A really quick Interview with the Producer/Lead Designer of Greed Monger

Deriums

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/appleton/greed-monger-a-crafting-focused-sandbox-mmorpg/posts update #8

 

 

So what is Greed Monger? What sets it apart from the saturated MMO market?

Greed Monger is a True Sandbox MMORPG, meaning there will be a multitude of skills to level, every finished item in the game will be crafted by players and there is no pre-defined story line to follow. Instead, the story line will open up as the community reach milestones in the worlds development. This is also a Free To Play Game Without a cash shop. Most other free to play games have some sort of micro-transaction shop to generate revenue often leading to people being upset with some of these shops becoming Pay To Win scenarios. Instead of cash shops for power up items and the like, we are trying to be innovative in our approach to revenue and are establishing a means of revenue generation that is mutually beneficial to the player and us. Players will be able to purchase Parcels Of Land from us for $20 each with each parcel being large enough to build a home with some extra land for farming, crafting etc. The more parcels you own adjacent to one another, the larger a home you can build and the more you can store in them etc. The housing in Greed Monger will be non instanced, meaning you wont be zoning in and out of them. If in the future a player decides to leave the game, they can sell their entire estate (house and everything in it including the land) for real US Currency on our Estate Auction System at which point we will take 15% of the total sale amount. What happens here is, someone may have purchased a parcel for $20 at launch, played for a year and built up quite an estate full of rare items, materials etc. As parcels of land are less available and demand for the game has increased, parcels will increase in their value thus resulting in a higher sale rate than the players purchase price. This helps them get a return on their investment of not only money, but in their time playing in our world. This is a mutually beneficial relationship between the dev team and the player that doesn’t result in a “Pay To Win” cash shop. 

So you mention it's a sandbox game, does this mean there are no levels? No raids? What will people do in this world?

Sandbox doesn’t mean there won’t be progression or raids. There will be skills, but no levels and your skills will level with use. Players will engage each other with community projects such as building community buildings for all to use, raid’s, hunting trips, farming, PVP etc. The world will begin to open up for the players more as it’s being developed by the players. For example, if players gather together and walk over a land area they may get an “idea” that a Tavern would fit nicely there and be prompted to “dig in”. At this point, the player has established the foundation for a community building not owned by any other players, but can built using resources and materials gathered by other players until it’s finished. Once finished, the building will be branded as having been “founded” by the player with the most contributions in it’s build out and NPC’s will emerge to offer new things to do. These types of community projects will be found all over the world on top of players developing their own homes and land.

When you first log on there will be no buildings, and no NPCs. Can you tell us what’s to be expected when we first log on? What about the following months? Will everything be dependent on what players build?

When players first log into Greed Monger, Kickstarter Backers will be placed on land they own. The rest will be placed randomly throughout the world. At this point, they can begin harvesting, chopping trees etc to gather the materials they need to begin crafting tools for future projects etc. Months down the road, players will find themselves exploring new climates of untouched land from which to explore and build on. Furthermore, players will find an ever growing list of skills to level, items to craft and monsters to hunt, along with puzzles to figure out leading to answers relating to why they are there to begin with…

You have player owned homes, Many games have scraped this idea because they served as extra bank storage. Why do you have them? Are they something so important that someone would not be able to play unless they bought one? And what functions will they serve?

Homes will serve a variety of functions but the land players purchase will play just as much of a role. Monsters, animals and harvestable resources could easily spawn anywhere in the world so for something to spawn on a player owned parcel is very likely, though other players will only have access to these things if they are given time rights by the owner, often at a price in gold. Houses will be your storage, your shop, your trophy house etc. You will be able to place NPC’s in your home to sell items for you while away. You’ll be able to craft crafting stations to put in or around your house where you will work. You will decorate your home with the heads of animals or beasts you’ve killed after they have been mounted by someone with the skills to do so. Options will continue to open up over time. No, you won’t have to own a house to do well in Greed Monger, it will just make it a lot more fun and help you garner some return on your investment later on.

No NPCs at launch! Or buildings! How will NPCs show up? And what purpose will they serve?

How they will show up has been answered but their purposes will vary based on where in the world they are and who they are. Some will provide you with clues to puzzles for you to figure out, some will help treasure hunters find hidden treasures or dangerous adventures. You never know what the NPC’s will have up their sleeve. What they won’t do is tell you to kill ten rats and bring them their tails.

