can’t tell you how many times we thought it would be a breeze to shoot through some of them, by trying to berserk the place, and we ended up getting ripped apart by the mobs and missing the deadline by a mile. Group instances become available by level so make sure you take advantage of them while you level up!
OnRPG: I read that no usage of the mouse is needed, as players only need to use the keyboard to play the game. In the MMO market, games usually have a system which utilizes both the mouse and keyboard. Why the decision to do so with Hero 108? Will there be an option to use a mouse or even a gamepad?
Kevin Crawford: Mouse, gamepad, keyboard, whatever you want. Hero: 108 Online fits your gameplay style. We try to focus on touting the full keyboard option as it’s less of a system shock for those youngins coming over from console to try out their first PC MMO experience. That being said, the more hardcore will tend to use the mouse a bit more while those that wish for a more arcade-y (is that a word?) experience will tend to try out their gamepad with the game.

Fighting zone in Hero108
OnRPG: What are some of the guild features you can tell us? Will there be any unique guild features compared to other games?
Kevin Crawford: Members can hold different positions within a guild that allow them certain privileges and authority. For example, there are these really awesome “calling bomb” items that allow you to call upon one of the animal kings to assist you in battle. They come in different levels of power and effectiveness depending on which Raid Boss they drop off of. Certain higher level bombs require the player to be of a certain position in a guild in order to use them. Your position in the guild will also grant you certain permissions such as inviting members, disbanding, etc.
OnRPG: Are mounts only available to players who are in a guild? I read that mounts will increase a player’s movement speed and defense. Will we be seeing mounted combat in the game?
Kevin Crawford: Nope, you don’t have to be in a guild but there are a few perks to getting grouped up. There are some really special mounts that become available to leaders of a guild when a guild reaches a certain level. They are really eye-catching and will get you some “Oohs” and “Ahhs”. As for mounted combat, not at launch, but we’re always looking for ways to spice up the game in future expansions.
OnRPG: I understand that Hero 108 will be using a micro-transaction system (Free to Play with cash shop). How will the cash shop items affect game-play between the bigger spenders and the non-spenders?
Kevin Crawford: We definitely didn’t want the game to be Free-to-Play but Pay-to-Win, so the items that are purchasable are more “convenience” and “vanity” type items that will enhance an individual’s gameplay experience. The items are not geared to give you an unfair advantage in PvP combat, nor do we directly sell weapons and armor as that would unbalance gameplay.
OnRPG: Will there be any Player Vs Player (PvP) features found in Hero 108?
Kevin Crawford: But of course! PvP is however a more advanced combat system where there are risks as well as rewards. If you are defeated in combat within designated “arenas,” there is a chance that you will drop gear/items. On the flip side, that shiny new weapon that the n00b in the corner is wielding does look very attractive and would look very nice in your inventory. J
OnRPG: According to reports, there will be Facebook and iPhone versions of Hero 108. Will they somehow be tied in with the client version?
Kevin Crawford: We’re still evaluating all of the possibilities of Hero: 108 on multiple platforms. I can say that we have some Hero: 108 iPhone mini-games on the way to the App Store that will tie into Hero: 108 Online. Shhhh, it’s a secret!
OnRPG: How long are we away from an Open Beta? Are there any events and activities planned leading up to the official launch?
Kevin Crawford: The Early Access Open Beta went live on June 26th and a tentative full-scale Open Beta launch will take place in early July. Once we’ve got everything fine-tuned like a well-oiled machine, we’ll open up our Premium Item Shop for all to enjoy. Throughout Open Beta we’ll be holding events run by our Game Masters along with fun and tomfoolery on our official Hero: 108 Online forums.
OnRPG: Thank you for your time, and I am sure the readers will be looking forward to a smashing good time in Hero 108!
Blade Wars Token Shop: Variety of New and Exciting Items!
Blade Wars Token Shop: Variety of New and Exciting Items!
