LAGWAR | PC GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

In this episode we celebrate our 30th podcast on Lagwar. To top things off, we declare Mythic Entertainment’s own Andy Belford, Stonetroll Certified! Andy joins us on the podcast to discuss Warhammer Online and the WAR community. Be sure to check out the written article that includes our interview with Andy as well as some development questions answered by Josh Drescher and Dan Enright.

Use our built in player, Stonetroll Certified on iTunes, or you can simply right click on the download link above and select “Save Target As.” Then when prompted, choose a location on your computer you would like the file to be saved to. Then listen and enjoy! Please be sure to leave iTunes reviews and/or comments. We love feedback!!

Here’s an overview of Stonetroll Certified WAR Podcast #14:
*Overview of Community at WAR
*Brilen and Ziss chat with Andy Belford from Mythic Entertainment
*Lagwar’s written interview with Andy Belford, Josh Drescher, and Dan Enright

Subscribe to “Stonetroll Certified” on iTunes and leave us a review today! Please send us your feedback, comments, suggestions, and topics you’d like to hear discussed on the show to Show@Lagwar.com. Thanks to Revolution PC for funding our server this month!

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Community at WAR

“Mythic Entertainment’s Andy Belford with Josh Drescher and Dan Enright”

Part One

Andy Belford – Community Coordinator

[Andy] What I do here is I’m a Community Coordinator. It’s my job to be the go-between between the players and the developers of the game. I spend a lot of time reading message boards and talking to players and kind of getting a feel of how you guys feel the game is going and also being a player myself, I don’t have to, but I do play the game quite a bit and interact in the community in my own little stealth way as a player.

[LW] Is that something that’s really encouraged is you to play the game as well?

[Andy] Oh, absolutely [Mythic] wants us to play the game here. It’s not just so much that it’s a job requirement; we play the game because we love it. We put a lot of work and a lot of time into this game and we’re all very passionate about it.

[LW] Does that change the whole fun factor being that it’s a game you’re actually working on? Does it feel like work or does it still feel like you’re playing a game and it’s something that’s normal fun for you?

[Andy] You know, it is a lot of fun kind of broken up by the sense of duty that you have when you come across a bug, so one of the first things I do is alt tab over to my outlook and type up an e-mail and send it off to the proper people. I still, these past couple of weeks, have been over in tier three playing one of my alts, doing a lot of open RvR and have four out of five Devastator now. I’m having a lot of fun with the influence system and just having a great time.

[LW] We’re having a good time with the influence system as well. It’s awesome.
How long have you been at Mythic?

[Andy] I’ve been with Mythic a little bit over three months now. I started the day after launch actually.

[LW] So, say starting at launch, the game has definitely changed since launch, has your job evolved any, or any new duties come on, just anything overwhelming?

[Andy] My job is actually a lot like our game. It’s ever-changing. There’s always something new coming up that we’re dealing with; something new and exciting that’s happening. It’s just kind of part and parcel. As you work in this industry, you’ve got to be very flexible and very open to change. It’s a very important skill to have to be able to adapt quickly.

[LW] Could you describe the atmosphere at Mythic on a typical workday verses a day that a patch like 1.1 comes out?

[Andy] We haven’t really had many typical workdays. We’ve been doing a whole lot of improvements; a whole lot of things to improve the player experience lately, so up until the holiday break it was busy, busy, busy around here. All of us running around trying to work in as many patches and updates to make things a better experience for the players.

[LW] Say for instance when something like 1.1 comes out, do you keep your fingers crossed, hoping for a great response, or do you kind of have an idea ahead of time that we know this is going to be great?

[Andy] We go into everything we make hoping that it’s going to be the best experience possible for the players. On a personal level, as a community coordinator, one of the things we are very adamant about is that if there is a patch, we are on those message boards all day long watching for players reporting bugs, watching for possible issues, and just basically performing our due diligence and just making sure that everything’s going okay with the patch implementation. Also, we want to get a good gauge and see how players are actually reacting to the patch and new content, when and if we add it, and to career changes and stuff like that.

