May 13-16 (E3 1999 - Simutronics Exhibits)

Q2 (Official Site Launches)

October 19 (Simutronics Press Release)

March 8-12 (GDC 2000)

May 11-13 (E3 2000 - Simutronics Attends)

June 15-18 (SimuCon 2000)

July (Hero's Journey Official Site Updated)

August 28 (Simutronics Opens Stratics IRC Chat Rooms)

April 25 (Letter from Eric Slick, Producer)

April 18 (Letter from Eric Slick, Producer)

June 5-8 (SimuCon 2003)

June 3-6 (SimuCon 2004)

November 23 (Media Blackout Ends)

May 18-20 (E3 2005 - Simutronics Exhibits)

January 18 (Official Site Re-Launches)

February (Hero's Hall Fansite Launches!)

May 8 (Hero's Journey Stratics Re-Launches)

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Hero's Journey
Interviews from 1999 and 2000

---

HJ Vault - October 1999 Developer Chat

<luxor_vault> Again, welcome to the first Hero's Journey developers chat! I'd like to thank everyone from Simutronics for participating, especially David and Bruce for helping set this up for tonight. Be sure to check out www.hjvault.com for all the latest, and we'll see you on the boards.
<luxor_vault> This will be a moderated chat. This means only ops (simu and vault people) can post messages. To ask a question, either join channel #hjquestions or send a /msg to that channel. We'll then post it here for the developers to answer. You can start asking now!
<luxor_vault> Tonight's chat is scheduled for one hour, but if things go well we can extend that. Afterwords we'll open it up for a free for all.
<luxor_vault> First off, I'd like everyone from Simutronics to say hello and tell us a bit about their work, and how you're involved with Hero's Journey?

<David_SIMU> :)
<David_SIMU> Who me?
<Suz_Simu> You first, David :)
<David_SIMU> (smile)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Shall we climb down the ladder or up?
<David_SIMU> My name is David Whatley, and I am the President & CEO of Simutronics Corporation.
<David_SIMU> My role is basicly to not screw too many things up while the turely skilled people get their job done.
<David_SIMU> Sometimes I achieve that, sometimes I don't.
<David_SIMU> In the case of Hero's Journey, I'm leading some of the technology and game design inititives. But the actual creation of the product is the work of many others.
<Bruce_Simu> Hmmm, that means I'm Bruce Ferguson, and I am the Executive Producer of Heroes Journey. That means I get to do budgets, talk to Press, and be happy, while other people do all the work. :)
<David_SIMU> (Don't forget milestones)
<Bruce_Simu> And I get to bug David when we need some of his design stuff "RIGHT NOW!"
<Bruce_Simu> This project is so large, we have two other producers as well.
<Suz_Simu> I'm Susan Dodd, and I will be producing "The World"....
<Andy_Simu> in 6 days with a day of rest?
<Suz_Simu> ...which is the geography and all the things you see in the world of Hero's Journey.
<Suz_Simu> Something like that :)
<Suz_Simu> My job is to make the world exciting and beautiful and terrifying -- or to get my team of GMs to do that. On time. ;)
* Suz_Simu winks at David.
<Suz_Simu> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Hmm?
<Eric_Simu> tickles Suz
<Eric_Simu> I'm Eric Slick, Producer of Game Systems for HJ.
<Eric_Simu> My job in HJ will be to direct the development of all game systems.
<Eric_Simu> I started in GemStone III and moved to the job of making DragonRealms a reality.
<Eric_Simu> Who's next :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> My name is Mike Paddock. I was a customer service supervisor for Simutronics, but recently was hired on as a Product Developer.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> So I'll be one of the ones the preious people will be bugging.
<Dave_SIMU> I'm Dave Dean, another Product Developer, and I get to wade in and do the fun part. While dodging Eric :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> I'm Jeff Gatlin, Product Developer which means I also get to do all the work and on time even!
<Jeffg_SIMU> plus I do Music and Sound so I get to be an 'artiste' as well.
<Dave_SIMU> Oh yeah, assuming I get my act together I'll hopefully be working on some music too.
<Andy_Simu> I'm Andy Finkenstadt, a network and systems and server dude.
<Andy_Simu> -30-
* Suz_Simu grins.
<Russ_Simu> My name is Russ Whiteman. I started as a GemStone III GM, although the majority of my time over the last couple years has been spent working on our billing systems. I've no idea -what- I'll be doing in HJ, but I have every intention of being involved in building some of those game systems Eric's responsible for. I suspect that most of my time will be spent like it has lately...getting involved in as many discussions of new ideas as poss

<luxor_vault> Thanks guys, onto the questions!
<Aurum_Vault> <Waffleboy> Will there be riding animals? If yes, will it be limited to horses?

<David_SIMU> Yes, and no. :)
<David_SIMU> The real question is can animals ride players.
<Bruce_Simu> :)
<Eric_Simu> Yes and no.
<David_SIMU> ha
<Jeffg_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> You can already ride a dragon. :)
<David_SIMU> Seemed more interesting to do first than a horse.
<David_SIMU> ga

<luxor_vault> <Purr> What trade skills, if any, are likely to be in HJ? Blacksmithy, Jewelry, tailoring, baking, etc for example What about a real economy? Price differences between towns for the same item? Prices fluctuating with supply/demand?

<David_SIMU> You have to be careful about the idea of a "real economy" If you mean a self-regulating economy, then no.
<David_SIMU> Because that doesn't work, because it isn't zero-sum.
<David_SIMU> However, economic systems are nothing new to us. All of our games have various levels of complexity of econimic systems...
<David_SIMU> DragonRealms is probably the most sophisticated with fluctuating exchange rates between currencies.
<David_SIMU> This is yours, right Eric? A game mechanic?
<Eric_Simu> We've learned much about what works and what might be possible. HJ will benefit from those lessons.

<Aurum_Vault> <Alerlean> Will there be weather not just rain like EQ and AC but real weather with effects ingame slippery surfaces and mud maybe wind ,fire flopod ,famine, maybe sesons etc.

<David_SIMU> The hardest of all to do is wind.
<David_SIMU> A convincing wind effect would be neat. A tornado would be even neater.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hurricane Simu
<David_SIMU> The first rain effect in a multiplayer game was done in the original CyberStrike which I wrote 9 years ago.
<Eric_Simu> We've talked a great deal about it. We'd like the environment to be as changeable as is possible. We'll only be limited in what the technology can deliver...and we'll be pushing the technology as far as we can manage.
<David_SIMU> So far we don't have the engine doing weather effects, but it is planned. The extent remains to be seen as we get into the R&D of it.

<luxor_vault> <Skystreak> What is the status of current game development and what progress has been made toward finding someone to produce [publish] the game?

<David_SIMU> We are currently in serious talks with a major CD-ROM publisher (who shall remain nameless) who is looking to partner with us on this project as well as bring a lot to the table.
<David_SIMU> I wish I could say more, but you know how that is. Await the press release. :)
<Bruce_Simu> Which we will do as soon as we can :)
<David_SIMU> The patner is interested in making an even more ambitious project out of this than we even were, so it should be interesting.
<David_SIMU> ga

<Aurum_Vault> <Vil> Experience, will it be level or skill based?

<David_SIMU> Someone take that one. :)
<Bruce_Simu> Mike?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Possibly a hybrid.
<Jeffg_SIMU> both unless we do one or the other
<Russ_Simu> heh
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> hehehe
<Jeffg_SIMU> hey that was a serious answer!
<David_SIMU> One thing....
* Jhyrryl_SIMU nods at David.
<David_SIMU> There is the possibility of a licensed game system being used depending on how some negotiations go. So the answer to that question really depends...
<David_SIMU> If things go way (A) then the unnamed game system dictates this. If it doesn't, and we devise our own, then the answer is what we are brewing in our design process (which includes the HJVault participation).
<David_SIMU> So we are kind of in a crossroads and need to let a thing or two settle on the business side before we commit.
<David_SIMU> ga

<luxor_vault> <Benzali> What type of spell/magic system is being favored right now? As in premade spells, open system, or a combo.

<David_SIMU> (See previous answer)
<Dave_SIMU> See above. :)
<luxor_vault> lol
<Ilibard_Vault> Doh!

<luxor_vault> <Jereau> Is there any chance of using a Roger-Wilco-ish program to have real-voice in game instead of text?

<David_SIMU> Good question!
<Eric_Simu> Ifdef# unnamed system
<David_SIMU> I have resisted voice communiction until...
<David_SIMU> you could manipulate your voice to match your roleplaying identity.
<Bruce_Simu> There's always a possibility... but it should be a choice. What if you are a male, playing a female character? You'd need what David just said...
<David_SIMU> The greatest difficulty is in cross-playing. A male voice does not sound female just by altering the pitch.
<David_SIMU> The other problem is pruely technical...
<David_SIMU> If you've notiec in EQ, AC and UO...
<David_SIMU> There just ain't much bandwidth left over for anything. THere is hardly enough bandwidth for keeping people for warping all over the screen.
<David_SIMU> Throw voice communiction on top of that, and you blow out any consumer modems. When we are all DSL, maybe it'll be possible.
<David_SIMU> Which reminds me, I live too far away for DSL. And I'm pissed. So I'm moving. (smile)
* Suz_Simu whistles nonchalantly.
<Russ_Simu> I'd love to see that, personally... the issue of voice changes just doesn't seem that great to me. I don't see a mismatched voice as being any more distractive than having to read text in a window.
<Eric_Simu> There's allot of simmering hostility betweent he "haves" and "havenots" at the office because of this DSL thing.
* Andy_Simu has not.
<Russ_Simu> Yeah... we're all gonna -get- Suz. :P
<Eric_Simu> In place of voice, we are working hard to be sure our "chat" system is easy to use, powerful and works wtih the 3D aspects of the game.

<Aurum_Vault> <Torinak> How much has the competition (both real and announced) affected the development and vision of HJ?

<Bruce_Simu> Let me take that one
<David_SIMU> Ok
<Bruce_Simu> We are certainly aware of whats going on out there in the market (we are all gameplayers, after all) and we always do research ::cough:: on the latest things,
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hehe research. Yeah. Hehe.
<Bruce_Simu> But we also have a vision, based on all of the information we've gathered from producing GemStone III, DragonRealms, CyberStrike, and our other products.
<Dave_SIMU> I'd like to think our competitors have more to learn from us than we do from them... every new MMORPG that's come out lately, I wonder why they didn't pay more attention to us :)
<Bruce_Simu> 'So we know what we *want* to do, and we know what they've done in a different fashion. So yes, there is some impact, but it really is minimal.
<David_SIMU> Of course when we see what is currently being done, we get quite motivated to show what is possible that no one is even coming close to delivering yet.
<David_SIMU> Mostly its a matter of approach.