ChangYou.com (US) Inc., today announced that they will be celebrating the grand opening of the Blade Wars “Token Shop” on Aug 6th. The token shop aims to offer Blade Wars players a variety of items to trick out their characters and boost their game play. “The grand opening of the Blade Wars Shop is finally upon us,” says Angie Canary, Blade Wars Associate Producer. “As a special thank you, players who helped out in closed beta will get a special surprise when our token shop goes live.”
Blade Wars is an innovative free-to-play (F2P) MMORPG set in ancient China. Players can expect to dive into fierce battles and plunge through a myriad of unique, story-driven quests set in the Kung Fu world. Play as one of the five classes – Warrior, Knight, Assassin, Shura, or Warlock and explore a visually stunning world of beauty with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Blade Wars allow players to strategize with more than 398,000 kung fu moves and 99 customizable combat styles.
Players can look forward to new and exciting items like the Solar Jade, Holy Dragon, and a super cool Tiger mount. The Token Shop is focused to provide players with unique fun accessories, consumable, and rare mounts.

Holy Dragon
Token Shop:
Solar Jade – A magic stone that gives you double Exp for 1 hour
Holy Dragon – Summons a dragon that grants an extra 255 carrying capacity
Tiger – A mount usable by all classes. Increases movement speed by 80%
To see more items in the Token Shop, please visit the Blade Wars Token Shop.

Rappelz SEA
Rappelz, now on its sixth epic Ressurection, is a unique, medieval fantasy MMORPG based on Might and Pride. Three races are bound for the mission- Gaia (nature), Deva (light) and Asura (darkness).
Rappelz also highlights its trademark, the in-house patterned pet system which allows regular pets to be significantly useful to their master. Only in Rappelz can these special allies grow, train and eventually fight along with their master.
Divine Souls Video Review
Check out the brand new video review for Divine Souls at OnRPG.com.
Official Vindictus Website Launched
Official Vindictus Website Launched
Nexon America has launched the official website for Vindictus, www.vindictus.com, which will be the central location for all of the game’s news, art and other exciting features.
Vindictus is a physics-based multiplayer online action role-playing game that combines stunning visuals with high-speed combat. Vindictus uses a modified Source EngineTM to enable interaction with the environment like shattering objects, hurling debris, binding enemies with chains, and piercing defenses with spears. Vindictus is a realistic, next generation free-to-play game that introduces brutal elegance to the PC gaming space.
The official website includes a producer blog that gives players the inside scoop on developments in Vindictus. The site also provides an overview of the game’s features such as its physics and customization elements. There are also details on the game’s rich back story and characters. Vindictus.com also houses the most recent screenshots and game videos as well as player polls and news concerning content and its beta program.
Vindictus was a fan favorite at last month’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles and was named the “Best Free-to-Play Game” at E3 by MMORPG.com.

Commercial Launch of BlackShot Europe on the 27th of July 2010
Commercial Launch of BlackShot Europe on the 27th of July 2010
eFusion MMOG GmbH proudly presents the Commercial Launch announcement for BlackShot Europe. On the 27th of July the first Premium Items will be available. With commercial launch, we will introduce our first major update, “Battle of Vietnam,” which will carry the player into the densely wooded and marshy areas of Vietnam. Moreover, the player will have access to weapons from the past with a unique iron sight aiming system. Further updates with new maps, weapons, and items will be released as well.
A couple of new features will also find their way into BlackShot Europe. The Partner System will be a new special feature available that allows new tactics in game. For better gameplay, a new optimized network code will be implemented and a new clan server for all clan members, where clans can battle against each other. Furthermore, the voting system will be revised according to the requests of the BlackShot Europe community.
For the commercial launch, eFusion MMOG is holding Bonus Days with increased rewards and players will have many chances to get some very special and unique in-game items.

