Anarchy Online: Status Report Q&A #2
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-11-20

It's obviously status report time here at MMORPGDot lately. Anyhow, today we have an interview with Jorgen Tharaldsen ready for you, who is the product manager over at Funcom, about the current status of Anarchy Online. Funcom is currently working on an expansion for Anarchy Online and a yet unknown other persistent world project. Enjoy the read.

Jorgen Tharaldson: Yes and no. It's obvious that the critics are very impressed with the overall package of Anarchy Online. Many hadn't played the game since the initial release, and knowing how far we have gotten since then. Well, we are all both glad and proud to see that so many hail our game as the best of all of the MMORPGs.

Two months after the release of Shadowlands we have received 9 Editor's choice Awards (including IGN and Gamespy), 2 Spike TV award nominations, an UN award nomination, several "brands" (like "Essential" in PC Zone, "Great" on Gamespot and "Outstanding" on 1up) and a review score average of 87 % (some 50 reviews and counting). This is nothing short of amazing seeing where we are coming from, and I am of course extremely satisfied with this. I mean; how can I not be?J

As for the current player base it's clear that they are satisfied with the unique graphics and ambience we have implemented, the new professions, the perk system, the introduction of new story elements, the great new soundtrack and much more. We have received lots of mails from fans who praise us and also quite a few angry ones as usual. That said, we are aware that there are issues, with Shadowlands when it comes to the highest level players.

We have received many comments about unwanted "time sinks" (like travel) and "chokepoints/camping" (like mandatory quests or slow spawn rates). We are in the process of improving this, and have already done a lot. Last week we even significantly upped the outdoor XP in Shadowlands to improve on the risk vs. reward vs. fun aspect.

The goal was to make Shadowlands a more challenging game play experience, but in some areas we made it too hard and time-consuming. We have already eased up on this, and will continue to do so. It's a never ending story.

Our goal with Anarchy Online is to have a fast-paced action experience with as little camping as possible. And to be quite honest: right now I feel that the blend of the improved Shadowlands and the already fantastic world of Rubi-Ka make Anarchy Online a must try if you are considering a new MMORPG.

Jorgen Tharaldson: We are very happy to see that so many in the media say we are the best online game on the market. It will never be perfect though, but we always strive to do our very best.

I believe that Funcom is one of the most creative online developers around, especially within the MMORPG marketplace (then again, I would say that if I didn't work here !). I am confident that we will continue to deliver creative and unique game play experiences, not only with AO but also with future MMORPGs. This is essential to survive in the marketplace in my opinion. To "merely" be a copy cat is not exactly stimulating either for the players nor us as creators, and we will always strive to find unique solutions. I am therefore very sure that AO will survive and thrive in the times to come.

One important thing to consider upon choosing a MMORPG is whether new means better. It takes an incredibly experienced team to release smoothly, like we did with Shadowlands, and what about content and setting? To me it seems that the "tried and tested" approach seems to be some sort of mantra among many MMOGs these days. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't see that much groundbreaking innovation, more like little steps towards better and better games.

I read most of the interviews, dev journals and whatnot of all upcoming games, and more often than not a lot of the coolest features are cut prior to launch. We at Funcom know all about how easy it is to promise the world, but upon delivering this shiny diamond.....well, it isn't as easy to do it in "real life" as it is on paper...

Sure, there are cool licenses, better graphics, more players in the same world, a few changes to the regular treadmill, but still. It might be just me, but it's a lot about another round of more "orcs, elves and dragons"...isn't it?

The question back to the reader hence becomes: do you bite into all the hype and the graphics, or have you learned to "wait" (seeing all the "misfortunate" MMORPG's) before using all your hard earned money? Our approach with a try before you buy is a good one I think ( http://www.anarchy-online.com/tryout )

We are definitively no exception so I am not trying to throw stone in a glasshouse here, just express my personal point of view.

Jorgen Tharaldson: The players have reached Inferno by now, the sixth theme in Shadowlands. They just broke through, so I expect it to take some more time before they reach Pandemonium :p

Jorgen Tharaldson: A part of modern sci-fi is as much about fantasy as anything else, examples are the FF movie and many modern sci-fi book series. We wanted to go for such a look since it expands the game world. It was hence a deliberate choice to make it dark "fantasy-ish".

That said, the world of AO has always been a "fantastical" place with elements ranging from the gigantic cityscape of Omni-1 to the dragon found in the dungeons of Camelot. With Shadowlands we made it even more "fantastical".

AO is influenced by sci-fi, fantasy, stories, manga, movies, philosophy, religion, culture, wars, politics, art, books, music, other games, drama...you know, a complete blend of "Anarchy". Much like the world today I would say when looking at the big picture of things, but here you can be anyone you want to.

