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Talisman Online Interview
GameOgre.com recently had a Q&A session with Terry Jin of the Talisman Online team. Questions by GameOgre.com are in bold.
Congratulations on
Talisman Online's Second Anniversary. What all have
you done to celebrate this event?
Well, 2 years with Talisman Online has definitely
brought a lot of feelings, and also worth of a series of
celebrations: Roughly we held the following events: My wishes
for TO, Share My TO Essay, New Patch & Anniversary Celebration
Quests, Question & Answer, Halloween Event, Present Code of Gift
and the Final Lucky Draw.
To highlight a little bit, I personally like the Share My TO Essay event a lot. From various articles, I did experience a lot of emotions - happiness, warmth of friendship, most funny moments, also there are regretful recalls, sad feelings etc. All the feelings that one can experience in real life, you can find that among our TO players. Real feelings right from the bottom of the heart, that’s the most beautiful part to me…
To highlight a little bit, I personally like the Share My TO Essay event a lot. From various articles, I did experience a lot of emotions - happiness, warmth of friendship, most funny moments, also there are regretful recalls, sad feelings etc. All the feelings that one can experience in real life, you can find that among our TO players. Real feelings right from the bottom of the heart, that’s the most beautiful part to me…
What do you remember the most in the two years of operating the game?
A lot of moments were memorable.
About the Server Crash
When we initially started the game, we just had 2 servers. Right then we experienced some unexpected server crash. Our team spent a whole sleepless night to fix that issue, 5 updates was added in a row to bring back the server. We were so upset and worried how the players would feel about this. And we know some players were even as worry as we did. And finally it was in such a celebration atmosphere when we finally made it the next day.
Now when look back, what matters most is not the way to solve the tech issue. Instead, always thinking from the players’ perspectives, feeling what a player would feel is our core value.
About the Players
Originally we were also concerned about the difficulty of our new scenarios, when designing and testing them, we would worry how the players could conquer them, as they look so difficult. But TO players really surprised us on this – for each new released scenario, there are always players that are able to complete the scenario with limited levels and equipments, and in a very short time. They really finished mission impossible in our eyes.
Well, we will always be back with a more difficult one…
About the Love and Marriage, and the NPC
Once there were 2 young people met in TO. They started knowing each other when playing together, falling in love and finally got married in real life. To make this more impressive, they are physically from two different continents in the world.
We were so moved about their story that we decided to do something to memorize it in TO. Now if any player visits the east of Stone City, you will see 2 NPCs sitting together on the game land and sharing their sweetness to the rest of players….
To keep privacy, that’s all we can describe about it. And we do hope to see more miracles to take place in this wonderful game!
Is there any unique monster that players
have yet to vanquish yet?
The answer is Yes, but the monster is still under design. Just as I said before, the only invincible in-game creatures are our players. They keep crushing every of our efforts in making real strong monsters. And I believe the war between players and monsters will keep level up.
What do you think Talisman Online offers that other free MMORPGs don't?
This is my favorite question indeed. We always ask ourselves why a player would choose a specific MMORPG. Is it a game with fascinating visual and audio effects? Or is the game a great place to know people and play together? Or is the game providing a combined experience that brings many emotions to the players? TO is a combination of all above and we do feel there are more about this game.
1. Let's start with high performance and low criteria – TO is a 3D MMORPG with perfect visual effects. In the meantime, TO is a game has minimum client end software (253MB), moreover, TO has the minimum requirement on a player's PC or laptop.
2. New Player Friendly –TO is a game that you can learn to play in 10 minutes. I am not saying you will become an expert after 10 minutes, but 10 minutes will make sure you have good understanding of the game terms and logics, thus would enable a player to easily dig further. Also, there is more consideration on rules in the game, to ensure a nice environment for newbies.
3. TO community – We have so many players, and they are coming from every corner of the world. In our latest survey, most of our players are taking great pleasure in meeting and making friends from all over the world. Many kinds of online and offline friendship were formed.
Do you think your game appeals more to the casual gamer or the hardcore gamer? Also, do you feel that Talisman is more targeted towards solo players or grouping?