Guild Wars 2 – Exclusive Ranger Interview Transcription
Guild Wars 2 – Exclusive Ranger Interview Transcription
Our Exclusive Guild Wars 2 Ranger Interview Podcast revealed a couple of interesting new tidbits of information about this upcoming game. For those of you who prefer reading over listening, here is the full interview transcribed for your reading pleasure. The interview was held by Jonathan (Ardua) Doyle from OnRPG and the questions were answered by Lead Game Designer Eric Flannun and Game Designer Jon Peters.
OnRPG: Hello guys, nice to meet you!
Anet: [Eric]Hello! [Jon]Hi!
OnRPG: The coverage on Guild Wars 2 is looking very good. I was interested in the waypoint system, is this auto-path, eh, would I be driving from waypoint to waypoint, or is it a teleport?
Anet: [Eric]It’s a teleport, so um, in Guild Wars 1 we had a system that we just called map travel, which, you know Guild Wars 1 was a more heavily instanced game. So what we had [were] these areas that were non-instanced areas where players could meet up called outposts, and you’d bring up your map and you would click on an outpost and travel to that outpost, so we had very quick access to different areas.
When we started making Guild Wars 2 we really wanted to, sort of, preserve that freedom of travel and ease of travel for people, and so that resulted in our waypoint system. Our waypoint system, basically, is, a series of asura devices, I think would be the best term for them, that are scattered around the world and whenever you get close enough to one you sort of unlock the ability to travel to that, and at any time you can hit M, bring up your map, and click on a previously discovered waypoint and travel to it. So that includes when you’re dead, that’s kind of how you resurrect yourself so to speak.

OnRPG: And of course you want everybody to get off the beaten path so a bunch of us scattered around [Anet: [Eric] Yeah.], and the downed system, downed mode, sounds fantastic, I have to say. And there was a Ranger specific question of, will your pets help in if you’re down?
Anet: [All Jon here, I think, I distinctly remember the way he said comes and revives you, like he was thinking of one of the animals slobbering on you] Yes, there are some things that your pet will do for you. So we talked about how if you are downed, but you manage to finish off an enemy, you will rally and come back. If you’re downed and your pet finishes off an enemy, you will also rally.
So it definitely [OnRPG: Oh!] has a pretty big play in there. Yes, there’s actually, you know, one of the Ranger downed skills that we haven’t talked about yet obviously until now, is a skill where you can tell your pet to come to you, it’s currently called Lick Wound, and basically what he does is comes up to you and revives you. It’s one of the four effective ways to come back from being downed is to have your Ranger pet alive.
OnRPG: Well I know what I’m going to play. How many more classes as sadly I don’t know an awful lot about Guild Wars 1, one of my friends always wanted me to play it…How many classes are..?
Anet: [Eric]There are going to be eight professions total in Guild Wars 2. So there’s the three, counting Ranger, we’ve announced three of them. We’ve got some returning classes, professions, we’ve got some professions that are, I would call them variations on professions that we had before, but they’re not quite the same, and we’ve got some completely new professions [to add] to our sort of world. So there’s kind of a nice mix of old and new in there for Guild Wars 1 fans.
OnRPG: For somebody who’s never played Guild Wars at all, and, I do have to ask the horrible question of, how easy do you think it would be to pick up? Is the leveling curve going to make me cry?
Anet: [Eric]Well it depends upon what you like in your leveling curves. Our leveling curve is designed, in Guild Wars 1 it was designed this way, and I think, this is also our philosophy in Guild Wars 2, which is, we don’t want people to have to feel like they’re grinding.
Let me define grind as a point at which you don’t make measurable progress in a decent amount of time. So we want you to always feel like you can make some sort of progress in a reasonable amount of time, and then, we also want you to feel like you can be reasonably equipped for whatever level you’re at with a reasonable amount of effort. Raiding and going through twenty dungeons looking for a rare drop that you have to fight with other players over and hours and hours and hours of trying to get gear that makes you competitive with people your level. We want a reasonable amount of playtime to make you competitive with people your level.
OnRPG: We have aquatic pets with us, does that mean there’s a lot of aquatic to play in Guild Wars 2?
