Chapter 10: Chapter 10

I sat in my chair at the head of the table as my eyes were glued to the television screen. I knew this was bound to happen, but man it was another thing to see it happen live.

"The popular game called World of Warcraft has gained the attention of more than five million players. Our sources say that there are people playing this game for an unhealthy amount of time a day…"

It was now December 20th of 2004, and World of Warcraft has been released for a few months now. It's popularity skyrocketed and the way people knew of MMORPG’s was changing.

"Have you tried the game Alex?" Amy asked me from her seat. She was one of the few people I hired to work with my on my game. She just graduated this year but was already making more than others the same age as her.

She was 25 years old and just moved into the city where our company headquarters would eventually be located. Her and the other three from the university seemed to have bonded after being hired by me.

"No, I'm not that interested in it. I'm more focused on the world we are creating." I replied to her as I lowered the volume down.

"I agree, the concept you've come up with is amazing. I've never heard anything like it before, it has real potential." Johnathan said as he looked away from the television.

He was older than most of my employees but he had experience they did not. He already worked on a few video games that were decently successful. Although this was his first MMORPG he liked the idea I pitched.

"It's ok, I'm just trying to push the bounds of what we know about gaming. How is the story coming along?" 

"It's a slow process, and Artur is incredible. I swear his creativity is out of this world. When you said you wanted to create three regions on one continent and have them all vying for supremacy I would have given you just that. Instead, Artur took your idea and twisted it in a way I never thought imaginable." Johnathan answered.

"Yeah, I was kind of shocked when he reached out to me. I told him my idea and he gave me a rough draft a week later. This is his first MMORPG as well, and although he is a bit unknown his talent is going to stir up the gaming world." I said.

"Isn't he off today?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, he's spending time with his family. He should return in a few days. How are you faring with the character designs?" I asked her.

Amy showed me a sketch of a short woman wearing a tight fitted black shirt that showed off her tattoos on her arm. She had two curved daggers in her arms but the lower body was not finished yet.

"I'm still coming up with designs for Vivan. She's supposed to be the leader of the Phantom Lineage, so I'm trying to bring forth the essence of a deadly assassin. But, there's just so many ways I could do it."

"Yes, but she's not the only assassin. She comes from a long line of assassins, with each branch of their clan having a speciality. I liked the sketch you did for Yamato, his design fits his character. A high mobility assassin that ends the fight in one move. He looks the part, Vivian is more about disrupting and confusing her enemies. So while her attack power is not as high as his, she makes up for it with a more tactical approach. So just design her like that?" I offered my suggestion to Amy.

She was the lead artist for all the key characters in the game. The Phantom Lineage were a league of assassins that were not aligned to any of the three factions. They were a fourth faction that could be found in any of the three kingdoms. Although finding them could he considered difficult.

"Yeah, I could do that, but appearances matter. I'll probably finish this one here then start working on another one. Remember, it took me two weeks before I finally settled on Yamato's look."

"Yeah, and we were stuck waiting before we could proceed with the story. Luckily Vivan is the last major character from that faction and their storyline is mostly complete." Jonathan said.

"Not really. Don't forget that the future of the story is unknown right now, after the main plot is done for each faction we need to do all the side storylines. A few of them will hint at the future region that won't be released until the next expansion." I spoke up.

"It's interesting, I'll give you that. It feels like a single player game, but in a world with a massive amount of players. You even asked Artur to have an end in mind for the first arc as you call it."

I laughed a little. That was indeed the case. The game we were creating was an MMORPG but I wanted it to feel as if the character a player created was a part of the world. Just like in single player games. Depending on what faction you aligned yourself with, you'd proceed down a different storyline. All of them lead to the same dungeons, and raids but the task was altered depending on your faction. With each faction having their own styles of different classes.

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Like the Phantom Lineage was a clan of assassins. Their faction had high mobility classes that focused on offense and control. They did not have a normal tank either, their tank was a Warrior that was focused on absorbing health from the enemies they damaged. They could convert the extra health into a shield for either themselves or one of their allies. The Phantom Lineage was also the only faction that gave stealth to their classes. With each one having some variant of stealth that allowed them to escape combat for a brief moment to reposition or drop aggro.

