In a recent interview, FreeMMOGamer learned a lot about Dragon Oath, a huge Asian success about to be released in the North American market. Now it’s time to know more about the past and the present of Dragon Oath in a exclusive interview with Martin Tan, General Producer at ChangYou.com (US) Inc.

FreeMMOGamer: When we first spoke, Dragon Oath was about to start the Closed Beta. How is it going?

M: Our Closed Beta has been a great success. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we are very happy with the comments and activities we are seeing in the game. Last week we saw the creation of our first guild city, a task in our game that is very hard to achieve especially with the limited time we have been in beta. I even went to a wedding in game that was well attended. The players are especially interested in our huge variety of pets and mounts. They can actually breed their own pets and mounts. That is something they never found in other games. Users are also thrilled by the 24/7 continuous live in-game events. No other game has ever offered this.

 Any major changes suggested by players? Anything that you just thought: “That would be great to have”?

M: I am sure we will get more player suggestions as we go into Open Beta and we will look at the possibilities of using this player feedback in future releases as we are always interested in what the player would like to see. The great thing however is that the game has been out in Asia for over 2 years, so players have had many ideas already incorporated into the game. For example, when we first launched Dragon Oath in Asia, it didn’t have as many pets and mounts as today. Later, we added more and more of them after our users told us what other types of pets and mounts they would like to have in the game. Also, our pets originally didn’t carry armor sets. But later we added this function when we heard from gamers that is what they want. Players in the US benefit from all this extra input from veteran users.

Also, we are opening many new features for the Open Beta, such as “Martial Arts Battle”, in which every class will choose its contestants and all members of the winning class will receive 3x quest rewards of normal for a period of time after the event. To celebrate the Open Beta launch, we will hold special events both in-game and off-line. Many great gifts will be given away. For more updates, players are invited to visit our website www.DragonOath.com.

 Did you find any new obstacles? Something discovered during the Closed Beta that you weren’t expecting to be so much trouble?

M: Translation was difficult in a game this big. Often it is hard to express some ideas when going from Chinese to English. So our localization team, which consists of American veteran gamers who are bilingual, really worked hard on this. Just for a small episode, they would translate multiple times until our local testers say it is almost perfect. So the Closed beta was very helpful. Now we feel we are ready for the launch of the game.

FreeMMOGamer: How long until the Open Beta? Do you think by then the game will be mostly finished and polished?

M: The Open Beta begins on Nov. 5th, at 4 P.M. (PST). That is when we will restart our server “Zion” after a 12-hour shutdown. Actually, Dragon Oath is already a highly polished game. What we brought to the U.S. market is an ultimate version after 3 years of constant developments and updates in Asian market.

How big do you expect Dragon Oath to be in North America, in terms of player acceptance?

M: Players that give Dragon Oath a try will find something really unique and different from what they are used to playing. For example, in our game, marriage has an actual in-game function, and when you adventure with your spouse in the game you gain increase experience point benefits. So ultimately it will depend on if players are looking for similar experiences to what they have in the past from dozens of other games, or if they want something different. Dragon Oath provides familiar concepts of other games, like questing, guilds, pets, and mounts, but also include news ways of doing things, for example the experience points you earn through questing can be used to increase your level and stats, or buy new skills. Most games give you free skills just for leveling up. This change in a core concept really makes spending your experience points exciting; it is not about just getting to the next level. We are excited to see the level of acceptance to these new ideas and look for ways to improve Dragon Oath and future games based on the feedback we get from our first launch of a game in the US.

 Do you have a definitive date for the final release or you’re planning on taking some more time to fix whatever comes, and even add new content along the way?

M: Our final release is scheduled around Mid-November. We will make an announcement regarding that later. Right now, we focus on making minor adjustments here and there to better serve our users.

I have a last message to tell FreeMMOGamer’s readers: Come play the open beta! We’re ready for you to work to become a Kung Fu master.

 Thank you for your time.