This time we have german version too!
le_souriceau: Greetings and welcome! Thank you for coming in.
Maeve: Big hello, BiGEdge!
BiGEdge: Hey you two, nice to be here o/
le_souriceau: Readers are probably expecting our usual question about your gaming past… and we will not disappoint them!
Maeve: But with a little twist!
le_souriceau: Here is the twist: what is this the ONE great game that influenced you most as a gamer? One game that reliably brings a nostalgic smile to your face, when you remember those glorious days of adventure...
BiGEdge: Mhh… let me think. I have been a gamer since the 80s but what always makes me smile, still today, is Alexx Kidd. The idea of a guy with a giant boxing glove punching away dragons and defeating bosses with rock-paper-scissors games when the bosses look like rock-sign-hand, paper-sign-hand and scissor-sign-hand.
And what makes me always smile is general nostalgia that reminds me of my gaming history. The *knattattat* of a C64 Floppy, the *beepbopbop* from an old 56k modem or just the *boinggg* when Mario or Sonic jumps.
I am a musician, and that’s why sounds and music always triggers my memories the best.
le_souriceau: Good punching in games can be fun! When it comes to your discovery of DU, was it some key “I was always dreaming about exactly this” feature or more a combo of game design elements?
BiGEdge: Well, you know, there will always be a time in someone’s life when punching, shooting or destroying becomes secondary.
A time when building something along with others, being social and creating something amazing becomes more important than competing or rolling around with others. I don’t need to measure myself against others anymore. And I have the feeling, DU is the perfect game for people my age and above.
The younger generation mostly gets bored quickly, and if you need just one thing in a game like DU it is creativity and patience. Along with being a long time sci-fi fan and the possibility to create anything I want. Not only sci-fi stuff, but anything you would build in Minecraft. I like DU because it is like a very good-looking Minecraft but with people from all around the world in one universe. DU is like holidays in a dreamland where everyone’s dreams morph together into one.
le_souriceau: Holidays in dreamland – nicely put :)
Maeve: You mentioned being a musician. What are your super honest/critical thoughts on the DU soundtrack as a musician? :)
BiGEdge: A wise man said: "I'm just a dreamer, who dreams his life away, oh yeah" xD I really like the work from Maxime Ferrieu and the soundtrack he created for DU. It reminds me so much of the soundtrack of another great gaming series from Germany that started 1999 with X: Beyond the Frontier.
The DU soundtrack is futuristic and epic, but not intrusive. That is exactly how a game soundtrack should be and I highly suggest everyone to not turn it off while in-game.
The only critique from my side is that there are so few tracks. How many are there? 10, maybe 12? I have to check the YouTube page again where the soundtrack is available for free.
le_souriceau: Speaking of YouTube, you have a pretty old YouTube channel too -- about gaming. I presume there are some serious plans on Dual Universe video content when NDA lifts? Do you already have ideas about their format?
BiGEdge: I really want to make some videos later, yes. I don’t know how much and what I can make, because the DU community is already so awesome and I'm pretty sure many will create awesome content for DU. I thought about making helpful tutorials and showing beautiful things that people created.
There are so many creative people out there. We all are just waiting for the NDA to be dropped. I'm very skeptical when NQ put so much work into tutorials that explain the game's base mechanics. I'm pretty sure the success of Minecraft and along with it so many great youtubers are because Minecraft had no tutorials. The community helped each other, you watched tutorials on how to play the game because the game told you nothing. You needed others or their videos to learn what to do and what is possible. There are no dumb questions. And sharing information and helping others is the best and easiest way to socialize. Leave it to this awesome community and drop the NDA as soon as possible.
DU right now is like a bottle of champagne shaken for 4 years and about to explode.
le_souriceau: I agree, the presence of talent here is humbling! The civilization building idea and unleashed player creativity – for sure, these are the greatest selling points of DU. And yet, every player has their own version of reality in DU they want to see one day. Can you share your personal vision of successful in-game civilization? What will be the most critical?
BiGEdge: The most crucial will be the first 2-3 years after the games release. The game itself doesn’t give you any goals and experience showed that rather there are creative people with ideas or social people who can gather together a big group of people.
In DU you can do nothing alone or it just takes a lot of time. More and more people just think about themselves in our world today. But if people with great visions find players who gather enough people together to realize those great projects. When less people think about themself and try out how satisfying it could be to help the creative people fulfilling their dreams. If you’re not that creative, DU is still the game for you. Try to find people with a vision and help him/her fulfill it. There are fewer people with visions nowadays. I hope DU can bring this back to people all over the world. I see the main idea of DU is that it’s all about Emergence.
