Last week, I had the privilege to check out some of the lesser well-known developers at the E3, such as K2Networks (
http://www.k2network.net/). K2Networks takes a unique approach to gaming, as all of their games are freely downloadable on the internet and you can either choose to pay for their games, or not. The big difference, however, is that the company gives special treatment to players who do pay for the service. For example, Knights Online is one of their MMORPG titles. You can choose not to pay and still be able to play the game, however, if you do choose to pay you get things such as tech support, and priority in logging into the servers. Like during peak hours, if you try to log into a full server when you are not paying for the game, you will not be able to. However, if you are already playing you will not get kicked out. Their current pay model is based per-game, however, they are open to the possibility of a subscription-like fee for the ability to play a multitude of games.
One feature I especially was fond of is that K2Networks actually goes out and finds YOUR opinion of the game as you play it. They are in constant communication with the players on their servers, and frequently ask for the opinion of the players as you are playing the game. You can meet up with a GM (Game Master for those of you unfamiliar with pencil and paper RPG terms) and the GM can actually change the game as you play (by spawning monsters or dropping items, for example), as well as interact with the players.
I was able to speak to the VP of Operations of K2Networks, Bob Drobish as well as Matt Norton, the Producer of War Rock. As you have probably guessed by the title, the game is a war-based game. This game has several modes; Mission Mode plays a bit like Counter Strike, you have some terrorists who have a bomb, and the other team has to try and stop them. The Infantry Mode, on the other hand, plays a lot like Battlefield 2 in which there are hard capture points on the map and you must capture them. There are also vehicles that you can obtain, however, there are a couple of maps where there is only one vehicle, which means that you are constantly fighting to get it. The third mode is called Vehicle Combat, in this case the name says it all. The map is loaded with vehicles and you go out, grab one and start killing. The game also has different classes of characters such as a medic, scout, engineer, etc. Most of these names you are familiar with, and with each you get different sets of weapons, which can be upgraded. They are going for realism in this game so almost all of the weapons you get are based on the real thing. Overall, the game looks flat out fun! The controls are very simple, especially for vehicles (unlike Battlefield 2). They are very easily controllable with the mouse and keyboard so there is no steep learning curve if you want to start to eventually fly the helicopter or the jet.
All in all, I love their approach to gaming, and because of it, they now have one more customer. I look forward to trying out War Rock, and will enjoy talking to the developers about different changes that can be made to the different games, and just have a blast with it all!
RSS
