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This community Q&A lets us learn more about the one they called Statesman.
Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert is a unique character in the gaming industry. He comes from an academic background and makes comic book games. Today, we begin a periodic feature where we hope the fans can learn more about Emmert, his studio and his projects. Read the first Q&A below, then check out the comment thread to suggest questions for future weeks.
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As we begin this new series, can you tell us what first inspired you to want to create City of Heroes? An apple from a tree, a light bulb above your head, or did you watch too many Batman with Adam West re-runs?
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Jack Emmert: |
I've been a huge comic fan since I was 8 years old. For several years, I worked in a comic book store! I still read 75 or so comics a month; my collection is around 20,000 strong. However, City of Heroes wasn't my brainchild. Rick Dakan, one of Cryptic's founders, came up with the idea for a comic hero MMORPG.
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Without feeling the need to pimp a Marvel character, who was your favorite superhero (or villain) growing up and what about them captured your imagination?
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Jack Emmert: |
Namor. Bottom line.
First, I love the fact that his roots stretch back to the Golden Age (40's) and the dawn of the comic book medium. While Superman and Batman were strutting their stuff, Marvel had creations like the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch and Captain America.
Second, I'm intrigued by his background. On the one hand, he commands one of the world's superpowers, but on the other, he's always trying to strike a careful balance with the surface world. His strength is so legendary that he can battle the Hulk or Thor, but that strength doesn't translate into diplomatic skills.
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I've seen some pretty odd routes to the gaming industry, but a Masters in Ancient History and Greek and Latin seems the oddest of them all. Trace us the path from point A to point B... and how did you possibly not do a historical MMO with that background?
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Jack Emmert: |
Some day I'd like to do one. I'd just need to convince Cryptic's board members it was a good idea!
Another part of me doesn't really want to cross fields, though. I studied the ancient world for well over a decade. My desire to do it "right" may actually be more of hindrance than a help.
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You guys are doing Marvel Universe on the next generation consoles. What makes you think the MMORPG will work on these beasts?
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Jack Emmert: |
Because consoles can now deliver the capabilities needed for a MMORPG. I think simple technical constraints provided one of the largest hurdles. Plus, the new Xbox360 is SO online friendly. If you haven't tried Xbox live, you're missing out!
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You're often asked to speak at big conferences and such. Do you enjoy the process and what is the most terrible thing that has happened to you during one of these speeches?
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Jack Emmert: |
To be honest, I've only spoken on a handful of panels and been a speaker twice. Not exactly a long track record. After teaching at Ohio State, I'm relatively used to the idea of lectures. I especially enjoy the discussions with people after the fact.
The most terrible thing I remember is when City of Heroes crashed while I was demoing it. I was at a ritzy San Jose hotel showing off the game which was about to release. The audience, for the most part, were hardware engineers; this was primarily a small conference about video cards. I was extremely uncomfortable because I couldn't answer any of their questions about our engine and even worse, the game crashed. What a fiasco.
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Over the years, your role has evolved at Cryptic Studios. Can you trace us through a regular day at work?
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Jack Emmert: |
First thing, I grab a cup of coffee. A little unusual at Cryptic; most people here drink Coke or Mountain Dew for their caffeine fix!
Second, I check my e-mail. There's usually not much that comes in over night, but inevitably there's a couple of issues requiring my feedback.
Third, I try to talk to all my Lead Designers to find out what they're working on. I try as much as possible to make this a daily thing, but inevitably I get interrupted by other things. We've got three projects under way right now (one of which is top secret).
By this time, meetings start up. Usually, 11am - 4pm have got at least two meetings. I'm either brainstorming ideas with the Design team or I'm reviewing a Design doc. Occasionally, I've got Cryptic biz meetings - like developing an Employee Handbook or talking to some company about something.
At lunchtime, I usually bring my food to work. However, on Wednesdays the entire design team goes out for lunch and then travels over to the comic book store. Wednesdays is when the new comic books ship. Every other week, I'm playing in the Cryptic Studios Warhammer 40k tournament (a miniatures game); I'm undefeated thus far!
