Name:
Todd Thomas
Title:
Vanguard Game Master
Your first MMO?
I played EverQuest since release and I still haven’t gotten to max level. I’ve done more than my fair share of obscure quests and pointless long camps though. I’ve dabbled in a few other MMOs, but nothing really kept my interest, until Vanguard.
The longest you've spent in-game and doing what?
I don’t do the marathon game sessions any more. I find I just no longer have time. And other times, something will strike an idea and I’ll have to log out and go write it down for use in a story, sketch, paper and pencil RPG adventure, or an in-game event. If I do have a marathon MMO session, I usually end up accomplishing a lot of things rather than spending it all doing one tediously repetitive thing.
Favourite aspects of an MMO?
I’ve been a roleplayer since the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. I’ve played multiple RPGs since then, most often as a Dungeon or Game Master. I love the potential of the interactive storytelling inherent in these games. I enjoy the immersion and the promise of even better in the future in MMOs. MMOs are the new entertainment that I believe will one day be more prevalent than television.
We, game companies and the players alike, are on the cutting edge of something amazing we haven’t even come close to fully exploring, or even understanding well enough. Ask most players what makes these games fun and they either say they don’t know or just can’t put it into words. If they do try to give a definitive answer, you can bet that the next person will give the opposite answer. Finding out what that “fun” is to each and every player as a group and as individuals, and really understanding the hows and whys of it, is what interests me. Playing the games for my own enjoyment means I can occasionally glimpse whatever that is behind the basic game and that gets me thinking about what I and those I work with can do to use that to make our game, and everyone’s sense of being entertained by it, better. |
