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General: 38 Studios: A Talk with Steve Danuser
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
At NY Comic Con, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood caught up with Steve Dausner of 38 Studios. The two talked about the company's unannounced MMO and some of the expectations that come along with it, bother for their big-name stars and the rest of the team working on the project.
At New York Comic Con, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Lead Content Designer Steve Danuser from 38 Studios about the MMO that they are making in the Boston-area studio. For those of you who might not be familiar with this relatively unknown (they haven't announced even the title fo their game yet) development studio, some background may be required.
Some time back, it was announced that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, was a huge fan of MMOs, particularly of EverQuest II. Being a fan, he even did some promotional work with the folks at SOE. From there, we learned that he was beginning his own MMO development company. Not only that, but he was also bringing together two of the hottest names in geekdom, artist Todd McFarlane and writer R.A. Salvatore.
Read more here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Cant wait to hear what the game will be...here goes to wishing for a Steam Punk MMO ^^.
~HappyGaming
Id be willing to put money that it is going to be a fantasy mmo... and that darkelves will be involved somehow
actually, it is going ot be a fantasy MMO. I reported on that ages ago. as far as dark elves go... well, maybe, but Salvatore's experie3nce goes way beyond just Drizzt.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I was wondering when MMORPG would get an interview with 38 studios. I'm glad you guys said your going to be following them now.
Interesting, I never was actually expecting to see this get off the ground! Just seemed way out there at the time, but the story-driven idea sounds great if they can pull it off!
Kemih ~ 13 Red Mage | Currently playing FFXI & LOTRO, awaiting Warhammer Online & Aion...
Im Completely stunned that Curt Schilling is into MMORPG's...thats amazing. Hopefully...with Curt's money he'll develope an extremely in-depth game.
The only things I get high on are MMORPGS's
OMG! I'm stoked to experience what Salvatore writes and McFarlane designs. Should make for some great characters with strong spines and good looks.
(just don't make it 'level' based, skill based like UO/EVE please!)
UO,EQ,AC,AO,DAoC,Lin,RoE,E&B,SB,EVE,PS,SL,SWG,TT,FFXI,
HZ,CoH,L2,Ryz,EQ2,WoW,GW,RF,DDO,SR,FoM,Van,
Years ago, when household computers were a rarity and before "the internets" took off, I played PBM (Play-By-Mail) games. One of the games I played was story-driven. It was great, but there was a problem: all stories must come to an end sooner or later, but when the story ends, so does the game. The company in question didn't want to lose their cash cow, so they kept stringing the story along... until eventually all the founding players quit, and new players were reluctant to start the game because who likes tuning into the middle of a movie?
A story-drive game would be very difficult to make. I'd love to give it a try, but conceptually I don't understand how it would work, given 1) all stories must end and 2) people play at different rates and at different times.
This is going to be terrific! Lotta 38 Studios news lately, when is mmorpg.com going to set up a page so we can indulge in crazy premature speculation?
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot
why do i keep reading his name as "Steve Dinosaur"
Fantasy MMO... oh well, another pass for me. I wish I was like most and that swords and Dragons were my thing but sadly, Steam Punk is much closer to what I like lol...
YES
R.A.Salvatore story mmorpg in a fantasy world 
Its like dream come true for me. I probably read all his books i could lay my hands on and just cant wait 
I guess GL to the dev team
(Retired)- Anarchy Online/Ultima Online/DAoC/Horizonsz/EQ2/SWG/AC1&2/L2/SoR/WoW/TMO/Requiem/Atlantica Online/Manibogi/Rift+(SL)/Lol/Hon/SWTOR/Wakfu/Champions Online/GW/Lotr/CO/TcoS/Tabula Rasa/Meridian 59/Vanguard/Shadowbane/Fury/SotW/Dreamlords/HGL/RoM/DDO/FFXI/Aoc/Eve/Warhammer Online/Gw2/TSW/Tera/Defiance/STO/AoW/DE/Firefall/Darkfall/Neverwinter/PS2/ESO/FF14/Archeage/Gw2
If theres one thing that the MMO market has learned over the last 2 years is that big names on a dev list do not guarantee an MMO to be a surefire hit above all others, the same goes for other names like "Garriott" and "Mcquaid".
Sure these guys in 38 Studios are respected in their own fields, but this is a new ball park. But, a "vision" is nothing more than just a vision, if you don't have the necessary experience and know how to turn it into a reality.
Until we see results, I'll reserve judgement for now.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Oh great, another story based fantasy MMORPG. Hopefully it will be more of a sandbox and not like Lotro or DDO. Its completely ridiculous when you have hundreds of thousands of players playing through the same story events day in and day out. Help! You must save the world! That guy that just came before you already saved the world actually... but you can do it again! And the guy after you can save the world as well! In exactly the same way! Everyone is special! MMORPGs shouldn't play like single player RPGs.
