Paradox diffuse une bande-annonce pour Kingmaker, la prochaine extension de Majesty 2. La vidéo permet d’assister au survol de différents territoires et donc d’apercevoir rapidement plusieurs exemples de combats impliquant entre autres des gobelins, l’une des nouveautés au programme de cet add-on option DLC.
Par ailleurs, voici d’une part un bref aperçu de ce que donnera l’éditeur de cartes et, d’autre part, Paradox confirme dans un récent Producer diary que le système de micro-transactions intégré dans Majesty 2, pour acheter des objets magiques ou des sortilèges par exemple, devrait bientôt être activé. A priori cette option plaira surtout aux joueurs chinois, marché voisin de la Russie où Paradox prospecte actuellement et où les micro-achats auraient plus de succès que les abonnements mensuels. Ces nouvelles fonctionnalités (map editor, random mission et ingame shop) seront offertes gratuitement dans le cadre d’un prochain patch. Ce qui amène certains à se demander ce que proposera l’add-on Kingmaker, à part des gobelins et huit missions pour 20 €.
Par la suite, des « achievements » pourraient aussi voir le jour dans Majesty 2, Paradox préparant l’intégration de ce type de système dans plusieurs de ses jeux.
La sortie de Kingmaker est prévue en version digitale dans le courant du 1er trimestre 2010.
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Majesty 2 Producer diary #5
Just before X-mas me and Fredrik met with a bunch of guys from a big Chinese internet company. They’re all big of course, even if I haven’t heard of them before. They told us how Chinese customers are more accustomed to micropayments than monthly fees. I was raised in the school of monthly fees (WoW, anyone?). For sure, we have seen some microtransactions for PC games in the west as well, but we are way behind.
Majesty 2 came prepared with an in-game shop – just as sharp-eyed gamers on the forums have already noticed. We wanted to be ready to open up this feature if things went well. And they have!
Players will soon be able to get fun extra microcontent for Majesty 2. After all we’re in for the long haul with Majesty2, we don’t want to release it and then just abandon it and the fans. Microcontent is a great way to improve and prolong the life of an already great game.
A big part of microtransactions is about aesthetics. How gamers want their game to look and feel – skins, textures, avatar clothes – make up the majority of microtransactions, generally speaking. Our Chinese visitors mentioned something like 70% as a rough estimate. What I as a producer find most appealing with microtransactions is that it also gives developers an additional way to see what their fans want, in addition to achievements and what’s voiced on the forums. Just like achievements show where gamers spend most of their time in a game, microtransactions can give a hint of what gamers want more of. This feedback mean that devs can develop and expand their games more to the fans tastes. A possible win-win.
Back to the Majesty 2 shop. Through the store players will be able to add new things to their game, some things cool, some useful. I have seen some of the stuff, and I like it! How about issuing your royal decrees from a more stately palace? I fought an enemy who sported a palace not unlike Neuschwanstein castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein) , and I felt a little at a disadvantage. How to match such an overt display of royalty? On the other hand, I had a nifty new fire-spell at hand. I got spanked anyway, but I felt I managed to crawl away honorably. The more useful stuff – like spells – are a nice addition, although more for variety than a must for the hard core power gamer. I see that as a good thing – let’s stay clear of the rich boy syndrome, shall we? (On the other hand, if I could buy myself into majestic greatness, I could make more of an impact in the office battles…hum, a dilemma…).
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