The rest of my time, I'm reading or writing Design docs. Most of the systems are actually "owned" by designers and it's up to the Lead Designer on the project to make the final call. It's my role to help guide and suggest the process; I try to coax the best ideas possible out of people. Admittedly, I sometimes exercise my veto power and say, "no, do it this way", but that's a last resort and not something I should be doing often!
Then it's home to my nine-month old son and beautiful wife!
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Superheroes are in vogue lately with NBC's Heroes. What do you think of the show and do you think it will help your products out?
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Jack Emmert: |
I've been cajoled by my design team into watching it. I was hesitant because it isn't really your typical comic book hero thing; no one wears costumes, there are no super villains, etc. I like the overall plot that there are super powered individuals that have some greater purpose and the acting has been fine. It's good, but it hasn't reached Battlestar Galactica good for me quite yet. One thing that disappoints me is that the female characters are all used as sexual objects. The cheerleader is almost raped. The African American woman cheats on her painter boyfriend. The police man's wife cheats on her husband. The blonde sleeps with the politician. It seems that the women's plotlines inevitably involve sex, while the male storylines don't (Hiro, for example).
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What was the last comic book you read?
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Jack Emmert: |
I just reread Fantastic Four #100 - 104 today. I'm trying to reread all of the Fantastic Four (all 500 issues) as preparation for Cryptic's current project, the Marvel MMO. Last night, I read Ultimate X-Men #70-73 and Uncanny X-Men #476 - 479. Rarely is there a day that goes by that I don't read at least one comic!
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This is just a primer. What do you want to know about City of X, Cryptic, Marvel Universe or Jack himself? Without feeling the need to go into hyper-specific questions about the games themselves, jump over to our boards and tell us what you'd like to hear Jack talk about.
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That is the one thing I can say I like about I8. Safeguard missions allows my 50 tank to do other things besides hanging out in RCS trying to clean up the Rikti infestation or rescuing the poor soldiers. It is a lonely task but I like the praise of the soldiers even if they don't talk in that zone. And as far as I can tell a lot of the Safeguards missions are nice and short, allowing me to build Prestige a little quicker.
My blaster really appreciates his new trenchcoat too.
(and I snuck some small covers of the comics in my SG base)
I'd love to know what Cryptic has planned for promoting and merchandising the game. Do they have any plans to make the website more interactive, a stronger part of the game and community?
I'd love to see features like player pages where one can view that players statistics as well as all of their characters (images taken right from the game similar to how the character ID image appears, description, badges, statistics and other character data). Charaters could also upload or link their pages to images of their characters that they have created or commissioned. It would be a sort of a CoGs ("City of..." Games) MySpaces of sorts. One benifit to this feature is that players browsing through the playerbase COGs Pages could spot and report trademark violations much easier. Another is creating a stronger community by being able to share without having to do a ton of work yourself.
I'd also like to see Cryptic sit down with sites like MMOART.com and work on some kind of a deal, make things a little more official. I'd like to see more involvement with the creative community as a whole. This is a game that revolves around comics, so I think that more involvement with the creative community at large makes sense. Even bringing in people that had nothing to do with the game before might reach a larger audience and spark new interest.
One thing I am curious about is now that Marvel and Cryptic are working on a game together, does Cryptic have any plans of working with Marvel on creating a City of Heroes comic book?
Top cow has stated that the City of Heroes comic will end it run with issue 20. what is the future of the comic?
One question would be; is the third mmo Cryptic is working on (the one we know nothing about at this point) going to be a superhero setting? A simple yes or no is sufficient. I dont excpect him to realy announce anything yet.
I would also like to know, generaly, what are some of the most important lessons Jack has learned about creating an mmorpg over the past few years. Whether it be technical, customer service, managing a dev team or whatever.