Hopefully when they say story driven they mean something more like Asherons Call where every month there is a development in the story. Every now and then a one time event. Not a MMORPG on rails.
And if they insist on going the fantasy route, I hope they develop their own unique races and fauna instead of rehashing elves, dwarves, and dragons yet again.
With Salvatore behind the story and McFarlane behind the art I think we can expect a bit more than a simple rehash.
On a related note, I've been looking at some of the work that the 38 Studios art team has done for this year's dominance war, and it's actually pretty impressive.
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot
In my mind MMORPG is a newone to me, you can play a game with other players on the internet and also make friends. competition is the vital element in the game, so I like MMORPG.
@ Burtzum:
But how would you actually implement a game in which multiple people COULD all save the world, yet in different ways? Say you've got 1,000,000 players playing your game, you're going to have to come up with 1,000,000 different evil overlords/diabolic rituals/armies of doom/portals to hell/etc etc all in the same world.
That's one pretty f----d up world, wouldn't you say?
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see an MMO where each player drives the story, but I don't see how it could actually be made...
You can almost be guarenteed that there will be Elves, Dwarves and the like in the game 38 makes. And you can be pretty sure about Dark Elves as well.
I read a interview with R.A. about the game and when asked if Dark Elves would be in, he didnt say yes, but he did say that he sees no reason to stray away from what he is known for.
From what i have heard they are going to try to make this a into the whole package deal, MMO, Books, Comics, Figures, etc.
I have hope for this game, but not too much hope.
This release and the MMO by Bioware (Forgotten Realms PLEASE, sorry to all you who hate fantasy but i love Forgotten Realms) are what i am really looking forward to some real info on.
You wouldn't. Not in the way you were suggesting. I wasn't suggesting that. You could have the devs implement a unique quest during some months.
An example from Asherons Call: For months these floating crystal shard enemies were appearing in the world. There were some larger ones in the depths of dungeons that players were killing, for the challenge as well as the rewards that doing so gave. You could only kill them once. And it was a huge undertaking. Whoever did the most damage had their name broadcast on the channels. And got "phat lewt". But throughout the months there were books found that hinted that these crystals were the only thing keeping an evil god at bay. Trapped in a prison. Several were destroyed, and then one month access to the last one was put into the game. Half the players wanted to destroy it for the "phat lewt" and the fun of it, despite the warnings, and the other half of the player base tried to defend them from the rest of the players. The dungeon containing the last crystal was restricted to players who had “sworn allegiance to Bael'Zharon” (in gameplay terms, activated their character for PvP). This allowed the players to decide the outcome. Some monarchies decided to band together and organize a 24/7 defense of the crystal. Monarchs who were trying to get through and destroy the crystal were messaged by Bael'Zharon and given powerful weapons to help them fight their way to the last crystal. On 6 servers the shard fell. On the 7th the defending players were still holding strong. So the devs helped one of the attacking players on that server, spawned powerful NPCs to help the attackers to destroy the defending monarchies. Actually I think some of those NPCs helping the attacking players were controlled by devs. I think they STILL had trouble defeating the defending players. But Turbine unfortunately had decided to force the same outcome on all servers so there wouldn't be a divergence in the story from server to server. So eventually the last server had their crystal destroyed as well. Turbine gave that server a unique statue to commemorate that server's extraordinary defense.
Therein lies the problem with that method though, diverging servers. If you have multiple servers things can get very complicated for the devs. Even a forced outcome as in Asherons Call is more interesting than trying to allow all players to feel like they are the one true hero though. If your game only had one massive world (server) like EVE online, then you could write the story to have two possible paths and let the players move it in one direction or the other. It would still be more work than making an online single player RPG and calling it a MMORPG.
I think these epic monthly installments of stories as in Aherons Call, combined with the tools for players to make their own story and gameplay as in Eve Online, would be ideal. No game has been perfect yet. MMORPGs are still a relatively new genre. But making them play like linear single player games just boggles my mind.
heres an article about the Asherons Call event for anyone who is interested: http://www.ethblue.com/acpaper/page2.htm
Hmmm they all seem to be into the cartoony goofy exaggerated style, not my cup of tea. But they are all certainly capable of painting and modeling well. Josh Singh in particular has got a very professional and stylistically cohesive model there. Whats funny is I was expecting something darker, having McFarlane as art director and all. When I think McFarlane I think of Spawn toys and Hellraiser-looking toys. Though game assets could very well be the complete opposite of these guys' personal works. Who knows.
As for elves, I remember looking through the Salvatore books in a local bookshop and seeing dark elves. Hopefully the elves will at least not live in typical elvish tree house swirly architecture and wield bows. I'll have to pick up some Salvatore since you suggest he has an original take.