<luxor_vault> <Vil> how will you handle PvP?

<David_SIMU> ohgod
<Bruce_Simu> Carefully. :)
<Dave_SIMU> I knew somebody would ask that!
<Russ_Simu> You -knew- it was coming... ;)
<David_SIMU> Only my character is allowed to kill other players. :)
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Hey.... but... you promised!
<David_SIMU> hehe
<David_SIMU> Who wants that one?
<Eric_Simu> I'll take it.
<Eric_Simu> <grin>
<David_SIMU> Have fun.
<Eric_Simu> First off, a bit of clarification.
<Eric_Simu> There is a huge difference between character based conflicts (In Character conflicts) and those between the players themselves (OOC conflicts). PvP is not just killing players, it's harassment and many other things.
<Eric_Simu> PvP is really anything which one player does to another to ruin the other player's fun.
<Eric_Simu> It could be killing them or just simply following them around and hassling them.
<Eric_Simu> But I think the question was more if we would allow players to kill other players.
<Eric_Simu> If we do, it'll be kept under strict control. We've learned a great deal about this from GSIII, DR, HX, MO and the toher online RPGs.
<Eric_Simu> Exactly how we'd control it is yet to be determined. IN fact we may simply not allow it at all or handle allowing it in one of the ways currently being used in our competitor's product.
<Eric_Simu> But simply preventing PKing in the game won't prevent PvP actions (under my definition) so when we deal with the problem it will be from a comprehensive viewpoint about what PvP actually is.
<Eric_Simu> done :)
<Suz_Simu> One of the problems you have if there is absolutely no way for one character to attack another is - how do you deal with annoyances, like the guy who follows you around stealing kills?
<Suz_Simu> So if we do that, there would have to be ways to deal with such things, beyond killing the other character. (Done)
<David_SIMU> And how do you kill all those pesky GMs.
<Suz_Simu> That's the real problem, David. :>
<David_SIMU> Oh I know.
<Dave_SIMU> This is easily the most complex issue that MMORPGs face, and there's no perfect solution... hopefully we can find one that's good enough without getting in the way too much either :)

<Aurum_Vault> <Waffleboy> How will death be handled? Item loss? Experience loss? Temporary penalty? How does one become "undead" so to speak?

<David_SIMU> See above.
<Aurum_Vault> Oops
<Bruce_Simu> :)
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<David_SIMU> If we use a licensed game system, that's all decided for us (mostly at least)
<Russ_Simu> I was rather fond of Gannyx's "life-force" suggestion myself...if we end up with home-brewing the system.
<David_SIMU> Haven't seen that one yet Russ, point me in that direction in an email.
<Russ_Simu> Will do. :)

<Aurum_Vault> <Taven> Will there be a limit on basic subscription character slots. EQ allows multiples per server.

<David_SIMU> You'll be able to ahve multiple chars.
<Bruce_Simu> Role players these days want to have the option to play different personalities at different times. I'm not sure what the social impact of that is, but we aim to make our customers happy.

<luxor_vault> <Will> When will focus groups commence?

<David_SIMU> Once we have our partner deals in place. I hope in the next couple months.
<Bruce_Simu> We'll be posting on the Vault when it happens.
<David_SIMU> Yup
<Bruce_Simu> 'We know you all want to be in there, and we value your opinions
<Suz_Simu> And the Vault boards really provide us with a lot of that kind of input as well, already
<Bruce_Simu> Can anyone tell I play GemStone III and DragonRealms a lot, by the way I tend to put a ' in front of my sentences?
<Eric_Simu> Yes, in a way the HJ Vault boards is a focus group of a sort.

<luxor_vault> <Densetsu> Will simu employees actively keep a world plotline going on? Players can only do so much...

<Russ_Simu> They do, although there's a distinct tendency to...shall we say, drift? <g>
<Bruce_Simu> Short answer is yes.
<Dave_SIMU> Why stop at just one plotline? ;)
<Suz_Simu> History and all that will fall under my group - and we have a lot of ideas for that kind of thing.
<Suz_Simu> (This is if we build our own system from the ground up, rather than using an existing system). We'd like the players to learn about the world, what's going on, and what has gone on through in-game means...
<Suz_Simu> ...like libraries, in-game periodicals, etc.
<Suz_Simu> And as far as plotlines - we'll have a whole slew of people whose job it is just to make sure fun things are going on at all times

<Aurum_Vault> <Stonur> Will there be some sort of player allegiance system sortof like in Asherons Call, where players can actually run some sort of "office"

<Eric_Simu> We've looked closely at that possibility. We are still developing ideas along those lines.
<David_SIMU> Its always worth taking a look at our existing products so you can get an idea of how we think. We've had player organizations going back about 10 years now.
<Russ_Simu> Hope I'm not giving away any secrets, but Mike's real big on player-centered political systems.
<David_SIMU> Guess he'll be running for office soon then.
<Dave_SIMU> Mike for Mayor!
<Bruce_Simu> he's corrupt enough :)
<David_SIMU> Mike, wana comment?
<Russ_Simu> Anyway, those who want such things have an ally already in place. ;)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> 'Mayor?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I was thinking more gandoise.
<Dave_SIMU> Intergalactic Space God is already taken though.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I'm very intrested in politcal systems that give players a sense of control over the environment.
<David_SIMU> One thing to keep in mind is that our products are evolutionary. Because they are a dynamic toolset, rather than a static "game" per se. GameMasters are constantly adding new aspects to the game. This will be true of HJ as well.

<luxor_vault> <A_Paladin> Thing I loved in DR was the town invasions, fests, and quest(non-$)... Will you be keeping those in HJ... I just love thoses rare items from invasions and protecting my city till the end(Gorbesh)..

<Russ_Simu> I can't imagine a Simutronics game without that sort of thing...
<Suz_Simu> I sure hope so. That's one of my favorite things too. :)
<Dave_SIMU> That's what we do best. :)
<David_SIMU> Yes.
<David_SIMU> Only we'll be doing them on a much bigger scale.
<Russ_Simu> That was an -easy- question!
<David_SIMU> And with graphics.
<David_SIMU> (grin)
<Jeffg_SIMU> definately, even to the point where the invaders win and start selling their own gear in the shops hopefully
<David_SIMU> Yeah, and enslave the entire player population.
<David_SIMU> That one is already planned.
<Russ_Simu> Oooh! Can I hang members of the resistance then?
<Dave_SIMU> Our NPCs will even sell themselves on ebay... well, maybe not
<Jeffg_SIMU> nah save em for catapult ammo
<David_SIMU> Don't laugh. A pirate invasion in one of our games had a lot of players taken hostage.

<Aurum_Vault> <DaveMarkell> I'm curious about HJ bot performance and spawning. Will bots be mobile, stationary, or both? And will spawn points be constant, or random? I hate the camping that predicatable spawns/stationary bots causes. I also have concerns about multiple characters per server, and the muling that always results from this.

<David_SIMU> bot?
<Russ_Simu> critters.
<David_SIMU> Critters are called BOTS!?
<Aurum_Vault> AI/spawning I believe
<Eric_Simu> Critter AI and Critter deployment.
<Russ_Simu> Hehe
<Eric_Simu> Megatron just arrived.
<David_SIMU> The second critters are called BOTs you KNOW it ain't a roleplaying game anymore.
<David_SIMU> The only predictability in critters will be that they tend to inhabit logical areas of the world...
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Well, not fantasy RP anyway.
<David_SIMU> Which brings up an interesting story...
<David_SIMU> We are as guilty as anyone when it comes to having Giant Rats in our games....
<Eric_Simu> glances at David.
<David_SIMU> Well, like most, these are low level critters... In one of our games...
<David_SIMU> We had a lot more newbie players than rats to fight...
<David_SIMU> So some of the players hit on an idea to try and lure some of the rats out of the crowd by...
<Russ_Simu> I'd like to think that the only "fixed" spawn points will be in places that players can't reach...without clearing the surrounding areas, like the center of the Orcan Empire (just an example).
<David_SIMU> buying cheese at a local merchant and dropping them like crumbs for them to follow...
<David_SIMU> Of course the rats didn't know anything about how to deal with this, but the second a GM noticed what the players were trying to do...
<David_SIMU> the rats were recoded to actually be attracted to the cheese.
<David_SIMU> The lesson here is, in a dynamic game like we make... nothing is predictable.

<luxor_vault> <Torinak> If multiple characters per game world are allowed, how will the problems of character mules be handled?

<David_SIMU> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Very carefully.
<David_SIMU> (smacks forehead)
<Eric_Simu> there has been some discussion about this...
<Eric_Simu> ...we could put storage lockers into the game like we have in our toher games...
<Eric_Simu> ...we could prevent "mules" by not allowing dropped items to stay in the game when they log...
<David_SIMU> I favor having personal "space" possible. Ownership of a home allows for more logical hording of "stuff".
<Eric_Simu> I agree with David.
<Russ_Simu> I don't really see mules as -the- problem. They are generally a symptom of imbalances in trade skills or justice systems. With careful work on these systems, you'll rarely see any use for a mule.
<Eric_Simu> We dont' have mules in DR or GSIII simply because people can store their items in an IC way.
<Dave_SIMU> It's mostly a matter of planning in advance... making sure that a solution for one problem isn't going to create a whole new problem. :)
<Eric_Simu> People need to store stuff.
<Eric_Simu> So we'll plan for it.

<Aurum_Vault> <Fulrak2> Are there plans to let players fly? And if so does that include a flying race?

<Bruce_Simu> See above :)
* Suz_Simu is already an angel.
<Russ_Simu> Heh
<Dave_SIMU> Just build a big enough catapult...
<David_SIMU> So far, yes.
<David_SIMU> But lower priority... compared to getting the game to market.
* Valen_vault saw a player fly on a dragon at E3
<David_SIMU> We can always add as we go, given our technology foundation.
<David_SIMU> Anyway, if someone is annoying you can tell them to buzz off. And they might be able to.

<luxor_vault> <Qyan> What modes of travel might be used? (boats, baloons, wagons?)