And finaly, what are Jacks design goals for the Marvel mmo? Or if goals are too specific at this point, what is his philosophy or his overall approach towards the project.
oh wait! One more thing. What does Mr.Emmert think of the "civil war" plot scenario in Marvel right now. Personaly I think its great, and adds alot of depth of storytelling to an otherwise humdrum, run-of-the-mill comicbook world.
thankyou and goodnight
Maybe the third project isn't an MMOG? Could be City of Heroes The Motion Picture.
The bad part is that PvP was introduced to the game being broken, and still is. Arena maps are buggy, unpredictable and few in choice. The "tournament system" never worked and the other arena bugs have yet to be adressed. I know PvP has a much smaller population in the game, but at least fix the damn bugs already. Zones are fine, but get rid of all debt in them since it may keep people from trying them out more. Bases are also messed up which makes base raids hard to do if you can even get one done. Two of the three ways to PvP in the game are borked. All that most people ask is to fix the arena bugs. Don't add anything, just simply fix the damn things. PvP in this game had so much potential but it's being wasted. At least it kept me around for an extra 6 months.
I would like to hear Jack address changes coming to bases. Bases were one of the most highly anticipated things about the game since day one, yet their implementation has left a great deal to be desired. Almost no one can actually design a base, and what designs exist are amazingly dull. They look like you're living in your parents' basement with your own geeky decorating sense. (Which is only accentuated by the fact that you can now plaster the City of Heroes comic book covers on the walls.)
Are there any plans to include personal apartments, either separate from SG bases or as private spaces within them?
Will they be adding windows to bases? (I mean, come on, Doom and Doom II had simulated windows more than 10 years ago.)
Will players be able to make bases that have more than one level? While the base editor itself is robust, will players have more design choices in upcoming Issues?
Well..... Short but true, the thing i would appreciate most, right now, is any info on Marvel Universe Online, ANY
hard to come up with non-COx questions. Don't plan on playing video games outside of the computer, so no marvel i guess? no idea what his secret third project is and i've read before about how he came up with statesman and different biographical things about jack himself. so, with me TRYING to keep it broad-stroke, let me shoot out a few cox questions...
1 - Will "City of" get back on a quarterly schedule with new issues, vs this 6-7 month schedule since COV came out?
B - Will "City of" issues start having both hero and villain content? maybe just a few powersets per side, vs 6-8 for one side, or opposites sets, i.e. fire v ice, darkness v light, chocolate v ice cream. perhaps also shared zones, sort of like how faultline is split up north/south & a dam/tunnels in the middle, with a small section of the zone being pvp, the other sections accesible only to one side or the other? and NO nerfs (as was the case every issue up until 8 i believe, nerfs that is)?
III - i too am curious about the multilevel option being added for bases, along with a semi-auto base designer. i.e. say that i really like how arachnos/cot/longbow/whomever's bases are designed, there could be cookie cutter rooms based off that mob's normal maps, which you can then edit as you desire.
Is there any chance of Cox getting interactive attacks where the character and the target (or vice verra) actually interact with each other in the animation as oposed to interacting with an effect, similar to what Gods & Heroes is doing?
What is the best way for one to go about getting an education to work in the computer gaming/mmo industry?
I plan on going to college for computer programming soon but I've seen ad's on TV for colleges that actually have game design classes now, something that has never been available in the past. I wonder if this is better than actually going for computer programming or not? I want to create software and code games and such so I think programming would be what I need to learn. Also, Is there any other classes that would help my future as a game designer/developer? Such as English, Economics, business, etc....
What kind of programming should I really focus on? Any and all help would be very much appreciated. Programming is such a huge and varied field. There are all types of code and programming out there and I think alot of people are daunted by all of this and I imagine alot of people would like to know exactly what kind of programming or classes they should really apply themselves at.
Thank you and keep up the good work. As a comic book and game fan it's so nice to finally have the game out that I've been wishing would be out since my childhood days. Now if only I could somehow expose myself to toxic waste or some form of gamma rays and actually gain super powers instead of losing my hair and body limbs, then I'd have it made : )
Once Marvel MMO drops and players get to interact with real super heroes/villains that we've all grown up reading and watching, what plans (if any) does he have to keep players interested in CoH/CoV?
