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            <b>Like 
              5 years in the future?  100 years?  1000 years?</b> </p>
            <b>Eekels: </b>Maybe 
              20 to 30 years.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Maybe 50.  And it’s based in the Earth’s solar system.  We haven’t 
              got out of our solar system yet.</p>
             <b>Oh interesting.  
              That leaves a lot of room still.  </b></p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Yes it does.</p>
             <b>A lot 
              of room.   So we’re looking at 20 possibly 50 years in the future.</b></p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              I’d say more like 50.</p>
            <b>But 
              we’ll still have weapons that are popular today?</b>  
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Different versions of them, probably.  </p>
             <b>I guess 
              this is still big design stuff.</b></p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Yeah we are concepting a lot of weapons.</p>
            <b>Weapons 
              and monsters, and I guess everything right?</b>  
            <b>Eekels: </b><i> 
              </i>  Yeah.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>Weapons 
              and monsters and spaceships, oh my.</p>
            <b>Spaceships!  
              </b>  
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Uh oh I just opened up a can of worms.</p>
             <b>Well 
              when you mentioned anywhere in the solar system I’m thinking spaceships, 
              and maybe you’re going to the asteroid belt, and maybe the corona 
              of the sun, and uh…</b></p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Moons of Jupiter.</p>
            <b>Moons 
              of Jupiter!  What else can you tell me about the game at this point?</b> 
               
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              I can just say, for myself, that this is a game that I’ve been wanting 
              to play for a long time.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Exactly.  We’ve been talking about this, tossing it back and forth 
              for –</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b>  
              And we say, “Oh wouldn’t it be great if…and that would be so awesome 
              to do…” and now after Unreal Tournament we said, “Well let’s do 
              it.”  And we looked it over and the bigger picture, and we found 
              it feasible so we started.</p>
            <b>Was 
              there any pressure, internally or externally, to do Unreal Tournament 
              2?</b>  
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              There was a time when we talked about perhaps doing that.  It floated 
              around with a lot of other ideas.</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              I think it was a natural thing to talk about.  </p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              But for us we were really ready to do something different.</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b>  
              To hang around too much in the Unreal universe for us was not --- 
              we wanted to do something different, something that we would enjoy 
              to the fullest.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              That’s the other thing too.  Everybody on our team was so excited 
              to do this project.  We were like giddy school kids.  </p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              We got so many responses from people saying, “I have been waiting 
              for this game.  I can’t believe you guys are doing it.”  And “Oh 
              it’s going to be so cool.”</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              In a way, we’re so excited and happy to be doing this, but it’s 
              also a little scary too because there’s so many expectations out 
              there so many people.  So many people have been waiting for this 
              kind of game, and they all have their own expectations and ideas 
              on what it’s going to be like.  I know that people are going to 
              love our game, but you always have that little fear in the back 
              of your head, “Oh what if my idea is different from everybody else’s” 
              but it’s been nice so far.  Everything we’ve released we’ve got 
              really positive feedback and comments on.  </p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              But definitely, because of our open mind, because of our ability 
              to have the whole group in there, and criticize the hell out of 
              the game while we’re making it, I think that it’s a pretty safe 
              bet that the game will be fun to play.  So if somebody looks at 
              the game and says, “I thought it was going to be different,” but 
              they played it they’ll still have fun.  It’s not like we’re going 
              to make something that’s totally off the wall.  It’s a logical step.  
              It will be fun to play.</p>
             <b>Thanks 
              guys, you’ve been terrific.  Next time I think we should have clothes 
              on when we do this interview.</b></p>
            &lt;laughs&gt;</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Okaaaaay!  Don’t put that in!</p>
            
            <i>- 
                      Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon currently holds the world 
                      record for using the word &quot;exhumed&quot; 15 times in 
                      a single sentence.</i> 
                      </p>
                  
                  
                
                
              
            
            
<br>Vol. 

