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May 13, 2004 - Today was the first day of my first ever trip to E3, and I was excited at the opportunity to view some of NCsoft Corporation's latest titles and managed to spend quite a bit of time talking with Jack Emmert, the Lead Game Designer of City Of Heroes. Those who don't follow games as much as I do would probably know him best as the super hero "Statesman" from many pages in the game's manual. Many times I have seen questions on "/broadcast" channels in CoH responded to with the heading of "Statesman says…" and ending with "And Statesman's word is law".
At first Mr. Emmert seems like one of those "classic" Dev personalities - laid back, easy going and likely some technical guru that may just throw out jargon that sends most folks around him to the nearest dictionary as soon as his back is turned. Once introductions and pleasantries were exchanged I did indeed find him to be laid back and easy going, but the incomprehensible lingo was replaced by a gamer-level language and understanding of a player's experience with his creation. He is certainly not a book to be judged by the cover, however, for Mr. Emmert is a very intelligent and learned man with that certain aura that exudes a wisdom that can come only from a hefty combination of education and experience.
Please read on to find out some of the exciting and sometimes surprising information Jack "Statesman" Emmert shared with me.
-Drakes: First, I think our readers would like to get to know you, the person, a little better. Could you tell us what other products and games have you worked on and are you currently a part of any other NC Soft projects?
-Mr. Emmert: I've never worked on another game like this before. I've previously worked for Wizards of the Coast's pen and paper games, Pinnacle, White Wolf and Eden Studios. CoH and CoV are my only projects at this time.
-Drakes: What type of education does a person need to work in a position such as yours? What is your own educational background?
-Mr. Emmert: I'm not sure if any specific education is needed. They have to be inquisitive, imaginative, innovative and really have an understanding of the ramifications of their decisions. I received my undergraduate BA at the University of Pennsylvania. My first Master's was from the University of Chicago and the second from Ohio State University. I taught at OSU for five years. I also speak five languages and read hieroglyphics. I have no real formal education in programming, but my experience with different languages helps me to catch on to programming easily.
-Drakes: What part of CoH did you focus primarily on?
-Mr. Emmert: The villains, I think. Their AI, backgrounds, powers, balancing, tuning, etc. It's really hard to pick out just a single thing.
-Drakes: Do you ever play CoH in your "free time"? I mean for fun and not while also doing research or testing?
-Mr. Emmert: Oh yea, I play! Not a whole lot but I definitely play.
-Drakes: What type of character do you play, and why?
-Mr. Emmert: I love the personality of high risk, high reward. The Human Torch is a favorite of mine because he's so vulnerable yet so powerful at the same time.
-Drakes: How do you feel about account/item selling and auctioning for personal profit? Where does NCsoft officially stand on this subject?
-Mr. Emmert: I've never really asked NCsoft actually - so I can't speak for them. For my own point of view - I used to think I'd be a teacher all my life. Now that I have more money, I can buy things that I want more. People who have the cash will always buy what they want.
-Drakes: What are your developer meetings typically like? Are they fun, business-like, loud, quiet…?
-Mr. Emmert: I hate when people are late. "On time" to me means 10 minutes early - if you get to the meeting room and nobody else is there, sit down and wait for everyone else to arrive. I like people to argue their points. I really like "excited' meetings!
-Drakes: What other hobbies or interests do you have?
-Mr. Emmert: I'm a comic book collector. My collection has 15,000 or so pieces. I read 60-70 comic titles per month, and at least one fantasy novel per week. I'm also into miniature painting.
-Drakes: How hard is it for you guys to stray from the more common concepts and terminology of "killing" mobs as opposed to "apprehension" or "arrest"?
-Mr. Emmert: It's tough - we're always correcting each other. One will call it a "kill mission" and he'll be immediately responded to with "*apprehend* mission!". We all do it, but it's important that we don't have heroes running around killing everything. In the spider-man comics, he'll wade through and beat up a bunch of thugs, but you assume they got up and ran away after the scene is over. You just don't see it.
-Drakes: How many hours per week do you typically put into CoH?
-Mr. Emmert: Let's see….10-hours average per day, plus most of the design work I take care of from home. I'd say with normal, after-hours and weekends, about 65 hours per week.
