[MUD-Dev] Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine

[Chris]

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 00:18:14 -0400, you wrote:
> On 29 Jun 2003, at 14:27, Michael Tresca wrote:

>>    Ken Troop: First, D&D Online is the real thing. Almost all
>>    MMORPG's derive their character systems from a D&D model, but
>>    only D&D Online will offer players the opportunity to create a
>>    character that plays and feels like your original D&D
>>    character.

> Huh? Bad online games derive their combat model from the extremely
> simplistic (great for pen and paper) D&D combat model.

Be afraid, be very afraid.  After sitting through the beta of AC2
and actually playing it retail it became very apparent that some at
Turbine are suffering delusions of godhood.  It was really
freakishly amazing what they believed, worse what they ignored about
their player base.

I myself have yet to see a MMORPG with D&D simplicity in mechanics.
This is simplicity as defining D&D by the earliest basic rules.
Quite like Rolemaster D&D got overly complex in its lifetime.  I
think the new version (used in NWN) is trying to get back to some of
the simple play we all remember.

>>    This is a world where you definitely wont be anonymous. The
>>    actions you take and bonds you make become very important.

> This sounds like the oft-heard (and totally false) mantra from
> every MMORPG developer "our new game will be playable by the
> casual and hard-core gamer alike!"

This is where I am most worried.  AC2 fits many of the "talking
points" I have seen from Turbinites when it comes to D&D, even MEO!

What became apparent in AC2, and the exit "speech" of one of the key
developers confirmed it, was that they stopped creating a game for
their existing players and instead created a game for themselves.
Worst case scenario would be they wrote a game for developers, not
players.

> For the most part, the answers sounded like marketing talking
> points more than facts about the game itself. :(

Welcome to the ivory tower, we got browbeat by it on their official
forums for much too long.

Chris
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