Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Explosions! Gun battles! Sword fights! High flying kung fu kicks with a ninja grip! The current video game market is full of games that are heavily focused on this sort of gameplay, and many are akin to a Labor Day Steven Seagal movie marathon. You just want them to end. Over the last few years, this sort of mentality has slowly eked its way into the MMO gaming mindset, and the gamers that currently enjoy the player versus player combat of Warhammer Online and the new additions to World of Warcraft are – for better or worse – children of that type of high velocity action. Even our player versus environment experiences are beginning to feel a touch of the adrenaline, as players in the more crowded areas of their virtual world fight – and die – over a rare monster or item.

Adventurers, roleplayers, crafters, and casual fans may all find a place in Gatheryn.

But what about all the gamers that only want to have the “in your face” sort of experience when they deem it’s necessary? These gamers – casual fans, roleplayers, adventurers, explorers, and crafters – currently have few places to turn, and no game that is wholly devoted to catering to their experience. Trying to be one of these gamers in an MMOG is like staying on the Island of Misfit Toys; everyone is sad, lonely, and desperately wants a home.

And MMO gamers aren’t alone. Hundreds of thousands of casual gaming fans are yearning for something beyond their current experiences, something that has a bit more flair and panache than the umpteenth edition of Peggle [XXXtreme Peggle!—Ed.]. That’s where Joseph Walters, CEO of MindFuse, comes into play. Recently, Joseph and his team issued a press release announcing a brand new upcoming online game known only as Gatheryn. After a bit of research and some dedicated thought, the Ten Ton Hammer staff can only describe Gatheryn as a MMOAG: a massively multiplayer online adventure game.

To come to this naming conclusion, we got on the phone with Joseph (who also serves as the Lead Designer for Gatheryn) and asked him a series of questions regarding his upcoming product. Honestly, the Ten Ton Hammer staff was more than a little skeptical about the project, especially after reading the initial press release. The term “virtual world” was batted around like a birdie at a badminton match, and nowhere in the entire document did words like “combat” or “game” ever reach the surface.

Gatheryn is NOT Second Life. Or anything like it.

And what’s the best known virtual world on the market? That’s right. Second Life. [*shudders*--Ed.]

After hearing the first round of questions, Joseph was quick to modify exactly what was included in Gatheryn. Although casual games will be a part of the world, that’s not the whole story.

“I’m going to avoid talking about casual games because our “mini-games” aren’t all casual games,” Joseph explained. “A lot of them will be casual games – for example, we will have checkers – but there will also be areas where we have combat and PvP.”

“We’re actually setting it up so that some mini-games will have that [combat] element in them. But when you’re in the big game environments where all the other players are, you’ll never be able to pull out a sword and kill anybody. We’re doing everything we can to remove a lot of the griefing that goes on in other games. What we want to do is bring in a larger audience, many of whom are probably aggravated by what’s going on in the larger MMOs right now. We’re adding in the casual games to expand the audience even further.”

At this point in the game, the interview became a little more relaxed as the distinction became clear that Gatheryn wasn’t a “virtual world” in the sense of a game like Second Life. But if players aren’t free to roam about and do / create whatever they please, what would they be doing with their time? What would a normal day in the life of a Gatheryn player be like?

According to Joseph, the first thing you would do – just like any other MMOG – is go and create your character. “We’ve built a huge number of character creation tools,” explained. “We’re adding in a lot of elements that we’re not seeing in other games to allow you to customize your character a little more and follow what we think our broader audience would want to see. You see a lot of face generation stuff in games, but we’re actually trying to apply even more of that to the body of the character. We want to allow players to add weight to their characters and give them a chance to change their body shape a little bit more.”

Customizable characters are integral to the Gatheryn experience.

After creation, players would then be sent into the world and have a number of options presented to them. Again like a typical MMOG, players can accept and complete quests, although some of these quests may ask players to “play a three-in-a-row puzzle popper type game or it may send them into an area where you’ll need to sword fight NPCs to complete the quest. Or it could be something as simple as picking a dozen apples and brining them back to the NPC.”

And the “adventure” doesn’t end with the gaming, either. Joseph was eager to explain that creating and developing community was one of his major goals and that the team has “created a bunch of areas where players can actually go and sit down in an open area. If you’re a subscriber you actually get your own apartment as well and you can customize it and invite people into your apartment. You can even add some of the games inside your private apartment area as well.”