Jorgen Tharaldson: As a part of the vision of AO we have already significantly enhanced the travel aspects of Shadowlands to make the expansion faster paced and even more action filled. More portals, easier access, faster game play. We take our players very seriously, and having them spend countless hours on e.g. traveling through a "completed" area is not something we want to support.

However,you need to be of a certain level to "fast-forward" quests. We don't want to bypass one portion of the game if you aren't ready as this would surely result in certain death and, of course, we don't want that.

Jorgen Tharaldson: This is basically the Customer Service's take on it (I got it straight from them):

Use of any 3rd party tools or programs is in violation of the EULA. Clicksaver uses various components that sniff data and manipulate the client. By using Clicksaver you are in violation of the EULA and do run the risk of losing account privileges. Funcom does not spend time hunting down people that use the more benevolent bots and tools but will not hesitate to handle those situations which we feel can negatively impact game play for the players and / or harm Anarchy Online.

He he…there you go :)

Jorgen Tharaldson: Well, what can I say? I would have to silence you all afterwards if I told too much, now wouldn't I? Let's see.... one thing we have painstakingly learned from Anarchy Online is that you should ALWAYS try your very best to live up to promises, otherwise the player base WILL become VERY upset. After all, they shell out 14,95 a month to play so they have right to expect us to deliver what we promise. So, if we make a promise there needs to be a ¤%&#"¤ good reason if we can't deliver it.

Hence I would like to wait before revealing detailed information. Is the current design good enough? Can we actually create all we would like to? If we implement X and Y, what will this have to say for Z? You know, the production team is hard at work puzzling all of this out, and it would be a real show stopper if we made promises we couldn't fulfill. What I can say though is that if we are able to pull of what we are trying to achieve it will be a truly groundbreaking innovation among the MMORPG's. But, time will tell so….

Telling you all about our lofty ambitions and high hopes for the future is basically like shooting ourselves in the foot if we fail, so until we have something more concrete….

And yes, it will have a social focus :0

Sorry!

Jorgen Tharaldson: Well, I would like to tell a small story first. The "bible" often referred to when it comes to MMORPG "archetypes" is Richard Bartle's classification of player behavior and their pattern in online games (MUD's and MMORPG's). This shows, if I recall correctly, that only 5% of the MMORPG players like PvP. After the introduction of Notum Wars more than 60% of the players in Anarchy Online have tested the PvP aspects. I believe one of the reasons for this is the way our system works, with a clear setting and a hopefully good balance between risk and reward.

For newcomers I guess the following info will do; In AO, you can choose between three sides; Omni, Neutral and Clan. The main PvP drive in the game is of course the conflict between the sides on which kind of "rule" Rubi-Ka should be led by. One of the aspects of control is through Notum Mining. The players can build Notum Mining bases, and it's in the defense of these that the most of the PvP is being played out. Huge organizations from warring factions band together to raid enemy bases. It's a whole lotta fun I can assure you, once you get the hang of it anyway :p

As far as I know AO is the only MMORPG game (together with Shadowbane that is) that offers a persistent PvP system where players can take control over and completely build their own defense bases. The Notum Wars received the "expansion pack of the year 2002" in Computer Gaming World (CGW) so I guess you can call our attempt an ok one.

But, and this is a very important but, all the PvP in Anarchy is voluntary. You are not forced to PvP, and you will always get a clear warning when entering "political zones" or bases. You will then have ample time to withdraw if you are not ready for the ultimate virtual reality test; man vs. man. We have also added several "safe guards" like level caps to avoid griefing. There is nothing worse than to be killed over and over by "idiots" who have decided to take out their frustration on the poor "newbies".

Jorgen Tharaldson: It's impossible to know all and understand all, but we have worked very very very hard to set up "lines of communication", so to speak.

Our most important ways of obtaining information is basically, surprise surprise, our very vocal community. We can look at graphs and statistics all day, or lock ourselves in our bubble and think we have it all sorted out. But ...at the end of the day what it all comes down to is what the players find either fun or frustrating. More than most companies I think we listen to our player base to get the best possible feedback before implementing changes and fixes.

We gather info from our bulletin boards, from fan sites, from the players on our test servers, from the press, from direct emails, from customer support, from the ARK (our volunteers), from beta....the list is long and there is no one thing I would like to reveal as more important than the other...he he.

Whenever feasible we meld the wishes of our player base with our wishes for the future of AO. All in all I hope our players are satisfied with how much we listen to them. As a collective they are far smarter than we can ever hope to become, and without this invaluable feedback we would never have been able to shape AO they way we have.

All I can say is a big "thank you" to our players for all the constructive feedback. We have the best community in the world!