Talk:2018-10-31 Simurgh interview with Steven Sharif

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Simurgh: My first question is going to be what's the origin story of Ashes, like where did that come from? Because I've never-

Steven: So Ashes of Creation was a campaign that I had developed for a Pathfinder several years ago. I ran as a home brew with some of my Dungeons and Dragons Pathfinder friends. Additionally before that we did some D&D third edition with some old guildmates of mine that I used to play Lineage II and Aion with. So it's about a, I would say- let's see what year is this? Since 2018, I would say it was about 2010 or 11 when I first made an Ashes of Creation campaign. So it stems from that story. Obviously I expanded on it.

Simurgh: Right. So actually that's another question. I had one of my guildies ask you know how much of the lore was pre-planned and then how much of it actually kind of come to evolve after you decided you were going to make this game?

Steven: I would say about, of the content that will be in the MMORPG, I'd say about 80 percent of that is made for the MMORPG. 20% of which which would be the overarching storyline, the primary antagonists and protagonists, creation mythos, the religions, the nations and the context for those quests that we're creating for the MMO. The context which I would say was about 20% of content sets the stage for all the quests that we are creating. So 20% was there before moving down this [inaudible]. I had to really just jump up and create a whole bunch of storylines with Jeff's help for the players to participate in.

Simurgh: Jeff had a pretty big part in helping?

Steven: Before we really got into production Jeff did a lot of design work on the blueprint side and the engine and stuff like that. He helped me flesh out some of the storylines that were personal to the players. Not necessarily what was there for the context of the universe and bigger ideas. Those are all points that I had created from the homebrew campaigns. But he kind of took those in a way and personalized them so that it could be a quest line for people to participate in the MMO and stuff. Kind of got into the nitty gritty details of why well what is the captain of the guard in this city have to say?

Simurgh: Cool. So another question we had was how far do you plan to develop the Underrealm. This is kind of a new question we thought about recently, my brothers and I, and I actually talked about Elloa- another contact creator in the community- and we had this conversation a few weeks back and you know we talked about the Tulnar a little bit and know what mighta happened when people were left behind; because that wasn't too long after you mentioned you know what the story lore was for the BR. And we talked about the Tulnar and I kind of wondered you know are there gonna be you know like multiple levels to it? You know how far is that going to evolve and like even post-launch is that's something that maybe you're planning to evolve?

Steven: So the Tulnar society has more of a caste-like system where based on what physical features you show based on where that your ancestry lineage lie between the races that came together to make the Tulnar kind of determines your order in that caste system to degree.

So when players get to create their characters and determine whether they gonna have influences of reptilian, mammalian or humanoid that's going to kind of determine their reception from NPCs as well when they interact with those Tulnar.

So that's kind of a little bit of the history of how that society works from castes perspective, the expansiveness of the underrealm itself is quite large, it does persist across a lot of playable game areas that are above ground, so there are alternatives in the underrealm for passages.

And you know one of the one of the aspects of the lore behind the Tulnar was that you know in the pantheon of gods that exist having foretold the future through the goddess of fate to the goddess of creation these areas in the underrealm were created in a way to allow for refuge of which gods knew would be left behind that couldn't make it to Sanctus. So that was a pre thought that was there that creation gave them to facilitate that realm where refugees got seated.

Simurgh: Wow, that's awesome. Yeah that's actually much bigger answer than I expected, thanks so much. Are there any cool concepts or features to Verra that hasn't really translated well into game design, that maybe were narratively great but haven't really found their way into a design in the game space.

Steven: I can't really think of any feature and the story of Verra, the world of Verra that we haven't been able to concept and design theory. Yeah I don't think there is... Obviously aside from stories there are systems, so the systems not necessarily all derived from the story, there are basic components or systems that we know, MMO players enjoy, we enjoy, and we find a place for those within a narrative, vice-versa finding a place for systems within the narrative and applying those, those are pretty situated in the design theory.