You sure do mention Ultima Online a lot, and you state you are basing this game off of that. Games like Mortal Online and Dark Fall said the same, but they seemingly failed to deliver. Why do you think you'll be able to when they couldn't?

I don’t know what those games set out to be. I’ve played them both, but both are also very much focused on PVP whereas Greed Monger is focused more on crafting, the economy, politics, rares etc. I just don’t think there is any real comparison.
Do you feel there is any room in the market for a game based on UO?

Greed Monger isn’t based on UO, it’s inspired by it and yes, I feel strongly there are many people, like me, who have been waiting years for something that had the spirit of Ultima Online and brought it to the 3D era. 

You mentioned that even if Kickstarter failed, you'd still move ahead with the project. Why is that, and do you think you will not find the support from Kickstarter?

When I set out to begin development of Greed Monger, I wasn’t even planning on using Kickstarter at all because I just wasn’t all that aware of what it was exactly. I read an article about it and thought, that would be a great way to test the market and see if there is actually a demand for my idea. I tried putting a product concept up a while back but had no idea what I was doing and my product idea was rejected. Since then I had never given Kickstarter a 2nd thought.I’ve literally waited over a decade for something that brings the best of Ultima Online to the modern era and have been let down every single time I tried “the next big thing.” I don’t expect Greed Monger to be the next big thing. I expect it to bring the UO community of old together again in a place they will truly appreciate and help flourish. I don’t want a game with hundred of kids talking about Chuck Norris in Global Chat. I’m building the game that I’ve always wanted since playing UO and hope there are others out there who feel the same way. As far as I’m concerned, Kickstarter isn’t as much of a gauge of interest as I was hoping. Not because the people who frequent Kickstarter aren’t interested in Greed Monger, but I’m ultimately asking those people to pledge their hard earned money in a bad economy on the premise that I will be able to complete what they are paying me ahead of time for. That’s a pretty tall order for an unknown developer. I’m prepared to fund the game myself because I don’t honestly expect the campaign to reach the funding goals because right now, I’m nobody. I’m hopeful that we reach our goals because of course it will speed everything up immensely but I’m not counting on it. I’ve already turned out down two different investment offers to help with the game because I don’t want investors telling me what to do with my game to “make it more profitable”. That’s why we have all the crap we have today. I’m not doing this for the profit potential, I’m doing this because when I set my mind to something, I get it done and what my mind is set on is getting the best sandbox MMO in the spirit of Ultima Online, made. When I got into mixed martial arts, I was overweight and just joined a fight team to lose weight. A year later I was one of the top pro/am promoters in the country and took a local amateur show to national live television featuring fighters of the UFC and other major organizations. I’ve built the careers of several fighters from their beginnings as amateurs up to multi fight contracts with major promotions. When I got into the sport, I knew nothing and knew nobody. I didn’t have any contacts, I didn’t have friends to call, I just did it my way learning as I went. I kept my nose clean, put on amazing shows by bringing the right people together for production, I did all the marketing myself on a local and national level, negotiations with television networks, fighter managers etc. I was the guy everyone knew to call if you were cut from the UFC. People knew I was a no BS guy who did what he said and if you won your fights, I’d promote the hell out of you and that was it. People respected me and my ability to help their careers. The difference here is, I fell into that whole business. It was never my passion. Gaming has been my passion since I was a child and not just playing them but creating them. Hell I remember a program on the Commodore 64 called Musashi that would let you create your own game levels. I LOVED IT! The point I’m making here in this rambling, is that Greed Monger is being developed because it needs to be and nobody has stepped up to do it but me and I’m going to see it through. My income is sufficient to see this project through and I have plenty of people wanting to invest if I really needed it. 

What about end game? Is this game only about building a house? If that's true, why not just play minecraft and do it all much faster?

That’s a funny question. There is no end game. The world doesn’t end it just gets better. The more you accomplish the more there will be to accomplish and when everything in the world has been accomplished, you will witness an “awakening” that will not only answer many questions that will have the community buzzing until this day, but you will find a whole new world of options…

Why does the GreedMonger Website have broken links?

Honestly, because I haven’t fixed them. I will be installing a web designer to take over the web administration soon, but for now I’ve been doing it all myself. I have big plans for the website but some of them are out of my technical ability so I honestly just put something up for to get some information out there and focused on getting the discussion forums working well. That’s where the meat is anyway for now. I’m working on fixing some of the issues with the broken links now though since you brought them to my attention.