Excitement for 1.31 is building and with it we've seen a resurgence of WWIIOL:BE love on some prominent MMO news sites. We happily provided some news and tidbits to both Massively.com and Warcry.com which inevitably got picked up by some other sites (n4g.com, play.tm, mmoz.com, gaminghorizon.com) and are driving potential players to check out the game. Now get to work re-tweeting, Digging and Facebooking these articles and help spread the love!

Massively: What sorts of things have the team done to make the game's learning curve a bit more accessible to new players?

Amy-Lynn "MOTORMOUTH" Engelbrecht: The learning curve in BE used to be pretty intimidating to new players. We've really worked hard over the past few years to make it easier for new guys to figure out how jump into the game and be effective from the start. We've implemented a tutorial system, starting with the basics of movement and chat, and working up to combat training for infantry, armor and air. We plan on continuing to add new sections as often as possible. We've also created some Squad recruitment tools that help new guys find a team of veterans to mentor them through their initial few sorties. Add to that our dynamic mission orders, contact reporting, the ability to easily group infantry through the use of Mobile spawning, a dedicated group of volunteer trainers and easier ways to find a fight, pwning in BE combat has become much simpler.

Massively: Any MMO that lasts more than a few years is likely to upgrade graphics to keep up with new system capabilities (as well as aesthetic standards). The upcoming patch includes major visual upgrades, such as new terrain and buildings, the removal of the last of the 2D sprites, and the introduction of permanent ground clutter usable as cover. The new screenshots really look fantastic! But how harsh are the new system requirements? Do you worry that long-time players with lower-end systems will be left out in the cold? How has the new engine influenced the team's design philosophy?

Dana "GOPHUR" Baldwin: The new sys specs are really just modernized. We require Shader Model 3.0 now and every modern video card has that. On the CPU side we're looking for Dual Cores and recommend close to 3 GHz. Battleground Europe is at heart a military grade simulation and the CPU is more of a bottle neck for the game loop than the graphics are. We're not too worried about losing players with older machines as our data shows that 95% of our players have CPU and GPU to be able to play. Still at some point, we have to upgrade the look and feel, the immersion, to increase the number of new players that we keep. In that process we'll probably lose a few of the old ones, that's progress.

The team over at Warcry.com were looking for something a little different but definitely a subject that we're pretty knowledgeable about! In the article "Battleground Europe: A Decade of Devotion", Al "RAFTER" Corey gave a bit of insight on keeping a dev team motivated for 10 years, an industry rarity for an MMO game:

Continued motivation for a small team working on the same project for a decade is a unique challenge in the game's business where most titles are shipped within 2-3 years from the date of pre-production and teams come together and break apart on a title by title basis. How does Cornered Rat keep team members excited and committed to the project? As with most things it is a mix of many factors.

One bite at a time: Each major development cycle is bite at the apple. The team approaches each feature set or tech re-write as another opportunity to move the big vision forward but focuses on a singlular set of goals.

Let the cool creep in: No matter what the influences are that dictate future development, allowing for the cool to creep in from members of the team are vital to on-going success and morale. Features that are instantly recognizable as cool additions to the game and championed by one or more staff are almost always allowed to slip into the development cycle when possible. People like it when they see their own pet feature added and get a sense of contribution not always found when carrying out goals assigned from elsewhere.

We have more articles in the works for these sites, as well as an on-going Dev blog over at MMORPG.com.  We're always working hard to get news and coverage of WWIIOL:Battleground Europe and we're confident that with the release of 1.31 and the plans we have for the future will bring us back into the MMO spotlight. We'd also like to thank all our players who use word of mouth to help drive new customers to the game, you are one of our most valued assets.

S!