A new force is emerging in the world of MMOs - created from veterans of Blizzard, Bungie, NCsoft and more giants of gaming.
En Masse Entertainment is focused on 'selecting high quality online games and adapting, refining, and positioning them so they are perfectly suited for audiences in Western markets'.
But can it really do battle with the big boys? Its first big hope is PC title TERA - dubbed 'the world's first action MMO'.
We caught up with En Masse's COO Patrick Wyatt, who doesn't exactly have a bad track record.
As well as being involved in the creation of Warcraft and Starcraft, the Ex-Blizzard man wrote Diablo's multiplayer code, scaled up Battle.net, founded ArenaNet, developed Guild Wars and served as CTO of NCsoft.
He should know what he's talking about, then. Words now...
Q. En Masse's aims seem smart; capitalising on the phenomenon of Korean/Far East MMO popularity for a Western audience. But what makes you think that these games will appeal to a Western audience? Aren't cultural tastes completely different?
A. Cultural tastes vary, but great game experiences can be universal. I actually think Western audiences are pretty receptive to a broad range of game "flavours," and our job at En Masse is to make sure that we refine and enhance the parts that Western players like, and de-emphasize anything that doesn't work well here.
For example, story-as told both in-game and in the lore-doesn't tend to translate well. Even great translators can't correct for different cultural referents. So what you really have to do is identify and use the parts of the story that work, and entirely rewrite other parts, so it doesn't leave you with that "did I miss something here?" sensation.
In regards to TERA specifically, it also helps that the development team [Bluehole] has had an eye on the Western market for a long time. Their last game to ship in the West was moderately successful, but nothing like its immense popularity in Asia. So they've been thinking about how to do better here for a while.
If you've seen the artwork in TERA, you know it's gorgeous. But more than that, it also has quite a Western flavour for a Korean-developed game, with more athletic, masculine-looking male characters, more exciting early level monsters-no rodent and rabbit combat-and a less-grindy, more quest-driven game progression.
Finally, Bluehole and En Masse are working together on a series of Focus Group Tests (our first was in December, with about 300 players) to identify what additional changes need to be made. Unlike a Beta test, where the game is largely finished and most of the effort focuses on game balance and hardware compatibility, the FGT tells us about areas that need reworking. There's still plenty to do, but we have the time and the commitment necessary to make TERA rock.
Q. What criteria will you look for when choosing an MMO that you can repackage for the West?
A. I think the critical factors for choosing an MMO that can succeed in the West are the level of ambition of the project, the fun factor and the willingness of the dev team to make changes for the Western market.
We want to be in the position of publishing games that are going to make people want to line up at stores, which incidentally is not a factor for PC games in Asia, because there's no retail presence to speak of.
We'd like to find games that are bold, innovative, and fun, and we'll work with their dev teams and help them hear the voices of Western gamers. That means we probably won't be publishing too many titles, but the titles we do publish will be worth playing.
Q. What makes Tera such a success in the territories it is currently available in, and why was it the first game to be chosen as part of your new model?
A. The game is not yet available in Korea-it won't be out until later this year. We chose TERA because its groundbreaking battle system will appeal to a wide audience, and the level of influence the players will have over the game world is unprecedented.
The building blocks of a hit MMO are all there, and the refinements we'll add will only enhance an already-great game.
Q. Are you daunted by taking on the likes of Blizzard, Funcom, NCsoft etc? Can you compete with these giants of the MMO world?
A. The game industry is a pretty small place, so many on the En Masse team are former members of those companies, and consequently we have some share in their triumphs and missteps.
Having worked at Blizzard as employee #2 and ArenaNet as a founder, I can personally say that it's only daunting if you stop and think about it. Most days you're too busy working-and having a damn fun time of it too-for it to be a concern.
The great thing about the game industry is that there's no monopoly on fun. If we deliver a compelling product that's fun for gamers, we'll be successful. So our days aren't filled with worry about what are competitors might do, but rather making sure that we're delivering something that's going to kick ass.
Q. How close is the MMO market to saturation in the West? What makes you think you can carve out a place for yourself?
A. I'm not sure whether it really matters to us whether the market is saturated. We're more concerned with the question of whether there are enough players who want to buy -and stick with-our games.
The reason I joined En Masse is because I believe that there is still a huge opportunity for companies that are innovative, quality-focused, and patient, no matter what the competition.
I think that TERA specifically has the potential to do more than carve a niche - I think it's going to hack off a great big bloody hunk of the market. It's got the eye-popping graphics needed to attract attention, but it doesn't end there; the combat system is going to draw from some existing MMOs, but I also think we'll pick up console gamers because of the more visceral, intense action.
