Paul Barnett Speaks, Part One: His Griefer Son, the Meaning of Creativity, and Dating Games Workshop’s Daughter

By Steven Crews | May 23, 2009 | | Filed under: Features, Interviews | Tags: Paul Barnett, warhammer online

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The MMO Gamer: But there are male sorcerers.

Paul Barnett: There are male sorcerers. That’s true.

The MMO Gamer: Although I did like the tome entry about them, where Malekith says that he’s aware that there aren’t supposed to be any male sorcerers, and after the invasion he’s going to have them all killed.

Paul Barnett: Absolutely. That’s very Dark-Elfy.

The MMO Gamer: If I were playing a male sorcerer I think I might have read that and rerolled a female.

Paul Barnett: [laughing] As a Dark Elf you’re always finding ways of usurping Malekith and putting yourself on the throne, otherwise you don’t have a reason to call yourself a Dark Elf.

So yeah, it’s things like that, and some of them are difficult choices.

The wonderful world of Warhammer has not been really realized to be an MMO. What does a Dwarf bridge look like? The answer is “Dwarfy,” and that’s not really helpful if you’re an artist.

It should look as if a Dwarf has made it. But what exactly does that mean? Short, with a beard? Put a bunch of beards on the bridges! It’s not really meant for that.

And of course there are thing we’ve never contemplated, and Games Workshop never contemplated, because they don’t need to.

They’re making novels and toy soldiers, what do they care about what a window looks like? They don’t need one. If they want one, they’ll have someone in the studio to make one out of bits of balsa wood and a washing up bottle.

The MMO Gamer: Is that’s why they stopped making their own version of Warhammer Online? The MMO that was cancelled before Mythic acquired the rights?

Paul Barnett: They had a set amount of money and patience.

The MMO Gamer: And they ran out?

Paul Barnett: They ran out as they came up against the realities of making these games, in that they’re like birthing 500 pound cows.

The MMO Gamer: Mythic had more money and patience-and experience birthing 500 pound cows-than they did?

Paul Barnett: Well, I think it is always really difficult the first time around for anyone, and so Games Workshop, figuring out what it thought about computer games, and the Climax company figuring out how to make an MMO were always going to take longer, and be more painful.

Mythic had the blessings of 12 years of making these sorts of server support, server stability network code, client downloads, information stuff. They already had an awful lot of the wisdom, whereas first time round companies are trying to gain knowledge and wisdom.

The MMO Gamer: How has the daughter been treating you? How has the Warhammer world been meshing with the MMO world?

Paul Barnett: I think we have hit a very particular rhythm with the Warhammer world, but we have maintained a consistency, and a love, and a care for it that is very much in keeping with the Warhammer ideal.

I say that because there’s a holy trinity at Games Workshop, which is Alan Merrit, Rick Priestly, and John Blanche. Between the three of them, they are Warhammer.

All three of them are satisfied that we have done the right thing. You can’t really ask for any more than that. I mean, Rick formed the embryonic of what the world is, John helped fashion what it looks like, and seeds the look and feel, and Alan maintains what it all means and gives clarity to the Warhammer world.

So to have all three of them on the side means we got most of it right from a spiritual point of view.

The MMO Gamer: What about from the mechanical point of view? You mention that there were certain things that you wanted to try that just wouldn’t mesh with the Warhammer ideal.

Paul Barnett: Well, inability to die, that’s not particularly Warhammer…

The MMO Gamer: You could have had a hardcore server. People would have played on it, they did in Diablo.

Paul Barnett: Well, maybe… I don’t know. Lucky I don’t have to make those decisions.

Coming to terms with that, coming to terms with abusing the geography. You can miraculously move around the land slightly faster than you should.

Preponderance of much more magic, doing away with interracial rivalries, to forge them into alliances… These are all conceits that are made to make the game work.

Most of the great stuff that we like is built upon a conceit, and I use that in a positive sense, not the negative sense.

In Star Wars, when a ship explodes out in the vacuum, flames blow out of it. Big explosions. It’s clearly nonsense. It’s a conceit. They have pulse lasers, you know, it’s a conceit. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t great.

The Warhammer MMO has enjoyable conceits to make the game work. The chicken is a great example.

The MMO Gamer: It is a great example. I loved the chicken system.

Paul Barnett: It needs bigger feathers. Always bigger feathers.

The MMO Gamer: One of my favorite memories of the game was this giant chicken raid that went and tried to peck the door down on a keep. It was a grand old time.

Paul Barnett: I’ll tell you what: Those times are available again. Take the ten-day free trial, come on in, the WAR is lovely!

The MMO Gamer: [to recorder] You heard it here first.

Paul Barnett: This plug was brought to you courtesy of the PR marketing department for Warhammer. Bing!

The MMO Gamer: And Triple Point, don’t forget them.

Paul Barnett: One can of Coke for all! [laughs]

Click here to continue to Part Two of the interview.