Fury is a new style of MMO that will throw this gaming generation for a loop. Fury has been compared to Guild Wars more times than I can count (and I have ten fingers and toes!). With a game like this there needed to be a review of it so the world could bask in its uniqueness. So I shot off some questions to Paul Whipp the Producer of Fury. Even though I know Paul is a very busy guy, he offered some of his time and I was able to get some information about the new MMO he is part of called Fury.

Versengen:  “No Ganking, No Grinding, No Waiting, No Wimps” is your claim to fame.With “No Ganking” You mean there is no non-consensual PvP, I’m I correct on this assumption?

Paul Whipp: Absolutely, In Fury you choose to enter a war zone for a battle. You decide when you want to fight and what kind of fight you want to have.
 
Versengen: “No Grinding” Is questionable with the task of PvPing or Questing to get skills and equipment. Could you elaborate?

Paul Whipp: Fury is all about fun in good well matched contests. You advance your character and get great loot but you do it while you are having fun in the fights rather than having to go off and farm stuff.
 
Versengen: “No Waiting” Means that you can enter a PvP match at anytime unlike in WoW where there is a waiting line, being that all there is in Fury is PvP correct?

Paul Whipp: We’ve designed Fury to draw your opposition from all of the other realms and our matchmaking gets you the most evenly matched fight possible without ever making you wait more than four minutes.
 
Versengen: Finally there is “No Wimps.” I hope that’s self explanatory and our readers will catch on.
 
Versengen: In game content: In other interviews you have compared Fury to a sports game. Do you think that maybe Fury could be the next virtual Super Bowl?  Maybe the real question here is, will there be unique PvP events set up buy GMs (Game Masters) that everyone will eventually hope to be a part of?

Paul Whipp: There are ladders and leagues from day one and many people will be content to fight for and support their guilds as they attempt to reach the top of the leagues and win prestige and fame for their own realm. As for organized events – Fury is ideally suited to this as you’ve seen at E3 and at PAX so it’s very likely there will be organized events in future.
 
Versengen: From personal experience if the game doesn’t have anything new for me to do, it burns out rather quickly. With only PvP in mind, are you worried that Fury will lack enough content to keep players wanting to come back? If not, what is it that you think will keep the players interested?

Paul Whipp: Not at all. While there will be plenty of content updates in terms of abilities, maps, game types and the like, Fury is not a content driven game. New things to do will always be there in the form of games against new opponents or new individual, group or team tactics. It’s more like playing a sport in this sense – How often does football need new content to remain interesting?
 
Versengen: As for maps, you call cities “sanctuaries” and with no PvE in Fury will there be an outside world to explore? Will there be any exploring at all?

Paul Whipp: Fury is not about exploration. Players will get to know the sanctuary areas and maps quite quickly.
 
Versengen: Will you have “traps” in the PvP zone matches?

Paul Whipp: There are hazards which come into their own when you know what abilities to use in particular situations, kicking an opponent into a pit for example. There are also spells that create walls of ice or fire so you can channel careless players to their doom or trap them for your team mates to decimate.
 
Versengen: Blood, guts, and gore. Will they be optional to turn off and on? Will there be a “Mortal Combat” style of gore added at any point if it’s not already?

Paul Whipp: We already have a great visceral sense of contact with the animations and effects so we have no current plans to add blood and guts.
 
Versengen: On character creation: Are all the characters going to be so “purty?” None of those big Viking types with bushy beards and flagons of ale as they wade into combat?

Paul Whipp: Yes, there are lots more faces, hairstyles and the like going into Fury for release.
 
Versengen: I have a situational question for you regarding the one character limit. You say that they won’t be needed but lets take the instance of a family who likes to play Fury but only has one computer that can play it. Would it hurt to allow families to create more than one character? Example: A father and two sons like to play the game however don’t want to play the same character and would like to have their own sense of accomplishment. Would you really recommend that they purchase three copies of the game?

