DC Universe Online Interview
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So how about people who are complaining that there's no physical-only tank-type superpower like Superman?Part two.
The powers that don't have powers? I think this comes back to an interesting thing that is unique to superhero games in particular. Superheroes are the most varied, most imaginative, most creative space in all of the popular genre. They can break any rules, do anything, and it basically comes down to whatever is in the mind of the original comic book author to do. However, in a game you have to choose: Do I want to try to represent that to the exclusion of the fun gameplay, or do I want to try to find a way to marry the gameplay as much as possible, perhaps using a facet or several facets of that character, and give us a place to build on. The reason I say that is because I would rather make sure I give you something because it's fun to do, not just because it happens to match a character concept that someone may have had.
I know that may sound like a little bit of heresy, but let me explain. My job is make sure that I entertain you, to make sure that you're having fun while playing DC Universe Online. I can't make up for it if I say, "Hey, I gave you what you wanted" but it winds up kind of boring to play the game with that power. I can't make that tradeoff. Instead, I'm going to give you 12 great powers, folded into those six powersets. I'd hate to take some abilities and powers away just to match a power concept. If I do that, I'm sort of chickening out on entertaining you. If I'm giving you a physical-only set, I have to make it cool, to make it as awesome as ejecting flames from your hands or encrusting yourself in ice. I've got to make it feel that powerful. To do that, a set of powers that doesn't have powers is something we would want to spend more time on and figure out how to do correctly as it's actually very hard to do. For us, we didn't feel that it was something we wanted for launch.
There are a lot of comments from players who feel that there isn't enough story in the game as it stands. We wondered if you'd be willing to speak to that claim?
There are two major storylines in the game -- hero and villain -- and then there are six origin storylines that thread through the story. They are not completely different storylines, and I would like to make sure that everyone is clear on that. Hero and villain are very, very different from each other. The mentor lines weave their way through that.
To me, I think it comes down to an interesting perspective. As a player, you only ever have other games to compare anything to. That's where you start. When a new game comes out [and you have] a game that starts to redefine what it means to be an MMO like DCUO does, you compare it and say, "Cool, OK, compare it to that." But I have to ask the question: In a lot of other games, what is that content you're doing? In DCUO, you have episodic progression that always ends in a boss fight and has a cool comic cut scene. Almost every level, you're in a boss fight that has a very action game (almost a raid) feel to it, and it's fun the whole time. We've taken as much of the grind out as we can.
A good example is that we don't make you run back for quests. Just think, in a normal MMO, how much of your time isn't actually spent playing [but] spent traveling. Sure, that gives you a great sense of the expanse of the world, but let's be frank about what that content is and where those hours come from. For some reason we've accepted that for many, many years (and I've even built games where) travel is more than half of the time of what you're doing. Just going from point A to point B. Now I like that in an exploration-based MMO. Don't get me wrong. If this is a game where I'm trying to find new frontiers, it totally makes sense. But in a superhero game, you're in a known place, and you're doing something very different. As a superhero, [you don't have] the classic rags-to-riches heroic journey. In this case, it's you understanding your powers and coming to control them and apply them for good or for evil.
Our travel is fun. You're climbing a building like a jungle gym or you're flying through the skies. At level 10, you can get your travel power boost, which is essentially the equivalent of a mount so you can get places faster. Superheroes don't run across a barren landscape to go kill rats. That's not what they do. Plus, we have an endgame like no other MMO has launched with. Starting from challenge-mode stuff that you can do as a solo player, you can redo some of the stories or do some of the new Toyman content that's out there, which gives you something to do if you're waiting in the queues for something else to pop. Then you can go duo [and] start to learn group tactics with another person. From there, there are seven four-man Alerts that you can do (six per side, with one for heroes and villains) and then there are two raids you can do. That is equivalent to many MMOs that have been out for years as far as endgame wise, but honestly where do you want to have your fun?
The concept for us wasn't that more is better -- it's that better is better. We've tried to make the best superhero game possible and put that into an MMO setting, rather than putting in hundreds of hours because we need you to take hundreds of hours before the first month is up so we can charge you a subscription fee. Instead, we want to make this game as rockin' fun as possible then give you all sorts of cool stuff to do at the end and then continue adding more stuff into it so you pay the subscription fee because you're having fun in our games. Not just because you couldn't make it to the mountains since you didn't have enough playtime to walk there.
That's what we've had in MMOs, and I don't necessarily think that it's fair to gamers, especially gamers who have growing families or ones who want to play other games. In DCUO, I want to entertain you. We've designed the entire thing for 5-7 hours a week. You'll get a piece of raid gear every single week if you raid for a few hours. It's meant to be fun while you're playing it, and at the same time it frees you up to do other things. It gives me something that I know is going to be fun as opposed to feeling like another job for me. I will put it toe-to-toe with any other MMO out there and say it's more fun to do it in DCUO.
