Originally posted by qbangy32

A very differnt kind of interview to what we would normally expect from a games developer so close to release, however I found the honesty of the piece quite refreshing.

There is already alot of information out there and it's good to see that Bill didn't just rehype old news, but covered a little new ground with the news that they have been able to add specific features that would not have made it otherwise on the original release date.

The WoW comparisions is getting boring but I couldn't find fault with Bill for answering a question to clarify what he meant about previous comments over subscriber numbers and the meaning of success over failure in the MMO market.

Overall a good interview that didn't shove the corporate message down our throats.

This interview was basically what I would expect a normal MMORPG forum goer to ask.  The questions asked were related to common MMORPG topic, and especially the recent comment about Bill that actually got more views then other CO  related posts.

Unfortunately it just goes alongside what most normal MMORPG.com posters know about CO, which is very little.  I'm not saying that the interviewer knew little about CO, which may be the case, but it seems like the questions were geared more towards what was most controversial on the forums....

Overall though, to me, this interview seemed very generic, like you could've asked a developer of any game the same questions regarding WoW and subscription numbers and gotten pretty much the same answers.  Nothing about this interview seemed to scream Champions Online.

I agree with the wow comparisons getting old and also agree with comment about this game needs to be marketed right to capture an audience who will be interested in CO.  Even a non mmo audience whome might assume they are all like EQ.  Once someone stops looking for news about mmo's how else are they going to know whats out there.  WoW (appologize for this comparison but) even advertises on TV now (I happen to like Ozzy :).  to catch people who might now know whats out now.  I dont think they would have made their numbers without reaching outside the normal PC gamers  media.  Costs big dough but I would think there would be a market for this superhero stuff at least the size of dwarfs and elf stuff.  Just because the board game dungeons and dragons was huge a similar game with superheros might have been too.  If there was one and it flopped then sorry I didnt know about it.  Missed the commercial or ad.

I don't know much about this game, and I didn't learn anything knew with these generice questions. It would of been nice if the questions were more about the features of the game than just comparing it to WoW.

Originally posted by lvlanoob

I don't know much about this game, and I didn't learn anything knew with these generice questions. It would of been nice if the questions were more about the features of the game than just comparing it to WoW.

Very good point.   Was a good oportunity to do that.  He probably didnt want to talk about WOW anyway.  

Originally posted by Ravanos

Less sucking of Warcrafts nuts in your next interview Dana

The interview was conducted by Jon Wood, the managing editor.  Dana just posted the news.

I love Bill's philosophy.  I've been part of beta tesing where we say, "for the love of mercy, don't push this thing live in this state, if you do, it'll tank."  Then things were pushed live and dropped like led balloons.

Gamers, the ones I hang out with anyways, want something that really is fun.  For something to be fun it has to not be broken.  This is a very simple principle that some folks in the MMO industry can't seem to get for some totally bizarre reason.

Yeah Bill, I want to play something that's polished and that's fun.  I also like how you said you want to focus on customer service and placing value on player feedback.  The fact that you delayed release in response to your beta testers tells me you're on the right track.  Way to go guys.  I'll probably try this out when it releases, and I wish you success.

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

Yeah Bill, I want to play something that's polished and that's fun.  I also like how you said you want to focus on customer service and placing value on player feedback.  The fact that you delayed release in response to your beta testers tells me you're on the right track.  Way to go guys.  I'll probably try this out when it releases, and I wish you success.

Commenting on the part in green. EQ2, AoC, WAR, PotBS, Vanguard, Shadowbane, and many more games have had their release dates pushed back. Each time the community manager cites "beta tester feedback" as the reason.

The problem is that the majority of the time they eventually stop listening to the beta tester's recommendation of not releasing yet and push the game out anyway.

Why this happens? It's usually only known by the development studio themselves but running out of money/time is usually the reason given.

My point is just because they listened to the beta testers and pushed the release back doesn't mean it still won't be a buggy or broken game when it does finally get released.