I had the absolutely wonderful pleasure of talking to the Community Director for the upcoming MMORPG Tera Online from En Masse Entertainment. For you gamers, Tera is the most exciting, innovative new title emerging, and the developers behind it are a collective of the most talented veterans in the gaming industry, coming from high profile companies like Blizzard, BioWare and NC Soft. This coming week, TERA is unveiled on the floor at E3, the world renown Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles which has undeniably been the hype machine starting point for some of the most culturally relevant, commercially successful games of all time… you know the ones I’m talking about! Tera is poising itself to take it’s place on the frontlines of the Next Generation gaming experience.
I had a fantastic time with Jason, who was both funny and informative. After listening, you should head on over to the official TERA Online website (link) sign up for the newsletter, watch the amazing videos, the latest included below – and get involved! Say goodbye to the days of target based combat and mindless button mashing and immerse yourself in whats been called the Worlds first Action MMO.
Take a look below after listening to the podcast and watch IGN’s world exclusive E3 trailer of TERA Online!
Links:
OFFICIAL TERA WEBSITE
TERA on TWITTER
EN MASSE ENTERTAINMENT
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ok, that was the best interview ever. I just love u. “I had to fix my mic, I’m sorry.”
You had a chocolate Rain moment. LOL
That trailer is friggen awesome!
Awesome !
Looking forward to the release and watching the progress of Tera with great interest as it grows step by step! Being an avid warhammer player – this grabs me!
Poid
You guys rocked it OUT!!!111 SO EXCITED ABOUT TERA! Age of Conan wuz a HUGMUNGO disappointment. That was supposed to be the action MMO we all wanted but it failed epic.
Went to the tera website and signed up to the newsletter, does that apply me for the beta?
Thanks for the laughs phay and jason
you guys were grate
and now i really wanna try this piece out
that trailer was sick yo
This will be the WoW killer I’ve been waiting for. Gotta say that the best thing about WoW anymore is the Phaylen videos
I was looking over the TERA ONLINE official and couldn’t find any ETA. Are they just saying 2011? Is the Focus Group another term for Beta or…?
One thing that appeals to me is the non-target combat. It will be nice to play a friggen game where your success isn’t dependent on gear stats or how big your guild is. WoW is so dominated by the powerplayers and their massive guilds that a casual player will never see endgame content. Guilds stipulate gear because of stats. That’s gear the casual solo player or PUG will never likely obtain. If you ask me it alienates a huge part of the player body, and that’s what ruined it. The criteria you had to meet to participate and survive in end game content was made almost completely for the 11-hour a day players. Massive turn off for most, meanwhile the minority are roaming around invincible which makes nobody care to PvP in the BG’s. It’s created a severe imbalance they never recovered from.
WoW was awesome out of the gate, but as soon as their core playerbase was chased out by the powergamers, it reduced the quality of it to nothing. Nobody wants to pay 15 bucks a month for a game they can never truly or fully experience. I hope the devs watched WoW’s mistakes and learned.
Nobody but Phaylen and Jason could have taken 20 minutes of my day without me regretting it. LOL. I think everyone and everything I’m remotely interested in should talk to Phay because nobody can touch her or even come close to her indomitable style. I was seriously looking forward to Tera and even moreso now that more info is being released. To hear that Phay, of all people, was talking to their com director — how the f*ck could I miss that?!
Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Will we ever see Our Virtual Golden Girl in Tera as we have in WoW? *wink*
Eh, nuthin I haven’t heard before, except i never heard BrotherMagneto interviewed like *this* before and I have to admit it was a welcome change from the run of the mill stiff stuffy interviews are all over. I’ll talk to you anytime, phayeln.
I’ve been watching all of the upcoming games and just like 5 years ago, there seem to be 3 that will be hitting the market at the same time that promise to “revolutionize” gaming. The same thing happened in 2004/2005 release season with Guild Wars, World Of Warcraft and Everquest 2. This time it’s Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Tera Online. The difficult path for Tera will be that it is competing with games that have a history, a fanbase and a successful franchise: Unless one goes the route of the disastrous Star Wars Galaxies or Stargate.
It will be interesting to sit back an watch what happens since Guild Wars 2 seems to really be priming up to knock it out of the ballpark with their dynamic world events. Star Wars has been picking up traction after being in development since I swear I was 10 (I loved your comment about how some companies are like 40 year old debutantes who keep showing but never release. Made me almost spit out my pepsi.) but I think honestly that when a game lingers in visible development for too long it hurts it more than helps it/ People grow tired of hearing the same jargon over and over for years. It gets stale, it loses it’s luster and the communities become bored and wander away from it disinterested. That is even before it hits shelves.