Anet: [Eric] Yeah, there’s actually going to be a lot of aquatic play. Yeah, pet shark was too irresistible for us. One of the things that we wanted to do, you know, some of the maps in Guild Wars 2 have at least half, if not more, of their playspace dedicated to sort of underwater play. We’re not talking about too many details about how we’re doing underwater, but we’ve got a lot of, I think, cool surprises in store in that area.
We thought that there are certainly going to be players who are going to really love the sort of underwater adventuring aspect of things, and we wanted to give those players an option to have a cool, flavorful underwater pet like a shark, for example. We couldn’t really rationalize how a player could get a shark to do anything, you know, on land, and so that’s why we sort of categorize our pets in sort of aquatic, terrestrial, and amphibian. We do put the majority of pets into the amphibious category, so even though it doesn’t necessarily make sense that a, you know, bear, is amphibious, we put them in that category because we think that they’re, you know, bear’s going to be a very, very popular pet, and we think people are going to grow attached to their bear, and cat, and wolf, just the kind of more popular sort of pets are in the [garbled] amphibians category.
OnRPG: As far as I recall there is a length at twelve different types of pet you can get.
Anet: [Jon]There are twelve, kind of, families of pets. There are, I think six of those are amphibians, and then three are terrestrial, and three are aquatic, and then within that, within each family, there’s fairly large variety as well. So you know, within the bear family, there are black bears, brown bears, polar bears, kind of more beastly creatures that are like bears. Within the Drake family, I think there are six or seven different kinds of Drake.
OnRPG: That’s for hunting, and I suppose that also encourages explorers to get in there and wander around.
Anet: [Both, simultaneously] Yeah, definitely.
OnRPG: What can you tell me about traps for the Ranger?
Anet: [Jon]The traps for the Ranger are special skills that, and I don’t know how much you know about Guild Wars 2. There’s kind of two halfs of your skill bar, one half are your weapon skills, and the other half are skills you kind of select, there’s a heal skill and some utility skills. Traps are a utility skill that you can decide to bring if you get to that as a gameplay style you like.
[Eric]Every trap you bring you can place them out and then if an enemy walks through them they trigger, and their effects go off. You can have one of each of those traps out at any given time and they do things, like there’s a Spike Trap, that when an enemy walks over to it the spikes come out, knock him down and they kind of pierce into him and cripple and bleed him. There’s a trap that’s called Viper’s Nest that has, when it’s triggered, snakes come out and bite the guy and poison him. There’s just a lot of variety in the different kinds of traps that there are.
OnRPG: It sounds like they’re going to be absolutely painful to get near. How hard was it to balance Rangers with the world at large because they sound like they have a million different tools and it would be an awful thing to go near them.
Anet: [Eric]Oh yeah. They do, Rangers are really, really powerful, and the good news is that’s how we want all of our professions to feel. I mean, you’re a hero, every profession should feel like they can dish out a ton of, I don’t know what to call it…Have a lot of tools in their toolbox, I think you used the right word when you said tools. For example, the Elementalist which we, I think every successive profession that we release people are going to be like, “Oh wow, that specialty seems like it can do a ton of different things, how are the other professions going to stack up?”
Like when we released the Elementalist, they’re like, “Wow, you can have four different attunements, which means you can go into ice and slow people, you can go into earth and be resilient, fire you can do AoE damage.” Then we released the Warrior, and people were kind of like, “Wow the Warrior’s got a longbow and he can shoot fire arrows at range and then up close he’s got all these axes and he can do all kinds of area damage, like he can stun people with the shield. Wow, that looks really, really cool.” And then, you know, when we release Ranger, it’s going to be the same thing, “Oh he’s got traps, he’s got spirits, he can throw axes and make them ricochet and hit multiple people, and he can reflect projectiles back at people who are targeting him.” All of that stuff is, I think, exactly what we want, is sort of for everybody to feel like the profession that they’re sort of most interested in has got an amazing amount of sort of utility and tools and different things that it can bring to the table. Good that you kind of think that about the Ranger, because I think that’s what we intend.