                2, Issue 14<br>
                February 28, 2000<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
               
                <b><i>To 
                  the Extreme</i></b></p>
                An 
                  interview by Russell 
                  &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon.</p>
                <p></p>
              
              

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              While 
                they may not be quite as high-profile as their counterparts at 
                Epic Games, Digital Extremes is responsible for a large percentage 
                of the work in last year's ultra-successful <b>Unreal Tournament</b> 
                (and prior to that, the original <b>Unreal</b>). With those two 
                games under their proverbial belts, they've started work on their 
                most ambitious project to date - a massively multiplayer, persistant 
                world deathmatch game called <b>Dark Sector</b>. We sent Russell 
                &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon to their Canadian offices to get the 
                scoop on what the game will be like, and how they feel about <b>Unreal 
                Tournament's </b>success.</p>
              <i>- 
                Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman, editor-in-chief. </i></p>
              
                <p>
                <p> <b>Why don’t we 
                  start with, one at a time, your name and function, and we’ll 
                  go from there.</b></p>
                <p><b>Dave Ewing:   </b>Okay.  
                  My name is Dave Ewing and I’m –</p>
                <p><b>Ewing?</b></p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b><i> 
                  </i>Yeah.  E-W-I-N-G.</p>
                <p><b>Like the Dallas 
                  Ewings?</b></p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b><i>  
                  </i>Like the Dallas Ewings, right, which we watched religiously 
                  when I was a kid.</p>
                
                   
                     
                      
                    
                  
                   
                     
                       <i> 
                        </i></p>
                    
                  
                
                <p><b>Yeah I did too.  
                  Not that I meant to, but we only got two channels where I grew 
                  up.</b></p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b>Yep, 
                  that was the same with us too.</p>
                <p><b>Pancho Eekels:  </b>And 
                  Dynasty!</p>
                <p><b>And Knots Landing!  
                  </b> <b>&nbsp;</b></p>
                <p> <b><b>Ewing:   </b>Good 
                  old CBC.</b> </p>
                <p><b>Anyway –</b>  
                </p>
                <p><b>Ewing:   </b><i> </i>Anyway, 
                  my name is Dave Ewing and I’m a Level Designer.  Actually I 
                  also did sounds and a little bit of textures for UT, but for 
                  Dark Sector I’ll pretty much exclusively just be doing levels.  
                  I’ll have to do a lot more than I did for UT.</p>
                <p><b>Eekels</b><i>:  </i>  
                  My name is Pancho Eekels and I’m Lead Level Designer now at 
                  Digital Extremes.  That’s what I do, just level design.  Some 
                  textures here and there, yeah for Dark Sector there will be 
                  a lot more levels.</p>
                <b>You’re Lead Level 
                Designer now?  You weren’t before?</b> 
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b> No.  
                  I wasn’t with Unreal and Unreal Tournament.  Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski 
                  is Lead Level Designer there.  </p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b> Even 
                  though we were two teams we were basically doing the same project 
                  and we broke it down so we were one team for those two projects.</p>
                <p> <b>Yeah I’ve been 
                  interested in that whole process because there was two geographically 
                  separate teams working on the project.  How did you manage coordinating 
                  all your efforts?</b></p>
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b> Well 
                  it didn’t go to well and what happened was that for the last 
                  part of Unreal it was pretty obvious that we all needed to be 
                  together and that’s what we did so Epic came to Canada and we 
                  finished Unreal.</p>
                <b>How many people came 
                up?</b> 
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b> &lt;mumble&gt; 
                  …Tim… &lt;mumble&gt;</p>
                <p><b>Ewing:   </b>&lt;mumble&gt; 
                  … Eric…&lt;mumble&gt;</p>
                <p> <b>A boatload.</b></p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b> So 
                  yeah like 6 or 7.  </p>
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b> And 
                  then there was a few guys popping in and out.  And it was a 
                  very small office.</p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b> &lt;laughs&gt;  
                  Yeah it was a small space.  Hot.  On the weekends, of course, 
                  there was no air conditioning.</p>
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b> So 
                  we had a string of fans around the office.  It was terrible.</p>
                <p> That was back when 
                  you were in Waterloo then.</p>
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b>Yep.  
                  And for UT, Digital Extremes went to Raleigh.  That’s where 
                  we finished UT.  </p>
                <b>It was your whole 
                company that went?</b> 
                <p><b>Eekels:  </b>  All 
                  the people that were needed.</p>
                <p><b>Ewing:  </b>Like 
                  the level designers, texture artists.</p>
                <p> <b>Ok.  What was 
                  Digital Extremes role in Unreal and Unreal Tournament?  Did 
                  you split up the level design and that artwork and the engine?</b></p>
                <p> <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:   </b><b></b>We covered 
                  everything.  We did a little of coding, Epic did most of the 
                  coding, and we did half of the levels.  And basically a little 
                  bit of everything.  It wasn’t a defined role where we said, 
                  “You guys are doing this, and we were doing that.”  </p>
                <p> <b>Ewing:   </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>We acted as one team.</p>
                <p> <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b>  Yeah we split everything 
                  up.</p>

