Jim Lee Reflects on DC Universe Online's Launch
This article originally appeared on ZAM on Jan. 31, 2011.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff got the chance to talk with comic legend Jim Lee about the release of DC Universe Online. He also hints that lucky players may get the chance to have their characters featured in the new DCUO comic book!
Jim Lee is a legend in the world of comics. He's earned many titles throughout his career: artist for Marvel Comics, co-founder of Image Comics, founder of WildStorm and currently co-publisher of DC Comics. He's also the executive creative director for DC Universe Online, which just launched three weeks ago after five years in development.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff got the chance to sit down with Lee to reflect on the game's release and why he enjoys interacting with players. Lee also hints that lucky players may get the opportunity to have their characters featured in the pages of the upcoming DC Universe Online Legends bi-weekly comic, which comes out in early February. While it's not a confirmed plan, he hopes to make it a reality.
Keep reading below for the full interview, and check back with ZAM tomorrow for more DCUO news! (UPDATE: Game Director Chris Cao talked with us about DCUO's February content update. Check out the article for all the details.)
ZAM: You've been working on DC Universe Online for quite awhile. How does it feel to finally have the game live?
Jim Lee: The emotion didn't really hit me until days after the launch. I was following the Twitter feed, searching for DCUO and checking out different websites to see the excitement of the fans as they play this game. It's a different kind of game. It's an MMO. It's not just about building a great game that people take home to experience and enjoy, it's also the interactivity between the players and this thing you worked on for five years. It's the final part of this equation that you've been building for all this time. All these players from around the world are the last critical component that makes MMOs special. That's the special ingredient that makes MMOs unique and makes these kinds of games so much fun to play.
It's been amazing. Normally if I were just a player I would have been on 24/7 leveling up, but I actually didn't play much. I spent most of my free time scouring the web for reviews, feedback and insight. I was the proverbial fly on the wall and listened to the reactions of these gamers as they encountered various villains for the first time, accomplished their first feats and found their next cool bit of armor. I got very little sleep; probably the same amount of sleep I would have gotten if I was playing the game for hours every day. I'll find an hour or two a day to play, but the bulk of the time after that I'll be on the web browsing for anything about DC Universe Online.
ZAM: I follow you on Twitter and noticed that you interact with fans a lot. They'll ask questions and you'll get right back to them with a response. You'll answer the same questions over and over, but you seem really passionate about helping them out. Why do you feel it's important to talk to fans?
Lee: I'll tell you a couple interesting things that happened. I would just search for DCUO and would find people who didn't know who I was or didn't follow me, and they would post about their frustrations. Some were having difficulty logging in, others created a character and it disappeared, or their activation code was invalid. These were all common bugs that I read a lot about because I was looking for this information. Then I would hit them up randomly and send them a response. I think it helped to have that human contact and somebody listening to their woes and issues. The funny thing is that every single time the problem resolved itself naturally, but they gave me full credit like I solved some technical issue. Most of the stability issues were tied to such demand for the game and so many people trying to log in at the same time, and they have since been fixed.
It was great because things would naturally fix themselves. If these players were disgruntled before, they were equally as delighted and happy that things had been resolved and they jumped back into the game. It was fun to have that personal interaction with people as they were first encountering the game and helping with whatever frustrations they may have had. I think a frenzy builds up when something new like this appears on the scene and hits the gaming world by storm. There's this sense that you're missing out if someone is playing and you're not. People relaxed a little bit and gained perspective and they were back into it. It was a lot of fun doing that and I enjoyed it.
ZAM: Indeed. When I saw your Twitter feed around launch day, it almost felt as if you were a customer service representative.
Lee: I know the SOE people were slammed with all the different requests. Just being able to go out and troll around and find things I could help out with made a big impact. Especially if they're comic book fans. They'd say, “Whatever problems I had tonight completely made up for the fact that I got to communicate with you.” That's always a lot of fun because you never know if they're fans or not. It's been great to have that kind of feedback. There's a couple things I learned from reading up on these people's experiences. I found some solutions through what other people had experienced and passed it along. It was beneficial all around.
