Q: Can you please tell us a bit about yourself, and what inspired you and the team to put together this new kind of online strategy game: turn based, multiplayer strategy?

A: I've been a war gamer and strategy gamer since I was about nine, playing the old Avalon Hill board games. Some games I would buy with no ready opponents, just to read the rules and see the new game ideas. In college, I was, of course, drawn to AD&D and played poker (a great multiplayer turn-based strategy game most people know) and board games like Diplomacy, Axis and Allies, and Cosmic Encounter. After college, while pursuing my career in corporate America, I managed to create (after years of effort) a game called Alamaze, that was a multiplayer strategy/fantasy war game loaded with role playing elements, i.e.: a hybrid, rather than the narrower scope of the old board games. Alamaze won Game of the Year for both Origins and GenCon. These were awards voted on by other game designers, so were especially satisfying. I shared the stage that year with Sid Meier (for Pirates, before he did Civilization) and Michael Gray (for board game of the year - Milton Bradley's brilliant Shogun). As years went by in my "traditional" career, I realized that creating and producing Alamaze had been the most rewarding work of my life, and finally made the decision to pursue the dream of making terrific online strategy games that were also hybrid: featuring the best qualities of online RPG, online wargames, and, of course, online multiplayer games. Fall of Rome game is the first fruit of that effort.

Q: One thing that I noticed while playing Fall of Rome game was how battles played as "battle scenes" found in some of today's best fantasy novels. Was this something that was a must have from the beginning of development, or was it added in as the game was in development and more rpg/story elements were added into the game?

A: Great question! This technique was a core feature of my early multiplayer strategy game, Alamaze, and was greeted with accolades then as something rare, unexpected, and most welcome. It has been imitated in some popular play-by-email (PBEM) games, but it is a difficult challenge to do well, and one that hasn't been covered by bigger producers. Our story-telling technique is much more satisfying for online strategy game players, than seeing a few sprites fizzle and disappear, as in action games. It is quite a bit of work to prepare all of the conditions and possible results in any kind of battle, but it seems, in the judgment of players, to be worth the development time required in the final product for online strategy games.

Q: Fall of Rome has some strong online RPG elements in the game, and the players tend to add to these elements, by staying in-character for the most part during Fall of Rome games. Was this something the team strove for, or do you feel it is a byproduct of the type of online strategy game players drawn to Fall of Rome game?

A: Regarding the online RPG elements to which you allude, we give kudos to the players that find the Fall of Rome game and make it their own. It's possible to play the Huns of Attila, for example, without any sense of actually being Attila. However, because inter-player negotiation and planning is important to success in the game, and because our in game messaging system accommodates it so easily, most players enjoy the online role playing game aspects and conduct themselves as if they were indeed King Arthur, Alaric the Visigoth, or Attila the Hun. They find doing so actually helps create the personality aspect of their persona, which becomes known throughout the community in Valhalla, our ranking of player and kingdom performance. Fall of Rome game affords this kind of real online RPG, instead of paying mere lip service to it, as in most other games, because players are not under constant pressure to "quick-click something" in real-time seconds. Our online strategy game players generally plan their turns for a couple of hours, and this includes the messaging to other players in the game for the online RPG elements. Other traditional online RPG elements, such as characters or armies becoming more skillful, powerful, and dangerous, through their mission successes, are also present in Fall of Rome game, and become important strategic factors.

Q: While online strategy games of this type are usually driven by the player community, I found that there was a lot of interaction with the players from the development team. Was this something that was planned from the get go? If so, why?

A: Initially, we were concerned Fall of Rome game would be a game so new in concept that some players would have a hard time getting their arms around it. That they would be wondering how to get their generals to swing their swords, things like that, that they would be used to doing in RTS and MMORPG or typical online RPG, but are completely irrelevant in Fall of Rome game. Our game is multiplayer turn-based strategy, more akin to Axis and Allies or to Shogun, than to EverQuest. So, we babysat a bit. Now, we do it, just because we like the players that we have come to know through their game personas, and because we want to make sure that newer online strategy game players are getting everything out of Fall of Rome game that we put into it. For example, some new players want to focus just on battles and on gaining experience for their leaders and brigades. But, Fall of Rome has so many aspects of play beyond the military, including powerful political actions by the nobles and the king, important intelligence gathering and espionage orders by the agents and High Priestess, economic development in a player's towns and cities, and the important scheming with their fellow human allies and enemies, that a good player can't ignore any of these elements and do well in the end. We want to cultivate our online strategy game customers, because we are not just selling them a game, we are establishing a service that we want them to enjoy for years to come, and to tell their friends about.

Q: What made the team decide to develop the game for online play, using Java, as opposed to a more traditional retail/boxed release?

