Neverwinter Interview, Part Two
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ZAM: A substantial number of D&D players believe the 4th edition rules are a "dumbed down" version; but in this case, do you think 4th edition better lends itself to the modern, multiplayer RPG video games?
Emmert: A lot of the terminology and game mechanics really resonate very well with MMOs, so from that perspective, yeah; 4th edition is a very good pick for us. If you just take a look at how things are broken down within the Player's Handbook itself, there are different roles for each of the character classes which try to suggest the gameplay that players would do. And lo and behold, a lot of that terminology is very similar to MMO terminology. So for instance, a rogue is a striker meaning an alpha-strike character somebody who does a lot of damage really quickly but is also vulnerable. There are controllers; different character classes that can mesmerize and sleep and so forth. So already, you're noting a parallel to terms that we use in MMOs. And you see, the powers are broken down like that too, so it's easy for us to translate [to an RPG video game].
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ZAM: Finally, you've been taking a bit of flak in the media lately for some of your recent Neverwinter announcement interviews, in which you talk about learning from releases like Star Trek Online and Champions Online. The scuttlebutt around the blogosphere is that "Cryptic COO Jack Emmert admits releasing crap MMOs," to paraphrase some of the milder comments. What's your response to those accusations?
Emmert: I've been pretty honest about our faults in the past and people have accused us that I'm virtually admitting that we pushed out Star Trek and Champions as unpolished product. But as God as my witness, when we launched those games, we had zero idea that we thought they were anything less than excellent. When we launched those games, we felt they were superior to City of Heroes, which as you know was a big hit. And I still, to this day, say they are superior to City of Heroes but, you know, the market changed. If we launched CoH now, oh my God; we'd be in the same boat as [Realtime Worlds'] All Points Bulletin. It would be a bad situation; the way people receive MMOs, it's just a completely different marketplace and I think that we need to change those expectations, and we need to listen.
The reason why I'm doing this interview and not the guy running the Neverwinter project is because Neverwinter the start of a completely different orientation to what we're trying to accomplish. I've been reading responses to various interviews, and I can understand people [asking], 'Why did you make Star Trek in 18 months?' Well, that's what it was. If somebody said, 'Hey, here's the Star Trek license.' You say, 'Great, I can't wait to make the game!' You've got 18 months. Do you say no? Of course not. we were full of ego and enthusiasm.
