WA@PAX Interview with Gabe Amatangelo

[Nattfodd]

During PAX Nattfodd and Anglakhel were able to interview Senior Designer Gabe Amatangelo about his role at Mythic, the recent changes to RvR and the Land of the Dead. The interview was done on the convention floor with no pre-written questions or answers. Due to the conversational nature of this interview, some things are a bit awkward grammatically. Please let us know if any detail is unclear.


Interview Gabe Amatangelo

Anglakhel: We're speaking with Gabe now. Gabe, do you want to give us your full name with proper pronunciation and title?

Gabe: Gabe Amatangelo, and it's Senior Designer.

Anglakhel: As a senior designer, what's your job description, job role right now and in the last few months?

Gabe: Right now it's sort of in-line with the initiative of the studio, which is taking a look at... As you know there have been management shifts at the studio and we're able to re-examine a lot of the current systems and just figure out where to go in the future with them. So right now a lot of my time is occupied with that. Just going system by system and sort of proposing and shooning and whatnot.

Nattfodd: What's your favorite class?

Gabe: What do I play right? Right now I'm playing a Marauder, before that I was playing a Zealot, before that I was playing a Swordmaster.

Anglakhel: You were one of the heavy, face time devs for the land of the dead project. Were you sort of the lead man for the designers for that project?

Gabe: I guess I could say that about 80% of the design I designed and directed design, about 20% of it is the guys above me, weighing in, giving mandates, those kind of things.

Anglakhel: So you are responsible, you weren't just a sacrificial lamb that they threw out for us to pester?

Nattfodd: So if someone hates it they should find you, is what you're saying?

Gabe: it depends, it depends on the aspect.

Nattfodd: Anything people don't like, that was the other guy.

Gabe: There ya go. *laughs*

Anglakhel: You said you're sort of focused on the current goals which seem to be refinement, polish, getting back to the core foundational systems of WAR and making sure they're everything they can be?

Gabe: Right.

Anglakhel: Is there another project like Land of the Dead that you're also working on?

Gabe: Hahah, what are you trying to snake out of me here?

Nattfodd: We want an exclusive.

Gabe: The official word is what Josh and Jeff told you, we're not announcing the next thing right now. I leave that to the producers as they like to stream in information. But our focus is on the current stuff and the polishing and dealing with those things as I'm sure you saw in the various letters, producers letters and things that came out.

Nattfodd: What is the last thing you did that you can tell us about?

Gabe: Land of the Dead.

Nattfodd: Nothing since then that you can even hint at?

Gabe: Well, the main city PQ, the city stage 1 stuff. Changing it from what it was to the current battlefield objectives, basically.

Anglakhel: So as your sort of recently birthed baby, what would you say, after having enough time for the community to adjust to it and get familiar with the content, what are you most proud of? From your vision to execution, what would you say came through best about Land of the Dead?

Gabe: I think the level design of the desert and stuff like that I think allow for good pocket RvR experiences when there is cross-over. The invasion of instances, albeit there was some patches and tuning to it afterwards, I think that aspect is unique enough and fun. Obviously some of the Epic moments; the fights against the tomb kinds, the collapsing of the colossus. Those sort of things which was sort of pushing the envelope especially compared to the stuff we had in Warhammer previously as far as PvE content goes. All those things.

Nattfodd: On the other side, what would you say still needs the most work, what needs more fine tuning? What didn't work out quite as well as you wanted it to?

Gabe: What didn't work out as well as I wanted it to? It was a tricky thing of give and take, do you have RvR focus in Land of the Dead at the cost of the Tier 4 campaign in RvR? And so that was a give and take, basically, ultimately, the producers said 'Hey, we don't want it to compete with the Tier 4 campaign' so it doesn't in a lot of ways. It did at first when it was shiny and new but right now it doesn't. It's sort of played out to people who want to do the new PvE stuff, they were doing Lost Vale before and now they're doing some new PvE content. But at times obviously, when control flips, it's kind of a hot spot on the map for a half hour or an hour. And that's exactly how it played out, that's how it is now.

Anglakhel: I know there's been some crituque, that there's not enough RvR in Land of the Dead. The door way is open or closed depending on something going on in RvR, but the RvR itself, once you're there, is sustained very long. Has there been any thought to make RvR more sustained in the Land of the Dead?