OnRPG: Certainly I’ve seen a few comments amongst the various bloggers that I know that you seem to be breaking out of the tired old trinity of the Heal, DPS, tank, and I did see on one other blog that you have yourselves, I found, “Don’t say healer, there’s more to support than just healing.” So I am looking forward to the various tools that they can break out, it will be interesting to see. Some more questions about pets, I know you can have up to three, which I believe is in the blog you’re releasing, can they be all the same type? Could I have bear, bear, bear?
Anet: [Eric] If you really are into bears, you could definitely have three bears.
OnRPG: Bear cavalry!
Anet: [Eric]Yeah, yeah, see you just gave me an idea for a thing I want to try. [Jon]Oh God. [Eric] Yeah, that’s the attention, that they could let people do what they want with those three slots, and yeah.

OnRPG: And the pet evolution, will the pets change visually? Or will they just get a whole lot meaner?
Anet: [Jon]Right now they just kind of develop some passive and then some more active bonuses that you can kind of give to them and then that’s about as far as we’ve taken it right now.
[Eric, I think]So visually the differences that you’ll see will be mostly through skill usage and things like that, so for example the Drakes that Jon was talking about all have a different breath weapon and so depending on the type of Drake you get, your Drake might be breathing fire, it might be breathing noxious fumes, or it might be breathing lightning or that sort of thing. As a pet evolves and you equip different skills on it you’ll see it’s doing different animations, playing different backup sort of thing, but they don’t actively change in appearance other than that.
OnRPG: The pet command interface for Rangers, and I don’t know if any of you play City of Heroes, but you have Mastermind pets in there, and you can bind the game to make it a little bit easier to control them. Will there be bind options for the pet commands or are you happy with the interface you have?
Anet: [Jon]We definitely have an interface that’s kind of, for each profession they have their kind of unique mechanics, and the Ranger pets kind of live there in that part of the interface with the Ranger. The commands are already bindable in the game. We feel like it’s pretty important that if there’s something you can do by clicking with the mouse that you should probably be able to do that by pressing a button on the keyboard, for the most part.
[Eric here]Yeah, one of the things we’re definitely committed to here at ArenaNet is, we know that, I think this is something we’ve talked about before; we’re very aware that there are other MMOs that we are going to be directly compared to and competing with that have been out for years and have had time to refine themselves and have had time to fix bugs and all that, and we don’t get a free pass as far as that goes. The days of, you know, releasing an MMO sort of broken and then patching it up are sort of gone.

We don’t think that’s an option for us, we think we’ve got to get this game right at launch, and we can’t afford to have a lot of broken stuff. People can look at our game, and then go, wow, you know, that game’s really broken I could go play that and wait for them to fix it, or I could go play this other game that’s been out, you know, four or five years, hey, heck even Guild Wars 1, that has had all kinds of bug fixing and polishing done to it. We’re very aware that anyone who’s releasing an MMO these days, especially, you know, we have very high standards for ourselves, we’ve got to get it right; so yeah we’re going to do our best to break things now so that you don’t have to deal with them being broken when we launch.
OnRPG: Is there any continuity between Guild Wars 1 and 2? [I believe I missed a spot here, due to Eric saying, Yeah, yeah.] Again to kind of compare this, Everquest 1 and 2 are based about 500 odd years apart so we can’t just move from one to another.
