Rago: Hello please introduce yourself.

Myra: Hello, my name is Myra Widodo and I am the Associate Producer of Sword of the New World. My role as a producer for the game involves managing the oprerations for the game and working with varous teams such as our Marketing, PR, Product Development, IT, Game Support, Payments, Distribution, Community and Creative departments. I also work as a liason for GamersFirst and our developers IMC Games and Hanbitsoft.

Rago: Please tell our user a bit about your company.

Myra: GamersFirst (www.gamersfirst.com) is the leading Free2Play MMO publisher in the Western Hemisphere. Our premier MMO titles include Sword of the New World, War Rock, Knight Online, and Runes of Magic TR (in Turkey). The GamersFirst culture dedicates itself to the Free2Play gaming model, promotes listening to the gamer community and doing what is in the best interest of the game and its gamers.

Rago: How does a normal working day from you look like?

Myra: One thing I've learned about working in production is that my job is hardly a "9 to 5." I'm being frank when I say it is hard to define what a "normal" day is. The exciting thing about working with a game that is essentially a living and breathing thing is that it keeps you on your toes. I have to be ready to jump at opportunites at a moment's notice – opportunities such as marketing campaigns, sponsorships for promotions, and distribution deals. I also have to be able to react quickly to any unexpected issues that may arise. Because the game is growing and the fact that our players demands change over the course of time we are constantly facing a new agenda each day.

Rago: When did you launch Sword of the New World and how many players do you currently have?

Myra: Sword of the New World launched in 2007 and is approaching its three-year anniversary. While I can't give out any specific numbers, I will say our largest markets include the U.S., U.K. and Germany. We don't have an overwhelmingly large community but many of our active players have been playing the game since the first Beta, so we have pretty loyal community. We see 2010 being a great year for Sword as we have some major expansion plans for the game this year.

Rago: Players always complain that in free 2 play MMORPGs they have to "grind" a lot to level up. How many quests do you have in SotNW and what can players do beside "grinding"?

Myra: As a matter of fact, one of the biggest facets of the game design for Sword addresses the "grinding" issue faced with many MMORPGs. That game design feature is called Multi-Character-Control (MCC), and it's a feature that really sets Sword apart from other games. With MCC players can gain more with investing less time as they can simultaneously level and develop up to 3 characters simultaneously. They don't have to grind to level one character at a time and they're not restricted to playing one class or one type of character on a given server. In addition to the time saving advantage, players can earn experience cards throughout the game and apply those cards to level up characters other than the 3 they mainly play with.

Rago: Could you explain what is special on Sword of the New World and why players should try it?

Myra: The reason that most of our players like Sword is because it is very different from your average MMO. Sword has graphics that can really immerse the player into a fantasy world. The texture renderings of this game allow such fine details as eyelashes and eye-lights to be clearly visible when a player zooms in on a character. Having the ability to show off the ornate detailing of costumes, buildings and items from this historical and fantastical world is definitely a major strength of the game. Playing Sword becomes a more involving experience, which is a great attraction to the game.

As I mentioned earlier, Multi-Character Control is another unique feature that has really appealed to our players. Finally, our Political PVP system is another defining characteristic which is unique to Sword. In the game we have what we call Faction Wars, where Clans battle against other Clans to dominate control over Colonies within the New World. I guess if you were to compare, one might say this Faction Wars is similar to Risk, where players must strategize to take control over points in the map.

There is also an Election system where players (regardless of belonging to a Clan and/or a Faction) may vote for the leader of a Faction. The internal struggle for political power is something all players may participate in.

Ultimately, the end game for this Political PVP and Election System is to become the Premiere - dominant ruler of the New Word. There are two Factions in game - 1.) Royalists and 2.) Republicans. The elected leader of the Royalists is called the Grand Duke and the elected leader of the Republicans is the President. The Faction that has the most Colonies, is the dominant Faction, and the leader of the dominant Faction is the Premiere. The Premiere has control and can levy taxes on all the Colonies.

Rago: Is there any major content expansion planed for 2010?

Myra: Sword has several developments for 2010. We recently released Echoes of an Empire late in 2009 and are already working on the next update and intend to release it in the very near future. Our game is a living breathing thing; it grows and changes on a regular basis. I don't' want to give away too much, but the next update will be "Echoes of an Empire, Volume 2". Volume 2 introduces 2 new UPCs: Ania and Helena as well as a new raid, a new weapon and armor series and most importantly Master Status! We'll also have some new costumes, new Cash Shop and Feso Shop items, and of course my favorite – new pets!
After "Echoes of an Empire, Volume 2" there is another big announcement that will be approaching this Spring.

Rago: Thanks a lot for the interview we looking forward to see great stuff from GamersFirst.

Myra: Thank you! If want to learn a little more about Sword of the New World or try out our Free2Play game you can visit our website at www.gamersfirst.com/swordofthenewworld

You can also follow both GamersFirst and Sword of the New World on our social media links to stay up-to-date with news and developments we are on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GamersFirst and Twitter: @GamersFirst and @SOTNW