A: For years, I kicked around the idea of a great, multiplayer turn-based strategy game that took advantage of the power of the Internet and new browser software, like Java, more completely than anything that I had seen on the market, so far. The Internet, of course, affords wonderful marketing advantages, bypasses most distribution issues, and, in other ways, reduces many production costs. I needed a great software and programming talent who shared the vision, and found him in Fletcher Dunn, the lead software engineer for another Dallas based development house. He made the architecture and technology calls that included Java. We've also been fortunate to have attracted Matt Butler, as senior programmer, with a Masters degree in computer science, Jim Bauer, with Fortune 500 experience as our website manager, and a team of talented artists from California to Germany. A great advantage that we have, in large part, due to Fletch's technology choices, is that Fall of Rome game customers can play at home, at the office, or anywhere else that they have an Internet connection. Because everything is resident on our servers, there's no requirement to buy and install anything, nor to have large downloads that can be blocked by corporate firewalls. Sorry (not!) corporate America. Now, multiplayer strategy gaming can be had anywhere - our players are not tied to their home computers to access our online strategy games.

Q: How do you compare Fall of Rome game to classic board and other table-top games?

A: Apart from the obvious, that Fall of Rome game is an online strategy game and has a higher number of players (12) in this multiplayer strategy game, than any table top game we are familiar with? We appreciate the great game play, strategy elements, and inter-player diplomacy of a number of tabletop games, and hope to have taken these best features, and enhanced them in Fall of Rome. An example: in Fall of Rome, you have as long as you like (up to 72 hours, anyway) to plan and execute your turn, but you never wait a minute for your opponents to plan and execute theirs, even though all moves are executed simultaneously and the results made available to all at the same moment, through our creative sequence of events!

Q: How do you feel Fall of Rome game stands apart from other online strategy games, online RPG, and online multiplayer games of other genres?

A: In every way! Our byline, "There is Nothing Else Like It!" is substance, not slogan. Fall of Rome game is a competitive contest, with all human opponents. So, we are not a solo game against AI, but neither are we "massively multiplayer," where any one character is lost in a sea of faceless "players" and countless computer-generated monsters and enemies. We are an intimate online strategy game of twelve competitors, each, of which, will learn something, at least, about every other player, before any game is over: think poker for twelve (but in a game with much more breadth and depth, and no money gambled). Some of these online strategy game competitors go on to form friendships that last for years, and reach to their personal lives outside the confines of the game. We are online turn-based strategy, not RTS. That is, we are true strategy, where players actually plan what they want to do, deliberately, not as an instant reflex in something passing itself off as strategy. Fall of Rome game offers more online role playing game elements that matter than most direct online RPG's. Wargamers will take affection to the depth of our tactical model, and to how many factors are involved in which side prevails in any kind of encounter: against other armies, assaulting cities, or bold heroes attacking powerful guardians of important artifacts. All this accomplished through a simple-to-use interface that doesn't require any attention, from players, to boring minutia. Additionally, battle results are told in story fashion, not a mere listing of casualties inflicted and suffered. Game play in Fall of Rome is not simply online RPG, online war game, or online strategy gaming, but combines the best elements off all, along with many others, including a breakthrough political system, critical covert elements, and important inter-player negotiation. I could go on, for some time, discussing dozens of game play elements that are unique to Fall of Rome game, but we'll save that for another time.

Q: How do you see Java-based online games evolving in the future?

A: There are plenty of possibilities. Mostly, though, let's hope that it doesn't take the direction of trying to imitate huge productions, whose success is predicated on rendering the latest 3d graphics. I think we've found a sweet spot in providing great game stability across platforms, via Java, as well as our other technology choices in Fall of Rome. We hope to have pioneered a way to target a niche market of sophisticated online strategy game adults interested in terrific game play and replay value in exciting and changing settings, both historical and fantastic, without the underlying real-world economics of having to sell a million copies to become and remain viable. We want to find just the gamers, and perhaps the adults who are not yet gamers, but who are looking for a fascinating diversion from the usual movie rental or novel read, to, instead, choose to get into the engrossing and interactive fun our games provide.

Q: OK, last question. If any, what are the plans for the future of Fall of Rome game and any online multiplayer strategy games after that?

A: Oh, but that would be telling! Clearly, our next major online strategy game release will be Kingdoms of Arcania (KoA). KoA is bigger than Fall of Rome game, with 24 players in this online multiplayer strategy game, on a much larger map. It is a fantasy setting that brings a sophisticated and unique magic system to play, as well as introducing team play concepts, sea power, and much, much more. We have plans for subsequent releases as well, but, for now, we are focused on growing Fall of Rome game, providing an introduction to online strategy gaming and Fall of Rome game, in particular, with our one evening online strategy game called "Centurion", currently under development. We, also, have a new release of Fall of Rome game called The Veterans' Game, for our experienced players. Then, we will be turning development efforts to the highly anticipated Kingdoms of Arcania, set to break more new ground in multiplayer online strategy gaming. Thank you for the privilege, it has been a pleasure. See you on the field of battle in Fall of Rome!