I don’t know which way I’ll lean when these all release. I like that Tera is completely original in every way, but the other games have the benefit of having played the court before and have a strong idea of what worked and what didn’t. If it comes out and it like of of the typical fast slash pvp-centric Korean MMO’s like Lineage or Aion, I’m definitely out. When I even hear the word “Korean” or “Westernization” anymore it terrifies me because no one has done it right. All the screaming avatars in Aion and the blinkandyoumissit combat moves put me off, that and the littering of player stores all over the damn place. There is no doubt that they can create really nice looking avatars, but the look of the Popori on the official site made me do a double wtf take. Not sure how excited I am to be running around with a dwarf sized Panda Bear for a comrade.
u r a riot!! listening 2 u makes me happy *.*
I keep wishing a game will come along that mixes the best of all games. No matter how you look at it even the failed mmorpgs have a strong quality to them. For some it is the interface, for others it is the stat system, for some it is the features or graphics. To me all the Korean games look alike, and so do the characters. All the anime lookin chicks run around half naked with their skirts blowing up or wearing skintight latex/metal/molded with everything showing. The dudes are choked in armor three feet deep. I aint complaining cause they look good, Im just sayin their all the same. Look at lineage, the elves run hunched over with tehir boobs swinging. In Aion it was pretty much the same characters in a diff world. FFXIV looks like the first foreign game to break the mold, but Tera looks like all the rest as far as characters go.
Thats not to say anything bad because art can be secondary if the content is there and if they stay away from just dubbing a korean game they will be okay. I like that he acknowleges that we are different cultures with different play styles. NCSoft never got it.
Wow graphics sucked and the people were butt ugly but the content was strong. It should say something to these game creators that the biggest game in the world had no korean influence and is huge in korea and around the world. If i played Tera and felt like it was saturated with korean influence it would dampen it for me because I want to feel im in a new world, not eastern or wester, not one i can tell immediately where the game studio is located but something that is brave enough to be its own territory in that respect. I liked EQ2 because it had just about everything and you could feel like a hero in the world without have to grind yourself into a stupor. that game did not succeed IMHO because it came out again wow and it was hefty on low to mid range systems as where wow was cartoony and more conservative with resources. that was long time ago of course but i think if it came out today it would blow other games out of the water.
Here it is: My Wish list for Tera
I want player housing
I want to be able to get things around the world I can decorate it with
I want to be able to have pets
I want a personal vendor for my house
I want a PvP frontier connected to the world, not a battlegrounds/Arena I warp/teleport to.
I want multi-player quests (Like warhammer has)
I want a harvester to be able to harvest bulk amounts of raw materials over time.
I want a culture that is self aware. I like little easter eggs like World of Warcraft does with Haris Pilton ect.
I want easy travel at a reasonable level. I hate running for hours on end to get from point A to point B.
I want flying mounts!
I want diverse appearance options both on creation and in the game. No Skittles plz!
I want unique quests that offer a rare item that you can only do once a week or month.
I want to see world celebrations and game events
I want to have collections or achievements or badges
i know I’ll get flamed but hey, a guy can dream!
That was a most excellent show, tyvm. yeah yeah yeah people will complain that there was no new info past down but it was very entertaining. I actually had no clue the game was this far done or about the website. I read about it in Massive Online Gamer and it sounded good. You hear a lot of comparisons to wow all over I know, and with GW2 and KoTOR coming out people are making factions between the 2. But I for one am watching FFXIV Online also. The screenshots are like omg. I hope tera and FF stay away from having combat like the other games that are made overseas like GUNZ Online and the new fangled free to play games. I want PvP to, but not like, open world pvp. I HATE that like a mofo. i will be happy to have certain area where it enabled or have the option to flag myself.
Tera looks amazing and sure it has it’s challenges ahead of it where the marketplace is concerned, but listen to the enthusiasm Jason has when he talks about it. Come on, guys, how long has it been since you have heard of a gaming company talking with true passion and excitement about their game, someone that actually plays it rather than is paid to just talk about it and sell it. That’s what will make Tera a stand out in the arena. These folks aren’t making a Wow rip-off to rake in some cash like other have, they’re doing something they want to do. They want to make a game we’ll love, and Jason definitely earned 100% my respect. Gamers make the best games, business men make Dungeon runners, the new Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and well pretty much any SOE game.
how do i join the beta ? I have been all over the site. mebbe i am just being stupid but i don’t see it.
Been looking forward to this. Definitely nice to see something that breaks the mold of the typical Orc/Elf/Dwarf/Human fare that saturates multiplayer gaming today. Now all we need is to shake up the classes a little bit and break away from the Warrior/Priest/Sorcerer that exists in every game. The don’t need to change the behavior, just infuse make up a different title to define the classes since that’s all that it takes. I was thinking that Tera would do this since their world is detached from our reality and all other MMO worlds. I have been reading the lore stories on their site which is also pretty cool.