Emergence is when many parts with simple tasks transform into something bigger with new abilities. To translate this to the game: In DU many players with simple tasks like mining, trading and building, transform into a virtual civilization. Too few people seem to believe that emergence could work, but it’s the most natural thing in the world. And DU is one of the few games that tries to archive this. The best examples could be EvE or Star Wars Galaxies to show what happens when emergence kicks in. Another, rather worse, example could be Second Life.
But that’s the nature of emergence, when it kicks in it becomes uncontrollable and could become cancer or a dream. We all decide what it will be. Not the developers. That’s what I like the most about DU: The uncertainty about what it will become and the tiny bit I can contribute to and push it into the dream direction.
le_souriceau: PvP will obviously heavily influence DU world development and emergence. Have you already acquired a taste for it? What is your mindset on it? Is it for defense only or will you not shy away from attacking some “bad guys”?
BiGEdge: Life taught me something – that there are no evil people or "bad guys". Only sides with different history or different intentions. I understand when people want to pew something in DU and I appreciate that. However, the majority of MMO players just don't like to PVP if not necessary, the people who like to PVP are just the loudest.
We have seen this in many MMOs like WoW or the newest example New World. There are people who like to PVP and there should be a place for them. But they were never the majority, but just ~10% of the communities.
EvE for example has filtered out the creative people and could be so much bigger and more successful, if there were not just the 10% of the players who only like to PVP and another 10% who don't care about the PVP aspect and avoid it more or less successfully.
Even to divide PVP, PVE or RP is sometimes a war itself. But I know that it’s possible to create a 300 people RP community within a violent PVP environment. That is something I did in Life is Feudal and it worked but it remains a big challenge. Maybe a challenge that could be a major goal for some people in DU. PVP in real life is possible, but there are entities to prevent it. I'm pretty sure after the Wild West start in DU, after the first 2 to 3 years, the game will balance itself like emergent games always do. I am prepared for it and I’m looking forward to it.
le_souriceau: PvP always has a darker side of generating toxicity and drama that sometimes even splatters out into reality. Do you think the DU community have some special ability to deal with it better? Is our population somewhat different from typical MMO?
Maeve: Can this brutal Wild West stage of the game go too far (or too long), and actually harm the civilization building aspect and unbalance it?
BiGEdge: It all stands and falls with the players. That's what DU is all about. You cannot change human nature. The "spaceship drama" is part of the game. And that’s what people should keep in mind. It stays just a game. But DU has the potential to become something bigger than just this.
We will see similar things like in the real world: Lone wolves, democracies, dictatorships or something completely different. In DU we have the opportunity to shape a whole new world, but there are too few people with completely new ideas. Even if Karl Marx or Gene Roddenberry had the opportunity to play DU, they would come to the same conclusion.
We can only learn from our past. To create something completely new or really innovative can only come from ignorance. Children or handicapped are a good source for new ideas. We need to go through a lot of failures to learn from them. Even that will be part of DU. The energy to continue after failures is too often hard to find.
le_souriceau: In this day and age of shortening attention spans and so many new shiney distractions competing for the players attention, realistically, what is a healthy strategy for DU to survive and prosper financially?
BiGEdge: I'm sure the finances are no big problem for DU. It's still the 3rd biggest Kickstarter project ever, and funds itself with the cloud server technology that many companies want to get their hands on. Other games may imply that loads of money makes a good game. This is a fallacy.
DU has already the potential to be the successor of Minecraft or EvE Online. Something Everquest Landmark wanted to become but it was just too early for it. Great success can only happen when you hit the right time with your idea. I'm pretty sure next year will be the year of Dual Universe.
As long as Novaquark maintains their communication with the community I don't see any reason DU could fail.
As a salesman myself in real-life, I try to transfer this knowledge about markets or supply and demand to DU. When the DAC sub items come into play, it will change the markets and people will use it more often. This is what I can exploit, because of my knowledge. In EvE for example I never paid a single cent, but paid my nearly 3 years of playtime with in-game currency.
I love the fact that DU has a similar subscription model. Though I guess, I will pay more for DU than I did for EvE and I already did with my pledge. But for all people that do not have real-life funds to play DU, keep in mind that this game will be free after release.
