Earth Eternal Interview with CEO and Creative Director Matt Mihaly

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Updated Mon, Sep 14, 2009 by Medawky

Questions by Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle
Answers by Matt Mihaly, CEO and Creative Director of Sparkplay Media

Earth Eternal first caught our attention as a unique take on the newly emerging browser based MMOG genre. We were able to continue our conversation with CEO and Creative Director of Sparkplay Media, Matt Mihaly, and get some more answers about what has been going on with EE since our last conversation. The company was able to raise some venture capital last year and has fleshed out their game even more. We discuss those additions as well at look at what makes Earth Eternal different from other free-to-play games on the market today.

Earth Eternal will be a 3D MMOG in a browser

Ten Ton Hammer: We’ve seen a few browser based MMOs pop up since we did our first Earth Eternal interview in 2007, most notably FusionFall and Free Realms. How has the concept evolved in the past few years, and what would you say are EE’s most unique attributes?

Mihaly: Well, I’m thrilled EE’s scope has evolved immensely in the last two years. We’ve been able to create a much larger world with more features than we had originally intended, due to raising venture money in early 2008.

We differ pretty significantly from FusionFall and Free Realms in that we’re creating a ‘real’ 3d fantasy MMO in a browser. I don’t mean that as a slight to the other two games (both of which I admire), but those who play many MMOs will find Earth Eternal more closely resembles the sophisticated MMO experience they’re familiar with. .

Our most unique attributes are probably the range of customization available in a browser MMO, and the potential in our Groves feature, which will launch a few months after we go into open beta. Groves will let players control and customize private areas, either alone or with their clans, with options from placing buildings and forests to altering the terrain itself to populating it with monsters or NPCs.

Ten Ton Hammer: Earth Eternal is billed as a free-to-play MMO with paid-for benefits. Typically among F2Ps, these benefits are consumables (potions, etc.) and cosmetic items - things that don’t affect gameplay. Are you sticking pretty close to these guidelines, or will players be able to buy more with their Earth Eternal buck?

Mihaly: I don’t agree with the premise of the question, but don’t want to appear to get in an argument or disagreement with you. Most F2P games do allow for things that affect gameplay, from health potions to +xp potions to stat-altering potions, etc.

Happy to answer some variation on this question that doesn’t presume the above though. Here’s an explanation of what we sell:

“We sell a combination of cosmetic and functional items. Players can buy armor appearances which can be transferred onto any item, giving players the ability to really customize what they look like without sacrificing the stats they want.

We also sell some functional items. For instance, larger backpacks than you can buy with gold in order to expand your inventory space or speed potions that increase your running speed. “

Ten Ton Hammer: Do the proposed classes of knight, mage, druid, and rogue compare closely with the typical MMO archetypes we’re familiar with (tank, ranged DPS, healer, melee DPS)? How are they different?

Mihaly: Sort of. For instance, Druid is much more of a jack-of-all-trades than a healer, and because you can take abilities from any class you can customize your build pretty extensively.

Ten Ton Hammer: Earth Eternal boasts an incredible number of races: 22 in all, covering most of the animal kingdom (the land dwellers, anyway). What makes each race different or special, given that none has a gameplay advantage over another?

Mihaly: Nothing is different in terms of functionality. We made the decision to allow players to choose their in-game look and divorce it from their function. We wanted to ensure that if you wanted to be a Mage, for instance, you didn’t have to be one of a few races in order to be an effective Mage. We may implement non-functional differences between races, like race-specific emotes, but we don’t intend to create statistical differences between the races

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