ZAM: Speaking of feedback, was there anything you heard that really surprised you?
Lee: This is going to sound completely disingenuous, but people were talking about stability issues and I had no problems playing the game. It wasn't just me. We have three PS3s. I was playing, our 10-year-old boy was playing, and our 5-year-old son as playing. We were all playing together with no problems whatsoever. But I think what happened was service got slammed that weekend and one of my son's characters disappeared. We left to go to dinner and came back and the character reappeared. Someone else was concerned that it happened to them, and I said, “Hey, give it a minute and it'll reappear.” Sure enough, the character showed up. I had a great first 3-4 days and didn't encounter any hiccups until later. They were fairly minor.
It's interesting to me to see everyone's got the same PS3 and same game, and some people had no issues and other people had log in issues. But at the same time what was common to all this was that everyone really wanted to play the game. It was very gratifying to see how quickly any issue they may have had turned into happiness with the game once they got in and some of the stability bugs were squashed.
ZAM: You mentioned players using PS3s. SOE President John Smedley recently announced that the PS3 is slightly outselling the PC version. Is that what you expected or does it surprise you? Do you have a preference between the platforms?
Lee: I've been playing mostly on the PS3. I just installed Windows onto my Mac with Boot Camp and put the PC version on that. To me it's the preference of whether you want to sit on the couch and play or sit in front of your computer and play. I hook up a controller to my computer, so it's essentially the same sort of tactile experience. The controller is definitely the way to go. I played the beta all on my PC with a mouse and keyboard, which is typical for MMOs, and I thought it was a lot of fun. Then I tried the controller and started seeing what people are raving about. There's a certain amount of ergonomic compactness in having all the buttons very close in the palm of both your hands as opposed to spread out.
That said, I play on the PS3 with a controller and a USB keyboard to hit hotkeys to open up maps and inventory or communicate with people. I have a 70-inch TV at home so I have a lot of fun playing the game on that, especially as a speedster running up the side of the building and then hitting jump and flying through the air. It's pretty damn immersive. I've been having a lot of fun playing on the PS3 recently. What I like about the PS3 is you have a lot of first-time MMO players. I love some of the, for lack of a better term, “innocence” that you see, like people kind of flailing around trying to learn the ropes. On the PC you may have veteran MMO players that played beta and know all the things to typically do in an MMO. On the PC, I would regularly get my butt handed to me in PvP.
ZAM: Switching topics a little bit, you mentioned chatting with other players using the USB keyboard for your PS3. One of the main critiques I've heard from players is tied to the UI and chat window. What are your thoughts? Can players expect to see any changes?
Lee: I think Smedley's gone on the record saying the UI is a top priority in terms of the next patch. I think being able to communicate in the game is important, but I rarely group with people. It's a game that's fully soloable until you hit max level, and then there's more group play and instances. Part of the superhero experience is that you can form a League, but you don't have to. It's kind of a different mentality than a lot of MMOs that require grouping to achieve bigger things. But even at level 5 you're taking down some pretty iconic heroes or villains depending on your alignment. You do that almost every couple levels therafter. There's no scaling up of action. You get it from literally day one. From that standpoint, I feel like a superhero and that's what we were going for.
Another time my 10-year-old and I played together and we used Bluetooth mics and had no issues with it. We were running around and I got a complete Batman and Robin vibe. It was really a lot of fun because we weren't high levels, but we would go and fight people through PvP and a lot of times we could beat them even if they were higher levels than us. Again, it felt different from a typical MMO.
The great thing about it is I would much rather have these minor glitches and issues that can be patched and repaired. It would be horrible to launch and have people say the gameplay sucks or it's boring, or I don't feel like a superhero, or this doesn't feel like the DC Universe. Those are the things that would be very difficult to fix. Instead you have at it's core a fun game that really emulates the superhero experience and pays off on the DC license.
