{"id":13859,"date":"2011-03-28T17:31:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T16:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=13859"},"modified":"2012-07-06T07:56:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T06:56:40","slug":"dc-universe-online-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/dc-universe-online-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Universe Online interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>How have you found reception of DC Universe Online so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RP: Thus far, we\u2019ve already opened up six more servers, faster than expected. The reception has been tremendous, you know? We always anticipated a good crowd but we didn\u2019t anticipate the need to rollout that much server space this quickly, but it\u2019s certainly something we\u2019re happy to do because it means people are getting in the game and playing it.<\/p>\n

Do you think the licence plays a really important part in bringing new people to the fold with the MMO?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RP: Yeah \u2013 the DC licence is something that has global recognition. They know Batman and Superman, even if they don\u2019t know shit about World Of Warcraft, so that\u2019s definitely the strong suit. It\u2019s also a different type of gameplay experience, you know? An MMO experience typically has turn-based combat and we\u2019ve got a game here that plays exactly like a console game; it just so happens there are thousands of other people sharing the world, too.<\/p>\n

How did you go about adapting the DCU for the MMO genre?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RP: Well, I think our goal when we started this process\u2026DC was curious about bringing their 75 years of content into a fully realised massively multiplayer world and Jim Lee had some background experience with the SOE people \u2013 he was one of the original Everquest players and knew a lot of the team over there. That really started the conversation about what it would take to bring a fantastic property like this to a fully realised 3D universe, for lack of a better term.<\/p>\n

Why do you believe it\u2019s different to other MMOs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RP: It\u2019s different in so many ways. The most important difference is less about the levelling and the repetition, the grind that you encounter in a traditional MMO. We want you to feel super as soon as you jump into this game. Your movement mode \u2013 your flying, your acrobatics\u2026we want you to earn abilities quickly. Once you\u2019re in Gotham or Metropolis depending on your hero or villain, we want you to have that moment of \u2018wow, I\u2019m cool. I\u2019m having that moment of hero fantasy from day one.\u2019 You don\u2019t have to wait until level 30 to feel that.<\/p>\n

What did Geoff Johns and Jim Lee bring to the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RP: Oh, gosh \u2013 when it comes to the look, when you jump into the world you\u2019re going to see Jim Lee\u2019s art style. He does a very distinct interpretation of the DC Universe and he\u2019s obviously one of my personal favourites. He\u2019s a gamer at heart too, so he could give both creative and gamer feedback \u2013 Geoff Johns gave us our backstory. He\u2019s a tremendous asset as well, bringing 75 years of backstory together at once in a way that makes sense is a daunting challenge, and I think he came up with a really compelling backstory for the game.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What kind of DC resources did you have access too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TJ: We have an entire library that is dedicated to ensuring we have all the source material necessary. We also have a required reading list for every designer and developer that starts to work on DCU Online. There are certain story arcs, certain graphic novels you have to go through so you can have a key knowledge of these things. We have a curator who actually checks books out \u2013 you send an email to them and they bring you a comic. You\u2019ve seen Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons, right?<\/p>\n

RP: It\u2019s pretty much the game developer equivalent. Don\u2019t tell them I said that, by the way\u2026<\/p>\n

TJ: For me it\u2019s really excited because I\u2019m a huge comic book fan. I knew a lot about the source material, but it\u2019s been surprising to me how much information has been available and how much we\u2019ve managed to put in the game.<\/p>\n

That required reading list must be the greatest workplace obligation ever\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

TJ: It was tough. It was difficult to do, but somehow I powered through it and went much, much far beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We chat to Sony Online Entertainment’s Ryan Peters and Toby Jones about the MMO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":13860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[7,140,848],"tags":[103,1481,1482,763],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/DC-Universe-Online-Images.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}