What's going to keep players interested in battling the Backalley Brawler when they can challenge Magneto in the Marvel game?
The powers were always severely limited, and the brawling fre attack thing was a wimpy dinky puch.
In all my time reading and understanding comics, I've noticed that the brawling stuff is always done a lot more than constantly using powers. Whereas the City games force you to always use your powers. The big thing that worries me right now, being a guy who has always wanted a true Marvel hero MMO, is that the limits in cryptic's City games would translate exactly over to the Marvel Universe game.
So to summarize. Is Marvel Universe going to use the COH/COV power system/ battle system, or will it be something unique and different? Will you have a system for combat more like COH/COv as it is now, or will you add some freebie attacks for everyone that don't work like powers, like Marvel Ultimate Alliance has?
While I know it's soemthing that can't really be told right now, I'm hopign that you opt for a more fast-paced fighting system, than the COH/COV system that puts me to sleep during a fight because it's jsut pushing the same buttons over and over till someone ends up dying.
Although I will give you the benefit of the doubt, due to the fact that the time I was able to playtest COV, I was almost totally engaged with the game for nearly the entire two weeks. By far out of all the MMO's that are in the works, Marvel Universe Online has me the most excited, and the most worried. I just hope that it is indeed goign to be a game that is unlike any other previous MMO's so that the MMO genre gets at least a little varied in the way games are played.
Ian
Some questions for Statesman (although I doubt he can answer most of them! :-):
- What are the key lessons you've learned from CoH/V that will shape the development of future MMOGs from Cryptic Studios?
- How do you see MUO being a different experience from CoH/V?
- MUO is in the interesting position of recreating at least part of New York City. How big a part of New York is going to recreated for MUO?
- Where do you see the future of microtransactions and RMTs heading for MMOGs? Is it the way of the future, an alternate payment system to subscriptions, a flash in the pan or something else all together?
- As a father myself, I know how hard it is to balance both work and home life. How do you balance out the needs of a young family with the needs of a MMOG development studio? And are they really that different ;-)?
I'd like hints on upcoming powersets... from previous interviews we know there is a lot of powersets that were designed for the now cancelled paid expension that was due in 2007... and they they have been set to be released in upcoming free issues.
Is there any plans for additional PvP modes (once base raids finally get implemented). Such as Task Force vs Strike Force, or just being able to enter missions set in PvP areas.
Any chance on expending powersets, powerpool, or adding new APPs? Any chance of further character devellopment? Will you ever consider adding more levels?
Pistols: Scrapper or Blaster?
For an old vet who's seen most of the content, what is there in the future of CoX to keep him hoping and thrilled?
1 cuz i spent 50 bazillion years farming hammies!!!
2 cuz i don't want it higher
everything else they put as reasons were even dumber than those.
Been playing CoX for 2.5 years now and I'm very present on the message boards.
I don't know where you get the idea that the players don't want more levels... there's always new threads requesting this...
It's the devs that don't want to have more levels. They claim they don't want to implement content for the top 5% of the server population... MMOs are all about the "carrot", I mean that they are all about the reward being dangled in front of your nose making you want to keep going. More cool stuff at the end means more people trying to get there.
Because this position has been taken by the devs... they themselves have develloped strong catering to players who will only play the first 30 levels of the game. This kills any pleading for more levels. There is group of players that wants every reward moved to early levels like capes and auras... there is also a strong "fanboi" community... people that will support any dev decision. So yes, there will be people on message boards fighting the idea of having more levels. But they do not represent the entire community.
They have finally decided to "add more end game content" which I believe is bull... they are simply introducing the "invention system". It's like adding crafting to an MMO and saying hey now you have end game content... now you can knit til your arms fall off grandma.
They are confusing "having something to do" with "getting unique and challenging content you can look forward to when reaching lvl X". By their standard, they could introduce a minigame of tic-tac-toe and call it end game content.