              </p>
              </p>
            
            
            
              <br><br> </p>
              
              
              
            <b>I’m interested 
              to know how much you’ll be able to use from Unreal Tournament in 
              Dark Sector, from tools to engine or whatever.</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  We can almost take anything.  Like 
              all of our tools that we have, which is basically the Unreal Editor 
              and some of the modeling tools, and we can take those with us and 
              use them as a base for Dark Sector.</p>
             <b>And 
              the engine as well?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  Yep!  </p>
             <b>Or are 
              you building a new engine from scratch?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  
              No!  But we will be coding a new renderer.  </p>
             <b>And 
              enhancements and features.</b></p>
             Ewing</b>:  Everything that we will need to keep 
              Unreal state-of-the-art.  We already have a bunch of ideas.  There 
              will be lots to do to it I’m sure.</p>
             <b>I guess 
              that will significantly cut down on development time then.</b></p>
             <b>Eekels: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>Yes.</p>
             Ewing</b>: Yes.  Oh yeah.</p>
             <b>Any 
              idea on what kind of release date we’re looking at?</b></p>
             <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b> No.  &lt;laughs&gt;</p>
             Ewing</b>:  Nope! &lt;laughs&gt;</p>
             <b>Well 
              you knew I had ask right?  </b></p>
             Ewing</b>:  It’s just that you get asked that 
              so many times, even if you just make a guess at something, it always 
              turns out to be:  “It’s going to be released at this time!”  and 
              when we just meant hopefully, so we decided it’s a better policy 
              just to say –</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  “When it’s done” is one of the 
              best lines ever.  </p>
             Ewing</b>:  Oh yeah.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  In the games industry.</p>
             Ewing</b>:  It sucks to get everybody’s hopes 
              up.  We’re like that when we’re looking at other games to come out.  
              Delayed again! It’s just so much better this way.</p>
             <b>Do you 
              know what gaming network you’ll be using to support the infrastructure 
              for Dark Sector?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  At this point we won’t have an 
              answer until we actually signed with someone.</p>
             <b>Have 
              you looked at it yet?</b></p>
             Ewing</b>:  Yep.  That’s one of the big things.  
              </p>
             <b>If you’re 
              looking at it, then you must be guessing at how many people you 
              could potentially have world-wide connected to the game at any one 
              time, right?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  Right now we’re looking at the 
              current games --</p>
             Ewing</b>:  -- like Asheron’s Call and Everquest 
              and what kind of numbers they’re getting.  We’ll generally setup, 
              we’re pretty sure, the same sort of style that they’re doing.  Where 
              they have a bunch of servers worldwide.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  Several universes of the game.</p>
             <b>That’s 
              probably a really good way of doing it, because if you get overloaded 
              you just pop in another server right?</b></p>
             Ewing</b>:  Yeah you can pop in another server 
              but I think we’ll do it the same way as in Asheron’s Call, where 
              your account will work on any world, but you can’t bring your character.  
              We’re still not sure but we’re still working on it.</p>
             <b>Parallel 
              universes.  In games like Asheron’s Call you have people online 
              all the time who are support people, who help others, watch for 
              problems, etc.  Are you thinking about something like that?</b></p>
             Ewing</b>:  Yeah I would kind of like to see 
              that because I’ve been helped out several times by support people.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  Again that’s something we have 
              to look at in the future.  It’s one of the many things on the list 
              that we are looking at.</p>
             <b>You’re 
              still in the design phase, I understand, so a lot of this stuff 
              is still on the board to be talked about.   Are you still working 
              on the design doc right now?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  Yeah we have the overall design 
              doc done, but of course there’s going to be tweaks.</p>
             Ewing</b>:  And added to.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  And taken off.</p>
             Ewing</b>: If there’s one thing 
              we found from development of both UT and Unreal, things change.  
              When you’re designing a game, especially with the open concept that 
              we have, things change so often, not drastically, but there’s so 
              many changes and shifts, minor shifts, and even some major shifts 
              in direction that go on.  Having a hugely detailed design doc before 
              you even start is sometimes a waste of time.  That’s how a game 
              gets to be, and it really helps the game to be able to change with 
              the times.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:  The design doc is designed to give 
              the team a direction, and how you get there is not important.  It’s 
              a starting point.  The major elements in the game that dictate gameplay, 
              you can think that out beforehand, but along the way you’re going 
              to have to tweak and massage that.  In the end you’ll have a nice 
              game that you will have fun playing.  You don’t want to have something 
              in the design doc that turns out to be an annoyance factor in the 
              game.  You want to be able to redirect that.  </p>
            