[LW] Has the response to, we’ll use 1.1 since that’s the biggest patch out so far, been overall good?

[Andy] The response has been great. It’s been volatile; it’s been a little bit of everything. The great thing about working in an MMO industry and especially working with the players like we do here on the community team is that the players are so very passionate about the game. They’re passionate about the game, the IP, and it’s a real privilege to be able to work with people, and represent people who care so much about a product that we work on. As a result of that passion and the feelings people have about the game, reactions are all over the place. I’m sure you and many of your fans read the message boards. We get lots of posts on message boards saying, “Hey, this is great!” “We’re loving this,” “We’re having a wonderful time,” and we get a lot of responses that are not so great. That’s okay. We take the positive with the not so positive and work with them both because even if there’s somebody out there yelling and screaming upset, there’s a reason for that. It’s our job to find that reason.

[LW] We point out a lot of complaints on the podcast, but it’s not like we’re complaining and saying it’s bad. Obviously, we love the game a lot or we wouldn’t put the time into everything we do on the site. We love it enough that we spend all of this time having fun and the few little small things that do bother us, we mention those in hopes it will be fixed. People bring it out because, like you said, people are very passionate about it and it has the opportunity to get better and better over time. It’s kind of like we want people [Mythic] to realize their players are having an issue and that’s kind of what we do.

[Andy] As much as we do and as much as the team here does, we really wouldn’t be anything without the players, especially without the community and representatives like you guys. What it all comes down to is we’re here for the players, we’re here for you guys and you know, we love it when we see podcast and blogs and we see people actively involved and really participating in the community. It’s really encouraging to see all of that.

[LW] That’s the beauty of an MMO.

[Andy] Absolutely. I think I stated this before in a previous post, I think on Warhammer Alliance or something, but it is an ever-changing beast. It really is. There’s always something new. You never have the same day twice.

[LW] Could you tell us about some of the tools Mythic has provided players with to supply feedback both in-game and out?

[Andy] Sure. Obviously there’s the in-game feedback tool, which is great because when players are right there in the moment, they’re able to type up a really quick thing and we get the feedback. That goes through out quality assurance team and through our customer service team. They will evaluate it and if it requires an immediate response, they will respond immediately; for example, something that’s preventing them from playing the game. Also, we get a lot of bug reports and things from the in-game feedback too. Say you have something that needs a little bit more of an in-depth explanation, we also have our feedback tool on the Warhammer Herald. We have so much stuff of The Herald anyway like constant updates, server updates, new content, fan fiction, fan art, we’ve even had some of the authors of the actual black library Warhammer books. Mike Lee, who most recently wrote Nagash the Sorcerer from The Time of Legend series, he recently did some Black Guard fan fiction for us, which was just great. I don’t know if you guys had a chance to read that, but it should be in the archive on The Herald. Definitely check it out.

[LW] That’s one thing I love about The Herald. It’s like this central point you can go to and find anything. Whether it be a server patch that’s going in and the server is being reset, or the fan fiction. Anything to do with Warhammer, you have this central location you can go to and find it.

[Andy] Absolutely, and that’s really what we want The Herald to be. We had that tradition in some of our previous games. The Herald was the central point of information and we really do want The Herald to where our players look to for information. We’re going to be making improvements to The Herald. It’s still really early in the development of The Herald, so as time goes by there will be more things added on there.

[LW] Excellent. One of the tools that I’ve used a few times is the bug report tool. When [a player] submits a bug what happens? What kind of process does that go through?

[Andy] Like I said before, if you submit a bug in-game, via the feedback tool, it goes to our customer service and quality assurance department and basically we have a whole reporting system that I really can’t go into because a lot of that is proprietary, but there’s a whole reporting system (and one of our game developers, Bryan Wheeler, is doing a dance in front of me right now.) That’s awesome. He’s been published actually. (Laughs) But I’m sorry, back to that. The quality assurance has a whole reporting system where they detail the bug as reported by the player, we make our attempts to duplicate it, we test it thoroughly, then it goes from there to the programmers, and if it’s an actual bug they will fix it. Step one: fix, step two: it, and step three: fix it. From there it goes to life and you will often see a hot fix note from any member of the community team on The Herald saying “This was broken or not working correctly and we fixed it.”

