Interview Hellgate London chat log

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Bill Roper; Flagship Studios; Hellgate: London

There's a <A href="http://www.hellgateguru.com/fansitelog1.php">chat log</a> with <b>Bill Roper</b>, <b>Bob Moseley</b>, and a few other folks from <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A//www.flagshipstudios.com/&ei=hJrzQvOEGqq4igHnivXvAg">Flagship Studios</a> about <A href="http://www.hellgatelondon.com">Hellgate London</a> over at <a href="http://www.hellgateguru.com">Hellgate Guru</a>. Here's a bit about the money:
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<blockquote>[JELL] Nice question, what´s the money in a destroyed world
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[Bill Roper] Right now, I think we're calling it Gold - haha. Obviously we'll find something that fits the world. Game design is all about starting with common shorthand to get ideas across and then moving it into what you're creating.</blockquote>
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Silver. Demon Horns. Templar Bux!
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[RGE]

Souls sounds like a classic currency.

Save souls - shop at Gart's Shoppe!

 

[Drakron]

To scare male players ... Tampax.

 

[Atrokkus]

Exi said:

yeah, that was the problem with Diablo 2. It killed replayability.

Bullshit.
To say "kill replayability in Diablo" is like saying "adding replayability to real life"
It's impossible. DIablo is by default replayable as hell.
Yeah, there are rushes - it sucks.
But that depends on a particular player. I never rush or get rushed. I almost always play coop with friends / random players. And it's always fun, no matter in which area exactly we're hunting. There is no need in forcing players to visit certain areas. Encouraging - yes, but forcing - no way (like someone came up with ideas of shrines that allow moving forward in the game - nonsense).
But... alright, i guess it;'s just me defending Diablo as always...
doesn't have anything to do with Hellgate.
Hellgate is not a Diablo clone and I hope it isn't, because even though Diablo is one of the most geniously-made games in history, it's always better to come up with something new, and I think Bill Roper understands that.

[Bill Roper] Right now, I think we're calling it Gold - haha. Obviously we'll find something that fits the world. Game design is all about starting with common shorthand to get ideas across and then moving it into what you're creating.

Hah!
SOJ SOJ SOJ ! ^_^

 

[jiujitsu]

<SolInvictus> Hello, I am Sol Invictus Rex Exitium Ian Cheong Wen Xian and I am the greatest person alive. I am the leader of Hellgate Guru and many people think I am this great guru but I assure you it's just a name. ;D Anyway, I've taken time out of my schedule to interview you plebians. I have about 20 minutes until I go to the salon to get my tips frosted so make it snappy!

Sorry, I had to.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Exi said:

yeah, that was the problem with Diablo 2. It killed replayability.

Bullshit.
To say "kill replayability in Diablo" is like saying "adding replayability to real life"
It's impossible. DIablo is by default replayable as hell.
Yeah, there are rushes - it sucks.

Did you even read the context in which I said that? I said that linearity killed the replayability, and the fact still remains that, yes, the linearity and the lack of randomization in the quests, areas and monsters in Diablo 2 killed the game's replayability. Knowing where everything is and knowing where to rush and not having any incentive whatsoever to do anything but rush killed the game.

There was no incentive to explore, because there was nothing to find.

Don't get me wrong, rushing is fine. Some people like to rush, so it's up to them if they want to rush. Other people like to explore. There should be a reward for their desire to explore. They shouldn't be forced to rush just to be on the same pace as those who do. It's as simple as that.

