Dana Massey has just posted his exclusive interview with the Irth Online development team. This feature also includes 2 exclusive screenshots! A preview is below:
| MMORPG.com: |
To many, Irth Online is simply one of the many fantasy-MMOs in development. Tell us what sets you apart? |
| Irth Dev Team: |
We have set ourselves apart in many ways. Ill start off by mentioning that we have developed a proprietary game engine. We could have bought one, but because we wanted to set ourselves apart, we took the time to develop something unique. Consequently this game has an entirely different look and feel from any other. On a clear day players will have a line of vision that extends 10km. This extended view also lends itself to the possibility of extraordinarily large battle scenarios that other games simply are not capable of having.
This is an incredibly interactive game. Players can manipulate world objects and items in ways that are uncommon in many other games.
The housing system is unlike any other. All players will receive one free home per account. This is not a virtual room. It is a real virtual house with real virtual land. Players can enlarge their homes by building additions and adding shops on to them in order to conduct their trades.
Our game is not based on class as so many other MMOs are. Any player character from any civilization and race can develop any skill. Characters will have a certain propensity to develop certain skills and more difficulty developing others depending on race and civilization, but any skill can be developed by any character. Players can make their character whatever they want it to be. If they do not like what the character has become they can change it by learning new skills and taking it in an entirely different direction. Its just like real life. |
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To read the complete interview, click here.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
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I can't say much. but I can say this:
Irth Online will be huge. It will contain so many aspects that other games either brushed over, overlooked or were just too afraid to try and conquer. And with the support of one of the absolute best Dev teams I have ever met, Irth Online will dominate this field.
Hmm... how come some of their assets look like the same ones used in WISH?? I'm a little concerned by this, especially if you go to the main site the art is not consistent as some are more "realistic" and others are more "cartoony". But, I'm still bothered by the fact that they are using WISH models. I'm sure there is a reasonable explaination though, at least I hope.
rwyan,
I am posting a new item that answers your observation.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Also, remember the game is still very early beta. The other graphics will be brought up to speed.
I just saw a demo of this game at E3. It was in very sad shape. It was very buggy and rough. Obviously, the programmers had never bothered to test this game. The animation and gameplay looked like it was designed by an amateur who has never played a video game before. They make a point of mentioning that the world is big, but they don't tell anyone that there is almost nothing populating the world. They plan to release it by summer '05, but in reality, they'll need another year or two of development to bring this game up to par. I don't think any experienced gamer would pay actual money to play this "game".
This is a "very early beta" version? That is scary. This game is scheduled to be released during the summer, in two months. With two months to go, this game should be in very late beta by now. It looks like these guys plan to rush out a buggy version just to charge unsuspecting customers money to act as beta testers, much like Star Wars Galaxies Online did when they rushed out an extremely buggy game.
The other scenario is even worse. When a game company showcases their product at such a high-profile event as E3, they usually try to put out their best version to impress the gamers. These guys spent all that money and time to plan for an exhibit at E3 and decided to use a "very early beta" from an earlier time. That indicates that the current version is too buggy to exhibit at E3.
Jorubdick, I gotta agree with you. I saw all of the cool new games being displayed at E3. I even got to play a few demos that were set up.
Then I walked up to this Magic Software exhibit and all I saw was this cheezy demo of their game called Irth Online. Compared to the other games at E3, this piece of junk looked like it was developed by a bunch of high school students learning how to write a game in between acne treatments. I'm not sure how they mustered up the courage to show up in the same conference as Everquest, Conan, Lord of the Rings, etc. It was embarrassing for them. I don't think anyone is going to quit playing World of Warcraft to spend time playing this laugher.
During dinner, my buddies were ragging all over that Irth Online game. They were calling it "Turd Online". And "Blurred Online". And "You Gotta Be Kidding Online". LOL.
I hope they didn't spend more than $100K writing that game. They probably cleaned out their kids' college fund to finance it. From the looks of it, Junior will be flipping burgers, cuz he sure ain't going to college.
I find it funny, how you trash a game that you "claim" to have seen at E3. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I saw Irth Online at E3, and I was impressed for a small company, while knowing that they could not possibly have the budget of EA, Microsoft or Sony.
I saw the Elven Female on Thursday running around and fighting, good looking monsters, and from what I could see, the animations looked great, I saw cool looking horses that the people were riding, combat on horses and players fighting each other, running around and so forth.
The Monsters were very well designed as well as the animations on the characters, though they looked like they needed more tweaking, I was impressed.
You claim that the world is empty? While I do not know first hand, I saw a few different towns, long range views of the world, and I saw trees, graveyards, waterfalls, boats, and monsters and so on. Maybe this was not a reflection of the whole world, but it seemed pretty populated to me.
I am a huge fan of DAOC and have played it for sometime, I played WoW and was not impressed at all, but Irth seems to be going for the DAOC gamer type, and it definitely caught my attention.