Anet: [Eric]Yeah, so we’re similar to that, we’re in the same world, which is the world of Tyria, we’re about 250 years-um, half-of where Guild Wars was and a lot of things have happened sort of in that intervening time period. You mentioned the novel that we’ve got coming out, those are one of the things that we intend to bridge the gap in between the two games. one of the other things we’re doing is we have a thing in Guild Wars 1 right now called Guild Wars Beyond, that is a series of content that is in Guild Wars 1, that [is] sort of also trying to tell the story of what’s happening in those intervening 250 years. And so we got to see some of that stuff, but one of the things that’s really cool is we sort of took this as an opportunity to advance the technology of our world. We sort of went and looked logically, hey, 250 years have passed, happened, what happened in our planet in 250 years? Certainly we didn’t stay stagnant, a lot of advances are made, and so we kind of went and looked at our different races and we took a look at, well this is what has happened to them over the 250 years, what sorts of innovations, what sorts of technology, what might they have developed?
Some of them are not the sort of technological races, the Norn, you know, are kind of giant Viking guys, they haven’t developed a ton of tech in the intervening years. Their culture has evolved, somewhat, but they haven’t developed any new technology, whereas the charr, who were our bad guys in Guild Wars 1, who have seen their sort of gods get destroyed multiple times over the course of Guild Wars 1, have basically turned on their sort of priest caste and sort of gotten rid of them and are now embracing technology. They’ve turned into a really, really interesting, I think, race where they’ve got this bestial sort of appearance yet they are also the most technologically advanced, when it comes to Earth-sort of techno, real world technology, well, quote unquote real world technology; they’re still a little bit steampunky, but they have brought about the use of rifles, pistols, and cannons, and we did have some blackpowder weapons and things like that in Guild Wars 1, but not to the extent that we’re showing in Guild Wars 2, and so it was really cool to be able to take our world that we love so much and say, hey, let’s travel into the future of it and see what happens in 250 years instead of just making it sort of, it’s a second copy of what it was before and nothing has really changed and that sort of thing.
OnRPG: I knew there would be bows and things, but as you say the technology has advanced, so will they be more than pointy sticks on a string?
Anet: [Jon]The Ranger, one of the things we did with it in Guild Wars 2 is kind of go with a much more bestial and naturey feel and so because of that he kind of focuses on a lot weapons that are very natural. If he’s in melee combat he uses great swords and swords, and at range he throws axes, uses bows and short bows, long bows, and a lot of his spells, I got to mention the trap that [has] poison snakes, or he summons a nature spirit, and so we kind of embraced that naturey feel with him, kind of took him in that direction because we feel like that’s an archetype that people who play a Ranger really like and it gives us kind of an opportunity, you know in other places, to use the more advanced rifles and pistols with our [more earthly? doesn’t sound right..garbled..Sounded like it was a glitch or edited out intentionally..] professions.
[Eric]Yeah, I think we’d like to look at as the Ranger profession has evolved the same way that the world has evolved, and the Rangers have sort of gone anti-technology, they’ve gone into the wild, they’ve gone and embraced sort of spirit, and things like that. There are other professions in our, you know, five unye, as yet revealed, we mentioned Warriors for example have no problem using rifles. There are plenty of other professions remaining we’re going to use both rifles and pistols, and so for the Ranger it just didn’t feel right for them to be using firearms.
OnRPG: Righto, and I think that’s it, and certainly I want to say thank you very much for talking to me.
Anet: [Eric]Yeah, thank you.
Thanks to Gmr Leon over at the Guildwars2Guru forums for the full transcription!
Sherwood Dungeon Interview: Six Years And Still Going
Sherwood Dungeon Interview: Six Years And Still Going
Questions by Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist
Answered by Gene Endrody
Sherwood Dungeon is one of those rare MMOs which survived in a very competitive market. Operating for six years is no mean feat for any game and Sherwood Dungeon has proven that it can be done. We here at OnRPG were given a chance to talk with Gene Endrody and to get to know the creator and the game more closely.
OnRPG: The game has been operating for six years now, how’s the game faring?
Sherwood Dungeon started as a hobby project in the evenings and weekends in 2004. Initially the players came from other projects I was working on but that grew organically through word of mouth over time. I left my day job as a Technical Art Director in the console game industry in 2006 to concentrate on Sherwood full time. My wife joined the company at that time to handle everything not directly related to making or running the games. I wanted to keep the new business cottage-industry based and make a go of things in a non-traditional way that doesn’t rely on publishers or VCs. Today Sherwood Dungeon attracts over a million monthly unique players across three game servers that typically peek around 1500 concurrent players each.
