GamerZines: A lot of subscription MMOs have now adopted a free-to-play model, do you ever imagine Fallen Earth doing the same and what advantages does the subscription model have?
Marie Croall, senior game designer: I think that perception is one of the hardest things to overcome when you are talking about a game going free-to-play. Justified or not, it’s out there that perhaps the quality of a free-to-play game is lacking, or that the community has deteriorated. Once again I have to preface this with "justified or not," but with the subscription model there is the feeling that the game is "worth paying for," that can act as a subconscious upgrade. You can see a bit of an elitist attitude with players, the ones who claim that they would never play a free-to-play game, and I think that’s unfortunate. I don’t see Fallen Earth going free-to-play, but I think there are a lot of games out there that have raised the bar for games that do opt for that financial model.
GZ: The Fallen Earth team seems very closely knit, how have the recent lay-offs impacted the MMO’s development?
MC: I’m very lucky to work in the environment I do with the people that are here. It is a close group and that’s good to see. It could have easily gone the other way. When things are bad at a company, for any reason, the atmosphere can get toxic. The devs here chose to go a different way with that and created something very cool and unique. As far as development goes, everyone has a very well defined sense of purpose. We all know that this is business and at the end of the day, we’re professionals. Obscene, trash-talking, prank-playing professionals, but professionals nonetheless. The short answer is everyone here is twice as committed to being here, making a bad-ass game and having a good time doing it as they were before.
GZ: MMO development is a very iterative process, what do you think Fallen Earth does well and where do you think the game can be fundamentally improved?
MC: I think we can fundamentally improve our iterative process. We need to be more critical of the systems we put out and create enough flexibility in the schedule for revisions on those launched systems. There’s a lot Fallen Earth does right. We have an amazing crafting system and a pretty open-ended classless advancement system.
GZ: Operation Combat was the last major expansion pack for Fallen Earth, are there any more on the way and when can fans expect them?
MC: Our first major expansion was actually the Blood Sports expansion in May. We will be releasing Alpha County, the first major part of Sector 4, in the first part of next year.
GZ: Thanks for your time Marie and we hope all of the Fallen Earth team has a great holiday break.
Tags: Fallen Earth
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