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Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising: Interview with Tim Schubert
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood recently spoke with Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising Producer Tim Schubert about the recently revived mythological MMORPG.
;)
MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us a little bit about Heatwave and the people who are working there?
Tim Schubert:
We started Heatwave about three years ago with an ambitious objective – to create a world class cross media company. We have assembled a powerhouse team of Hollywood insiders, an amazing video staff, fantastic artists, and a top notch business development and marketing crew. Game development is our wheelhouse, though, which is readily apparent when you look at our staff. We have folks that have worked at Origin Systems, Electronic Arts, NCSoft, SOE, King’s Isle, and Codemasters. We have experience from dozens of titles including Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings Online, Ultima Online, Tabula Rasa, Star Wars Galaxies, DC Universe Online, Wizard 101, not to mention Gods & Heroes itself.
Read the Interview with Tim Schubert.
Comments
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Schubert definitely had a solid set of answers -- actions speak louder than words though.
I'm pleased with the responses from Schubert, it seems like Heatwave has a pretty good plan set in place for the development of the game.
Should be interesting to see how things progress.
Decent interview, Jon. This should put to rest at least some of the frenzied speculation that yesterday's announcement generated. Timely and well-done, sir.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
nice interview, cant wait to see how this game turns out. and it seems like they got the game really cheap and are continuing development from where the previous company stopped they should be able to develop it awhile and polish it.
Currently Playing Path of Exile
I was really looking foreward to this game way back in 2007. I raelly hope these guys stick to thier guns and do this IP justice. It has so much potential.
If you use "plz" because it is shorter than "please" I will use "no" because it is shorter than "yes."
What I find to be excellent is that they aren't simply releasing it into beta (it was already in beta). They see what was there as not beta worthy, that is a very good sign. If they are true to their words this may be a title to keep an eye on.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Yeah solid answers, i certainly hope they'll live to it, how often have we heard devs talk, talk, talk and when launch came it was all talk and no content. I wish them all the best, if they can pull it out this could be a very succesful mmo.
I was in beta before it was shut down and my experience was....
1) It was a great looking game.
2) It had quite a number of performance problems.
3) Didn't experience enough gameplay to really get an idea as to what to expect from it.
4) Did I mention it was a great looking game?
In a ways, I am surprised we haven't seen this done before with other games that never made it to release. GnH had a lot going for it - familiar yet standout setting, stunning art direction, some interesting ideas (collectible minion system). I'm glad to see Heatwave picking it up.
I think its smart that the initial plan is to get it to a "shippable" state and then iterate on the game's systems and content before actually shipping it. From what I understood, Perpetual had it almost 'content complete' but just needed to squash the bugs and drastically improve performance. The biggest problem games have faced (Vanguard, AoC, and WAR) have been performance issues. The other major problem for these games was that their most exciting content could be experienced within the first few weeks of gameplay.
I was also in beta, didnt find anything weird. Just a ordinary MMO.
Will be fun to see what will happen.
Tim Schubert:
Our feeling about MMOs is that they’re lifestyle games people tend to dedicate themselves entirely to. Players find an MMO they like and find themselves entrenched there - occasionally peeking their head out to try another game but ultimately returning home to their regular MMO. This demonstrated by the resilience in subscriber numbers in MMOs as others come out; a new MMO may siphon a few players off an old one, but the core player base is steadfast. This contrasts a lot in comparison to other genres like first person shooters where players migrate regularly.
Huh?!?
I'm not sure, maybe I'm totally wrong but that is not what I can observe for the crowds I'm watching. People stick mostly for one month with a game in my experience - and than cancel (retention rates are low). If they keep going it seems to me 1-1.5 years is truly the maximum player usually stay. And than they move on for at least one year, mostly three years - and keep moving on or after THAT time come back ... for 1-2 years again. I'm under the impression there is no such thing like a "core player base [that] is steadfast" above that number instead people ... oscillate back and forth and back and ... further. If they ever come back that is. And in my opinion once a MMO survives two years on the market chances that those people are willing to come back AND enjoy the more polished game are quite high so even a terrible launch doesn't necessary predict the long term outcome. It predicts only the short term retention rate. Of course that can kill any long term future by folding the company. :P
In comparison in other genres with sequels and sequels and sequels people are quite stable followers. Who liked the first part, buys the second part, buys the third part ... I have the impression that people even "survive" pretty disappointing releases of a sequel still hoping for the next one to be better. That is one of the reasons why so many companies now make most of their money with sequel games. And since you barely burn someone out on a non-MMO as they are by design with release-gaps and the sequels are new enough ... I'm sorry but I disagree with that assessment of Tim Schubert a lot. *shakes head*
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ...
Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse
Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2
Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
Heatwave's next trick should be resurrecting the dead and buried
(Tabula Rasa)
Make it F2P w/Sub Option and Item Store and Booyah TR is back on the food chain again
I'm very happy that they revived this game.
I never got a chance to beta it so not sure how much more is needed to make it "shippable". I'm hoping that doesn't mean that they rush it out halfway done and fix it later.
Mostly it is us older timers who will stick with a MMO, teens want the next best thing, and they want it yesterday. But long term play has declined in all age groups.
Put out a decent MMO, sub only and we will give it a go, for the teenies it has to be the best MMO ever, but they are the demographic being catered to these days.
The company that was the original dev team for G&H was the original dev team for STO, nuff said.
Thrilled with the answers in this Interview...The proof will be in the product of coarse...But it looks like they have a decent plan...SO looking forward to playing this Game again...REALLY looking forward to it!!!
Not being nailed down on a payment plan was a bit dubious to me, it's hardly a top secret industry breaking reveal and if they are even considering an item shop without building it into the game that's a worry to say the least.
Also the development of the game with regard sustaining a release condition through development, I guess the way they've picked up the game meant it was never going to be conventional. Even though I'm not sure how likely that ideal will be.
However his answers were decent, if a little cagey and starting off development with a largely finished game does mean that they have a massive advantage in time polish.
@Valkyrie, I think 1-2 years could be considered a core playerbase imo, wether it returns or not that is a significant income period and substantial time to recoup lost players.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
In some repects I don't think that's a critisism at all. The game is fun and pretty polished, the devs just supplied the game they were briefed to produce in a short turn around from an already existing platform.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Just look at SWG or Vanguard or WoW etc.... there are some that will latch onto a game and keep playing it no matter what. People get comfortable with anything and just stick with it.
I can see what he's saying. As much as people would say negative stuff about Victor Roma there were still people playing it and will only now stop because the company is pulling the plug on Version 1.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
SWG had a huge following in its heyday. Warcraft does. City of Heroes does. Lord of the Rings Online does. Darkfall does. Yes, there are people who have flipped through a large number of mmos but that brand loyalty does exist in the realtively stable communities those games have/had. Your talking about sequels is very similar to that brand loyalty...everyone must have halo, halo2, halo3, halo odst....halo nomnomNOM. But FPSers are also hoppers too, flipping through Unreal Tournament, Halo, Medal of Honor, BattleField, Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty, etc. without batting much of an eye...
Building strong community and delivering a quality game that is "provocative" to use his word can minimize that hopping or at least encourage players to return.
Probably depends on the people you know.
I play exactly as he stated. I have my preferred game and I then try others but will always go back to my preferred game until such time as I completely lose interest. Then I find another preferred game.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Probably depends on the people you know.
I play exactly as he stated. I have my preferred game and I then try others but will always go back to my preferred game until such time as I completely lose interest. Then I find another preferred game.
Same here, most I know play this way when it comes to games in general, though of course the bar is raised with MMO's. That in the end is why they are designed as they are. Why else make such a time commitment based game in the first place? Oblivion you play for a few months (give or take depending on modding), WOW you play for a year or more. I thought this was universal for the most part, I guess I was wrong.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
"We will pick up development where PI left off." That right there told me the game will be further developed by the marketing department to convert gameplay into CS items, and a lot of them, throw it out there and see if anyone takes the bait!
Thats what happened to Allods online, and I dont see much of a difference here with this game myself! Could I be wrong, sure, but as it looks without the original coding team to further the game, they will bring in people to adjust existing code to revolve around a heavy CS and then slap it on the community to see who will bite. Buyer beware I say!
They're kinda doing similar with The Chronicles of Spellborn as well
But that game was already eligible for Cash Shop status given the fact the only way to pay the sub to it once upon a time was with Acclaim Coins.
One thing; I don't believe the game Cryptic released as STO is anything like what Perpetual had been working on, since it is completely based off of cryptics Champions online engine.... so I wouldn't judge G&H on that AIRSPELL ("The company that was the original dev team for G&H was the original dev team for STO, nuff said.")
Also if they can make this work would love to see Heatwave pick up Earth and Beyond and give it a facelift