General Discussion

*cough*This week's Q&A by JK Starley, not Jon Wood*cough*

Thanks!

Some of those alternate race ideas sounds very cool, I hope they get a chance to implement them someday.

Once again, I'm very impressed by this interview. Issues like weather effects and lighting, the developers are being straightforward and candid about. They could have easily avoided a direct answer here by giving the politically correct, "we have beautiful, and detailed enviornments" which doesn't really tell us anything, but placates us for the time being. Instead, they are upfront about their shortcommings, (if that's even what you want to call it) and are giving their potential fans some credit in understanding that one lone game, cannot possibly implement every feature imaginable to every user.

There is also the issue of the game having 4 main and 8 total playable races. While I think 8 potential races is a perfectly acceptable number, some might not see past the number "4." Simultronics, again doesn't shy away from this issue that could possibly turn away some fans who are most concerned with diversity and uniqueness. Instead, they make it clear that they are more concerned with making sure each race is truly unique in itself, while still focusing on giving each race enough complimentary abilities so that there will be no "preferred" combination come game time. This is beyond stellar thinking in my book.

They've also chosen to release details of possible races that may, or may not make it into the game, once again showing their honesty in NOT making promises they may unable to fulfill. While the prospect of new races is always exciting in any game, I'm very much digging Simu's priorities here. What they're essentially saying is that they want to flesh out the details of the races that are ALREADY in game, before committing themselves to adding any more.

With this new MMO market flooded with so many cash cows, Simu's "Heroes Journey" is like a breath of fresh air. The gameworld they've shown us so far is breathtaking, and their inventiveness seems to know no boundries. They have been very forthcomming and honest in releasing information up to this point, which is a great indicator of how high the confidence level must be down there, and their apparent devotion to quality over quanity should be an inspiration to others in the industry.