By Nicole Yates
June 9, 2004
While at Wizard World Philly, I had a chance to sit down and talk to the Lead Game Designer of the online game City Of Heroes, Jack Emmert. For those of you not familiar, City Of Heroes is a Massive Multi-player Online Game where you get to be a superhero. Cryptic Studios was on hand during the con with t-shirts and a huge plasma screen showing a demo of the game.
Cryptic Studios was also kind enough to give us a copy of the game for our big Wizard World Philly Giveaway!
Nicole Yates: You’ve come up with a pretty original idea for an online game. How did you come up with it?
Jack Emmert: Well, basically, to tell you the truth, the original idea wasn’t mine, it was two people, Michael Lewis and Rick Dayken and both of them had been childhood friends and the MMPs ten years ago were just starting up and they thought “well, hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a superhero game because massively multiplayer games are role playing games are about story and what better format to tell a story then with superheroes. And you know, they had this idea and, uh, Lewis eventually sold his chip company and, uh, then took money and invested it with Rick and I was invited about to form Cryptic Studios (which would eventually do City Of Heroes). Rick asked me to be involved because of my knowledge of comic books and my experience in writing game material. And Rick has then since moved on to other projects, he now does the City Of Heroes comic for us and I took over as lead designer several years ago and led the game to it’s current form.
NY: Nice. So you guys have known each other for awhile now?
JE: Yeah, Rick and I have known each other for about ten years and Mike and me have gone back even further and I should add that we joined together with three other people who, themselves, were trying to pitch a MMP but a fantasy one but didn’t have a lot of luck but had a lot of experience and we had experience in design. So, it made for a pretty natural match of talent.
NY: Did you guys notice with Star Wars Galaxies game and those types of games the things they were doing wrong and refuse to fix when you were making your own game?
JE: I have to say that really, that the principle was never to really…MMP have created formulas for success and many of these things work very, very well in a fantasy area. So, to be honest, what I did was instead say, “Ok, how can I make this game about being a superhero?” and I ignored MMP games. I just didn’t even think of their game mechanics because what I wanted to do was express the genre as best I could within the medium of a computer game. And so, I have to admit that there were many things that I willingly did not do. There is no crafting in City Of Heroes. Because it just didn’t make sense that there would be someone knitting a costume, that isn’t what being a superhero is about.
NY: Sure.
JE: So we focused on different things. So, in a sense, what I avoided was, in fact, the very formula which had been ossified by many of the major games and instead I am trying to create a new definition of what an MMP can be and perhaps say “look, we can do anything!”. The only thing about an MMP is “is it fun?” and “is it fun with people?”. If it’s fun with other people then that’s it. You know, don’t worry about getting this game mechanic or that game mechanic in, just make it fun for a massive amount of people.
NY: Nice. So, you have 125,000 people in the first 2 weeks?
JE: Yeah, 125,000. That was, well, let’s see, on 13 days we had 100,000. Since then we have over 125,000 and we’re slowly, we are still growing. That was several days ago, because we came here to Philly on Thursday so when I left on Wednesday it was 125,000.
NY: So do you have a specific marketing plan in mind, because you are obviously here at the comic book convention. Are you only specifically targeting comic book fans or are you guys going for a broad range of mainstream people?
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JE: I think our first market was of course the computer game hardcore players or people very into the computer game market but I think now it’s time to let not just computer game people enjoy it but also get the message out in comic book forums and the best way to do that is, of course, at conventions. We have been running advertisements at Marvel and DC and we’ve had coverage in Wizard but I think it’s really time to show people the game because once they see C.O.H, they then get it. And many times people blow through ads or they don’t notice it or understand it and it’s especially if your not involved in computer games to a large degree, you don’t even know what a “massively multiplayer game” means and I think here at the show we get a chance to make a face to face impression, so they understand the game and the commitment behind it to make it the best it can be.
NY: You were saying down on the convention floor that there are no villains in this game, so it’s more adventure?
JE: Right, it’s all about being a hero right now.
NY: But you have a supplement coming out?
JE: Right, we have a supplement coming out next year in 2005 called City Of Villains where people get to be the bad guy.
NY: That’s awesome!
