[Vanguard Gate] Right off the bat I Would like to ask you how relevant the lore we are seeing now (lore) will have on the game upon its release? Will it stand to define the game or will it rather stay in the background as something to be read every now and then as seen in some other mmorpg attempts?
[Nick Parkinson] The primary goal of the lore being released on the web site right now is to give players a pre-existing knowledge base for the world. On opening day when you land in Telon for the first time if you chose to read the lore you will know the basic history and layout of the world you now inhabit.
Gameplay-wise knowing all the lore certainly won't hurt you, but it won't give you a big advantage over players who don't either – that's not the intent. The intent is to add to the immersion. The lore gives the world character and meaning, those in turn make it feel more alive and that, hopefully, will increase your enjoyment.
[V.G.] Good guys and bad guys are another aspect of these games that have been somewhat of a letdown in that they seem comic bookish in a way. Will vanguard offer a variety of characters that change events not based on the older rules of good and evil?
[N.P.] Clearly defined good and evil often makes for a better story. That said, that isn't the only way to tell a story. If you read through some of the lore on the web site currently you should be able to pick out a few characters who have helped shape the way the world is now who do fall into that gray area in between.
So to answer your question, you'll find many characters who fight for clearly defined causes of both good and evil but you'll also find a fair share whose motivations are much less obvious.
[Steve Burke] Writing characters into the game will typically consist of looking at the environment and potential motivations that would make sense. Characters will have their own motivations, often self-serving, sometimes influenced by circumstances in the world. Whether good, evil or otherwise will often be a matter of player perspective. Creating characters that may be misunderstood is always a tool as well.
[V.G.] When the game launches how will you plan upon implementing the storyline? What methods will you use for dispersal and how and how often will you run events?
[S.B.] Implementing the story-line is pretty simple, it's the endless hours of filling the world with content that's challenging.
We will determine when and how bits of each storyline will be revealed and use the voices of the countless NPCs in their quests and dialogues to deliver them to players.
When trying to establish what story dialogue NPCs will have, we can look at what we want the player to understand about the world at that point in time and derive the NPC's motives from one or more of the many storylines happening in that area.
We've strived to create a rich world with plenty of story hooks to build upon and that's making the implementation process much easier.
[V.G.] Do you think that players really care about the storyline in an mmorpg or is it more about the status aspects (levels, items, etc...) that draw them in?
[N.P.] Different players are drawn to different aspects of the game. Personally, storyline means a lot to me and I have a lot of trouble getting into a game that has a poorly fleshed out back-story. I know plenty of people though who are quite the opposite and play to level and attain powerful items and don't really pay attention to the game's overarching storyline – and that's perfectly fine too.
You can't really pigeonhole all players in to one area of enjoyment. There's many aspects to games like this and each player will have their own preferences. However, for those that do care about immersive storyline, we intend to provide one.
[V.G.] Do you plan on running the same story elements on the different servers or will you run different elements on different servers thus having them go in separate directions?
[S.B.] The same content will be available on each server, though each server will have unique aspects based on interaction and the decisions made by the players. More on this to come in the futureÂ…
[V.G.] One of the latest trends in MMOGs is the allowance of players to alter the games storyline and thus its progression thru time. How important an aspect do you view this as being and what can you say as to its previous inceptions (in what ways were they successful or not)?
[S.B.] Not going to speak to levels of success of other games. That's mostly a matter of perception anyway.
I, and I think we as a team, feel that it's great to let the player impact the world in special ways. We're also aware of our responsibility to ensure that regardless of the actions of other players, each individual will have a rich and entertaining experience available to him or her. Freedom to affect things is great, until it impacts another player adversely (PvP being an exception). We are confidently hopeful that we can strike a good balance.
[V.G.] To what degree will we see such a thing in Vanguard would you say and how likely will it be to occur outside of the larger guilds that inevitably form?
[S.B.] It is our goal that Vanguard, at its core, be a rich, solid, compelling game.
Events that impact the world will be icing. We like icing. That said, it takes time to get world-changing events implemented. In a world the size of Vanguard it will be important to spread them around to ensure that no one corner of the world is more compelling than another. We'll get as much of this kind of thing into the game as time allows. Ideally, this will mean events at low levels and some soloable/small group stuff all the way up as well as the major ones that require planning, strategy, cooperation, and raw numbers.
Molgam Network - CEO
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