Leonid Melikhov: Black Gold Online has a rather interesting setting, with a fantasy medieval steampunk theme going on for it. This kind of setting usually isn’t visited much in games (the most notable example is the seminal Final Fantasy VI, way back on the Super Nintendo). What made you want to try this setting, and in an MMO no less?

Johnny Lynch: The inspiration behind it was that we really realized that there aren’t that many steampunk MMOs. There is a few low-level ones like City of Steam, but there wasn’t anything action-like or the type of the thing. We decided to create this cross-over as the source of the conflict because we wanted to have a game that players could participate in. So we developed the story-line that’s behind the steam and the fantasy being two worlds that was developed in-tandem but separate from each other.

Then we put it on a collision course over this precious resource called Black Gold and they both use it in different ways. One side we use for their magic, it’s their foundation of their elemental magic and the other side uses it as a fuel source for their mechs, and that was the emphasis behind it. We wanted to mix the styles in a way that was on a gameplay level and also on an artistic level, just two conflicting worlds fighting over resources and that’s really the experience of the game.

"If you go to the different parts of the world they’re totally different and that’s actually part of the story-line that’s part of why it’s happening. If you go to the west there are little towns in a middle of deserts with very rough terrain. If you go to the east, it’s more lush wilderness, jungles and rain forests, which is also the explanation of why they have the distinct cultures and the distinct development between these two factions."

Leonid Melikhov: Why did the game take so long to come over to American shores?

Johnny Lynch: We obviously wanted to make sure that it got tested to being a quality game. We’ve gone through 2 levels of testing so far in the American market and both have gone very well. It is out in China, we had localization process and wanted to make sure that texts and quests were good.

Leonid Melikhov:  In general, how did you try to keep the graphics and art style consistent across two very different primary themes- steampunk and fantasy?

Johnny Lynch: The diversity of it is actually a big important part of the art-style. If you go to the different parts of the world they’re totally different and that’s actually part of the story-line that’s part of why it’s happening. If you go to the west there are little towns in a middle of deserts with very rough terrain. If you go to the east, it’s more lush wilderness, jungles and rain forests, which is also the explanation of why they have the distinct cultures and the distinct development between these two factions. If you go closer to the middle you’ll see them mix a bit and that’s kind of the point, it will show the worlds are in conflict. These areas in the middle are contested and there is a lot of different sub-parties going on that are mixing between the two, magic and fantasy.

Leonid Melikhov: Given how both, free to play games and MMOs, are now more and more making their way to consoles, do you think we can expect Black Gold Online to show up on one of the current consoles on the market as well? Which console ecosystem would you see the game thriving the most in?

Johnny Lynch: That whole process is in development, we actually have other things involved also in development for consoles as well. As a little teaser, we’re actually working on MOBA for consoles that’s unrelated to Black Gold Online and we have plans to move into that in the future, but it’s all still in development.

"Energy Wells are persistently control points on the map, different parts of the map can be captured and controlled by a guild and you can build defenses of turrets, walls and even big bosses that can defend their base."

Leonid Melikhov: The game uses a free to play model. Even as free to play games proliferate, and not just within the MMO genre, subscription MMOs have made a resurgence of late. Why did you make the decision to go with a free to play model with this one?

Johnny Lynch: Well, for one thing we just really wanted to make the game accessible to as many people as possible. That was the idea behind it, because of the very best features of the game such as PvP/PvE dungeons. They require a lot of people on the servers, so we didn’t make it something where it was restricted or you had to pay for it. We wanted to make a really accessible game, that’s the biggest thing for us.

In terms of balancing the game for the free-2-play, the biggest thing is that it’s definitely not pay-2-win. There is no cash shop, there is no level restrictions or anything like that. We’ve actually created our own new monetization model called the Sands of Time. The way it works essentially is that it’s a way to get gear in addition too, not in place of high-level loot drops in the world.

There is a way you can earn special points that will entitle you to get extra gear depending on how many points you earn over a certain period of time and those can be purchased with real money. It’s not really hindering player progression, but also allowing players who are willing to pay to and putting the time to really earn it to get extra high level loot. That’s the biggest thing we have in terms of keeping it competitive and giving the opportunity for people who want to do that instead.

