Chapter 22: Chapter 22

"How much of the game is left to be finished?" I asked Julien as we sat down in my office.

"We are fully finished with the Phantom Lineage classes, their NPCs, and have finished the main city along with some of the sub-regions. We are done with both the main story and side missions in all of those zones. The same can be said for the Kingdom of Heaven. We are making great progress, but we won't be able to have all the features upon release. I think we would have fifty percent of it done by then, to make sure that everything works as intended." Julien answered me.

This was a fairly decent update considering it was only April 7th of 2007. We've been working on the game since 2004, but then again I was not sure if this was fast or slow. Most of the game developers told me it was fast, but that was due to the size of the map being a bit smaller than normal. I thought this to be acceptable considering the game would only have forty levels upon release.

"What is being prioritized?"

"The profession system is taking up a lot of our time. There's a little over ten professions a player can choose from, and developing the systems for each of them is a lot of work. Most of those classes are unquie and having to figure out a way to implement their gameplay into the game was difficult. We are about seventy percent finished with that."

I said nothing on that point, as I figured it would be the most difficult task for them to finish. Which is why I wanted it out of the way at the start along with the normal classes. The systems after that should be easier to implement.

"Besides that, the others are easy to do but just need time. Mostly for bug checking. But, I expect achievements, titles, reputation, arena, guild war, and the bounty systems all to be functional by release. If we push it, we could finish either that team-based pvp game mode you want, you called it a moba? Or, castle sieges."

"Delay the castle siege gameplay. No point in having that out at the start. I'd rather have that along with player housing come out in the same patch." I said before I looked over at Harold who was also in the room with us. "How is the engine coming along?"

"I know I was against the extra hands at the start, but everyone is working together well so we should have everything ready by March of next year. Don't worry, all the plug-ins and tools we've developed so far can be used for this engine as well."

"Great! Will be have a working demo by August?" I asked Julien.

"We can, but why?" Julien asked me.

"We were invited to PAX this year to talk about our single-player game. I thought this would be a great place to reveal our project."

Julien was silent for a second, then he looked at me. "If we are doing that, I suggest we have an alpha test beforehand. We can show off either one of those two regions I mentioned or even both. But it would be a good idea to get a fresh pair of eyes to review what we have so far. We all think it's amazing, but the ones that will be playing it the most will be the gamers." Julien told me.

"I agree. YouTube's gaming streams have exploded in popularity since your release of live streaming and introducing categories. We can find a few notable streamers and bring them here to test it out."

Around three weeks ago YouTube had a major update. It launched the ability to go live so others could watch what you were doing as it was happening. This included gaming, just chatting, singing and other types of categories. It was limited in number, as I wanted to gauge the reaction of the public. But so far it was doing better than ok.

"Honestly I was already thinking of doing that. There are a few popular WoW streamers I planned on inviting, along with those who stream Perfect World and Lineage 2."

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"You should add Eric to that list, he's been grinding away playing the Burning Crusade expansion." Julien said with a slight chuckle.

"Blizzard has been doing exceptional. Are we positive that we should make this free to play? We would make more that way." Harold asked.

I shook my head. Subscription models were ok, but only to a certain extent. The amount of people that would pay a fee on a monthly basis was limited. Not to mention there was no game out at this time that dominated the free to play market.

"We'll make a ton from our marketplace. This will give us access to a lot more players, and since the cash shop will be purely cosmetic it would be appealing." I told him.

"I'm just a bit skeptical about the market. We are allowing the players to trade with their own money as an option. This is unheard of." 

I nodded. This was true, but in my time this real money trade type of system was starting to emerge in all kinds of MMORPG’S. Free players could farm to sell gold, and items for premium currency. In return they could use that currency to buy the items they needed or choose to cash out. Giving them seventy percent of how much of the currency they had in actual cash.

The players determined the market, and prices fluctuated all the time

"It will work. A large portion of the game is influenced by the players actions. Professions are needed in order to have the best items, but in return players are needed to fight and gather the materials needed. Since no player can acquire every single material they need, trading is required. That's where the merchants come in. Essentially everyone has a role to play and they should keep one another in check. Besdies,, marketplaces only sell to those in the region. Auctions sell to all those in the kingdom. While the World Trade Center allows players to put anything on the market and be able to be brought by others from the other factions and regions." I explained.

This part wasn't needed since they understood what these systems did. I just wanted to reassure them that it would work out.

The marketplaces could only be used by players within that region. It was open daily, but the two auction systems were only available during select days.

"If you think so, then alright. Will we show this to the Alpha testers?" Julien asked.

That was a good question. On one hand I did want to show that system off, but on the other I kind of wanted it to be a surprise.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked.

"It would be better to allow them to test the system out and see their thoughts on the feature. We are already set to release it and it is currently stable, so why not?"

I glanced at Harold and he nodded his head. "Then it's decided. I'll find twenty streamers to invite to test the game out. Then we will focus on our panel at Pax in August."

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