Gabe: That's hand in hand with what I was saying, once you sustain it than you're taking away from the campaign. And so it is a tricky thing. I would like to see, potentially in the future we might do weekend events so people can capitalize on it more. The whole thing is it's not sustained because once you eliminate them, they're out, they're gone. Unless of course they log out and log back in or have a self-rez.

Anglakhel: There have been discussion of altering the mechanics, on the official forums and our own forums, we've had some people offer suggestions about adjusting the mechanics of the control point so that you can still eliminate the other team's chance to respawn, but make it a little more difficult, make it so you have to destroy their warcamp before you stop their spawning.

Gabe: What I can say is, believe me, everything that I've read on the forums, we've ran through it, it was proposed. Maybe sometime in the future it will change, maybe it won't, that's for the producers to decide. They basically went with which one they like the best. There's all kinds of ideas to be had on the different ways to do that, it comes back to do you make it a focal point for RvR that competes with the Tier 4 RvR campaign or do you make it a cross-over at moments and times? Whether you make it a weekend event, or as it is now; a hot spot for 30 minutes to an hour with the occasional people logging back in and 6-man crews running around and stuff. Which is another thing we wanted to accomplish there is to allow 6-man groups to run around and have sort of a consequence. We have that suspense of 'If I die or we wipe, we're out.' And there's a certain quality to that, sure, there's other ways to get it with cross-over but the crossover has to have a limit to it, obviously, so you get to that point.

Anglakhel: Looking forward to patch 1.3.2, is there something that you are particularly excited about that you can talk about at this point? Or is it still all in the formative stages?

Gabe: I mean, there's defiantly things I'm excited about with it, but which ones can I talk about? Check out the producer letter, I gotta leave it to the producers to give out the big highlight tidbits. Obviously city changes and campaign changes I'm excited about all those as we get those in there and as we give more attention to all those systems. I'm a player, I'm passionate about giving love to all of those systems.

Anglakhel: What have been some of the design challenges as you've been looking at the Tier 4 campaign and as you've been discussing removing the fortresses? What have been some of the particular hurdles as a designer that you've been having to deal with?

Gabe: Well obviously the fortress is sort of a buffer to invading cities. And so the challenge is how do you compensate for that, what are some other fun, interesting dynamics to present to make it so it doesn't just roll all the time, things like that. So those are all the sort of things we're looking at, there's a bunch of different proposals and stuff and the producers decide on which one and then they put it in a producer letter and let everyone know.

Anglakhel: So we should read the producer letters?

Gabe: Yeah yeah, Skalski's going to love me.

Anglakhel: As a senior designer, you're sort of crossing paths with a number of different departments whether it's the PvE or the RvR or the C&C. Do you sort of end up bridging the ground between all of those?

Gabe: It's a case by case basis. Obviously the past few months leading up to Land of the Dead was really focused on that, so I wasn't crossing anything with the C&C or crossing anything with the Tier 4 at that point. And you know, project by project, you shift focus to whatever the resources are needed for at that time. So in a round-about way, it sounds like you're trying to ask me some C&C things.

Anglakhel: No no no.

Gabe: Yeah, I don't do anything with the C&C stuff.

Anglakhel: That's good, we're just asking.

Nattfodd: Did you have anything to do with the keeps being changed to two ramps?

Gabe: Well, I mean I obviously was an advocate for that for some time, a few of us were, and we're happy to see it get in there.

Nattfodd: How do you feel it's working out so far?

Gabe: I think it offers some new dynamics going on there. If nothing else it's a change from the original dynamics going on there. Obviously when you have two paths it gives it more avenues for the attackers, the whole thing is that it was a bottleneck before and now it alleviates that bottleneck. So inherently it's tougher to defend against because maybe it was too easy to defend against.

Anglakhel: So as a designer, how are you mitigating some of those challenges where previously you had the keeps with the choke point, you've had fortresses which were sort of the ultimate choke-point for the cities as these gateways but they sort of offered that 300 moment where the out-manned realm could dig in and stop the enemy if they couldn't stop them anywhere else?