Good interview!
Dave
That was the cutest.
When did you get out of jail? hahahahaha I snorted when I heard that!
Superfab show. I watch the vids, and think I’ll be quite happy with the Priest. Do Priests usually show that much leg :O
Have you people even seen games today? All the womenz run around scantily clad! That’s why most gamers are men. No offense to the host. Women aren’t as visually stimulated as us guys. That’s why we get the sex-centric eye candy! Hack’em up, slash’em down and a little bit of skin are in all rpgs anymore. I ain’t complaining.
My own opinion is that TO will rule with the nontarget combat. AoC promised a new type of combat but never delivered the goods, it was still targeting but you could determine where on the ring you hit. I don’t want a bullseye on a mobs ass, I want to earn my win in a fight by utilizing skill and from the way it was described in the podcast it seems like that’s what it will be. +1 for skill \o/ Of course that means all the kiddies with their dice rolling combat who have no skill, only armor twink will QQ.
Here is what I learned from the Tera show.
#1. Tera is going to Rock The Kabash. I am going to obsess over it until they invite me to beta so I can get my hands on a Warrior.
#2 Phaylen is like the virtual Paris Hilton with Brains and a good nose. Everything I want in a woman rolled into one.
You didn’t talk about how much it’s gorna cost. Is it sub based?
What a breath of fresh air!
I loveloveloved the interview and even more the whole concept of Tera. You two aren’t the only die hard gamers who are older than they wanna admit lol. I have been getting SO fed up with the rash of MMO’s being so predictable that I’ve tapered off my playing any for the last year. They’re all the same with only a different package. You pay, you start, you quest then grind to maxx level. You get the best armour then you win. Game over. It’s because there was never any talent or skill involved in these games, only time and those who had enough of it to waste in hugungo amounts. If a game required skill I would have tried harder and been more proud of my achievements when I hit 80 on my Shaman. All I did was roll an alt lol. I am totally jazzed that Tera actually treats me like I have a brain right? That my wins are for actually winning and not some random chain of events and who can hit spells fast enough. It’s taking it to a near realistic place which I’ve wanted for ages now. Good on you Tera!
This is going to impale the other games. Yes, it’s subscription based but that’s a good thing. Leave all the l33t kiddies to their Guild Wars 2. The problem with free 2 play games is this: No matter how good the game is, if it is free-2-play it is destroyed due to the out of control kiddies and griefers with no job or income and what have you that flood the servers. That’s when the the terms “Playing is a privilege, not a right” goes out the door with the quality of the experience. With free-2-play models it is a right, because they have nothing to lose, they give nothing in return. I won’t play free 2 play games on principal. I have yet to see a single one I enjoy or that has gone big.
If you can’t chuck up your 15 or 20 bux a month, get a job, earn your privilege to play like the rest. Otherwise, have fun in GW2. I’ll be in tera.
Yall were a lot of fun. It was nice to see somone we normally think of as a suit go ahead and let their hair down so to speak. Yall will see me stompin the grounds in Tera as a Baraka Lancer or a Human Archer. Those are the two I got my eye on.
I can’t believe I somehow missed this podcast! I’ve got Tera Online on my google alerts and this just popped up for me today. I have always enjoyed Jason’s interviews because he is the most charismatic and spirited person who is public facing at En Masse. I think I’ve heard him interviewed by every monotone drone who reads questions at him that exists in the MMO related media industry. Then I found this. ☺ I wished you had done more than a short interview because this was just the right pace I enjoy. Finally, a FUN interview and no more droning!
Reading some of the comments I have to say that I think the Tera developers are well aware of the marketplace climate. It would be pretty ignorant to turn a blind eye when they’re going to be your direct competition, and En Masse is definitely not that. As mentioned above, this is not some company of fresh outta college kids. These guys are experts and they have the track record to prove it. Already they have proven they have the ability to think outside the box by incorporating so much of the community feedback offered on the forums and through the FGT’s. They listen to the people that love gaming, they know who their audience is. I am not worried about the other games, I know Tera will stand strong, despite it not coming from a franchise. That may just be it’s strength rather than it’s weakness. Franchises have a lot of stigma and expectations assigned to them very early on. Tera doesn’t have that, so it’s slate is clean.
Also I can tell you that it’s not just tossing out a Korean game. Yeah it was originated in Korea, but if you listened to this podcast you will hear Jason say that Blue Hole in Korea is taking as much input from the American team at En Masse as En Masse is taking from Blue Hole. Don’t pre-judge Tera because it’s origins are not Western.