Summary by Shalmii
Random stuff in the intro
At 1:40, they get right to business and introduce our fluffy new general manager
###ArbiterZ
First, questions from the older GMs to ArbiterZ
"What do you do here?"
ArbiterZ is responsible for making sure the game stays on track in terms of content releases and making sure everything runs smoothly. âMy job is to make sure that I have as little work to do as possible⌠Itâs a kickass job.â
"Whatâs your experience with games?"
Mostly a PC gamer, mostly plays MMORPGs. Favorite game: Everquest. Has played at least 45 MMOs. Itâs how he discovered Realm.
"What makes Realm stand out from the rest?"
Easy answer: the art style and permadeath. What really makes it stand out is how easy it is to pick up and play. Itâs easy to learn but hard to master. The leap from low-midlands to Godlands and solo dungeons is large and takes a lot to master. The skill requirement and ceiling is one of the big things you donât see in other MMOs.
SgtSunshine dies a lot.
ArbiterZ picked up Realm before Kabam acquired it, towards the end of 2011. One of the engineers on the team that he just moved to at the time was playing a goofy 2D pixel shooter MMO and he got hooked. His favorite dungeon is Manor, his favorite boss is Davy Jones (for the invulnerable/puzzle boss aspect), His favorite classes are Mystic (if he feels trollish) and Paladin (otherwise).
"Will there be a Paladin buff in the future?"
Not 100% yes, but not 100% no. Class balance is definitely something they want to look at. Itâs not uncommon for classes and characters to be rebalanced in MMORPGs. There havenât really been many overhauls, so theyâll try to tackle that. He knows that melees are overpowered, and that functional pets have caused healing classes to be less useful. He canât 100% say Paladins specifically will be buffed.
"What makes Manor your favorite?"
The way it looks. The lightning effects, the atmosphere. Itâs just a level of depth that he wasnât expecting in a 2D pixel shooter.
Zbornox loves Lord Ruthven
"SB UTs?"
Soulbinding all UTs is not whatâs best for the players. Thereâs nothing worse than getting a white bag with a UT you donât need and canât use and having no outlet to trade them to other player for stat pots, etc. However, on the other hand, thereâs nothing worse than taking the best items in the game and mass-duping them, ruining the gameâs economy. These are the two opposite ends of the spectrum, and neither are good. Theyâll look into it. Soulbinding all UTs is not the answer, but ArbiterZ doesnât have an answer yet. As soon as they have a solution, theyâll inform the players through their usual means of communication.
âHow do you go about selecting user ideas to implement?â
âWe have a big hat that we put all the ideas in, and every Tuesday, we pull one out. Thatâs what I was doing yesterday; thatâs why I was so busy.â He said in the intro thread that the players have amazing ideas. None of the new team members think that they know better than the community. So, theyâll be turning to the community for input and suggestions a lot more. Theyâre not going to implement everything thatâs suggested (salt vs. chicken), but theyâre going to focus a lot more on community.
###Community questions
(around 10:00):
Xonico (thatâs how Zbornox pronounced it, anyway):
"Is there any more information on the Shatters?"
He has a bit more info. Why they picked the Shatters? It lays everything out nicely, describing behaviors, effects, enemies, etc. in a way that the team doesnât need much extra information to build the dungeon. Theyâre building a template based on the Shattersâ forum thread that allows people to fill-in-the-blanks and make a good dungeon design that the team can work with. As far as the dungeon itself goes, theyâre working on it based on the design from the forum thread, getting familiar with the monsters, layout, bosses, etc. They donât have an actual timeline yet, but theyâre certainly working on it. Itâs one of the first things the new team will do.
Concerns on the forums about following the design of Shatters verbatim:
Theyâll build it verbatim, test it (likely on Testing), and go from there. If itâs too easy (due to pets, new tiers, etc), theyâll make it harder. If itâs imbalanced, theyâll tweak it. It seems unfriendly to melee at first glance, so theyâll make sure to test it with all character types. Theyâll probably keep some bosses melee focused and some ranged focused.
An anonymous player:
"What are some aspects of Realm that you would like to put emphasis on while developing to make the game better? Some examples could be teamwork, cool loot, simplicity, or difficulty."
Since itâs an MMORPG, there are some core things to focus on, and there are some things to focus on specifically because this is Realm. They want to make sure there are compelling content, both solo and group. Some of the epic-level dungeons will probably require more than a few people. One idea to force group play is regenerating walls. Since this is Realm, he wants to focus on difficulty. With higher tiers and pets (and therefore a player buff) there needs to be content that matches it, so just having a pet doesnât mean you can breeze through the content. âYour characters are going to die.â This is Realm, this is what makes Realm special, and if you take that way, it suddenly loses a lot of its charm. The three things will probably be engaging solo content, engaging group content, and difficulty.
Next question:
"Hey, ArbiterZ! Howâs it going?"
Itâs going good. Next question.
"When will we start to see all those amazing promises? I donât expect for you to introduce everything in one update, but I would like to see what you have planned for the next update."
Not everything will be in the next update; if it was then it would take too long. Itâs pretty much 100% guaranteed that not all of it will be in July or August. They have new team members who need to learn the dev tools, and some things like Elder Realms are a very large undertaking. He can say that the next release will contain one, maybe two, epic-level dungeons. Theyâre looking at the early dungeons, like Pirate Cave and Spider Den, and those will be the first epic dungeons that they introduce. Right now, thatâs the only thing slated for the next update. There will likely be bugfixes, etc. as well.
Something about Star Wars Galaxies.
###Community news
(at 19:00)
SirRacha is Mr. Community, apparently.
3 events, because the number 3 is fantastic.
Fight for independence video contest. There were around 15 entries. BlueMarble, Bleddicson (sic), Wiserhood, GeeroTwo, XMBotX won. Zbornox is impressed because all these people have skills. GeeroTwoâs in particular was awesome.
Arena Lore contest. There were some very good stories coming out of this. One in particular was really good from some player named Zerao (sic). He had a story with how the spectators came to be. It was really cool and ended a bit creepily.
Something about Broadway.
âAnd, last but not least⌠thatâs such a cliche saying! Why did I even say that?â
Pirate king challenge. Theyâre offering a released UT ability for anyone that submits a video where they finish the Pirate Cave in the fastest time. They mentioned an 8 second time (probably mine), and there are even faster times out there. Zbornox is just shocked at anyone completing anything in 8 seconds (i think 4-5 seconds is the current record, actually). Luck is useful since the dungeon is randomly generated in a way that makes it easy to get to rooms that are nearby but not connected by paths.
Theyâre thinking about doing a similar Forest Maze contest, since you actually have to navigate. How quickly can you kill an Ultimate Squirrel? âIt looks like thereâs a giant Moth Queen trying to get in the room right now. Oh, thatâs just Arbiter.â
Realmcast has been fun.
Contact information:
blog.wildshadow.com (Tumblr)
forums.wildshadow.com (This place)
artists.rotmg@gmail.com (For artists to send them stuff)
facebook.com/rotmg (Facespace)
@rotmg_news (Twitter)
realmcast (Twitter)
youtube.com/realm (Youtube)
Thanks to Local Party (IGN:ThugZero) for outro music.
