Open Test Begins
Well, the big news for us is the upcoming Open Test. Since we have announced the November 1st date for open testing, signups have increased dramatically. We expect more than 800 people to have signed up for Charter Citizenship by November 1st. We plan to start with around 50 invited testers on the first so that we can test the registration process. This select group will be chosen from the most active members of the Imperial Wars community. Testers must be able to download the game (the file is about 30 Mb) and then open a test account, install and open their game client and request a game start. Of course, all test accounts are free. The November 1st deadline should be met, but we will delay it a few days if need be to ensure a better start.

Early testers may go through the process several times to help us in smoothing out this process, which is different from the never-ending, persistent worlds. Entering into an Imperial Worlds game universe involves choosing a player name, a character type to play and a final score. Player selections are entered in a queue where the server constantly searches for the 16 component characters that will let it form a game. When it does, the players are notified by email (or they can log into their game client) that a game is ready and gives them their first deadline. Meanwhile, the server creates a universe. This is not a simple process for the computer as there a lot of things that go into setting it up.

Once we can successfully and easily register accounts and we have our first games started and running smoothly, we’ll start the next hundred or so. If we need another incremental test group, we’ll choose them but we expect that within the month, tests will be open to one and all.

Managing Expectations
One of the most challenging issues in releasing Imperial Wars is the management of expectations. It is much easier to understand a game that is like another game that you have played in the past. Imperial Wars is very different to the other games currently popular on the Internet. It is a game that has a beginning, middle, and ending, unlike the better-known MMORPG’s. It is turn-based yet the turns have a sense of immediacy and take days to play. It is an immersive game with but it breathes and allows players to become engrossed in a science-fiction universe without giving up their lives.

There are many implications of a game like this that we discuss in our forums. This discussion will definitely heat up in the weeks and months ahead. We have spent a lot of time trying to tell people what to expect so that we don’t disappoint them or get people into a game that does not fit their style of gaming. It is a huge challenge to set the expectation for an unknown game.

We have avoided the hype andgeneral PR that is normally associated with the opening of a game so that we don’t attract players who are really looking for a session type game like Unreal Tournament or a persistent world game like Everquest. We’d like the chance to get it right and build a core of people who will help us show players the other kinds of games that Internet has to offer; games that are just as interesting and perhaps for many, even more so.