Stargate Worlds (PC)

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Yesterday we brought you the first part of our monster interview with Stargate Worlds studio head Dan Elggren. In the second and final part he talks open beta plans, discusses the potential for a console version and insists his game won't end up like Tabula Rasa.

VideoGamer.com: Have you ironed out the details for the closed beta? Is there a date, number of players for example?

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DE: We have our internal date that we're targeting which is in the next couple of months. We want to open it up to probably a good couple of thousand each week and continue to add more and more people to the universe. Also within the next couple of months we want to be content complete. We've got content all in the game now. We want people to come in and give us that rough feedback so we can iterate between now and launch.

VideoGamer.com: And when are you planning to launch?

DE: Q1 of 2009.

VideoGamer.com: What about an open beta? Is that something you're going to do?

DE: Yeah. I want to do that just before launch. To me you've got to have a pretty solid product when you go into open beta.

VideoGamer.com: It can kill an MMO can't it?

DE: Absolutely! Age of Conan, I mean they had a miracle patch at launch. I tried their open beta and I was like, 'oh! What is this?!' But then they launched the game. I want to be able to go out there with open beta as like a great way to market the game and for people to play it and have a positive experience that they want to now go buy the game.

VideoGamer.com: Like a demo on Xbox Live?

DE: Exactly. And that's what people are used to right? Everybody wants to play the demo before they play the game. I appreciate that.

VideoGamer.com: You've mentioned Age of Conan not perhaps being ready when it was launched. How much of a challenge is it from a development point of view to make sure the game is ready for launch?

DE: There's a lot of different factors that go into why a product comes out on a date that you have. As I talk with my CEO and my company, we're a start up, it's ultimately up to us to make sure we launch a great game. We're there to launch a great game. For us as a start up company I don't have seven other products behind me right now that are going to be making money for this company. So if I release a stinker that's not ready it doesn't do anybody any good and my company closes down. So I want to make sure that what we launch at day one is solid, it's fun to play and it's gone through those cycles. And so if it comes down to it that we need to slip it to make sure that we have that iteration we'll do that.

VideoGamer.com: It must be great to have that freedom to know what you're putting out is a quality product?

DE: Absolutely. When you put your heart and soul into a product from day one you want to make sure it's awesome, right?

VideoGamer.com: Absolutely. So the first thing I thought of when I saw Stargate Worlds was Tabula Rasa, which is dying. Does the Tabula Rasa case concern you?

DE: There's definitely things you want to look at. The Tolkien based MMOs have done so well, is that really the only avenue that people want to go to? You can look at, is it the IP, that was an original IP? Is Stargate going to open up more doors? The IP is definitely going to help. But to me it's ultimately the game itself that needs to be awesome in order for that to really make a difference no matter what type of game product it is. Range based combat and the way that we're utilising our combat is very different in the feeling. You could just run around like a typical MMO within Tabula Rasa, and yes it's range based but it's still one on one, and I'm going to shoot you and you're going to shoot me until one of us has died. In ours we're not doing hit point battles. Your tactics and how you use the battlefield really makes a big difference. When I've had other people play it, having that light bulb going on, it's like, 'oh yeah, I get it, it is different'.

VideoGamer.com: My flat mate is a massive Stargate fan and has the entire series on DVD. Will there be Easter egg type stuff in the game that only the true Stargate hardcore will notice and appreciate?

DE: Oh yeah. Little things, like I said about the Lucian Alliance, those hardcore guys that really know that universe, will have a ball going to those places that were only implied within the series. Or even places that were destroyed at one point by a Goa'uld bombardment, like Tollana, that you can now go back and see what's happened in that world since then.

VideoGamer.com: But you can't rely on only the people who like the show to make the game a success. How will you get people who aren't into Stargate playing Stargate Worlds?

DE: It's interesting because the Stargate brand could be our biggest asset and also could be our weakest asset at the same time. I want people who have never heard of Stargate as well to come in and try this game. I think the combat system and the mini-games are going to be able to do that. Just because each player has different play styles and I think each one of our archetypes has different play styles. Our soldier, if you only want to run around and shoot and be a part of that tactics you can do that, but if you like stealth, the commando has a stealth tree you can go down and he can now go and do knife attacks and stealth throughout the universe. The archaeologist is really cool because he can actually disguise himself as a Jaffa. He can walk up to one and play a quick conversation mini-game that you can de-spawn that mob without ever firing a weapon. You get all the experience and all the loot, and now you have a completely different play style. I think it's all those different play styles that I'm hoping will attract a lot of people outside of Stargate or even in and out of the MMO market.

VideoGamer.com: Does an MMO need to be licensed nowadays in order to compete with World of Warcraft?

DE: The numbers support that for sure. A lot of the original IPs have fallen. Even the Tolkien based ones, they've tried to do a clone of World of Warcraft and they still fall by the wayside. I think people do want to escape their own universe and if you go to an alternate universe, either Stargate or Lord of the Rings, they want to be able to participate in that universe. I think that's very appealing to people. So an IP definitely does have its pluses.

VideoGamer.com: And if its a license then there's familiarity there and there's less of a barrier to entry.

DE: Exactly. The barriers to entry are some of the biggest things, right? We're hoping through our instanced gameplay for the newbie zones that we're easing people. World of Warcraft I thought did a great job with that. They brought a lot of new people that would have never touched an MMO into the market now. So if they want to come out of World of Warcraft and try us out and see what they can do, I'm hoping they'll find a new home. But time will tell.

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