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Gamepro.com recently interviewed Patrick Blanton of Wolfpack Software , makers of the hotly-anticipated upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online RPG Shadowbane. The interview mainly focusses on the game and how it encourages Player vs. Player and Guild vs. Guild combat, while other games of this type try to discourage such things. Patrick adresses one of the biggest concerns of gamers, "newbie jumping" -- veterans hacking those new to the game into pieces just for amusement or for the paltry amount of gold they carry. Here is an excerpt:

To this end, we've gauged the penalty of death to vary depending on the relative strength (or weakness) of the opponents. If a newbie were travelling in a dangerous area (which is hard to do -- you'd really have to be going out of your way) and happened to be killed by a high level player, the result would basically be a "free teleport" back to town. We don't reward people for killing indiscriminately, because we don't want combat to be about that. We want people to engage in combat for the right reasons -- a guild war, perhaps, or a territory dispute."

IMG Visits Shadowbane Creators

Shadowbane

Gamepro Interviews Patrick Blanton

Wolfpack Studios (add to watch list)

Shadowbane (add to watch list)

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