<David_SIMU> Yes.
<David_SIMU> Dragons, too.
<Eric_Simu> and more
<Suz_Simu> Horses, carts... whatever we can dream up
<Dave_SIMU> trains? :)
<David_SIMU> Should see the boat system in DR.
<Eric_Simu> Gerbil powered trains.
<David_SIMU> We can just add them as we see fit.
<David_SIMU> Just kinda pour the content and mechanics in as the game goes along. This is how our other products work.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Movement is a basic function of characters in a game. In our current game, moving characters is a very simple thing, it's more a matter of how to represent the movement.
<Bruce_Simu> The real benefit of the engine we're designing is that anything can be added later on down the line. Nothing is fixed, everything is variable :)
<Suz_Simu> as an example, in GS3 we have an airship, a juggernaut (that travels by burrowing underground), boats, ships, rafts, etc. We love doing it all

<Aurum_Vault> <A_Paladin> In combat: Are you going to stay with the on idea in DR that there is no TRUE hit points. Where you lose an arm... get a scratch, bolt goes in mouth and out the back of the head, etc. I think you guys did a great job on that.

<David_SIMU> See above.
<David_SIMU> If we use our own system, it'll be quite unique. I favor modeling the FEEL of combat.
<David_SIMU> That is something not done very well so far in the graphical games.
<Dave_SIMU> nod
<David_SIMU> Regardless of the mechanics, the real trick is to make the on-screen representation of combat more interesting thatn just characters waving swords at a bobbing critter.

<luxor_vault> <Gannyx> Hiya...my question is: has a definite decision been made to include a complex and interesting trade system in Hero's Journey? (shameless plug: we the players want it!!!)

<David_SIMU> Oh I hope so. I wouldn't let DragonRealms ship until traders were working.
<Dave_SIMU> or doing math at each other until somebody hits zero. :)
<Eric_Simu> glances at David.
<David_SIMU> :)
<Eric_Simu> We reworked Traders twice before we opened.
<Eric_Simu> And we've reworked them several times since then.
<Dave_SIMU> and at least twice since then.
<Dave_SIMU> heh.
<Jeffg_SIMU> What we do not want to do is add whole systems of trade that produce items that have no use.
* Jhyrryl_SIMU nods at Jeffg.
<Jeffg_SIMU> There's no need to write an intricate blanket weaving system if no one wants to buy blankets
<Dave_SIMU> No Hummel figurines.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Nothing like spending 100 hours building systems no one uses.
<David_SIMU> Issues, Mike? :)
* Jhyrryl_SIMU whistles.
<Dave_SIMU> hee

<luxor_vault> Well it's been an hour! You guys want to go a bit longer, right? ;)

<David_SIMU> Okay, we'll keep answers briefer to try and get through some more.
<David_SIMU> We apologize we can't be more specific regarding game mechanics just yet. But we should have this resolved shortly.
<Bruce_Simu> I'm gonna have to leave in about 5 minutes, but others might be willing to stay :)

<Aurum_Vault> <Fulrak2> Is there any possible way we can have just one instance of the game world? I really hate seperate servers/shards.

<David_SIMU> That is our goal.

<luxor_vault> <Bill> Please comment on Overland Travel.

<David_SIMU> One of the ideas we are working on is this...
<David_SIMU> Areas of the virtual game world will be segreagated into servers...
<David_SIMU> So you will be in one world, and can travel to see your friends regardless of what server they are on. It should be relatively invisible.
<David_SIMU> This works into the overland travel thing too...
<David_SIMU> Chunks of the world segregated into servers will be accessable only via the over land travel abstraction.
<David_SIMU> (Since they are not connected in a high-bandwith, real-time sense)
<David_SIMU> BUT...
<David_SIMU> We also want to have the possibility of completely seperate servers so that we can have alternate universes... For example, we...
<David_SIMU> could setup a server where it's bacily a free-for-all PvP enviroment.
<David_SIMU> For those unfortunately people who like that.
<David_SIMU> :)
<David_SIMU> ga

<luxor_vault> <Stonurhasnot> Is there gonna be a sky? it adds realism

<Jhyrryl_SIMU> <g>
<David_SIMU> Uh
<David_SIMU> Our camera view is a lot like UO (only in 3D).
<David_SIMU> So, yeah... the most amazing sky you can imagine!*
<Dave_SIMU> Nah, the planet is inside out, so you can look up and see the ground on the other side <ducks>
<David_SIMU> *You can't look up.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Cloudworld, Vigil
<Suz_Simu> Only out? ;)
<David_SIMU> By the way...
<David_SIMU> The reason the camera is 3rd person has a lot to do with the dyanmic nature of the world. Since the terrain (and everything else) is streamed down...
<David_SIMU> and dynamic, you need to have a limited view distance in order to accomodate such a thing in a low-bandwidth enviroment.
<David_SIMU> ga

<luxor_vault> <Alerlean> Will there be a premium package where one group of people eg the monied ones gets an advantge from real world wealth.

<Bruce_Simu> Sorry to bug out, folks... another committment calls me. Have fun, and thanks for sharing your excitement with us, both here and on the boards. Good night!
<Aurum_Vault> Thanks for coming Bruce!]
<Suz_Simu> Night, Bruce. :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Later, Bruce.
<David_SIMU> The business model is still to be decided.
<luxor_vault> thanks bruce!
<David_SIMU> Depends on the partnerships we strike too. :)
<Bruce_Simu> My pleasure :)
<David_SIMU> But, traditionally, we like to offer various levels of game play at different price points. We were the first wih $9.95, by the way. :)

<Aurum_Vault> <A_Paladin> How will you handle GORE in the game... I say keep it all in the game and make it feel more real

<Jhyrryl_SIMU> We need people to model their intestines...
<Suz_Simu> oy
<Russ_Simu> I heard someone say we wanted it gory enough to turn stomachs...then offer player options to tone it down to personal taste. ;)
<David_SIMU> I love gore. You can adjust it to suit.
<David_SIMU> You can already turn off the blood spurting.
<David_SIMU> ga
<Suz_Simu> Have sort of a gore-ometor with a dial you can spin? From Mildly Bruised to That's Disgusting!, David?
<Jeffg_SIMU> lets add a pressure system so it can be set to ooze, pour, spurt or blast
<Eric_Simu> From sissy to paint em red!

<luxor_vault> <LegendWeaver> If you end up having to develope your own in house game system, will it be possible for outsiders to submit a system for your consideration?

<David_SIMU> Of course!
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> It's called getting hired as a GM. :)
<Russ_Simu> We've got dozens of folks already doing that on the Vault boards, too. ;)
<David_SIMU> Though we do also work closely with our customer base in our own message boards and forums (chats).
<Suz_Simu> All the GMs and Producers were players first, remember. :)
<Eric_Simu> Yes, get involved on the boards.
<Andy_Simu> and BOY do they post.
<Eric_Simu> Many of the systems in our games were first suggested on our message boards.
<David_SIMU> Yup.

<luxor_vault> <ADS> What can you tell us about the graphical emotes and our ability to customize them? (If implemented at all)

<David_SIMU> A special area of interest for us...
<David_SIMU> First of all, a lot of animations will be devoted to expressing yourself...
<David_SIMU> And as time goes by, more and more will appear (they just download on demand)....
<David_SIMU> The key, though, is in the ability for you to personalize your character by grouping animation sequences...
<David_SIMU> and adjusting some of the properties of them (speed of playback, flamboyance, etc.). Then those groups are assigned to say 'moods'...
<David_SIMU> Then you simply adjust your mood-of-the-moment.
<David_SIMU> You can always vary these settings as your character's personality evolves.

<Aurum_Vault> <Stimwalt> Seems HJ will have an industrial meets magic world, what kind of items will the industrial side of this or a combo of indie + magic yield for players?

<David_SIMU> Suz?
<Russ_Simu> Steam-powered rollerskates!
<Suz_Simu> Currently, we're planning on a look that is sort of...
<Suz_Simu> Da Vinci inspired, so things like ornithopters are the first that come to my mind (for some unknown reason)
<Suz_Simu> Technology that has been gained and then lost and is now being rediscovered gives us a whole slew of possibilities
<David_SIMU> Too much MtG
<Eric_Simu> De Vinci is pre-industrial ... technically speaking.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> And the steam comes from entrapped fire and water elementals.
<Russ_Simu> minaturiztion is gonna be a real problem, though...
<David_SIMU> hehe
<Suz_Simu> I personally love contraptions - not sure about the other guys, although I think David is with me on that
<David_SIMU> It gives a unique flavor.
<Jeffg_SIMU> if you've ever seen that film about the history of flying, where all the goofy airplane inventions tried to fly and failed. Well in HJ, all those attempts would work.
<David_SIMU> THOUGH, this is also subject to the possible existing game system out.
<Russ_Simu> I like it, for one... I was always fond of Weis and Hickman's tinker gnomes.
<Suz_Simu> It'll be interesting to build things without having to describe them in text. Something new for me. :)
* Suz_Simu nods to David.
<David_SIMU> You
<David_SIMU> oops
<David_SIMU> You'll have to describe them in text for the artists. :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<Suz_Simu> True. :)

<Lockeworth> <Benzali> Are you considering using Inverse Kinetics to allow players to aim their attacks and do special maneuvers made on the fly in combat?

<David_SIMU> IK is part of the animation system to allow it to adapt pre-recorded sequences to the situation.
<David_SIMU> So, I think yes is the answer.
<David_SIMU> But you don't aim, as in say Quake.
<David_SIMU> But the combat sequence should appear more natural as a result of this.
<David_SIMU> ga

<luxor_vault> <weasel> Any word on training / teachers? (player's teaching players, etc?)

<David_SIMU> Eric?
<Eric_Simu> Yes, we've discussed it as a possibility.
<Eric_Simu> It's something that's pretty neat in DR because it encourages groups to sit and talk to each other.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> It's also partially dependant on the 'see above' mentioned above, as well.
<Eric_Simu> ga

<Aurum_Vault> <Serafina> Considering the incestous nature of the game industry, are you at all concerned about recruiters raiding your company?

<Russ_Simu> heh
<David_SIMU> Um, yeah.
<David_SIMU> But if they are willing to pay me enough, I'll go!
<Suz_Simu> Nooooooo!
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Eric_Simu> pulls at David.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> 'Hey, er.. I get your stock. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> ask em if they need a theme song
<Suz_Simu> We'll staple your office door shut, David. ;)
<David_SIMU> It is a problem, but on the other hand people get laid off all the time at these companies too. :)
<Russ_Simu> I really like that phrase..."incestuous nature of the game industry". :)
<Suz_Simu> me too

<luxor_vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> The music... will it be mp3, midi, or what? Will it be always running, or just in certain places?

