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RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
RIFT beta: Massively's first impressions
When it comes to RIFT, Massively readers have been patiently watching this game for a while. You've seen the trailers of the rift invasions and in-game cinematics, checked out our hands-on coverage, and gobbled up 500 VIP keys in less than 20 minutes. But does the game live up to the hype? We know you have lots of questions, and thankfully, the NDA is officially over, so it's time to talk about our first impressions of RIFT. Read on to get a close look at the two beta events held so far -- Rise of the Defiant and Guardians of the Vigil.
RIFT's first closed beta produces "a hell of a sight"
This past weekend, RIFT played host to thousands of brand-new testers with its first closed beta event. The three-day event featured the first 20 levels of the Defiant experience and wrapped up early Monday. According to a forum post by Trion World's Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, the team couldn't be more pleased with the way things panned out. RIFT's team received over 20,000 pieces of feedback from the event and learned quite a few things, including, as Hartsman put it, "answers to some critical questions." These answers included how the servers would hold up with so many people in so few zones, if they could deliver quick patches, and how rifts would happen with the crowd density. In fact, there were so many people that the team had to double the amount of servers almost immediately, although fortunately the servers held up under the strain. Hartsman identified a number of problem areas that would be addressed, such as mob respawn rate. Because of the massive population, RIFT's titular feature had a difficult time being a challenge until the team made some adjustments: "Where we had hoped and expected to see invasions rampaging across the countryside, instead the population density had become far too high, such that invasions weren't even getting off the ground. We updated the game with even more insanely active tuning on Saturday night to give the invaders a chance to come out and play too, and the response in chat and submitted feedbacks was overwhelmingly positive once that started. By the time it worked, it was a hell of a sight -- Huge invasions finally freed up, setting up footholds, wiping out the local populace, and eventually being repelled by defenders." Trion is working on a number of improvements as it prepares for its second closed beta event, which is prepped to start December 17th. Stay tuned to Massively for a special upcoming post-beta interview!
Rift's closed beta to start December 3rd
Been holding your breath waiting for Rift: Planes of Telara -- now renamed just Rift -- to announce the much-anticipated closed beta phase? Well, pass out no longer, for Trion Worlds has announced that Rift's next phase of testing will commence on December 3rd. Rift's closed beta will take the form of limited duration events, in which select players will be allowed to get their hands on the title and hopefully report bugs as faithful playtesters. You may recall that there are a few different pools of beta applicants that Trion is choosing from, up to and including the coveted VIP key-holders who will be invited to every beta event. If selected from the pools for testing, players will be notified a few days in advance with setup instructions. The first beta event will be called "Rise of the Defiant" and will include the first 20 levels of content, the Defiant beginner zone and the land of Freemarch. Trion's Scott Hartsman is celebrating the move from alpha to beta testing: "This is a momentous event for the entire Trion team, as well as the fans that have been following Rift since we first announced the game. We've created this deep, vibrant world that's just waiting to be populated with enthusiastic players, and our hope is that gamers will enjoy playing the game as much as we've enjoyed building it." As we can attest, Rift is shaping up nicely so far. If you want to be considered for the closed beta events, head on over to Rift's website to apply.
Hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara at Gamer Day II
As part of its recent Gamer Day event, Trion Worlds invited Massively back to its studio for another look at Rift: Planes of Telara. Having now been to two of these Gamer Day events, I can say without a doubt that last week's was the more festive -- the player-community leaders and swarm of devs certainly made the whole experience much more wild than the first and reminded me that I was supposed to be having fun (not just studiously taking notes for you lovely readers, although I did that too!). Since this was my second day-long hands-on with the game (the first being last summer when I got to check out Rift's dynamic content), I thought it best to focus on two areas: improvements to systems I'd seen before, and totally new elements I hadn't seen at all (like the Guardian starting zone, PvP, UI enhancements, Deepstrike Mines, and several new souls including Riftblades, Bards, and Wardens!). Follow along after the break for my second impressions of this MMO that continues to surprise me with its glittering shine of polish.%Gallery-101448%
Rift: Planes of Telara team releases game development update
The latest news from the development team for Rift: Planes of Telara is a development update that looks back over the past few months and forward to the future. COO Scott Hartsman's forum post contains some insight into the development process so far, giving the developers' view of and excitement about everything that has happened until now. It's a fun read, but what's next? Well, the developers at Trion "have a long road of testing" still to come, and Hartsman says that there will be plenty of opportunities for fans to assist along the way. You can read the complete update on the Rift: Planes of Telara forums. [Thanks Malcolm!]
