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Dragon Empires Interview #3: The Community
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-11-03 
We continue our series of interviews with Peter Tyson, community manager at Codemasters for their upcoming mmorpg Dragon Empires. This time we talked about the importance and the forming of a strong playerbase and community. Enjoy the read! MMORPGDot: How does the development team see role-playing in an mmorpg? Will there be any special features to encourage role-playing? Can we expect a role-playing server at launch?
Peter Tyson: We think roleplaying is an important part of an MMORPG (funny that!). Story and interaction keep people playing and keep the game fun, both of which we are understandably keen on! In order to facilitate this we are doing a few things. Firstly, the quests and stories players can get involved in are interactive, as in, there will be player choice, not just follow the predetermined path. Second, we're making sure there are objects, outfits and clothes in game to support roleplaying. Everything from wedding dresses to gift boxes to smart (or shabby) clothes are there for players to purchase. You can also dye clothes if you so wish. Finally, we are providing a world rich with background and story into which players can immerse themselves and start to create their own stories. MMORPGDot: What reasons do clans have to fight for the ownership of a city? What advantages does the control over a city offer?
Peter Tyson: City ownership provides wealth and status as well as access to goods at a reduced rate (possibly tax free if your boss decides that). Perhaps the biggest reason to own a city is that it's cool! You can put up clan banners all over town, add new buildings and possibly even put up statues of yourselves to impress passersby.
MMORPGDot: Will there be any special possibilities for player clans such as guild emblems?
Peter Tyson: Yes, as I understand it clans will be able create guild emblems using in-game tools. MMORPGDot: Since clans are very important in Dragon Empires, do you believe that player clans should be given unlimited control over player politics? What about the dangers involved? Will there still be enough room for smaller clans and solo players to survive and be more than a puppet of the larger clans?
Peter Tyson: I think there is always danger in concentrating to much power in to few hands. For this reason ruling clans don't have the power of life and death of visitors. Only the Dragons have such power. Within the world itself there will be 50 cities and so I believe that even small clans will get a shot at owning a town. Furthermore, a big clan doesn't necesarily mean a clan that owns lots of cities. When you fight for a city the maximum number of people a side is capped (so as to prevent horrible and very tedious lag and stability issues). Thus small efficient clans can easily beat off a zerg horde as the horde will have the same number of people in the battle as the small clan. In the end it will come down to skill.
If you don't think you have skill you can always hire mercenaries to do your fighting for you, however. ;)
Keep in mind what I mentioned earlier about clans needing to keep the residents of their cities happy. A clan can't just rule a city for long with massive tax and no protection for travelers from outlaws before the locals all leave. What's more, that clan is unlikely to be popular with the neighbours who can vote against that clan, weakening its position on the league tables and making it more likely to be challenged for.
MMORPGDot: Fights between clans over the control of a town will be scheduled beforehand. Why did you make that decision? Does it then simply come down to having the most members in a clan or can tactics make the difference?
Peter Tyson: Simply put, we hate dawn raids! It's no fun for anyone. No fun for the raiders as they are just fighting boring old NPCs (and dungeons are more fun for that activity!) and no fun for the defenders who see weeks of work swept away simply because their body collapsed comatose on the keyboard! As mentioned, tactics will be very important. Clans will need to think of which members take part in the fight and also be aware of the goals of the city fight (they may change fight by fight). Smart clans will train their city fighting teams hard and learn to communicate well. MMORPGDot: Ever since the first mmorpg's were released, there's been a debate about the launches of those games. Some developers seem to rush out their games before enough content has been added and before the client is stable enough. What does Codemasters have up their sleeves to prevent such a bad launch from happening? Will you promise us to beta test the game long enough before releasing it? *g*
Peter Tyson: I can make all sorts of promises prior to release but I really think that is pointless. Everyone else has done it in the past and yet many of them screwed up! All I can say is that Codemasters is a professional company with many many years experience of developing and publishing games. We are fortunate to not have a publisher breathing down our neck and we don't have share holders waiting for quaterly reports so we can wait till the game is done. That being said, we have some deadlines but we're confident we can hit them. As for testing? That is going on from now until Spring 2004, quite a substantial period of time.
Previous Dragon Empires interviews:
- Dragon Empires Q&A #1: General
- Dragon Empires Q&A #2: Skills & Economy
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