Evening Q&As - Blue's News Comments

Evening Q&As
[Jun 13, 2005, 10:29 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments

Battlefield 2
Creating the High-Tech Audio of Battlefield 2 on SoundBlaster.com discusses the audio in the military shooter sequel with Jonas Kjellström and Henrik Andersson of DICE: "Thank you! We set out to make sound effects for Battlefield 2 that would sound like the best "Hollywood" movie. We mixed real-world recordings that we recorded ourselves with some of the best sound effect libraries and ended up with what we think is the best sounding fps game ever. When you fire a weapon or when you reload it, it should feel like the real thing, or when a 30 ton (8,000 pounds) F-15 flies over your head it should sound like the real deal."
Blizzard
Exploring the Sounds of World of Warcraft on SoundBlaster.com is a Q&A with Shane Dabiri of Blizzard about the audio in World of Warcraft. Also, No calm in the Blizzard on Eurogamer talks with Paul Sams of Blizzard about Starcraft Ghost and Word of Warcraft: "I think we've done a relatively good job. We want to do better than we have; we have plans and aspirations and goals to be much better than we already are. I think that we've done a pretty decent job, but I would also say that Blizzard has the desire to be the best in class in the service that we provide and the overall experience. I think we've created a great game, one that personally I like playing better than the other MMORPGs out there, but from a service perspective we have more work to do and I think that we'll get there. It's a commitment from our management that we intend on providing best of class service as well. It's just something that's taking a bit more time than we anticipated because... Well, trying to service that many people is hard!"
Juiced
The Juice on Juiced on Eurogamer is a Q&A with Don Whiteford of Juice Games about Juiced, their racing game: "Juiced has its physics firmly in the simulation camp, and it's more of a pure racing game than either of the other two. It also features an innovative career mode that lets the player decide the tactics and strategy for playing the game, crew racing, full damage on licensed cars, pink slip racing on and offline, betting and more advanced driver AI. I could go on but at the end of the day the acid test is in the playing and the best word I have used to describe it is 'addictive'. Juiced is not a product you can get through on a weekend rental!"
Hero's Journey
RPG Vault's Hero's Journey Q&A, Part 2 chats up David Whatley and Melissa Meyer of Simutronics about their upcoming MMORPG: "We will, of course, provide all the basics you would expect in an online game, and much more. Community building is more than just offering a forum, or providing guild mechanics. Gameplay and game mechanics must encourage and support the ability to build and maintain relationships. Game design should be a web of inter-dependencies and interactions with other players - without placing a stranglehold on the game that prevents or discourages solo play, of course. Players need to feel encouraged to build networks without feeling inconvenienced, and they need to have the tools and the power to feel like they have an impact on the development and advancement of the communities they are building. Community building is at the forefront of our considerations when designing any aspect of Hero's Journey, because that's what MMORPGs are really supposed to be about."
Seed
MMORPG.COM's Seed Q&A discusses Runestone's upcoming MMORPG with Morten Juul: "The AI-system is superb in two ways. First, it gives the NPC's personality. Every NPC has goals, motivations, moods, duties, friends etc. and will be influences by what she is told and what she experiences. A NPC does not stand around waiting for players to talk to her, but moves about doing stuff and talking to players or other NPC's according to her personality. Secondly, the AI allows for a limited free form dialogue between players and NPC's. It requires sentences to be constructed in a certain way but you are not limited to certain subjects. And again a NPC will react to your sayings according to its personality."
Panzer Campaigns France '40
The Panzer Campaigns France '40 Q&A on Strategy Informer talks with HPS Simulations about their World War II wargame: "I think we have a very accurate map of the Battlefield. We create our game maps by scanning in a period Topographic map of an appropriate scale and then load this huge image file into a proprietary mapping tool and then we superimpose a hexagon grid with one hex to 1 km scale. Then we paint in the details one hex at a time making four passes over the entire map. Once for Water, then topography (contoured ground elevation), then culture, including roads, towns woods swamps, and finally Labels."