Upcoming interview with Marcus Pregent

[{CH}ArticleBot]

The time has come for us to book in our next interview!

This time, we will be sitting down with Marcus Pregent, who worked as a level designer of Might and Magic VI, then progressed to Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for which he made the Armageddon's Blade campaign and some more single scenarios. One of the more notable ones being "Faeries".
He was also involved in Shadow of Death, creating the Elixir of Life campaign featuring the beloved Gelu.
Before the big "purge" of 3DO/NWC, he also worked on Legends of Might and Magic, JVC's interpretation of a MMORPG.

As per usual, I want to know if any of you would want to direct any questions to Marcus Pregent?
I will do my best to see if I can get any of the questions I missed in the interview with Michael Wolf in as well.


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[JSE]

It would be nice if the two questions I suggested for the Michael Wolf interview make it in (https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/8/17193).

I'm a little puzzled by the phrase "JVC's interpretation of an MMORPG". From all I heard, Legends was originally planned as a co-operative multiplayer action game with maybe a dozen players that would also feature some RPG elements. It was never meant as a *massively* multiplayer RPG with a persistent world or the like. According to my sources, JVC changed course during development of the game due to a convoluted state of design that was neither a satisfying action nor a satisfying RPG experience.

But I guess Marcus Pregent has a different story to tell? I'm curious.

[Panda Tar]

Oh, I have a very direct question regarding MM6 level design:

Why was he (and the design team) so evil as to design those wells and chests that would teleport you straight to hell, eradicate you or summon some blood thirsty party on your neck?

P.S.: you can word this a bit more friendly. But that was evil, either way. Mostly meant at how they come up with that idea, and how they see that design today.

[JSE]

Good question. While M&M 6 is -- without a doubt -- one of the best computer RPGs I've ever played, it definitely had some over-the-top nasty surprises. It would be interesting to learn about the "design philosophies" behind such decisions.

[cuc]

Speaking of "JVC's MMORPG", I'm curious about what was his initial MMORPG vision, for which he accepted the 3DO acquisition, hoping 3DO would fund its development.

My other question is about M&M6's naming & division of magic.

As we know, Sorcerer spells are divided into four elemental schools, and Cleric spells are collectively "Self Magic", divided into the Mind, Body and Spirt trichtomy.

Who made these design decisions? What were their thinking processes, especially for the rather unique name and division scheme choices of Cleric magic? How did this affect the design of Heroes 3?