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This is a special edition devoted to our interview with The Secret World‘s Game Director, Joel Bylos. Episode 43 will be live tomorrow if TSW isn’t your thing, although it’s worth hearing a senior MMO designer’s ideas all the same. If you are into TSW then you’re in for a treat as Joel covers a lot of areas of the game and gives some hints on the future of the game. A big thanks to Joel for taking some of his valuable Sunday morning at a park with his family to speak to us.

Points of discussion:

– Joel’s journey from Australia to being game director at Funcom

– What being Game Director involves

– Question from The Angry Postman: promoting TSW outside the Alternate Reality Game niche

– Transparency of Funcom/TSW with the struggles over recent months

– Question from Ed Goldstein: scaling between zones

– Question from Belladawna: Does the new position mean Joel can outdrink Ragnar?

– Question from Belladawna: Plans for an official hi-res model viewer?

– Question from Hyperjumpgrandmaster: Making PvP more meaningful, open world PvP an option?

– Question from Voodoo Shark: plans for streamlining skills and mechanics?

– Question from Voodoo Shark: ongoing free trial offers?

– Any other teasers willing to be disclosed? (Yes – including a heavy hint on Issue #4’s auxiliary weapon)

– The impact of layoffs on the team and optimism for the future and bringing some people back

– Can the output of issues be maintained?

– Ability to change body-shape in the future?

– Lessons learnt from Age of Conan?

– Lessons learnt from other MMOs?

– Rift doing panda charity donations (and a lame joke from the host on funding a different type of panda)

– Comparing TSW, GW2 and WoW combat

– What’s a measure of success for TSW over the coming year?

Post your thoughts on the interview below – we’ll have a summary of Joel’s responses posted in 24 hours or so but nothing beats listening to the full thing – enjoy.

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