Dungeons & Dragons Online

We are glad to have had the chance of interviewing Nesshalan, German speaking CM with Alchemic Dream, a company focussed on support and community management in MMOG's. Alchemic Dream cooperates with Codemasters and is responsible for community management in Dungeons and Dragons Online.

1. What is Alchemic Dream, and how many people work for the company?

As you can read on our website (http://www.alchemicdream.net/), Alchemic Dream is a Canadian company founded 2001. It has specialized in support, localisation and community management in MMOG's. Our multilingual structure (German, English and French, mainly) is a great benefit, allowing us to cover a large market. The most popular projekts are and have been: DDO, RFO, Dark and Light, Neocron, Seed, A Tale in the Desert, Project Entropia and Adellion. In this sector, Alchemic Dream cooperates with companies like Codemasters and Linden Lab. At the moment, AD has around 75 employees working in different parts of the company worldwide.

2. How did you get to DDO?

I guess you're speaking about Nerisseth and myself? I'll try answering this double-sided question carefully: AD as a company was hired by Codemasters to cover ingame and outgame support. At this moment, the cooperation is limited to DDO and RF Online, but additional games are imaginable.
When speaking of us personally, we had worked together on Dark and Light before, mainly managing the community, running the forum and translating. When CM and AD had signed the agreement, we were asked wether we'd enjoy working on other games by Codemasters. These projects, including our favorite DDO, we're quite tempting, so we agreed. You can't deny your Pen and Paper origins!

3. What are your duties and responsibilities ingame and in community management?

That's one of those questions which I need a joker for, right? Regarding AD, we mainly do what is known as game-mastering, helping players, solving problems and passing on requests to the right people. That is also the bridge to community management, mainly done by Nerisseth and myself. A good example for our work is translating, which we do on a regular basis: News, articles and announcements for instance. This is a lot easier than the ingame stuff, which can be dangerous territory indeed because one has to watch out for licensed terms and similar problems (names are a popular point of discussion). In any case, we always try to translate as legible as possible, not as verbatim as possible. An explanation on this topic by Nerisseth can be found here: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1250660&postcount=16

Considering forums and community management itself which I personally feel strongly about, we always try to show presence and help everyone, trying to make our forums a place where people enjoy reading and asking their questions. Contact to the community, especially the German speaking part, is very important for me, so I always try to pass on their requests, even if it isn't officially part of my job.

4. How far do your competencies reach?

Till we are stopped :P

5. Did you ever have to fiercely intervene ingame or outgame? If yes, how and why?

It depends on what you exactly mean by "fiercely". Nobody from the German community has been banned yet :) We mostly operate by warning people, which tends to work out fine. Of course, there are always a few hopeless cases, though. Apart from a few verbal assaults, I can't remember anything specific ingame, either. In general, the DDO community tends to be polite, well-mannered, helpful and humorous. It is a great pleasure working for them.

6. Are you trained in quests and their solution, so you can help players a lot faster?

A simple "yes" would be somewhat to short, right? ;) Yes, we are trained, on a theoretical and practical basis. It is important to AD that we can offer the best possible support for players. Of course, GM's all have their own special part of the game, in which they are experts, but that's the whole point of team work, isn't it?

7. Is there a duty roster which determines, which GM is on duty at every point of time?

Of course :)

8. When is which German speaking GM available online?

As shifts are variable, the question is impossible to answer generally. Speaking of 24/7 as a whole, a large part of this time is covered by German speaking GM's. It can still take some time after having sent a German ticket, though. Depending on the nature of the problem, any GM will try to help you, even if he/she has to communicate by hand signals only ;)
In really tough cases, Nerisseth and myself can be called for help, even though we're definately not experts on ingame matters, since we generally only appear ingame for events. In any such case, it's always better to wait for real experts like Gordholm, who can offer qualified and German help :)

9. What happened to the player who had to rename because a GM wanted his name? Does this happen more often?

Of course, the player got his name back. I just hope, that this remains a single case because it shouldn't happen at all, especially if the player had that name before the GM got there. For any players trying to copy, tamper or simply using a GM name, we do have some really special places in Stormreach *diabolic grin*

10. What is being a GM like?

Cool ;)

11. What do you do apart from managing DDO?

I think I already answered that one :)

12. Do you actually play yourself, or do you lack the time?

I know that a few GM's play in their spare time. Nerisseth and I lack that time in most cases, but we do enjoy playing very much if we find the time.

13. When playing, which race/class do you prefer?

Are the Drow implemented yet? *laugh*
Ok, Nesshalan is a Human Paladin, but it's a GM character, not normally intended for playing. Generally, Nerisseth and I prefer non-human characters. Additionally, I have noticed that I prefer melee classes ingame, unlike when playing pen and paper. A berserking dwarf does have a very special charm *grin*

14. What do you think about the DDO community?

Fishing for compliments, are you? ;) I think I already answered that question. *laugh*

15. How is community feedback passed on to the people in charge?

Community feedback is gathered in reports passed on by the duty DDO coordinator of AD or by Nerisseth and myself directly to CM/Turbine. Of course, this is a very simplified description, but you can be assured that feedback is definately not lost.

16. When can we expect events, and what is currently delaying their announcement?

Some of the reasons are already known: Restriction of magic in town, limited player numbers in instances and lags occuring when too many players are present at one location. We also had some problems considering the GM tools in the beginning. Anyway, large events are planned and we are working on the preperations right now. Players and guilds with good event ideas are welcome to contact us at any time!

17. When will we be able to listen to a German speaking dungeon master?

Even though we're trying to work it out, I can't offer you any news regarding this topic at the present time.

18. When can we expect gamecards/bank collection system as a way of paying the fees?

*rummages around* What was the answer to that question again? Ahhh, we're not allowed to answer *grin* I can't give you any information on that topic right now, but an official announcement can be expected end of June. If you have watched the official forums, you will have already noticed that we're definately working on a solution.

19. What do you think of the promised PvP system?

*cough* That's a tough question. As there'll be no open PvP, it can't be disadvantageous to the game, can it? What it really turns out to be I can't say yet, we'll just have to wait until it is implemented. PvP doesn't normally go with D&D, even though there are some groups trying to kill each other *grin*
An online game is different to a cosy Pen and Paper group, though. The costs are very large indeed, so you have to address a large group of players, rather than the small group you can choose personally when playing P&P. I think the only thing we can do is wait patiently and see what it turns out to be like.

20. Any anecdotes about or around DDO?

Of course there a a few mentionable stories, but none I can think of which are short enough to be told in this interview. Others are only important or funny to small groups but have to stay in-house, I'm afraid, whereas some incidents may be funny to outsiders but not to the people involved. It was quite remarkable though how a simple request for a translation reached Wizards of the Coast. Anyway, it's far too much and too complex to tell you about everything you experience in this job :)

21. Closing word addressed to the community

Ok, here it comes *grin*
As I already said, I really like the DDO community, even though it has shrunk in size (hopefully only the weather and the world championship are to be blamed). Honestly, I hope this game can fill a niche in a market in which nearly all products are quite similar, even if one has to remember that there are economical interests involved. I just want many players to enjoy the PC conversion of the oldest pen and paper game for as long as possible.