Warhammer Online: Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett, Part Two
Joe Iuliani and Anthony Love attended the recent Games Day for Games Workshop's Warhammer. Of course, EA Mythic had a presence, and Joe and Anythony were able to catch up with that team's dynamic duo Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett for an interview. Enjoy part two!
Joe:
With the public quests, as you mentioned before, the community of Warhammer Online is the driving focus?
Jeff:
I think that's the driving focus of any MMO.
Joe:
You would think, but a lot of games are like do this, turn in, do this turn in. Or just LFG, LFG.
Jeff:
If you talk to Mark Jacobs, the first thing he'll say about public quests, "It's my way of trying to help people, of meeting other people" and he's right, there are a lot things that public quests do. That's one of the big things you're in that area and not grouped with anybody but there are so many people online already there doing the same things you're doing. "you wanna come help me? Oh cool, let's get together, we can do this better".
;)
Paul:
It's an evolution of the questing system. It's saying what about MMOs do people really love? It's doing a quest that means something. I like having a lot of fun, they like doing big things and the way it's been done in the past, you forced people to group. What we've done is given people the ability to just go in and say, "My God, there's a giant over there and he's smashed the hell out of that wall, and I'm gonna go help." That's why you can join up at anytime, you join at any stage, there are three hundred of them (public quests) across the land. They're all epic, we just saw one recently that ends with a dwarven train...
Jeff:
A huge train with vents and steam everywhere.
Paul:
It's awesome... Guys you gotta come and do this public quest it's great, and that's what we've been focusing on...
Jeff:
It'll change MMOs forever, and that's the thing. Look at public quests; we've cornered the market on PVP. Look at Dark Age of Camelot, which is foundational to the RvR system in Warhammer. You take the greatness of RvR in DAoC and multiple it by a thousand. That's Warhammer's RVR and we have some many features that are head and shoulders above.
Even the Tome of Knowledge, which is a scrapbook of your history in the game it's so much more than that.
;)
Paul:
The Tome of Knowledge is one of those things, people think they understand what it is. You don't understand what it is. You have to play the game, it's integrated throughout the entire game. It's where you find out where you need to explore, where you find out the history, where you build your diary, where you collect your journal, where you unlock features, where you gain new skills. It's everything you've always wanted, the reason why you should never have to minimize the window and go to another website.
Anthony:
Will everybody's diary be different then?
Jeff:
Absolutely.
Paul:
The diary will belong to the person at the keyboard, not the character. The character can unlock things, and the character can do things, but the diary is something that belongs to you. It's you bothering to pay attention, it's your joy and that's what's important. When you first try and explain it to people...
Anthony:
It conjures up an image in your mind.
;)
Jeff:
It's not a quest log, it's not an encyclopedia. It is that... but times a thousand. It's every monster you've killed in the game, how many times you've killed it, but with artwork.
Paul:
It's beautiful to look at, it's great to read.
Jeff:
In the bestiary, when you encounter your first squig and you get a picture of it, and it's kind of rough drawn with just a little text about it, then after ten squigs you get a better picture of it, then you kill a hundred squigs, you get a new title: Squig Killer, you kill a thousand squigs, ten thousands squigs... Your achievements; it's every thing you've explored.
Paul:
It will change MMOs forever...
Jeff:
So, there's always a limit to data in a game The tome is living and ever growing. The tome will grow as the game grows.
Paul:
It's going to be great. It looks great now, but it's going to be great. It's got vision, it's got passion.
;)
Joe:
I got to see a little bit of WAR, at the New York Comic Con in February, and the difference in just a few months are...
Paul:
Right in the Jibbles(Greenskin ability), everybody loves that one...
Jeff:
Feed my God (Greenskin ability)...
Paul:
'ead Banger, 'ead Burster...
Joe:
Is there anything you want to get out there to the MMO crowd out there?
Paul:
Sign up for Beta.
;)
Anthony:
It's full.
Paul:
It's full?
Jeff:
Did we close sign ups?
Anthony:
It was closed yesterday.
Paul:
In that case sign up for the newsletter, make sure you subscribe to the podcast through Itunes, because they're great. You get to see Jeff and Me, try and watch us in an aspect ratio that makes us look a bit thinner and long resolution so we don't look as old.
Paul:
What else do we suggest? It's only going to get better.
;)
Jeff:
Oh yeah.
Paul:
The site has some really cool stuff. Every month we pump out more information about the game, more information about the community. We can support the guilds, support the websites. We got podcasts, we got a video diary.
Jeff:
Wait until you see our guild system. I'm not going to talk in depth about it now. Dark Ages as the foundation and we're building on Dark Age systems.
Paul:
...and come to the presentation today, and see a Skaven carrying a blood thirster's axe, it is a hoot.
Jeff:
I don't know if I'm gonna let you show that.
Paul:
Awww man...
Joe:
Ok how about just a video clip of that?
;)
[Both Laugh]
Joe:
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Paul:
Well you can at least talk about it.
[and the time runs out]
Joe:
This has been Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett.Thank you very much for meeting with us, appreciate everything.
Anthony:
Thank you very much guys.
Paul:
Oh Hello Mum, Hello Dad, Hello Kids.
Everybody:
Hey Kids!
