Darkfall Interview on Gamemethod.com

[Twystyd]

http://www.gamemethod.com/archive/350-2.php


Dionysis: Which games influenced the design of DarkfallOnline?

Claus: Pretty much every game we ever played. Some gave us good ideas, others showed us new ways of improving game play or confirmed design theories we had on paper for years. Even the games that we didn’t like gave us something – spotting a bad or poorly implemented feature in a game can be as helpful as finding a great one, and can influence design decisions. We try to learn from mistakes we find in other games so that we don’t repeat them in Darkfall.

Dionysis: What's the style of play you're trying to achieve?

Claus: A fun one! We’re making Darkfall as much fun to play as possible.

Dionysis: How do you feel about permadeath as a mechanic that brings about repercussion and consequence to one's actions?

Claus: I think there are better ways to hold players accountable for their actions than permadeath. The alignment system in Darkfall is designed to do just that.

Dionysis: Do you believe that there is a synergy between PvP and permadeath?

Claus: Not at all, in fact I think they are direct conflict with each other. PvP should be a fun and challenging feature, not a big bad scarecrow that most players are afraid of. It’s like having to level up a new character for a month or so every time he dies in Counterstrike or Unreal. Permadeath in any form or shape is directly damaging to a PvP game.

Dionysis: What would you say if I told you DarkfallOnline is heralded as the "next UO" for all those hardcore players out there beyond "we know" =]

Claus: Ultima Online in its original form has definitely been a great source of inspiration for Darkfall, but as our players will find out, Darkfall brings a lot of new and unique things to the genre. Obviously, being heralded as the “next UO” sounds good to me.

Dionysis: How would you respond to the following statements?


"Easily the largest (and most profitable) group are games that cater to PvP-
players. Bigger companies tend to go with the safety that PvP- games like
FFX1 and EQ2 provide, while startup companies take a risk to produce PvP+
games like DarkfallOnline, Trials of Ascension and Frontier 1859"

and

"The gap between PvP+ and PvP- MMOrpg's is growing. The intricate detail
necessary for balancing a game of each play style requires a different
perspective on designing treadmills, economy and social structures. soon
PvP+ and PvP- games will make up separate genre's."


Claus: I don’t agree with these statements at all. I think the first really good PvP MMORPG may sell really well, and it probably has a bigger potential future audience than any of the PvE games.

Human nature is competitive by design. We really enjoy fighting other people, and since permadeath is the biggest design flaw in real life, we invented sports so we could re-spawn and fight the same people over and over again.

I think when the mass-market – that’s already playing PvP games such as Quake, Half-Life, Counterstrike, Unreal, Red Alert, Wolfenstein, Magic the Gathering etc – discover a PvP MMORPG that can give them the correct combination of adrenaline rush, sense of togetherness in the form of clans and communities competing against each other in a rich and well-developed online world, the mass-market will be there for the PvP MMORPG.

When it comes to the gap between PvP+ and PvP- MMORPGs, well I don’t really see why there has to be a gap at all. The PvP community has been short-changed for years, with PvP content poorly patched into games clearly not designed to support any meaningful player conflict. With Darkfall we hope to make a game that has enough MMORPG content to make the PvE players drool with envy, and at the same time delivering prime PvP.

Dionysis: Thanks a lot!