[LW] I just want to say, of all the MMO’s I’ve played, you guys have been the fastest response time of any company. It seems like if there’s any problem with it, a week or two later, it’s patched. There’s none of these ongoing issues that hang around forever.

[Andy] A lot of that has to do with the involvement of our community. Like I said before, we spend a lot of time on the message boards. A lot of that time is actually spent looking for bugs or issues that are occurring because sometimes we miss something. A lot of times players are able to notice something we didn’t notice. It’s a great option to have that, to count on the players to a degree. We take that post, link it in an email, copy and paste the player’s exact wording.

[LW] So you are watching the forums pretty thick then? Is there any particular forum you guys go to, or is it just a variety of forums?

[Andy] There is a variety of forums out there that players go to. Some of them that come to mind are Ten Ton Hammer, Warhammer Alliance, V N Boards is obviously a very popular one, especially with some of our players that played DaoC. V N Boards is where they congregate. We read them all. We spend a lot of time reading the message boards, and believe it or not, we do read just about every thread. That’s a lot.

[LW] It must be very time consuming to do that.

[Andy] It is. We work some long hours here, but it’s all worth it and we wouldn’t be here is we didn’t love what we were doing. Honestly, I really am one of those crazy people who like to read message boards. I love it. We were on vacation over the holidays and I’m reading the message boards and just randomly sending bugs to QA and letting them know that, “Hey, this player is reporting that this is happening.” One of my co-workers was like, “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be off.”

[LW] Speaking of messages and things, is there a particular method of obtaining player feedback that seems more useful than others?

[Andy] They all have their merits. I know that’s kind of a politically correct answer, but it is really true. There really is no one-way of feedback that is more valuable than the other because they all produce the same result and that’s an issue being identified. That’s really what we’re looking to do with that. So the in-game feedback is equally important as the people who post their problems on the forums. We couldn’t do what we do without the in-game feedback. We couldn’t identify half the bugs we identify without in-game feedback.

[LW] I think that’s great to hear. How does that work? I mean, do you have different teams watching the in-game feedback and another team watching the forums? Is it split up?

[Andy] I can’t really say what each individual team does, because there is a team for items, there is a team for combat and careers, there’s a team for dungeons and quest, UI; there’s teams for everything and I’m pretty sure there’s a team who watches forums and a team who follows feedback and stuff like that.

[LW] So it’s a really efficient process.

[Andy] It’s as efficient as it can be.

[LW] Obviously, like I said, things get resolved very fast in this game compared to other experiences I’ve had anyway. That’s one of the things you guys [Mythic] have been noted for; how in-touch with the community you really are. Look at all the Mythic people who have blogs, like Paul’s video blog and things like that. It’s insane how close to the community you guys really are.

[Andy] It’s funny that you would use the words insane and Paul in the same sentence. Paul is a character. He is very fun to work with and there is always something exciting happening around him. His blog is very indicative of how he is in the office.

[LW] The ‘pie-to-the-face.’ Have you ever taken a pie to the face from Paul?

[Andy] Uh, no, I’ve not taken a pie to the face from Paul yet. Not yet, not yet. I’ve somehow managed to avoid that particular bit of fun.

[LW] That’s got to make players feel a lot better about it. Some games you just don’t feel that bond there. A lot of the DaoC players are in the same guild as us. Well it’s actually their guild, we joined it, but they were really dedicated to that game and always bragged about how well the community was and how in touch Mythic was. Now in Warhammer, they’re saying the same thing. It’s like you’re up close and personal. It adds a whole new level in the emotion and passion behind the game. I really do love and I think you guys are doing a great job.