Leonid Melikhov: What’s the highest level in the game?

Johnny Lynch: In terms of just leveling it’s level 40 at the moment, that’s the level cap. Actually, there is a lot of different things that come in the rules. For example; as you get to higher level carriers, you’ll also have to rank up your military rank which you get by killing people and accomplishing tasks in the military battlefield. There is also something called Might Score, which is related to your accomplishments, your level and also your gear. That will also lock you to certain instances, if you want to do high level raiding dungeons then you would have to get to a certain might score in order to be able to do those things. That’s the highest level part with that.

Leonid Melikhov: What’s the limit on the player raid dungeons, how many people can go in there?

Johnny Lynch: There is 5 man, 10 man instances and 20 man max for end-game raids. There is also these other special instanced battles which is one of our major end-game features where it’s a guild competitive type of battles that are called Energy Wells. Energy Wells are persistently control points on the map, different parts of the map can be captured and controlled by a guild and you can build defenses of turrets, walls and even big bosses that can defend their base. There are regularly scheduled battles between the two factions, so every Friday/Sunday the two factions can battle to control one of these Energy Wells.

Then, the rest of the week after that, the guilds of that faction will then battle each other for personal control of these Energy Wells and those have their own instanced maps that you battle on. They have their own cool fortress defense and besieging mechanics and mix of on the ground and mounted combat that makes it really interesting.

"We also have these cool open-world dungeons called Chambers of Greed that are kind of a mixture of PvE and PvP. We actually did see some positive ways of camping there, people would form gangs of 5 or 6."

Leonid Melikhov: Is the gear for PvP/PvE separate?

Johnny Lynch: No, it’s the same gear. You get these different point values for accomplishing different things for both PvE and PVP and those things can be redeemed for gear. In terms of your gear, it just boosts your stats, in terms of critical damage, attack damage and special abilities. You have a number of different skills that you’re limited to be equipped with at a time to 7. So, you have to choose and mix/match your skills. Some of them are more PvP skills, some are PvE skills and you have to pick which ones you want to use in a certain type of situation.

Leonid Melikhov: How do you guys plan pn doing the death system?

Johnny Lynch: Well, actually you can revive in a safe spot or you can choose revive in nearby town. You’ll definitely be safe from campers. It really does depend on the situation too, because if its an open world PvP against the other faction they could always send a message to their buddies. Those usually happen in contested areas, so you’d just have to get out of the contested area for a little bit. If it’s against the people of your faction, you’ll obviously start up with a wanted value and then get arrested.

We also have these cool open-world dungeons called Chambers of Greed that are kind of a mixture of PvE and PvP. We actually did see some positive ways of camping there, people would form gangs of 5 or 6. In these dungeons you can go in to fight bosses to get loot and then if you find other players you can kill them and steal the loot that they found in that dungeon.

Leonid Melikhov: Thank you so much for your time, it was great.

Johnny Lynch: No problem.

Black Gold Online is yet another link the long chain of games that have attempted to copy Blizzard’s design philosophies. The game starts off like pretty much any MMO of the last ten years. You’ll pick a faction, choosing between the steampunk-inspired Isenhorst and the nature-loving Erlandir, who are fighting over the all-important, titular black gold. After that, you’ll be tasked with choosing between one of the three races (two kinds of humans, vampires, dwarves, shapeshifters, and big, blue elves) on each side, and one of twelve different classes, each of which adheres to the traditional MMO archetypes of warrior, mage, rogue, hunter, etc.

From there, you’ll be dropped into a starting zone and tasked with doing normal, MMO-y things so you level up, and get better gear. Repeat ad naseum, and you have the basis for every MMO in existence. This isn’t a problem when the game you’re playing makes these tasks entertaining or gives you an interesting story to follow, but Black Gold Online doesn’t do either of these things. Hell, the game barely even teaches you how to play or explains what the heck you’re doing, dropping you right into the midst of a heated battle.

