Dungeons & Dragons and Gleemax Developers Interviewed at GDC '08

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Posted Thu, Feb 28, 2008 by Shayalyn

We Help You Spend Your MMOG Money Wisely

The talk on the campaign trails during the final weeks of the primary season is all about the U.S. economy. The Republican and Democratic candidates are doing their best to convince the American people that they will find a solution to the current economic woes and help put money back in the citizen's pocketbook. With consumer's money being tied up in Adjustable Mortgage Rates or other nasty financial issues, the fight for their entertainment budget is turning into an all-out war for some companies. After seeing millions of people flooding into virtual realms of magic and mayhem, Wizards of the Coast decided it was time to pull out all the stops and implement their own digital initiative. At GDC '08, Cody "Micajah" Bye sat down with WotC's director of online media, Ilja Rotelli, to discuss the results of that initiative and why MMOG players might be interested in this new venue.

Ilja: The character generator allows you to build a 3D avatar of your character, and people who have played MMOs should be familiar with this sort of technology. We feel that our engine is going to be superior to everything you've seen so far, because we have a strategic advantage in that our characters will not need to animate. In D&D Insider, we want you to create a tabletop miniature, and so we give lots of options to the player in terms of how they want their character to look visually. Skin tone, armor, weapons, background, and poses are all used to create the perfect picture of your avatar. Once that's complete, you can print it out for your kitchen table or take your mini to the online realm and use it for the virtual tables.