Interview Bill Roper responds to Hellgate criticism

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Flagship Studios; Hellgate: London

<a href=http://www.gamepro.com>GamePro</a> has posted an <a href=http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=145448>interview</a> with Flagship's Bill Roper.
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<blockquote><b>I can imagine. I've seen some really withering criticisms in those forums...</b>
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I think there was some confusion about what the game was going to be initially, [particularly] free play versus subscribing. I think there's still a lot of that. It's honestly confusing to me about the way people react to the subscription option in Hellgate. It's been more of a challenge to us than we anticipated. The whole idea was to give everybody what they wanted. Because we're doing this hybrid model, it's almost like people try to figure out how we're screwing them... but we're not! For subscribers, it's actually less than other MMOs like Tabula Rasa or World of Warcraft [$9.99 versus $14.99]. We're not trying to hose you, we're just trying to give people what they want. </blockquote>Is he seriously comparing Hellgate to Tabula Rasa or World of Warcraft to justify the price.
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<blockquote><b>One of the biggest complaints is about the variety of the levels: despite being in London, you fight in dungeons and basements and sewers an awful lot.</b>
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We re-flowed the level layouts in the final version, with a focus on theming the Acts, so that should help. We probably have as many, if not more, level variations in Hellgate as we did in Diablo 2. The reason it feels different is because the game takes place in London or Hell. I think the Act changes in Diablo 2 were more striking - desert, forest, jungle - but if you look at the individual areas, it pretty much boiled down to forest, graveyard, underground caverns, and the Rogue's headquarters. That's pretty much Act 1 of Diablo 2.
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But I don't wholly disagree [with the complaint about a lack of visual variety], and I think it came off that way because the levels weren't themed really well [in the earlier versions of Hellgate]. Theming Acts really helped things feel different. We didn't add any areas, but the game now feels far more thematic because we tweaked the layouts and graphic look for each Act. That's one of the big changes we made in the last month of development.
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<b>Here's another popular complaint: In Hellgate, weapons are far more useful than skills -- my Marksman mostly used his gun, not his skills and abilities. Will you further tweak skills to make them more useful? Would you ever consider totally re-doing the current skills?</b>
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We will never completely re-do skills, but we will always look at them. The final version has a seen many skill changes. What we wanted to do in Hellgate was to make the weapons into spell-delivery systems. Skills in Hellgate alter the way you use your primary weapon, such as the Marksman's grenades.
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The other thing is, players have had a long time in Diablo 2 to figure out all the different character builds. Honestly, players haven't had much time to [experiment] in Hellgate with different skills and builds. In Diablo 2, a lot of the skills outright sucked. It's also very different in Hellgate, because skills grow with you as you level. In Hellgate, we didn't want people to regret putting points into early-level skills. Obviously we'll continue to tweak and balance the skills, but Hellgate uses a very different skill system from D2 and people will figure it out.</blockquote>As long as people won't figure that the skills kinda suck...
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[Texas Red]

They still dont understand that its not about the price.

 

[TheLostOne]

The whole idea was to give everybody what they wanted.

Because trying to please everyone always turns out well.

Because we're doing this hybrid model, it's almost like people try to figure out how we're screwing them... but we're not! For subscribers, it's actually less than other MMOs like Tabula Rasa or World of Warcraft [$9.99 versus $14.99]. We're not trying to hose you, we're just trying to give people what they want.

He's confused because he's operating under the false premise that he's made a game people want to play.

"We offer shit and for a small price (even less than wow!) you can get shit w/extras. I don't see why everyone isn't lined up!"