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Rift looking to be the social, outgoing type
It seems as though one of the holy grails of MMORPG development is to encourage players to be social and group up without forcing them to do so like back in the olden days of yore. Rift's creative director, Scott Hartsman, thinks the dev team's found the key to this problem: "We want our MMO to be a social experience and we've realized that it's not that people don't want to be social, it's just because they don't want to be inconvenienced." In an interview with ZAM, Hartsman details how Rift: Planes of Telara is hoping to change the minds of players about teaming up for the game's signature instances. While a character can solo through them just fine, the more players that enter a rift equals greater amounts of experience and loot for everyone. Rifts will adjust both loot and difficulty based on the number of players involved, and Trion Worlds expects that this will go a long way to combating antisocial behavior that MMOs have encouraged. Guilds are another facet of socialization on which Trion plans to focus. "One thing we haven't talked much about is people getting together to build their guild up and build a structure (in the metaphorical sense) that provides you and all of your friends benefits," Hartsman said. You can read the full interview, including details on PvP, at ZAM.
All-star team gets funding for Ohai MMO
What do you get when you mix former SOE developers, a Flash-based virtual goods environment and about 6 million dollars in capital funding? You get Ohai, a new project in development from such industry vets as Scott Hartsman, Blake Commagere and Don Neufeld. Last fall, the folks at Ohai raised an undisclosed amount of financing (rumored to be $6 million) from August Capital and Rustic Canyon Partners for their new Flash-based MMO. Very little is known about the game, aside from tidbits here and there. Susan Wu, the company's CEO, recently told Virtual Worlds News that it will be a virtual goods focused business, and they're steering clear of the word "casual", in lieu of the much more appropriate term "accessible". Oh, and they're looking to spend a bit of that cash on some talented artists and programmers.
AGDC08: Devs on why MMOs have a web-based future
A write-up at Gamasutra of an AGDC panel featuring MMO developers who have begun working on web-based projects gives us an opportunity to explore the new (some would say it's actually the old) frontier of massively multiplayer gaming.There are many MMOs that are experienced via a web interface (such as Sherwood), but traditional gamers have largely shunned the trend. Why, then, did some of the most hardcore MMO developers (including Dan Ogles, Raph Koster, and Scott Hartsman) abandon the traditional MMO in favor of this new frontier? Some of their work, like Ogles' Loudcrowd, is barely recognizable to traditional gamers.They offered some answers on the panel. For example, Koster (originally of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies fame, now working on the creative platform MetaPlace) said that game devs have more to learn from web devs than vice versa. Ogles talked about using Adobe Flash so anyone can embed elements of the game anywhere on the web they like. It's worth a read if you're able to work through some pretty technical development speech.
AGDC08: On avatar rights and virtual property
If you're anything like the average MMO gamer, you click through that 'shrinkwrap license' without even batting an eyelash. The End User License Agreement, or EULA, is just a speedbump in the logon process for game players. For game companies, though, they're extraordinarily important documents. They require legal consultation, careful thought, and even more careful wording. They do exactly what the name says, spelling out the rights a player has in an online world. Noting that he really enjoys it when panel participants argue and disagree, Erik Bethke brought together a group of people to debate and discuss the issue of user rights. Along with Bethke, author Erin Hoffman, legal representative Greg Boyd, startup VP Scott Hartsman, and noted industry designer and analyst Raph Koster filled out the panel. Read on for notes from their fascinating discussion, which covered everything from government intervention in online worlds to the 'ownership' of virtual property.
A conversation about MMOs: Why the WoW leveling/raiding model works so well
What happens when one of EverQuest's most famous players and one of the the MMO world's most respected designers spend ninety minutes talking about the current glut of "leveling/raiding" MMOs, the good and bad points to them, and how they could be improved? Qhue from the Fires of Heaven forums and Scott Hartsman, former lead developer for SOE's EverQuest II, did just that. Find out why mid-level raid content is a bad idea, what World of Warcraft players expected to find in Age of Conan (and what they found instead), why a solo path to max level is important, why betas must spoil things, and why trying to keep the WoW players you lure away with new shinies is nearly impossible.If you've ever wanted to sit down with a designer and have him explain exactly why today's most popular MMOs are the way they are, you have to read this conversation about MMOs.
Losing influence with SOE: EQ2 Flames admin "LFG" tells all
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/SOE_and_EQ2_players_fallout'; He is an EverQuest 2 player that rose to power leading one of the largest fansite communities. He earned the esteemed "Community Influencer" rank that opened the gates to game designers and allowed him to forge ties with prominent SOE staff. With his connections it wasn't long before the site he administrates, EQ2 Flames, served as a clandestine outlet for EQ2 developers to post on. Behind the scenes "LFG" played a role working with inside sources to leak information that resulted in the EQ2 Test Server scandal. The forum also resulted in leak of the news (almost a month before it actually happened) that former Senior Producer, Scott Hartsman, was to part ways with Sony Online Entertainment. His actions wouldn't come without serious ramifications. Last week SOE terminated his "Influencer" membership, citing a lack of participation and misconduct as the reasoning behind their decision. In the destructive wake that followed an ugly entanglement by both SOE developers and EQ2 players has surfaced. Allegations of cheating, developer corruption, and other scuttlebutt permeate forum posts. This is a drama that pits community against community, developers against players, and more than likely developers against developers. It is a story that has shaken up a very large community and that has once placed SOE in a questionable spotlight. I contacted "LFG", the EQ2 Flames administrator, to help bring some clarity to it all.In the interview below several allegations involving SOE employees are levied. These along with other accusations on EQ2 Flames also raise other questions regarding SOE's internal policies. At the time of this posting SOE's community team had not yet responded with an official comment. When SOE does respond we will post it in full.