JE: So you start out as a thug just trying to noticed by the organized crime families and then once you make your way there, you try to get yourself noticed by one of the super-villain organizations so you can be recruited and perhaps trained as one of their super-soldiers. And that’s how you gain your powers.
NY: Nice.
JE: It’s a little different form City Of Heroes in its gameplay. And once you make your way in the world then you can try to build your own headquarters base for your own villan group and then you can invade hero bases and fight over items of power which control reality itself and whichever group controls these items then really controls, in part, the fate of the world itself.
NY: Nice. So your target date for that is 2005?
JE: Yeah, it’s gonna be next year, we aren’t giving out anymore precise dates. We have a motto at Cryptic, “if you can’t do it well, don’t do it”.
NY: Sure, nobody wants a half assed product.
JE: It can happen in computer games! You’re faced under budget constraints, time constraints, whatever. Our publisher doesn’t believe in that, we don’t believe in that. They fully support us, they have extensive knowledge of MMP’s and they understand what it takes to get it done and that’s why we aren’t targeting any particular time because, look, if it takes till December, then that’s what it takes or it takes until July, that’s when it gets released and nobody is holding a gun to our heads to release it at any particular point. I wanna make sure I can create an experience which I’m proud of, that’s fun, that represents Cryptic and our fan base will embrace as an enjoyable thing.
NY: Right now the game is just for PC, any plans to port for Mac?
JE: Certainly there are always plans and it there were such things, such as the Mac or the consoles, I wouldn’t be at liberty to discuss that because it’s confidential but certainly we are always looking for ways to spread C.O.H above and beyond the PC platform but for the immediate future it is a PC only game.
NY: I really think that could help you guys because the number of games for the Mac really aren’t very many, and your game seems really kick-ass from what I’ve seen on the convention floor (they had a huge demo set up on a giant plasma screen) so you could really set something off.
JE: Yes, that is absolutely possible.
NY: Well thanks so much for talking with me here at the convention.
JE: You’re very welcome!
Find out more info on City Of Heroes at http://www.cityofheroes.com/.
FOUR QUESTIONS FOR MARVEL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JOE QUESADA
1. Do you think the days of monthly comics are starting to dwindle, moving towards more trade paperback sales?
JOE QUESADA: No, not at all. What we're seeing is a whole new market open up. As we see direct market comic sales increase in very nice, steady increments, we're also watching our audience growing outside of the normal direct market thanks to the TPB in bookstores and other outlets. It's an amazing thing to watch. The days of comics selling millions of copies per issue to collectors may be gone (not that that was realistic anyway), but the days of having millions of READERS is just around the corner. Those
million-plus readers will be getting their fix in a variety of ways – some within the pages of the single issues and some by purchasing the trades.
2. There has been a lot of criticism about the way women are drawn and
portrayed in mainstream comics. Do you think the image is shifting less from
sex symbol to complex character development (as well as a more normal body
image) or is there a middle ground that can be found?
JOE QUESADA: I think this was a much more valid complaint during the
early- and mid-nineties. I believe comics have shifted quite a bit from portraying women in that way. Of course there is always the argument that the men are portrayed just as
outrageously, but let's not go there... Comics are like soap operas, people love and want to see beautiful people in their soaps and movies; comics are no different. I do believe that in the last four or five years artist have taken a much more realistic and respectful view of what beautiful people actually look like and that has shown in the books.
3. Marvel has really made strides in revenue in the past few years. Do you
think it is solely major motion pictures that contribute to this or perhaps a blend of television and films? Or something else?
JOE QUESADA: It's a combination of many things. The movies help, the
mainstream press helps, but more important than all is the quality of the books. You can have all the press in the world but if the books aren't good, no one will stick around. It begins with great writers and great artists. You apply people with great talent to our great characters and it shouldn't be a surprise when magic happens!
4. Marvel has stepped up and pretty much started an open submission policy,
unlike its other major competitor. How has that worked so far for the company?
JOE QUESADA: Well, in 2003 we had over 27 new writers work for us that
never worked for us before and some who have never even worked in comics, period. That shows an incredible open-door policy. Of course, not all 27 are going to work out but if one or two become solid, working pros, that's a wonderful thing to have happen.
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