Massively Live Q&A w/ GM SC - Post questions here!

Some players believe that the new updates (Gathering and Trade V2) and ones to come (new magic - especially if, as you said in the last dev chat, that it would require gathering rare herbs to cast spells) have made the game less accessible to new players and makes playing casually more difficult (i.e. having to spend more time logged on than you really have, only being to log in once per day or less, having to interact a lot more with other players than was really necessary to play before those updates [such as the cotter/specialist relationship between smaller and larger players]) and this can make the idea of playing this game casually less appealing and alienate part of the playerbase. How do you respond to these concerns? Also is this a sign that Illyriad is shifting away from the casual gaming audience to the more hardcore gaming audience?

Edited by Rohk - 04 Sep 2012 at 04:16

With the New Updates have their also been new Mysteries put into the game? 

1) To what extent does 'implementing major features' restrict or enable the sandbox principle of your project, and do you frequently revise designs if they are too restricting?

(perhaps discuss in context of why people should use the new trade features, rather than creating an underground market).

invictusa wrote: About time.  I am surprised Beau didnt go freelance before now . . .

1.) The orc was wrongly undercut to the devs as the least important race in the game and with this update we have seen drastic changes in the potential of all races.  Are you happy with the new balance of race advantages and disadvantages and how do you feel this will affect minority races? 2.) One system is still painfully lacking which carries so much potential.  The questing system is embarrassingly concise.  A user generated questing system would be brilliant and would generate countless hours of replayablility.  GM Stormcrow said he supported such an idea once long ago.  Is there still any hope for players wanting to create custom quests for each other instead of the redundant prescription? 3.) An exciting future feature is additional continents as opposed to new servers.  "The continents will be separated by water." . . . "They will be linked in terms of game play." . . .  "We want it to be a single coherent world, rather than lots of different servers..." -GM_Stormcrow . . . Any clues as to how the future continents will be able to interact with each other? 4.) Like so many other players, the mysteries of this game fascinate me.  Although there are still so many unsolved mysteries, will the devs be adding new mysteries to entice the players imaginations and test their logic? 5.) @Beau: You have such a wide array of online games that you can sponsor at Massively and yet you chose Illyriad.  Since then you have been a great contributor toward the ongoing success of this game.  What were the reasons you chose to champion this game, and have they been strengthened or diminished by the recent trade, crafting, and harvesting updates?

Edited by invictusa - 05 Sep 2012 at 13:40