EQII's senior producer resigns
On his personal blog, Scott Hartsman has reposted a farewell letter to the EQ2 community. Originally put up on the official boards, Hartsman has been EverQuest 2's Senior Producer for some years; prior to that he worked on the game in a technical capacity. In the letter, he has glowing things to say about his time with Sony Online Entertainment but remains vague about where he is going next.It's time for me to see what else is out there waiting to be built. It might even end up being something involving SOE. Regardless, I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet up again, whether I'm making new MMOs, continuing to play them, or talking about them on the internet. I wouldn't be leaving SOE if I wasn't positive that the responsibility for EQ2 was being left in the right hands. Taking over for me is Bruce "Froech" Ferguson. Some of you will remember his name from EQ2 beta, others of you may have met him at Fan Faires. If you have met him, you know he's one of the most straightforward guys you'll ever be lucky enough to meet.Hartsman goes on to describe some of Ferguson's credentials. He also uses the term 'we' when describing his new venture, indicating he's already associated with a new project. Whether that's an all-new game or one of the numerous companies currently in 'silent running mode' isn't clear. For more on this, check out our discussion of the rumours of his departure from late last month and expect more as it becomes public.
Rumor Mill: EverQuest 2's Senior Producer quits, Scott Hartsman leaving SOE
A surprising rumor regarding EQ2's Senior Producer, Scott Hartsman aka Gallenite, is spreading across various MMOG forums claiming that he has parted ways with SOE. What makes this rumor noteworthy and more than likely veritable is that it originates from the administrator who runs EQ2 Flames, one of the more popular EQ2 fan forums. According to Scott Hartsman's bio on his personal blog he has been with Sony Online Entertainment for over six years and his first SOE credit is EverQuest: Shadows of Luclin. If Scott Hartsman is leaving to pursue other interests we here at Massively wish him the best of luck, but I don't think he needs it! If this rumor turns out to be true it would be a huge blow to the EverQuest 2 development team and the EverQuest 2 community. Scott Hartsman is a class act, and is one of the best in his field at what he does. Whoever steps in to try and fill his shoes will have a hell of a time as Hartsman has not only set the bar high when it comes to running the show, but his superb ability to manage community relationships and wax philosophic with the players. During his tenure as on EverQuest 2's, Senior Producer, Hartsman has established a remarkable reputation not only amongst his peers, but also among the more tight-knit MMOG forum goers, which by any means is no easy feat. I'm a bit shocked, especially to see this coming so shortly after Rise of Kunark's launch, and various recent interviews conducted with Hartsman about the expansion, including our own with Michael Zenke regarding grouping concerns in Rise of Kunark. What do you guys think about all this? I wonder if Hartsman will go on to work on another MMOG. If the rumor turns out to be true is EverQuest 2 screwed or is this rumor unfounded, and shouldn't have been reported by Massively? Let us know in the comments.
Rise of Kunark dungeon xp raised
There's been a lot of back and forth in the EverQuest II community about the xp gain via grouping in Rise of Kunark dungeons. Fingers were pointed, and we gave Scott Hartsman (EQ2's Senior Producer) a chance to rebut. Said Mr. Hartsman, in our discussion piece from last week: EverQuest II is not a game about sitting in one place and grinding. You find the activity that defines the core of your game, then you make sure it's the part you polish the most, then you make damn sure it's rewarding. That activity is questing. Tipa's response to Mr. Hartsman's statement clarified the issue from a segment of the player population:EQ2 was always about two things: Dungeon crawls and getting loot. Quests were just things you could do to make the effort more rewarding ... Most of the quests in my journal I never get around to doing, unless they result in an upgrade for my character. I don't think I'm alone in this.Apparently, she's not. Today, the word on the official forums from Mr. Hartsman is that dungeon XP is going to be increased, at least through this holiday weekend. He is clear about the reason: bringing parity to quest xp gain for dungeon grouping.We've been keeping an eye on both the objective, globally recorded experience data from the first week of Kunark being live, as well as the subjective feedback regarding Kunark experience grants, through the many styles that people play. Many of you have pointed out that the exp given from dungeonning feels too low. In the live environment, we agree that is the case. The data backs this up as well. In making the reality more aligned with the overall goal, Kunark dungeon experience gains have just been boosted on all of the live servers. We'll keep up with this ongoing balance issue as the developers and players work this out.
