Gods & Heroes Developer Interview

[bean19]

MMOZ Online Gaming recently posted an exclusive interview (http://www.mmoz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2729) with Stieg Hedlund, who is best known for his work creating Diablo, Diablo II, and Starcraft. Currently Hedlund is the lead designer for Perpetual Entertainment's upcoming mythology-themed and squad-based MMORPG, Gods & Heroes (http://www.godsandheroes.com/).

MMOz: How does minion skill/ability progression work? Is it tied to the player or to each individual minion? At higher levels are each player's minions fairly unique based on their skill progression choices or will most players end up with similar, standardized minions of a certain class?

Stieg Hedlund: There is a lot of variation within minions; certainly there are the basic roles of Spellcaster, Infantry and Skirmisher, but then there are Romans, Faliscans, Gauls, and so on as well, right down to creatures of myth that you can get to serve you. Minions have feats that they learn based on these types that they get in a progression based on their level. These feat progressions constitute specialties and minions will use these abilities in battle autonomously based on parameters you set for them. There are further unit feats that are unique to each player class and once learned by a player character can be used to command minions. The minion you hired in a tavern in Ostia is less individual than the Gaulish Cheiftain you get after completing a brutal quest.

MMOz: Are minions tradable between players? If so, are there certain tradable and non-tradable minions?

Stieg Hedlund: There will definitely be the ability to trade minions. We think this will be an important part of the minion game; finding the rare ones, training them and trading them to other players could be a game in and of itself. We will also clearly need to place some restrictions on these trades just as with “bound” equipment items.
Minions in an MMORPG sound really cool to me.

[balamoor]

Ahhh Gods and Heros; Yet another example of what happend to Blizzards best Talent.

[bean19]

Yep. I wonder if the abondonment of Blizzard North had anything to do with Blizzard losing Stieg.

After all, that would be akin to Miraxis losing Sid Meier.

[balamoor]

Yep. I wonder if the abondonment of Blizzard North had anything to do with Blizzard losing Stieg.

After all, that would be akin to Miraxis losing Sid Meier.


From what I have heard from a couple Ex Blizz Developers that now work for Mythic ..., Stieg Hedlund was all set to go to Irvine and work on WoW then he found out Mike Morhaime was trying to get Jeff I don't have a fucking clue about game design Kaplan to come to work for Blizzard. Steig decided to seek greener pastures and about two months later most of the original WoW team walked.

But it's working out great for Blizzard...never mind that despite their 6 Million subscriber base they are advertising a bring a friend plan.... No, Really..that doesn’t have anything to do with the droves of folks that are makign the peon cry. :rolleyes:

[bean19]

Right, I knew that Stieg did work on WoW's design documents, so that makes sense, but I had no idea that he left because of Jeff Kaplan.

WoW's friend program goes to show that the freebies are not necessarily an indicator that an MMO is not doing well. They are in fact just promotional tools.
I've never met Kaplan and I don't know his reputation, but I've seen him in interviews where I found him to be unlikeable (He seems disinterested with the games and physically greasy. . . oily skin. . . I bet he has a moist handshake).

[balamoor]

Right, I knew that Stieg did work on WoW's design documents, so that makes sense, but I had no idea that he left because of Jeff Kaplan.

Stieg thought Morhaime was basically fucking insane to want to bring someone over with Zero game design experience, and Stieg was well aware of Kaplans love of EQ style Uber Raiding, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why he cut his losses.


WoW's friend program goes to show that the freebies are not necessarily an indicator that an MMO is not doing well. They are in fact just promotional tools.

Zexsus Blizzards Ex lead GM (Works for Mythic now) said about a month ago that Vevendi was on Blizzards back about the number of lost subscribers, BC has been pushed back to include more Non-Raid content, and there is suppose to be a couple Non-Raid Dungeons thrown in before Christmas.... so nope Bring a friend isn't just promotional, it's get the publisher off our backs and stop hemorrhaging subscribers.

I've never met Kaplan and I don't know his reputation, but I've seen him in interviews where I found him to be unlikeable (He seems disinterested with the games and physically greasy. . . oily skin. . . I bet he has a moist handshake

I met him first at the Vegas Fanfair a few years back, he's basically a passive aggressive sodomite that truly believes online games are for His amusement only...fuck everyone else.

