ArcheAge, an MMO with sandbox elements and Korean roots, will enter closed beta next Thursday. We had the opportunity for an interview with Scott Hartsman, CEO of Trion Worlds and Executive Producer of ArcheAge.
Before WildStar was released, the developers at Carbine spoke about wanting to attract former World of Warcraft players to the game. The Elder Scrolls Online has clearly targeted fans of Skyrim and other single-player RPGs. Who is their target audience? What MMOs or other games has a typical ArcheAge player already played?
Great question! ArcheAge targets players who long for a more open and free MMO experience. At its core, it is a sandbox, with theme park elements at the reception as an introduction. Imagine the satisfying depth of Ultima Online or Star Wars Galaxies, with the intricate crafting system and the ability to own a piece of the landscape. Add to that the intrigue, PvP, and piracy of EVE Online, and a customized class system like Rift.[quote_box_right]Jake Song is the Korean developer of ArcheAge and previously worked on Lineage. XLGAMES is the company developing ArcheAge in Korea.[/quote_box_right]
This combination is something I have always wanted to see in a fantasy world. Since we first heard that Jake Song was planning something like this for today’s times, we have been looking forward to it. And we are very glad that we can work with XLGAMES on this game.
Do you believe that MMO players long for a sandbox MMO? And what do you think is the reason for ArcheAge’s popularity in Europe and North America?
I think it is exactly this longing. While there have been some solid sandbox games, hardly any have been of AAA quality and set against such an incredibly beautiful world. We as an industry have been focused in the last generation on developing ever more polished theme parks. Those were fun too. But their numbers have far exceeded those of the sandboxes. As ArcheAge is now received, we can see that there definitely is a large number of people who have longed for such a sandbox game.
It seems that there are two major player groups in ArcheAge that might have conflicts with each other. Some place a high value on PvP. Others are builders and want to create something in the environment. Could it not be that there will always be disharmony between these two groups if one wants to gank and lead large battles, while the others want to be traders, settlers, craftsmen, or builders? How should these two groups coexist in the game?
When players are indirectly competing with each other or are involved in a direct conflict, this disharmony is precisely the element that makes many sandbox games interesting and adds spice to them. What we also find is that even people who initially have no interest in PvP gradually become interested because of their environment and contacts in the game. They want to help their friends and guilds. Everyone wants their own team to win.
But for the true purists who are not interested in PvP at all, there are places in the world where they are completely safe to contribute from a distance.
I have to ask this. You had this meeting with XLGAMES some time ago, where it was decided that ArcheAge would start in the West with 1.2. Did everyone agree? What do you imagine such a meeting looks like? Is there a big conference table, 5 on one side, 5 on the other side, and everyone is dead serious? What was the atmosphere like?
Hahaha, it wasn’t like in the movies. Both sides were very thoughtful about whether it would be possible to go live with 1.2 without delaying the whole process too much. But both teams wanted to make it happen if at all possible. I would describe the atmosphere as cautious contemplation with a touch of euphoria about the possibilities.
Will there be a German localization and if so, when?
Yep! There will be, it will come during the beta tests. We will announce in the next weeks approximately when to expect it during the beta tests. The first translations during the beta will still be quite rough. The closer we get to release, the finer and more elegant the translations will become.
In the first step, we rewrite the original text and translate everything into English first to have a common basis for the other languages. This is important because we make changes on a completely fictional level. This is much more than a mere translation.
Once everyone is satisfied with the changes and rewrites, we will translate it in parallel into German and French. We will ensure that everything fits into the UI to ensure the AAA polish we expect. We have the ambitious goal of launching with a refined and finished localization at release.
How important is the German-speaking market for ArcheAge?
The German market is extremely important to us. Important enough to have a data center nearby, a dedicated localization, and its own servers.
Recently, there have been some issues with Rift in Germany. The German Facebook page for Rift has not been updated since around September 2013 and was only merged with the English Facebook page a few weeks ago. Will there be any form of German community management or a German Facebook page? Will there be opportunities for German-speaking players to talk with the developers? Anything to make them feel cared for?
We are always trying to grow and improve. In a very short time we have gone from a company with just one MMO to one with four MMOs. A company covering PC and two consoles, having its own platform and ten new distribution partners – with players from almost every country in the world!
There are still areas where we want to improve. And to achieve that, we have centralized communication in our forums. We provide complete customer service in all supported languages. With the best response time among all MMO companies, as our research indicates.
Many ports of Asian MMORPGs to the West suffer from endless wait times for an update or patch. We often lag behind the original version by months. Could this also become a problem for ArcheAge?
XLGAMES are quite fantastic in this regard. They want to help us keep our version as up-to-date as possible. There will be some delays, mainly due to the amount of work we need to invest, but our territories are very important to XLGAMES. And both sides want to do everything possible to keep the NA/EU version as current as possible.
Many people were quite happy when they heard that Trion Worlds would publish and implement ArcheAge for the Western audience. How much influence do you have over the direction in which the game develops?
Thank you! We regularly work with the XLGAMES teams, and their head of ArcheAge has assured us multiple times that they value our input and want to support us. Honestly: We learn just as much (if not more) about their market and design ideas as they do about ours.
Could there be a “European” path for ArcheAge in the future, if things do not go as desired in Korea?
Our version already has some “western” adjustments when compared to the original version as it is played in Korea or China. Especially in the balancing of the trading system or in the labor points. Some of the largest changes concern microtransactions. Trends in the West and East differ significantly in this regard. XLGAMES has helped us a lot to implement our ideas.
You have been in the gaming industry for nearly 30 years now. Is technology now at a point where you can develop the games you have always dreamed of?
Yes, and we will be able to go even further. When I first had anything to do with virtual worlds or adventure games taking place within these worlds, it was about anchoring that life-changing feeling of being somewhere else, with other real people and doing things you could never do in real life. Then as now, it is all about creating that feeling.
Was it a more creative job back then to work with the imagination of the players?
Text-based worlds were easier on one hand to spark the imagination. Everything was in the words, just like in a book. With the state of graphics and audio technology today, it takes much more work to create that feeling. But at the same time, we have made tremendous advances in gameplay and technology.
Even today there are exciting areas that we can explore. We want to reach that great, ideal goal of placing someone in a different place, in an epic, imaginative world. The journey will go into virtual reality and beyond. One thing I am sure of: The next 30 years will be even more exciting! It will be fantastic.
