EXCLUSIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE MMORPG.COM COMMUNITY:
Q: It's been a long time since any studio focused on holding in game events with the players LIVE. Ultima Online being the one everyone points to. Do you think this is something you can do on a regular basis?
A: We’re always planning live events for our players and are releasing them on a very regular basis. One of our goals with Firefall is to create a truly unique experience where there’s always something different going on in the world. For example, on top of the Chosen Offensive event, we’re also running a live event called “Codename: Crossfire,” where the Chosen forces are facing off against bandits and/or other Accord soldiers, and players get to join the Accord forces in extinguishing both the Chosen and bandit threats. These live events, along with our dynamic events, really change the environment for the players and we’re definitely planning on new and exciting live events for the future.
Q: What about pushing the narrative? Would you ever use these events to sort of write the story for the world, based on the outcome?
A: We have a lot of flexibility for these live events in terms of what direction we would like to take the players. That said, nothing is ever out of the question here at Red 5 and we would love to explore ways where we can tie the live events into the game’s lore.
Q: If you could do the event over, what would you change about it? Something you learned for next time?
A: If we were to run this event again, we’d like to bring in additional variations of Chosen bosses. Right now the players are only able to engage the menacing Chosen Earthbreaker boss, but I’d be very interested in seeing other types of Chosen bosses with different abilities assaulting New Eden. It would give players a much more dynamic experience. On top of that, we’ve learned a lot from the event and will use that knowledge on how to improve our future ones!Players are invited to attend the third and final Chosen Offensive. The developers will be suited up in elite Chosen monstrosities and will be taking on the players in a battle royal. The event is slated to take place on Sunday, October 5th from 11:00 a.m. PDT to 2:00 p.m. PDT (2:00 p.m. EDT - 5:00 p.m. EDT). Developers were trounced last week by the players and devs are out for revenge.
Scott Rudi, Director of Design at Red 5 Studios, had a few words to share about the epic experiences from both the players’ and developers’ perspective.
Q: How did the idea for the Chosen Offensive events begin?
A: The idea behind the Chosen Offensive actually began back during the final months of beta when we did the Doomsday event, which was a similar engagement where we (the development team) hopped into the game as elite Chosen bosses. The original thought to do this came around during a brainstorming session on creating more challenging content and someone joked, “Why don’t we go in the game as bosses and kill the players?” We ran with it and the rest of it is history!
Q: What has been the reaction from fans?
A: We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our player-base for the Chosen Offensive events. Not only is it a challenging way to keep our players on their toes, it also gives us the opportunity to connect with our fans directly. It’s cool and refreshing to see our players post screenshots and videos of the encounter along with a message, “Thanks for allowing me to rearrange your face 5 times over, RudiKazootie.” I’m pleasantly surprised with how cool our players are and how much they get into the event – they have fun fighting with us and we have a great time hanging out with them online.
Q: Can you share any cool stories about unexpected results from the Chosen Offensive?
A: I think the coolest part about the Chosen Offensive is the level of interest we received. From the first Chosen Offensive weekend alone, we were able to raise our concurrent user-base by over 200% which was absolutely amazing. These results along with the overall community enjoyment factor really motivate us in coming up with more creative content for the players in the future.
Q: How does the dev team prepare for the Chosen Offensive event?
A: (Laughs) Well first we worked our butts off to get the event set up, and then we have a briefing for everyone who will be participating in the event to go over how we want the overall event to go as well as go over some ground rules, like no jumping into the middle of Copacabana and nuking all the new players who’re just trying to learn how to open their world map (as tempting as that sounds, really). After that we all just jump online and have a great time with the players.
Q: Describe the Chosen Offensive from the player’s point of view.
A: We’ve had multiple players give very different accounts of the Chosen Offensive encounter, but I think one of my favorite ones started off with something like, “I was biking my way to Copa and then I saw a Chosen Earthbreaker fly over my head, raining death on the town.” I mean, most players probably look for our locations in zone chat, but it’s refreshing to hear that some players just get sucked into this epic boss battle while going about their own business. It’s this type of uncertainty in our encounters that I think makes it extremely fun and unique.
Find out more about the event on the Firefall site.
