Earthrise Interview

Some more information about Earthrise comes to us via a new thirteen-question interview with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov on QJ.net.

Tabula Rasa seems to creep into most people’s minds when thinking of Earthrise. What sets you apart from other MMO games and, more importantly, what measures are you taking to avoid running into the pitfalls of other MMOs and ensure that Earthrise will indeed set a longstanding footprint in MMO history?

The sandbox nature is probably the most important aspect that defines Earthrise and sets it apart from Tabula Rasa its complex player-driven economy and conquest territories allow players and guilds to literally change the game. Support and communication are two of our strengths that plan to really excel with. A major pitfall of many MMOs, not just Tabula Rasa in particular, is that changes come (too late, too little). Instead, we plan to actively listen and work with our community prior to and after launch, and support the game with steady flow of content to keep it fresh and rich of options for all our players.

So Earthrise is going for a bit more of a sandbox approach – how will you balance this with story progression? Will players get to experience or learn the whole of Earthrise’s rich back story?

If a game is a sandbox environment, it doesn’t mean story and depth should be lacking. Earthrise will place players in a tense political situation among two powerful factions, planning to take the next logical step towards a conflict, unaware of other dangers that might be looming from the depths of the wilderness. The game storyline will offer tons of quests to the player, but it will not try to enforce PvE gameplay on the player, instead it will be one of the possible directions that a player could take once he enters the island of Enterra. He can associate with any of the Factions to seek glory and fortune, or he can remain neutral and forge his own path in the economic and political map of the game population.