Admittedly there are UI issues here or there, and even Smedley fully admitted it could use improvement. I think that stuff can be patched. I think the most recent patch dealt with some of that already. The thing with MMOs is that they are at once a finished game and also a work in progress; new content and objectives are always being added. It's a living, breathing game. It's not something you play and toss off to the side when you're done. You're continually interacting with it and growing with it. To that extent I'm really happy with how it launched. It's a testament to the fine folks at SOE. They did an amazing job and really put their blood, sweat and tears into it and made it a reality. I can't think of anything worse than spending five years on a project and having it come out and be average. I think they really took the chance and did something different with it. I'm very happy with that final outcome.
ZAM: You played as Batman and the Joker in the “Battle of the Legends” beta-ending event. What was that like on your end?
Lee: It was pretty thrilling. On the one hand I was astonished to see screens just filled with red names and everyone using their powers. When too many elements got on, it would be overwhelming. It was awesome to see all the beta players come together and how intensely they were into the end-game and this event. You could see all the comments on the Facebook page and shouts within the game. I was in god-mode so I couldn't be killed until we decided to turn that off, but nonetheless they all came at me and blasted away. It was a lot of fun playing that kind of roll in an MMO. I've never been a “guest star” in a game like that. It was a pretty cool honor.
ZAM: Do you think players can ever expect to see another big GM-style event like that?
Lee: If I were the person in charge of live events then I would say for sure. It's super easy for me to say that. I think the monthly updates and building this universe that we launched is something that allows us incredible opportunities to do things that you normally don't see in games. Take from that statement what you will. I think it would be a shame not to have events where iconic characters played by real people are up there doing things. I've seen that in other MMOs where someone would come into the game and take players on an adventure. That kind of story resonates with fans and it gets carried out in the community. I think it's an easy thing to do within the game.
There are opportunities going forward to do cool things where we use elements in the game and reflect that in the comic book that's tied to the game. The DC Universe Online Legends comic comes out in early February. We're always looking for ways to cross-pollinate between the comic and the game, and just pay off on the license and the premise of you being a superhero. If that means Batman showing up and doing something, I think that would be really killer. I need to make a call to SOE to make that happen, but if I have that authority, I would be all over it.
ZAM: Can you tell us more about the Legends comic and how it's going?
Lee: Sure! It's a bi-weekly comic that comes out in support of the game. It really takes the premise that's delivered in the opening cinematic and fleshes out what happens to these characters after they've been triggered by the exobites. It's written by Tony Bedard and Marv Wolfman, and drawn by Howard Porter. It really allows us the opportunity to showcase the DC Universe for a lot of gamers that may not be familiar with it. They can buy the comic digitally if they don't know where a to find a local comic book shop.
It's going to give us the opportunity to possibility take players from within the game and showcase them within the comic, whether it's just a pinup or the best heroes and villains from various servers. I think it would be a cool way of acknowledging and memorializing what people have created in the game. It's one thing to fight alongside these iconic characters or fight against them, but it's another thing to actually be printed and be in a book that will outlast your lifetime. I think that's part of the payoff of the whole premise. You're not just a hero, but you're a legend. You will appear that way within the comic book. You have the possibility of achieving that. I'd love to see that happen, and that's something I can directly affect. That's something that I look forward to making a reality.
[Editor's note: SOE's official response is that “in-game character inclusion has not been confirmed nor are there any plans for it at this time.”]
ZAM: Speaking of DC Comics, is the staff playing the game? What are their reactions?
Lee: They are definitely playing it. Not just the staff at DC, but a lot of the freelancers. Gail Simone, a writer on a number of DC titles, got into the game and was thrilled with the dialogue how the characters were written. It's gratifying as a comic book creator to hear other creators experiences the game and praise it for capturing the DC Universe so well. There are a bunch of us playing. There are a lot of gamers working at DC. This is that rare combination of twin passions that become one. A lot of people are very thrilled by having the game finally come out.
ZAM: It's fun for comic fans playing DC Universe Online to realize that other players could be one of their favorite writers or artists.
Lee: Sure! I've mentioned my character Orange Chicken before, and one time I went AFK and came back and saw in my text box somebody saluting me. They sent me a tell to say thanks for helping make this game. It was a cool way for them to acknowledge me in the game. I sent them a message back but they had already logged out. It's another way to interact with fans. I'm out there on Twitter and message boards, but it's another thing to group with someone and do a mission together or PvP with them. I definitely PvP between missions and I'm sure some people might have bragging rights.