Gabe: We're taking a look at all of those things and like I said, there's a bunch of different things on the plate and when they announce it they announce it. But all of that stuff is in mind of course, we want those epic moments, we want those epic moments where the underdogs, the defenders being able to pull it out, all of that stuff. We think on those things and come up with different ways. You've got to balance it out with the staggering of time within releases and resources and all of that stuff. But we're aware and we read the forums and we see what the players are asking for, and the polls and everything that you guys offer us.

Anglakhel: You smile when you say polls. Any particular polls that we're talking about?

Gabe: No no, just generally speaking. But the point is we think on all of those things and address those things, and we take a look at all of the community feedback, and with our core testers and our public testers as well.

Anglakhel: With the most recent patch, 1.3.1 there were a lot of positive changes, the keep changes and other changes. What are you most excited about from the most recent patch?

Gabe: 1.3.1? I really enjoy the objectives, the Hunter's Vale being put into the RvR Lakes. I think that really spices it up and things like that are always welcome. I like the Hunter's Vale dungeon style being that you can experience it in various different tiers across the levels. And obviously the keep ramp.

Anglakhel: The keep ramp? We're a fan of the keep ramp. I have to say the keeps look very nice, I know some kings might fire their keep designers for making it quite so accessible to get in there.

Gabe: Yeah yeah, it's a double-edged sword in a lot of ways. It's the lesser of evils that you gotta go with basically.

Nattfodd: We forgot to do with with Jeff and Josh, but could you give us a WAAAGH? We need a WAAAGH.

Gabe: A WAAAGH? Alright, alright... *WAAAAAGHHHH!!!!* <soundbite coming soon>

Anglakhel: That's not bad, was that a requirement during your interviewing process?
Gabe: Yeah, with Paul. It was a hurdle after the fact, it was expected. You walk up to his office for the first time and there's a sign on the door that says WAAAGHs to enter.

Anglakhel: So how long have you been with the Mythic team now?
Gabe: 4 years. So basically the early on, at the very beginning of Warhammer.

Anglakhel: What's the environment been post restructuring with EA and the closer organization with Bioware? As a designer, are you seeing a chance to correspond more cross-studio?

Gabe: Well obviously the pairing and everything is relatively new, but there are strides for all of that stuff. For cross-collaboration, for resource sharing, all of those things. Have I personally seen it as of yet? No, not yet. But there's meeting and seminars and various things upcoming. But in general, as a studio? Yeah. There's been all sorts of collaboration at the executive level right now and some of the sharing of resources in the mid levels as well.

Anglakhel: Is this your first PAX?

Gabe: This is my first PAX.

Anglakhel: How does PAX rate versus the other conventions from the ruthless convention season that you've almost emerged from at this point?

Gabe: Well PAX, I love it. It's more of, it's a higher concentration of all the games I enjoy and am interested in. So it's sort of the most efficient convention for me.

Anglakhel: Anything in particular you have your eye on that you're looking out? Are you allowed to express interest in other titles?

Gabe: I play all MMOs... Dare I say the names of new stuff I'm interested in?

Anglakhel: He's pointing in no particular direction.

Gabe: Aion, you know, I've been having fun in the beta with Aion. League of Legends, like the old DotA-type RTS over there. Left 4 Dead 2, hell yeah. Bioshock 2 looks pretty damn cool. Dragon Age is badass. I was a huge fan of Baldur's Gate.

Anglakhel: I was looking forward to checking out Dragon Age.

Gabe: It's badass. I'm a huge fan of Baldur's Gate, the first NeverWiner Nights. It's like in that vein you know, but to the next level.

Anglakhel: What is the first game you played that made you say 'I want to be a game designer and get pestered at conventions by people that ask me questions that I may not be able to answer?'

Gabe: The first game I played was Ultima 3: Exodus. From then it was sort of like my babysitter in the summers. Playing Ultima, playing computer games and I played all the way through 9 and then when Ultima Online came out I was hopeless, I was hooked.

Anglakhel: You were in there at it's birth.

Gabe: At it's birth, in the beta, back when you'd run into Trinsic and get to the bank with your new loot and realize you didn't have any because they still allowed stealthers to not go out of stealth when they pick-pocketed you.

Anglakhel: Were you present for the death of Lord British?