My beef with the stock fantasy ideas is that MMORPGs offer a unique opportunity to craft a world. I'm a bit of a nature geek, love going for walks seeing what sorts of bugs and plants I can find. Love reading about cultures and seeing images of architecture from around the world. Love reading about new ideas pertaining to planets and moons in our system. I'm attracted to games for the same reason. I like to explore and see what this unique world is all about. If its yet another game on rails that prevents me from exploring and features races and creatures that have been regurgitated for the past 50 years I lose interest.
Anyway. I'm in no way trying to damn 38 studios or anything. I have no idea what this game will be like. Just talking, discussing concerns. Its a unique situation that you have a start up team with less concerns about the financial side of game dev. They are in a unique position to break out of the mold and take a chance on something new it seems. I'll have to keep an eye on the project and see if they go for it.
I can't really say much about this company, other than I will be watching it out of curiosity, to see what they will do.
With that said, I love the way they are marketing. I'm so tired of hearing all about a game six years before it comes out, only to have it be nothing like originally promised.
I'd much rather hear, "we are working on a game, we will let you know about it when we have a solid product."
Hopefully they keep tight lipped about it until they are at least within a year of release. Nothing worse than half a decade of hype over something that doesn't exist.
Hmmm they all seem to be into the cartoony goofy exaggerated style, not my cup of tea. But they are all certainly capable of painting and modeling well. Josh Singh in particular has got a very professional and stylistically cohesive model there. Whats funny is I was expecting something darker, having McFarlane as art director and all. When I think McFarlane I think of Spawn toys and Hellraiser-looking toys. Though game assets could very well be the complete opposite of these guys' personal works. Who knows.
As for elves, I remember looking through the Salvatore books in a local bookshop and seeing dark elves. Hopefully the elves will at least not live in typical elvish tree house swirly architecture and wield bows. I'll have to pick up some Salvatore since you suggest he has an original take.
My beef with the stock fantasy ideas is that MMORPGs offer a unique opportunity to craft a world. I'm a bit of a nature geek, love going for walks seeing what sorts of bugs and plants I can find. Love reading about cultures and seeing images of architecture from around the world. Love reading about new ideas pertaining to planets and moons in our system. I'm attracted to games for the same reason. I like to explore and see what this unique world is all about. If its yet another game on rails that prevents me from exploring and features races and creatures that have been regurgitated for the past 50 years I lose interest.
Anyway. I'm in no way trying to damn 38 studios or anything. I have no idea what this game will be like. Just talking, discussing concerns. Its a unique situation that you have a start up team with less concerns about the financial side of game dev. They are in a unique position to break out of the mold and take a chance on something new it seems. I'll have to keep an eye on the project and see if they go for it.
I think your concerns are certainly valid. The 38S team is going to have to really deliver something profound, especially since they have made it clear that they are operating within the confines of the fantasy genre. I just believe that if any team is capable of pulling it off, this is the one.
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot
Hmmm they all seem to be into the cartoony goofy exaggerated style, not my cup of tea. But they are all certainly capable of painting and modeling well. Josh Singh in particular has got a very professional and stylistically cohesive model there. Whats funny is I was expecting something darker, having McFarlane as art director and all. When I think McFarlane I think of Spawn toys and Hellraiser-looking toys. Though game assets could very well be the complete opposite of these guys' personal works. Who knows.
As for elves, I remember looking through the Salvatore books in a local bookshop and seeing dark elves. Hopefully the elves will at least not live in typical elvish tree house swirly architecture and wield bows. I'll have to pick up some Salvatore since you suggest he has an original take.
My beef with the stock fantasy ideas is that MMORPGs offer a unique opportunity to craft a world. I'm a bit of a nature geek, love going for walks seeing what sorts of bugs and plants I can find. Love reading about cultures and seeing images of architecture from around the world. Love reading about new ideas pertaining to planets and moons in our system. I'm attracted to games for the same reason. I like to explore and see what this unique world is all about. If its yet another game on rails that prevents me from exploring and features races and creatures that have been regurgitated for the past 50 years I lose interest.
Anyway. I'm in no way trying to damn 38 studios or anything. I have no idea what this game will be like. Just talking, discussing concerns. Its a unique situation that you have a start up team with less concerns about the financial side of game dev. They are in a unique position to break out of the mold and take a chance on something new it seems. I'll have to keep an eye on the project and see if they go for it.
I would bet that you are going to see pretty traditional Elves in this setting. Most of Salvatores work is based in the Forgotten Realms of D&D, certainly his most famous characters are. He has created a world all his own in another series of books though and the Elves in that one are a little different, in that they are pretty small and have small wings that do not really allow for flight but do let them jump and glide for a ways.We could see something completely different though. They arent creating a Forgotten Realms game, they say it will be a completely new world which R.A. is creating. The posibilities are great.
Todd McFarlane
+
R.A. Salvatore
+
Curt Shilling
=
cool T-Shirts and Coffee Mugs, not necessarily a great MMORPG.