The game consisted of three kingdoms but four factions, with each faction having the normal type of classes one could find in games. Those being a tank, warrior, assassin, ranger, mage, and finally a support type. But depending on which faction you joined, the class skills varied. Some being focused on defense, others offensive, with some having control skills.

"That's because I want the players to enjoy the story and look forward to the expansions. While the players have a lot of freedom in what they are able to do in game, I really want it to focus on player versus player battles. That would be the main focus of the game once players reach the end of the game."

"Don't you think they would get bored of fighting each other after a while?" Jonathan asked me.

"They could, but there will be different kinds of battles. In the game they can fight over territory, or enter the arena. With the freedom they have in the world they should be able to feel as if they are a resident there. Meaning if they do well then they will be rewarded with titles and granted land. Or they could rebel and try to overthrow the lords. That's not what I want to drive our game though. The main selling point will be a special type of battlefield where players are put into a team of five players and fight against another team. This game mode will be team focused and where players can show off their skill. As everyone is equal level in this mode and what matters is skill, not gear. It all depends on what type of build they have, how well they know their class and the opponents class. They are to push towards the enemies base and destroy it. That's also why I asked for the classes to be so diverse."

"Wow, I honestly don't know how you come up with this stuff. Being able to test their skills against other players would already bring in a lot of players, but to have them gain territory? I don't think I heard of anything like that before. As for the last part you said, it's my first time hearing something like that. I think since that mode will have a limited amount of players and everyone is equal, it will become popular."

Johnathan was right and that's what I hoped for. I wanted to create a moba within my MMORPG that did not have set characters. The character you played was your own, but you could build it however you liked. I was still debating on if this moba should have items that can be built or if it was pure skill.

We were going to design the game in a way that it would be action combat instead of tab targeted. All of the abilities would have to be a skill shot. It was all a work in progress and we were still laying the groundwork. We were still writing the story, character backgrounds, lore, and classes. The game was a long ways from being finished and even when it was, all the classes wouldn't be released. The ones in the first four factions would, but after that the others would be added in with each expansion.

"Thanks, but I'm just thinking of the future. I'm a gamer and this is something I would want to play. Who knows, one day it could eventually become a sport where people can make money."

Jonathan laughed. "That would be a day to see. I think the hardest part would be the action combat. Most engines are used for tab target or FPS games. The ones that do allow for action combat are not that good. We'd have to create our own to implement your ideas."

"While that's true, I learned that there is a company that's developing a new engine called Unity. It's supposed to be released next year, but I managed to obtain an early version of it. While this is not the final version, I want to see if it's possible to do what I want or if some adjustments need to be made. Then we also have to get ready to move into the new place in the coming months. It's the first building to be completed and I already ordered everything we'd need to create the game."

"I can't wait to see it. At least then we'd have more space to work with." Amy who was listening the entire time spoke up.

We were currently in a small building that allowed for twenty of us to work at the same time. I was leasing the place until my building was finished so I did not buy the top of the line equipment. Instead I got what everyone needed in order to lay the foundation for the game.

"I'll miss this place, especially coming in every morning and smelling Dan's breath. He just doesn't like brushing his teeth before coming here."

"Oh screw you! I do brush my teeth, you're just smelling your own breath!" Dan was a close friend of Johnathan and the two of them liked to tease one another whenever they got the chance to.

I couldn't wait to see the finished building. Since construction began I've only been there a few times. Samantha designed the place and it did not take her long either. Only a few weeks time then I hired a construction crew and they started working on it right away. The blueprints for the studio was still unfinished but that was because she drew up two designs so far. She was working on one more and would show me all of them so I could pick whichever one suited what I was looking for.

Timeline wise I figured we would have a game that was playable within two or three years. Which was the same time it would take before I began the filming of the Dakotaverse.

I wanted to launch the game in 2008 or early 2009. While it might seem long and could be considered that, I was more interested in making sure the game was able to run with little to no bugs. The classes were balanced, and the servers were capable of sustaining a large player base.

Whatever the future holds, I just hope it came fast enough. While I could create award winning games and movies that appeared in my time, I chose not to. Not because of my moral or anything like that, I just wanted to do what I wanted. And I wanted to make films based off of books, comics, and ideas that I enjoyed. Things that did not appear in my time but could have if someone pitched the idea.

Succeed of fail, I plan on having fun doing it.

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