Kaspian
05-02-2007, 10:02 AM
The Armchair Empire has posted an interview (http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/alex-seropian-wideload-games.htm) with Bungie and Wideload Games co-founder, Alex Seropian. The article goes on to discuss current goings on at Wideload and its relationship with Gamecock, the importance of online functionality in games, E3, and touches on possible connections between Halo and the Marathon series, among other things.
What level of importance should developers be putting on online functionality?
That’s a good question. I don’t know if there’s an easy answer to that one. My design perspective is to always try and be original with something – whether you’re going to take something you like as a starting point or not, at least try to go to “11.” But when it’s some kind of new direction and sometimes that’s something that’s cool about a feature that’s online and sometimes it isn’t.
There’s a huge future in off-line games. I don’t think that’s going away. I think there’s a huge potential in online games – I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere near close to exploiting all the possibilities, gameplay wise. I have one thing that I think that is not such a good idea: jumping on the MMO bandwagon just because that wagon is covered in cash.
I find it very interesting that there’s this huge disparity in the MMO market, where you’ve got some games that are at the top, that are these huge cash cows, and then you’ve got, like, nothing.
What level of importance should developers be putting on online functionality?
That’s a good question. I don’t know if there’s an easy answer to that one. My design perspective is to always try and be original with something – whether you’re going to take something you like as a starting point or not, at least try to go to “11.” But when it’s some kind of new direction and sometimes that’s something that’s cool about a feature that’s online and sometimes it isn’t.
There’s a huge future in off-line games. I don’t think that’s going away. I think there’s a huge potential in online games – I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere near close to exploiting all the possibilities, gameplay wise. I have one thing that I think that is not such a good idea: jumping on the MMO bandwagon just because that wagon is covered in cash.
I find it very interesting that there’s this huge disparity in the MMO market, where you’ve got some games that are at the top, that are these huge cash cows, and then you’ve got, like, nothing.