"The opening cinematic attempts to establish a story and some stakes, but it’s poorly put together and lacks voice acting, so you’re forced to read lines of text full of nonsense words that the game doesn’t even try to explain, and attempt to connect them to what is going on in the story."

You’ll kill a few normal dudes, hop onto a mounted warbeast, kill a few slightly bigger dudes, and then face off against a huge boss. I can only assume I was supposed to lose this fight because I did, and didn’t have to attempt it again. After my brutal murder and incredibly convenient resurrection, the game magically transported me into a more traditional starting zone where I proceeded to kill wolves and small-time bandits.

All of this would be fine if it weren’t so boring or underdeveloped, but Black Gold Online never gives you a reason to care about much of anything in its universe. The opening cinematic attempts to establish a story and some stakes, but it’s poorly put together and lacks voice acting, so you’re forced to read lines of text full of nonsense words that the game doesn’t even try to explain, and attempt to connect them to what is going on in the story.

The actual questing isn’t much better. You’re never really told why you’re doing the things you’re doing beyond “Bad Things Will Happen If You Don’t,” so it’s hard to care about anything. In one early quest, I was talking to an NPC, only to have another NPC in front of me randomly transform into a vampire and run off. I was informed that this NPC, whom I had never interacted with before, was actually an Important Member of the Community, and that I should go help him.

"You meet up with a character, do something for them, and then move on, gaining nothing but some experience and maybe some loot for your trouble. This might be okay if the individual quests were fun, but there’s no real reason that you’re doing them other than to gain experience, and the writing behind each one is usually painfully bad."

I chased him to a nearby grove, where he told me that he hungered for blood and that he needed a special plant to sate his bloodlust. I accepted the quest, walked ten feet, picked the flower my new vampire friend specified, and then brought it back to him. He thanked me, gave me some experience, and told me to get lost. I never saw him again.

It’s how most of Black Gold Online’s quests go, really. You meet up with a character, do something for them, and then move on, gaining nothing but some experience and maybe some loot for your trouble. This might be okay if the individual quests were fun, but there’s no real reason that you’re doing them other than to gain experience, and the writing behind each one is usually painfully bad.

The quest design would be easy to overlook if the act of questing itself, or the core gameplay, were fun, but, regrettably, this isn’t the case. Black Gold Online sticks to the hotkey-oriented action of most other MMOs pretty rigidly, but it never really manages to make the combat feel good. Sure, things happen when you press a button, but there’s never any sense of weight or power to your spells. You just press buttons until the other guy goes down. Worse still, there’s no auto-attacking, which means you constantly have to mash your shoot or attack button as a melee or ranged class that relies on weapons.

"Battle carriers, the warbeasts or mechs that I mentioned earlier (which you can mount at any time), are a lot of fun, and allow you to take the fight to big groups or large enemies. Likewise, the game’s PVP has a lot of interesting and varied modes, and the game’s decision to give you a mount early on encourages you to explore."

That doesn’t mean that Black Gold Online doesn’t have some good gameplay ideas. Battle carriers, the warbeasts or mechs that I mentioned earlier (which you can mount at any time), are a lot of fun, and allow you to take the fight to big groups or large enemies. Likewise, the game’s PVP has a lot of interesting and varied modes, and the game’s decision to give you a mount early on encourages you to explore (because the quest design sure doesn’t).

Beyond that, however, you would be forgiven for thinking that the game is a low-budget knockoff. Sure, the ideas behind the lore are cool, and the art style is actually pretty interesting, but the graphics never capitalize on the material provided by the setting, and everything, from the core gameplay to the quest design, just feels rushed and slapped together. Now, all of this could change. The game is still in (open) beta. But there’s already been a huge drop-off in the number of players, and a majority of the chat has been taken over by gold farmers hocking their wares.

That certainly doesn’t bode well for a game this early in its life cycle, especially an MMO. Black Gold Online has a lot of potential, and a few key fixes could really improve the game. Right now, however, it’s just not all that engaging, and worse still, not that good. Some people will no doubt love the unique aspects of the game, but in a genre with so many excellent, varied options, Black Gold Online just isn’t good enough.