<David_SIMU> I want Jeff to look into DirectMusic. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> Dmusic definately, but running all the time hopefully not
<Jeffg_SIMU> My perfect model for music would be you hear music when musicians in the game are playing it
<Dave_SIMU> Atmospheric things tied to a particular location, maybe.

<Aurum_Vault> <Torinak> Will HJ support operating systems other than Windows 9x?

<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Windows 2000
<David_SIMU> Good question.
<David_SIMU> Right now that's the market.
* Valen_vault starts chanting LInux Linux Linux
<Dave_SIMU> Always with the option to turn off our music too, as cool as it'll be. (Is listening to Bjork now)
<David_SIMU> No descision has been made on other OSs yet.
<Russ_Simu> Hard to justify a port for 5% of the market...
* Andy_Simu starts chanting Freebsd. Free bsd. Poor bsd.
<David_SIMU> Howabout BEos! :)
<Dave_SIMU> heh
<luxor_vault> playstation 2?
<Russ_Simu> Poor bsd...
<David_SIMU> PS2.... hmmm. :)
* Andy_Simu starts to chant PalmOS, and realizes what he just said with a grimace.
<Aurum_Vault> Linux?
<David_SIMU> Linux will run the server. :)
<David_SIMU> ga
<Jeffg_SIMU> port HJ to gameboy yeah baby
<Dave_SIMU> Port it to Screenfridge.
<Russ_Simu> The problem is that Linux is a very small portion of the market... most gamers with Linux are techno-geek enough to also have Win9x.

<Lockeworth> <Fredian_Furryfoot> What games, projects, movies, or other things influenced you in your works?

<David_SIMU> What doesn't influence us?
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Checkers.
<David_SIMU> Mostly South Park, I think.
<Jeffg_SIMU> Starflight, best game in 16 colors I ever played
<David_SIMU> I got started with Scott Adams adventures.
<Eric_Simu> Bards Tale
<David_SIMU> Anyone remember those?
<Jeffg_SIMU> Pirate Adventure!
<Eric_Simu> Dungeon Master
<Suz_Simu> I was just going to say - everything, I think. :) In the case of H&X, obviously we were influenced by the TV shows. :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Zork
<Russ_Simu> In my case, about 40 different table-top RPG's... several hundred computer games, and countless board and card games.
<Suz_Simu> Leather Goddesses of Phobos :>
<David_SIMU> The REAL Zork, not the new wizzy stuff.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Right. On the C64.
<David_SIMU> By the way...
<Eric_Simu> The original Adventure.
<Dave_SIMU> I never really played many non-computer RPGs... GemStone III was the first one I got seriosuly into. :)
<Aurum_Vault> The text-based Zork games ruled. :)
<Dave_SIMU> But lots of books. Loooots of books.
<Russ_Simu> Funny thing, I -hated- text games, until I found GemStone...
<Jeffg_SIMU> I spent $450 to expand my Ti994a to 48k and a half sided dick drive just to play Zork
<Suz_Simu> hehehe, Jeff
<Russ_Simu> That's our boy... ;)

<luxor_vault> I got a questions, but it's mainly for Ratcliff, but here goes: what do you think about the gforce256 and can the engine support hardware t&l or tbuffer technology?

<David_SIMU> I can answer that Lux...
<David_SIMU> The basic problem with T&L engines in hardware is that they are not fast enough to do 100% real-time lighting of arbitrary complex enviroments...
<David_SIMU> THe reason you can do it in software is because you cheat. You cheat like hell!
<David_SIMU> The T&L engines don't consider cheating, they try to do everything accurately.
<David_SIMU> And won't settle for anything less.
<David_SIMU> So what you get is the ability to only do a few lights. Even in hardware.
<David_SIMU> So the jury is out in how to make this work in a game like this.
<David_SIMU> On the other hand, we really don't need it.
<Russ_Simu> But the numbers for the GEForce are -very- impressive... I can just see the artists drooling over the huge new poly limits.
<David_SIMU> Faster fill rates and a way to stream vertex data faster is what we really need. Also cards that really do what they claim. :)

<Aurum_Vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> Do you guys at Simu have any words for the 'axed' members of the Middle-Earth Development team? They love it when fellow devs share their thoughts on the situation at Sierra and all.

<Eric_Simu> We're going to mooch all their good ideas.
<David_SIMU> Yes, COME JOIN OUR TEAM.
<Eric_Simu> <grin>
<David_SIMU> We're hiring.
<Suz_Simu> David types faster than I do. :>
<Russ_Simu> I was very disappointed in Sierra. I was extremely curious to see how some of the more "edgy" design decisions would work out. ;)
<David_SIMU> Contact Bruce...he'll take all the talent he can get. :)
<David_SIMU> ga

<Lockeworth> Mine ;) : The HJ Vault was mentioned as a 'quasi-focus group'. Who all on the HJ Dev will/can/wants to (heh) devote some time to reading/posting/'debating' with the fans?

<Russ_Simu> Hee! Me!
<Eric_Simu> I don't post yet, but I read it regularly.
<Russ_Simu> I gotta bad message-board jones. ;)
<Suz_Simu> No fair, Lockeworth. ;) (He already asked me that)
<Andy_Simu> I read there every couple days. I don't post because I have nothing new to add.
<Jeffg_SIMU> I read me, even post when I have something goofy to say
* Jeffg_SIMU mumbles something about typo night
<Russ_Simu> Like the GvG system...
<Suz_Simu> I'll be back now that I'm official. Stayed away for awhile because I figured you guys were all asking yourselves, "But who the heck is SHE?!" Now you know. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> GvG is essential!
<Russ_Simu> Not to mention unique...
<Dave_SIMU> I try to keep an eye on what's being discussed even when there's not enough time to read everything in detail. Every once in a while I go crazy though :)
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> I've been away awhile, but I'll be move involved with the boards again soon. :)
<Suz_Simu> I do admit to getting lost in all the PvP arguments though. Whew

<luxor_vault> <Cluge> Are you coding in C or Java? Why one over the other since you are (I would think) going to try and market this to as many people as possible.

<David_SIMU> C++
<David_SIMU> Who cares what language it is in?

<luxor_vault> <Serafina> Can you have sex in HJ?

* Valen_vault coughs
<Dave_SIMU> heh
* Suz_Simu chokes.
<Russ_Simu> Hehe
<David_SIMU> Of course.
<Jeffg_SIMU> you'd need a really big monitor
<Dave_SIMU> rofl
<Jeffg_SIMU> else you might fall off
<Suz_Simu> Sorry - I just keep wondering who's going to do the motion capture on that. :>
<Valen_vault> LOL
<David_SIMU> Um...
<David_SIMU> I've already got some volunteers.
<Dave_SIMU> And remember, we ARE hiring
* Suz_Simu stole that Joke from David. Sorry!
<David_SIMU> hehehe

<luxor_vault> <ADS> What's the word on multiple monitor support?

<David_SIMU> Definite
<David_SIMU> Will be done.
<David_SIMU> Good news for G400 owners.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Double motherboards with two AGP slots each and the new dual Matrox cards in each slot = 8 monitors?
<Dave_SIMU> Better make 'em LCD displays Mike, all that radiation adds up :P

<luxor_vault> <A_Paladin> Can we expect so see any new screenshots or movies soon? That kinda stuff really helps spawn more ideas and creat more interest.

<David_SIMU> Frankly...
<David_SIMU> We slowed down on that because a lot of our innovations were showing up in competitors announcements as if they had suddenly thought of them.
<David_SIMU> It was causing us to re-evaluate our approach to all this.
<Eric_Simu> Yeah, but they'll botch it :)
<David_SIMU> We're going to go cautiously for now.

<luxor_vault> <Fredian_Furryfoot> Will NPCs act like real people - for example, will they curse and swear when they stub their toe (hint hint), or wander around belching and punching people when drunk?

<David_SIMU> NPCs will be cool, but lets face it... why try and recreate people when so many REAL people will be in the game.
<Eric_Simu> We plan to push the limits of what NPCs can and will do as far as we can.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Real people don't act that way. ::hiccup::
<David_SIMU> I favor investing that development time in things that matter, like game play.
<Valen_vault> or more gore
<Eric_Simu> lol
<David_SIMU> Yes, more gore.
<David_SIMU> ga
<Russ_Simu> But I can pretty much guarantee that we'll get at least one GM (and likely many more) who's passion is good NPC's.
<Jeffg_SIMU> don't expect to see an NPC stub his toe and expect to come away without needing a towel
<Dave_SIMU> Our NPCs will behave very realistically when you disembowel them.

<luxor_vault> <Vil> will character's look different on a modify your outfit scale....or will anyone wearing a specific type of armor all look the same?

<David_SIMU> The plan is to make everything look as distinct as possible. We've not worked out the technology on this part yet...
<David_SIMU> So I'll have to punt here and say we have high hopes, but no promises yet on what exactly can be done given the limitations of technology.

<luxor_vault> ...lets end up with a hard one: <Torinak> If you could discuss any MMORPG-related issue with the dev team of any of the current MMORPGs (without fears of idea-swiping), which team and which issue(s) would you choose?

<David_SIMU> (blink)
<Dave_SIMU> hmmmm.
<David_SIMU> We encourage them to keep doing what they are doing. :)
* Aurum_Vault cues the jeopardy music
<David_SIMU> Go Team!
* Suz_Simu grins.
<Jeffg_SIMU> Interface ease of use with the Mankind team in France
<Dave_SIMU> lol
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> ::chuckle::
<David_SIMU> Especially those purely static worlds they keep creating. More of that!
<David_SIMU> Or the marathon-click-fest interface designs.
<David_SIMU> We like when they do those too. Good job dudes!
<David_SIMU> I wouldn't change a thing!

<luxor_vault> One last question: what is the current time-frame for beta and official release?

<David_SIMU> doh!
<David_SIMU> RSN
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> What's time?
<David_SIMU> You can't rush perfection.
<Dave_SIMU> When it's ready.
<David_SIMU> I anticipate you'll have something you can lay your hands on late next year.
<David_SIMU> We'll call it HJ2000.
<David_SIMU> Wow, next year ain't far away.

<luxor_vault> Any closing comments?

<David_SIMU> I would like to thank everyone for their support and all of the ideas on the vault! This has been tremendously helpful!
<David_SIMU> We've got a full two days of meetings on new technolgoies for HJ starting tomorrow that I need to get some sleep for.
<David_SIMU> But I've had fun tonight. Thanks everyone. And remember, the Vault is the place to be for this kind of stuff!
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Must... do... research...