Gabe: I wasn't, I missed that. But yeah, Ultima Online was defiantly the first, period. That one was a big one to me, and the Baldur's Gate stuff. What else? Starflight, if anyone knows Starflight.

Anglakhel: I don't think I know Starflight.

Nattfodd: Neither do I.

Gabe: Oh, Starflight was awesome.

Anglakhel: What is the most embarrassing game you would say is a favorite or had an impact on you as a gamer.

Gabe: An embarrassing one?

Nattfodd: Barbie's Horse Racing Adventures?

Anglakhel: Something truly humiliating.

Nattfodd: Hello Kitty Online?

Gabe: Yeah, ya know, I don't know, I'd have to think about that. I don't know about embarrassing. They all have their own quality and coolness somewhere.

Anglakhel: Anything tainted you're looking forward too?

Gabe: Anything tainted?

Anglakhel: Like Hello Kitty Online, My Little Pony Adventures?

Gabe: No, no, I'm sorry. He wants me to say Hello Kitty Online. No, not Hello Kitty Online.

Anglakhel: A secret Pokemon fetish?

Gabe: Nope, nothing there. Sorry to disappoint.

Anglakhel: No, it's alright.

Nattfodd: We'll just have our forumites make stuff up and pick the best one.

Anglakhel: It's like I'm looking around and trying to see if there's anything...

Nattfodd: I Love Geeks. You love I Love Geeks.

Gabe: I Love Geeks. *laughs*

Anglakhel: Alright, well, do you have any questions for us?

Gabe: Uhhhhmmmm.

Nattfodd: Hahah! You weren't expecting that!

Gabe: Yeah, that was an interesting twist.

Anglakhel: Here's your chance, if you could ask a question of the Warhammer fan community, what would it be?

Gabe: For the Warhammer fan community, alright. Let's see.

Anglakhel: What are we not giving you enough feedback about?

Gabe: Well, here's the thing, here's the thing to know, Warhammer Community. When you guys make noise about this or that, it helps with leveraging for us to do different things. As a designer if there's something I want to do and I see people talking about it, it helps me. I can say "Hey Look!"

Anglakhel: So should we stop being so quiet and unopinionated?

Gabe: Hahahah, yeah, right.

Nattfodd: Constructive noise by the way, forumites. Constructive noise.

Gabe: Absolutely, constructive noise. I mean, what do you want to see next? I know the answer to that, but that's always good to hear. It's always good to hear what people want to see next. It always helps.

Anglakhel: Something besides Skaven, you don't want us to say Skaven, right?

Gabe: Well yeah, constructive.

Nattfodd: Lizardmen! Lizardmen!

Gabe: 'I want to see 20 new races and 50 new dungeons.'

Anglakhel: So are there any polls or features that we've released in the last few months that were particularly helpful in terms of constructive discussion around the office? Or anything that you feel we were particularly off?

Nattfodd: He's looking for compliments about his writing. He wants compliments.

Gabe: Remind me of some of them.

Anglakhel: Okay, we did a poll about the Land of the Dead which Massively ended up writing an article about the responses to. That was one recent one.

Gabe: Well let's talk about that one for a second. We knew when the new content first came out it was going to compromise the RvR lakes, there was no doubt about it. And so obviously the results are going to reflect that. So maybe a poll now to say 'hey, does it still do that?' But then you might get the same people online 'YES!' even though they haven't played in three months. How do control that? That's my question for you, how do you control that?

Anglakhel: You can't.

Nattfodd: Whenever people get banned on your forums or unsub, they come to us. There are upsides to it, and there are downsides and we just roll with it. Honestly, even if we had a way, I don't think I would want to say 'Only people with subs can post here.' Your forums work great for that, we're something different.

Gabe: Well said, well said.

Anglakhel: Okay, so we will work on a Gabe-sponsored poll and we have also been discussing doing a repeat of the Land of the Dead poll as a long term look to see what people think now. The question for that will still be 'What do you think the impact on RvR was for Land of the Dead?' I really am enjoying the level design and the PvE. And some of the best RvR I have experienced has taken place in Land of the Dead during that cross-over. But I have to say in my experience, those have been too limited.

Gabe: Fair enough, fair enough.

Anglakhel: I've had an amazing battle at the quay knocking people into the river and battling and fighting the healer war of attrition and so forth. But then there's that feeling of 'okay, that 15 minutes is over' and then everything sort of gets quiet again because of the PvE. It's good PvE, but still PvE.

