By Cody
“Micajah” Bye

When Acclaim announced that they would be importing the Korean
fantasy-based MMOG, Dekaron, to the U.S. market, no one was really
surprised; importing a game is no longer a miraculous feat. However,
when it was learned that they would be modifying the game to make it
fall into a “Mature” ratings category, a few
eyebrows were raised. Acclaim’s been sticking to their guns
ever since, and the game continues to be marketed towards a
“Mature” audience.

With the release of 2Moons into open beta, Ten Ton Hammer
thought it would be appropriate to check up on the status of the game
and how things are progressing over at Acclaim. Although it is always
tempting to quickly localize a game and push it into the U.S. market,
Acclaim has been taking their time with 2Moons in order to get things
right.

To get our questions answered, we sent our inquiries to Dave
Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment and current game director of the
2Moons project, in hopes that he might be open to some of the tougher
questions that have been circulating through the MMOG industry
concerning 2Moons. Not only has he answered all of our questions, but
his responses are both honest and informative. Please enjoy the read!

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Dave Perry, the Game
Director of 2Moons

Ten Ton Hammer: First off,
the 2Moons Closed Beta wrapped up in late March, why has it taken so
long to get the game into the Open Beta phase? Is there a new release
date planned for the game – perhaps an early or late autumn
release instead?

Dave Perry:
It’s a different kind of situation than we’ve been
faced with before, where a game is in full development in another
country, and released, and we are trying to catch up in the
USA.  It’s a first for me.  The development
team is moving fast and so we keep finding ourselves at forks in the
road, do we wait and include all the latest features, or do we just go
ahead and release.  We decided to delay one more time and told
the community they will have the Open Beta client by the end of
July.  We are standing by this, so the countdown has
begun.  We will do the same for Commercial release, we will
look at what we want to add, then pick a date and stick to it.

Ten Ton Hammer: 2Moons has
been a highly anticipated title for some time now, generating over
200,000 closed beta applicants. However, there’s been very
little publicity being generated for the game lately? What’s
the hesitation? Is the game taking longer to localize than was first
estimated?

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The 2Moons beta
registration has passed 280,000, according to Perry.

Dave:
We have passed 280,000 registrations so far without any money spent on
marketing at all.  It’s pretty funny as I come from
the world of TV advertising etc.  The PC MMORPG market is very
mature; the gamers know what they want and how to find it.
I’m not so sure that spamming them with endless adverts
really would make a giant difference.  They just care about
the game and the experience. If they like it, they will invite their
friends.  That’s what I love about the free-to-play
model is that they can play as long as they like without spending a
dime.  So the experience is just minutes away by digital
download.

Ten Ton Hammer:
At the end of the Closed Beta, it was mentioned that there are a large
number of things that needed to be fixed; can you go into detail on
what some of those items were?

Dave:
Many of the things the gamers asked for were caused because the
features were turned off during closed beta.  (Mounts,
customization etc.)  In this next build they are turned on,
and so I’m looking forward to the next survey we run.

Ten Ton Hammer:
It’s no secret that 2Moons is being developed as a very, very
mature game. I’ve taken a look at some of the in-game
dialogue that users were going to create, and there’s some
pretty coarse language throughout. Why did you choose to make a game
that pushes the boundaries? What is there to gain from making such a
brutal, harsh world?

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2Moons is being
developed as a very mature game, with adult language and violence.

Dave:
The language in the game during Closed Beta was, admittedly, a bit over
the top. We had hired a writer and asked him to make the dialog edgy
and very mature, He was like a kid in a candy shop as nobody had ever
lifted the restrictions on him before.  However, in our
surveys players actually felt he had taken it just a bit too far,
meaning that people started to feel like they were being mean to you,
cursing all the time.  So my Assistant Director, Rusel DeMaria
– a very experienced game industry writer – has
taken on the task of rewriting the dialog, toning it down somewhat,
while still keeping a very adult style.  It’s a lot
of extra work (also explaining delays) but it’s what the
surveys called for.

 We still want to present a hardcore, uncensored
world. In many MMORPGs, the world itself is dangerous and violent, but
the characters all speak in very artificially polite ways, and even the
bad guys really don’t talk like bad guys. In 2Moons, people
talk rough, and don’t pull their punches. As I said, our
players seem to appreciate this approach – to them
it’s refreshing and honest.