<luxor_vault> Thanks everyone! We'll have the log of tonight's chat up at www.hjvault.com soon. Be sure to read for all the latest news on HJ.

<David_SIMU> Thanks Lux
<luxor_vault> going unmoderated in 20 seconds...
<Suz_Simu> Indeed - it's been fun. We'll be looking for you all on HJVault. :)
<Jonric_Vault> thanks to the simutronics team and also to all you fans for attending.
<Jhyrryl_SIMU> Night all. :)
<Jeffg_SIMU> It was cool
<Eric_Simu> I'd like to say that the HJ Vault has proved to be a fresh and envigorating experience. I think we've gotten a great deal from the discussions there and look forward to seeing future discusions.
<Jeffg_SIMU> nighters
<David_SIMU> (bow) (wave)
<Valen_vault> G'nite and thanks!
<Fredian_Furryfoot> Grr
<Jonric_Vault> safe trip home everyone 8-)
<ADS> charge!!!
<Russ_Simu> G'nite folks, and see you on the boards. ;)
<Lockeworth> Cya!
<oblivion> thanks for coming, simu folks
<A_Paladin> I hope its not a random pick on beta... I think everyone here today and people on boards all the time should be kept on a list.. any way that could happen?
<Gannyx> thanks all
<GoodnightDevTeam> I HOPT SO
<Fredian_Furryfoot> I didn't get to get my 5th question off!
<Jastev> Yea!
<Leck> G'Bye
<Bill> Break his legs before he can get away! No, him first!!!
<GoodnightDevTeam> err
<Jastev> Put me on the list
<Torinak> Thanks for taking the time to participate, Simu folks!
<Kremlore> there
<Fredian_Furryfoot> SOMEONE FROM SIMU, QUICK! ANSWER A QUESTION!
<menaleth> Thank you:)
<A_Paladin> hehe
<Jastev> Get them!
<Serafina> woohoo
<Maksin> Later
<Suz_Simu> hehe, we'll have plenty of room for y'all to help with beta, I'm sure :)

---

Lockeworth: Hello, Ms. Dunin, thank you for allowing this interview for our readers. Can you tell us who you are and what your role at Simutronics is.

Sure, My name is Elonka Dunin, and I'm the General Manager of Online Community for Simutronics. In our games, I'm also known as Simu Nova or Reline. I've been with Simutronics since 1990 and I've been involved in pretty much every aspect of our games for the past ten years. I've done coding, puzzle design, customer service, management, and doc-writing, along with anything you need to do to get a company off the ground from an apartment loft. And now I have a corner office in the building where we're based in St. Charles, Missouri.

L: What exactly does the Community Manager position mean?

A little bit of everything. I have people that work for me that manage the online communities in my major products. For example in our flagship product GemStone III, we have over 50 GameMasters, and hosts and mentors ranging from volunteers who help out on the game, to paid contractors to a couple of full-time employees in our offices.

Total in all our games, there are several hundred people who help out with the game. Over 300 of those are paid contractors, while the rest are volunteers in one form or another or they're compensated with a free game account.

L: Several people in the Hero's Journey community have mentioned Simutronics business sense, so what reasons motivated you to do it?

It is a product we've always wanted to do. There are many interesting things we can do with graphical multiplayer games. Of course, we're seeing many graphical multiplayer games that are out there. And we look at the design elements in them. Some of them are good design elements but there are other elements where we slap our heads, and say, 'They should've known this and they should've known that!'

These are things we've figured out years ago and I wish we could've helped them with their own graphical games. So there are a lot of things we have learned from our over ten years in the business that we'd like to incorporate into our game design of Hero's Journey. And any product that we do, we're going to stand behind and keep alive as long as possible. We're not a company that puts out a game and if it doesn't do as well as we thought then we just shut it down and go onto another game. For example, Modus Operandi is one of our smaller games, but it's still here because there are players who enjoy it. And as long as they want to keep playing it and if I have any say in it, we're going to keep it alive.

L: I know about 'Hero's Journey' as a literary plotline where a Hero faces challenges, and has to overcome them and things like that. Is that where you got the name?

David has always been good about coming up with names and stories, but I'm not sure where he came up with the name for Hero's Journey. I guess that it just sounded good to him.

L: Were you part of the group that decided to give a graphical MUD / MMORPG like Hero's Journey a chance?

Sort of. I've been involved in Simutronics for many years. David Whatley, the CEO of Simutronics, and I got the company off the ground in an apartment loft in St. Charles, Missouri. We also had other people involved, Tom and Susan Zelinski who co-founded the company with David, and Tom Tayon, another programmer.

David had always wanted to do a game called Hero's Journey, a graphical multiplayer game. This was back eight years ago so the technology wasn't there to do it. So I do take some credit in keeping the dream alive. Over the years as we were working on new products, every time we were talking about what we'd do next I'd always ask "What about Hero's Journey?" But that is the extent in my involvement in the decision to give HJ a chance.

L: This is the question every newbie in the Hero's Journey has asked, and that is: What is the status of Hero's Journey?

The status of Hero's Journey is we're looking for funding for the project. To do the game right we would need a few million dollars of outside funding. So far we have not found anyone that has made us an offer that we really like. So we have built a demo for the game and a videotape which we are circulating to potential investors. And that is about it for right now.

We're not involved in weekly work on it, but it is a game and major project we want to do. But we don't have funding for it right now. And there are other major projects we want to do.

For example, if someone came along and said "I want you to do a vampire game, and here's funding and a contract," then that is where our resources might be put instead.

L: So then are you talking with a publisher currently?

We're talking with several different entities, but there is not one in particular. And even if there were, I wouldn't be able to say who it was until we have something signed. Because by saying and publishing it, it might nix the deal.

Lockeworth: I think my fellow Stratics staff members have a few questions.

Corolan: Why are you choosing to go with a publisher, instead of self-publishing?

Well, to do this game right, it will take a few million dollars of funding. Currently Simutronics is a healthy company, and as a matter of fact we made the Inc. 500 list, meaning that we're one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. However, our annual revenue is about five million dollars a year.

So we could not afford to self-fund this game in a reasonable amount of time. If we do bits and pieces over several years, yes we probably could. But the problem with that is we are trying to spec out, now, what the typical consumer computer will be like two years from now. So if we designed the game in two years, it matches what we think we will have. But if we take six years, it is going to be very out of date.

For example, we did have a game called ArchMage. The game was designed and built, with effects, artwork and everything. You could go in and play it for alpha testing, but then we had a contractual problem with the company that was funding it. There was a sub company that got acquired and projects got moved around.

So then the game had to be put on the shelf for awhile. By the time we were able to release it, the game was already old technology and it wouldn't have been a viable product if we were to release it. No one ever got to play it. It was very frustrating for the team and very demoralizing.

C: I have a hard time understanding that it takes a few million dollars to publish a game. I can understand once you have gotten past actual construction, development and artwork -- all the behind the things development -- you would need the money to pay for the shipping, boxing, creation of CDs, creating the manual, but could you explain where most of that money goes?

Well a major portion of the cost goes to the salaries of the people working on the project. To get a really good programmer to do this kind of a 3d engine, you're talking about some major salaries -- somewhere in the area of 100,000 dollars a year -- while artists also require a lot of money. And you could get less expensive and/or volunteers, but when you are talking about a multiple person team putting their full time effort into this, payroll becomes a sizable part of the budget.

C: So are you currently looking for 3d programmers?

We are always looking for 3d programmers, and as a matter of fact we're always looking for 3d artists. On the web site, we have a So You Want To Work For Simutronics page where we have a two dimensional picture of an orc and ask interested artists to put it into 3d format and send it to us. In that way we can tell if they can really do what they say they can do. As a matter of fact, we're not even looking for someone that has worked on other games, or has a college degree. We care whether or not someone can do it. And frequently the self-taught folks are better than the people with academic credentials.

DarkSoul: For Archmage and similar products that didn't quite reach the shelf, have you looked into the possibility of making a little bit of quick cash by releasing as-is on the web?

It is possible and we also have an old game called Orb Wars that was a very popular product on GEnie. And we actually have people contact us asking us if we're going to bring it back. Even though it was basically an ASCII game where an @ sign moves across the screen. It was a very fun game and we could do it.

But there is also the risk that if we re-release a title and it is not good, then the image of Simutronics tends to decrease a little. Like with Hero's Journey, everyone is really excited about Hero's Journey because Simutronics has a reputation of doing good games. So if we released something that was mediocre, then maybe there wouldn't be as much interest in Hero's Journey or any future titles by us. But personally I'd like to release ArchMage and Orb Wars, but it isn't my decision.

C: I understand it is hard to put a date on a possible release date, but if Hero's Journey did not get shelved in the next product decision time, and if it was the main product Simutronics had, what do you think would be a release date?

Assuming someone gave us a lump sum of money, which is kind of a pie in the sky wish, but making the assumption, the contract was signed, all of the permissions, licensing and paperwork were completed. Then my best guess, and this is just a guess, would be about two years after the contract is signed... but that is just a ball park guess.

L: Since it will be at least two years until Hero's Journey is produced, what suggestions would you have to the Hero's Journey community in regards to helping out the game or burning out on the project?

That is a hard one as I know that many of the fans have a huge anticipation for the project. If I could give any definite timeline for it, I would, but there isn't anything until we get funding. I could beg patience from people, but it is hard to be patient when you don't know when you'll get the next update.

All I can do is provide the information: This is a project we want to do, but we don't have full funding for it yet. It might be something we could get out in two years, it may not show up in five years, or it may be something that goes on the shelf and doesn't see the light of day as we get involved in another major project.

So knowing that, it is up to the fans as to what they want to do or where they want to spend their time. And I'll be as honest as possible as to where the status of the project is

L: Then what would be the sign that Hero's Journey will or will not get shelved?

Well, Simutronics is going to do a major product, but we're not sure what it is going to be yet. It might be Hero's Journey or something else. So until we decide our next major product, Hero's Journey is as likely as anything else. If we make an announcement that we are definitely going to do another major product, then Hero's Journey will be on the shelf for awhile.

Lockeworth: Since Simutronics is hiring, I am sure many people would want to know who is on the Hero's Journey development/design team. Could you give a few, or all of the names and positions of people working on Hero's Journey?

I don't know for sure everyone who is on the project. But the executive producer is Bruce Ferguson, and he is the main person in charge of Hero's Journey. He is trying to find investors, putting together financials, or whatever requests a potential investor has. He is the keeper of the demo videotapes.

