World of Darkness Interview
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"When I played Warhammer, I ragequit," Hardarson admits. Mainstream MMO design is about doling out hand-crafted content -- "like, here's a cookie, and all that" -- on a linear path. He wants to explore.Stick to the obscure, guys. The more mainstream content you add, the more watered down the world will become.
"I'm not a five-year-old. If I want to go in the cave and I want to die, that's my problem."
Hardarson describes the World of Darkness MMO as "a sandbox very much inspired by EVE."
"We really relinquish a lot of power to the players because we believe in emergence; the most powerful positions in the game are populated by real players," he says.
It's not just EVE that is an influence on the game's direction, though -- the live action role players of the Vampire the Masquerade tabletop game play this way, he says. "It's really about politics and power plays," says Hardarson.
"It's not a coincidence we merged with White Wolf games."
Still, he recognizes, "You cannot go pure sandbox all the way." This is something EVE has struggled with; while it does grow, it hasn't attracted a mainstream MMO audience due to its difficulty, complexity, and "learning cliff" new player experience.
"The problem with pure sandbox is you are limited to the hardcore," says Hardarson.
