Trials of Ascension MMORPG Interview

RPGDot set up an interview with Don Danielson, Shadowpool Studios’ CEO and founder, about the structure and design ideas of this MMORPG in early development. A dabble:

Q: Although I personally like the ‘no tells’ thing, it has been pointed out by my readers that most of the reason people stay in a game for years is the comaraderie they build up with other players. From your FAQ: “When you logon, you will learn to check the tavern first and if they want you to catch up with them, there is plenty of in game methods for them to notify you of their whereabouts.” Can you describe a couple of these methods?

A: Since day one of design, we have always wanted to encourage and give the players means to create not only a sense of community, but a localized and very centralized one. Without /tells players will eventually settle in on local “meeting places” such as a tavern, small clearing in the forest or a temple. Here they will have tools to get and retrieve the latest news of the area and many other options. There are also more direct methods of communicating that we will not comment on, but needless to say that they will all be in-game methods and nothing that takes away from the immersion of the game.