2) How long have you followed the development of Atriarch?
Since about September, 1999, when Middle Earth Online's dev team was axed by Sierra, for not being mass-market enough because every other person wasn't a spell caster, and hobbits couldn't lift a boulder over their heads, or so the tales go. :) Anyway, at which point I learned of Atriarch and have followed it since. :)
3) What game(s) did you play before finding out about Atriarch?
I played Ultima Online for about a year since it's release, and I played EverQuest for about 4 months. For non-MMORPGs, that's quite a broader area, as I've been playing games since I could reach the keyboard of the Commodore 64, and the first words I learned to read were "syntax error". :) Most of the games that I like fall into the area of RPG and Strategy games. games and series along the lines of Ultima, Warcraft, Civilization, Might and Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, StarCraft, Master of Orion, Daggerfall, Star Control 2, X-COM, and so on. :)
Gaming Aspects
1) What gaming design aspect are you glad is included in the game?
Aspect? As in one? *grumbles* :) The main thing that drew me to this game is adding Strategy to the RPG genre, and having a dynamic world which is driven by the people in the game, instead of by the developers and the game itself. Basically the idea that wasn't realized in previous MMORPGs of having a world and conflict and storylines that are created and influenced by the people of the game. And not having people's actions confined to a narrow set of things that they can do.
2) What would you like included in/removed from the game?
One of the things I think should be included, or at least expanded, is the government system. Serafina said in an interview that "the plan is to start with a basic governmental structure and allow players to choose what kind of governmental rule they want to set up, for example, a monarchy, a democracy, a socialistic state. We want to offer several different governmental models players can use as a foundation." Although I'd much rather see much more that can be done in the way of governments, and having more freedom in setting them up. Perhaps something along the lines of using my system that I described quite a while back :)
As for being removed, I think that karma birds could fit into that category. :) As I think that while they may prevent some random attacks and killing, they could also greatly limit the game in ways of conflicts and wars. Even though they don't interfere in wars, what constitutes a war could change a lot of things. If wars had to be mutually agreed upon, then that would basically limit conflict mostly to those who don't have a need for conflict, as if they could come together to agree on that, they could likely agree on other things. And if war could be declared by one side, then that could remove karma birds from certain matters altogether, as a group of brigands could decide to declare war on a caravan before they attacked. Mostly, karma birds would interfere in matters that don't fit clearly into a certain category, or aren't black and white, and just seem to limit conflict between groups to war or non-war, without much in-between, as well as causing other various problems. Also, I think something that should be greatly limited, if not removed, is natives, at least the types that can be hired. As I think things would work out much better with players being shopkeepers and warriors and such. And such NPCs that there are should follow all the rules of the game, so there wouldn't be things along the lines of NPC shopkeepers with an unlimited amount of goods and money to buy and sell items at prices that would put PCs out of business, or ruin things like trade or monopolies or scarcity of resources, by having a unlimited supply of materials that they get out of nowhere. As well as preventing the RPG aspect of wars and large scale conflicts from being removed in situations where wars would just turn out to be a couple of groups throwing mindless soldiers at each other, instead of actual people being involved in such conflicts on the battlefields.
Where was I? Oh yes, this was a profile, not a discussion, wasn't it? :)
3) How much/what innovation do you think Atriarch brings to the industry?
I think there's a large deal of innovation that it brings. In having a dynamic world, in melding RPG and strategy elements together, and providing all of the other things that it does in an online world.
Atriarch Community
1) What factors build/destroy the Atriarch community?
I think one of the major factors that attributes to that is the community itself. If there are a lot of people doing one thing or another in the Atriarch community, people new to the community tend to act and be like those already present, and the community could grow from that, or it could end up deteriorating from it, depending on the people that were there before.
2) How can the schism between longtime and new followers of the game be breached?
Outside of the game, I think it can be done by encouraging people new to the community to be involved in sharing their ideas and asking questions and thinking of things in a different way then others may have before. And in other ways, the community simply treating someone new to the community as they would someone who has been around a while. Having an elitist view of people who have been around for longer is a quick way to drive away new people from the community. The same goes in-game, and as well, the code should be made in such a way so that everyone can provide a use in the world, and there isn't such a huge power curve between the skilled and the unskilled. This sort of thing can also provide other benefits as well, and I went into more detail on this subject :)
3) Should visibility in the community curry special favour in the (pre-)game?
Perhaps being able to be involved in the pre-game, or earlier pre-release testing. :) Although other then that, I don't think there should be in-game benefits that would provide an advantage to the people who were involved sooner, over those who were involved later.
Discussions
1) Where can people find your threads (site/url)?
Spread around all over the place. :) Mainly through the three main boards, Stratics at at.stratics.com, Vault at atvault.ign.com, Crossroads at atriarch.xrgaming.net. Or simply ask a question on something on one of those boards and I can provide past links to my threads on that subject if they exist. :)
2) What thread was your favourite to start or see thrive (site/url)?
Likely that would be my own on player governments that I made a long time ago when I was newer to the Atriarch community. :) As well as some more recent threads, such as PvP or no PvP and Actual Skill questions and Penalties for dying which seems to have been revived and continued in the recent QotW on death which all have a lot of great discussion in them. :)
3) What do you think should be discussed more amongst the communities?
Mostly in the area of new ideas, or in discussing what could be possible in the game, and how that could be accomplished, or what could be changed in the game so that could be possible. :)
Other aspects you think would interest folks?
On me, not really. :) On Atriarch, there's a lot more, which can be found on the official page at www.atriarch.com, as well as in the threads on the Atriarch boards on Stratics, Vault, and Crossroads. :)
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