Diaspora Interview at MPOGD

Back when I was the News Editor at MPOGD, I did the following Interview with Phil of the Diaspora team.  This interview is no longer up at the MPOGD website, so here is a blast from the past for Diaspora fans:



Chuck: (8:19 AM) Great. Thanks. Are you the creator
of Diaspora?

Diaspora: (8:19 AM) yeah

Diaspora: (8:20 AM) sorry about the delay getting in
touch. The other person you talked to is in Australia
and there was a bit of a communication problem

Chuck: (8:21 AM) Why did you create Daspora as a stand
alone downloadable game as opposed to a text-based
game that is run off servers without any downloads
needed?

Diaspora: (8:23 AM) There are a lot of elements to
Diaspora that work better in a graphical environment.
It also enhances the user experience. We have tried to
keep this to a minimum though so that the download
does not get too big

Chuck: (8:25 AM) The reason why I asked is that in a
non-download game, you can make changes to it fairly
easily & quickly while in a download game, you have to
wait until you’ve got enough changes made to warrant
issuing a new patch which delays things a bit.

Diaspora: (8:27 AM) A lot of game changes can be made
server side without having to release a new patch. Our
patches are usually to add whole new elements to the
game which take time to write anyway

Chuck: (8:28 AM) Speaking of the patch, is there a set
date for its release & what specifically will be in
it?

Diaspora: (8:29 AM) We are currently working out how
long it will take to finish off the changes we are
making and test them so we don’t have a date yet. It
should be fairly soon though

Diaspora: (8:30 AM) We also need to test some things
before we can give a complete list of new features

Diaspora: (8:31 AM) One of the major things should be
the addition of a lot of new ai characters

Chuck: (8:33 AM) How about cheat-prevention & will
there be a reset with the release of the new patch to
negate the advantages that were gained by unscrupulous
players?

Diaspora: (8:34 AM) We are using some new code that
will hopefully sort out any hacks or cheats going
about and stop them in the future. Again we are in the
process of testing this out at the moment. A lot of
the new changes have been made specifically for this

Diaspora: (8:34 AM) There will not be a reset but
other methods are being looked at to remove any unfair
money

Diaspora: (8:35 AM) We feel that a reset is never the
fairest way and will always try to avoid them if at
all possible

Chuck: (8:37 AM) On the new Altitude website, it says
that there are “BladeRunneresque sponsorships”
available. What are these & is the game generating
any revenue from this method?

Diaspora: (8:39 AM) The idea with these is that we can
offer advertisers places to put adverts without them
being distracting to the gameplay (so no annoying
advert breaks or other disruptive advertising
methods). For example companies could plac adverts in
bars images or other locations on planets or sponsor
some ai.

Diaspora: (8:40 AM) Due to the work on the patch we
have not really started looking for sponsors but will
start soon

Chuck: (8:41 AM) Is Altitude generating enough revenue
from its other projects to be profitable despite what
must be significant losses from Diaspora?

Diaspora: (8:43 AM) Yes our other projects help us to
fund Diaspora

Chuck: (8:45 AM) Lately, the website, particularly the
Forum, has has some problems. Are these getting
fixed?

Diaspora: (8:46 AM) yes we have someone working on it
and it should be completely fixed in the next day or
two

Chuck: (8:48 AM) As it happens, I’m a Diaspora player
myself & one problem that players have with the game
is that the bounties for killing bots in the game
don’t give you much reward beyond your repair costs.

Diaspora: (8:49 AM) do you mean the guild rewards or
their individual rewards?

Chuck: (8:50 AM) Their individual rewards. I haven’t
tried killing bots myself, just going from what I’ve
heard.

Diaspora: (8:51 AM) Yes this is one of the things we
will be changing. We are looking into all our stats
for things like this and ships stats etc. using
feedback and our own experience so hopefully will get
all of these values to a better level

Chuck: (8:54 AM) regarding cheating, there used to be
an “Investigator” & an “Investigator’s Forum.” What
happened to that?

Diaspora: (8:56 AM) We now have a full time community
manager for the game that handles all these things.
With the amount of feedback we get from Diaspora it
was necesary to take someone on.

Chuck: (8:58 AM) As it happens, I’ve only played the
game since March, but one thing that I’ve often heard
is that before the last patch, Diaspora was a truely
fantastic game, but the last patch wrecked it by
adding excessively powerful ships. What’s your
reaction to that?

Diaspora: (9:02 AM) I think there was a mixed
reaction. All new ship stats were based on a huge poll
of our players to try and get them correct and a lot
of testing. It is however always hard to get
statistics exactly right until they have been in play
for a significant period of time. Based on feedback
this patch will see some changes to the ship stats
that should hopefully make everyone happy

Diaspora: (9:04 AM) One of the major changes will
probably be to the current helimoth stats

Diaspora: (9:04 AM) I mean helios not helimoth

Chuck: (9:05 AM) Will the patch add some more
planets/trade routes/missions?

Diaspora: (9:07 AM) There should be some changes to
the universe but I have not come up with the final
plans for this so can’t really say about the addition
of new planets. There will definitely be new missions
added and this will be an ongoing process even after
the patch has come out with new ones being added more
regularly (they do not need a patch to add them)

Chuck: (9:10 AM) Are there any long-term plans for
Diaspora such as eventually making it into a game sold
in stores as a CD-ROM game?

Diaspora: (9:13 AM) We will always try to keep
Diaspora itself free to play if we can and look for
other ways to bring in revenue. We have been looking
into a boxed version of the game and what we can offer

Chuck: (9:17 AM) Currently, Diaspora is a 2-D game.
Are there any plans for eventually making it into a 3D
game?

Diaspora: (9:23 AM) When designing Diaspora I thought
about 3d but feel that due to the nature of the game
this would actually detract from the game. One of the
main features of Diaspora is the interaction with
other players. This is essential in all elements of
the game from simple trade chat to full blown guild
war tactics and politics. I felt that if it became a
3d game a lot of this would be lost as communicating
on this level whilst also trying to pilot a 3d ship
would be impossible. I felt then and still do that
with communication being the most important thing in
the game this would just spoil it. I believe it is the
content and gameplay that is much more important than
the aesthetics of a game

Diaspora: (9:25 AM) excuse me one sec.. phone

Diaspora: (9:28 AM) back again.. sorry about that

Chuck: (9:28 AM) According to the Altitude website,
Diaspora now has over 70,000 players & there are over
60 guild & fan sites about the game. Why do you
thhink that the game has gotten this kind of audience?

Chuck: (9:28 AM) no problem.

Diaspora: (9:35 AM) I think the draw of Diaspora is
its community elements. Being able to play against and
interact to a high level with other players from
around the world. Rather than any linear gameplay the
gameplay is defined by the players themselves and how
they interact with others. This really draws people in
to a game and makes it much more unpredictable and
interesting. It is a credit to the players themselves
that the game has grown in such a great way. Also some
very good press and reviews have helped :)

Chuck: (9:37 AM) I’ve noticed that unlike many other
games, the Forum is pretty near uncensored, so that if
a player wants to accuse you of being the antichrist,
they can. You guys must have pretty thick skins.

Diaspora: (9:38 AM) Yeah you get used to it.. I guess
it’s just something you have to expect when people are
so involved in a game. And the nice comments more than
make up for it

Chuck: (9:42 AM) About what size do you expect the
patch to be? 2-3 MB?

Diaspora: (9:44 AM) Hopefully less.. and if we release
any new ships we will keep them as an optional patch
like the Helios.. again to keep size down

Chuck: (9:47 AM) Well, I’ve run out of questions.
Thank you very much for your time.