PAX Interview with Harry "Floon Beetle" Teasley

he following is a transcription of the interview I performed with Harry Teasley on August 26, 2005. The location was the Turbine PAX party at the Double Tree Hotel in Seattle, Washington.

Every word has been transcribed from a video recording of the interview and it is my intention to accurately represent the views of the person being interviewed. Any change in the sentence structure, including paraphrasing portions of the response, have been reviewed and approved by the interviewee and are used for the purpose of better communicating the thought intended by the interviewee as perceived by myself, the interviewer. -kinudig



LotRO LQGaming: How long has Turbine been working on LOTRO and how far along are you in development right now as of August, 2005?

Harry "Floon Beetle" Teasley: Let's see. I guess we've been working on it for about two and a half years now; how far along are we in the development? We're releasing next year, that's all we're saying about it right now.

LQGaming: What exactly does Beta Testing mean to you as a company?

Floon Beetle: Well, it's difficult for me to speak for Turbine.

LQGaming: Then what does it mean to you personally?

Floon Beetle: As far as I'm concerned, Beta Testing should mean polishing the rough edges of the product and fixing bugs. At the point of Beta Testing one would hope that balance issues are worked out, that major game-system issues are worked out, prior to going into Beta. One hopes the Beta doesn't see changes of that magnitude. However, if it's obvious that large magnitude changes are necessary, then one hopes we have the resources and the time to carry them out before ship.

LQGaming: If the purpose of Beta Testing is to find bugs, why do you think so many MMOGs still have major quirks at the time of release?

Floon Beetle: Basically because it's impossible to simulate the condition of tens of thousands of players hammering on a server all at once. That is absolutely impossible to simulate with a small population of players. And given the fact that 25 thousand players can put in several man-years worth of play time every day, then there's just no way that small populations of testers can put that amount of time in, so very, very frequently there are issues that get encountered only at the scale of release.

LQGaming: How do you feel about the practice some companies have in pushing patches that malign more than they correct?

Floon Beetle: Well that seems kind of like a leading question that seems entirely subjective - I don't think I'd be comfortable answering that.

LQGaming: How have you handled game design that will offer excitement for new players as well as offer challenges to higher level players who have obviously been playing for some time?

Floon Beetle: What LOTRO is trying to do is attract both casual players as well as experienced MMO players. With casual players we feel in providing a good tutorial experience, a good newbie experience that is free from a lot of issues like camping and griefing and things like that, that helps people get a good vision of the game and leads them into the game story. And we have some pretty sophisticated combat systems and general world interaction systems that feel very good and that experienced MMO players may not have seen before. So building a multilayered game is really the objective, so that casual players can enjoy the simple aspects of the game, but the whole experience is rich enough for folks that have played a lot of MMOs.

LQGaming: Is Turbine thinking about employing a customizable User Interface at all?

Floon Beetle: We thought about it. I feel like the best strategy for the UI is to design a UI that is purposed for our game rather than to use a general UI that users can customize. But that being said, it's something that is under consideration.

LQGaming: Has Turbine talked about the inclusion of any kind of travel on water?

Floon Beetle: I don't think we have an answer to that right now.

LQGaming: How will LOTRO encourage player-to-player interaction?

Floon Beetle: By being Massively Multi-player, that's an encouragement right there. In terms of what, I mean, are you talking about grouping or are you talking about just general socializing?

LQGaming: Sure, we can take the question as it pertains to grouping.

Floon Beetle: Well, we've got friends lists and we've got kinships and we've got lots of customizable chat filtering, we have sort of an in-game IM chat format for private messaging and such. So there's a lot of stuff to help facilitate communication. There's a lot of emotes for players so there's a lot of opportunity for players to interact in that context. As far as grouping we've got the conjunction mechanic for combat which we hope makes group combat very interesting in providing a mechanic that you can't get during solo combat.

LQGaming: Do you feel it's proper to force group combat?

Floon Beetle: Well, no, nobody feels like its proper to force grouping, but encouraging grouping is something we want to do because when you're grouping with people you're meeting people and developing your social network for the game which is going to make the game more rewarding. So, like I say, the conjunction mechanic is going to encourage grouping by providing players with extra options during combat that get to a pretty sophisticated level. But it is certainly by no means necessary.

LQGaming: Many MMOGs use character models sporting near-perfect physique and little in the way of variety. What is Turbine's approach to LOTRO in this regard?

Floon Beetle: We're going to be providing a number of different character options. If you look at the characters used in the demo and screen shots so far, you'll see that the game is not full of 'Conans' running around.

LQGaming: Character customization can also be a big draw to prospective buyers on release day, but as it is also very resource-heavy. What do you think is a good balance between character customization options and not drawing on too many resources?

Floon Beetle: Well, characters are just resource intensive no matter what. Everyone wants to feel unique: that's just part of being in an MMO. As a player, you want to feel like you can make your character an individual, and no other character is going to be exactly like yours. We feel like we need to provide the player with enough options to give the players that kind of feeling with out devoting a third of the project's effort to character customization. It's not something that is easily measured in answering a question about it; we are trying to strike a balance.

LQGaming: Will characters need to eat and drink or will it be optional?

Floon Beetle: At the moment, it's optional.

LQGaming: Will there be different pathways to improve my character?

Floon Beetle: In what sense?

LQGaming: Will there be choices between being a combat achiever and being an achiever through other means?

Floon Beetle: There are going to be some non-combat systems in the game and we're not talking about that right now, but the main combat ladder advancement is advanced through combat, so level is what generally represents combat effectiveness. There will be other non-combat systems that are distinct from the combat achievement system.

LQGaming: How much should a solo player be able to affect the world of Middle-earth, and how should this change if they team up in groups?

