RuneScape/MechScape Interview

CasualGaming.biz recently sat down with Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard and grilled him about their fantasy MMORPG RuneScape and their upcoming sci-fi MMORPG MechScape.

CG.biz: You’ve talked about Mechscape being something deeper than Runescape, but you’ve also talked about a lack of XP. Is this a game for die-hard MMO fans, or does it have something to offer newcomers?

HO: Definitely, if you look at the space we’re trying to get into, the sci-fi space, back in the day especially when we started the project there were no a single sci-fi game that was successful. We have Star Wars Galaxy, which struggled a bit, and we had Eve, which is a fantastic project, but very hardcore. At that time there wasn’t a title that really broke in the sci-fi genre, like Runescape did with the fantasy genre. That was our first stepping-stone.

The second one was realising why, at that point, sci-fi didn’t work with MMOs, because it worked with every other game but not with MMOs. We identified a few things that MMOs in the sci-fi space were getting wrong. They were dressing fantasy mechanics as sci-fi, but there was no difference in handling a sword or handling a Light Sabre or handling a Blaster. It was the same mechanic; you have to shoot the blaster several times to grind XP.

If you look at single player sci-fi games like Masters of Orion and Starcraft, you must look at how they engage with the players its all technology driven. It’s not about the players and it’s not about the characters. It’s about what they can make and what they can use, so gadgets and technology and that sought of stuff. It’s not about grinding; it’s about research. Its not about accumulating stuff but about building stuff in the way that you want them to be built, so you can develop your on strategy in combat in interaction, and in socialising with other players.