New Design Director Answers Fans' Questions

Today's Ask Cryptic post is a little different than usual: it's a fan-submitted question-and-answer session with Bill Roper, the new design director for Cryptic Studios. As we previously reported, Roper, a 14-year game industry veteran, joined Blizzard in 1994 and ultimately became vice president of Blizzard North and a director of Blizzard Entertainment. In 2003, Roper co-founded Flagship Studios and Ping0, where he held the role of CEO for five years.

While Roper already answered a lot of questions in a Meet the Team segment, the questions he answered for today's Ask Cryptic post were all submitted by players. In response to a question regarding end-game for Champions Online, Roper had this to say:

Right now, we're pushing to have all of the core systems in and completely functional by the end of the year. This allows us to focus on adding content and polishing through release. Included in this are focusing on the Omega end-game content, as well as planning out and beginning design on the continuing content.

You can read all of his answers here or after the jump.

Today we have a special edition of the Ask Cryptic series, featuring design director Bill Roper answering community questions about crafting, what he's mostlooking forward to in the game, how he came to be involved with Champions Online, as well as his past, present and plans for the future! Thanks to Bill for his answers and this opportunity to get to know him a little bit better!


How big a role will crafting play in our hero's lives? (Neonox)

Crafting is something that anyone can do, but isn’t required for advancement in the game. We’re working on a crafting system that has some really unique twists. The system also allows players who don’t craft to still be an active part of the crafting community.

Bill, what is your favorite movie of all time? (xander2351)

I’m a movie fanatic (I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 DVDs), so that’s actually a really difficult question. The original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies were incredibly influential, as were the first two Terminator and Alien movies. Silverado and Unforgiven are two of my favorite westerns. Seven Samurai , This is Spinal Tap , Pulp Fiction , Ghostbusters , The Usual Suspects , Army of Darkness ... you get the idea.

Did you approach Cryptic for a job or did they ask you to join the team? (Captain_Intrepid)

Initially, I was trying to get into the closed alpha test through a friend of a friend. I ended up talking with Arkayne, which led to coming in, meeting with Jack Emmert, and us seeing if there might be a good match between Cryptic and myself. The answer was a resounding “Yes!”

If any of the Cryptic games (Champions Online in particular) have voice acting, is there any chance that you'd add your voice to the game? (Reldisimo)

I’d love to continue lending my voice talent to the games I work on. I’ve been eyeing Foxbat’s particular brand of diabolical GENIUS *coughinsanitycough* and we may have to start some podcasts from the Fox Den.

My understanding is that the game is through the concept and base-design stages, so why the decision to bring in Bill Roper? What does Bill bring at this stage of development? (Arakim)

I’ve got a lot of experience coming in at the later stages of a product to help get it through the polish phase and released. This is something that I did for a lot of years at Blizzard, but unfortunately wasn’t in the position to do at Flagship. The design of Champions Online is very far along, and is really exceptional, so I’ll be helping out wherever I can, as well as starting to plan for the future releases and support of the game.

As the EP you have a great deal to do with the long term success of CO. What are your plans (that you can share) for end-game content and keeping subscriptions? As we all know, Blizzard's World of WarCraft has dominated the MMO market based on their well establish end-game. How do you plan to have CO compete? (focuspark)

Right now, we’re pushing to have all of the core systems in and completely functional by the end of the year. This allows us to focus on adding content and polishing through release. Included in this are focusing on the Omega end-game content, as well as planning out and beginning design on the continuing content. The team here really knows the tools and has an excellent handle on what it takes to get content from concept to implementation to release, and we’re very focused on telling epic superpowered stories with our ongoing ideas. We’ll be able to get into more detail in the next couple of months, but we all know how vital it is to share our future development plans with the community.

What's one of the core lessons you learned from how things went down with HGL? (SaintKairos)

While we learn from our successes, we probably learn more from our shortcomings. Hellgate: London was a game that had some great elements, and sorely under-delivered on others, making for a very uneven experience. Having the time to polish the content that exists and ensure smooth play and functionality isn’t as easy as it seems, but it has been a part of the plan on Champions Online since well before I came onboard. It is better to have less content that’s highly tuned than scads of it that’s haphazardly executed.

What was your highest high in gaming and lowest low (in your opinion)? (kiramon)

From releasing great games, meeting some amazing developers, spending a lot of time with the gaming community all around the globe, and being a vocal representative for the gaming industry and players, I’ve been blessed with many high points in my gaming career. The lowest was closing a company that I co-founded and breaking up a team of really fantastic developers.

What aspects of MMOs do you find particularly endearing, and are these what attracted you to Champions Online? (Lo_Jystix)

I like being able to see other players and interact as much or as little as I want to. This was actually one of the biggest issues with Hellgate: London – not having a persistent over-world. The concept of hubs and instances makes for a different style of play that can be fun, but doesn’t foster community. The idea was a visual extension of how battle.net organized players, bringing in the elements of an MMO, but in the end was a poor substitute for large persistent places players could not just gather but also adventure. Champions Online is going to have some of the coolest and most engaging areas out there in terms of congregating and playing. Millennium City, for example, is simply mind-blowing.

Tell us about the character(s) you played way back when in those early back-room Champions sessions. (CNorrisHiddenGussetJeans)

My very first character was a claws hero with acrobatics and super-healing named Ranger. I also used to GM a lot of games, so I developed a pretty huge rogues gallery for my players. Some of my favorites were the magic / teleportation specialist Leprechaun, the megalomaniacal, and the supervillian group Deckmasters with energy-projector Diamond, emotion-controller Heart, sword-wielder Spade, and brick Club.

As a long time player of Champions, beta tester even, what was your general impression with Champions Online the first time you played it? Did you feel it was true to the PnP version? Can you mention a specific event, that when it happened, you said "wow, that is cool." Or a time that made you say "hmmm, that's interesting." (ChillintheMost)

I was really struck with how the game looked and felt like a graphic novel. This is how I always envisioned it in my mind when I played - being in a comic book battling evil foes and being a true hero. And the fact that the visuals extend into every element of the game is so compelling, and really unlike any MMO out there; it really drew me in.

The vast difference in settings is also really appealing. It is so much more than going from block to block, clearing out gangs and thugs. And it’s more than just visuals in this regard. There are different gameplay tactics that need to be employed depending on some of the geographical settings. Having that feeling that you’re really traveling to disparate parts the world is just awesome.

What are you, personally, most excited about with this game? (MartianBlue)

The two elements that have me salivating in anticipation are the Nemesis system and the sheer amount of customization possible with my character. Being able to make just about any hero I can think of is simply awesome. And then being able to do the same with my archenemy is off the hook. I think this will be an incredibly fun way to immerse myself into the storyline.

Why hasn't more information about gameplay and such actually been released and added to the main site ahead of the beta? (Gash-jackel)

We’ve been holding our cards close to the vest through the earliest stages of public testing. Alpha and Beta testers usually understand that lots of things, from UI design to gameplay to art to music to sound and on and on, are still up for changes. Sometimes radical changes, if required. As we move into our initial beta phases, we’ve got a lot of things planned to open up the Champions Online world to gamers and fans of superheroes in general. It’s always hard to balance what you say and show against what’s really ready for prime time.

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