In Part Two of our interview with Scott Hartsman, Creative Director of Trion Worlds, we talk about character growth, Rift's innovative "soul" system and the economics of an MMORPG.

ZAM: What about player growth when it comes to endgame? Will players be focused on growing via equipment once they hit that maximum level, or will there be other opportunities for a player to grow in power, and not just by getting a new sword?

Scott Hartsman: We really wanted to focus on collecting things; be it notoriety, gear, quests, faction standing or even souls. You see, once you get a brand new soul and you try it out, you'll want to begin the process of mastering your soul. We're talking about an entirely different way of playing, and that takes time to practice. We want players to take the time to practice, or else they're going to get stomped. That's where a lot of our endgame progression will come from, although getting equipment is always fun.

Slotting a new soul at a high level doesn't mean you're good at it - it just means that you can do it. I think we're actually doing harm to our players if we say, "OK, you're done leveling, but now we have… even more grind!"

ZAM: This level of customization and creativity reminds me of those old school MMORPGs, like Ragnarok Online, where players could distribute their stat points and skill points in any way they wanted, and so huge communities were created where players could discuss their "builds" and their styles.

Scott Hartsman: We intentionally created a system that is all about creativity and having fun. Being able to be one class and then being able to cherry pick a couple other things from other classes is really freakin' powerful! It's powerful and it's an immediate fun moment.

I don't know about you, but I play these games to have lots and lots of fun moments! I imagine most of us who play class-based MMORPGs always get those moments where you see that other class and you say, "If I just had that ONE ability…" And we want to give players that feeling. We want players to be discovering and experimenting with things, and we want them to be thinking, "This is just too strong!"

ZAM: For a final line of thought here, what about making money in Rift? Some MMORPGs prefer to develop their communities by making money scarce, thereby forcing players to find creative ways to pay their bills. What about Rift?

Scott Hartsman: Everybody that's ever made an MMO has that "easy to learn, hard to master" concept. Unfortunately, that "hard to master" mentality ends up being "oh, you have to grind a lot." But at the end of the day, we're all about fun and advancing yourself further.

With all of that said, we don't want money to be scarce and to have our players completely destitute. Money is a tool. There should be things you can do with this tool, and there should be choices you can make with this tool. Do you get this, or something else? Do you spend it on this awesome mount, or that cheaper mount?

We definitely, however, want to get away from that "Oh God, I need to buy gold to keep up" mentality. The one who masters his class and becomes good at what he or she does will definitely prosper. Money doesn't buy power!

ZAM: What about paying for the game itself? You've noted that you will be going subscription based because you want Rift: Planes of Telara to be taken seriously as a triple-A MMORPG, and so the subscription-based model is the only way you can do it. Recently, Turbine has been making some significant headway in trying to change the stigma surrounding "free-to-play" subscription models. Can you ever see Rift looking down those paths?

Scott Hartsman: I sincerely hope that DDO and LOTRO succeed in their free-to-play business models, and there is no doubt that they're doing well. We've just started, however, and based on where our business is going, we believe there is a large audience out there that just wants to be able to say, "Hey, I paid my subscription, and now I want all the stuff that comes with my subscription."

It's basically the assurance that you will get everything and you don't have to worry about anything. I think that core audiences in the West are big fans of simply paying that monthly subscription and getting everything, and so I think we're going to stick with that.

ZAM: Whew! That was a lot of questions and a lot of talking! Thanks for speaking to us about Rift: Planes of Telara - we can't even begin to say just how giddy with anticipation we are for this MMO! Do you have any parting words for your loyal followers?

Scott Hartsman: This is the best time of the game for me! This is where the rubber meets the road, where you find out which places you were right and which places you were horribly, horribly wrong. Outside of that, I'm looking forward to getting a lot of players into the game!

ZAM: Thanks again!

Scott Hartsman: Thank you.

Man, we just can't wait to get our hands on that class system to make some crazy soul combinations... Can you imagine!? Because we just totally did!

Either way, we'll be sure to update you on more Rift news as time goes on, and if you had any other questions, let us know and we'll try to get them into our next Q&A session with Scott and the team! Keep up the good work Trion!