Gabe: I mean, it's like you RvR but obviously there's PvE in the game because people like to switch it up now and then. Do some PvE and then get back to 90% of the time RvR and that's what the game is. And you know, it's a tough thing and it's a philosophical decision to say that 80% of it should be RvR and 20% as PvE in the game as a whole.

Anglakhel: But you want to keep the focus of the RvR in the Tier 4 campaign.

Gabe: Yeah, it's a philosophical decision by the producers and there's obviously a lot of valid points for that.

Anglakhel: Okay, we're going to let Gabe go here and we will try to be back with some more PAX information for yall.

[GameXbar]

Thanks Nattfodd and Anglakhel! Excellent interview.

[nehkrot]

Softball interview, quit giving these guys a pat on the back and ask tough questions instead of the same rah rah rah bull. Gets a bit old seeing the same old garbage asked in a slightly different way. Grow some stones and ask the tough ones.

[junkee]

Gabe: I play all MMOs... Dare I say the names of new stuff I'm interested in?

Anglakhel: He's pointing in no particular direction.

Gabe: Aion, you know, I've been having fun in the beta with Aion.

lolz! ! ! Maybe we all should just join Aion and that will give the developers a reason do give MORE information instead of "We'll we can't say because we don't have anything to give". Hell I was a fanboi for Warhammer until past couple weeks and Volkmar is now a dead server because of Aion / Champions online. Volkmar was a heavy order / medium destro server last month and now its a medium / low.

[radishlaw]

Thanks for the interview, a bit disappoint with the lack of information, but still.

As to whether the interview was "softball" or not, what would be a "hardball" question considering a)he isn't responsible for anything we know of after LotD and b)he defer to Jeff for stuff to look for in the future?

I suppose maybe the guys at WHA can ask more about Gabe's experience with zealot and mara, or just his opinion.

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by nehkrot

Softball interview, quit giving these guys a pat on the back and ask tough questions instead of the same rah rah rah bull. Gets a bit old seeing the same old garbage asked in a slightly different way. Grow some stones and ask the tough ones.

If you want to give it a whirl, by all means, the Community team is a PM or email away. Lack of suggestions make this comment lack any kind of constructiveness.

I will say that asking a "tough" question like "OMG WHY DO U THINK THE GAME HAS FAILED" needs to A)Be directed to the right person, Gabe is a Dungeons and Encounters lead, not someone higher in the chain and B)Worded in an appropriate manner. Asking "Critical" questions while being angry and ranty does nothing and I fail to see why people want us to do that in an interview, state of the game aside.

There's a difference between asking "tough" questions and being a jerk asking "tough" questions. If you want us to be the latter, then you're better off asking the questions yourself, because you won't catch us doing it for you.

[Gwynemoore]

Starflight??? DAAAAAAAMNNNN that game IS old. Both it and it's sequel were very good games. It's too bad they can't be played on new machines or through DOSBOX. That game is truely worth resurrecting and bringing to today's audiences. But it is just awesome hearing someone who played that game ( it was released back in the mid 80's for the old 8086 machines ). The Uleks where the most brutal of any civilization.

[Axxar]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

I will say that asking a "tough" question like "OMG WHY DO U THINK THE GAME HAS FAILED" needs to A)Be directed to the right person, Gabe is a Dungeons and Encounters lead, not someone higher in the chain and B)Worded in an appropriate manner. Asking "Critical" questions while being angry and ranty does nothing and I fail to see why people want us to do that in an interview, state of the game aside.

I'm afraid it's not that easy. To properly ask "tough" questions like that, you also need to be capable of producing the question in an extremely high-pitched voice, and be able to command a considerably goofy appearance. Flair for negative spinning is also a requirement, and you must be able to produce at least 3 examples where you've spinned something positive into something negative.

[Gogarung]

I have to agree with some of the others. This was an absolutely pointless interview and shed no light what so ever on what direction that the game is taking, not even from the perspective of one of their "Senior Designers". When he was casually asked about it, it was dismissed as a talk-to-the-producers-not-me remark. Should have ended right there.

