Games Day '09: A moment with Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher (also, Josh loves Aubrey)
Even with all of the excitement occurring at Games Day, Mythic's Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher still had a moment to sit down with us at Massively and talk a little shop about Warhammer's overall status, Mythic's future direction of the game, and why players should come back and experience the Land of the Dead.
But they're tricky folks, Paul and Josh! They even tried to turn the interview back around at us at some points! But we stayed strong for you readers, and were able to get some interesting answers out of them regarding Warhammer Online. Also, we have exclusive coverage that Josh indeed loves his fiancee, Aubrey. Yay marriage!
Interested in the full interview? Hit that link and read on!
Paul: So where are our awards?
Er, awards?
Paul: Yes, what awards have you brought for us? We're award winners, you know. *smiles and holds up the Mythic March Madness awards from Curse.com*
I'm sorry, all we brought were questions.
Josh: Well then, for every hard question you ask us, we have to ask you one in return. That sounds fair.
Well, yes... that sounds good... hey, wait a minute, I'm suppose to be interviewing you here!
Josh: Oh, he has no paper too. He memorized them! This is getting even worse!
Then let's start with the questions, and we'll start off easy. Land of the Dead, why should players play it? Why should we come back?
Josh: First and foremost is the RvR dungeon mechanics that is being brought into the game. In this generation of MMOs, there's nothing like it on the market. It's something that we developed initially with Dark Age of Camelot, and we've implemented an exponentially greater version of it here.
*glances over at Paul attempting to put the awards from Curse.com together*
No Paul, the awards aren't a puzzle. *laughs* Find the creative director in the room.
But, on topic, it brings new creative gameplay to MMOs in general. It brings a platforming style of game play instead of the "MMOs run on rails" concept where I can /follow you through the dangerous epic forest and we'll be fine. We really wanted it to feel like it had more weight, in terms of the geography of the world... *looks at Paul again* Are you going to put those awards down?
Paul: Look. *takes the smaller glass award from Curse.com* This is our game before Land of the Dead. All right? *brings out the huge glass award from Curse.com* This is our game with Land of the Dead.
Josh: Well, for me, the two reasons that I'd call out are the new types of content, like the RvR dungeons and platforming, and then just the aesthetic. We're not afraid to do a shameless homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark, or to The Mummy movies. Although we couldn't get The Rock into the game...
Paul: Although we do have a lot of rock in the game.
Josh: But if you're looking for this over the top stuff, we've got it. Swords and scarabs chasing you down hallways. Blades that shoot out of walls. In the real world, there's no practical reason to have swinging blades in your temple. Why would you ever build a temple that way?
Paul: I'd say that it's another update from the team that really gives a damn. A team that does their utmost to make a game that's the best the team can possibly make. It's the best excuse to come back to WAR, and it's a better excuse to come in and try out. Download our free trial.
