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[Interview] Firefall: The Future of Red 5 with Chris Whiteside
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Chris Whiteside is best known in the gaming industry as the former Lead Producer of ArenaNet on Guild Wars, then the Design Director for Guild Wars 2. After roughly five years, Chris decided to part with the Bellevue, Washington developer. He went into consultancy, but that only lasted a little bit as one of the companies he consulted for was Red 5 Studios, makers of hardpressed but excellent MMO Firefall. In short, the studio’s been working quietly to not only find its groove with Firefall, but move into other areas as well. We caught up with Chris to chat about Red 5 and the future of his new studio.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Firefall: The Future of Red5 with Chris Whiteside.
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Comments
Carbine studios need Chris.
^ Pretty much this. Seems like every time this thing has gotten any momentum at all, the devs have suddenly hit the Reset button on at least one major system, typically crafting and character progression. Methinks those two aspects really need to be stable if you're gunning for a successful MMO, lol.
I have played a couple of times since 2012, the core gameplay is fun and the jump-jet exploration is wonderful; there just isn't enough to do and the world is too small. Both of those things have been major issues (to me, at least) for three years now, so I must assume they aren't being worked on. Just seems like they've been worried about the wrong things for a long time, and from what I have read, Red 5 might not be the most stable working environment either. Might be a big part of the reason(s) why the game is still in this state.
"Why would I want to loose a religion upon my people? Religions wreck from within - Empires and individuals alike! It's all the same." - God Emperor of Dune
I loved to play FF for hours after they left beta. The tacit promise of being an officially released game was that the gameplay would be mostly stable, with the usual exceptions of updates spaced months apart to streamline the game or introduce new systems or content. But instead they made major changes to the game every week. Many of the weekly changes made certain styles of play impossible. I couldn't keep up. Too many changes, especially seemingly arbitrary ones, is bad for players who just want to get in the game and do the stuff they had fun doing last week.
I might play FF again when the game stabilizes into a game that is fun to play on a consistent basis.
That is an understatement. I'm surprised the game is still running with the amount of redesign it went through personally.
I'm excited to see how he can contribute to FF
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Red5 is a bait and switch developer man. Chris must have fallen on hard times or something. Anybody who has followed Firefall from when it was announced can tell you this. I hope you guys who aren't aware can enjoy this tiny, instanced, level segregated, cluster f#$k of a thrown together salvage job. I can't. What an unfinished mess.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agreed.
I tired this game for a bit,i really thought i would easily spot the problems but not the case.
I think the game is ok in what it is doing,idk perhaps not going the Halo look a like with the flying mode would have been better but it's not bad either.
I sort of don't like linear maps,i felt like yes i had a couple choices but not really.There is perhaps too much clutter,makes it tough to see what is going on.
I know i have not played it enough,so i might be missing something.However i am not a fan of dividing up class types in a fps/pvp game.I prefer instead to allow ALL abilities on the same player it makes for a more diverse game.The problem with allowing the flying around is that becomes the MAIN object to combat and i don't think it is a good idea.
I would rather see really well designed maps with cover and strategic points.
Overall i cannot say my short time experience was bad,the game is ok,it just needs a different identity than trying to be a Halo look a like.Also i would prefer a better selection and array of weapons and weapon modes.This again is not done badly i just get real bored of anything machine gun like,i have been shooting machine guns for 30 years now lol.
IMO if i did not already experience Quake and Unreal i would say this game is pretty good and worth playing.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Firefall is fucking awesome...
now, i say that as a long time fantasy gamer who never expected to enjoy Firefall as much as i begrudgingly do. But let me tell you this.. it is without a doubt the most underrated MMO i've ever played. Its probably the best FPS i've ever played as well. And best of all - it might be the last true AAA, mostly open world MMO on the market. The different battleframes and module builds offer alot of different gameplay and the world events are very fun and action packed. Loving the new Amazon warzone they added.
Also it has to be the most generous FTP game i've ever tried. Its almost too generous. seriously. after eagerly waiting for Witcher 3 for years - i havent even installed it yet because of my new found Firefall addiction.
try Firefall.. its awesome.
hey im playing Bastion right now... feels damn solid man. I also run a very defensive Mammoth and I think theyre both equally effective at defensive gameplay. come on back!!
want 7 free days of playing? Try this
http://www.swtor.com/r/ZptVnY
Well, Chris Whiteside has a lot of experience with some of the best games in the market (GW1 and 2). I hope he turns Firefall into something great. I like FF but i cant play for more than 30 minutes. Its just a boring grind and i havent had any interest to play since it launched. Here i hope for the best. I would love to play again.
Side note: regarding the OP comment about consoles, FF would be great on more platforms. Bring more people to the game.
Originally posted by laokoko
"if you want to be a game designer, you should sell your house and fund your game. Since if you won't even fund your own game, no one will".
It is true that the game has changed drastically during beta development. Everyone is entitled to what they think is awesome and these views will very greatly. I think the developers have done a fine job. Sure things have changed over time but heck it was beta and there are no guarantees that the game you are playing now is the game you end up with. A lot of people had trouble just going with the flow. I don't remember all the resets but at least the last 2 resets I remember they had rollover system to give you credit for your progress to be used in the new system. As one of the first 500 beta testers I can say I'm from the beginning and I understand and quite agree with the new players. But it could be either your sour or something else. Maybe you are sour from the resets or maybe you genuinely don't like how the game has changed. But in this thread it seems like your not the only one bothered by changes made during beta. But I was in beta I was not only interested in watching the game as it evolved and changed over time but fascinated by just how fast the development team could work to make changes. Now that the game has been released all the sweeping that occurred aren't likely to happen and I consider it the best open world PvE shooter and would highly recommend Firefall to anyone interested in that.
Introducing levels was about the worst thing that could possibly happen to this game...
Granted, once you got one frame up to high level it was rather easy to get materials to get the other frames upgraded, but having to grind xp for each frame is just ridiculous... so is forcing me to level for hours on end to be able to use upgraded equipment that i already used hours obtaining in a previous iteration of the progression system.
Thing is, this game could easily have a flat powercurve with sidegrade options and the real progression and gameplay being about pushing back the infestation. you know, like they talked about during beta. Instead it turned into a grind-based abomination with arbitrary constrictions on everything that used to make it interesting.
I'll be in PS2 if i need to shoot something. Good Riddance.
I LOVED this game in early beta. Then they just kept changing all thier unique and fun mechanics into generic MMO stuff and the game became pretty... meh!
Sad.
Give us a "classic" server RED 5.
Although many game devs won't admit it, thats the same thing with every MMO or continually supported game.