Mgame?s new title Hero Online, a full 3D martial arts MMORPG is set to start its closed beta in North America on 15th June, 2006.Today, Jack Stanley,the leader designer of Hero Online,come to tell us this game.

MMOsite.com: The start of closed beta test indicates that the first phase development for Hero Online is winding down. Can you have a brief review of the development process of Hero Online in the past few years?
Jack Stanley: When I was youngster, I dressed up and pretended with my friends that I was a ninja out to fight the injustices of the world. I imagined that I had the ability to disappear on a whim with the ability to run alongside alls and jump super-high distances. With ¡°Hero Online,¡± I can do all of these without embarrassing myself!
We have started the development of ¡°Hero Online¡± in the year of 2002. At that time, the genre Martial Art Action MMORPG was not well known and nor was it popular, so many developers were looking for developing this type of game to attract the players who always seek for something new. With knowing this fact, we have tried to set a difference against other developers and the main stresses that we have put in order to differentiate our game from others are game storyline, pet system, skill system and warfare system and these assets of ¡°Hero Online¡± has kept its uniqueness among many Martial Art Action MMORPG and generated a massive success in Korea.

MMOsite.com: Can you tell us how you came up with such a vast storyline?
Jack Stanley: The premise of the game is deeply interwoven with the storyline of the game, which can be found on our website. However, to put it simply, a long time ago, a group known as The Twelve Demons ravaged the lands in search of a rare and mystical treasure. They were defeated by a mysterious hero who killed them by luring them in to a trap. Twenty years after his great victory, the hero is mysteriously murdered and the thread of the Twelve Demons looms again. For the safety of the land and its people, the mystery of the Hero¡¯s murder must be solved and the threat of the Twelve Demons defeated. However, to do these things, a new Hero must be born¡­
The storyline of ¡°Hero Online¡± was made by the four most popular martial art novelists, and they had to spend more than a half year in order to gather their ideas and integrate those into this single full storyline. With having the storyline read, players will be creating the new storyline of ¡°Hero Online¡± by simply reaching to become the Hero.

MMOsite.com: Currently, many games are labeled as martial arts themed. Do you think Hero Online will attract more eyeballs than other martial arts themed games, and how?
Jack Stanley: There are many reasons that can prospect the success of ¡°Hero Online in the West.¡± The first reason is its storyline. As mentioned above, the storyline of ¡°Hero Online¡± is very deep and vast, and most importantly, players can eventually create the last portion of the storyline by becoming a Hero. Secondly, we have very distinctive skill system compared to other Martial Art MMORPG and it will not require players to spend hours and hours to just learn a skill. It will be easy to learn and easy to use. Thirdly, ¡°Hero Online¡¯ has very unique pet system. There are two types mainly, pets that players will ride on and pets that players can ride on and also fight ¡°with¡± against monsters. There are pets that players can purchase from NCP, pets that they can only purchase from other players or pets that they need to tame. In addition, players will be able to grow their pets like they grow their real-life pets! Lastly, there are four very distinctive characters and there are four classes that players can choose from. There are tons of more assets that enhances the quality of ¡°Hero Online¡± other than what we have mentioned above, and please note that these assets and uniqueness has made ¡°Hero Online¡± the best Martial Art MMORPG in Korea.

MMOsite.com: What are the differences between the North American version and Korean version? Will it be synchronically updated with the Korean version? Have you made and will you make some adjustments to cater to the taste of European and American gamers?
Jack Stanley: There is no doubt that the Western version will be somewhat different than its Korean version. Of course, the first thing that we can stress is the language. The storyline and many languages that are being used in the Korean version are Chinese-based. However, China and Korea shares similar cultural backgrounds, and most importantly, a lot of Koreans are very familiar with Chinese Martial Art culture and ¡°vocabulalries¡± that Koreans did not have any problem understanding the game content and storyline even if it was Chinese-based. With knowing the fact that players in the Western hemisphere are not as familiar with Martial Art as Koreans, we have established the translation team consists of members from English-speaking nations with very deep knowledge about Martial Art culture. We believe that they have done a very excellent job in terms of approaching to the West with something that is not ¡°yet familiar with.¡± Other than the language issue, we feel that ¡°Hero Online¡± is such a complete game that there won¡¯t be need to be very many changes. In addition, we feel that part of what will make ¡°Hero Online¡± such a great new MMORPG is its theme and motif, so we¡¯ve been pretty carefully with maintaining that while altering the game for the Western public.

MMOsite.com: The pet system of Hero Online seems very interesting, players can get more power from their pets, what else can u tell us about the pet system?
Jack Stanley: Most importantly, the best thing about the pet system that ¡°Hero Online¡± offers is not the system but ¡°pets¡± themselves. The types of pets that a player can equip include all kinds of wolves, horses, bears, tigers, lions and eagles. There is even a system available where players can use NPCs as helpers in lieu of pets! In addition, there are two types of pets: attack pets and mountable pets. Attack pets can fight with the player using an AI that the player chooses. As far as mountable pets are concerned, players can ride them for transportation as well as for combat. When players fight on a mountable pet, the character itself takes no damage as long as the pet is alive. With this type of cool pet system, it takes PvP and PvE strategy to a whole new level.

MMOsite.com: The vivid motions in Hero Online are really attractive to gamers. How did you deal with motion design during development?
Jack Stanley: Well, one of the most important assets that Martial Art MMORPG must have is the action in the game, and in order for players to feel the action, there should be a vivid moment in the game so that players can feel as they make some skill moves. This is what we cared about the most in terms of ¡°graphic.¡± Having a decent 3D look is important also, but that is just an appearance. Players can see many good 3D graphic moves that they can¡¯t see in any other games, but the question is ¡°Can they feel the action?¡± Our main focus was to make players feel their moves as they make moves. Exactly how and what kind of ¡°feelings¡± that players will receive in their movements are very difficult to explain verbally. Players will know what we are stressing here when they actually move their mouse and click or press keyboards in the fightings.

MMOsite.com: How does the PvP system work in Hero Online?
Jack Stanley: In Hero Online there will be two factions that a player can choose from. Most of the PvP systems will primarily be based around the conflicts of the two factions. Warfare is a scheduled system that will take place on a separate map where players will have a set time period to score the highest number of points to win. To score points, players will have to either kill enemy players or destroy enemy monuments. The faction with the most number of points wins the war and will receive bonuses.
Territorial war will be faction based and will be held on a separate map as well. There will be an NPC on each side, and the object of the war will be to kill the enemy NPC first. Whichever side wins will result in their NPC being immortal for 6 hours during which time players from the winning nation may mine rare and precious minerals (for crafting and upgrading) from the Great Mines. After six hours, the factions may either fight again for the territory or leave it to the NPCs to take over.
There will also be several other aspects of PvP, but those will be revealed later once Hero Online goes into its Beta phases. Until then, readers should keep their eyes open since they are guaranteed to be fun.

MMOsite.com: Hero Online has achieved great success in Asian countries including Korea, Japan and China. What will you do to duplicate its success in the North American market, considering the big differences between Eastern and Western cultures?
Jack Stanley: We humbly assume that there are not that many Martial Art MMORPGs in the Western hemisphere, and we know that a lot of Western people have always been curious about Asian Martial world. This is probably why movies such as ¡°Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon¡± or ¡°Hero¡± have been so successful in the West even more than in Asia.
What we can promise is that this game will be something that players in the West have not experienced yet, and we are also certain that this game will be a great way for them to actually get to know more about the Asian Martial culture.
Players in the West were always looking for something new and something unique, and here, we have brought something that they have never experienced! Enjoy!