Kaplan: The world's currency breaks down into gold, silver, and copper. Obviously, one of the best ways to curb inflation is to provide consistent money sinks. We can do this in a number of ways, including scaling training costs, giving additional perks such as added bank space or player mounts, and core gameplay mechanics like guild founding fees or guild tabards. Also, many spells and abilities will require consumable reagents or items. So, players will be encouraged to buy these items from other players or local merchants.



At the same time, we're able to do some cool things with our merchants as well, such as give them "rare spawn" inventories. So, you might find a rare item on a merchant that was previously unavailable elsewhere and feel the need to spend your money.

Kaplan: Players will not be able to avoid combat entirely. What we strived for was a world where you could do other things besides just "grind" and still feel as though you are accomplishing goals. For instance, crafters might require certain reagents for their abilities that can be gathered from the land. However, if they happened to get jumped by a bear while collecting that herb or piece of ore, well, they better be ready to fight or flee.



After all, this is the world of WARcraft.

Kaplan: One of the single most important aspects to any MMO is the player community. Anything that encourages or facilitates player interaction needs to be put in the forefront. Guilds will play a key role for players to bond and enjoy game content, as well as normal social interaction within World of Warcraft. Also, at the higher levels, there will be raid content, which is being designed specifically with guilds in mind.

Kaplan:Guild Masters will be able to assign and promote players through various ranks, set the guild message of the day, and design their guild's own unique tabard.

Kaplan: Guild halls will not be released with the game. We have a very robust player housing system which includes guild-specific content. Many of the backend programming is already complete on the housing system, but we do not anticipate that our player housing system will ship with the initial product. We want it to be perfect first.

Kaplan: We are definitely interested in allowing guilds to be able to own certain areas, as well as participate in player-run businesses, but this would also fall under our player housing module.•

Can you give us an overview of the game's economy? What is the world's currency and what are you doing to fight against inflation and provide money sinks?is a very combat-oriented universe. Will players be able to play a completely non-violent crafting character?How important are guilds to the initial designs forWhat tools will be available within the game for guild masters to manage their members?Will guild halls be released with the game, and what specific privileges will be associated with them?Will guilds be able to purchase other in-game items such as real estate, ships, businesses, parts of the griffin transportation network, or set up their own sections of a city?