[Nargrim/Rico]

Hello everyone!

For quite some time I tried to get an interview with Jeff Green (trying to get his email address was a good portion of that) and now I have. It doesn't really contain any new information but it's a pretty good read.

Nehkara - One of the banes of MMORPGs has been
wretched launches full of bugs, long downtimes, and poor customer support.
From your experience at Blizzard do you think we will see a relatively
smooth launch?

Jeff - I sure hope so. If Blizzard botches the launch, I will be as pissed as anyone, and will not hold back in criticizing them in the magazine. Because they really have no excuse. Really, no one after Ultima Online had a good excuse for lousy launches, because everyone should have learned from them. So it's amazing to me to see it happen again and again. With Blizzard, my confidence level is higher just based on their track record. They are known for delivering very clean, stable products, and though World of Warcraft is an MMORPG, which, as we all know, is in a completely different league of difficulty and uncertainty than other games--there is simply no reason to doubt Blizzard at this point. In the past, they've risked upsetting their loyal fans by delaying games rather than releasing them too early, and my guess is that they'll do this with WoW as well--not putting it out there until they really know it's ready. But, I can't see the future, either, and Blizzard is certainly not infallible My money, though, says that it's a clean launch, yeah.

N - Also, I was wondering your overall opinion of the game when you played it?
What differentiates it from other MMOs?

J - Well, gosh, that's really what my whole article was about! To me, the biggest difference with WoW was just how much care was being put into really making a compelling gameplay experience beyond that of watching an XP bar fill up. Our experience over those two days---and, remember, it was just two days and not 1000 hours--was that there was just tons to do, and lots of quick rewards. So many MMORPGs are about marking time, wandering around looking for things to do, or filling up hours upon hours with tedious "farming" of monsters--but WoW seemed very much committed to giving players lots of goals, lots of options, and lots of rewards. To be fair, we are starting to see that happen with other new MMORPGs now--like the upcoming Ultima X. But so far, WoW is the best implementation I've seen.

N - Many have said that it is, in it's current state, better than any MMORPG
including ones that have long since launched. Do you share this opinion?

J - Yes. I have actually since gone back and tried playing a couple older MMORPGs--and now I have even less desire to play them than ever, after my experiene with WoW.

N - You expressed confidence in World of Warcraft's quest system and wrote a portion about the "Abomination Quest". Were there any other quests that stand out in your mind, that you had a lot of fun with? In general, do you feel that WoW's quest system will serve the game and the gamers well?

J - The abomination one stands out, but there were plenty others that were fun and unique--like one where you had to help a dwarven alemaker
sabotage the wares of a rival barkeep (something like that--my memory is fading on me). What I remember most of all is that we had a *lot* of them, and though some were just standard "go get this thing for me" fetch quests, it didn't really feel like drudge work, for the most part. On the contrary, it gave us lots of little goals, things to focus on, rather than just staring at the XP bar and praying for a Level Up.

N - During your two days at Blizzard, did you get to see the game in
development? What were your thoughts as you watched Blizzard at work?

J - Well, I've seen them "at work" numerous times over the years, and it's a really great environment. It's not necessarily unique to Blizzard--you'll see this type of environment at any good, well-managed game company: People working very hard, very intensely, but clearly having a good time and believing in their product. Plus lots of pizza boxes and coke cans and action figures and Lord of the Rings posters.

N - In your article you started off skeptical and became less so as the
article progressed. What do you think is the BIGGEST improvement that
Blizzard has made upon previous MMORPGs?

J - As I've stated previously, I think it would be giving the game a good, solid single-player RPG style gameplay. I don't mean a game for soloing (which you CAN do, but that's not my point.) I mean that they are working very hard to make the gameplay experience itself as fun and deep as a single-player game. Typically, MMORPGs, even the great ones, only offer the most generic type quests, in completely generic environments. But Blizzard is really going to town in making its WarCraft universe come to life, and in making a game that really will BE a game and not a giant, glorified chat room.

N - On to a slightly more personal question... we were just wondering Jeff, how did you get your start at CGW? And on the same note, how many people work at CGW? and how did you get to your current position?

J - This is a long story, so I'll give you the condensed version. I spent years doing serious "high-tech" journalism, including a 3-year stint at MacWEEK magazine. But I hated it. I was always a hardcore gamer, and was jealous of those who did this for a living. And then it finally just dawned on me that the only difference between them and me was that they TRIED. So, I wrote the then-Editor-in-Chief of CGW a begging letter when a position opened up, and I lucked out. But I am not suggesting you do the same thing with me, because right now no one here has any intention of ever leaving! And how did I get to my current position? Attrition. I just stayed here longer than most everyone else. It must be that, because brains and talent couldn't have anything to do with it, obviously. The staff at present is up to 9 editors/artists--the most we've had since the mid-90s heyday.

N - And my last question. Of all the MMORPGs in development currently, which ones are you most interested in? Which ones do you think have a good shot at being as good or better than WoW?

J - Along with WoW, there are two that have me very interested. One is Ultima X, because I see them doing a lot of the same things with their quest structure, character progression as WoW--and it's a very smart team of developers. Also, I can't help but be psyched for EverQuest 2, since I lost hundreds upon hundreds of hours to the original....

At this point I thanked Jeff profusely and asked yet another question! If he answers it, I'll post it at that time.

traduction en cours

[Nargrim/Rico]

Après relecture ça ne vaut pas le coup d'être traduit étant donné qu'on apprend rien de nouveau.

Jeff Green , après ses heures de jeu se dit très confient quand à la qualité de la release, et répète à qui veut l'entendre ( Nous ) que ce jeu va mettre une claque à tout ce qui est déjà sur le marcher.

IL parle également de ses multiples déceptions du aux MMORPG précédemment sortis, et il trouve ( comme nous) intolérable de voir l'état dans lequel la plupart des jeux sortent.

Il évoque la sortie de UO comme une catastrophe Poulpesque , quelqu'un peut m'en dire plus la dessus?

[Peco]

Kupooo Rutiiiiiiiiii !!!!!!

Peco espérer que ça pas être du bluff et que ça être le vouloir de Jeff Green vouvoui ^_^ touchons du bois

Kupooooo Tiruuuu !!!!!

[Locke / Rezard]

source ?

[Nargrim/Rico]

source

[Flake]

C'est vrai que niveau news, c'est pas terrible.

[Ashraam Darken]

Citation :

Provient du message de Flake
C'est vrai que niveau news, c'est pas terrible.

Mais si on apprend qu'il ne faut pas acheter Ultima X

[Flake]

Citation :

Provient du message de Ashraam Ex-Feydien
Mais si on apprend qu'il ne faut pas acheter Ultima X

Ah, tu l'aurais acheté même avant cette interview ?