OnRPG: Why do you think the game was able to survive this long in an industry that keeps on punching out one new game after another?
Part of the reason for Sherwood’s longevity is the grassroots nature of it. Players seem to find it a refreshing change to play an MMO developed by a guy in his basement rather than a large faceless corporation. Because game development is naturally a slower process with just one person, Sherwood was an experiment with a more open process where the players could see the unfinished game evolve over time and participate with their feedback. Launched initially with the minimum possible feature set, Sherwood is never finished and continues to evolve through small updates. Players who return to the game after a few years are usually surprised how these updates have added up over time. I’ve also worked very hard to keep it free. There aresome optional pets that can be purchased for $5 each, but all the core elements are completely free of charge.

Creating a character in Sherwood
OnRPG: What do you think is the game’s advantage over other MMORPGs out now in the market?
Our biggest advantage is ease of entry. Sherwood Dungeon is a free 3D fantasy MMO that runs in your web browser but with the look and feel of a downloadable client or boxed game. We don’t require registration or personal information and the shockwave based client that runs in your browser is less than 5 MB in size. This means that most players can go from discovering the game to playing in less than a minute. Players make a judgment about whether this is a quality product worth registering for from actually playing the game. Just enter a character name and you’re in. We have the lowest barrier to entry of any MMO on the market.
OnRPG: What makes Sherwood Dungeon different from the other MMORPGs out right now?
The vast majority of fantasy MMO’s tend to use a pseudo-turn based approach to combat. In those games, most attacks have cool-down periods that give players time to make a strategic choice for the next attack. As players level, their skill tree expands and those choices become increasingly complex. This cerebral, strategy based game play doesn’t feel as immersive and for better or worse, I wanted to make combat in Sherwood feel more in your face. We don’t use the traditional tank, DPS, healer trinity and focus more on an action RPG style of melee combat. Combat is skill or twitch based as timing and practice are emphasized over XP level, particularly for PVP where XP levels have no influence. With attack, block, six power moves and amulet attacks there are nine basic moves. This makes Sherwood’s combat easy to learn, but because timing is so important a player with skill always has the advantage.
Battle in Sherwood Dungeon
OnRPG: What is the game’s most lovable feature for players? Why do they say so?
When Sherwood launched it was a glorified 3D chat room with swords. Early players bought into the idea of what Sherwood could be some day as opposed to what it actually was. The fact that I wanted their feedback to help steer the direction of development was apparently such a rare thing that they were willing to overlook the fact that it was barely a game at that point. These players found it cool to hang out in an unfinished game. There wasn’t much to do, so they would invent stuff. That culture of emergent play never left the game. As a result, some of the coolest “features” of Sherwood are not found in the user interface but come from a very active player community.
OnRPG: Why does Sherwood Dungeon allow PvP as early as the first level of the game? Doesn’t it affect the game’s overall fun factor?
My intention was to make PVP combat a little like Street Fighter, where timing and practice count but XP Level does not. In this way any player is a potential opponent for any other player and you’re not running around looking for opponents of the same level. This also means veteran players and new players can hang out in the same areas, and do. Most combat is opt-in and this creates a more relaxed experience when you’re just in the mood to hang out. Ganking isn’t really possible because it’s easy to avoid a fight if you’re not in the mood. Just move out of the way or use the ignore feature. If I limit PVP at low levels, there’s no incentive for the veterans to recruit new players into clans. Having a few veteran players take you on a clan or room raid is also one of the greatest ways to get introduced to the PVP aspects of the game.
OnRPG: Why does the game allow players to keep switching their class in-game? How does this affect the players overall gameplay?
