The Free Zone : Can Runewaker Repeat its Success?

Runewalker, the creators of Runes of Magic, is now working with Sony Online Entertainment to bring a new game, Dragon’s Prophet, to the world. In today’s Free Zone column, we speculate as to whether or not Runewalker can ‘hit another one out of the park’. Check it out before lending your voice to the conversation in the comments.

This former status, has contributed to my interest in Dragon’s Prophet. The IP is new and thus unrelated, but it’s from the same developer, Taiwan-based Runewaker. So, I wonder if the studio can follow up with a second success. As well, there’s a personal factor. I simply happen to like the concept, which is based on taming the great creatures to accompany and aid you on your adventures. So, any title featuring this element tends to grab a bit more of my attention than average.

Read more of Richard Aihoshi’s The Free Zone: Can Runewaker Repeat its Success?
The cherry on top of all of this: Guild Wars 2 will have a much milder death penalty.Players who have recently been downed several times will take longer to revive each time. If no one revives you, you can spend a small amount of gold to come back at a waypoint. It’s as simple as that, and why not? Why should we debuff you, take away experience, or make you run around for five minutes as a ghost instead of letting you actually play the game? We couldn’t think of a reason. Well, we did actually think of a reason–it just wasn’t a good one. Death penalties make death in-game a more tense experience. It just isn’t fun. We want to get you back into the action (fun) as quickly as possible. Defeat is the penalty; we don’t have to penalize you a second time.

Everyone take a deep breath. It’s going to be OK.

Simple systems like this, along with cross-profession combos, and the dedicated healing skill slot, help free players from the MMORPG shackles, and let us break the mold even more. We’re making players more self sufficient, but are also providing appealing ways for them to effortlessly work together to create a more inspired moment-to-moment experience. That is why Guild Wars 2 does not have a dedicated healing class.

We have lots of people in our studio that enjoyed playing monks in Guild Wars and healers in other games. We examined what it was about the healer archetypes that people really enjoyed, and we took a look at what it was about those archetypes that made the game less enjoyable. Then we created professions to appeal to those types of players.

Support players want to be able to say, “Remember that one time when I saved you from certain death?” They want to stand in the line of fire and block attacks. They want to surround their allies with a swirling dome of air that keeps enemy projectiles from passing through it. It’s not about clicking on a health bar and watching it go up, it’s about being there for your friends when they need you.