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Voyage Century Interviews: Interview with William Zang
MMORPG.com had the opportunity to sit ask ten questions to William Zang, the Product Communication Supervisor on IGG's Voyage Century.
By Guest Writer on May 18, 2007
| MMORPG.com: | Voyage Century has been growing strong in the MMO Asian market. How well do you feel the game will transfer to the West? |
| William Zang: | Voyage Century won a great reputation in eastern Asian and has tens of millions of players. We decided to bring this game to the western audience since we believe Voyage Century, which was set on the 17th Century navigation age, will easier to be accepted by western audience. We are confident that Voyage Century will also win players' heart in North America and other western world. Now, Voyage Century has nearly 1 million players. As IGG grows more and more mature and with our professional promotion campaign. I believe this number will keep on increasing. |
| MMORPG.com: | Voyage Century does not charge a monthly fee. Can you tell us about the business plan of the game that allows players to buy items? |
| William Zang: | We offer free service to all registered player of Voyage Century and enable more players to experience the fun and high quality that Voyage Century brings. While enjoy the game, some players always wants to be strong, to be larruping and to be the best. With the help of the premium items from the item mall, they can achieve their goal. This is our concept of operating Voyage Century. |
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| MMORPG.com: | Does this system of payment make running the in game economy difficult? How do you balance player's payments both in and out of game? |
| William Zang: | I don't think the premium items will break the economic balance in game and the fact is that this kind of situation has never happened. The reason is that we set the item brought from the item mall unexchangeable avoiding in game economy confusion.
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| MMORPG.com: | What was it like creating a game in the 17th century genre? It is certainly a different game world than typical fantasy MMOs. |
| William Zang: | Of course Voyage Century has a completely different game style from the other fantastic and science fiction games. Voyage Century, which boasts its beep historical background and voyage culture, is striving to give players a real gaming experience of every aspect of 17th century life. |
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| MMORPG.com: | Experience in Voyage Century does not come from combat alone. Can you tell us some of the ways players can develop their characters without fighting? |
| William Zang: | In Voyage Century, players will not only gain experience by fighting and killing. Every activity in Voyage Century can bring character experience. And every activity represents a kind of skill including fishing, timber felling, healing, repairing, farming, sewing and other fighting skills. These all are important skills in Voyage Century, when players use these skills, their experience will increase.
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| MMORPG.com: | In choosing the 17th century as your backdrop, what type of character classes are available to players? |
| William Zang: | As Voyage Century has a strong historical background and everything in the Voyage Century is taken from history. We consult the class system and the rank of nobility in every related country and bring them into Voyage Century, ranging from Royal Highness to Shogun. Players can win these titles by completing tasks and quests. |
| MMORPG.com: | Can you tell us about the combat in the game? Can players fight in nautical battles? |
| William Zang: | Players are free to launch a battle at sea. When their battle begins, players can use cannon, grappling, mine and ram to fight against their enemies. The whole battle involves a lot of strategies and requires players to react quickly according to the situation. |
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| MMORPG.com: | Aside from the nautical combat what type of fighting can players expect on land? |
| William Zang: | Regarding to the land battle, we have the ordinary land battle system which takes a large part of the land battle. We also have the siege war system that enable players to siege cities, protect cities and develop cities. |
| MMORPG.com: | Can you talk a little about why Exploration is so important in the game? |
| William Zang: | The navigation age is featured for its great geographic discoveries. So Voyage Century also highlights this and makes it into one of the shining points. Raiding in their boat, players can sail around the world exploring the virgin land. |
| MMORPG.com: | What is the future of Voyage Century? Are their expansions planned? Updates? |
| William Zang: | Regarding to the future development of Voyage Century, the developer has never stoped adding new element in to the game. The opening of some ports in American Continent has been put on the schedule. In the future, the marriage system and housing system will also be taken into consideration. So, new elements are the source vigor for Voyage Century and will make Voyage Century fresh forever. |
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First, repair long bug! Repair weapon system (like axe lvl8,9.10)politics (war forever ? why guild cant take neutral ??) multyaccount (this is very funy system, 2k account but 200 players?!) bunishment (maybe any coolingtime ?) etc etc. stupid scroll (exp from money? reaaaally good system, this is balansed game
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Thank you and good luck
Im sorry my poor english.