Viking, Ranger, Undead Skeleton, Dark Knight, Valkyrie or Warrior; the way you look in the world is more of how you feel at that moment than some character choice you made ages ago. We don’t have classes but your character’s avatar can be changed at any time. I wanted high polygon, well-animated characters you might expect to see in boxed games, even if that meant having to make some compromises on the total number of choices because we’re running in a web browser. This approach doesn’t affect game play as the character stats are independent from how you look visually in the game.
OnRPG: Can you tell us what the lore is behind the game? How do players come into the story Sherwood dungeon?
In the introductory “Prophecy of Bane” quest series you are introduced to the Darkblood, a cult set on returning the world of Sherwood to the void. The Darkblood worship the oldest of the black dragons, a creature named Bane who can only be defeated by a weapon called the Dragon Claw Scepter. You need to earn six Stones of Power to summon the Dragon Claw in trials of combat throughout the kingdom and defeat Bane in order to fulfill the prophecy. The Prophecy quests are a great way to get acquainted with the kingdom as they keep you moving from location to location. As the game grows we will reveal more about the struggle between the Darkblood and the kingdom.

Lore and environment
OnRPG: Where do you get the ideas on the monsters players are facing in the game? Will you add more to the roster in succeeding patches?
Many of these come from discussion with the players. For example, the Darkblood Valkyrie came from a screenshot that a player had edited and submitted to our Facebook page. It seemed to fit in with what I was planning and made the next update. There was a standing joke in the community regarding upside down flying pink unicorns and although there was no way I was going that far, I did introduce white unicorns to Midnight Glade, a moonlit island with a trading town that launched a few months ago. The unicorns are friendly and walk right up to you but if you hit them they become one of the most vicious creatures in the game. I’m also starting to add more named MOBs to the game. In addition to Bane there is a giant Spider named Agony on the Isle of Heroes that can be summoned along with a variety of challenges in the coliseum there. New quests, weapons, monsters and islands obviously work best when they come together to tell a story. New MOBs will continue to be added through content updates as our lore expands.
OnRPG: Where do you get ideas on the weapons, armor and equipment players can acquire in the game? How big is the game’s armory and will you add more in the future?
We’ve had three weapons updates in the last year and a half. A new selection of swords was introduced along with runes and summoning scrolls. The rune and scrolls are basically our version of a crafting system. We added a set of high level axes and scepters along with the Prophecy of Bane quest series. With the Yuletide update at Christmas we added a gifting feature that included a variety of weapons like cleavers and hammers. These were special gift items looted from monsters that could only be opened once given away to other players. I also added a feature to allow players to customize their shields with a selection of heraldry symbols and colors. This was intended to add a level of personalization that clans or guilds could take advantage of.

Sherwood quest
OnRPG: How big is the world in Sherwood Online?
Sherwood launched initially with just one island that still exists in the game as the Isle of Ancients. In 2006 I added a procedurally generated dungeon influenced by games like Rogue and Nethack. This vast dungeon increases in difficulty as your go deeper, but allows any player to find a challenge appropriate to their level. Over time I’ve also added nine new islands like Frostbite, Haunted Palm and Lost Lagoon, each with different climates, themes or palettes. The islands are accessed by portals or commands in the chat console as I’ve tried to keep long walks between destinations to a minimum in the game.
OnRPG: What’s in store for Sherwood players in the succeeding months?
We don’t talk much about updates before they are released or discuss specifics about what’s in the works and new features usually just appear in the game without advanced notice or hype. This way there’s no false expectations and it’s just a nice surprise. Players can often get a sense of what’s on my priority list from the on-going conversations on the Facebook page, particularly when I ask for feedback on aspects of the game. No player community speaks with one voice, so it’s always a tricky balancing act trying to prioritize requests. I try to be transparent about the process and don’t treat the players like they are idiots. When I’m forced to make controversial choices, whether or not they agree, at least there’s usually an understanding about how I reached that decision. I’m over simplifying how complex this can be, but after six years I’ve gotten a little better at it.