[Andy] Well, what it comes down to is we’re all gamers just like you. We are in there, playing the game. We love MMOs. We have a passion for it. You can’t help but want to talk to the people who you have like minds with and we really love the fact that we’re able to be so personal from the top with Mark all the way down to guys like me. We’re able to interact and talk to guys who share our passion with everyday. It’s just really great.

[LW] You say that you’re a player too. What class do you play normally?

[Andy] (Laughs) Uh, I’m going to have to say I can’t really answer that question. I will say that it’s probably not the class that a lot of people would say and I play a lot of different classes. There’s a lot of back and forth about how “Mythic has to play these guys, or Mythic has to play these guys,” but you would really be surprised at the spread of what people play here in the office. I will tell you that I’m right now setting in Altdorf, on the auction house, looking for some talismans and they’re strength talismans.

[LW] You’re trying to tell us you’re playing Destruction, right? (Laughs)

[Andy] You know, I’ve played Destruction before, I’ve played Order before and I think I’ve said before in a post I made on Warhammer Alliance one time, I’ve bought a mount on both sides. So, I’ve got a significant amount of playtime on both sides. Some of your listeners, I’m pretty sure that I’ve killed them and they’ve killed me on the field of battle. My first level 40 is quite squishy. I’m actually impressed with the direction of both sides in this game. I know a lot of people are very happy with the way Destruction looks and everything and it lends it’s self to the Warhammer IP quite well. And Order to me, I mean I love the medieval feel to it and the kind of struggle against the forces of Chaos and the Empire races are all very impressive to me. I love the Empire careers, I should say, they’re all very impressive to me.

[LW] Were you big into Warhammer lore prior to hiring on with Mythic?

[Andy] I’ll have to be honest with you, I was not. I’ve always known about Warhammer. I’ve always gone to gaming conventions and seen those guys setting up the big tables with the hills and the trees and everything like that and I said, “Wow, that looks really expensive.” I’ve never really been big into Warhammer prior to this, but as soon as I found out I got the job, the first thing I did was I went out and bought Tales of the Old World, both of the Gotrek and Felix Omnibus’ and I’ve just been devouring everything I can get my hands on for Warhammer. The lore is amazingly rich. It’s been around for over 25 years. It’s got such a long and detailed history to draw on, I don’t see how you cannot be drawn into this world and not be just completely enamored by the lore.

[LW] Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I use to play a lot of the RTS games and recently, to touch up on what was going on in-game, I’ve started to read some of the novels. They’re awesome. The WAR universe is unreal. I really think Mythic picked a great IP to go with. It’s an amazing game and plus you have these dedicated followers. Warhammer has these people who have been playing the tabletop for 20 years and now they’re playing the MMO and they’re in love with it. It’s a very dedicated community.

[Andy] It is. Like I mentioned earlier, I just finished reading the Nagash the Sorcerer recently, and I’m a big history buff, so anytime I get into a fantasy IP that I’m really in to, I love to know the history of the world too. Not just what’s happening right then and there in the modern day storytelling of it. The history of the world is absolutely amazing. The story of Nagash during The Time of Legends, the kind of Egyptian type feel that you have to it and it’s all very gripping and very compelling. I really like it. I think the whole idea of the tomb kings is a very popular one around here.

[LW] What would you say one of your biggest challenges as community coordinator with Mythic has been since the launch of WAR?

[Andy] Sleep. (Laughs) Actually, everyday presents a new challenge. I don’t really like saying the word ‘challenge’ too much because to me, that’s like saying an adverse thing. To me, the biggest challenge has been adjusting to the gaming industry. I came from the telecommunications industry. I was in engineering for a cell phone company in the mid-west, so it’s a very different environment. I was also doing some public relation stuff for them; dealing with customers and talking to them and you know cell phone customers can get very upset and very angry when they’re not able to call so-and-so and it’s understandable. The whole ‘adjusting to the gaming industry’ I would say has been my biggest challenge, but at the same point, it’s been completely refreshing and a very welcome change. The fact that I can wear jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap to work everyday if I want to and the fact that I’m working in an office with a bunch of other gamers; people who I know are like me and love the same things that I love, has been very uplifting and a very positive experience and I’m really happy to be here.