[Merwood]

I agree with most of the the others regarding this interview , This interview was all about ask the senior designer about his opinion and experience and what his job description entails and what games he likes playing and what his opinion ws regarding land of the dead .

I'm actually dissappointed in the admin staff here at wha cause many in this thread actually speak the truth . None of you are willing to ask the questions that need to be asked , like what are you guys doing to improve war like client performance for example .

Overall many of the game breaking issues that have plagued war from day one are still here and not one of you are willing to ask why is this still remaining , cause for crying out loud you guys have had numerious polls regarding what issues should the devs be focusing on and not only there but also you've talked about these issues in your podcasts .

And yet when it comes to an interview you dont have the stones to ask these questions or rather get a interview with a dev that can directly address these concerns . Why is that ? personally i think it's because of fanboyism . But please prove me wrong i welcome it

[Kiamar]

If this guy was responsible for about "80%" of LOTD, I would suggest asking why he didn't design it to be more open RvR-oriented as opposed to a 6-man instance that could be invaded.

Why didn't he make it so either side could just access LOTD at the same time to "balance" with the T4 RvR, like what many want? Why did he focus end-game content of LOTD on a 6-man instance as opposed to a realm event that involves more community participation? Why is LOTD predominantly catering to and rewarding small-scale encounters as opposed to large-scale? Why is LOTD mostly a desert plain with some mountains thrown in as opposed to a labryinth of underground catacombs for more intense and immersive RvR?

With all due respect, these are examples of constructive "hardball" questions that should have been asked.

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Merwood

And yet when it comes to an interview you dont have the stones to ask these questions or rather get a interview with a dev that can directly address these concerns . Why is that ? personally i think it's because of fanboyism . But please prove me wrong i welcome it

I invite you to pay attention more to the front page of the site, because I'm curious where people are getting this notion that we "aren't willing to ask the difficult questions". Some of you aren't convinced by anything but empirical evidence, so let me just present to you a few examples:

-This interview for Jeff Skalski was pretty well received by the community, and that was only a couple weeks ago. In it, we ask about what he thinks about people who are unsubbed, how they've shifted their patching cycle to deal with previous feedback, and the like.

-If you don't think we're critical enough, maybe you ought to do a tag search for the word "wah", for the Warhammer Alliance Hotplate. We talk about class balance, about RvR incentives, about the state of the game, and the like, and I will tell you - we do not pull punches in these columns and they are always about "difficult questions". Here's an example.

-Before Games Day Baltimore, we solicited the community for questions, many of which we used in our actual interviews. Among these are questions about stability, performance, and class balance, and concerns about LotD. Admittedly, we did not have time to do this for PAX - the interviews and appointments were sudden and last-minute, and while that's not an excuse after a certain point, the opportunity to interview AT ALL was something we had come up to us just before PAX.

-You mention the podcast, where we've talked about issues and been critical of them.

I could go on. Accusing us of fanboyism or lack of cajones in the face of such evidence to the contrary is mistaken. You may disagree, and have the last word, and that's fine, but even fellow community members in all the threads I've presented and more fall in line with our opinion, many of whom have been just as balanced and critical as we have.

Aside from these bits of evidence, there are other factors. One is, asking the right questions of the right people. Let's pick client stability, which appears to be a recent topic people have been harping about. Asking about client stability of someone who does not work directly on client stability is not going to get the answer you're looking for. What you'll get is a generic "we're aware of the issue and we consider it a high priority". It's like asking the plumber why the stove isn't working properly. No matter how many times we explain how to ask focused questions, sometimes we don't get questions that the person we're interviewing can answer. The obvious counterargument is, get the person who can answer those questions. I can tell you that I watch the forums for what's bugging the community, and that drives who I ask Mythic to get interviews for. Do I always get who I want? No - but we're not helping Mythic dodge the tough questions, either, and getting interviews is an ongoing process.

The other is simply asking back to the community "what do you want from an interview?". It's one thing to call an interview a "soft" interview and criticize it - as Kiamar did - but it's entirely another to take it to task for something unreasonable, like "why didn't the Dungeons and Encounters guy talk about client stability". Like I said in my previous post - there's asking "tough" questions, and then there's asking "tough" questions while at the same time being a jerk face-to-face with the person you're asking them of. There are some out there, and I don't think that the people commenting on this thread are among those (aside from the ban evader), that don't want to hear "answers to tough questions". They want to hear "we failed", or "we suck" from the mouths of Mythic developers, as a way to validate their own opinions of the game, or they want to draw those conclusions from us purposefully railroading them into questions we know they can't answer. These are expectations that frankly, I refuse to meet, because it runs counter to our message of being critical, but productive. Cheerleading for failure is not productive.