There are certainly more updates in the Chinese version, which Snailgame manages easily. Can't say the same for IGG's version, though.
What is the website or name for the chinese version?
Without a doubt, this game has all the potential to be the number 1 MMORPG.
Unfortunately, it is being mismanaged into oblivion. The game is "forever free", yet to be even remotely competitive, expect to spend upwards of $100 per month on points to compensate for the game's severely flawed "balance". The interview states that items purchased with real money are not exchangeable...this is an outright lie, and there are hundreds of characters selling these items in all the major ports.
They refer to this game as a grinder, but that is the biggest understatement I've ever heard... There are 100 levels in each skill, and beyond level 41, expect 24/7 for a week solid to get ANY level in combat. Expect worse with crafting...days and days of collecting materials, only to repeatedly fail, and fail, and fail. The game isn't designed to be played, it is designed to log into and walk away for a week...hopefully when you come back you gain a level, but most likely you've been killed by someone who wanted your spot to AFK in. I swear, at least 50% of the characters online are unmanned AFK levelers (many are dead and have been for days), and of the remaining, you can bet that half are "alts" that are being dragged around to complete otherwise impossible missions, and another 20% are AFK vending (which is actually a cool way to make some coins with your unwanted items without infringing on your gameplay time...but as mentioned above, many are selling "mall items" which are purchased with real money). All in all, there's 3 servers at about 1/2 capacity, and nearly 3/4 of that population isn't even a person...so don't expect much conversation, especially since close to 25% of the players are not English speaking... There used to be 4 servers, but the DaGama and Cook servers were merged following a "dupe bug" exploitation that nearly vacated the DaGama server...Cook server (which was significantly newer, and had only lower leveled players) was forced to move to the DaGama server, where they are facing a huge disadvantage to a "superguilds" with "ubercharacters" which have gained supreme power through exploiting the bugs.
The game is full of bugs, and there's an abundance of players willing to exploit every single one of them. Players are limited to 8 of 17 skills, so they must run 2, 3, 4, 5, or more characters simultaneously to compensate. The guild structure has no feasible diplomacy, and PvP is so ridiculously flawed, allowing players to attack without repurcussion, and penalizing the player who was attacked. There is a perpetual state of warfare in the guild system, because one cannot switch the stance of a guild from hostile to neutral or friendly. Players engaging in PvP fairly (ie: "marked" as notorious) are subject to loss of all items (including those purchased with real money) and are relentlessly pursued by severely overpowered NPC ships (from every nation, not just the nations that "should" be hostile), while any player may attack them without penalty or risk...and they can keep coming back until they finally do kill the "marked" notorious player. Eventually, you will end up in prison (this can happen accidentally, thanks to the flawed PvP) where you can simply leave your computer running for your entire sentence (there was a recent incidence of 14 months of real time! although 3 to 12 hours is more common) The "letter of marque" feature is not working, and there is a list of players who are "wanted" yet bounty hunting them will lead to being "marked" as notorious... The method of offering a reward is restricted so severely that you cannot reasonably expect justice should you be unscrupulously attacked. Pirate players roam the seas and extort money from players, who can opt to either pay or engage in PvP (and earn notoriety for refusing to pay) The game's political structure is absolutely inconcieveable...one NPC pirate will attack you, and the nation of "Spanish" (Spain) will declare hostility on you (and every nation, including England will sink you on site for being Spain's enemy...this is supposed to be historically accurate???)