 

[Nightjed]

my god, the reason "it's almost like people try to figure out how we're screwing them" is because the game is so shitty and missing so many obvious features such as difficulty levels or inventory sorting that everyone starts thinking : "well, those bastards are probably holding them for subscription only" (actually they did for diff levels, so they are sort of right)

and he even goes far enough to say that its what WE want, yeah what we want is to buy a buchered game and then keep paying up for years until they turn it into an actual full game, cool!

and the builds, the BUILDS, lets see the chars in the demo that i know the best, the marksman has the following options : rifle or two guns (same), then the blademaster has 3 options : 2 blades, blade+shield, blade + grapplergun, now most blademaster players will have the 3 options set to the 3 quick equipment buttons, other than the 2 blades skill you dont need to spend any points for any of those options so any blademaster can switch any time they want, they are NOT completely different like javazon vs bowazon

they limited the number of builds by making 2 classes per faction, they should have done just 1 class per faction with all the faction skills and even then they would have to face the fact that the skills SUCK ASS, the only really useful skills the marksman has are the boring passive ones that are not even that great, the grenades were useless in the demo because they were impossible to aim and even if they fixed that, the 4-8 grenade skills are just more powerful versions of the last one doing a different kind of dmg, so while making a marksman you would just choose one kind of grenade and ignore the rest, same goes for the auras

they didn't even learn from d2's 1.10 patch, at least make the useless skills make the useful skills more powerful.

well i guess thats it for flagship, bye bye Roper, go release something else "when its done"

 

[vrok]

Obviously he doesn't understand that Hellgate isn't an MMO. It's Diablo 2 with in-game Battle.net, only now you have to pay for most of its features since they aren't Blizzard anymore and can't afford giving you quality for your money.

The final version bullshit about the level variation is just that, bullshit. It's exactly the same through every single act when following the main quest "go through these 3 zones randomly selected from the 5 available to get to your quest destination", even in the final version. When you get there the unique parts are less than half a regular zone worth of content, often room sized.

In fact I'd describe the mythological "final version" as nearly identical to the demo, only longer with a few more "random" maps. Still piss easy, never did any side quests at all. The few maps that were in the demo I had to run through at least 30 times each, but hey they had *maybe* a different turn or two each time so that makes it alright, right?

 

[thesheeep]

Any ideas about the differences between late Beta and the final version?

Are grenades still uncontrollable?

 

[RK47]

It bounces up the wall the first time I used it and landed on my feet. I thought 'oh shit i'm dead' boom. nope. I'm alive. I'm alive YAY THis GAME ROCKS!

 

[WalterKinde]

I just checked the price and its surprising that although you have to pay 9.95 (although its "voluntary" ) why is a game that even the hellgate faithful admit is lacking aka unfinished being sold at full price?
Sure WoW on launch did indeed sell at full price and like Hellgate:London had a Collector's Edition and regular edition.
However WoW was a FULL MMO and not something that tries to be half and half and tries to trick you into paying for online play that should be free to owners of the game.

 

[HanoverF]

Don't buy the hybrid talk, this is a full MMO, they're even utilizing the MMO scheme of publishing an unfinished game and using sales and subscriptions to finish/pump out an expansion. And like a MMO it has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Actually one thing I will say about MMO's even they spice things up a bit, like maybe you don't notice you're just killing a larger rat with a different color palette if you're killing it in a swamp instead of a desert. in Hellgate every other level is the same thing, with different twists and turns, maybe.

 

[RK47]

its diablo 2.5
i think thats enuff justification for some ppl whose pupils have dilated and testicles dried up after their 10,000th Bhaal runs.

 

[speeler]

This is exactly the type of thing that I was ranting about at the end of my latest interview on this site. I'm just glad that you guys aren't falling for it.

 

[Chefe]

hello world

 

[WalterKinde]

Anyone seen the article by shack news?
If true wow talk about sloppy and more over talk about disappointment.
Disappointment in the fact that people were forking over the 9.95 already, its a bad as the sale of the Oblivion mini plugins like horse amrour etc. when people actually paid for these things.
Shack Article http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/49823

 

[Nicolai]

Understandable, those coke habits can wreak havoc on your nazi gold reserve

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Why is it that stuff that Rexit is a fan of turns to shit?

 

[Kingston]

Pray to fucking god he doesn't become a fan of AoD.