Ultimately, if we demonstrate that we can release a high-quality game and support it well, there's plenty of space for us in the market without having to unseat anyone else.
Q. Where will your audience come from? Are you hoping to tempt over existing MMO fans from established franchises?
A. No doubt, our audience will consist of current MMO players looking for something new and fresh, and a fair number of new players looking for a portal into the next big online world.
TERA's groundbreaking battle system is designed to appeal to a broader audience, using the kind of intense, engaging action-based combat players usually only see in action RPG games.
This has the potential to introduce MMOs to those who may have stayed away in the past, and offer console gamers an accessible MMO experience. I think console players in particular are going to be intrigued by this game.
Q. Time for the obvious question: Could this cherry picking from the East lead you to discover the next World of Warcraft?
A. I was the producer and lead programmer for the original Warcraft, and I'm not going to lie: it would be awesome to top World of Warcraft so I don't have to spend the rest of my career labouring in the shadow of a game franchise I helped create.
But I think that WoW's success derives from more than just the fact that the team created an absolutely amazing game experience; it comes from having a world-wide fan-base who have come to trust the Blizzard brand. We don't have that brand yet, but I think we'll move a long way in that direction when folks get their hands on TERA.
Q. How does your experience working at Blizzard help En Masse - what did you learn about growing an MMO audience there that is of value to this company?
A. Back when there were only four of us at Blizzard, we focused on creating quality simply because we loved games, and we loved getting the chance to make them. We'd go back to game features again and again to fix them until they were right - sometimes long after other companies would have called it done.
And while it takes longer to make games that way - and target ship dates are merely wishful thinking - it means that when the game does come out, gamers are going to want to play it. We always knew we had winners because the testers would keep playing after the game was being manufactured, instead of taking a well-deserved break.
In regards to building an MMO audience, you need something new, something familiar and critical mass. You've got to have something new because, if your game just duplicates an existing game, why not keep playing that one instead?
And that's where TERA has me really excited, because of the non-targeted combat system. In an MMO a substantial portion of the play experience is beating up monsters, so making combat more engaging has the greatest impact on game fun.
Instead of just "playing the interface" - selecting a monster, watching meters, and cycling through a palette of spells on the skill-bar-you have to pay attention to the monsters.
You need to be close enough to do damage but prepared to dodge away at any moment, and try to position yourself so that you can do damage to several monsters at once without letting them flank you. It's a pretty high level of interactivity, and I think players will dig it.
You also want to give players something familiar - the MMO genre isn't that old, but there are a lot of things players expect - and because TERA is built by some old hands in the industry, the game has got 'em. And here's an area where I've got to give the TERA developers major props because, while it has a large feature-set, the interface is not overwhelming - it's easy to pick up and play.
'Critical mass' was a term we used at Blizzard to mean, "You can always find someone to play with." If you can't find someone to visit a dungeon, or run a quest, or crush a boss-monster, or try whatever hare-brained thing you want to do, you'll go play a different game.
And over time, the loss of people means that the ones who are left are less likely to find partners too, so it's a self-perpetuating cycle.
Building critical mass means designing game features to bring players together, but it also means demonstrating to players that the development and publishing teams are going to support the game-fixing game bugs and balance issues, providing updates and enhancements, maintaining a high-quality and secure play environment, offering great customer support, and in general keeping the game alive and healthy.
I think gamers in Asia are much more willing to play a game on the promise that the dev team will "get the game there" in the long run, but in the West, we're impatient - we want it now.
We're fortunate because TERA is going to get its burn-in period in Korea to sort out the kinks while we build a Western publishing organisation that can provide the level of support players expect these days.
Q. Will En Masse be looking to launch something that could rival Battle.net?
A. For the near term, we're focused on releasing TERA, but we have been planning for Web interactivity and some of the other components associated with Battle.net. We'll be providing more details about our Web-services plans later in the year.
Could you one day look to bring some products to console, either via boxed product or XBL/PSN?
I think it would be great; I started out as a console developer an eon ago (in game-industry years, which are kinda like dog years). With the advances in technology, bandwidth, and especially hard-drive space, consoles are becoming a much more viable MMO market and one we'd be open to exploring.
I found this interview particularly interesting because it focuses on En Masse's goals for both TERA and the company's future. I think identifying their company aim as a publisher that focuses on westernizing Eastern MMO's says a lot about how seriously they take their role in the Western production of TERA.
It was also enlightening to hear Patrick Wyatt's thoughts on TERA since we have not heard him speak much on the game before. I love his views on how to handle translated lore!
Filed by vault1@mmosite.com at 10:31 pm under vault1@mmosite.com Tagged Aion, Game, January 6th, Ncsoft
