In the first of our five-part developer interview miniseries, we sat down with Creative Director Bryan Ekman to talk about some of core focuses of MechWarrior Online, Piranha's inspirations, and much more.

In this five-part miniseries, we sat down with the developers behind the highly anticipated MechWarrior Online to talk about everything you want to know about this upcoming action title. Be sure to check out our previous interviews in the series:

• Brian Ekman, Creative Director
• Russ Bullock, President
• Paul Inouye, Lead Designer
• Matthew Craig, Technical Director
• Dennis de Koning, Art Director

If, like me, you're ancient enough to remember the BattleTech cartoon, the recent news of the Centurion's inclusion in the forthcoming MechWarrior Online (MWO) will have your old man suspenders in a knot. Valten Ryder fans can rejoice because everyone's favorite medium-class Mech is getting some love. Responsible for "some of the most reckless displays of Mech-jockeying ever seen," Valten Ryder and his father's beat up Centurion made the series what it was; so this piece of news has the twelve-year-old boy inside me jumping for joy (and I just realized how bad that sounded).

Anyway, to add to the excitement, we recently had the opportunity to speak with Bryan Ekman, Creative Director at Piranha Games, to talk about all things MechWarrior. Ekman clued us in on what to expect from MWO when it is finally released in 2012, and we also got to talking about  the state of the series, inspirations, in-game currency and how the game will play. So buckle up, prepare your mind grapes and get ready to see the same three MWO pictures you've been looking at for the last few months (we'll work ong getting you some new art assets) because, without further ado, here is part one of ZAM's exclusive five part interview with the team behind MechWarrior Online.

ZAM: We're here with Piranha Games' Bryan Ekman, creative director of MechWarrior Online. Thanks for being the first to step up for our series of dev interviews!

Bryan Ekman: My pleasure! We're very excited to discuss MechWarrior Online!

ZAM: As creative director, you're responsible for most high-level concepts going into MechWarrior Online. What are the core objectives you want to achieve with MechWarrior Online out the door?

Bryan: Our overall theme for MWO is rebooting the franchise for a current generation of gamers. We have several key pillars including: Community Warfare, Information Warfare, Role Warfare, and Mech Warfare. Community Warfare is all about creating a persistent state universe, where in game actions affect the global state of affairs. This is by far our most ambitious objective, bringing persistence to a match based game. Information Warfare is designed to solve some long standing design issues from previous MechWarrior games and introduce a new element of tactical awareness, planning, and organization. Role Warfare ties all the pillars together with a primarily metagame concept of levels and pilot skills that allows players to tailor their role on the battlefield. Mech Warfare is the core pillar that binds the other pillars together. Our main objective with this concept is to immerse the player as a pilot of a BattleMech, the universe's most powerful weapons platform.

ZAM: Not all players are very familiar with the MechWarrior franchise, especially given the series' relative quietness in the past half a dozen years (or more). MWO's current community, however, seems to be very knowledgeable of the MechWarrior series and its nuances. How will Piranha Games go about introducing MWO to the former audience while appealing to the deep knowledge of the latter?

Bryan: At its heart, MechWarrior is a very simple game. Find your enemy and blow him up. New players will immediately enjoy this aspect of the game, and with time learn the finer tactics involved in piloting a BattleMech. An experienced MechWarrior pilot will feel right at home in MWO and be able to quickly tailor his or her `Mech and roles to their liking. We plan to guide new players through a very simple and short series of tutorials designed to give them a basic understanding of how to pilot a `Mech. Once they have mastered these basic techniques, we can expose them to more advanced concepts such `Mech and pilot role customization.

ZAM: From a gameplay perspective, are there any modern titles that MechWarrior Online is looking to for inspiration?

Bryan: Previous MechWarrior games and the original table top BattleTech game were used as foundations for design. We also drew a lot of inspiration from EVE Online, Call of Duty, Battlefield, World of Tanks, and League of Legends. When you play MechWarrior Online you'll recognize elements from all of these games. 

ZAM: I recall money often played a key role in MechWarrior games, with players making weaponry choices based on ammunition costs, or trying to keep repair costs low. Will economy play a key role in MechWarrior Online, given its MMO nature?

Bryan: Absolutely! Like previous MechWarrior titles, the MechWarrior Online economy revolves around managing one or more giant mechanized robots, called BattleMechs. Each `Mech has a role on the battlefield and is fully customizable by the player using an intuitive menu system called MechLab. Customizations include weapons, armor, along with other accessories, and modules. Players earn an in-game currency, called C-Bills which is used to buy new `Mechs, equipment, ammo, and perform repairs. The MWO economy rewards players by excelling at their chosen role on the battlefield. Each match played ends with a summary screen outlining their contract earnings, and bonuses in C-Bills. We expect and encourage players to maximizing match earnings by focusing on a role suitable to their play style. 

ZAM: How is MWO looking to position itself within the market? As a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena-style pick-up-and-play title, or do you hope that players will invest a lot of their time in the universe of Mechwarrior Online?

Bryan: I'm excited to say, both! MechWarrior Online is designed to get new and old players into the action quickly. Matches vary in length depending on the game mode, number of players, map, and skill level. When the match concludes, players are dropped back into the front end where they can customize their BattleMech, chat with friends, plot strategies with their Merc Corp mates, or check out the live Inner Sphere map to see what's going on throughout the universe.

ZAM: It's remarkable how few robot-based MMORPGs there are out there, in spite of the fact that I have been very vocal in my demand for more. Why is this?

Bryan: I think robot games have been viewed by publishers as very niche in the past. You essentially have two types, anime and everything else. In North America, MechWarrior has been the king, and most anime style robot games have not gained much traction. I think this about to change with a wave of promising robot games.

ZAM: And that seems to be a good place as any to pause here! Thank you so much for answering our questions, and we're all really looking forward to hearing more about MechWarrior Online!

Bryan: Thanks for letting me ramble!

There you have it folks. Stay tuned for part two!

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Editor-in-Chief.