             <br>
            </p>
              <br> </p>
              
              
              
            <b>That’s 
              very good advice.  There’s nothing like losing a lot of work to 
              make you frustrated.</b></p>
             <b>Eekels: </b> Yeah that’s the worst.</p>
             Ewing</b>:   The worst is doing work that you’ve 
              already done over again.</p>
             <b>Of the 
              feedback you’ve gotten from UT, what strikes you the most, what 
              really gets you in the heart and says, “Wow”?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   I think for me the biggest feedback 
              is people saying that Unreal Tournament is right up there with Quake 
              3.  And with Unreal deathmatch, we wanted it to be just as good 
              as Quake and give people something different to play and a comparable 
              or even better product.  But in Unreal networking didn’t work all 
              that well.  With Unreal Tournament we are competing with Quake III: Arena, 
              and in lots of reviews,  they  favor Unreal Tournament.</p>
             <b>Ewing: </b> 
              Especially when we first started Unreal Tournament.  Everybody was 
              saying, “You’re going against Quake III: Arena?  What are you guys, 
              crazy? You guys are going to get clobbered.”  </p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   And it’s holding up and it’s doing 
              okay or even better.  </p>
             Ewing</b>:   That’s definitely one of my answers, 
              but my other answer was, I’m very proud of all the accolades that 
              the level designers got.  Just the one fact is that we strive to 
              make something different, to try for a lot of varieties in our levels 
              and make them, to just try and make them different from the regular 
              style deathmatch levels but still make them fun to play.  But to 
              make people say, “Ah man, I remember that level!”</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   It’s the thing that sticks in your 
              mind.  Instead of saying, “The one with all those rooms?”  I remember 
              this one like the Overlord map.  The Beachhead map!</p>
             Ewing</b>:   Just people remembering your map.  
              “Oh wow that was such a cool map.”  That’s a neat experience to 
              play in an environment like that.  That was one of the big things 
              to me.</p>
             <b>Let’s 
              talk about Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament.  Who was the first 
              to come up with the idea?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   Bill Gates.</p>
             Ewing</b>:   Well, ah, as most people know, Quake 
              III: Arena was announced first, but I’m sure they were thinking about 
              that idea for a long time before they announced it as well, but 
              we originally also thought of doing a multiplayer expansion pack 
              after Unreal and we had thought of doing this before we heard of 
              Quake III: Arena.  So I’m not sure who originally thought of the 
              idea first, it may very well have been them.  We did think of the 
              idea before we heard the announcement from id that they were going 
              to do it.  Then we did a collective, “DOH!” when we heard that they 
              were going to do that to and that we would have to release it after 
              them.  Ultimately you always get the people saying that you’re copying 
              their idea or whatever.</p>
             Was there 
              a rush to release Unreal Tournament, or were you hoping you would 
              get it into stores before Quake III: Arena?</p>
             Ewing</b>:   Definitely I’m sure we were hoping 
              that, but above that was our will to release a game that was absolutely 
              as polished as possible.  We kept saying for those last 6 months 
              that we’re 98% done, but we just wanted to squash all the bugs and 
              make everything as good as possible before we released it.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   Whenever you get a new version 
              of the game code-wise, things are fixed in it, but because they 
              got fixed something else got broken.  So it’s always 2 steps forward 
              –</p>
             Ewing</b>:   1 step back.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   That kind of thing.  So we just 
              wanted to make sure that Unreal Tournament would perform well.</p>
             Ewing</b>:   Of course we were hoping that it 
              would come out before Quake III: Arena, but that’s not something 
              that drove us forward.  I mean, both development schedules seemed 
              to change a lot and I don’t think either team really focused on 
              the other team that much we were just making our own game and making 
              it as good as we could.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   There is a good thing if you release 
              a product first.  But definitely the decision to release it was 
              when we were sure we had a good game.</p>
             <br>
            </p>
              <br> </p>
              
