Interview: Cryptic Studios Head Talks New Neverwinter, Why MMOs Kind of Suck

Posted 09/23/2010 at 7:29pm | by Nathan Grayson

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On the surface, assuming the role of, say, a space captain, spell-slinging badass, or superhero who sees lasers and breathes blizzards sounds like just about the greatest thing ever. And yet, there is a videogame genre that basically says, “Ok, let's take those fantasies, grind them up, and sprinkle them in a blender with heaping helpings of boring.” It's the MMORPG, and Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert – a man who's been behind the scenes on games like City of Heroes, Star Trek Online, and Champions Online –  has had just about enough of it.

His solution? Neverwinter. Described as a “co-op RPG,” it aims to reach a hand inside that blender and pluck out the boredom while leaving behind the good stuff. And, we suppose, keep both its hands. Difficult, in this case, doesn't even begin to describe it.

So, how's it gonna work? Read all about it – straight from Emmert himself – after the break.

Maximum PC: So, to start off, how's Neverwinter work, exactly? Is it an MMO? Is it a smaller-scale type of thing? Some sort of middle ground between the two?

Jack Emmert: Imagine Borderlands. Imagine Borderlands with ongoing monthly content, where players can generate missions and quests for each other with a terrific toolset. And Cryptic will be supporting it just like we have all of our persistent games.

It's not an MMO in the sense that there aren't zones with hundreds-and-hundreds of people. You are not fighting for spawns. There's a very strong storyline throughout the game. So it's more of a story-based game closer to things like Dragon Age or Oblivion, which we really try to follow.

If it's not quite an MMO, then why require players to play on your persistent servers and things like that? Why not just let them run their own games? What sort of benefits will players see from this system?

Because playing with other people is just fun. It's really that simple. In that, it shares what you'd find in a common MMO. The difference is, the zone is for a few score people; it's not for hundreds of people. You won't be getting missions to kill ten orcs or collect five whatevers. It's very much a story-based RPG.

So this isn't just some half-baked quest text that everyone will mash past in their frenzied rush to collect more vulture gizzards? Are we looking at actual well-developed characters, dialog trees, and the like?

Yep! I've been playing it today! [Laughs]. Most certainly. Dialog trees, voice-acting, cut-scenes – all of the things that you would expect in a traditional RPG.

How's the mission and quest line creation fit into that? Can players expand on existing plot lines within the game? Are the tools similar to those seen in the Neverwinter Nights games from BioWare and Obsidian?

Certainly, the main storyline would be like that. However, the difference would be that players can sort of find various hooks throughout our game to connect their user-generated content. They don't need to, but that's an option.