Interview: Todd Harris, Global Agenda Executive Producer

Hi-Rez Studios is currently accepting closed beta applications for its upcoming MMO shooter Global Agenda. To help us decide whether we should apply, we chatted up Global Agenda executive Todd Harris for some more details on the game.

Blend Games: What were the primary influences for Global Agenda? Was there any game out there you wished to emulate?

Todd Harris: No. There is no one game out there that we were trying to emulate with Global Agenda. Our team plays all the major MMOs, but we started Hi-Rez Studios precisely because we felt we could offer a very different kind of MMO experience as an independent studio.

That said, we’ve certainly been inspired by a bunch of different great games and worked to combine these various elements into a single, immersive MMO world.

Players will many familiar elements including: a future, dystopian, “spy-fi” setting with protagonist player agents, akin to Deus Ex… jetpacks and an action third person view, akin to Tribes… fast paced, class-oriented, multiplayer shooter combat like TF2… character advancement, player vs. environment missions, cities, vendors & item acquisition which are of course staples of the MMORPG genre… and even a high level strategy game between player-driven groups, similar to a board game like Risk or Settlers of Catan or numerous turn-based computer strategy games. So, all of these could be credited as influences to some extent.

Blend Games: In Global Agenda, players will be able to organize themselves into "agencies." How are these different from the "guilds" of other MMO's? What sort of interactions will different agencies have with each other?

Todd Harris: Global Agenda agencies are similar to guilds within fantasy MMOs but with some important differences. One difference is that we offer a layer of association on top of agencies called alliances and these alliances are also player-created. So rather than offering a couple predefined factions that players must choose from, agencies form their own alliances. That means it isn’t just Alliance vs. Horde, or Order vs. Chaos, but instead there are any number of player-created groups competing within our single world. This makes for a very dynamic, player-driven world and leads to politics, diplomacy, and perhaps even the occasional betrayal.

Blend Games: Assume that a player completely upgrades their character, receiving the highest skills and gear. What incentive does Global Agenda offer for them to keep playing?

Todd Harris: Great question. When we started Global Agenda we had a few core principles. One of those was that the combat system had to be fun and engaging on its own, independent of the upgrades earned for your character. And the second was that we wanted high level characters to have a meaningful incentive to keep playing.

To support a meaningful end-game, we provide player agencies a very tangible, cooperative goal. Groups acquire territory, construct facilities, and accumulate resources toward building a protected dome over a formerly uninhabitable region. It is like a giant board game of world domination but with the actual battles being fought by player agent combatants allied with your agency. This is an opportunity for your group to actually make history within the Global Agenda world and is a powerful, ongoing incentive for players at every level.

Blend Games: Given players' common aversion to being a "healbot," how has Hi-Rez made the Medic an appealing choice?

Todd Harris: Our Medic is actually a very popular class choice because you are at least as active playing Medic as any other class. Since we do not use tab-targeting, it is not as if there is a large set of “busy work” spells and button mashing that could be handled via add-on macros. Within Global Agenda, you are aiming your reticule to acquire and maintain your healing targets while simultaneously avoiding enemy fire using cover, or jetpacking to a different position while also using your various device counters. Bottom line, there is no way to play our Medic on auto-pilot.

Also, like all our classes, Medics can be customized to support many different playstyles. I may spec toward healing a single friendly, or healing of multiple friendlies, or distance healing by lobbing grenades, or debuffing targets via poison, or even doing significant direct damage or damage over time via ranged weapons or close combat.

Blend Games: How much do the abilities of the four character classes in Global Agenda overlap? Can a team of players be effective if it's only composed of, say, two or three character classes? For example, will other classes besides the Medic have any healing abilities?

Todd Harris: The character classes within Global Agenda play very differently and do not share any of the same devices. There are a small number of basic devices, like rifles, with slight differences between the classes. But the majority of our devices are entirely different between classes. For some important in-mission goals, like taking out an enemy turret, we provide each class with a way to assist or accomplish that goal but the specific abilities and devices are still very distinct by class. Specific to healing, Medic is certainly the specialist but there are a few non-Medic healing devices as well.

What ESRB rating do you think you'll get for the game? Is there blood and gore or are you keeping things pretty clean? How do you tell how damaged your foe is?

Our ESRB rating is still pending but I suspect we will be rated Teen. We are not going for extreme realism nor blood and gore. Our overall art direction is fairly stylized and futuristic in terms of characters and environments and this carries over to stylized visual effects as well. So, if you can handle the level of violence and visuals in say, a Star Wars movie, you should be fine with Global Agenda.

Blend Games: What kind of system requirements should we expect for Global Agenda?

Todd Harris: Users will be able to customize in-game video settings to accommodate a wide range of hardware configurations. In general, we expect the game to run very well on PCs that play other Unreal 3 engine based games.

Blend Games: Finally, when do you expect to release the game?

Todd Harris: As an independent studio we have the luxury of honestly saying, “When the game is ready!”

That said, our intention is to release toward the end of this year, and we are currently accepting applications for our Q2 Closed Beta. If your readers are interested in a different kind of MMO I really encourage them to visit www.globalagendagame.com. On that site you can check out our gameplay trailer and apply for our Closed Beta if you like what you see!