Yesterday, I approached Auran in the hopes of setting up a Q&A between the developer and you guys. Auran was happy to oblige.
For those of you out of the loop, Auran is the Brisbane-based developer behind the RTS Dark Reign and more recently, the massively multiplayer hack’n'slash Fury.
All you have to do have your question considered is to submit it as a comment to this post. Once I’ve had a look, it’ll be published for the world to see. If it’s particularly good, it might even end up in the final Q&A. We’ll be accepting questions until Friday afternoon so get your thinking caps/shirts/fertility pants on and your mind cogs turning.
This is a great opportunity to chat candidly with a great Australian developer. So consider your questions carefully as only serious efforts will be accepted.
As a little something extra, Auran is offering two copies of Fury, signed by the developers, for the two best questions we receive. That’s a treat in anyone’s book.
If this goes well, I’d definitely look to organise further open Q&As with other developers.
Now, start commenting!
Allen
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 1:35 PMHow has the lackluster reviews affected Auran’s outlook on their game? Is Auran still optimistic about the future of this IP?
JTM
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 1:40 PMIn a world dominated by warcraft, ( a world of warcraft, if you will) what are some of the difficulties you encounter in making a big splash in the MMO industry? How have you overcome these with Fury?
Also
What would the 40% tax rebate from the Australian Government mean for Auran, and the Australian games industry in general?
Brent
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 2:02 PMOk my question is:
What inspiration have the makers taken from other huge MMORPGS like world World of Warcraft, Everquest ect, and how has this influenced the direction of the game and what have they done unique in this game to differentiate between Fury and other huge MMORPGS in what is a already very oversaturated market?
Someone close to you
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 2:38 PMMy Question:
Why did you use the Unreal 3 engine, as opposed to your in house engine, Jet?
Is it because your a delapotated developer that lives of brisbane Goverment Subsidies?
Duskbringer
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 3:14 PMHave you found Australian media outlets (not just websites or magazines specifically geared towards gaming) are generally open to marketing games and are they finally being taken seriously as a profitable form of entertainment?
Besides the absence of tax rebates, what sort of obstacles or issues are unique to developing games in Australia?
railspider
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 5:48 PMWhat does Auran have planned for Fury going into the future, as far as patches and additional content are concerned?
Was the $1 Million ‘Unleash the Fury’ online tornament a success, in both drawing in new players and establishing Fury as the best PVP MMORPG available?
David Fowles
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 6:44 PMWhy do I want Fury?
barry
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 8:47 PMWhat the hell happened to Auran? After Dark Reign and Dark Reign 2 they lost the plot. Instead of focusing on making games they turned into a ‘multimedia’ company. Seems like a case of growing too quickly. Ashamedly they haven’t released anything decent in a LONG time, which sucks since I’m a Brisbanite.
Lev Arris
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 9:50 PMHow do you plan to balance the need for spending time and money updating the game, to attract and retain players, within the constraints of being a free to play MMO?
Jarod
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 9:51 PMThe Fury community has shown a lot of interest in being a part of the decision making as to what changes and improvements are made to the game. Many issues and suggestions players have had are being addressed in the upcoming content update, Age of the Chosen.
What does having such a vocal community offer to you as a developer, and how difficult is it to weigh the input of the community versus your original vision and hopes for the game?
Bobangry
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 9:58 PMFor those of us that have been waiting to pick up Fury, how will you ensure that equipment remains balanced when we compete against players using items they acquired pre-update (“Age of the Chosen,” coming in December). This content update has been stated to reduce the power of enchantments on new items overall, yet allows current players to keep better versions of them as Auran looks for a way to “gradually remove pre-update items from the economy.”
Gradually removing overpowered items is not enough however, because until every last one is gone new players will be at a competitive disadvantage out of their control. How will Fury avoid this while keeping those that have already acquired the items happy?
ROADKILL
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 11:51 PMwhy dont auran pay gamespot,ign and other shit like it to make a review like other successful games do?thats the key to selling really
Silk
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 12:57 AMIs it true that half the Fury development team has quit? Taking this, and the terrible reviews into account, what is the plan for Auran/Fury in the future?
anonymous
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 4:03 AMWhy is Fury so itemized while promoting itself as a skill based game?
Keenan
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 7:04 AMWill auran one day add a in-game game recorder in fury?
Anonymous
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 8:03 AMWhat are some of the long term goals (apart from keeping the servers up) for the game, and how does Auran feel it will best maintain player interest? Rumors about in-house conflicts stemming from the design team abound, and I’m just curious if you guys are going to be able to keep your crap together long enough to make a semi-playable game.
Vangalorr
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 8:52 AMThe success of recent MMO’s has very much been about the developers ability to balance and manage the needs of casual players with the demands of the hardcore. This is no more evident than in the growth of the player base of World of Warcraft. Going forward how does Auran plan to manage these two often conflicting camps?
Dustin
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 11:03 AMGiven the success of the Fury MMO, are there any plans to make a Trainz MMO?
Alister
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 12:50 PMWas there ever any consideration give to a Korean style business model (free to play, micro transaction for in game items) when you were developing Fury? How do you see the business models of future MMOs evolving?
John
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 3:04 PMIf sales don’t pick up for Fury, how long can current players expect Auran to maintain Fury servers?
It’s hard to buy an online title when it’s life expectancy is uncertain.
tithin
Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 9:37 AMDid their engine of unreal engine 3 change anything about the way the game renders using direct x? The reason I ask is because I was running windows vista, and was speaking to a vendor, clicked ‘exit’ to leave the vendor screen, and the computer completely crashed. When it rebooted, directx would no longer function, I ended up switching back to XP. Which is sad because I did quite enjoy fury.
SpiceMan
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 9:22 AMFor a PvP-depended MMO like Fury latency is a real issue. So why is there no Australian servers for Fury?
Senor_S
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 2:18 PMWhat do i have to ask to get the free copy?
Kevin
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 5:32 PMAs was mentioned earlier, I’ve heard a lot of the dev team has left. Couple that with the (unfortunately) poor reviews the game has been receiving, surely everyone’s spirits must have taken a beating. As talented staff would be your biggest asset, whats being done to keep the morale high for the remaining team?
Bleekster
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 7:07 PMI’ll try a different sort of direction. Do you have regular contact (Creatively) with any other studios or publishers, either domestically or internationally?
If so, what’s the support network like with developers? Is it a tight knit community of creative minds that are willing to help fellow minds or is it a very lonely industry?