              
              <b>Must 
                have made it really difficult from a project management point 
                of view. </b></p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Ewing:  </b><b></b>Well management 
                in game development is much different than management in regular 
                everyday business.  There is a hierarchy, so you know who the 
                main guys who are in charge, like Tim from Epic and James from 
                DE, but almost everybody has a choice and is free to go their 
                own way within reason.  You have to answer to the whole group.  
                There’s not one person you have to answer to.  There’s not like 
                a complex chain of command or anything.  So in that way that whole 
                mishmash sort of thing works well.  </p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b>And that’s the same thing 
                that we’re doing right now too.  Everybody here has a voice.  
                Because it’s been proven to be successful for Unreal and Unreal 
                Tournament, so we’re going to keep that same philosophy.  </p>
               <b>So 
                while you’re designing Dark Sector, you bring everybody together 
                and say, “What do you like?  What do you dislike?”</b></p>
               <b>Eekels: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'> Yep.</p>
               <b>Ewing:  
                </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>Totally.</p>
              
             <b>Here’s 
              a question that I’ve always wondered.  You guys are level designers 
              and you’re working on a game that is a lot different than what you’re 
              used to, but you’re still in the design phase.  What are you working 
              on right now?  </b> </p>
              
               
                 
                  
                
              
               
                 
                   <i> 
                    </i></p>
                
              
            
            <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b> Well we look at the whole 
              overall picture of Dark Sector and designing the world.  And we 
              broke it down and said okay, we have the disc, now slowly move out.  
              So the level designers have to be organized in that respect.</p>
               <b>I 
                guess what I mean was, you don’t have any tools to work with, 
                right, so you can’t actually sit there and start building levels.</b></p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b> Oh 
                no, we do!  We’re using the Unreal Tools.</p>
               <b>Ewing: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>We have the Unreal engine too.</p>
               <b>How 
                do you compare Dark Sector to other Massively Multiplayer Online 
                games, would you compare it to something like –</b></p>
               <b>Ewing: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>Asheron’s Call or something like that?</p>

               <b>Yeah.</b></p>
               <b>Eekels: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>I think it will be very close but science fiction of 
                course.</p>
               <b>Let’s 
                go back and talk a little bit more about Unreal Tournament.  UT 
                won a number of awards such as Best Action Game, Best Shooter, 
                etc from a number of publications.  How do you feel about those 
                awards?  Was it a big a surprise to win all these awards?</b></p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b> It is kind of a surprise 
                because you don’t expect it.  You’ve been working on the game 
                for so long and it’s getting old in your mind and all of a sudden 
                –</p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Ewing:  </b><b></b> It’s not like all of us 
                were watching the awards and thinking, “Oh please, oh please.”  
                And then all of a sudden, oh we won.  Cool.</p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b>And that’s kind of cool 
                to hear that.  That means that people actually love your game 
                and that year that we spent in our hot room was not all wasted.</p>
               <b>That’s 
                very good.  I’ve done a lot of writing and the books I’ve read 
                on the subject, and I think this goes for pretty much anything 
                where you’re in some type of artistic role, is that first thing 
                you should do is put your acceptance speech on a sticky and place 
                it over your monitor.  And every time you sit down you’re looking 
                at your acceptance speech and you’re thinking, “Ok I gotta make 
                something so good that one day they’re going to give me an award 
                and I’m going to get to give this speech.”  I think it’s the ultimate 
                –</b></p>
               <b>Ewing: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>Motivation.</p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b>That’s not 
                what we did though &lt;laughs&gt;.  Actually what it says on top 
                of our monitors is, “Save your work often!”  </p>
               <b>Ewing: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>Oh god.</p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Eekels:  </b><b></b>That was the biggest sign 
                on our monitors.</p>
               <span
style='font-weight:normal'><b>Ewing:  </b><b></b>Yeah.</p>
              
            <br>
            <br> </p>
              
              
              