Scott Hartsman of EQ2 gets profiled
Now that EverQuest II's latest expansion Rise of Kunark has been released, you'd hope that Senior Producer and Creative Director Scott Hartsman would be able to take a bit of a break -- but you can be sure it won't be too long, because its obvious that he really digs his job. TenTonHammer has a two-page interview with Hartsman that isn't so much about EQ2 as it is about the man himself.In the article, Hartsman discusses how he broke in to the industry -- his first industry job was with a text-based online RPG at the age of 15! -- his favorite games of the past and ones that influenced him, things that he does outside of work, and even some tips for anyone that would like to get involved in the gaming business. On this, he mentions that being competent with algebra comes in very handy, something that not everyone may realize.Even if you've never heard of Scott Hartsman, its a worthwhile read to hear what things are like on the other side of your favorite pastime. The link below will take you through to TTH's full developer profile.
EQ2's producer responds to expansion grouping concerns
One of the greatest things about Massively Multiplayer Games is that the dialogue about them isn't a one-way street. With most games, fans wait for the word from on high, and discussion about single-player games tends towards fighting over scraps. With MMOGs, the considered commentary of players make for interesting reading in and of itself. That's the case we find ourselves in today, just a few days after the release of Sony Online Entertainment's Rise of Kunark expansion. Mostly the buzz seems to be positive, but a pair of bloggers have given voice to players feeling a bit put out by the pack's core leveling mechanic: questing. Yesterday Tipa (of the West Karana blog) and Kendricke (currently writing at the Clockwork Gamer site) took issue with the fact that group grinding isn't as profitable as it has been in previous expansions.Specifically they're raising this objection as it relates to the famed Karnor's Castle, a bastion of EverQuest Live lore and newly revised for SOE's new vision of Kunark. Tipa sums their issue up on her site: "Just doing quests and killing in a risk-free, outdoor zone, beats hunting in a semi-risky dungeon. How is that even possible. Dungeons are supposed to give you superior benefits for the trouble of grouping - better experience, better loot. Somehow that got lost ... When word of this gets around, KC will become a ghost town. People will do the Kylong Plains/Teren's Grasp quest lines, then move to the Fens and just skip Karnor's. SOE, it's not too early to consider tuning this zone. Grouping in KC should be more rewarding than questing outside."Scott Hartsman, the senior producer of EverQuest 2, took a few minutes today to answer their concerns for us. Read on to see further discussion from the player's POV and Mr. Hartsman's response.
EverQuest II's senior producer explains the Kunark Epics delay
Massively's Rise of Kunark Beta Tour from early last week had a bevy of details on the just-released expansion. One of the hot-button items among the EverQuest 2 community, it seems, is the absence of the promised Epic weapons from Kunark's launch, a detail we first reported here on the site. TenTonHammer has followed up on player concerns in this area, speaking with EQ2's Senior Producer Scott Hartsman on the issue. Hartsman reveals that, unfortunately, the Kunark Epics are yet another victim of the recent San Diego fires. "What we were faced with was a bug count in which nothing had been touched in a week. When we are in our bug fix mode, the team is capable of fixing anywhere between 13 to 17 hundred bugs in a week, so losing a week is a big thing. At the end of the day it came down to well, we obviously need to focus on the overall launch of our expansion first. Epic weapons are something that yes, we've got a number of them in the bag, but the choice we had to make was, do we launch a game with 1500 bugs and epics that are 75% awesome and 25% less than awesome, or do we launch a game that's going to be as clean as we can make it and then push the epics out on an update? " Folks looking forward to tackling the weapons need not worry, though. Hartsman states that the Epics update will likely be coming just after the holiday season ends. This will give the team time to give the important items the polish they need ... and likely will let designers have a few moments with their families as well.
EverQuest 2: Rise of Kunark - mega information link overload
Over this past weekend the EverQuest 2: Rise of Kunark NDA was taken out back and shot to death with erasers, mere days before the expansion launches tomorrow. Unfortunately, I only had access for a little over a week (QQ) and haven't had much time to play. This means any in-depth coverage coming from my brain is nil until I patch my sheepish brain later with more played time, but I do have some first thoughts. My first thought: I really should have played more. My second thought: I feel like I owe our readers a bit more than that, so, I ventured out and tracked down information dumps, thoughts, opinions, and screenshots from various sources who really delved in the RoK beta. The consolidated roundup is after the jump. In no particular order and without further ado:[Last Updated 11/12/07 10:30PM PST]
