I have limited MMO experience, so I would love some information on your background, and what you believe to be your impact on your cronwning achievements. Also, after having a week or so to soak in and et your bearings, it would be nice to have a 'note' from you describing what your role is and what we can expect to see as a result of your addition to the team.

Basically, my background is that I've been involved in the design, development, launching and management of MMOGs and online for 19 years. During that time, I've been directly involved with over a dozen persistent worlds. I guess that makes me a pioneer... and I have the arrows in my back to prove it.

As for any impact and crowning achievements: that's really for you, the players decide, isn't it? If I had to pick the game I contributed to most or had the most impact on, it would probably be Ultima Online; as part of the team Gordon "Tyrant" Walton assembled to revive it in 1999, we doubled the subscriber base in nine months, after it had been stuck in one place for a year. I consider that something of an accomplishment.

As for my role here: my job is to help prioritize tasks, improve the processes and procedures and take input from you guys, to make sure we're working on features and fixes that need to be made and that you want to see.

A couple reasons, actually. One, the investors in Nevrax are very patient and believe in the game and the team; that counts a lot, in my book. Two, I've met various members of the team over the years; I like them a lot and consider them friends and I want to help out, if I can. And three, they agreed that my overall title would be High Empress of All Known Time and Space; who could pass that up?

One of your columns on the biting the hand website is about story telling. The article was written in November of 1992 and from the sound of it, before you started work on AC. Here is the link:
http://www.skotos.net/articles/BTH_37.shtml
Now the basic message of the article is that a prescripted story is a bad thing to have and that the real success will come from the stories the players create. This brings up some very interesting questions, especially concerning Ryzom.

1) That article was written long ago before MMO's really took off, one might say it was written at the dawn of the MMO age. Here we are 3 years later, you have more experience with MMO's under your belt, do you still feel this way about a story in a MMO or has your view changed?

Yes, I do, and one of my tasks here, in conjunction wth David, is to find ways to allow the players to have more of an effect on the story and the outcome.

2) It's well known that the basic story of Ryzom is mapped out. There is a start and there is a finish that is already determined. How do you plan to produce a game when the basis of it is what you speak out against?

I don't now yet, :D. Ask David and me in a few weeks.

3) In reading your article I understand what you are saying. The most successful game is going to be one where the players truely can shape the game, where their actions become the lore. However the reality is that current technology limits this. Furthermore players have a tendency to jump in and focus on leveling more than creating stories. As the executive producer for Ryzom how do you plan on dealing with the limits of technology? How do you plan on getting players away from leveling and more into creating the stories that will be remembered?

Again, I don't know yet, as I don't know the technology well enough yet. When I'm more familiar with the capabilities, I'll make recommendations to David and then we'll come back here and talk some more with you. Fair enough?.

I hope you don't view this as an attack or me trying to give you a hard time in your new job. I'm just a player who lives for the storyline in an MMO. I found your comments interesting and would love to know how they fit into the picture for this game.

Hey, question everything, :D

How does job of "Editorial Director" (DCC) and "Executive Producer" (Jessica) relate to each other? Or does inclusion of Jessica means that DCC leaves development of Ryzom universe to Jessica and concentrates on his CEO job?

David and I think of Editorial Director as the same as Creative Director. David's job is to take the 35,000 foot view, to establish the guidelines of the story and how it will appear in the game. My job is then to organize the team in such a way as to make that happen, or to tell David why it can't happen exactly that way and to make recommendations to improve it.

Will your work have any short term effects or only medium to long term?

If by short term you mean, will I start to have an effect the next two to three months: Yes. By that, I really mean that I'll be talking to the team and reading these forums, coming to a consensus on priorities and then having the team start working on those priorities. My job is to make sure everyone is singing off the same sheet of music; they do the real work. My job is really just to be the slave with the coolest title, meaning I make sure everyone has the resources to do their job. They get to do the fun stuff.

Hmm this is the woman who just left Asherons Call, 2 months before they ship an expansion pack!

Exactly right. In fact, my notice had been in to the company for some weeks before I left.

And just to be clear, so there are no hidden expectations: I'm starting here on a 4 to 6 month consulting contract; we'll see where it goes after that.

What does an Executive Producer do all day, what's his job?

Meet with the teams and help establish priorities, find resources, help institute processes and procedures that improve efficiency, solve problems, coordinate the work flow... and pull my hair out, scream, rant, rave and otherwise make myself useful or at least amusing.

Can we take this sentence seriously: "working closely with the players" ? What does close cooperation with players mean exactly?

What it means is that we'll talk with you before we embarque on a bunch of new stuff. My first task here is to get a list from the various teams inhouse on what they are working on and what they believe needs to be worked on. That includes ALL teams here, including customer service, test, the coders, the designers, et al. Once we have a list of priorities together, we'll come to you and present the list for a sanity check and discussions. You're one of the stakeholders in this, after all.

That doesn't mean we're going to set all priorities by the comments made on this board. It does mean, however, that you have a voice, that we'll be listening to you and taking your comments into account and that we'll present our ideas and priorities to you in a timely manner, so we can get your comments before we have gone too far down the road with them.

Does it means that we will get new content more quickly?

We hope so. I'm a big believer in doing things that directly effect the players, :D. So is the rest of the team around here, by the way. Sometimes, though, bug fixes have to take priority.