[LW] It sounds like it would be a dream come true.

[Andy] It’s been something I’ve been working at for about the last four years. Just trying to get my foot in the door in the industry and I can say I’m very glad I put that time and effort into it.

[LW] Congratulations.

[Andy] Thank you.

[LW] This is kind of an overall question for the community as a whole. What are things we can do as players to make sure you guys get feedback? I mean things that could better the game or any thing in particular that we can do to make sure you guys are getting the information?

[Andy] Keep playing. Keep submitting those bugs via in-game tool and on The Herald. Keep making posts on message boards and keep participating. Keep being active members of the community. Like I said before, if it weren’t for you guys, we wouldn’t be here. We definitely appreciate it and the best way for [the players] to help us out is to keep reporting the stuff via the ways you have been.

[LW] Simple enough. I’m not sure you’re familiar with it, but a lot of the WAR bloggers got together and announced January as ‘The Age of Blogging Month.’ I know GOA is supposed to be doing something with it. Some of the blogs from The United Kingdom were kind of behind this and Lagwar jumped in on the bandwagon because one of the writers we have knew some of the people. It’s really cool. We’re basically just trying to get people who play the game to blog. Like if you haven’t blogged before, jump in and start blogging, or start writing stuff and posting it on places. We were talking about this last night. Even if you take all of the Warhammer fansites and add them together, you still don’t have the whole story. It’s like you know, you want to dump more and more out there to hear everybody’s experience. I could sit around for days and just read people’s experiences they’re having in-game. It’s interesting.

[Andy] Blogging is an amazing outlet for gamers. I, personally, subscribe on my RSS feed to probably 12 blogs that I follow on a regular basis. Before I got this job, I thought about starting one of my own just as a general gaming blog, but unfortunately my time has been eaten up by other things. The blogging community is defiantly invaluable to us. Bloggers continue the immersive nature of the game. They continue to immerse the players in the game beyond them being logged in. It gives them reason to say, “Hey, I want to read about what this person is doing,” and they can relate to it because it’s another player saying the same thing. There’s no better way for a player to feel like part of the community than to be able to relate to their fellow players in my opinion.

[LW] That’s exactly right. I don’t want to hold you up too much longer. I know you’re at the office and busy. It sounds like you work all hours of the day and night.

[Andy] It just depends. Sometimes I’m here at six in the morning and sometimes I’m here till 11 at night. It just depends on what is going on.

[LW] Can we expect anything big to roll out this week or anytime in the future that you could say? Are lips sealed?

[Andy] I can say we have some big plans coming down the pipe. We’ve got some great things that I’m sure players are going to be very happy about. I wish I could give you some specifics and let you know exactly what they are. I know everybody knows the two melee dps classes are coming up. Definitely keep your eyes peeled on The Herald for announcement regarding that. There are some other really great changes we’re working on in the coming months I think people are going to be really happy about.

[LW] Definitely looking forward to seeing it. We definitely appreciate you taking time out to talk with us. Thank you very much.

[Andy] What’s your guild name and what server are you on?

[LW] We’re on the Ostermark RP server, destruction side, and the guild name is Circle of Trust.

[Andy] Alright, well Hi to all of the Circle of Trust players on the Ostermark server. We’re glad that you are playing and that you’re following the community so much and thank you from all of us.

[LW] Hopefully, we’ll talk to you again. Thanks a lot!

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Part Two

Josh Drescher – Associate Producer

Dan Enright – Senior Designer

[LW] WAR is definitely evolving and I think that most players are really excited about the changes. It looks like lots of changes are continuing to come in regards to open RvR.
Is the goal to make open RvR the focal point of the game and everything else secondary, or at least everything else revolve around the open RvR?