Simurgh: So this is a definitely question I've wondered about for a while and a lot of people have too, originally game was kickstarted you know it's really about giving this viable product that you imagine and you know one of my thoughts is this is you know probably coming back to a games that I have played for a long time, for example World of Warcraft, there's the question of longevity and what are some ways that content was maybe you can share even if it's just generalized, that you maybe look to extend beyond like initial launch. We've got the nodes that's gonna keep this ever-changing world but what are some ways that you kind of foresee standing the game into as long of a lifespan as it can have.

Steven: Yeah, so I think one of the important things about longevity is answering the call of the players and a product that they want, that's the first thing. Because without a player base there's no longevity - so the first thing is making sure that we create a game, we create a game that answers the call of the players, I think we resonate fairly well, our design features and our business model for players. With that momentum and with the number of people we expect currently, we already see we have registered and pre-purchase accounts for we know that the launch is going to be considerable, and quarterly we'll have some portable updates and then monthly updates and then we [inadible]. So you know, always providing a way forward for both the story that's being told in the game, but also taking you to activity of other players within their servers specifically, taking what they do as indicator of where correction of the community wants to go from design and feature standpoint and expand. Those are important things that we need to make sure we watch and iterate on. Not just kind of take the player by the nose and turn in the direction we want. So we'll watch the activity of the players, we'll collect data on what they're doing in game, what's popular in game, and then we formulate how to expand content releases, and do so around those facts and figures.

Simurgh: That's awesome, actually leads into my next question, which is a little bit different. which is you know I know you're tricky and we are you know my brothers and I we're definitely attract to each arrays trendies and so you know one of the things that I thought to myself when I think it was it was probably a year ago during the last ice cream or you did the 24 hour thing having heroes of newerth and any civilization to invention right and yeah that was a extremely successful yeah charity event absolutely I was actually over 16,000 dollars in 24 hours John you immunity made that possible which is really you know a nice place for community to put under the belt like hey we came together for good cause before even we have a product yeah that's pretty cool yeah that was one of my that's probably one of my main points was you know when I see the guy that runs the game sits and digs in and chef dig in for 24 hours and it says a lot about oh you were at the end there he's getting a little bit delirious retired no surely yeah but um you know what I thought was a okay so my perception has multiple servers has always been awful realities of the game and so you see that a lot in Star Trek and so I thought to myself if you two really big Trekkie I wonder how much of that translates into parts of the story at all I'm curious though well interesting note the name intrepid it comes from a classic starship very classy I really liked so additionally previous companies I had some Star Trek references myself but you know the idea of parallel universes two dimensions especially with the recent launch of discovery yeah connects those dimensions together you know did it play a role in this design not really just because I mean the concept of having deep servers really is something I've always thought of I didn't like the cookie cutter type of experience right I thought that server choice should never communities that you play with them should have dictating over Susak should dictate the narrative that you're just your server tells or a historian that it tells those those things I always felt there missing from some game design stuff and I think that the nodes facilitate a very healthy environment where players can exercise their control over their environment and they can see real differences between what the decisions they've made as a community versus the decisions that I certainly has made and they can experience what those decisions yield and content no you get the free traditional PV right t v-- p RP on a railroad yeah to destination right and endgame is the gear come on yeah I really just kind of lead you along and path and that's that I think that's the thing about games like wow unfortunately just really kill me is it's like the grind is so it's the same thing over and over and and so for me you know we the the key component to the game is changed much like how here in the world yeah I think that's a lot of really great conversation with other people in the community it's always kind of tied back into that the culture of the server is gonna really dictate what what the future of the server and what the societies and all matter you look like so that's really it's really awesome yeah that's a that's that's really kind of rounding off my my questions I know I don't take up too much of your time you guys busy schedule as it is but yeah with that being said I do appreciate your time absolutely everybody else is why I'm not doing any content this week or streaming you'll see me next week but I got this for you so you're welcome and it's been really great thing absolutely I don't appreciate take care guys you