Interview mit Daron Stinnett
Die englische Seite StarTrek-Gamers.com hatte die Gelegenheit Daron Stinnett ein paar Fragen zu stellen, auf die er so gut wie ihm zum jetztigen zeitpunkt möglich beantwortet hat. Wirklich Neuigkeiten sind darin nicht enthalten und Stinnett äußert zum größten Teil selbst nur Vermutungen.
Zitat:
1: First of all, for the folks who don't know you tell us who you are and what your position is in Perpetual.
[Daron Stinnett] I'm the Executive Producer for Star Trek Online, which basically means I'm the person most singularly responsible for our success. I joined Perpetual in April 2005. Before that I was at LucasArts for 11 years where I held various titles including Project Leader, Director, and Executive Producer.
12: The "repetitive factor" of MMORPG's always seems to be the achilles heel of most MMORPG's. Old time MMORPG's like Anarchy Online and Ultima were groundbreakers and set the trend for the latter era MMORPG's like World of Warcraft, however they all have a repetitive problem...repetitiveness. What plans does perpetual have to keep the game interesting? New mission packs freely available every month or so maybe?
[Daron Stinnett] I believe the repetitive nature of MMOs is more a matter of the genre's immaturity rather than anything inherent. World of Warcraft took a step in the right direction by focusing their effort on making more compelling quest scenarios and limiting complexity in favor of the new player experience. WoW's stunning performance clearly demonstrates the power of this model and it's success will certainly change status-quo.
Just as in any other genre, entertaining gameplay comes down to fun mechanics and compelling scenarios. The challenge with MMO development is that the business model requires a volume of gameplay that dwarfs the typical single player game. As a result, developers have resorted to mechanics who's sole function is to waste the player's time. I can tell you that coming out of the traditional gaming sector, I find the notion of "time wasters" to be the antithesis of what interactive entertainment is all about. In fact, we've banished those words from the team.
Fixing the "grind" comes down to making compelling gameplay a priority and putting resources behind making it happen. Two things we are doing. It won't change overnight, but any new MMO that doesn't make significant moves in the right direction will perish. And we feel that Star Trek gives us a leg-up with it's built-in variety of activities and mission scenarios.
Link: Das komplette Interview findet ihr hier
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