| Q&A with Sean Dugan |
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Stargate Worlds, developed by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, is based on the popular Stargate franchise. The game is one of the few high-profile science-fiction MMOs currently in development and will be a fresh breath of air for players with its modern ranged combat and its diverse alien worlds. We at MMOZone thought it would be interesting to check up on a more specific aspect of the game: the content. So we posed some questions to CME's Lead Content Designer, Sean Dugan, asking him about the storyline, endgame and other things players will be concerned with while leveling up their characters in Stargate Worlds.
Sean Dugan: I’m the content lead and head writer for Stargate worlds. I oversee the playable content in Stargate Worlds and work closely with our creative director and story editor in crafting our storyline. If you love our story, I wrote the whole thing – if you hate it, it’s all my story editor’s fault. MMOZone: How close do you work together with the other departments such as Art, World and Systems? Sean: Closely. Very closely. Perhaps too closely? Hey, Howard, can you please get off my lap? MMOZone: Will each archetype have its own unique storyline, or will the storylines somehow come together at certain points to allow for a shared common experience with other archetypes? Sean: It’s hard to imagine a storyline that is seen exactly the same way by a Goa’uld, a human and an Asgard – that’s more like the setup to a bad-joke. So what we’ve done is craft a series of race-specific storylines which all intersect with a larger-scale storyline that spans the galaxy. This way, all archetypes have their own agenda and story but they all meaningfully interact. One of the really fun things that happens when you set up this style of story with different points of view on the same events is that you can see things from different angles and learn new things you never knew when you play a different archetypes. That ticking bomb you need to defuse as an SGC commando – it was actually set up by a Goa’uld player on the other side! We’ve spent a lot of effort developing ways for the players to have meaningful relationships with the show characters but not be overshadowed by them. For our game, the players are the stars of the show – but expect a lot of guest appearances by notable names. Prominent – and sometimes not so prominent – show characters will appear as leaders of different factions, mission givers as well as NPCs you can go on missions with.
"Players will get the chance to battle some old and familiar foes as well as facing entirely new enemies. They’ll get the chance to re-visit long forgotten allies. They’ll see places hinted at in the show but never actually seen. They’ll get the chance to explore Ancient cities devastated by the plague, witness the formation of the Lucian alliance and help spur the economy on Hebridan."
Sean: Absolutely: “when the time comes – cut the green wire. I said the GRE-- . . .” So with Stargate Worlds, we’ve embraced all the story elements that made the show cool for more than a decade and at the same time tried to expand on them. Players will get the chance to battle some old and familiar foes as well as facing entirely new enemies. They’ll get the chance to re-visit long forgotten allies. They’ll see places hinted at in the show but never actually seen. They’ll get the chance to explore Ancient cities devastated by the plague, witness the formation of the Lucian alliance and help spur the economy on Hebridan. We’re planning a significant end-game which will engage players for a considerable time and directly tie-in to our storyline. We’ll have player acquiring phat lootz as well as gaining faction, badges and generally having a blast.
"For a while we discussed requiring players to be able to read Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs but some nay-sayers thought it was too high a bar to ask everyone to learn a dead language to play our game. Instead, we’ve given Archeologist players the ability to play mini-games to translate and decipher alien languages which will allow them to read texts and use certain artifacts."
Sean: We are a story driven game and to tell a good story we have to create some structure. So we have an over-arching plotline with moments where players can make key choices about how they relate to the plotline. Metaphorically, it’s like you cannot change whether Hitler invades Poland but you can decide if you support the move or not. There are also a lot of different smaller stories told in our game. Beyond that, we’re planning layers of gameplay for the player to explore on their own which we hope will provide for some interesting emergent behavior. MMOZone: Will players have some kind of influence on the game world, such as contested worlds which could be conquered by one of the playable factions? Sean: We aren’t currently planning contested worlds but we do want to have objectives that players can fight over. While that won’t be the focus of our game at launch we have plans underway for how this will play a major role in our post-launch content. And again, because of how we approach everything, the gameplay element – fighting for control over contested spaces – will be directly tied into the story occurring. MMOZone: How will you keep this game interesting for the playerbase for the years after launch? Sean: What we have at launch is analogous to Season 1 of a TV series. We have plans for many more seasons. Hopefully, more than SG-1 had even! Our plans for post-launch content and the gameplay systems associated are already under way. Hey, if I had a wacky crazy dream, it would be to find a way to push a few new missions to players every week– but don’t quote me on that! MMOZone: Raph Koster posted an entry on his weblog in 2006 with great examples of making NPCs something MORE than just random quest dispensers. Certainly, most of these examples are things that we probably won't see for some time in a MMOG, at least not all of them together. Could you tell us if there are any plans to make NPCs in Stargate Worlds more immersive? Sean: For us, building a relationship with characters in an immersive world is very important. You can’t turn O’Neill or Daniel Jackson into an automated quest dispenser. We’re trying to build ways for players to really experience the humor and drama with the Stargate characters. For our game, the idea of “faction” is more related to your standing with NPCs. As you do things in the universe, you’ll build a relationship with the show characters and get benefits from it. That might be access to better gear – or it may just be that O’Neill will lend you his favorite fishing pole! MMOZone: One of Stargate Command’s tasks is getting new technology from alien worlds, and with SGW being a MMO there’s bound to be some kind of trading system / player economy. Will trading / crafting play a big part in the game? Sean: Yes, the acquisition of technologies is a key part of our game. Players will not only be able to acquire advanced technologies they can also work to reverse engineer them into new devices. And as Vala Mal Doran well knows, there’s a very robust galactic market for cool alien technologies. MMOZone: In many MMOs the different playable races each have their own language besides a universal language. An example situation: if a Goa’uld talks in its species language only other Goa’uld players would be able to read that text (though one exception could be the human Archeologist?). This always makes for an interesting addition to the game, especially for role-players. Will SGW have something like this? Sean: Well, for a while we discussed requiring players to be able to read Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs but some nay-sayers thought it was too high a bar to ask everyone to learn a dead language to play our game. Instead, we’ve given Archeologist players the ability to play mini-games to translate and decipher alien languages which will allow them to read texts and use certain artifacts. Our intention is make sure the game delivers that feeling of the Archeologist being an expert linguist and make sure that it is meaningful in game. We want to re-create that great feeling where you have a scientist and an archeologist trying to decipher some incomprehensible alien whatzzit while a soldier and Jaffa warrior hold off hordes of ferocious enemies. MMOZone: Finally, what other non-combat content will the game have? Sean: For us, mini-games are a really big part of our non-combat gameplay. It’s our intention that players can level their character through playing mini-games. It’s our intention that players can hang out, socialize and play mini-games. It’s our intention that players can go on adventures and meaningful participate through just playing mini-games. Combat is a core part of our game – even Daniel carries a P-90 – but we’re absolutely providing ways to play SGW without getting into a fight.
For more information on Stargate Worlds, please visit StargateWorlds.com or take a look at our community site at StargateWorld.nl! Questions by Genocide and the lovely MMOZone content crew. |
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