There are a few other people in the office who have done stuff on Hero's Journey. David Whatley is involved in the design of the game along with on-site GameMaster/Developers such as Michael Paddock, Jeff Gatlin, Dave Dean, Steph Shaver, and Russ Whiteman. I'm not sure how much each has contributed. We also have Eric Slick, the producer of DragonRealms, Suz Dodd, producer of GemStone III, Melissa Callaway, online community manager for GemStone III, Eric Latham, online community manager for DragonRealms, our artist Tracy Butler, and even our customer service team.

Among our programmers, there's Andy Finkenstadt, who is a very wonderful, technically literate guy, involved in all kinds of things, such as being our Oracle database guru. Bryan Files programmed the interface on the demo for Hero's Journey. Jim Miller is the network administrator. Dave Metzener is our senior developer.

Everyone in the company has helped at one point or another.

Lockeworth: As Community Manager, you are familiar with how Simutronics gathers feedback and keeps fans up to date. Can you list some of those ways?

Sure, we have a feedback department in our office where we get email and we also have a billing department where they can call in if they have a problem with their account. We get a few hundred phone calls per week to the Billing Department and I think at peak we got 3500 emails per week to our feedback department. We generally try to turn those around in 72 hours, though usually we can turn them around in 24 hours.

We also have our message boards on our website, which gets over a million hits a day. Keep in mind that's only the only the number of times that a user actually clicks on something, so there are many more messages viewed. Overall, our message boards get about 50,000 new messages per month, with some topics getting over five hundred messages a day. So we have another part of our staff, GameMasters and GameHosts, who deal with monitoring the message boards to keep them running smoothly.

L: Will Hero's Journey feedback and news to the fans be set up similar?

Yes, we'll have all the same avenues. We'll have feedback, message boards, and the billing will go through our billing department. Plus, along with all of our games, we have fan websites, hundreds and hundreds. And we have guidelines for them and artwork, plus we link back to hundreds of them.

L: Were you part of the group that developed the Mentor Society?

Melissa Callaway, she was one of our DragonRealms gamers/GameMasters, developed the mentor society. And then I hired her full time and now she is the full-time community manager for GemStone III.

L: All the current Simutronics games have the Mentor Society or something similar, correct?

We have it in all four of our IFE games [IFE means Interactive Fiction Engine]. So that is GemStone III, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, and Hercules and Xena: Alliance of Heroes. We also have GemStone III Platinum and DragonRealms Platinum, but since those are much smaller communities, new players get "naturally mentored" automatically, and so we don't need to have a specific team assigned to do it.

L: Would you like to see a similar program in Hero's Journey?

I think we should absolutely see something like the Mentor Society in Hero's Journey. . Some way to greet new players, have them establish a 1-on-1 relationship with some more knowledgeable players, and then have these mentors show them around to get them acclimated very easily.

L: You play games, right?

Yes, I do play games. :)

L: What games have you played and are playing?

I play any game that is fun :). I was a huge player of GemStone III, and when I'm off-duty I play an empath in DragonRealms. I play many many single-player games. I'm the type of gamer that plays a game all the way through to the end. I've played Myst and Riven all the way through. And just recently, on my GameBoy, I've just completed my Pokedex (the Yellow Pikachu game), although I don't have my Mew yet. I enjoy the Dr. Brain games and Carmen Sandiego games. The Discovery Channel has an interesting CD-ROM game called "Byzantine" that takes place in the Middle East and you have to go through the museum and figure things out. Alexei Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris, currently working at Microsoft, did a game called Pandora's Box. I am looking forward to Myst III and a neat fact I learned here at Dragon*Con is that Brad Dourif, an actor in the Lord of the Rings movie, will also be in Myst III.

I play science fiction, fantasy, medieval fantasy, space trading games, historical fantasy games, and bird-watching games. I really like all types of games. But my favorite games would be educational games where you learn something as you're playing and it's interesting.

L: Can you relate a few experiences from your current games?

I like puzzles, things that teach me about language and history. Basically something that gives me a piece of knowledge that is useful in the real world, not just the game world.

One series of games that I really enjoy is the Puzz-3D CD-ROM series, from Wrebbit in Canada. It is like the puzzles in the store where you have styrofoam pieces that you fit together and build a 3d castle or something. But what these folks have done is make a computer game on this. Which is very satisfying for when you're putting the puzzle pieces together because they click, stay together, and don't start sagging like styrofoam puzzles sometimes do -- you have to superglue them together. :)

For example in the Notre Dame Cathedral computer game puzzle you put the pieces together and once you have the whole cathedral built then a whole other game is opened up where you can help the hunchback and help rescue Esmeralda, and there are also little history bits with video which tell about the architecture, arches, Victor Hugo and literature. That is the type of game I really like. So far there are four games in the series, one where you build the Orient Express, a Victorian mansion, Notre Dame cathedral, and a Bavarian Castle. And as soon as they come out with another one I'm going to buy it on sight. :)

In GemStone III, we had to add treasure elements into the game (gems). I researched every kind of gem. I got books from the library and bought books on gems. I made sure gems in the game matched as close as possible to real world gems. Valuable gems in the real world were valuable in-game, while cheap gems in real life were cheap gems in the game. But I didn't publish a list of these gems, I just gave them values that were similar to real life. So as people got into the game and the treasure, they learned what amber was worth in relation to an amethyst

L: Wow, I didn't realize that when I played GemStone III. Very cool.

That is the best type of educational game, one where you don't realize you're learning while you're learning.

Corolan: At the office, what do you say most Simutronics employees are playing right now -- when they aren't working? :)

In terms of computer games, there is a new game in beta, Diablo II (now live) which people are crazy about. What we have found out is that different people at Simutronics play different games. For example, when Dungeon Keeper came out, and before when Command & Conquer came out we lost a week's worth of productivity to each. While for me, I have never been into Command & Conquer or Dungeon Keeper but when Riven came out no one saw me for 3 or 4 days.

I should also mention that the folks in the office are mad about all kinds of games, not just computer games. For example, we'll often get together in the conference room after hours and play tabletop games. We've got several folks that are completely addicted to "Settlers of Catan" a tabletop game by Mayfair Games. We've also played everything else from "Pictionary" to "Skipbo" to "Scrabble".

C: As a company, how do you combat that problem where you lose a week's worth of productivity from ten of your employees? From a project directing point of view, that can be a big deal.

Yes, and in most companies that would be a problem, but what we have found is when people are playing these networked games people tend to stay later at work and build up bonds between employees.

When the interest in the game fades what we'll have is a bunch of people that get very very focused on whatever project they are supposed to be working on and they stay very very focused on it -- staying until 3 in the morning or staying up all night to get the project done. So we'll still have a deadline where a milestone needs to be completed, and we'll still meet the deadlines. So on average, I think the productivity loss is justified

Lockeworth: What fun stuff have you done outside of games?

I love traveling. Most of my traveling was pre-Simutronics but I have been all over the world, and had been to every continent, except Antarctica, so I knew I was going to have to go there someday.

I enjoy going to fan conventions, although that is game-related. I also enjoy dancing -- folk to country-western to goth -- and I like to play classical music on the piano. There are many other hobbies I also enjoy ranging from genealogy to sign language to researching subcultures.

Lockeworth: Wow, very cool. You said you thought would 'have' to go there? So you've been to Antarctica, how did that happen?

I am a member of a group called the Planetary Society. It was founded by Dr. Louis Friedman and Carl Sagan. The Society promotes space exploration, public education about the space program, and raises funding for certain space missions. Most recently they raised funding for the Mars microphone, though of course that didn't do so well last year!

In 1998, Dr. Louis Friedman sent out an open invitation to all the members of the Planetary Society, that he was going to Antarctica and he asked if any other members wanted to join him on an educational expedition. So about fifty of us said yes, and I paid the ticket. I flew from St. Louis to Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina to Tierra del Fuego where I boarded a ship called the Akademik Sergei Vavilov. Then we went south down the Beagle Channel and across the Drake Passage to Antarctica.

There I saw thousands and thousands of penguins, enough penguins to say 'Oh look, another penguin.' But they are always pretty cute and fun to watch :). I also saw seals, whales and icebergs, which were an amazing color of blue. A very wonderful trip.

DarkSoul: Since we're here at Dragon*Con, What is the most interesting thing you have seen?

That is a hard question because there is so much going on. When I go back to my hotel at night and try to jot down notes on what I did that day, it's hard because so many things are packed into my day. Something that will stay in my mind is that Bill Mumy, the actor and musician, was here. It seems like every track I went to -- the Lost in Space track, the Babylon 5 track, and he is at the Walk of Fame (where stars sign autographs) over on the merchandise floor -- he was there and involved in it. Aside from acting, he also has a one man band where he performs and entertains the audience. He probably has the longest line at the Walk of Fame but he was friendly and personable to each fan.

I enjoyed seeing information on the Lord of the Rings movie, and the movies that fans put together like the Fandom Menace where they documented the release of the Phantom Menace, Trekkies which I saw for the first time, and I like seeing the blooper reels. The costumes here are amazing. Some seem to require two or three people to carry the parts of the costume, while I know there are enough Imperial Stormtroopers to form a legion and one lady that I saw walking by had probably six inches of a platform shoe with 12-inch spike heels lifting her above that.

But being able to talk to everyone and feeling like I'm in an environment, feeling like a fan and everyone has common interests that they can talk about. That is what I enjoy most about Dragon*Con.

Corolan: At the virtual sales in MMORPGs panel, I touched upon this briefly where Ultima Online Two will introduce the ability in the game itself to sell items in the game for real world money. And you had a very strong opinion that but it was only expressed in a few worlds, so can you elaborate?

Wow, that is a really hot topic that is probably worth an entire new interview on its own. And many of our customers have very strong opinions on that both ways. So maybe in a follow-up interview we can cover that.

Lockeworth: Speaking of conventions, what was the Simutronics convention like?

A couple weeks ago we had SimuCon 2000, one of our annual conventions. It was the largest collection of online gamers meeting to just talk about online games in the world. We had over 600 people. The actor Robert Trebor (Salmoneus) from the Hercules & Xena TV shows came and signed autographs. We talked about the games, announced new stuff upcoming, and people came from GemStone III, DragonRealms, Hercules & Xena, and Modus Operandi. We had games they could play at the convention, a hospitality suite, and lots of parties. Also, we had another wedding. Two people who met through our game GemStone III actually got married in real life at our convention.

[Convention fact: This isn't the first time a marriage has occured.]

It was a fun, socializing event.

L: Do you think Hero's Journey will have its own convention?