-Drakes: Let's switch to more direct questions about City of Heroes. CoH is very different from other games in so many ways, outside of the obvious super hero theme. Did the concepts of no crafting, no "real" economy and the sidekick system flow easily or were they very hard to work out and balance?
-Mr. Emmert: It came easily, actually. It's all really just an extension of what we read in comic books. The sidekick system was a pretty natural addition as well - it's just not feasible to expect every player to spend 20 to 40 hours per week in the game. It's a mechanism we created to solve the problem that casual gamers have with finding MMO's fun without having to change their playing styles.
-Drakes: How concerned were you that a super hero MMO was too different from the more common Sword & Sorcery, Warfare and Science Fiction games that are so successful now?
-Mr. Emmert: It's very scary to compete in this market. It's still scary for us even after breaking the 100,000-account mark. CoH is not "EQ in Tights" though.
-Drakes: What are your thoughts on the success of CoH so far and how do you see the growth of the game (from both player volume and development standpoints) effecting popularity in the future?
-Mr. Emmert: This is a "word-of-mouth" type game, our growth comes from one person spreading their opinions to the next. We're very careful not to be detrimental with any changes or addition to CoH. Look again in about two weeks and you'll see some great additions that I think people will like a lot.
-Drakes: Few other games have come close to the smooth opening of the live game you have. To what do you give the most credit for this success?
-Mr. Emmert: Well, the software team for sure. Producer Craig Zincevich came up with a series of several tests for us, and having NCsoft orchestrating everything with all of their experience all helped to make it work so well.
-Drakes: Other than expansions and patches, where is CoH going?
-Mr. Emmert: We're going to be really filling out the game play. Work on skills, heroes and possible crafting type options are all in the works. We'll also be branching out of Paragon City. Our first expansion (CoV) will send the players to other dimensions, new islands, and more.
-Drakes: Capes and cloaks have historically been a major problem for MMO developers. Will capes be in the game soon as part of the CoV expansion or maybe an update?
-Mr. Emmert: Sooner than you can possibly imagine! It's going to be a free update, we definitely won't charge for putting capes into the game. Expect to see capes this year.
-Drakes: Will players ever be able to have non-standard options for power-related affects such as customizable broad swords, katanas, assault rifles, etc? What about powers being able to have alterable origins like eyes, hands, or even foci?
-Mr. Emmert: This is one of our first-year goals. Signature weapons for sure, alterable powers are possible but they're definitely later on the list. There's a special surprise you'll see in an archetype related to this within the year. Sooner than later.
-Drakes: Do you foresee ever having any sort of crafting options such as cloaks, uniform/outfit alterations, hair/skin makeovers, or even inspiration or enhancement creation?
-Mr. Emmert: Inspirations and enhancements definitely. A super-hero tailor just doesn't make sense though, so you won't see it. NPC tailors will be included in the update in 2 weeks, which the players can visit and pay to have costume changes made.
-Drakes: The sidekick system does so much for CoH players, offering newer or alt-character/players the option to participate instead of being left out due to being lower level than their partners or groups. Can you explain how experience rewards are divided up for say, a 1st level character who is sidekicked by a level 25 character?
-Mr. Emmert: Ok, once the level 25 character sidekicks him, the level 1 character will then fight as if he were a level 24. Now, let's say they fight and defeat a level 26 mob. The level 25 character will receive experience as they normally would from a level 26 mob, but the sidekicked character receives experience as if they were 2 levels higher than their true level - in this case, the level 1 character receives experience as if he had defeated a level 3 mob. This way, both characters advance their experience at pretty much the same rate, the lower level character does not get "left out", and there is no concern of "power leveling" a character to much higher levels faster than they should be able to.
-Drakes: Other than the obvious theme, what do you think specifically sets CoH apart from any other MMO out there?
-Mr. Emmert: Character creation is different because you can make your character into someone very special. Combat too, because it's so fast and designed with the spirit of a fighting game cloaked in an MMO.
-Drakes: Are there plans for moderator and/or developer-run live events?
-Mr. Emmert: Yes. We're still working things out on the technology side for this though. You'll see it within a year.
-Drakes: I want to fight these aliens from the CoH storyline. When can I do that?
-Mr. Emmert: After the update in two weeks, you'll be able to visit an alien crash site and fight masses of them. In the future, you'll even be able to travel to their home world!
