WARCRY - Who is your audience?

 

WarCry: Alright, so tell us who is going to play this game. What audience are you targeting?

Larry: This has a quick and long answer. Our target audience will read the Imperial Wars website or this interview and within 5 minutes will say, “This is the game I have been looking for since the Internet became the World Wide Web!” On the other hand, describing this audience as a demographic is much more difficult. If you will indulge me I’d like to quickly trace the history of how certain literary and technical influences helped create the atmosphere for the MMOG, and in another branching of influences helped create the EPMG, as represented by Imperial Wars.

Our current role-playing persistent worlds are outgrowths of the early adventure text games that evolved from war games in the early 1970’s. Around 1971 Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax influenced by the literature of Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings and Lieber’s Swords and Sorcery series brought a fantasy role-playing element to war games that they named Dungeons and Dragons. As these games migrated onto the Internet they became known as MUDs, MOOs and MUSHes. When technology advanced to allow the melding of graphics and simulated real-time to MUD content, the MMOG was born. Personally, I think that Ultima Online, which integrated a graphical MUD with the successful themes of the Ultima stand-alone computer game, created the biggest revolution in online gaming, which in turn spawned Everquest, still the reigning champion MMOG today. This progression has been both good for the online game business in the attention it has brought to it and bad because it has stunted the growth of alternate game styles.

Imperial Wars also claims war gaming ancestry but its design was influenced by strategy games like Civilization, Tradewars and one of the first multiplayer online games MegaWars III on CompuServe. The character, turn interval and role-playing influences come from play by mail classic Starweb, some of the campaign length war games from SSI, and Diplomacy. The game environment itself derives from the literary influences of Isaac Asimov, John W. Campbell, Jack Vance, C.J. Cherryh, Greg Benford and many others who wrote masterful science fiction adventures set within galactic empires. The strategy facet of Imperial Wars has been somewhat streamlined to play better in a multiplayer environment and has integrated the best web Internet communications that it can directly into the game’s user interface to further underscore interaction.

From this abbreviated history I think it is fair to infer that 10 factors of player experience or interest might attract players to an Imperial Wars Universe.

1. Players familiar with some kind of strategy and war gaming experience will find the simultaneous move game play mechanics easy to grasp.

2. Players who appreciate a well-balanced strategy game that takes place in a rich graphical sci-fi story environment.

3. Players familiar with certain kinds of play-by-mail or play-by-email games who will more easily grasp the turn interval concepts.

4. Players who are aware of, or have played alternate role-playing games than D&D, such as Diplomacy, will find it easy to grasp the diplomatic relationship aspects of IWars.

5. IWars will appeal to players who want a more of a “game” experience with clear-cut goals than a simulated world encounter that employs leveling and treadmills for player advancement.

6. It is a game for players who enjoy the rich nuances of direct player interaction that goes beyond just whacking an opponent reminiscent of when game play was a really a social face-to-face event rather than a solitary activity played alone with an animated computer program.

7. Imperial Wars will fit the lifestyle of the more mature gamer who has a life and wants it that way but still loves deep and significant game play.

8. IWars may appeal to persistent world gamers who have grown in real life past the kind of time commitment required or who would just like to try something different.

9. Players who enjoy the “tourist” aspect of gaming amongst beautiful worlds and are comfortable in email relationships with people who share similar values.

10. Players who are also readers or fans of science fiction themed stories that would like a deeper experience in that kind of universe.

WarCry: I see, but how about making IWars a 3D game? One of your staff-workers was saying that he would like to see IW in a 3D environment, with animated moves being displayed after each turn. Is that a vision that you all share and want to accomplish?

Larry: Where 3D digital graphics will directly serve game play or more effectively absorb players into the immensity and wonder of an interstellar space environment, we’ll use it in our next version. The design is complete and we will be implementing animation into the commands and moves during turn intervals and in re-playing turn results even before that. Imperial Wars was originally conceived to use full video to display the turn results and while we will do this digitally, at least for now, the design follows that original path. I am excited about both of these concepts because I think they will better illustrate how to make moves in Imperial Wars making game play even more intuitive. We have finished designs for better data management, better star map controls and filters, better and more web integration ….

Well, there is just so much more that we want to do. We did not produce this game for a quick hit like a shelf game where the goal is to sell the box and move on. Our goal is to be here next year, the year after and the year after that continually developing and adding along the way. Great art and graphic design are important keys to that. Bruce Dean, a world-renowned illustrator and art designer for IWars, has given us the worlds that grace our current game but he chafes at all that he would like to do. Next version we’ll definitely let the reins out more.

 

 

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