GameOgre.com had a Q&A session with Neocron 2's Holger Nathrath about this sequel to one of the first truly controversial MMORPGs. Questions by GameOgre.com are in bold.

Since the MMORPG genre is extremely crowded right now, what do you feel that Neocron 2 offers that other MMORPGs don't?

Neocron is an action-packed, cyberpunk online world where you can fight, trade, work, love or just live your digital life together with thousands of other players around the globe. You can build up your personal fortune in form of items, vehicles and apartments as well as your character’s skills and statistics.Neocron is the worldwide only MMORPG with a dark-future, Blade Runner style cyberpunk setting combined with a first person real-time fighting system. So there are no boring elves and dwarfs with “point-click’n’get a cup of coffee” combat.

Now we have just announced the development of version 2.1 of Neocron. This upgrade will enhance the features of the graphics engine, and the graphic content of certain systems of the game. For example we will redevelop the complete vegetation of the game and will also replace all important weapon models. We believe this upgrade will bring Neocron to a next level of quality.

How has the sequel been improved over the original?

Neocron 2 is a consequent successor of Neocron 1. It expands the game and overhauls it in a lot of important aspects, without changing the feeling too much.Besides the new features, we expanded the game world by a large factor. There is a complete new city with its unique atmosphere and all important facilities and of course a lot of additional new space. The main new location is the city of Dome of York. It contains an enormous amount of new maps the player can explore.One other huge new feature/location is the HackNet. Players, who are specialized in hacking, can enter the Networks, travel around, steal information and secret blueprints of other companies, fight against computer viruses or firewall programs and much more. This is all realized in a completely different style and feel.

Neocron 2 offers combat more like a first person shooter than traditional MMORPGs. Does this help with the dreaded grind that has become the bane of the MMORPG genre?

In my opinion the leveling treadmill is a weakness and strength of this genre at the same time. On one hand it forces the player to do similar things again and again. On the other hand it’s a very motivating thing to increase the stats of the own character. A MMORPG gives the player a maximum of freedom to do whatever he wants. If the player succeeds to create his personal fun mix between leveling and playing together with others he will have a perfect game experience.Based on our multi user vehicle system I started a taxi cooperation in Neocron once, had a whole clan who worked together with me, doing marketing, driving peoples around the Wastelands and selling vehicles of all kinds to customers. That was a great thing and we had a lot of fun.

Of course our action combat system is one aspect which just makes the game more challenging and more interesting. Certainly if you choose a combat based profession for your character.

Can you explain the dynamics of your PvP system and how it keeps the game interesting when players hit the level cap?

You can basically kill everyone you see, with two exceptions. Players that do not wish to participate in PvP can wear a special implant called the Law Enforcer. These players can not be damaged by other players, but in return also can’t damage any other players nor help players engaged in PvP combat. The other exception is when you are present in a so-called safezone. In these zones, players cannot draw weapons, so nobody can be killed there.In any other situation, you can kill anyone you see. But it’s not always advisable to do so. While you can kill anyone, killing somebody who doesn’t belong to an enemy faction will bring penalties. You will lose faction sympathies and the so-called Soullight, which is used to determine how lawful/criminal you are. If you kill several allied players in a row, you will be considered a bad criminal and guard NPCs will open fire on sight, while even allied players may kill you not only with impunity, but increasing their own Soullight value.

Both the original and the sequel contain more adult content (i.e sexual content, bad language, and drug usage) than most other MMORPGs.  Has there been any  major downside to having these elements in your games as opposed to being more mainstream oriented?

Neocron is living city with different kinds of districts. There is Viarosso as one extreme which is an exclusive city sector with the bank, StockX or high-tech companies. But there is also Pepper Park with night clubs, pubs, crime, drugs, NeoFrag (ingame virtual Deathmatch arenas) and, yes some naked skin. This is something you would expect in a city like Neocron is. You also won’t be surprised to find such establishments in a Blade Runner scenario. I think everybody agrees with that because nobody ever complained. It’s a important part of the overall game atmosphere.

Explain your interesting "No More Elves" campaign and what you want to accomplish with it.  

We want to show people that Neocron2 can be a brilliant alternative if you are tired of all those elves and dwarfs. And that’s exactly the reason why we decided to launch a nice marketing campaign with a lot of dark humor and we had a lot of fun designing the banners and concepts. Of course we hope people will give Neocron2 a try.

In closing, is there anything else that you would like gamers to know about Neocron 2?

The Neocron project is like a child to us, to our development team. It was born and is now growing while we are spending a lot time taking care of it.For people who like films like “Blade Runner” or “Judge Dredd”, for people who like scenarios like “Shadowrun” or “Snowcrash”, for people tired of dwarfs and elves, Neocron 2 is the only real option on the worldwide MMORPG market.

For people who are tired of point ’n’ click combat Neocron2 again is the only real option. So you should definitely give it a try.

Thank you for your time!

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