1) Who are you?
While the philosophical and anthropological implications of this question are intriguing, perhaps I should stick to simply telling you a few things about me. I'm a system support engineer for Sun Microsystems. I live in a townhouse with a beautiful redhead (who agreed to this arrangement during a wedding ceremony almost four years ago, much to my surprise) and our cat, "Cricket" (who did not agree to the arrangement, nor is inclined to agree with humans at all except in those instances where we are merely his eternal source of food and service). When I am not providing second level hardware and software support to Sun's customers, spending romantic evenings with my wife, or bribing the cat from my "comfy" chair in front of the TV, you might find me singing BGVs at my church, playing softball, debating origins or MMORPG design on various web forums, or reading something by George R. R. Martin or Guy Gavriel Kay.
2) How long have you followed the development of Atriarch?
Hmmm. I think I first heard about Atriarch only a few days after the official press release in 1999. I was involved in several discussions on various MMORPG development boards, where I often spoke up in favor of permanent death, persistent characters, and using an RTS paradigm to facilitate goal management in an MMORPG. Someone told me that a new game was taking this very approach. It was with a certain amount of disbelief that I followed the link to Atriarch's web site. I was immediately impressed by World Fusion's design vision, but it was initially difficult for me to relate to the alien creatures and the cultural vacuum I imagined. It wasn't until Middle-Earth Online was shot, hung, mutilated, dead, cremated, and buried (to yet rise again?) that I began to follow Atriarch more closely. Almost a year after I first registered on Stratics, I began to actively participate in discussions.
3) What game(s) did you play before finding out about Atriarch?
Well, probably the most interesting thing about this is what games I've never played. I've never played UO, EQ, or AC. I find the idea of MMORPG's extremely compelling, but I've never been able to justify spending money for the type of game-play I've heard described in the "big three." I've been holding out for something much better. I expect Atriarch to be just that.
I've played many other types of games: MUD, CRPG, RTS, Sports, and even FPS. Recent favorites include, Caesar III, Age of Empires II, EA Sports NHL 2000, Unreal Tournament, and Baldur's Gate.
Gaming Aspects
1) What gaming design aspect are you glad is included in the game?
I particularly appreciate the use of RTS concepts to handle goal management. I've never really liked the "sandbox" approach to virtual worlds, especially since this approach usually results in the game being played simply for the sake of levels or lewt. Implementing much larger goals, such as gathering resources, researching technology, and defending civilizations so that you can grow a town into an empire and become its Atriarch -- these kinds of goals make the game worth playing over an extended period of time.
2) What would you like included in/removed from the game?
I'd most like to see every effort made to ensure that players have maximum control over the lives of their characters. Other MMORPG's have come up short in this regard because they've not been successful at implementing PvP within appropriate boundaries, enforced by realistic and unpleasant consequences. I think that an intuitive karma system and comprehensive tools for augmenting player justice are key to keeping PvP in check.
If I could remove any one thing from the game, it would be global chat. Unfortunately, I've yet to meet a single developer who had even the slightest inclination to be remotely open to the very possibility of placing even the most benign restriction on global chat. It is entirely possible that they know something that I don't. But I can't shake the feeling that axing global chat would lead to a much better virtual world. Many other respected veteran players seem to agree. (Although, to be fair, many others do not.) It might not be for everyone, but I would definitely like to see some development team at least experiment with alternative methods for communication that bring more localization and diversity of culture to the game.
3) How much/what innovation do you think Atriarch brings to the industry?
There are a number of things that really set Atriarch apart: character persistence, empire building, zone-free global model of Atriana, new content without server resets, etc. But I think that the real step forward has been World Fusion's commitment to making the world more dynamic. I've talked to a number of developers who just don't get this. I can only hope that Atriarch will open some eyes to the possibilities that exist outside of a static, controlled approach to world building.
Atriarch Community
1) What factors build/destroy the Atriarch community?
OK, soapbox time. I think that a selfish approach to gaming can be very detrimental to any MMORPG community. The whole "since I bought the game and pay for the account, I can do whatever I think is fun," or the "this game must be designed to fit my play style at the expense of other styles," approaches can only hurt the game in the long run. We need to take a step back and realize that when everyone takes a more altruistic approach to gaming, we all win. Let's design and play the game with conscious thought given to what kind of interaction others enjoy, instead of constantly focusing only on self-gratification. I think we'll find that playing our character in a way that places high emphasis on contributing to the enjoyment of other gamers can be very fulfilling.
2) How can the schism between longtime and new followers of the game be breached?
Is there a schism? I guess I hadn't really noticed it. The only thing that I've seen in this regard is that many new posters have a tendency to underestimate how different Atriarch will be. Many things that are true about current MMORPG's simply don't apply to Atriarch. I suppose that long time fans of Atriarch could be a bit more patient when explaining the differences, but it is often difficult to convey the Atriarch vision to someone who seems trapped in the UO/EQ/AC paradigm.
3) Should visibility in the community curry special favour in the (pre-)game?
Visibility? No, I don't think that visibility alone should make any difference. On the other hand, the fact that someone has participated and contributed over an extended period of time should not be ignored. Is seems likely that these people will have a better understanding of Atriarch's vision and issues. Thus, it makes sense that they would have a head start in helping to beta test the game. But I think that the primary criteria should be what kind of positive contribution a player is likely to bring to beta testing. Prior participation or contributions, while probably indicative, should be secondary, and visibility seems irrelevant.
Discussions
1) Where can people find your threads (site/url)?
My primary focus has been on development issues, so I post primarily on the dev boards.
Most of my posts about Atriarch are either in the ATS dev forum, or on the COA QotW board. I've also made a number of attempts to write articles, which have been graciously published in various venues.
3) What do you think should be discussed more amongst the communities?
I would like to see more discussion about practical and concrete ideas for setting boundaries on PvP. For instance, how do we keep unwanted characters from invading our communities? It seems that walls would be helpful in this regard, but some sort of "gate" might be nice as well. How might these gates work? Could you have intelligent gates that only allow certain people access to a city? On what basis might the gate "decide" who gets in? Maybe NPC guards deny access to anyone who doesn't have a citizen's badge or a visitor's badge. Maybe a gatemaster hands out visitor badges to those who are trusted. Maybe an empath probes the psyche of each applicant to determine karma.
I think that PvP is still the greatest challenge to a player's ability to manage risks, so I think it is important to talk about actual tools and interfaces that could be used to help a community pursue justice within its territory of influence.
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