WarCry Interviews GMG
WarCry interviewed a couple of us here at Green Monster Games recently. Check out the article and come back here to complain about how we didn’t really reveal any new information about the project. There are a couple of minor bits in there that I don’t think we’ve said elsewhere, but it’s probably not juicy enough to sate your hunger.
While it’s tempting to be a wiseacre and complain about no new information, I must admit that it’s great to keep hearing the same thing over and over….the more you talk about quality and polish, the better. Kudos.
Yes, “quality and polish” I noticed as well. I have a good feeling about GMG, you guys have already “been there” and know what an MMO should be.
“The biggest lesson is not to try to be everything to everyone, but rather to decide on the key elements of your game and then refine the heck out of them.”
That’s the best quote in the interview. I’m eager to see what you guys come up with based on that. I dislike how all the current and new MMO’s try to do a little bit here, little bit there to appeal to the masses. That’s not what I’m interested in. I want a game that caters to my style of gaming and my desires and goes 100% for that image. My biggest thing that keeps me playing a game is polish. When I log into a game and I’m stuttering around like a fool with decent pc specs and crashing to desktop, encountering quest bugs in the newbie zones and glitched spawns right off the bat – its going to take a miracle to keep me playing that game. I want to log in and view a world that is crisp and solid – with a design that’s uniform throughout the game and an obvious direction that the game is headed in. Please please please make this a fantasy MMO and not anything sci-fi! *crosses fingers*
The only thing that worries me is the combination of Cuppy’s quote selection and this one :
I remember what I *did*. All the people I played with are gone from my gaming life. Give the Achievers something to do in addition to the Socialists, please. Don’t abandon the soloists either.
The only thing that stands out for me in the early days of Everquest was thinking how warped the death penalty was and shame another $50 down the drain on a game I won’t play. Now that you mention it though I do remember it was cool someone took pity on me and made me a better sword than I had.
Of course, that’s a better situation than lack of any kind of character persistence, local or server, which is why I trash binned my $50 copy of Diablo.
People always talk about WoW and polish, and certainly Blizzard learned that at the school of hard knocks. But WoW remains #3 on Blizzard’s all time hit list, led by their solo PvE cutscene and water-polo games. I think their well-established fan base, most of which came from playing water-polo-craft, had way more to do with WoW’s success than polish. Not saying polish is a bad thing, it is very important, but it isn’t the whole picture.
I will just hope that you guys do not try to compete with WoW (EQ2). Also, do not redo a old game with new graphics (Vanguard).
Think outside the box and create a challenging yet non-tedious game that a fully functioning adult with a regular life can enjoy. I am not saying make it “easy-mode”. I want a game that I can jump into and enjoy immediately and not go LFG for a long time. The Battlefield games come to mind but they do not have the depth of an MMORPG.
Your first instinct may be to cater to the “living in mom’s basement” crowd (Eve Online and Vanguard) but we are the ones who have the money. Make the right game and you will be rewarded with riches and maybe even a Super model.
As far as I’m concerned, giving away any more information than has already been given would be “suicide” for marketing.
The excitement level has to be built up. I can only imagine how things would go if a company, for example, released some in game develpment screen shots, when they know damn well the release date is still 2 years away. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am dieing to know more about the GMG project, but all in good time.
I think, right now (so early in development) it would just be a silly thing to do to give away any information. Besides, for me, the exciting part is the back end of things. Who is working on what, (and even more nerdy, with what tools lol) rather than what the front end looks like.
History has shown that “cartoony” games can compete with games with ultra-realistic textures/fx.