            <b>In games 
              like Everquest and Asheron’s Call, periodically they release new 
              missions into the game, or new campaigns.  Will you be doing that 
              sort of thing in Dark Sector?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   
              Definitely.</p>
             <b>Ewing</b>:  Yes.  One of the things we found 
              really cool about Asheron’s Call, just the one thing where it stops 
              snowing and there’s this big event coming and it really –</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   
              I bought Asheron’s Call solely because someone said, “It will start 
              snowing tomorrow in Asheron’s Call” and I though Oh that’s cool, 
              and I went out and bought it.  And I played it for a while and I 
              liked evolving gameplay and settings.</p>
             <b>You 
              like to be immersed.</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   
              Oh yeah.  Absolutely cool.  That’s something we’ll exploit to the 
              fullest.</p>

             <b>Ewing</b>:  I think that’s something, as Massively 
              Multiplayer Online games become more prevalent, which I think they 
              certainly are, and there’s talk of quite a few new ones coming out 
              that the ones that evolve in the coolest ways are going to be the 
              ones that do well so we’re really planning on that.</p>
             <b>Will 
              a character in Dark Sector be building his stats and gathering items 
              that will make him more powerful?</b></p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   
              We won’t be going into as much detail as your standard RPG.</p>
             <b>Ewing</b>:  As far as stats and that kind of 
              stuff goes, a lot of our updates, things to improve your character, 
              are a lot more tangible stuff and more materialistic.</p>
             <b>Eekels</b>:   
              So you get instant feedback.  Instead of, “Ok I have to build up 
              this number so I can do better at this,”  I think we’re taking a 
              little bit away from that complexity and adding instant feedback 
              like adding your strength of whatever.</p>
             <b>Ewing</b>:  Which is what you need to do. We’re 
              trying to meld the RPG and First Person Shooter type aspects. </p>
             <b>Eekels: </b><span
style='font-weight:normal'>We’ll take the cool parts from each.</p>
             <b>So there’s 
              a real reason to play everyday then.</b></p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Yes.  That’s one of our biggest things.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              The character development will be, for sure, at least as big as 
              any RPG.  But just hopefully going in a different direction.</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Yeah you don’t want to have it just be persistent.  That doesn’t 
              make any sense.  It will definitely be that you will have your character 
              and you can add all kinds of stuff and you can buy all kinds of 
              stuff.  And there’s this evolving world around them.  And we’ll 
              have an underlying plot throughout the game.</p>
            <b>So 
              will we see items bought and sold on ebay?</b>  
            <i>&lt;laughs&gt;</i></p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Accounts and stuff?  Hopefully.</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Sure.  We will definitely be looking at all the cool features in 
              all persistent worlds games, and not just the material ones but 
              also the fun factors.  Like what’s really fun about this game.  
              </p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              Once you’ve played like 200 hours of this game, what makes you want 
              to play still 400 more hours.  I’ve played so many hours of Asheron’s 
              Call and there’s still guys that are so much higher level.  We want 
              the same sort of thing for our game definitely.  You can look at 
              a guy and say “Oh my god, look at the armor that guy has on.  Woooah!”  
              </p>
            <b>Are 
              you worried at all about addiction?</b>  
            <b>Eekels: </b>No.</p>
            <b>Gameplay 
              addiction?  Like students dropping out of school because they’re 
              playing Dark Sector?</b>  
            &lt;laughs&gt;</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              I had so many games.  I played so many games.  And yes I blew some 
              courses because of them.  But I don’t know.  It didn’t do me harm 
              in the long run.</p>
            <b>Ewing: </b>  
              I have heard of some people flunking college because of games.</p>
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              Yeah but that’s also a little bit of responsibility that you have 
              for yourself.  You can’t just take a two-week holiday and play a 
              game.  </p>
             <b>So it’s 
              the sort of thing where, if you’re going to dropout of university, 
              it doesn’t matter what kind of game you’re playing, really.</b></p>
            <b>Eekels: </b>Yeah 
              you could be addicted to going out at night or whatever.  Addicted 
              to watching movies all day.  For someone to be addicted to our game, 
              that’s a compliment to us.  I don’t think we worry too much about 
              that.</p>
            <b>Dark 
              Sector is set in the future, is that right?  We’re going to have 
              futuristic weapons?  </b>  
            <b>Eekels: </b> 
              It’s going to be in the near future.  It will be a recognizable 
              future.  </p>
            &nbsp; </p>
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