"Trials is somewhat of a departure from our standard quests and expansions. It is much more of a ‘campaign’ "

It is a common malady for online games - players level up and once they attain the upper ranks they either are content to treadmill or they go looking for a new adventure elsewhere.

Of course elevating the levels reached, making experience numbers almost impossible to achieve will keep some on course, if for nothing other than to say they did it. But the growing trend is to provide new content, almost to the point of reinventing the game.

Dark Age of Camelot is a title that has drawn gamers for quite some time, and while there is a steady influx of newer players, the world must be updated to sate the cravings of the more experienced players. The game has seen some other expansions, and while wonderful and expanding the realm, they will not have the impact of the newest expansion, Trials of Atlantis.

The expansion is intended for players past the level of 30, but opens a secret civilization spread over numerous islands. With the end of their civilization eminent, the Atlanteans locked their powerful magical lore into a set of trials. There are nine trials in all, and completion of these trials will unlock the powers.

In addition, the expansion introduces a Master Level advancement system. The expansion is heavy on group play, features three new races, new mobs and side quests.

Matt Firor, Executive Producer, of Mythic Entertainment talked with GameZone about this new realm.

Question: Trials of Atlantis will be utilizing the Gamebryo graphics engine. What does this mean in terms of graphical quality for the game?

Matt: It means that Trials will look as good as just about any other game out there. We are amazed at the graphical quality of this expansion - not only do the new Atlantis zones look beautiful, but we've also re-done all of the game's older zones as well. In the original and Shrouded Isles zones, expect to see all new terrain textures and new, extremely lifelike, trees.

There's also new, more reflective and lifelike water, underwater effects, a user-skinable interface, newer and more intense spell effects, more realistic monsters that now can have more advanced graphical effects attached to them, and lots more. It's a beautiful game.

Q: Will players have to have this expansion in order to benefit in terms of enhanced graphical quality?

Matt: Yes, the new engine is only available if you purchase Trials. We've had to re-do the art in every zone in the game to some extent, so the Trials expansion actually contains the entire game, new art, old zones, new zones, and all.

Q: The adventure is for level 30-plus characters. What will prohibit younger players or lower-level players from getting to this world?

Matt: Anyone can physically go there, using the new boat system, but lower-level characters will quickly find themselves out of their element when they run into monsters and situations that are far too powerful for them.

Q: What are the new races featured in this expansion and what sort of access do players have to them? Are they playable, and if so, how does a player get to be one if they have to be level 30? And if not playable, do they pose a threat to the players?

Matt: There are three new playable races in Trials of Atlantis. Midgard gets the Frostalf, a dark-skinned smaller, lithe race that has a naturally high piety. Hibernia gets the Shar, a more evil, reddish humanoid race that has a high constitution. Albion has the Half Ogre, a large lumbering race that is strong and intelligent.

Players that purchase the expansion can start new characters with the new races, although they won't be able to explore much of the new Atlantis content until they are higher level.

Q: Talk to us a little about the creation of this world. What was the inspiration for it, or was this taken solely from the imaginations of the developers?

Matt: When you have a game based on Arthurian, Viking, and Celtic legends, and you're looking for another that can be easily integrated into the ethos, Atlantis jumps right out. Almost every culture has at least one or two legends about a long-lost land of powerful intelligent people that slipped beneath the ocean in a cataclysmic event. Also, of course, Atlantis fits with our practice of taking public-domain myths and creating worlds from them. We didn't follow any one specific Atlantean myth - as there are many and they often conflict - instead, we gook the "sunken land" concept and made our own story from it. It is up to the player to learn the story of Atlantis as they adventure through the expansion.

Q: In addition to the new content, does this expansion mark any changes in the general gameplay of the DAoC?

Matt: Not really - in order to solve the Trials that make up the larger monster encounters in the expansion, players will have to form larger groups - just the same as they do when fighting dragons or other epic-level monsters in the game. We are adding some new player abilities called "Master Abilities" that players receive after they successfully complete a Trial, but these are general purpose (although more useful in RvR) and won't change gameplay too much.

Q: The genre of MMORPGs is really heating up? We've seen DAoC make some changes, such as player housing, to meet with player demands for more ownership of game world space. Why do you think players want more immersion in these worlds and what trends do you foresee in the future in terms of player-ownership?

Matt: We always try to listen to the Camelot player community when planning new features for the game. Housing had been planned since the game's original development, but we never had time to actually implement it until just a few months ago - but by waiting, we got to put in lots of extra features that make it a really good solid housing system. Players want to feel like they "own" something in the game, because many people play MMORPGS to role-play a character in a medieval world (in Camelot's case). The more that they are allowed to be immersed in the world, by building relationships with other people, by having a character they can emphasize with, and by having objects in the world that they own, the happier they are and the more they want to play. It's up to us as game developers to give them the tools that make them feel comfortable and useful in the game world.

Q: Trials leans heavily on fellowship questing. Granted these are MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER games, but why do you think it is important to have players group or fellow for quests?

Matt: Because much of the fun of online games is interacting with other players and realizing that many characters working together can overcome even the most difficult obstacles. It's as simple as that.

Q: Why did you choose this direction with Trials?

Matt: Trials is somewhat of a departure from our standard quests and expansions. It is much more of a "campaign" where you start at the beginning of the expansion and adventure through it. In many cases, you'll have to "solve" one master level encounter in order to move on to the next, in a sequential fashion. In this manner, we tried to give it more of a tabletop role-playing game campaign feel - you have a goal (to solve all nine trials), and you must adventure throughout this ruined civilization in order to do so.

Q: What do you think are the key elements driving Trials that will appeal to DAoC players and make them want to run out and get this expansion?

Matt: Trials offers many things to the Camelot player, so I think it appeals to different types of people. First there are the graphical upgrades and new races that anyone, no matter what level, can use. Second, for higher-level players, there's tons of new content in geographical areas that don't exist in the game right now (i.e. underwater terrain, deserts, etc.). Third, for serious RvR high-level players, Atlantis holds many new powerful weapons, as well as Master Abilities that will give them some new skills that they can use on the RvR frontiers.