My assumption is that Hero's Journey, as a Simutronics product, will definitely have its own place at our SimuCon conventions in the future.

L: And will it get as wild as SimuCon and Dragon*Con?

I hope so! :).

Lockeworth: Hehe :) , thank you for taking this interview and thanks for informing people on these issues which I know people have been asking about.

It has been my pleasure, and thank you for your time as well.

---

First, I would like to thank Dave Dean for taking the time to answer our questions about Hero’s Journey. Many of these questions were submitted by players who are eager to learn as much as possible about this promising MMORPG from Simutronics. Please keep in mind that as we are still in the very early stages of game development, the information contained herein is subject to change.

Welcome to the Tavern, Dave. Here let me get you a mug of Lotus ale while you’re gathering your thoughts.

Stratics: Comfortable? Good. Tell us about your history with Simutronics, and what your role will be on the Hero’s Journey Development team.

Dave Dean: In July 1995 I was hired as an assistant GM in DragonRealms, working with the magic system guru. Shortly after we opened for beta on GEnie in February '96, it was pretty clear that he didn't really have time to be a GM with all the other things going on in his life, so I took over. The basic design and implementation of the magic system were not mine, but since very few spells had been completed at that point I had the opportunity to put my stamp on it fairly early on.

I was obsessed. I'd bring a laptop with me to work, and I'd put more effort into DR than my "real" job. So in December '96 when I had the opportunity to come work full-time as an Onsite GM at Simutronics, I went for it.

DragonRealms has been the main focus of my attention, up until the development of CyberStrike 2. I implemented about a third of the single-player missions and tweaked some of the others, put together many of the mission briefings, and composed and recorded two of the four music tracks.

With the recent staff reorganization, OSGMs received the title of "Product Developer" and a new emphasis on development. I've backed out of DragonRealms a bit in antipation of Hero's Journey, and meanwhile am working with the other PDs on some special projects.

As for what my role on the HJ development team will be, at this stage I don't know that myself. I would like to be involved in game design, and I expect (and hope) I'll be up to my neck in implementation once we reach that stage. I'd like to contribute some music and ambient background sound, if I have the opportunity. But only time will tell.

Stratics: What do you believe should be the primary goal of a MMORPG, and how might that goal be achieved in Hero’s Journey?

Dave Dean: I'm not sure one can say there's a single primary goal that all MMORPG's share, unless it's something basic and obvious like "it needs to be fun."

My interpretation of our business goal is that we want to be significantly more successful than our competitors' current offerings. How we'll achieve that is simply by having a better game -- more engrossing, more visually attractive, more playable, and more actively supportive of social interaction and roleplaying. All of our other goals flow from that.

Stratics: Relatively little has been revealed on trade skills in the game. Can you confirm that a complex system of interesting and viable trade skills will be available in Hero’s Journey?

Dave Dean: It's really too early to confirm anything specific about gameplay. I'll have to admit that trade skills are not my personal interest, but there has been much discussion of them in-house so far, in regards to fun, advancement, and overall stability of the in-game economy.

Stratics: As GM Shalnhh, you were responsible for the magic system in DragonRealms. What features and innovations would you like to see for the magic system that will be used in Hero’s Journey?

Dave Dean: As soon as David Whatley confirmed that we'd be working on Hero's Journey, I immediately started sketching out magic systems. Several of them. There is a lot of unexplored territory there, a lot of possible directions to go in, a lot of interesting things that can be done with magic without straying too far from players' expectations or making the system too weird to balance.

There's been much discussion about the balance of magic. The gap in playability between high-level magic-using characters and non-magic-using ones is an issue in many RPGs, and it's something I'd very much like to address in this game. I think the solution is not to reduce the power of magic, but to offset it with vulnerabilities and to make sure that the non-magic-users have lots of new things to do as they advance.

I think it could be a lot of fun to take advantage of the graphical nature of the game in a way that nobody has done before. A system of nodes and ley lines, or magical energy fields such as is used in DragonRealms, could be truly exciting if you can see it; magical items and living or undead beings could have visible auras that convey information as well as just looking really cool. It opens up all kinds of possibilities, such as creatures (or possibly even player races) that see only in the magical spectrum, spells and items that mask your aura, and so on.

Stratics: Who is your target audience? Will Hero’s Journey be developed for the broadest player base possible, or will the game be designed with the roleplaying community in mind? What specifically will Hero’s Journey do to foster roleplaying and immersiveness?

Dave Dean: A major reason for going with a graphical environment rather than a text-based one is to expand our player base. We intend to draw in as wide player base as we can -- and recruit them into the roleplaying community.

Everything from the animation system to the interface to gameplay elements is being developed with two things in mind: roleplaying and strengthening the sense of community. This has been GemStone's greatest strength, and we hope to bring it into the graphical environment.

Stratics: As you know, PvP has been one of the most hotly debated topics on the discussion boards. David Whatley has stated that he is looking for an evolutionary step forward in developing a solution to the PvP problem. What information can you give us on the solution being considered for Hero’s Journey?

Dave Dean: We have the benefit of our own considerable experience plus observations of our competitors' alternate methods to draw from. I expect our solution will be more satisfactory than any so far. But like government, I don't think there is any one "perfect" solution that will completely satisfy everybody, just a zone of acceptable compromise between freedom and security.

I don't want to get too specific, but one of the more promising possibilities relies on the in-game, in-character justice system to discourage antisocial violence without imposing artificial restrictions.

Stratics: Another frequently debated topic is the overland travel feature allowing characters to move through the game world at an accelerated pace. Do you have any additional information on how overland travel will be handled in the game?

Dave Dean: I have nothing to contribute on that, sorry.

Stratics: One of the most important decisions made by a Development team is the extent to which the game will focus on reality vs. practicality. For example, in Ultima Online we saw a greater focus on reality (limited communication, no PvP switch, etc.) whereas in EverQuest the focus was on practicality (chat channels, PvP switch, etc.). Where do you believe Hero’s Journey will stand on this continuum?

Dave Dean: Without intending any offense or disrespect to either game, I think neither product truly reached those goals, if that's what they were. For example, in UO you can chop down trees while on horseback and sparrows will suicidally attack armored knights -- not terribly realistic. In EQ, you can very easily lose your sense of direction, and it can get to be so dark at night that you literally can't tell whether you're looking up at the sky, down at the ground, or straight ahead -- not a friendly combination for a new player trying to find their way around.

A good design should take both verisimilitude and practicality into account. For example, a common treasure item in GemStone allows long-distance communication via ESP. A good PvP solution can allow the freedom of choice to attack, but ensure that there are consequences.

One way we've looked at this in-house is "level of abstraction." For instance, using the overland travel map abstracts out the process of walking around individual obstacles in the terrain. Finding an appropriate level of abstraction is important, as players of Trespasser found out when they fumbled around with the character's arm as opposed to just hitting a "use" key as in most FPSs.

Stratics: What is your opinion on how character death should be handled in Hero’s Journey? Do you prefer a “slap on the wrist” model like we see in EverQuest, or a more serious model where death is relatively rare and has severe consequences? Is permanent death being considered for the game?

Dave Dean: Oddly enough, I see death in MMORPGs mostly in terms of the opportunity for social interaction. This is something missing from some games, but in both GemStone III and DragonRealms, a character death quite often means a party will come to the rescue, and require some teamwork between defenders, healers and the person doing the resurrection. The dead can simply abandon their body, but there's a penalty.

I definitely don't believe that every death should be permanent. I'm personally questioning whether any permanent death at all is useful -- in GemStone and DragonRealms both, you must make an offering to a god to ensure that you can be resurrected, but people miscount or forget, and it gives abusive players an opening to permanently destroy someone. On the other hand, it does add an extra edge of fear and an incentive not to screw up!

Stratics: We understand that timelines are amorphous, especially this early in the development process. With this caveat, can you tell us anything about the general timeline that will be used for the focus groups, beta testing, and game release? For example, are we looking at a 1-1.5 year total timeline with beta testing starting in 1 year and focus groups starting in the next couple of months?

Dave Dean: This is one I can't answer, and wouldn't want to guess at.

Stratics: How will quests, plot lines, world events, etc. be handled in Hero’s Journey? Do you envision NPC-based quests (e.g., EverQuest), GM-run quests (e.g., DragonRealms), etc.? Will these quests be unique or can they potentially be repeated by different characters?

Dave Dean: I expect that, as in our current games, we'll have a combination of GM-run and automated, one-shot events, ongoing storylines, periodic events (annual goblin migration?), perhaps ticketed quests... a variety of things.

Stratics: We’ve seen a sampling of the races that will be used in the game through the screenshots and concept art that have been released (Idorim, Dwarves, Grek, Birdmen, etc.). Can you give us any information on additional races that are being considered for the game? For example, are you open to the possibility of races that are not bipedal such as centaurs, snakemen, etc.?

Dave Dean: We generally expect to start with somewhere around 10 player races. We have not written off non-humanoid characters as a possibility, though they would require additional animation and artwork resources beyond those common to all humanoids.

Stratics: What can you tell us about the possibilities for player ownership (houses, boats, etc.)? It’s been hinted that Hero’s Journey will surpass the competition by allowing players to not only own houses, but also to own dungeons, hunting grounds, etc. Is this still being considered, and beyond building towns will players have the ability to set up their own governments, legal systems, etc.?

Dave Dean: I would say that player-owned hunting areas are a very strong possibility, either at opening time or as a future addition. Mike in particular has been talking of allowing players to hold executive, but not legislative, office in governmental or military positions.

Stratics: One of the advantages of entering a maturing MMORPG market is that you can learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. Are there any lessons learned from games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest, and how will Simutronics avoid making these same mistakes?

Dave Dean: Simutronics is not "entering" the MMORPG market -- we've been in it for 12 years. I've personally grit my teeth while watching Origin and Verant make some of the same mistakes we had already made and done our best to correct. I particularly remember Richard Garriot's statement during the UO beta, "I'm confident we'll have this PK problem licked..."

However, while I do feel we've always outdone them in terms of game systems, social interaction and roleplay, we have some things to learn. This is our first graphical RPG, which has some fundamental differences from the text-based world. And there's definitely something to be said for the commercial success of UO and EQ. I've found the games and the player communities that sprung up around them worth some study. Particularly in the interface area, and in nailing down the problem of social interaction in a graphical game.

Stratics: What do you believe the character advancement system will look like for Hero’s Journey (will it be skill-based, attribute-based, class-based, etc.)? Two of the concept art releases indicate potential classes in the game (Shadow Knight and Anti-Paladin). Does this mean you have decided on a class-based system? What is your opinion on skill atrophy?

