Recently, I managed to catch Dhevrin at his desk during his busy E3 schedule, and ask him some questions; some of them many of us have wondered about. Some of them no one has wondered about. Give "Read More..." a click and spend a few minutes seeing what the Lineage II Community Coordinator has to say. Bongo: Busy getting ready for E3? DhevrinNC: Haha, one of many things going on for us. Bongo: Ok, So what lured you to NCSoft? DhevrinNC: Ah, a personal question :) Well, I knew of NCsoft, being that I was a big fan of Everquest and the MMO genre. As for how I got to be the community coordinator for Lineage II, I was interested in the game, and reading up on the website, they had posted a job listing for the position, and after an interview process that lasted a few weeks, I got the job :) Bongo: Did the job description mention wearing flame retardant suits? DhevrinNC: No, but knowing what I do about community coordinators, I assumed that was a part of the job. Knowing what I did know about it. :/ Bongo: Does the current L2 community vehemence surprise you? DhevrinNC: Not at all, and when I joined, I wanted the L2 community coordinator to have a unique voice. Unfortunately as our audience, from closed beta, to open beta to retail increased, that became increasingly hard. Bongo: How do you feel the player's attitudes have changed over the different game epochs? DhevrinNC: Lineage II was in a unique position of being launched in a foreign country (Korea) first. That meant that when I joined the company, players knew more about the game than I did, heck, they still do. I think as we got closer to launch, the audience became bigger and more general. Those who were trying out the game for the first time and didn't know all the ins and outs. So it was almost a reverse of what most games go through. But now we are back on the upward portion of the learning curve :) Bongo: Now, about being released in Korea first. What's the general feeling there on the manner of the english release? People's biggest complaint has been that we only got a translation, but have gotten stuck with bugs that are well known and even fixed in Korea. DhevrinNC: It seems that they are interested in seeing how we do things differently from what was done in Korea. And as for getting a translation, there's a lot of going on in the background that requires a lot of resources and time to accomplish. But we are working on creating a Live Team in the US to produce more content for the North American audience Bongo: Is that to mean that the version we're playing may diverge, content wise, from the Korean version, or just dynamic quests and events? DhevrinNC: Lineage II was built from the ground up to be highly customizable. Will the two games become completely different? No. Chronicle updates will always be developed in Korea, so they have to share the same code branch. However, there is a great deal that we can alter for our audience. But that is still a ways away. Bongo: Will there be any effort to catch us up with the Korean L2, or will we always be 6 months behind? DhevrinNC: Absolutely and the current plan is to do simultaeneous launch for Chronicle updates eventually. Bongo: You mentioned L2 is built to be highly customizable. I assume you meant on the server end with content and all. Many players feel that L2 lacks exactly that, customization. Do you know if there are plans to allow players to remap keys and such? There are several "aftermarket" ways to do it, but will there be anything official in the future? DhevrinNC: No question, and we also introduce more character customizations with major updates. Bongo: Everyone knows what is coming in Chronicle 1. What kind of goodies can we expect from Chronicle 2, and is there a timeline for it yet? Concurrent with Korea maybe? DhevrinNC: We know what impact a simultaeneous launch would have vs. the effect of a "delayed" launch and we are working toward that goal, but we can't establish a timeline as of yet. We're learning on our feet as of yet, since no one to our knowledge has done this yet. As for Chronicle II, the last time I opened my mouth about plans, I got calls from the Seoul office concerning the issuing of such information, so I'm not going go down that road again :) Bongo: Not even a cookie? DhevrinNC: Not even a crumb. But looking at the specs, it certainly is exciting :) Bongo: Do you play L2, yourself? DhevrinNC: I started the game the same way a lot of others did, playing in the Korean Open Beta. So yes, I do play, but these days I only log on to PK Bongo: PK! DhevrinNC: My karma is quite impressive... Bongo: I wrote a small article on the official boards about PK... I have mixed feelings on it. I feel it's too oppressive for the PK. How do you feel about the system, at higher levels? DhevrinNC: To be honest, if you are looking to make a serious career for your character, then being a PK will hinder those efforts. Bongo: Obviously. =) DhevrinNC: But I think it can be done, especially if you have a lot of connections in the game. Also, we are trying to find ways to promote and encourage a little bit of chaotic behavior here and there :) Bongo: Will there ever be any consideration given to PK's in future chronicles, like an outlaw town? I would definitely go full PK if I could have a place to train. I know of many others who would take the plunge as well. DhevrinNC: I don't think so, I think an outlaw town would be a big red bulls eye for white players that wanna mess with the chatoic players Bongo: Maybe, but that's what red guards would be for... killing whites. Pass that along, it's good stuff =) DhevrinNC: Lol, I'll be sure to put it in my community report :) Bongo: Community report? DhevrinNC: My method of communication with the higher ups here and overseas Bongo: That gives me another question... Bongo: People believe that NCSoft doesn't listen to us - that the Korean players will be controlling the direction of the game. Are [the devs] listening? DhevrinNC: I'll answer this twofold. 1. Gamers are gamers. Maybe the external things are different, but from our observations, gamers want the same fundamental things. 2. Most definitely. We have weekly meetings with the development team in Korea. To give feedback, communicate, etc. For a while it was twice a week. Once we got closer to launch, we had to scale them back. Bongo: Have [the devs] given any indication of how they feel about what we're doing to their game? DhevrinNC: I think the most devisive issue is the player vs player Bongo: They didn't know this market would be.... "carebear"? DhevrinNC: Just the opposite, the level to which players in the US try to find ways to maliciously kill another player without receiving penalties has been an interesting cultural difference. Apparently, in Japan, absolutely no one engages in PvP play, and in Korea it is frowned upon, though still exists. Bongo: People here are under the impression that Asia is a PvP free for all, everyone loves killing everyone else. Interesting to know things aren't actually that way. DhevrinNC: Well there's that difference between PvP and PK. PvP is considered honorable and PK is considered very dishonest. Whereas, here, it's like, if I can PvP then I can PK. Bongo: The differentiation being those that fight, and those that find ways around the karma system? DhevrinNC: Right. Bongo: So the devs are aware that US players are... underhanded? DhevrinNC: They're aware we play the game slightly different from what they had envisioned :) Bongo: Do they plan to accomodate that? DhevrinNC: Hmm, "accomodate" is a general term, at this point I'm not sure what decision will come about from what we've learned with the US audience. DhevrinNC: GMs are caffiene monsters, no caffiene drink left in the place :( Bongo: Only last question after this, I promise. And it's an easy one DhevrinNC: Shoot Bongo: The eternal MTV question -- Boxers or briefs? DhevrinNC: Today, boxers. Bongo: Thanks for you time Dhevrin, I appreciate it. DhevrinNC: No problems. Bongo: Contrary to what the boards may seem like, most people really do think you do a good job, considering what you have to work with. DhevrinNC: Ah, I was on the other side of the fence not long ago. I know that feeling, but I have too many bosses worrying about what I say. :) Bongo: Thank you again. Now it's time to go make some dinner. =) DhevrinNC: Hehe, g'nite