[Josh] Our goal is to remove anything we felt was causing people to feel like engaging in open RvR was “costing” them something – experience, renown, items, etc. – compared to other areas of the game. A fair number of players who otherwise would prefer open RvR were feeling pressured to instead focus on Scenarios almost exclusively in order to not feel like they were “missing out” on various rewards. Our hope is that by significantly improving the rewards available through open RvR that those players will feel comfortable focusing more of their time and attention there. That being said, we have no intention of limiting or reducing the accessibility or rewards available in Scenarios, since that is a side of the game that many players truly enjoy.

[LW] Would you say that open RvR is Mythic’s #1 priority at the moment? Also, can you comment on a few things that Mythic is currently working on to make open RvR more appealing?

[Josh] Version 1.1 represents the largest addition of new content that we’ve seen since launch. Two new careers, a significant overhaul of the open RvR system, improvements to chat (like item hyper-linking), the integration of “easy” Public Quests, loads of new lairs, quests and other content, in addition to a large amount of bug fixes and improvements. We’re very much focused on getting that patch out the door and running smoothly.

[LW] What’s one change or addition to the game that players can look for that you’re personally most excited about?

[Josh] Chicken Runs. Tier 3 quests that send you to Tier 1 open RvR areas in order to make a mad, feathery dash through dangerous RvR territory in order to accomplish specific, survival-oriented goals. They’re cluckin’ awesome!

[LW] Mythic seems to have a very specialized target audience, as opposed to other MMORPG’s, with the open RvR. Do you foresee Mythic developing more PvE and/or solo content to target those players who wish to not participate in RvR?

[Josh] Absolutely. We’re not trying to improve open RvR to draw people away from PvE – we’re improving it because our players deserve the highest quality, most enjoyable experience possible from ALL parts of the game. We remain committed to improving and expanding the PvE side of our game now and into the future. 1.1 includes a fair amount of PvE expansion and improvements, something that layers should expect regularly in the future.

[LW] Leveling up in WAR is much different than most other MMORPG’s as money does not seem to be an issue. There have been some players saying that at the max level of 40, it can be tough to keep your gold balance out of the red if you do not participate in the PvE content.
Can we expect to see RvR quests give more monetary rewards along with renown, armor, etc. for players who do not wish to participate in PvE?

[Josh] I’m going to tag in Senior Designer Dan Enright to answer this one.

[Dan] There’s the potential of adjustments occurring as needed in the long term. Some of the things we look at when evaluating metrics like that are the potential long term rates of currency gain, as well as statistics on actual server and character wealth, and guild wealth since a significant portion of the high level reoccurring currency costs involve guild systems such as standard bearer keep claims. Since the currency systems in WAR were designed to be more of an aesthetic element of the game rather than a gating mechanism we try to ensure that there is slightly more currency being generated than is actually required but not so much as to cause rampant inflation.

[LW] Are there any plans you’re able to comment on relative to Keep and Fortress design? Some players have asked that we mention the significant advantage the stairs offer the defenders.

[Josh] They DO favor defenders. Fortresses are defensive structures and we expect and intend for them to provide a strategic advantage to defenders as a result. On the other hand, there are parts of the siege process that favor attackers. The ability for reinforcements to easily approach, for example.

[LW] Some of our role-playing listeners had asked if we could find out if “sitting, laying, and walking” functions, or the like, would be implemented in the near future. For role-players these are fairly important. Any plans for other tools or features to be implemented for RP’ers?

[Josh] We’re adding new emotes and animations all the time. Keep your eyes peeled.

[LW] In 1.1, easy Public Quests were implemented starting with Tier 1. How soon can we expect to see this change in Tiers 2 through 4?

[Josh] We’re not discussing the specifics of future patches just yet. As the game matures, we have a number of plans for scaling and manipulating content to make sure it remains as accessible as possible, but I can’t comment beyond that.

Thanks to Andy, Josh, and Dan from all of us at Lagwar.com!