ZAM: Keeping in the comic vein, the artwork and artistic style has been a big part since day one for DC Universe Online. How does it feel to finally see your designs in-game?
Lee: I probably take more pleasure in that than most people. I see a lot of tweets of people saying they love how the cities look, but I flew to the top of the LexCorp building and looked out over the dam that is on the edge of Metropolis. It's stunning. It's a testament to the environmental artists at SOE and how they took the 2D architectural designs of the city and made it come to life. The whole look of the game was the result of a lot of different artists. There was a core group of concept artists at Wildstorm that I worked with, and they designed so much of the game. I really worked with all of them to make sure it was unified. We went to great lengths to make sure that it all seemed like it was created by one hand. We worked with all the 3D modelers and tried to impart that style to them and see how quickly they picked it up and ran with it, and by the end they were knocking out incredible model after model. It was a real learning process on both sides.
Again, I wouldn't be happy if the gameplay was awful and the world looked nice. The artwork and the models service the game. That's the most critical thing. I think it's shortsighted to focus on one aspect. My hat goes off to the game designers and developers. They took all these assets and put them with the music, the voiceover, the missions system and the desire not to have a lot of grind and they created a game that feels like a single-player console action game, but it's shared with all these different people at the same time. That's a first for a platform like this. You talk about it, you imagine it, but you don't really know it until it's all put together. It's amazing how five years of work comes together so quickly. At the end, all these parts that have been assembled separately are all kind of put together to create DC Universe Online.
ZAM: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Lee: I love the enthusiasm of the players! It's great to see that level of excitement over something you've created. We get to see it in comics, but it's nice to produce something that hits a new audience, and in some ways a wider audience in that it's hitting so many different countries all over the world at once. It's been an incredible experience so far. I'm still riding a high off launch, honestly. I'm really curious and anxious to see where it is in two weeks, four weeks, and so on. It's just the start really.
ZAM: Thanks so much for taking the time out to talk with me!
Lee: Thank you!
Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff got the chance to talk with comic legend Jim Lee about the release of DC Universe Online. He also hints that lucky players may get the chance to have their characters featured in the new DCUO comic book!
Jim Lee is a legend in the world of comics. He's earned many titles throughout his career: artist for Marvel Comics, co-founder of Image Comics, founder of WildStorm and currently co-publisher of DC Comics. He's also the executive creative director for DC Universe Online, which just launched three weeks ago after five years in development.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff got the chance to sit down with Lee to reflect on the game's release and why he enjoys interacting with players. Lee also hints that lucky players may get the opportunity to have their characters featured in the pages of the upcoming DC Universe Online Legends bi-weekly comic, which comes out in early February. While it's not a confirmed plan, he hopes to make it a reality.
Keep reading below for the full interview, and check back with ZAM tomorrow for more DCUO news! (UPDATE: Game Director Chris Cao talked with us about DCUO's February content update. Check out the article for all the details.)
ZAM: You've been working on DC Universe Online for quite awhile. How does it feel to finally have the game live?
Jim Lee: The emotion didn't really hit me until days after the launch. I was following the Twitter feed, searching for DCUO and checking out different websites to see the excitement of the fans as they play this game. It's a different kind of game. It's an MMO. It's not just about building a great game that people take home to experience and enjoy, it's also the interactivity between the players and this thing you worked on for five years. It's the final part of this equation that you've been building for all this time. All these players from around the world are the last critical component that makes MMOs special. That's the special ingredient that makes MMOs unique and makes these kinds of games so much fun to play.
It's been amazing. Normally if I were just a player I would have been on 24/7 leveling up, but I actually didn't play much. I spent most of my free time scouring the web for reviews, feedback and insight. I was the proverbial fly on the wall and listened to the reactions of these gamers as they encountered various villains for the first time, accomplished their first feats and found their next cool bit of armor. I got very little sleep; probably the same amount of sleep I would have gotten if I was playing the game for hours every day. I'll find an hour or two a day to play, but the bulk of the time after that I'll be on the web browsing for anything about DC Universe Online.