But Blizzard may be rid of both Him and Furor soon, Brad the Vision Mcquiad is supposedly talking to both of them about Vangaurds end game. It's no secret that the majority of WoW fans loathe both of them... even more so considering how Kaplan showed his ass at Blizzcon with the learn to raid comments….

If they fire these two Asshats, and refocus the game towards it's intended audience Blizzard may be able to stay competitive, if not expect many merged servers in the coming months.

[Kem0sabe]

I dont think WoW will have any population problems any time soon. They are still expanding in europe and in the u.s at a massive rate.

Anyways, i hope Gods and heroes turns out to be a good game, after i learned that Sigil got into bed with SOE, i lost all hope in vanguard, so theres little else to look forward to in the mmorpg market, with the exception of WAR of course.

[bean19]

I dont think WoW will have any population problems any time soon. They are still expanding in europe and in the u.s at a massive rate.

Anyways, i hope Gods and heroes turns out to be a good game, after i learned that Sigil got into bed with SOE, i lost all hope in vanguard, so theres little else to look forward to in the mmorpg market, with the exception of WAR of course.

FYI, Kem0 - G&H is being published by SOE Platform Publishing. However, it is just a distribution deal. . . SOE will print the CDs and get them in stores (do appropriate marketing - like box art, standies, etc. for stores). That's absolutely it.

Perpetual Entertainment retains ownership of the license and 100% creative control. Also, G&H will have it's own billing servers, customer service, and game servers. It is a MUCH different deal than the one that Vanguard made. . . Vanguard will be another shitty Station pass game.

[bean19]

balamoor - Thanks for all the information. Yeah, I think WoW has painted themselves into a corner with their 40-man raid mentality. . . they'll cause all the uber guild players to go kill themselves if they actually change the game enough to make it accessible and fun to normal people (post level 60).

I don't see it happening.

Btw, have you been following how Gods & Heroes plans to use the minions feature in order to create epic sized raids where your "side" has 40 or more units, but since they are minions, you can do the content with as few as 5 players.

That seems so ridiculously cool to me. :)

[balamoor]

balamoor - Thanks for all the information. Yeah, I think WoW has painted themselves into a corner with their 40-man raid mentality. . . they'll cause all the uber guild players to go kill themselves if they actually change the game enough to make it accessible and fun to normal people (post level 60).

I don't see it happening.

Blizzzard has lost a lot of talented people since WoW has been released (Never mind when it was in development) I have the good fortune of knowing four of them personally. They all have told me that every time up to patch 1.10 some one mentioned the fact that the majority of the player base was unhappy with 40 man Raids Kaplan would throw a baby fit and threaten to quit..... now Metzen and Morhaime are hoping he does before they replace him.

I am still saying what the hell over he fact that ANY developer would want this Tea Kettle, he has no game development experience yet he's technically lead Developer....

But that's the least of Blizzards worries, Morhaime knows that WAR is going to be a huge competitor, and while they have a large fan base it is mostly an unhappy fan base. I hope they will be able to stop the impending exodus...but I doubt they will.

Btw, have you been following how Gods & Heroes plans to use the minions feature in order to create epic sized raids where your "side" has 40 or more units, but since they are minions, you can do the content with as few as 5 players.

That seems so ridiculously cool to me. :)


Yes I have, that would mean they are super confident in their AI to be able to pull this off...but G&H looks, (And what I have heard from E-3 plays) so frigging amazing. I was never a fan of Greco/Roman type game and even I am jazzed about this one.

[bean19]

But that's the least of Blizzards worries, Morhaime knows that WAR is going to be a huge competitor, and while they have a large fan base it is mostly an unhappy fan base. I hope they will be able to stop the impending exodus...but I doubt they will.

I am hardly worried for the folks at Blizzard losing profitability any time soon. . . they have an expansion coming out that will get a ton of the people who left back into the game, and even though the endgame will remain a dead-end for everyone that is not into uber guild raids, all the casual players will have a good time playing through the game again as a blood elf or as the stupid new Alliance race.

Plus, while Tabula Rasa, Godes & Heroes, and Age of Conan all look like they'll be awesome to play and be out this year, but WoW will still gain more new customers and gain back old customers with their expansion.

If all of them are good, I think that WoW will see their subscriber base leaving for each of them 2 months after Burning Crusades is out.