6 Comments | Add
Rate & Share:
Related Links:
Info:
MANIA INTERVIEW: MMORPG Champions Designer Randy Mosiondz
City of Heroes creators bring a brand new Superhero MMORPG to the Xbox 360 and PC By
Josh Gordon
November 25, 2008
Cryptic Studios presents their new Superhero MMORPG CHAMPIONS
© Cryptic Studios
In April of 2004 NCsoft published Cryptic Studios “City of Heroes” for the PC and the world of MMORPGs would never be the same again. If you grew up reading comic books, then you’d probably understand the absolute thrill of creating your own unique Superhero and building him up with incredible power while joining forces with other Superheroes. I was blown away. I wasn’t playing consoles at the time so it was a no-brainer for me lose countless hours in this world that I had been dreaming of since I was a scrappy kid collecting comics.
Since then I’ve switched over to Console games and couldn’t have been more ecstatically excited to find out that next spring, original CoH developer Cryptic, along with publisher 2K, are going to release Champions Online for both the PC and (drum roll please) the Xbox 360. Based on the popular role playing game created by George MacDonald in 1981, Champions Online looks to seriously up the ante for the Superhero MMORPG.
Holy second life! It looks like I’m, once again, going to be spending way too much time in a fantastic world of Heroes and Villains.
I couldn’t have been happier to find out that Mania was going to be granted an exclusive interview with Champions Online lead designer Randy Mosiondz and that yours truly was going to be the Caped Questioneer.
MANIA: What are the biggest differences between City of Heroes and Champions online?
RANDY MOSIONDZ: Champions Online is very fast-paced and action-oriented: there are not a lot of cool down timers on powers, recovery is quick, and there’s a lot of reactive gameplay where you need to pay attention to see what your enemies are doing. We’ve built a lot of different environments to take players from deserts to frozen climates, from high-tech city to underwater – super-heroes protect the world, after all! We’ve also got a LOT of character customization options available in Champions Online including costumes, powers, animations, and the ability to create your own super-powered Nemesis!
MANIA: Will there be a monthly fee for both Xbox and PC users? PC users have long been used to paying a monthly fee for an MMORPG, do you think there will be a hurdle to get console players used to the idea of paying a monthly fee in addition to the $60.00 they spend for a game?
RM: We don’t have final pricing schemes at this time; we’re still working things out on the business side.
Mania: Why do you think console users have been slower to adapt to MMORPGs?
RM: Consoles have very a long time been dominated by more action-oriented games in which you can just sit down and start playing right away. MMORPGs have tended to be more of a long-term character development process with more of a time investment. We’re trying to bridge that gap with Champions Online by providing a fast-paced MMORPG that appeals to the casual player while still having long-term goals and challenges for the more hardcore player.
MANIA: If I'm a City of Heroes player, what are the reasons, if any, to play Champions?
Online?
RM: We’ve already outlined some of the key differences between City of Heroes and Champions Online. If those changes we’ve made in Champions Online appeal to you then you’ve already got your answer! In addition to that we’ve made lots of improvements in general game-play and environments: more interaction with the environment (including the ability to pick up and throw stuff!), more complex mission objectives, better boss fights that require good team tactics, etc.
MANIA: If you can tell us, what are the things in Champions that you're most excited about?
RM: The Nemesis System is a lot of fun. Being able to create your own Nemesis and henchman, thwarting his plots while avoiding his ambushes is pure four-color comic gold!
MANIA: How is the technology different now than when you first launched City of Heroes? What are you able to do now that you weren't then? Is that a moot question because of the updates that are common with MMORPGs?
RM: We rebuilt the Cryptic Engine before we started implementing Champions Online. This allowed us to do a lot of things with powers, enemies, and missions that we could never do before. It also gives us a lot more flexibility when doing future update as we’ve built the engine with more room for feature expansions.
MANIA: What growing pains, if any, did you learn from City of Heroes that will benefit Champions?
RM: We definitely learned a lot from City of Heroes development. One of the big ones is “give the players what they want”. Of course we have to weigh player demands with more practical considerations of timelines, budget, game balance, and genre flavor, but if it fits all those criteria why not? There are a LOT of great ideas in the community and we’d be foolish as a development team to ignore them. MMORPG players invest a lot of time into our games so it’s only right that we incorporate their demands into future expansions.
MANIA: Since the initial release of City of Heroes we've all seen the gigantic rise of the comic book movie; have these influenced/inspired Champions? If so, how?
RM: Certainly. There are a lot of players coming into Champions Online with hero ideas inspired by what they’ve seen in super-hero movies. Champions Online has a broad base of powers drawn from many decades of comic book lore and we want to make sure there’s enough there for players to build their vision of a super-powered hero. It’s tough to be all-inclusive with a genre as broad as super-heroes, but we’ll do our best!
MANIA: City of Heroes has been a huge success. The obvious question is why another Super Hero MMORPG?
RM: The super-hero genre is vast. There’s so much you can do with it and we only scratched the surface with City of Heroes. Cryptic has a great opportunity to put out a multi-platform game with new gameplay features and graphics we’ve never been able to do before. Why not do another super-hero MMORPG? There’s certainly room in the marketplace for it.
MANIA: How much of the team that were involved with City of Heroes are involved with
Champions?
RM: Quite a few, actually. I worked on City of Villains myself along with many of the same designers, artists, and programmers. Since Champions Online has a larger dev team we’ve got a lot of talented new faces as well.
MANIA: Will users be able to have both a hero and a villain?
RM: The primary focus of gameplay is going to be oriented towards heroes at launch. We have a number of ideas of how to incorporate villain gameplay in but we’re still working on it; the main thing is we don’t want to feel like a re-skin of hero gameplay.
MANIA: Can we reserve the name "Mania-Man" for our hero and "Maniac" for our villain in advance? ;)
RM: I cannot comment on that at this time! J
MANIA: What are your favorite comic-book movies?
RM: I thought Iron Man was an excellent adaptation, and the upcoming Watchmen movie looks very true-to-form (as long as they keep the original ending)! I really liked Hellboy II as well, but I mainly thing that’s because of Del Toro’s visual style.
MANIA: What are some of your favorite comic books?
RM: I really like magic-powered super-heroes, so I enjoy anything with Doctor Strange or Doctor Fate. Lately I’ve also been enjoying the Secret Invasion storyline, Thunderbolts, as well as the Secret Six.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
Hmm. I may have to check this out. I was a huge fan of Champions RPG when I was younger. Don't know if I'd have time to play it, though. I've been a bit lax on my Ultima playing lately. Just not enough hours in a day!