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[Interview] Age of Wushu: Snail Games - Mount Hua, Black Gold & More
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Age of Wushu's Legends of Mount Hua expansion will be released today and is said to bring more immersive qualities to the game. We had the opportunity to chat with Snail Games China CEO Shi Hai about Mt. Hua and other corporate projects. See what he had to say before letting us know what you think in the comments.
MMORPG: The steam-punk genre is one that’s not been served with a proper MMORPG yet, what makes Black Gold Online the game to do so?
Shi Hai: With globalization accelerating at light-speed present day, The East and The West are no longer opposing cultures, but moving towards a perfect blend of cultural substance. In recent years, oriental themes are wildly popular: WoW: Mists of Pandaria is a great example. At the same time, western cultures are just as attractive in the East: Steampunk being one of the compelling themes frequently portrayed in the works of Hayao Miyazaki. We have long noticed the lack of a mature, iconic Steampunk product on the market, and as a result, Black Gold Online was set in motion. Snail wishes to utilize its unique perception of “Steampunk” culture and expertise in user awareness, in turn creating a vibrant world that would appeal to the western audience.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Age of Wushu: Snail Games - Mount Hua, Black Gold & More.
Comments
i think Snail actually has the potential to be the first major Eastern company to crossover to Western audiences since NCSoft.
PWI has certainly made inroads with PW and now NW, but i think there's some strong competition to be had here.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
i have no doubt Snail will make a good game (AoW is a good game too). BUT, the monetization model they annouced for Black Gold will sink that ship in the blink of an eye.
They are doing the absurd loot locking for real money "in an attempt to reduce crappy loot for players" thats the most absurd excuse.... If they really want to reduce crappy loot for players they would just dont add crappy loot to the game, at all. Period.
Worst model ever and will never have my support. Id buy the game instead if they remove that crap.
The monetization model is fine in my opinion. Since it only locks the ultra rare and higher level material that you may or may not need. I don't need to stress the fact that how many useless rare materials that's not your class-specific gets dropped in other MMOs.
And with Black Gold online you don't even need to subscribe to get useless material or equipment like WoW where the game fails to give me anything good after months of raiding, while paying for the abysmal disappointment after each boss kill.
Besides the items are not like WoW's vendor trash, they're normal materials and can be traded for high level equipment anyway. I guess it's complicated for most players but if you look closely you'll understand the whole concept.