I call DU a "Play to Pay" game. What I mean is you invest time into DU to afford your subscription. In my opinion the best and only payment model possible for DU. And no, this is my opinion and I’m not paid by NQ xD I just like to sell what I'm really convinced of ^^
le_souriceau: Speaking of EvE and its influence on DU. Do you think the game mechanics borrowed so far were good ideas? Or would you have done something differently? Where is that point where DU must make its own way, and even be contrary to the concepts of EvE?
BiGEdge: I see some similarities to EvE, the sandbox, in that the players write the stories and history of the game world, the player driven dynamic markets, and the stats-based PVP.
But I also see the opportunity in DU to have so much more than just a sandbox. No presets! In DU it's even more important what creative people can do. We build ships with our organization, for example, but many people build crazy stuff, and the market decides what pays out in the end. Someone builds a very fast Silversurfer Surfboard or a R2D2 druid that follows you as a pet, and others build the craziest PVP shoebox with the best stats possible for PVP, but it looks like, well, a shoebox. The market will decide what many will have in this universe. In EvE there is no creativity at all. Only tactics and grind. No opportunity like in DU to make lots of money with an idea noone else had. The 911 Eyes and Ears for example is one of the good ideas that came out of the community. People help other people when they crash landed their ship somewhere on a distant planet or moon. I cannot imagine seeing something like this in EvE. I also have some ideas to make a lot of fast money in DU. Stuff that is just not possible in EvE, but you should pay me before I reveal those ideas ^^
le_souriceau: Is the organization you mentioned specially tailored to fit your dream in DU? What can you tell us about it? What is it called? What’s its main “lore” idea?
Maeve: And name three main features that makes it perfect for you! :)
BiGEdge: I started in the yet biggest German organization in DU. Stayed there for over 2 years and helped making it successful. I even made some friends there. But the organization could not stop using people for their advantage. I was hoping that with my continuous criticism of that system, I could help make it better. But continuous criticism often leads to unnecessary confrontation. Instead more and more people left and founded their own smaller groups. But you learn from your mistakes. And so did the leader of this org, and as long as they have implemented the suggestions and the good ideas, I am pleased that I was able to help. Though I never expected any appreciation because my tone is often too honest and rough. I always tried to help and I'm glad to see that many of my ideas helped a lot, though I was thrown out after 2 years of a flourishing, but rough, relationship.
The Red Dragons (RD), the organization I’m now part of, were founded in 2012 in the game Starmade. I was part of the tester team back then for this game for about a year or so. Then 10 close friends, all sci-fi enthusiasts in a way, came up with the idea of our own organization.
The idea was to play lots of different sci-fi games like Space Engineers, Interstellar Rift or Avorion. But for me there was always something missing in all those games: The opportunity to make your actions mean something.
I would like to run a small "Ship Shop" (that’s trademarked already) but I also see the opportunity to bring together a lot of different creative people and find all their strengths and weaknesses to create something bigger than its parts.
In the end, I helped everyone who joined the RD to find these attributes and gather all ideas together into something greater. I like to manage all this, though that means that I need to put my dream for my own "Ship Shop" aside for now.
The Red Dragons have some lore, and it is also prepared for people who like to RP. Yet i think the RP players are very quiet in DU but I hope this will change when a lot more cosmetic items and outfits come into DU. In the end, it's an MMO-RPG right ^^
Maeve: Great outfits are surely the TRUE end game in most MMOs! 200% agree!
le_souriceau: I assume you are standing for more informal, interest club leadership style? With no strict obligations and centralized work assignments for members?
BiGEdge: We don’t recruit actively... rather you stumble over one of our members and ask if you may join or become one of our numerous allies.
I see organizations not as clans or companies, but more as a possibility to bring together a group of people with a similar goal in organized groups. If your personal goals change or you don’t enjoy your time at an organization, you can always leave it. And yes, there will always be people who don’t like your opinions or your decision to walk your own path.
I guess an informal interest club fits very well. It’s the elite of creative loners and productive snobs that come together. Trust and honesty and brotherhood... I should write this down xD
Maeve: I like this approach!
le_souriceau: Returning to the Ship Shop idea (which sounds like a great addition to the game world!). So far, what is your most successful ship you have created? Is it a poster project for Red Dragons? What can you tell us about it’s concept and flying experience?
BiGEdge: Like I said... one day I will have my own Ship Shop. Send in a request and we will show you the catalogue ;P
I like the Antdart hauler very much, fast like a dart, but carries its own weight several times. Or the Meteora, a 10 men multicrew fighting ship that has survived fights against several enemys already. And that were only two ships I have worked on. There are way too many beautiful and effective ships and there will be a lot more in the future.
