TERA has continued to deliver in game demos at shows. How close are these demos to the full game play experience?

Let’s start by saying that the demos are in fact actual gameplay. All of the graphics, and the history and lore elements provided by the demonstrators, are taken straight from the game. But the demo only scratches the surface of the full TERA experience.

TERA gameplay starts at character creation, and in our opinion never really ends. There’s as much to do at level 60 as in all the levels leading up to it, and that’s just on release day. We’ll keep providing a complete and dynamic game experience for as long as our customers choose to share their time with us.

One area in TERA that has not been talked about much is PvP. Can you tell us about some of the PvP elements to the game?

TERA has an amazing PvP system, which we believe will satisfy and excite all kinds of gamers. Depending on their location in the game, players (and their characters, of course) can initiate friendly duels, outright PK, or arrange mass battles with up to 20 players. There’s even an “iron man deathmatch” option in which one player can face off against up to 10 opponents! We are also actively exploring options for both PvE and PvP exclusive realms, as well as cross-server battlegrounds and end-game content.

What are the plans for TERA this fall? Are you back in the studio polishing the game for beta and launch?

Most definitely! Here in the office we say that MMOs do not have release dates, they have launch dates. As soon as we feel the game is ready for everyone to enjoy as much as we do, it will go back out for testing, come back in for revisions, and then emerge better and bigger than ever. The builds we showed at PAX are a direct result of the great response and feedback we got from focus group testing earlier this year, and gameplay mechanics are just one part of it. We continue to work on the story and characters players will encounter when they share our world, and we won’t be happy until we think we’ve created the best experience possible.

Click the image above to watch a video walkthrough of the demo shown at PAX.

TERA offers an action combat system that is very fast paced. Do you fear this could be repetitive in terms of leveling? Getting new skills drives players to level, how will this work with the fast paced combat system you have?

We think players will agree it doesn't feel repetitive at all. Players learn new skills at each even-numbered level, so there are always new combinations and new tactics to explore, but that’s not the only thing gained by leveling up. Characters can access new quests, explore more areas, and equip more powerful weapons and armor as they progress. I’m tempted to turn the question around and say the combat is so much fun it’s easy to lose sight of all our game has to offer.

What I will say is that I’ve been leveling up characters from the first day I joined the team, and after 10 months and dozens of characters of all races and classes, I have yet to tire of any of them.

In terms of TERA’s lore, is there some element to the story you have not yet spoken about and really feel the players are missing?

Insert knowing smile here. We’ve got so many surprises in store for our players, including content in areas we’ve already shown to the public. Every day we think of another way to improve upon the story of TERA, because as they say in our demos, “TERA doesn’t have a story—TERA is a story.”

In the boss fights we have seen for TERA, each player receives separate loot, will this be the norm in all raids?

In group play, the party leader determines item drop sharing. We’re still evaluating our raid and battleground options for cooperative play, and as soon as that feature is ready for the public, we’ll discuss it on our forums and with the press.

TERA is part of the MMO 2.0 class of new games. How do you feel it fits into the industry currently?

We believe that TERA is a true next-generation MMO. It’s tempting to compare it to other products on the market today, but that’s not fair to either ourselves, our colleagues in the industry, or to our fans. Our game is so big and so original that trying to contain it in one single sentence is like comparing applesauce to apple pie. There’s no one way to make either, and fans of apples will like both without having to feel one is better than the other.

Is there any news you can give us on beta and when players will get their first chance at the game?

It may seem like a pat answer, but we highly recommend that anyone interested in TERA go to our website (www.tera-online.com) and become part of our forum community. Not only is it the place for the most up-to-date news about our game and a portal to the rich lore and history of the world, but we look first to our forum members for feedback, suggestions, and assistance. When we’re ready to make announcements about a wider game distribution, we’ll start there.