ZAM: I follow you on Twitter and noticed that you interact with fans a lot. They'll ask questions and you'll get right back to them with a response. You'll answer the same questions over and over, but you seem really passionate about helping them out. Why do you feel it's important to talk to fans?
Lee: I'll tell you a couple interesting things that happened. I would just search for DCUO and would find people who didn't know who I was or didn't follow me, and they would post about their frustrations. Some were having difficulty logging in, others created a character and it disappeared, or their activation code was invalid. These were all common bugs that I read a lot about because I was looking for this information. Then I would hit them up randomly and send them a response. I think it helped to have that human contact and somebody listening to their woes and issues. The funny thing is that every single time the problem resolved itself naturally, but they gave me full credit like I solved some technical issue. Most of the stability issues were tied to such demand for the game and so many people trying to log in at the same time, and they have since been fixed.
It was great because things would naturally fix themselves. If these players were disgruntled before, they were equally as delighted and happy that things had been resolved and they jumped back into the game. It was fun to have that personal interaction with people as they were first encountering the game and helping with whatever frustrations they may have had. I think a frenzy builds up when something new like this appears on the scene and hits the gaming world by storm. There's this sense that you're missing out if someone is playing and you're not. People relaxed a little bit and gained perspective and they were back into it. It was a lot of fun doing that and I enjoyed it.
ZAM: Indeed. When I saw your Twitter feed around launch day, it almost felt as if you were a customer service representative.
Lee: I know the SOE people were slammed with all the different requests. Just being able to go out and troll around and find things I could help out with made a big impact. Especially if they're comic book fans. They'd say, “Whatever problems I had tonight completely made up for the fact that I got to communicate with you.” That's always a lot of fun because you never know if they're fans or not. It's been great to have that kind of feedback. There's a couple things I learned from reading up on these people's experiences. I found some solutions through what other people had experienced and passed it along. It was beneficial all around.
ZAM: Speaking of feedback, was there anything you heard that really surprised you?
Lee: This is going to sound completely disingenuous, but people were talking about stability issues and I had no problems playing the game. It wasn't just me. We have three PS3s. I was playing, our 10-year-old boy was playing, and our 5-year-old son as playing. We were all playing together with no problems whatsoever. But I think what happened was service got slammed that weekend and one of my son's characters disappeared. We left to go to dinner and came back and the character reappeared. Someone else was concerned that it happened to them, and I said, “Hey, give it a minute and it'll reappear.” Sure enough, the character showed up. I had a great first 3-4 days and didn't encounter any hiccups until later. They were fairly minor.
It's interesting to me to see everyone's got the same PS3 and same game, and some people had no issues and other people had log in issues. But at the same time what was common to all this was that everyone really wanted to play the game. It was very gratifying to see how quickly any issue they may have had turned into happiness with the game once they got in and some of the stability bugs were squashed.
ZAM: You mentioned players using PS3s. SOE President John Smedley recently announced that the PS3 is slightly outselling the PC version. Is that what you expected or does it surprise you? Do you have a preference between the platforms?
Lee: I've been playing mostly on the PS3. I just installed Windows onto my Mac with Boot Camp and put the PC version on that. To me it's the preference of whether you want to sit on the couch and play or sit in front of your computer and play. I hook up a controller to my computer, so it's essentially the same sort of tactile experience. The controller is definitely the way to go. I played the beta all on my PC with a mouse and keyboard, which is typical for MMOs, and I thought it was a lot of fun. Then I tried the controller and started seeing what people are raving about. There's a certain amount of ergonomic compactness in having all the buttons very close in the palm of both your hands as opposed to spread out.
That said, I play on the PS3 with a controller and a USB keyboard to hit hotkeys to open up maps and inventory or communicate with people. I have a 70-inch TV at home so I have a lot of fun playing the game on that, especially as a speedster running up the side of the building and then hitting jump and flying through the air. It's pretty damn immersive. I've been having a lot of fun playing on the PS3 recently. What I like about the PS3 is you have a lot of first-time MMO players. I love some of the, for lack of a better term, “innocence” that you see, like people kind of flailing around trying to learn the ropes. On the PC you may have veteran MMO players that played beta and know all the things to typically do in an MMO. On the PC, I would regularly get my butt handed to me in PvP.