Floon Beetle: That's sort of difficult to answer because there is going to be plenty of solo adventuring capability and there will be plenty of group-based capability. I think that by the time you reach the high end of the game its going to be very difficult to provide challenges that are solo-able given that you reach a point where a challenge that is difficult while solo becomes trivial for a group at that level, so from this point on, I think grouping is going to be pretty advisable.

LQGaming: How big of an effect will heritage have on the development of our character?

Floon Beetle: Again, I would not be the best person to answer that.

LQGaming: Will each race have different starting stats?

Floon Beetle: Yes, different races will have different starting stats and different traits.

LQGaming: Will every race be able to play every class?

Floon Beetle: I think that is unlikely. Hobbits are very un-magical, whereas Elves can arguably be considered magical. So that right there is sort of a clue to think about there being some very strong distinctions between the races.

LQGaming: Will hybrids classes be available?

Floon Beetle: No, there are no multi-classes. If you are thinking in the context of D&D classes, then there are classes in LOTRO that might be best described as multi-class if they were in a different game, but no, in LOTRO you are considered one class.

LQGaming: Are you talking about crafting at all?

Floon Beetle: No, we are not talking about crafting at all.

LQGaming: Will there be a skill-cap?

Floon Beetle: I don't know anything about the skill caps.

LQGaming: Has Turbine talked about including pets in the game?

Floon Beetle: Yes, we have talked about pets in the game.

LQGaming: Will players be able to repeat quests?

Floon Beetle: Repeatable quests. that's interesting. We certainly have the capability to include repeatable quests, but repeatable quests are often linked to grinding. So there's a certain question of whether or not to include repeatable quests, but I am not a quest designer so I don't know exactly what the plan is as far as implementing quests in the game.

LQGaming: How does the LOTRO development team feel about a player-driven economy?

Floon Beetle: Well, player-driven economies is almost asking about crafting again, which we are not talking about yet. It's a very complex topic.

LQGaming: Has the development team talked about item decay?

Floon Beetle: We definitely will have item wear.

LQGaming: Will there be in-game money-sinks?

Floon Beetle: Money-sinks tend to be a good thing to keep the economy vital. So, in general it's a good game design concept, but I'm not the right person to talk about it in detail.

LQGaming: Will there be rare and/or epic items?

Floon Beetle: We have the capability to do that. There will certainly be rare items.

LQGaming: Are players going to be able to name certain possessions such as pets or weapons, etc.?

Floon Beetle: It's been discussed, but I don't know what the status is at the moment.

LQGaming: How are you going to deal with griefing in general?

Floon Beetle: We try to discourage it. It's a very difficult thing to try to design systems around. I was just reading today how Battle Field 2 has an anti-team killing mechanic of voting down team killers so that when too many team-kill votes are received a player gets kicked off the server. But now people are griefing by suiciding on people, thereby getting ordinary players that aren't trying to team-kill kicked off their servers. So you can see actually how an anti-griefing system can be turned on those it is trying to protect.

Basically we have a number of incentives in place to try to keep this to a minimum, and to try to reduce the reward of griefing, and certainly if someone is having a serious problem, customer service can be contacted.

LQGaming: What are your thoughts on graphical superiority vs. system requirements?

Floon Beetle: Well the Turbine engine is very scaleable, so it performs very well on a wide variety of systems. The highest-end graphic setting of the game taxes the best of the current systems right now, but the game is very much playable on a large range of machines right now. MMOs need to be playable on a wide variety of systems and the Turbine engine is very good at that.

LQGaming: Do you think that power players and casual players should yield the same rewards?

Floon Beetle: Well, that's hard to say. Basically an MMO is rewarding accomplishment, and someone that accomplishes more would generally expect a compensatory reward for the amount of effort they are putting in. At the same time it is a real problem where you've got people that get to play 4 hours a week versus people that play 40 hours a week. Designing a game that is going to be appealing to the both of them is the real issue. Again it's one of those things that we are really aware of and we are constantly trying to tweak that game to provide the best balance so that everyone is having a good time.

LQGaming: Is it possible to have compelling rewards other than loot?

Floon Beetle: LOTRO is trying to provide an excellent story; the epic story as it gets revealed over the course of the character's life-time as you play thru the story, we feel, is going to be compelling game play. In my experience the best reward that a game can give you is more ability to continue playing the game: more decisions to make, more complexity, more fun to be had, more strategy. And we are trying to give you that through the epic story and through the things throughout the game that you already liked from the beginning.

LQGaming: What do you think of the trend of offering in-game rewards for pre-ordering the game?

Floon Beetle: So far the trend has been for largely non-functional rewards; rewards that don't impact game play, and I think that's fine. When it comes to offering something that has tangible game play benefit then you are basically opening the door to paying for power, and I instinctively rebel against that.

LQGaming: How do you feel about players selling accounts, items, and other in game property via outside auctions for real currency?

Floon Beetle: I'm sure Turbine has a legal opinion as to this, so I'm sure that I am not qualified to comment on this.

LQGaming: Many MMOGs today have become easier with less down-time, easy travel, lower risks, etc. Do you think you will be able to capture the sense of adventure and challenge that many of us are missing?

Floon Beetle: Our hope is YES. There are certain things like fast travel that have shown themselves to be largely necessary to help the social structure: otherwise it takes too much effort for people that want to play together to actually play together. So a system like fast travel would be a system that, while some might consider it to be too easy or unrealistic or non-immersive to be able to travel quickly from one area to another, the larger, more important purpose that it serves is that it helps people that want to play together to get together without spending an entire play session merely getting to the place that your friend is. So some of those things are very important and I feel are a good thing. Other things mentioned in the question are debatable - that's about the best I can do right now, I've had three beers.

Exlcusive interview by Charles "kinudig" Kindig