All this being said, I get what people are saying. I'd say as far as interviews go, we've been doing ok, but if it's a matter of asking what's wanted and challenging us to help do so, then I think I have a way to challenge the community right back. Stay tuned.

[Syraia]

Personally speaking I miss the thrill in the pve content.

The pve is totally taken off from anything organized by guilds since the most rewarding ones are for a 6men party.

There are no battles to gain the access to the best pve bosses. Something similar to the Lineage 2 Tower of Insolence, in the middle of an rvr lake like Praag or Dragonwake, would be just amazing:

PVE for entire factions with no restrictions for pvp and fight to conquer the access to the very last boss that varies its difficulty with the number of people into the istance.

The lack of NEED to get enemies to get all loots kills the rvr lakes that are just massive zergs into one area instead of flowing in different areas.

You know you cannot count on players not to zerg, therefore you have to put a reason that is more than valid not to do it.

The medallions drops are very nice to me, but the fact I need to do Lost vale to get one of my favourite sets kills me since I hate PVE.

This are few things I would like to have in WAR.

[Valimay]

Nothing interesting there, standard interview. TBH could care less anyhow since im going to Aion and in all honesty I have little confidence in the developers of WHO after 1 year of what they have done, or in many cases not done. The only real interest I have now in WHO is how many servers will be up by Xmas(I guess 3) and how many more Dev's will leave and go to DAOC or other companies.

[heliodorus04]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

I could go on. Accusing us of fanboyism or lack of cajones in the face of such evidence to the contrary is mistaken. You may disagree, and have the last word, and that's fine, but even fellow community members in all the threads I've presented and more fall in line with our opinion, many of whom have been just as balanced and critical as we have.

Aside from these bits of evidence, there are other factors (...)

All this being said, I get what people are saying. I'd say as far as interviews go, we've been doing ok, but if it's a matter of asking what's wanted and challenging us to help do so, then I think I have a way to challenge the community right back. Stay tuned.

Red, do you and the employees of WHA have the rapport/clout with Mythic to ask for an interview with the "right" people?

I personally piled on for the Baltimore post back when you announced you were going to ask questions, and your response was along the lines of what you've said here: I can't ask Subject Matter Expert A a question about Subjects B, C, or D. Fair enough.

But who runs whom, here? Does Mythic run a propaganda enterprise upon your organization, or are you running an entity that reflects your audience?

If you recognize the need to ask SME A a question about Subject A, what is preventing you from getting to SME A?

If it's Mythic, simply tell us: WHA requested an interview within a 2-month window with Marc Jacobs. Mythic would not agree to that request, citing he's too busy... Etc.

That's how a journalistic aspect of a web site should work. If Mythic is foisting off art designers on the community when we want to talk to code writers, server managers, or producers, I feel it's your duty to the community to say so. It is within your right to ask for access to the right people, and it is your obligation (IMO) to tell us when Mythic says "No!" The latter part of that process will let consumers of WAR understand what Mythic's real priority is toward the game they sell and we buy.

I don't know of a better WAR user forum than this one, and I think Mythic feels similarly. Some have used the pejorative 'fanboy' which I think is inappropriate. However, I do fear that the WHA staff is so afraid of losing what little access you currently have should you press Mythic on issues such as access and openness.

I understand that if you lose what little meaningful access your employees currently have to Mythic, you lose a major source of revenue, which is readership. But consider this: WAR is certainly on the bubble of a major MMO that could go bankrupt or otherwise be shut down due to lack of revenue. If that happens, you'll lose that access anyway.

From my perspective, as a former editor on a big-city newspaper (not chief editor), WHA is too afraid of alienating its subject than its audience, and that is a recipe for irrelevance of your news department. More importantly, since Mythic right now needs you more than you need them, you have leverage to ask (certainly politely) for more access and more openness and more honesty.