It amazes me that people can sit there and act like a child trashing someone work without knowing first hand about the work they are trashing. I do not believe for a moment that you were actually there, because if you were, you would have seen horse back riding, animations, elven, humans, monsters and so forth.
If you have issues with the game that you do not like, try being constructive about your comments, and maybe others would be more willing to listen to what you have to say, if you tried being more specific about your accusations, then maybe you would be a bit more believable, but as for you actually being there, and seeing it, I do not believe you.
I commend Irth Online for their effort to break the never ending Sony and NCSoft monopoly, and not be scared to try to put an alternative into the market.
Cheers
Just got back to the room in L.A and i was just poking around for a little info on this game, while wondering around today i stumbled across this little title and was pleasantly surprised, i spent a few min. at the booth today and what i saw deffinatelly seemed promising. What I'm really looking for is a little more info on the PVP system being implimented in this release, seems interesting. If anyone has a link to another forum or whatever feel free to share
night all and happy gaming,
-bella
http://www.irthonline.com
Here is the games mainsite, the forums link is under community.
thank you incoherent...i feel like a fool but i think i've been spelling it earth online when i search, this is a big help,
-bella
Actually Rossa, I can not say how legit the individual who asked for the link is, but I have it on notify, so when a new message is posted in this thread I get an email. I also use gmail, which has a notifier of new messages on the desktop.
I am not a share-holder, but I do wish I was. I can see the potential this game has. I can understand that it is still in very early beta. I have seen the effort the devs put in. What I can't understand, is your need to so viciously attack a person or a company based on just your personal opinion that the game is no good. You don't like it, fair enough, state you don't like it and move on.
Hi Incoherent, I mean, Gothika, or whichever you happen to be at the moment.
What I can't understand is why you need to put up this phoney front that you are impartial. Your first comment was obviously a shill promotion of this pathetic game and sleazy company. And now you pretend to be a voice of reason to deflect criticism of this sleazy company. That's why the attacks are vicious. Nobody likes sleazy used-car salesman tricks to sell a less-than-mediocre product.
I noticed that you have a greater concern with legitimate criticism of the game than with the sleazy manipulative sales tactics of this sleazy company. And I'm sure you are very impartial too. Just read your first comments full of praise and hyperbole for this pathetic game.
"It's going to be huge!" and "one of the absolute best Dev teams I have ever met, Irth Online will dominate this field"
This surely indicates that you have no relationship with the company, right?
I can't understand why a guy wants to compete in this MMORPG market and cannot take criticism of his product if it's not produced very well. Take your own advice. You are so confident of your product to be "Huge"? Fair enough. Take the criticism and move on. Don't put on the pretense.
This is the only Nick I have here I assure you. And I do believe this game will be huge. The only affilation I have with them is I am a beta tester. I have beta tested quite a few games. Not all of which have gone on past beta. I see alot of potential in this game. If I didn't I wouldn't still be testing it much less coming on here.
What I don't understand is what was said or done to you by the game for you to call them sleazy and feel the need to return time after time throwing insults and accusations you have no foundation for.
You are too funny,
If I choose to hide my location, Thats my choice.
However with your assertions that I am in some way involved with this company, you are outright wrong.
I said that the animations looked good but needed tweaking, I did not give the game an outright A+ nor did I rate it this way.
I have no hidden agenda, I am only stateing that what I saw was not that bad, and I based this on visual facts that I saw at E3, you have yet to give any reasonable details of what you saw, you trashed it in a whole, no details nothing.
How can you possibly be taken seriously when you cant even say what you saw at E3 and give dewtails on why you think it was so horrible?
The only thing I see here, is a hidden agenda on your behalf, you have attacked the game, the people involved and every aspect of it that you possibly can with no details on why you think it is so bad.
I clearly gave the game credit for what I saw, and called to task what I thought needed improvement:
"The Monsters were very well designed as well as the animations on the characters, though they looked like they needed more tweaking, I was impressed."
What game features did I talk about? I only talked about what I saw first hand. I did not roll the truth in any way.
Nice screen shots!, went to thier site and signed up for beta, game looks good so far.
If they hold up to even half of what they say, it should be a great game.
Ignore Rossalis...his kind that makes 9000 accounts just to bash a game without any first hand knoweledge isn't worth a mention.
My suggestion:
Look at the features, look at the screenshots, sign up for the beta and see for yourself...they don't aim to make a billion dollar killer...they're small company formed by MMORPG players...personally I'm ready to gamble to support small company in hopes of actually getting to play UNIQUE mmorpg instead of following the sheeps from EQ clone 12452534768 to EQ clone 564687536754775
If you have any questions, you can find devs from IRC 5 days a week...the server and channel is in their forums.
I can say as much without breaking NDA....Irth devs listen, have never lied, have never promised what they can't keep...I have complete faith in them.