1. #1

    Rift Zam interview

    Source

    Couple interesting bits:

    IA was one of the best ways we’ve done, it’s a theme we’ll definitely be sticking to in the next year for sure.
    I'll admit I would like to see more done with IA. I think it has a lot of potential to be more fun, more challenging, more rewarding.

    I think what made me so happy was the support of the company to launch a mobile add-on that has its own gameplay for free. We might look to charge for stuff in the future, but in the meantime this is something our developers were passionate about and wanted to build.
    Hmmm, never a fan of chargeable features but we'll see what it is before breaking out the fire and pitchforks. If it's significant and worth it, maybe.

    We’re working with great folks in both locales: CJ Netmarble in Korea and Shanda in China. Those folks know their territory! They played the heck out of our game, and came back with feedback about what was perfect and what needed tweaks to help it succeed. We went ahead and made the changes to the versions their areas will be getting; but at the same time, we also made some changes here in the US. Take a look at the act of creating a character right now in the game. One of our partners did a playtest and they put a few hundred people through the newbie experience. For our western players? It was super easy, super fast, no problem at all. But in this one test they had zero people make it all the way through! The big hang-ups were around all of the choices the soul system provides. So we took a new look and made the concept of pre-set purposes; now players can say “Hey, I want to be a battle-bard. Click.”
    I found this really interesting, as it suggest that the new pre-set soul system was implemented because eastern markets had trouble with the complexity of the existing soul system. Makes me wonder if WoWs talent system has been dumbed down over the years for similar reasons.

    Picture a world where if you wanted to get into Rift, you wouldn’t have to sit through a 9-gig download. Maybe you just had to install, say, 100 MBs before the game would launch and be playable while the rest streams in the background!
    Streaming the client, a page from WoW's client that is definitely worth stealing. Would love to see this.

    We’ve done a bunch of client optimizations over the past year to the point where the game runs just fine on, say, a MacBook Air, which would be an ultra-low spec machine for Rift. But I have one in my office and it runs with 25 fps even in crowded cities.
    No there is no Mac client afaik, so I guess he is using boot camp or something. Still interesting that he has done this.

    One of the medium term goals that we’ve been working on internally for a number of months is even larger and more epic-scaled PvP options.
    Moar world PvP!

    Another big one… we’ve been working on prototypes of some new types of crafting in the game
    I think we might see some of this in 1.8, and I'm excited. Crafting definitely needs some lovin.

  2. #2
    Good read, thanks.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Tarien View Post
    I found this really interesting, as it suggest that the new pre-set soul system was implemented because eastern markets had trouble with the complexity of the existing soul system. Makes me wonder if WoWs talent system has been dumbed down over the years for similar reasons.

    I think we might see some of this in 1.8, and I'm excited. Crafting definitely needs some lovin.
    I would hazard a guess that it played a part in WoW's talent system. Might not be the whole reason, but I am sure it's a factor for it. Personally, I didn't find the soul system too difficult.

    And I definitely agree that crafting needs some lovins. As it is now, it's rather boring and unimaginative. Just like WoW's has become. I do like the stations that the professions require.

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