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[Interview] Pathfinder Online: We Want to Under Promise and Over Deliver
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
“Under promise and over deliver,” is what Ryan Dancey, the CEO of Goblin Works, is looking to do with his studio’s upcoming project Pathfinder Online. Last Monday Ryan joined me for a live interview on our MMORPG.com stream channel to tell us more about Pathfinder Online.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Pathfinder Online: Under Promise and Over Deliver.
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Comments
Sure, if you're thinking about it from a very simple perspective. Times evolve.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
Really excited to get my hands on Pathfinder, I think they have the opportunity to create a game we would never see from a traditional studio, titles like this one are posed to bring great innovation and are a breath of fresh air for an industry packed with to many to similar games.
We need different, Pathfinder online is different.
I agree, also to me "art style" is more important than "graphics". Alot of people seem to get them confused though IMO Pathfinder has both. Lets not forget Pathfinder is OGL of D&D 3.0 series.
Well, the first place you went wrong is comparing this to Dungeons & Dragons. It's not, it's Pathfinder. If you can't appreciate that difference then no amount of further posting will help.
That said, if you educate yourself on Pathfinder you will find a neat little adventure path call The River Kingdoms. In it rules are spelled out for running a kingdom with a group of players, just as you will in PFO.
Add to this that while you may be a hack and slash dungeon runner, not everyone plays D&D or Pathfinder in such a limited way. Indeed Paizo have published and entire source book called Ultimate Campaigns that is based around fleshing out the The River Kingdoms play as well as things for players to do in "down time". "Down time" is not just when you aren't running a dungeon, it is also when the DM is working directly with another person's character and not yours.
So, yes, PFO is focusing more on the Pathfinder that are outside of dungeon crawls. DDO fills the dungeon crawling angle and Pathfinder wants to, again, look beyond that limited scope of translating a table top roleplay IP to MMO.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Then you never played with a GOOD dungeon master. The best "campaigns" I ever ran where completely ad hoc. So Much so that my players got to the point they were disappointed if I came to a game session with pre-prepared material.
The reason, of course, is simple...having nothing prepared ahead and making everything up as you go means the players and their choices shape the entire experience.
It is the whole sandbox vs. Theme park thing...yep, it predates mmos back to their pen and paper roots.
Except the people who actually crowd funded it knew there'd be no levels in it before they pledged and I and many other people actually prefer that in this kind of game.
Very good interview by Mr. Dancey on MMORPG earlier this week. I encourage anyone remotely interested in this game to watch that. They have some pretty huge ambitions for this game but are using a "take it slow" approach which I like. I can't help but be excited at the kind of things he's hinting at though.
There's something very fresh about not having NPC quests running the core game-loop, but actual players deciding and dictating the where to go, who to trade with, what to fight and more.
The vision is excellent and the delivery is realistic. I think this combination is what sold PFO to me in the kickstarter most of all.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
PFO will have dungeons: They'll randomly spawn eventually and several PARTIES (size ~6 or so) of different player groups are planned to be able to enter them at a go. Part of the PvE content in Hexes that need to be discovered and explored for Adventure-minded players.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
You do realize you're talking to a 2 time iron dungeon master winner and I play a dungeons and dragons game on a regular basis. I actually know a good deal of people in the industry and a few working on this game. Thus, your comments make me chuckle.
To educate YOU on pathfinder, pathfinder is called pathfinder becausae a good deal many people hated 4e and wanted a traditional 3e experience, only cleaned up, thus came pathfinder. I still play pathfinder every week.
While we're educating, that River System is based on an ADVENTURE path called Kingmaker. KIngmaker. I ran my players through it. It's one of the best campaign arches we have ever run. IN that system, you got to build your kingdom as you progressed through a great story path. the story was very open, in that you could approach it different ways but there were still "places" you'd have to go to progress it.
IF I"m wanting "story" and "dungeons" I am not a hack and slasher. I am a role player. And without compelling NPCs, stories, plots and places, this game is not pathfinder or dungeons and dragons . It's a cash grab to make a sandbox game on the Pathfinder name. It tarnishes the company that wanted to "revive" the Dungeons and Dragons name. It's a replica of their board game like River System, not the adventure that inspired it.
If a dm ever tells you he didnt have anything planned, he's lying. That's what we tell players. IN the competitions i play in we get three plot elements and have to design an adventure for our players in an hour. Good DMs have stories, plots, npcs and everyhting in their head ready to pull out at a moments notice. We know the stats of monsters, great puzzles, good ways to twist of the story and we can do all this on the fly. Unless you tell me the computer is going to listen to me, read my mind and make these types of compelling stories I'd be hard pressed to understand how this makes the game like Pathfinder.
dontadow:
Do the RIGHT THING: come be a Paladin with us! http://ozemsvigil.guildlaunch.com/
fantasyfreak112:
Do the RIGHT THING: come be a Paladin with us! http://ozemsvigil.guildlaunch.com/
This game is what we call a sandbox. No levels, no classes. Unlike EQNext which has a restrictive class structure.
I can just hope they can deliver on their promises. I could be a very fun game where you have to interact with other players to achieve success.
Ryan is certainly trying to manage expectations, but I think the attempt to err on the side of caution in making commitments is sincere. So for Early Enrollment they've promised something on the sure side of achievable: a minimum viable product that will have basic iterations of the combat, resource gathering, and crafting systems, along with a limited set of class paths and races, and art assets. They are being very clear it won't be a finished game that you would reasonably pay retail price for. They may exceed that, but unlike developers traditionally, they are not giving us the best case scenario as a commitment.
Do the RIGHT THING: come be a Paladin with us! http://ozemsvigil.guildlaunch.com/
Ryan is certainly trying to manage expectations, but I think the attempt to err on the side of caution in making commitments is sincere. So for Early Enrollment they've promised something on the sure side of achievable: a minimum viable product that will have basic iterations of the combat, resource gathering, and crafting systems, along with a limited set of class paths and races, and art assets. They are being very clear it won't be a finished game that you would reasonably pay retail price for. They may exceed that, but unlike developers traditionally, they are not giving us the best case scenario as a commitment.
Do the RIGHT THING: come be a Paladin with us! http://ozemsvigil.guildlaunch.com/