I would say everyone. We have a good coverage of all ages among players. And there are some interesting in-game teams formed by couples, mother and son, grandmother and grandson... Also, we have expert level players who are able to give us consultation and advices on game features, and we have casual players who just enjoy the pure interactive.
Please explain your PvP system. How much impact does it have on the rest of the game?
TO is not a game encouraging random PK. We have PK value, along with red/yellow name mechanism. 1 random kill will make a player name yellow; 2 consecutives would turn his name red. As a punishment, everyone else in the game is free to kill yellow name players without any punishment, and the yellow name character will suffer further loss of experience, energy and gold. Same thing would apply to red name character, and the loss would be doubled. Also a character with red name would be forbidden to use the skills, as well as being kept out in certain scenarios and arenas.
For players who request for fair PK, we have dedicated PVP arena. Also, a player could request for a duel with others, if the request was accepted, a "friendly match" would take place between players without anyone being punished.
For active players, there are also group PK, City Wars though organized ways. Guilds and player teams will be able to combat through set timelines and with restricted arenas. Everyone will get what they have been seeking for.
How is your combat system different from other games in the genre?
Talisman is all about the weapons. Chinese philosophy believes the perfect balance between heaven and man, as well as the master and talisman tightly in one.
TO weaponry philosophy provides more alternatives for players to pursue the ultimate power, the more time and efforts you spend on forging the talisman, the more powerful weapon you get, and you will be able to add many extra attributes to your own character.
Also players are able to develop duel magic skills. This would enable a player to practice 2 different magic in the same time, isn't that cool?
What role do guilds play in the game? What benefits do players get from being in a guild?
Joining a guild will mean a lot to players:
Much faster in levelling up the characters
You will be able to explore difficult scenarios with the help of senior guild members. Also you can learn from those guys to know the best way to practice your own character. Usually that kind of knowledge will just be open to guild members.
Nice equipments
You are not just joining a guild; you would also join a pyramid of optimizing item usages. There are always replaced items from the top level players, those are not that useful in their original masters’ eyes, but it would mean much to newbies. Sometimes if you are lucky enough, a well forget talisman will become yours without much efforts…
Shortcut to get famous
Want to get famous? Join a tough guild. Winning guild of the weekend city war will bring a crown for every member. Imagine wearing that on your own character, walking along the street, you will feel so proud to be a member in the remarkable winning battle.
What does the game have for end game content?
Well, we do plan to raise the max level, vertically there needs to be more challenges, players just love that all the time.
Also, we plan to expand the maps with new tasks and scenarios all the time; we hope our players will have more variety of choices in the game.
In terms of end game content, we just wouldn’t use that term in our games. The game grows along with the players together. It’s a living thing in our eyes. We will manage the release frequency with a balance of the content for each new version.
Are there any future improvements planned that you would like to mention?
Our principle is to maximize the player experience without changing the in-game balance.
I would just list a few things in our plan:
New scenarios are underway.
New PVP updates will secure private room for PVP players.
Our Christmas task is going to be released soon. It's not only a patch to simply fix problem, new stuff will be introduced, such as new mount.
And also to be fair enough to the monsters and bosses in the game, some of them will be having new skills to protect themselves better.
In closing, is there anything else that you would like MMORPGers to know about Talisman Online?
We hope you have fun in TO!
The answer is Yes, but the monster is still under design. Just as I said before, the only invincible in-game creatures are our players. They keep crushing every of our efforts in making real strong monsters. And I believe the war between players and monsters will keep level up.
What do you think Talisman Online offers that other free MMORPGs don't?
This is my favorite question indeed. We always ask ourselves why a player would choose a specific MMORPG. Is it a game with fascinating visual and audio effects? Or is the game a great place to know people and play together? Or is the game providing a combined experience that brings many emotions to the players? TO is a combination of all above and we do feel there are more about this game.
1. Let's start with high performance and low criteria – TO is a 3D MMORPG with perfect visual effects. In the meantime, TO is a game has minimum client end software (253MB), moreover, TO has the minimum requirement on a player's PC or laptop.