DU is not Space Engineers or Empyrion. It’s more similar to the flight model of Kerbal Space Program, with some restrictions, of course, because it’s an MMO. But it’s still something in between. And the opportunity to morph voxels into any shape with almost any size you want. I know of only Everquest Landmark where this was previously possible. All this is the biggest opportunity for creative people to build anything one can dream of. Not only spaceships, but I am someone with a big sci-fi background. And as long as i may not sell music instruments in DU, like I do in the real world, I sell spaceships, either self-made or distribute other ships. There are so many creative people in the community already.
I really look forward to when the public gets their hands on Dual Universe.
le_souriceau: So far, what player-made creation has impressed you the most in DU?
BiGEdge: Any player who shows his creation to the public impresses me... there are so many good builders in DU. Players who with creativity and unique ideas too rarely show off what they have so far. They just don't show it and try to avoid the critics and also the very good suggestions that could come from there. No one should fear to show their constructs at least within the community (while adhering to the NDA, of course).
And when someone answers with a brick emoji, because for this single person it looks like a brick and he himself can do so much better. So what! The helpful tips that come from others that mentioned this brick, but it has a great cockpit view. Maybe this shy but ongoing creative person has the potential to find someone who can build a great chassis for the ship and someone else who can make it fly perfectly. All three together could found an organization to build just this one ship and make it perfect and in the end all three make a lot of money with something that was just a brick in the beginning.
Find people who are nice and can help you with ideas to make your brick valuable. You can create organizations for just this single project and be in numerous orgs or your project org can be part of a greater org. Or just stay stuck in one and let them tell you that this org is the greatest you will ever achieve and get bored of the game quickly.
Use brainstorming for your project. Or a single brick that transforms into a beauty everyone wants with lots of love, patience and ideas. Don't change yourself or your style, but combine it with the ideas and styles from others to make it good.
But without showing your brick to others, all this wouldn't happen and your brick stays a brick that you don’t like and you leave the game too.
Working with others in DU is the key to success, in so many more ways than just building ships.
Creativity is something everyone can learn, by knowing a lot of styles and stuff and how creators have made it. Any ability can be learned, if it's singing, woodcarving or driving a car. I've never heard of anyone not being able to learn to drive a car.
Everyone is creative, but some are just too lazy to put work into this ability and just learn it.
le_souriceau: If you had the ability to magically add one gameplay feature to the game, small or BiG, what would it be?.. And why?
Maeve: Maybe food? :)
BiGEdge: No, I think the times of games where survival aspects are important is over. Though, I think this could be a feature in the far future.
These days, the social aspects become more and more important because the world changes back from everyone for themself towards everyone for everyone else.
Shipyards. Just like Starmade had them. A player made zone where you can create ships out of blueprints or repair damaged ships according to a blueprint with a shipyard computer that is linked to a storage where all the parts and pieces are stored. Vending machines, triangular windows, glass voxels, cameras to screens to create Star Trek bridges... I could name a lot of things that would make DU better.
But one thing that was promised to us for after release I really want ASAP is VR. I have a VR headset and DU is the only game i still play on a flat screen. NQ would catch the 2% of all gamers who own a VR headset instantly, because the VR community is just waiting for a game where they can sink thousands of hours of time into. Then DU would very quickly and easily get to 1 million players.
Maeve: And the last one! Preparing this interview, we were thinking about your passion for DU, the confidence you have for both the developers and community…
le_souriceau: ..and one idea came to us: What if we send it to the future! Let’s create a sort of “time capsule”. Record a message to the community and, maybe, future you in three years – to 2023. Imagine a small satellite with a capacity of just 300 words will carry it on…
BiGEdge: It is June the 27th 2020, we are all prepared for the Dual Universe Beta in September, maybe earlier, but fortunately a little later. I predict today that Covid-19 will last longer than the release of Dual Universe in 2021. Big pre-release organizations have collapsed. New rising organizations have made a name for themselves.
By 2025 DU will have at least 3 million players. Dual Universe has survived the major global financial crash until 2030 and Novaquark has become one of the most influential tech and gaming companies in the world along with CD Projekt RED.
Maeve: Cool message! I will send it to deep space right now! Thank you for very interesting answers.
le_souriceau: Thanks, BiGEdge, I wish you luck and realization of your dreams in Dual Universe!
BiGEdge: It was a lot of fun with you guys... I like what you are doing here. Just DU it!
Ultra-hyper thanks to Kurock for proofreading this monster of interieview! And special danke to BiGEdge for providing german verision!