Last week, we had the opportunity to sit down with Swordsman Online's Associate Product Manager Wayne Song to discuss the guild aspect of the new Gilded Wasteland expansion. This week, we're continuing that interview with some more from Song on the importance of PvP in the game and what role it plays in the endgame.
MMORPG.com: Gilded Wasteland has streamlined the game a bit to get players to that high-level content more quickly. Is PvP, unlocked at level 30, part of what you're driving players towards?
Wayne Song: Right, we want to help players to level quickly, letting them experience the interesting content in a natural way. We don’t want to lose those players because of a long level-up process, and we want players to enjoy the exciting PvP quickly, too.
MMORPG.com: Cross-server battlegrounds are new to the game through this expansion. How has the player response been so far?
Wayne Song: Chinese players like this new means of PvP quite a bit, and players are enthusiastic to join it. We hope US and EU players like it, too.
MMORPG.com: Tell us about the new Capture the Lion arena. How does it work?
Wayne Song: Capture the Lion is a 6v6 arena mode. The goal for Red team and Blue team is to try to seize the gold lion, and take it to the target location, then get one point. The one that gets the most points in seven minutes will win. The respawn point for each side has the black lion costume, used to grant special combat skills. Have fun with it!
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MMORPG.com: What types of differences do you find between the way PvP is played in the Chinese version versus the Western version?
Wayne Song: Chinese players and Western players will both enjoy the excitement of PvP. Generally, Chinese players may prefer to accumulate the stats, then oppress their rival from a stats advantage. Culturally, Chinese players like to be the most powerful one in game (influenced by Wuxia genre tropes of being the best). Western players may prefer the fair combat and team work you can see in our stat-agnostic PvP modes. Of course, this is a generalization and can be applied to almost every game. So, in Swordsman, we have the fair stat-neutral arena, and in the PvP in wild maps we have solo PK and team PvP.
MMORPG.com: Swordman has a strong storyline, but traditionally, story doesn't mix with PvP in an MMO. Are you finding that balance?
Wayne Song: Luckily, Swordsman’s background is a Wuxia world, so it already has PvP element, like the ideas of dramatic vengeance and masters fighting to death for the ultimate Kung fu and Jianghu rank. Some of the current PvP content in game may not exist in the original story, but it’s totally make sense in that story background. We were able to add lots of PvP content easily under the story background, allowing players to compete with others, and be the number one Kung fu master in game!