2. New Player Friendly –TO is a game that you can learn to play in 10 minutes. I am not saying you will become an expert after 10 minutes, but 10 minutes will make sure you have good understanding of the game terms and logics, thus would enable a player to easily dig further. Also, there is more consideration on rules in the game, to ensure a nice environment for newbies.
3. TO community – We have so many players, and they are coming from every corner of the world. In our latest survey, most of our players are taking great pleasure in meeting and making friends from all over the world. Many kinds of online and offline friendship were formed.
Do you think your game appeals more to the casual gamer or the hardcore gamer? Also, do you feel that Talisman is more targeted towards solo players or grouping?
I would say everyone. We have a good coverage of all ages among players. And there are some interesting in-game teams formed by couples, mother and son, grandmother and grandson... Also, we have expert level players who are able to give us consultation and advices on game features, and we have casual players who just enjoy the pure interactive.
Please explain your PvP system. How much impact does it have on the rest of the game?
TO is not a game encouraging random PK. We have PK value, along with red/yellow name mechanism. 1 random kill will make a player name yellow; 2 consecutives would turn his name red. As a punishment, everyone else in the game is free to kill yellow name players without any punishment, and the yellow name character will suffer further loss of experience, energy and gold. Same thing would apply to red name character, and the loss would be doubled. Also a character with red name would be forbidden to use the skills, as well as being kept out in certain scenarios and arenas.
For players who request for fair PK, we have dedicated PVP arena. Also, a player could request for a duel with others, if the request was accepted, a "friendly match" would take place between players without anyone being punished.
For active players, there are also group PK, City Wars though organized ways. Guilds and player teams will be able to combat through set timelines and with restricted arenas. Everyone will get what they have been seeking for.
How is your combat system different from other games in the genre?
Talisman is all about the weapons. Chinese philosophy believes the perfect balance between heaven and man, as well as the master and talisman tightly in one.
TO weaponry philosophy provides more alternatives for players to pursue the ultimate power, the more time and efforts you spend on forging the talisman, the more powerful weapon you get, and you will be able to add many extra attributes to your own character.
Also players are able to develop duel magic skills. This would enable a player to practice 2 different magic in the same time, isn't that cool?
What role do guilds play in the game? What benefits do players get from being in a guild?
Joining a guild will mean a lot to players:
Much faster in levelling up the characters
You will be able to explore difficult scenarios with the help of senior guild members. Also you can learn from those guys to know the best way to practice your own character. Usually that kind of knowledge will just be open to guild members.
Nice equipments
You are not just joining a guild; you would also join a pyramid of optimizing item usages. There are always replaced items from the top level players, those are not that useful in their original masters’ eyes, but it would mean much to newbies. Sometimes if you are lucky enough, a well forget talisman will become yours without much efforts…
Shortcut to get famous
Want to get famous? Join a tough guild. Winning guild of the weekend city war will bring a crown for every member. Imagine wearing that on your own character, walking along the street, you will feel so proud to be a member in the remarkable winning battle.
What does the game have for end game content?
Well, we do plan to raise the max level, vertically there needs to be more challenges, players just love that all the time.
Also, we plan to expand the maps with new tasks and scenarios all the time; we hope our players will have more variety of choices in the game.
In terms of end game content, we just wouldn’t use that term in our games. The game grows along with the players together. It’s a living thing in our eyes. We will manage the release frequency with a balance of the content for each new version.
Are there any future improvements planned that you would like to mention?
Our principle is to maximize the player experience without changing the in-game balance.
I would just list a few things in our plan:
New scenarios are underway.
New PVP updates will secure private room for PVP players.
Our Christmas task is going to be released soon. It's not only a patch to simply fix problem, new stuff will be introduced, such as new mount.
And also to be fair enough to the monsters and bosses in the game, some of them will be having new skills to protect themselves better.
In closing, is there anything else that you would like MMORPGers to know about Talisman Online?
We hope you have fun in TO!
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