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

Global Agenda's first closed beta session is set for this weekend, and we caught up with Executive Producer Todd Harris to catch some of the excitement going on right now inside Atlanta's Hi-Rez Studios. Todd tells us how those invited to the first round of closed beta got so lucky, plus what the initial focus of testing will be and what testers can expect when they log in this weekend.

Ten Ton Hammer: Global Agenda must be pretty deep in the beta crunch right now, with closed beta scheduled to begin on July 24th. Can you talk a little bit about the mood in the studio right now? I'm guessing there's an air of excitement at Hi-Rez Studios.

Todd Harris, Executive Producer: Oh yea, excitement, stress, anticipation. We just threw out the Chinese takeout boxes from late last night. Before that it was pizza, tacos, a lot of late night food that still seems to be around in the early morning that the folks that get here early aren’t afraid to jump on.

So yea, it’s an exciting time. Whenever you’re going to take the stage, you have that combination of anticipation plus a little bit of nerves, but also the knowing that you’re ready. I just asked our lead programmer how he’d describe his mood, and he said stressed, which is exactly as he should feel at this time, so that made me happy.

Closed beta test one will focus on character progression and the fun of combat from levels 1-20.

Ten Ton Hammer: Harsh, but understandable. Looking forward to closed beta, how was the initial round of beta testers chosen?

Todd: For our alpha, we had a pretty extended and sizable alpha test - we went beyond friends and family and had about a thousand people. In alpha we looked for the fairly hardcore - the guild / clan focused approach where we were looking for longstanding members from both the MMO community and the shooter community. That drove our alpha, because there we were focused on the fun of combat at a high level in Global Agenda. The fun and macro level class balance.

That’s the process that we’re just ending, but it gives you a little perspective on where we’re going in beta. Fortunately the visibility of the game has grown a lot since alpha, so we have a good pool of applicants to look at (though we’re always interested in more - [sign up for beta]). We want a good cross-section of both PvP-focused and PvE-focused MMO players and, again, shooter players that maybe this will be a game that introduces the MMO genre to them.

Also, we have held a number of contests leading up to the very first closed beta, so we’ve prioritized winners of those contests and those that have been the biggest, most passionate fans and those that have posted good quality information on the forums. Those were the two big criteria. Also, diversity of hardware specs against what we were wanting to test was another consideration.