Dave Dean: It's not written in stone, but the idea that has been bounced around the most is neither purely skill-based or purely class-based, but a sort of hybrid multi-class skill-based system. Something that provides some structure, but also allows for a lot of diversity and doesn't limit players' options too much. Don't draw too many conclusions from the concept art; it's there to help us focus on the direction the game should go visually.

Out of context, skill atrophy is neither inherently good or bad. I believe it can be part of a good advancement system, if the design and implementation are good. Sounds like a cop-out answer, I know. One thing's for sure, you can't add skill atrophy as an afterthought, as we found in DragonRealms when we tried it on one specific skill for a short time. Players don't react well when you take something away that they were used to keeping.

Stratics: What steps (if any) do you plan to take to ensure that players are unable to advance their characters through third-party macroing? Will the game have its own system for supporting hotkeys/macros?

Dave Dean: I expect the client itself will be very secure, hopefully to the point where no third-party software will be able to get behind the wheel. I'm guessing that the client software will have a certain flexibility in terms of configuring hotkeys and menu commands, with preventative measures to avoid some of the abuses seen in other games.

Stratics: Will there be a contract system in-game (allowing work agreements, loans, lease to own, condition-based rewards for quests/tasks, etc.) accessible by the players?

Dave Dean: I'm not sure I understand the question... contracts between players, or between a player and an NPC? Perhaps, though it's too early to get into details like that at this point.

Stratics: What kind of communication system will exist in the game? Will it be restricted to in-character mechanisms and limited in scope (e.g., no shouting to the whole zone)?

Dave Dean: I suspect it will be mostly restricted to IC mechanisms. That doesn't exclude long-distance communication, we'll just make sure it happens in an IC way.

Stratics: The mule problem has been discussed extensively on the boards. Many have recognized the potential balancing problems associated with trade mules (channeling wealth from a trade character to your main character), bank mules (using a second character to store additional items), city mules (using a second character to conduct your business in cities where your main character is not welcome), merchant mules (having a second character with maximum charisma buy/sell your main character’s items), etc. Does Simutronics see this as a problem and if so what will be done to address it?

Dave Dean: I expect very, very few people will go through the expense and effort required to let them play two characters simultaneously -- they would need two computers, two internet connections, two accounts and they'd need to purchase two copies of the client software.

As for people who switch between characters, well... I personally am a bit reactionary about that. I kind of long for the one character per account limit like we had in GemStone in the pre-AOL days. But since there are an infinite number of ways to play, I grudgingly admit that letting people have multiple characters is worthwhile.

The advantage here is that we can design our game systems with the full knowledge that people will swap money and items between their characters. We need to recognize in advance that people who have a master craftsman character capable of bringing in a significant income will have an advantage when they equip a new character. So we need to make our game systems twink-proof to neutralize that advantage somewhat. There are two main ways to do that: rely more on the player's skills/stats than the item's, and limit the advantage a player can gain from special items based on their skills/stats.

Stratics: To what extent will Hero’s Journey be a "realistic" world simulation? For example, will NPCs have their own lives and behave intelligently, will players be able to affect the environment in meaningful ways, and will there be a dynamic player/NPC economy?

Dave Dean: The emphasis will be on adventuring and heroics -- the extraordinary lives of PCs, as opposed to the more ordinary and mundane existences of most NPCs. And though things are dynamic, we have to make sure they are stable -- we wouldn't want to allow players to burn down forests or smash buildings or kill every shop owner in town. Murphy's law of MMORPGs is "whatever players can do, they will do."

However, we'll do what we can to make sure there's some depth to the background. Economics was never my strong suit so I'm not really prepared to talk about that. But Mike has some very interesting ideas about NPC and creature behavior, NPCs with their own agendas who react appropriately to things going on round them.

Stratics: Will a complex and interesting combat system be used allowing variation in combat styles and rewarding strategic/tactical intelligence? For example, will such concepts as line-of-sight, terrain, attack/defense strategies, battle fatigue, balance, multiple opponents, effects of weapons on various armor types, targeting/wounding specific body parts, etc. be incorporated into the Hero’s Journey combat system?

Dave Dean: I can't vouch for details, but it will certainly be in-depth and interesting. When I hear David Whatley talking about combat in HJ, I envision something along the lines of the DragonRealms combat system, but much more intuitive because it's visual rather than text-based, and much more smoothly flowing.

The greatest challenge faced by DR's combat system is conveying what is going on in a way that's interesting, but can be grasped very quickly -- and in return, allowing the user to control his actions in a specific way. HJ's combat system should have many of DR combat's best features without the "which one of these four trolls is the one that's lying stunned on its face, so I can finish it off?" ambiguity.

Stratics: You’ve mentioned that it is unlikely Hero’s Journey will have a tiered pricing structure like we saw with Platinum pricing in DragonRealms. Is this still the case, and what can you tell us about the possibility of other pricing options (e.g., charging for Quests, Festivals, etc.) in the game?

Dave Dean: I'm not in any way a part of the decision process where it comes to pricing, so I'm not the person to ask. The main reason for my comment was that HJ is being designed from the ground up to accommodate a certain amount of people per game instance, and there will most likely be no demand for a separate "platinum" instance.

I would assume that ticketed events (supplementing a well-balanced diet of ongoing storylines and random/periodic events) are still a possibility, as they've been very successful in our current games. But I wouldn't guarantee it, as our price structure has yet to be determined.

Stratics: Can you give us any information on how guilds and factions may work in Hero’s Journey?

Dave Dean: We've talked briefly about the possibility of multiple layers of player organizations, from simple groups not unlike UO guilds, to something along the lines of a GemStone III style House, to major feudal organizations. But nothing in specific has been planned at this point.

Stratics: What single feature of Hero’s Journey do you think will most distinguish it from the competition (Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron’s Call, etc.)?

Dave Dean: Since you're limiting me to a single feature, I'll say: quality.

Stratics: Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us. Any concluding remarks?

Dave Dean: Nope, I'm bad with concluding remarks.

We appreciate all of the information you’ve shared with us. This is going to be an awesome game :)

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GamePen - David Whatley Interview

Do you know Simutronics?

If you're into online role-playing games, you should. Simutronics pioneered the field over a decade ago – an epoch in computer gaming years – with Gemstone, the first commercial online RPG. Before the words "massively multiplayer" formed on an ad executive's lips for the first time, Gemstone had already entered its third revision, and been joined by Modus Operandi, a mystery-themed game, and another fantasy epic with an innovative skill-based system called Dragonrealms. Joined last year by a "Hercules and Xena" tie-in, Simutronics' games collectively pack in thousands of players a night. So how come you've never heard of them?

For one thing, people don't visit Simutronics' worlds for the pretty pictures. These RPGs are text-based, but don't be fooled into thinking they're typical MUDs. Gemstone and Dragonrealms are built around fully-realized world settings, with rich histories, an atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife, and continuous quests and special events run by a dedicated staff of volunteer "gamemasters". Even so, the lack of visual bells and whistles is enough to drive off gamers who dislike taxing their imaginations, let alone navigate a game through typed commands instead of a handy mouse or joystick; Simutronics' games have long catered to a niche market, prospering through word-of-mouth but failing to break into the mainstream.

Picture this: you run a company with a proven track record, producing award-winning games, but the greater part of the industry still won't give you the time of day. Now, a raftload of graphical RPGs make their debut into the market, each offering flashy graphics and sound but adding little to the field in terms of design or play value. To add insult to injury, almost every single company pretends they invented the genre – and in the case of Ultima Online's much-ballyhooed debut a few years back, even the bulk of the gaming media, who should know better, swallow it hook, line and sinker. What do you do?

You bring in the big guns, of course, and apply the time-tested principles of text-based RPGs to a graphical environment. That's what Simutronics is doing with their new product in development, Hero's Journey. In the wake of an early demo which was shown to a select few at E3, Hero's Journey is already drawing heavy industry buzz as a title to watch. But with Everquest and Ultima Online grappling for market dominance, and Asheron's Call (and – just possibly – Middle Earth) on the way, will the market have room for one more titan? And will the Simutronics approach to graphical role-playing be fresh and unique enough to capture gamers' hearts (and wallets)?

Nobody knows for sure, but we've got a taste of things to come. Simutronics President and CEO David Whatley took some time to speak to GamePen about his plans for Hero's Journey, and some features we can look forward to as development continues.

What can you tell us about the setting of Hero's Journey, and the world the game takes place in? How large will the world be, compared to existing online RPGs?

Hero's Journey takes place in a classic epic-fantasy world with our own unique twists. The background story is still being finalized, but we've placed ourselves in a timeline where an older, ancient society had already flourished and developed technologies equivalent to the renaissance era of Earth. So, in addition to the traditional cadre of orcs, dragons and other fantasy elements, you'll be unearthing strange ancient technologies of a notable daVinci-like nature (like bizarre, steam-driven contraptions for locomotion).

The size of the world is hard to compare to any other online game for one specific reason: we do not have a size limit. The important thing to keep in mind is that Hero's Journey is designed to mimic the way we present our other online massively multiplayer FRP games. Namely, that we employ an army of World Builders who continuously expand the world.

Hero's Journey uses a series of innovative technologies to provide this same mechanism of constant expansion. Even as you explore the vast lands, our World Builders are creating new dungeons, hunting grounds, quests and things never even conceived during the original design. The tool sets we provide our World Builders empower them with the ability to express their creativity within the game engine.

It is also important to understand that the data that defines the environment you are exploring is delivered "on demand", so there are no new versions to buy just to get more land to explore. Even more importantly, the amount of the game world that is on your hard disk is under your control. Because we have an endlessly expanding universe model, it is important for you to not give up your entire hard disk for a single game, and we're building in an adjustable cache to put the control in the players' hands.

How much control will the player have over the in-game 'camera'? What innovations will the Hero's Journey graphics engine bring to the table?

The camera of the game adopts a fairly traditional "isometric" view-point, but is completely controllable in real-time. Our interface makes it very simple to spin the camera, zoom in and out and change the angle of view while the action is going on. All of our interface decisions are being proven in our usability labs to make sure they are natural, comfortable and intuitive.

Although we use a full 3D polygonal engine, the game is not first-person. One of the reasons for this is that we intend to introduce a very high level of detail in the scenes, and being able to see to the horizon dramatically decreases this ability. But more significantly, we are introducing some amazing innovations in the portrayal of combat which will require the tactical viewpoint system we've adopted.