-Drakes: More than one person has hit the level cap of 40 already. How do you, as the lead designer, feel about players reaching such lofty goals in only two weeks?
-Mr. Emmert: It's always going to happen. Some players can play a lot more than others, but most can't put in 12 hours per day to play. What I care about, though, is that these people just didn't get to enjoy all the fun the game has to offer.
-Drakes: Will the level cap of 4 Will the level cap of 40 be lifted with this update in 2 weeks? Will it include a lot of 40th -50th level content?
-Mr. Emmert: Yes on both accounts. It will be 2-3 weeks approximately for the update. There's a lot in it.
-Drakes: I'm sure our readers have a lot of questions about this huge first expansion you have planned. When is City of Villians coming out, and do you have any idea of about how much it will cost?
-Mr. Emmert: Next year, and no idea on the time frame. Unfortunately, we don't have a clue how much it will cost yet, either.
-Drakes: What type of player testing is planned for CoV?
-Mr. Emmert: We'll have a test server, of course, and we'll star with internal testing. We'll handpick some experienced CoH players and then open up the beta to applications.
-Drakes: How will current character creation and other content be changed with this expansion?
-Mr. Emmert: We're adding content and changes all throughout the year before CoV and with all the villain and PVP additions, you'll find a lot of changes to come throughout the game.
-Drakes: Could you please explain how hero and villain interaction will occur with CoV?
-Mr. Emmert: We're still working on this actually, but it will be optional and consensual PVP.
-Drakes: Can you please define any limitations you'll have on PVP? On/Off toggle, arena challenges, etc?) Will heroes be able to fight other heroes, or only villains? What about the civilian population - will anything change there with the introduction of super-powered villains?
-Mr. Emmert: A villain's job is to cause havoc and chaos, not murder. They won't be able to just run around and kill everything they see. A lot of the specifics are being worked out, but hero-hero challenges will be handled through arena-type challenges, along with other PVP combinations such as villain vs. villain.
-Drakes: Will players be able to have villains and heroes on the same servers?
-Mr. Emmert: I can't imagine why not for now.
-Drakes: What other types of changes/additions/updates will come with this expansion?
-Mr. Emmert: New zones, powers and archetypes. Headquarters will be apart of it as well. There will be larger scale additions such as base invasions and battling for items of power.
-Drakes: By items of power do you mean someone can find a more powerful sword, giving them an advantage over other players?
-Mr. Emmert: Not at all. I can't really discuss it on record though, you'll have to wait for CoV to find out.
-Drakes: Will there be rewards of any type for successful Pking? Will experience debt be a penalty for losing?
-Mr. Emmert: We're not quite sure on those details yet - but there definitely should be a reward for successful PVP.
-Drakes: So far I've seen very little balance related issues brought up on any boards. PVP, however, typically brings about cries of "Nurf It!" Do you anticipate seeing much of a change in player views of balance once CoV goes live?
-Mr. Emmert: Yes. It is inevitable. It'll happen, and we'll work it out when it does.
-Drakes: Are any other expansions currently being conceived/planned?
-Mr. Emmert: They're only conceptions for now, but I'd really like to see things like giant mechanical suits you can jump into and run around in, spy organizations, time travel to different zones, etc. We've got a lot of other things to handle before then.
After apologizing for going way over our scheduled time in the meeting room, we walked into the hall outside together. Because I am not just an IGN staff writer but also a player in the game, I (as most other people probably would have) took the opportunity to ask Mr. Emmert some personal questions and he was kind enough to hear them out. He verified that they knew about and were indeed working on certain bugs like the civilian rewards missing from savior encounters in Independence Port, the missing DO and SO drops from mid-high 20's level mobs, and the fact that you can receive a mission for Terra Volta at level 20, but you can't enter TV until 3 levels later.
Every game has bugs and issues that the developers are constantly striving to smooth out. It is this writer's opinion that City of Heroes is truly unique in enough ways to keep it fresh for a long, long time - and with class acts like all of the staff members I met today from Product Marketing Manager Kevin Sullivan (NCsoft) and Director of Public Relations (NCsoft) to Jack "Statesman" Emmert (Cryptic Studios) himself, that's just about how long this game will be around.
-Drakes.
