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Settlers of Ganareth is the focus of our latest talk with the team
Recently, Dark and Light entered a prequel phase of beta testing called "Settlers of Ganareth". The game, which is still several months away from release, has seen its buzz die down since players saw the real thing. Whether or not their expectations were fair, this puts the developers of Dark and Light in a sticky situation. We tackle some of the major issues in this new Q&A.
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MMORPG.com
[Stradden]: |
High profile MMORPGs like Dark and Light always attract a certain number of first-time MMORPG players. What does your game have to offer these “newbs”?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
As a player starts DnL, he is helped by Alchemic Dream to experiment step-by-step with each character’s skills and specialties. After his training period, he can choose to immediately attempt to conquer territories on which he practiced, or he can take his time discovering other adventures such as exploration or hunting. It is not mandatory to follow quests; players can start exploring the immersive DnL world easily, with virtually no fear! The game offers easy and customized start-up for each player according to his own preferences.
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MMORPG.com
[Stradden]: |
A number of our readers have expressed disdain with the skill tree that was made available on your website, saying that it was very sparse and lacked depth. How do you respond to this?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
The existing skill tree is dedicated to the Settlers of Ganareth. A deeper skill tree will be published soon for Dark and Light.
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| MMORPG.com: |
If our hype-meter is any estimate, Settlers of Ganareth has fallen short of some player’s expectations. Why do you believe this is?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
We feel this is because many of our fans were waiting for Dark and Light, and Settlers of Ganareth is not as deep and complete as Dark and Light will be. Thus, some players may have been disappointed by SoG. We would like to remind players that SoG has been offered for free in order to start “pressing the ground” of Ganareth, that is, exploring this huge world and conquering territories.
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| MMORPG.com: |
What have you learned from beta to date? Has it changed any of your core game ideals?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
To date, our beta testers’ biggest contribution has been their help in updating our balance system, which was not easy enough to evolve and improve. Beta testers are key to enhancing ergonomics and character handling. They also are critical to resolving many, many bugs!
Even if it is sometimes difficult for us to deal with criticism and dissatisfaction, we think the video game industry is very lucky to have the direct cooperation of its final users in creating a product. This is very rare and a great opportunity.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Based on what you’ve learned from beta so far, have you any clearer estimate of your upward server load?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
Despite the issues encountered at the opening of SoG, the server now regularly welcomes numerous simultaneous players for free game sessions. Thanks to the increased server capacity provided to SoG, we are not suffering from server overload anymore.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Are you still on target for your announced release date?
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The Dark & Light Team: |
We are still on target at the moment.
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