ZAM: Switching topics a little bit, you mentioned chatting with other players using the USB keyboard for your PS3. One of the main critiques I've heard from players is tied to the UI and chat window. What are your thoughts? Can players expect to see any changes?
Lee: I think Smedley's gone on the record saying the UI is a top priority in terms of the next patch. I think being able to communicate in the game is important, but I rarely group with people. It's a game that's fully soloable until you hit max level, and then there's more group play and instances. Part of the superhero experience is that you can form a League, but you don't have to. It's kind of a different mentality than a lot of MMOs that require grouping to achieve bigger things. But even at level 5 you're taking down some pretty iconic heroes or villains depending on your alignment. You do that almost every couple levels therafter. There's no scaling up of action. You get it from literally day one. From that standpoint, I feel like a superhero and that's what we were going for.
Another time my 10-year-old and I played together and we used Bluetooth mics and had no issues with it. We were running around and I got a complete Batman and Robin vibe. It was really a lot of fun because we weren't high levels, but we would go and fight people through PvP and a lot of times we could beat them even if they were higher levels than us. Again, it felt different from a typical MMO.
The great thing about it is I would much rather have these minor glitches and issues that can be patched and repaired. It would be horrible to launch and have people say the gameplay sucks or it's boring, or I don't feel like a superhero, or this doesn't feel like the DC Universe. Those are the things that would be very difficult to fix. Instead you have at it's core a fun game that really emulates the superhero experience and pays off on the DC license.
Admittedly there are UI issues here or there, and even Smedley fully admitted it could use improvement. I think that stuff can be patched. I think the most recent patch dealt with some of that already. The thing with MMOs is that they are at once a finished game and also a work in progress; new content and objectives are always being added. It's a living, breathing game. It's not something you play and toss off to the side when you're done. You're continually interacting with it and growing with it. To that extent I'm really happy with how it launched. It's a testament to the fine folks at SOE. They did an amazing job and really put their blood, sweat and tears into it and made it a reality. I can't think of anything worse than spending five years on a project and having it come out and be average. I think they really took the chance and did something different with it. I'm very happy with that final outcome.
ZAM: You played as Batman and the Joker in the “Battle of the Legends” beta-ending event. What was that like on your end?
Lee: It was pretty thrilling. On the one hand I was astonished to see screens just filled with red names and everyone using their powers. When too many elements got on, it would be overwhelming. It was awesome to see all the beta players come together and how intensely they were into the end-game and this event. You could see all the comments on the Facebook page and shouts within the game. I was in god-mode so I couldn't be killed until we decided to turn that off, but nonetheless they all came at me and blasted away. It was a lot of fun playing that kind of roll in an MMO. I've never been a “guest star” in a game like that. It was a pretty cool honor.
ZAM: Do you think players can ever expect to see another big GM-style event like that?
Lee: If I were the person in charge of live events then I would say for sure. It's super easy for me to say that. I think the monthly updates and building this universe that we launched is something that allows us incredible opportunities to do things that you normally don't see in games. Take from that statement what you will. I think it would be a shame not to have events where iconic characters played by real people are up there doing things. I've seen that in other MMOs where someone would come into the game and take players on an adventure. That kind of story resonates with fans and it gets carried out in the community. I think it's an easy thing to do within the game.
There are opportunities going forward to do cool things where we use elements in the game and reflect that in the comic book that's tied to the game. The DC Universe Online Legends comic comes out in early February. We're always looking for ways to cross-pollinate between the comic and the game, and just pay off on the license and the premise of you being a superhero. If that means Batman showing up and doing something, I think that would be really killer. I need to make a call to SOE to make that happen, but if I have that authority, I would be all over it.
ZAM: Can you tell us more about the Legends comic and how it's going?