Paul Whipp: The flexible character development and incarnation system in Fury is revolutionary and the single character limit on the account ensures that the vast majority of players will immediately get the maximum benefit from it.

Multiple players sharing a Fury account can share access to as many as 256 distinct incarnations so there is plenty of scope for them to share the account effectively.

If a player really wants a distinct identity and avatar appearance then they will need an account. Whether this requires purchasing an additional copy of the game or not will depend upon our final business model which is still under review.
 
Versengen: You say one of the things that make Fury different and more exciting than other games is, “Character development and advancement are more flexible and personal than in any other game.” How can you claim that when the character development is compared to Guild Wars at almost every turn? What is it exactly that makes the character creation progress and the character advancement unique from Guild Wars?
 
Paul Whipp: The character development system in Fury will be refreshing to players of Guild Wars and other MMORPG games.

In Fury you undertake trials. Each trial achieved will unlock abilities. After you achieve a certain number of trials you will be able to use an incarnation of higher rank. This has more “equip points” available so you can take more and/or higher level abilities and equipment into combat.

Versengen: So in order to get skills or equipment you will need to complete a trial. What is entailed in a trial?

Paul Whipp: Fury’s trials are exclusively PvP challenges that relate to the school of trial you are undertaking so they may involve defeating a number of players in a certain time or keeping your group alive. As such they are accomplished entirely within the context of the fun game play and may be achieved whether you win or lose the contest.
 
Versengen: With only having one character to play, will the character creation process be an in depth or once again can we compare it to Guild Wars?
 
Paul Whipp: Character creation in Fury is simpler than in Guild Wars because there are no class restrictions. Your initial choice of arch type is purely for the convenience of being able to instantly get into the action. You can take any trials, learn any ability and develop your character however you like.
 
Versengen: On the PvP system: People in Guild Wars constantly have issues with starting a match and people dropping. Due to it being bedtime and mom interrupted, or be it they are actually working for the other team and sabotaging your team by making you one man short. Perhaps the player is looking for a match without a certain person in it due to reputation as a badass. Anyhow, the outlook on this problem seems to be a big issue with Guild Wars. WoW counteracts it by allowing people to join mid game. I’ve seen another interview that says you don’t initially plan on punishing those people, but do you think that if it is a problem in the beginning that it might land you a bad first impression?
 
Paul Whipp: In Fury, everyone in the realm is a potential team mate and not a potential opponent. Helping the opposition by dropping from a group in the manner you describe would require a dedicated account played on a different realm so its both expensive for those that wish to do it and very easy to detect for those who wish to avoid it.

We keep the group together after the fight too so if someone has dropped, at worst you only have to pick up one ‘unknown’ player next time around.
 
Versengen: How long after I load my CD, and I make my character, will it take for me to get into a PvP match? Will there be a tutorial to run through?

Paul Whipp: Maybe five minutes if you are playing off peak, less if playing at peak time. No, the ease of play and fun of the game has avoided the need for a tutorial.
 
Versengen: Personal questions: I hear from people all the time, “If I could make a game/MMO, I would do this (insert ideas here).” Is Fury your, “If I could make an MMO…” or is it driven more by cost and politics? Also, for the dreamers out there who constantly say, “If I could make a game/MMO…” what advice would you give them on how to get started, or not to?

Paul Whipp: Fury is my dream game. If you want to get started building an MMO then decide whether you are interested primarily in the programming, art or design. Then take an appropriate degree course. Build up a portfolio of your own stuff – whether its art, games or game designs (a game design you can play is best – if can program use a game development kit otherwise use cards, counters, dice, home made boards etc.). Then spend at least three years working for an existing game developer.
 
Versengen: If you could change anything about Fury, what would it be?

Paul Whipp: The release date.

That sums up these questions well enough. If you would like to get more information on Fury check out their website at www.unleashthefury.com.

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