| Title: |
Heatwave Interactive's Untitled MMO |
| Date: |
02.23.2007 |
| Platform: |
PC, next-gen consoles |
| Genre: |
MMO |
| Developer: |
Heatwave Interactive |
| Publisher: |
TBA |
1- What are the specific needs/features you feel are lacking in today's MMOs?
The fun. If you consider that a feature. I consider it the point. Some people might think, "MMOs aren't about fun. They're a lifestyle!" Well, that's fine. But my lifestyle is about fun.
So where is it? Why do you have to wade through piles and piles of boredom to have a few seconds of Leeroy
Jenkins? Most MMOs start off with a click-fest of ho-hum character customization (City of Heroes excluded), a mildly interesting cut scene or in-game cinematic, and then you're dumped into this amazing world that I call "click'n'wait."
Let me run down the average scenario for you...
Talk to NPC.
Scroll quickly to the bottom of irrelevant text.
Objective and Reward is iconic and clear (if you're lucky). Accept Quest.
Walk to field 10 feet away.
Press [TAB]
Press [1]
Press [2]
Wait
Press [1]
Wait
Press [1]
Press [2]
Loot
Repeat...
How is this fun??? It's not! And it goes on for over 200 hours. Easily. Can you believe this methodology of gameplay has even been brought to the space genre? Seriously...
Fly up to giant space squid.
Press [TAB]
Press [1]
Wow! I feel just like Han Solo! He did the "click'n'wait" game in Episode 5, right?
No, he didn't. Oookay, a little ranty there. I apologize.
My point is this. People put up with a lot of DULL BS because in the end, gaming with other people can be a lot of fun and almost make up the difference. Yet, there's no reason game developers in this day and age can't find a way to make the rest of the experience more entertaining. You can't hide behind the old excuse of "We spent 90% of the project just making it work" anymore. There are too many tech solutions and a big 800 pound gorilla named "WoW" that says "We've made this as fun as possible. Try something else!"
To clarify the point even further, when I talk about bringing together the excitement of single player games and the power of online games, I'm not necessarily talking about making a traditional MMO. Would you consider Battlefield 2142 an MMO? That franchise is doing some really cool things with persistence in a session-based FPS. What about Guild Wars? Another good example of what can happen when you focus on the fun is the up-and-coming Fury (checkout www.unleashthefury.com). I don't think you'd call that game an MMO, but it's got the trappings. Five minutes with Fury and you'll have a good idea of what Heatwave is all about: Merging the fun with the people. We've got a few projects in mind that you would call MMOs, but I'll guarantee that when you play them, you'll be thinking, "Whoa, this rocks!" Not, "Oh crap, kill five rats again???"
Okay, I know what you're thinking. "So Heatwave is going to make games like Fury..." No, that's really not the point. The point is that you can take gameplay that is implicitly fun on its own and add persistence, community, multiplayer, and metagames and end up with something much greater than the sum of its parts. Other games are trying to accomplish this, but it appears to me that many of them aren't taking this explicit approach.
They're creeping towards it, feeling it out in the dark. Well, I'm here to shine the light on it, baby.
2- Will Heatwave Interactive's MMO project address these needs?
Heatwave's project will address these needs, yes. Damned skippy.
3- What can you tell us about the game? (Setting, style, PvP, etc.)
Unfortunately, nothing! We're going to be talking about the game(s) with the community in the very near future, but we need to finish getting our core operations up and running so we can focus on a dialogue with players.
4- Will it be on PCs and consoles?
Yes.
5- How large is the current team?
Less than 10. We'll be less than 20 for a long while. I'm as passionate about the game development process as I am about games themselves and I'm very focused on having a small, intense pre-production team for as long as necessary. It's less expensive and as we won't have to build our own tech, we can really focus on finding the fun. I've taught pre-pro techniques at EA and Codemasters and I'm really looking forward to the creative process.
6- What are some examples of MMOs that are on the right track?
As I mentioned in my answer (rant) above, there are several projects headed in the right direction. As for traditional MMOs, I'm rooting for Warhammer and Conan, but I haven't gotten in on those betas yet (hint hint guys) so I can't officially comment(and still wouldn't because I'd be under NDA!). EvE can be a pretty great experience! Yes it's hardcore, but there's that little element of twitch, and they do an excellent job with part B) social networking (the part I didn't answer). Tabula Rasa was pretty fun for the little while I played it at E3 last year. They're definitely trying to go after the "fun."
I know that many players have a blast in their MMOs. So folks, don't be offended when I say MMOs aren't as fun as they ought to be. I just want to make your lives a little more enjoyable. You see, I also know how many potential players fall off in the early experience because of the lack of content density and good core mechanics. Now that a larger audience has experienced MMOs through World of Warcraft, their expectations are just going to be that much higher.
So I leave you with this: Is your online game as much fun as a session of Grand Theft Auto 3? It should be.