Lee: Sure! It's a bi-weekly comic that comes out in support of the game. It really takes the premise that's delivered in the opening cinematic and fleshes out what happens to these characters after they've been triggered by the exobites. It's written by Tony Bedard and Marv Wolfman, and drawn by Howard Porter. It really allows us the opportunity to showcase the DC Universe for a lot of gamers that may not be familiar with it. They can buy the comic digitally if they don't know where a to find a local comic book shop.
It's going to give us the opportunity to possibility take players from within the game and showcase them within the comic, whether it's just a pinup or the best heroes and villains from various servers. I think it would be a cool way of acknowledging and memorializing what people have created in the game. It's one thing to fight alongside these iconic characters or fight against them, but it's another thing to actually be printed and be in a book that will outlast your lifetime. I think that's part of the payoff of the whole premise. You're not just a hero, but you're a legend. You will appear that way within the comic book. You have the possibility of achieving that. I'd love to see that happen, and that's something I can directly affect. That's something that I look forward to making a reality.
[Editor's note: SOE's official response is that “in-game character inclusion has not been confirmed nor are there any plans for it at this time.”]
ZAM: Speaking of DC Comics, is the staff playing the game? What are their reactions?
Lee: They are definitely playing it. Not just the staff at DC, but a lot of the freelancers. Gail Simone, a writer on a number of DC titles, got into the game and was thrilled with the dialogue how the characters were written. It's gratifying as a comic book creator to hear other creators experiences the game and praise it for capturing the DC Universe so well. There are a bunch of us playing. There are a lot of gamers working at DC. This is that rare combination of twin passions that become one. A lot of people are very thrilled by having the game finally come out.
ZAM: It's fun for comic fans playing DC Universe Online to realize that other players could be one of their favorite writers or artists.
Lee: Sure! I've mentioned my character Orange Chicken before, and one time I went AFK and came back and saw in my text box somebody saluting me. They sent me a tell to say thanks for helping make this game. It was a cool way for them to acknowledge me in the game. I sent them a message back but they had already logged out. It's another way to interact with fans. I'm out there on Twitter and message boards, but it's another thing to group with someone and do a mission together or PvP with them. I definitely PvP between missions and I'm sure some people might have bragging rights.
ZAM: Keeping in the comic vein, the artwork and artistic style has been a big part since day one for DC Universe Online. How does it feel to finally see your designs in-game?
Lee: I probably take more pleasure in that than most people. I see a lot of tweets of people saying they love how the cities look, but I flew to the top of the LexCorp building and looked out over the dam that is on the edge of Metropolis. It's stunning. It's a testament to the environmental artists at SOE and how they took the 2D architectural designs of the city and made it come to life. The whole look of the game was the result of a lot of different artists. There was a core group of concept artists at Wildstorm that I worked with, and they designed so much of the game. I really worked with all of them to make sure it was unified. We went to great lengths to make sure that it all seemed like it was created by one hand. We worked with all the 3D modelers and tried to impart that style to them and see how quickly they picked it up and ran with it, and by the end they were knocking out incredible model after model. It was a real learning process on both sides.
Again, I wouldn't be happy if the gameplay was awful and the world looked nice. The artwork and the models service the game. That's the most critical thing. I think it's shortsighted to focus on one aspect. My hat goes off to the game designers and developers. They took all these assets and put them with the music, the voiceover, the missions system and the desire not to have a lot of grind and they created a game that feels like a single-player console action game, but it's shared with all these different people at the same time. That's a first for a platform like this. You talk about it, you imagine it, but you don't really know it until it's all put together. It's amazing how five years of work comes together so quickly. At the end, all these parts that have been assembled separately are all kind of put together to create DC Universe Online.
ZAM: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Lee: I love the enthusiasm of the players! It's great to see that level of excitement over something you've created. We get to see it in comics, but it's nice to produce something that hits a new audience, and in some ways a wider audience in that it's hitting so many different countries all over the world at once. It's been an incredible experience so far. I'm still riding a high off launch, honestly. I'm really curious and anxious to see where it is in two weeks, four weeks, and so on. It's just the start really.
ZAM: Thanks so much for taking the time out to talk with me!
Lee: Thank you!