Project Copernicus Interview

38 Studios' R.A. Salvatore took a moment during this year's GDC to chat with Gamasutra about the world he's building for their upcoming MMO Project Copernicus and how his previous fantasy novels helped prepare him for the video game industry. Unfortunately, there's no mention of Project Mercury:
Said Salvatore, "you can't have a society that's just a bucnh of vicious, maniacal killers. It wouldn't survive. So I had to to come up with a structure... This is the most important thing in world building. You have to understand that you are asking the player or the reader to suspend disbelief. You are asking them to take a bunch of things for granted. The less that your'e asking them to pretend this happens, the more you're making it make sense, the more immersed they will be in your world."

Where do you look for inspiration? Salvatore revealed his source: "The dark elf city ... Is based on the the Mafia crime families in Puzo's The Godfather." It's unexpected, he said, but "the point is, it makes sense. It works."

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At this point, Salvatore said, he decided that "games are going to become the next great storytelling medium." His question: "What's the author's role going to be? I wanted to know what an author was going to be able to do with these games."

Almost four years ago, he got his answer in the form of a call from Curt Schilling. "Curt tells me 'I want to build a computer game.' I knew he was like me, he got it. 'I want you to design the world for it. I want you to come in and help us create this world for an MMO.' I think that's a phone call I had been waiting for about seven years."