There are of course, and abundance of spawn campers, and the unscrupulous sort who will enter your battles and steal your quarry and drops...that is of course if they don't outright kill you while you are loading back to the sea after a boarding... And recently there's a large migration from the snailgame hosted "Voyage Century" where players with years of experience are putting their knowledge to work on the comparably "amateur" players in the IGG version of the game (and of course exploiting all the bugs and "farming" in the less competitive IGG servers.
As for support, forget it. The ingame "live support" was removed two months ago. The current support strives to perform, but they are severely limited by the fact that none of them speak English, and rely on translation software which is at best unreliable. The entire game is so poorly translated that support is overrun by requests for clarification. Nomenclature within the game is utterly nonexistent, and items required by quests are often called 3 or 4 (or more) diffenet names throughout the course of a task (and often called something other than what they are anywhere else in the game.
It is a shame to see such a great theme and wonderful game design being destroyed by IGG. This game was "Beta tested" by the public, and then everyone was given a great big spiel about the "final version" being released...it was a huge letdown for all...NOTHING was changed. The "Beta" had players purchasing items and the characters were not reset, even following the "dupe bug" scandal that managed to vacate an entire server.
The game's forums are full of complaints, mostly about lack of support, and IGG's failures at providing a decent product for a fair price, and lack of concern for customer satisfaction (in fact, IGG tells customers nothing whatsoever, except to spend more money on ridiculous promotions for items that are otherwise not selling) The game is riddled with pop-up boxes ever 5 to 10 minutes (covering up icons that we players are likely using, and often as not, at a very inopportune time, like in the middle of a boarding action)
Further, IGG refuses to take any action on the EULA/TOS. Players are free to conduct themselves however they wish, with no risk of penalty, and this has lead to an atmosphere not fit for the faint of heart, and definitely innappropriate for children. Many players have left because of this.
In all, I am certain that the imbalances are designed to deliberately drive players into using the "item mall". Poorly documented, it is very easy to make a poor descision that you will need to correct later (using purchased points), pets are available, but expect to pay $11usd to get one (provided you succede on the first attempt) and at least $6usd per month to keep it healthy (and easily two million game currency daily to feed it)...but you can buy currency in the item mall...1000 points = 10 million coins (and $51usd)
This is the most expensive game I have ever played, BAR NONE.
In the span of 6 months, it has cost as much as 4 "comparable" games for 2 years ("comparable" is used figuratively, as this game is not comparable to any "released" game...it lacks any sense of being finished, tested, updated, or even remotely cared for) On a scale of 1 to 10, this game gets a -2. So very disappointing, as it had so much potential, yet if it were managed with any reasonable competence, it could easily be the top MMORPG within a year. If IGG would simply fix it, and listen to what the players are saying they want, most players would gladly pay to play... Unforunately IGG seems to only speak the language of silence (unless they are asking people to buy stuff in the most butchered rendition of English I have ever witnessed... I myself, have returned to my old game, where it costs me $10/month, and I get premium service...in English!
I love the idea of house and marriage systems! The marines part is unbelievably addictive and travelling, or voyaging, is mega fun. The game does have great potential, but it doesn't mean that it is not good as it is now. It is by far better than most other f2p games.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was never housing or marriage system in VCO, at least not when I used to play..
IGG is killing a game with great potential, that's all.
What is the future of Voyage Century? Are their expansions planned? Updates?
Regarding to the future development of Voyage Century, the developer has never stoped adding new element in to the game. The opening of some ports in American Continent has been put on the schedule. In the future, the marriage system and housing system will also be taken into consideration. So, new elements are the source vigor for Voyage Century and will make Voyage Century fresh forever.
Right there it says marriage system and housing system.
I was saying that having a house on the shore would be nice and it would also be cool to have the ability of getting married. I didn't say that it was already there, and I don't believe that is ruining potential. Nothing to get mad about.
Honestly I think it will be a good time filler for players waiting for PotBS, but honestly, I think POTBS will kill the games American population.