 

[Atrokkus]

There should be a reward for their desire to explore

What do you mean by exploring? Exploring in a sense of seeing different area tiles - it's useless and after n-th time you don't really care about scenery or whatever - and that's normal. Monsters? Well, there is a huge variety of them in all areas. Basically, only monsters really define a popularity of area. For instance, only quite recently it has become popular to make Mausoleum, Crypt, The Pit and sewers runs. Some guys found that the treasure class ther is quite high and it's quite easy to kill them, and started using that. That's exploring.
Basically, all that needs to be done is change monsters/ monster stats/ treasure classes in different areas and it will trigger players to "explore" more.
Exploring is finding better areas to level up. That's obvious, and there is no much sense in anything else.
Challenge? Well, the challenge rating is SO much higher in 1.10 (especialy on lladder) that practiically every area in the game is very hard on hell, so if a player needs extra challenge he can just go to world stone or chaos sanctuary and have some very adrenaline-rushed experience.
Plus, they added uber-bosses, remember? Uber-diablo during 1.10 and other clones of bosses in 1.11. That's exploration, too.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Rushing personally killed multiplayer for me. I had a lot more fun with the game before I discovered rushing.

 

[Atrokkus]

So true.
But actually, what keeps you from not using rushes? I always level up with friends or random players and it's fun and never boring.
Rushing is not a necessity. It's an option. You may not rush and you won't actually beocme an exile of some sort. Just have less high-level chars than you would otherwise.

 

[Sol Invictus]

metallix, in case you're not getting the fucking point: the fucking point is to make the game fun for explorers so that exploring the 10th time or the 20th time or even the 100th time won't feel boring. The fucking point, essentially, is to make it so players don't feel the need to rush (unless they want to) and their exploration is rewarded.

For instance, only quite recently it has become popular to make Mausoleum, Crypt, The Pit and sewers runs. Some guys found that the treasure class ther is quite high and it's quite easy to kill them, and started using that. That's exploring.

That isn't exploring. That's exploiting the same location again and again because it yields more rewards than any other location in the game. Exploring is finding a new place every time and not getting sick of the same old bullshit.

Rushing is not a necessity. It's an option. You may not rush and you won't actually beocme an exile of some sort. Just have less high-level chars than you would otherwise.

Still missing the point?

Just walking around in Diablo after you've completed it more than a few times is a boring chore because you know exactly where to go, what to do, what monsters to kill, and so on. There's nothing new under the sun.

Oh well sure it's an option to do that same old shit over and over again but where is the fun in that?

The point, is to make the game not feel like a chore, through the process of randomization, so you don't see the same old shit every time you enter the map.

 

[Atrokkus]

sol, the fucking point is that our conceptions of "fun" in such games are totally incompatible. No need to get all jiggy with it, okay?

Exploring is finding a new place every time and not getting sick of the same old bullshit.

What's so fun in just watching new tileset combinations? It's not an adventure game, and not a game with huge graphics.
The "fun" of Diablo area is defined by its inhabitants: MONSTERS. When I play Diablo i really don't give a fuck about scenery, and never mind the likeness of terrain in a particular area. But I do pay attention to monsters, because it is actually they are pivots of the game (PvM that is).
And what's your problem with monsters in D2? Right - no problem, cuz there are LOTS of them and they are randomly genereated, and prove very challening. And ever sinlge battle is different (except for automozied Mephruns, but it doesn't count because the monsters there are always lower level than MFer). Bossmonsters always have different mods, which adds a lot of diversion and challenge. In Hell, the issue of attack-type immune monster is always present, which is a very big challenge for all classes, especially mages.
The world event is a huge fun-factor also. Plus the new 1.11 boss-clones.

So, basically, the only thing that remains the same in Diablo is actual locations' tilesets. But hell - even maps are mostly randomly generated!

And concerning rushing: as I said before, it's purely a player's decision: rush or not.

But I agree with you on one thing: that some quests are sure quite boring to do many times. But again, things gettin better because of challenge. Of course, too easy quests are just plain time-consuming and boring to do - that's fucking obvious.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

metallix, in case you're not getting the fucking point: the fucking point is to make the game fun for explorers so that exploring the 10th time or the 20th time or even the 100th time won't feel boring. The fucking point, essentially, is to make it so players don't feel the need to rush (unless they want to) and their exploration is rewarded.

Is that one fucking point or two?