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Ten Ton Hammer: So everything is free except the ammunition?

Eddie: Yes. We try to keep things fairly transparent.

Ten Ton Hammer: How much does ammunition cost? Is it fairly inexpensive?

Eddie: I think it's around $0.50 for 500 shells and $5.00 for 6000 shells.

Ten Ton Hammer: What kind of weapons are in the game? Is it the pretty typical fair you'd find in any FPS?

All of your typical FPS weapons - pistol, rifle and shotgun - will all be in the game.

Eddie: We have your basic weapons - pistols, rifles, and shotguns - but we also have a few different ones. We have other weapons on top of that that are a bit different, but they're mostly the same. However, where Kwari does differ is that our weapons have unique functions that will benefit you in the game. But these powers are within a limited band, because this is a game that revolves around money. You can't have these "wide-spread" type weapons, because you're dealing with money.

When you're playing Kwari, you'll quickly find that the psychology is very different from any other FPS. You can use the skills you learn from Counterstirke and Unreal, but you can't play the same way. Players adapt very quickly to the differences in play.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will players be able to make a persistent avatar to play with?

Eddie: No, but I'll explain the reasons why it's not a mechanic we include.

Kwari has male and female game characters, and these are generated from constituent parts. It's a mechanic that was headed up by Paul Steed, who I believe worked on Quake 2 and Quake 3: Arena. Why we do this is for total in-game anonymity. There's no chat in our game, and we change players after every single map. We do everything we can to stop players from identifying each other in the game. We don't mind announcing what players do outside of each game match, but inside we want to keep the opponents unaware of who they're playing against. That way they can't target particular people to take money from. We have to be responsible with players' money. We already know of one person dying from a disagreement concerning virtual property, and we don't want that to happen in our game. You'll be playing against human opposition, but we hope that players really feel like they're playing against the game.

We've also had people ask us about team play. Team play is quite popular, but we've found that where money is concerned players don't like to share it.If you look at a bunch of guys that go into a Vegas casino, they'd rather lose all their money individually than pool their money and have to split it at the end. The good players simply don't want to have to carry a lesser player; it's not a good social atmosphere. Kwari isn't just a game, because there ARE real world consequences.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there any sort of social function built into Kwari?

Eddie: Of course. We've already created our own game forum and we have no problem what-so-ever with telling players what other players have won. But we want to keep players anonymous when they're playing.

The plan is to launch Kwari before Christmas in the U.K. and the U.S. shortly thereafter.

Aside from our security models, we also have to worry about particular types of legislation that's going on, like what's going on with money laundering and that sort of thing. We're constantly checking to make sure that two players aren't simply shooting each other - or not shooting each other - for different reasons. We're always monitoring player behaviors to watch out for this sort of thing.

Ten Ton Hammer: When are you going to begin publicly testing Kwari? When's the official launch?

Eddie: We're in "family and friends" testing right now. We're working with relatively small numbers of people. Within one month, we're starting our closed beta and by November we should be in our public beta. If all goes according to plan, we'll launch before Christmas.

Ten Ton Hammer: But the U.S. release won't be at the same time, right?

Eddie: Yes, but it won't be far behind. We're just waiting for our lawyers. We need a bit more research on the states, which ones are definites and which are no-gos, but the U.S. government is also trying to pass a new bill through the legislature called the "skill-gaming protection act" that would fit our game perfectly. But even without that bill, most states seem to be okay with Kwari.

Ten Ton Hammer: Finally, will there be a U.S. beta?

Eddie: I believe there only going to be a European beta. (Editor's Note: We checked with the rest of the Kwari team and they stated that there is no U.S. beta currently planned.)

With that, we'd like to thank Eddie for taking the time to talk with us and really go over what Kwari's all about. Please check back with Ten Ton Hammer in the future as we continue to cover this ground-breaking game!

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