Call Of Duty: World At War Q&A Feature

TVG: The World at War multiplayer beta is currently ongoing; how's it been going so far?

It's going really well.  We're making some adjustments to the back end now that we're seeing network traffic,  and we're rolling out new keys across the world.  It's really great that we're getting the whole world into the beta too, because we get a lot of information from Australian players, and from France, Germany, and the UK too, and we can watch what happens when they play against US players.

TVG: Has it thrown up something unexpected?

Not yet, there was some stuff we expected which came through.  It'll be interesting as the level cap changes over time because we're interested in weapons balancing.  A lot of the data we can harvest including looking at a particular map and question why everyone is using machine guns, did we do something wrong when we designed the map so that there aren't any snipers on it?  We're still peeling through all the information.

TVG: Call of Duty: World at War finds itself in the same release window as Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare continues to ride high on the most popular online charts.  Is there a chance that it could find itself squeezed out, and what preparations are being made so that it doesn't happen?

You know, our ultimate answer to that is the quality of the game.  There are plenty of nice things you can say about both of those games, but we believe we bring the best multiplayer to bare; we think we have the co-operative experience which is quintessentially Call of Duty.  For people who are going to only make one game purchase over the holidays, what we're asking is for them to hold onto their money of course and play Call of Duty.

What we believe we're bringing to Call of Duty is the most gritty and realistic game possible, and now that we've added co-op and competitive co-op, the value for money is incredible.  We sit around the office and play some co-op modes that we play after hours that we've been playing for two years now, it just sucks you in.  So we're hoping that when someone sits down and asks what their next game is going to be, they trust Call of Duty, they trust that we're going to give them a quality game, and when they see the game they're going to know they're really got something.

TVG: What are your plans after release for Downloadable Content support?

 I can't speak totally into specifics, but I can say that we're going to be really aggressive about supporting the game.  We're going to have a lot of downloadable content for it, we're really excited about that.  Up until very recently, when we were getting the game gold, we weren't working on any of that at all.  But now that we are, the whole art team and everyone else is pitching in and looking at what we can do for downloadable content.  If co-op is really exciting, we'll look at that.  If certain multiplayer modes are exciting, we'll look at that.  We intend to support this game for a long time to come because we're very proud of it.

You've mentioned possible new modes and maps, both of which are generally expected by players.  Both GTA IV and Tomb Raider: Underworld will be releasing extensions to their respective campaigns - is this something that you're likely to pursue for World at War?

I can't talk about any specifics, but we think that people will be really taken by our co-operative play mode.  If it's as exciting as we think it's going to be and as people have told us it is, then we'll look at that specifically of course.

TVG: So you're not ruling campaign expansions out?

Oh no.  We won't even rule out crazy stuff.  We feel very good about this game, and if fans want it, we'll listen to them.  We really look at this as a chance for Treyarch to re-establish itself with its community, and if the community loves a certain game mode or really loves a certain game mode, we'll definitely support it.

TVG: Do you think that Treyarch has had a bit of a bad rap in recent years after Call of Duty 3, and the perception of the franchise as Infinity Ward's baby?  Do you think World at War is the redemption of Treyarch?

I'll say this, it's not entirely undeserved.  Call of Duty 3, while it was a good game, wasn't the game it could have been.  With this game we finally got to make the game we wanted to make, and that's a big deal for us.  I think people are going to start taking us seriously as a developer, and we're proud of that.

Treyarch is also a big studio.  The guys working on Spider-Man or James Bond, aren't necessarily the guys working on our games.  We want to make sure that people know that when they're getting a Treyarch Call of Duty game, and when we've had the time to put our heart and soul into it, that it's going to be a great experience.

TVG: Obviously then the team will be pushing your parent company Activision to give you another two year lead time...

Absolutely.  The advantage of coming out with a really solid game that takes two years is that we can say, "Told you so, that's how long it takes to make a game - trust us!"  Frankly, we're proud of Call of Duty 3.  In the States it was an 81%/82% rated game; it's OK, and we did the best that we could in the time that we had.  It gave us the chance to make this game, and I think we've shown people that when we're given the chance, we can do some good things.

TVG: A couple of weeks ago, Cliff Bleszinksi was touring around with Gears of War 2. He commented that games lose their soul when they're taken away from their parent development studio, and cited Call of Duty.  Was that a fair thing to say?

I don't want to comment on Cliff specifically, but I will say this.  The guys who worked on this Call of Duty, some of them have worked on four or five different Call of Duty [instalments] like United Offensive, Big Red One, and Call of Duty 3.  A lot of them come from Grey Matter, which goes all the way back to Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Kingpin even!

When you try to take a new, green group of development guys who haven't made a Call of Duty game, and you say "Go and make Call of Duty", they're going to have a lot of trouble.  That's where that comment is true.  If you're going to try and just take developers and say "Go and make a Call of Duty game", they're always going to have a hard time of it.  But when you have guys that live and breath and eat war, they're always going to make a great game - or they'll die trying.

I would say that at Treyarch on the Call of Duty team, we've got guys that live, eat, breath Call of Duty, and what they've turned out is true to the brand's soul, and is a worthy successor to any Call of Duty game.

TVG: Thanks Noah.

Call of Duty: World at War will be invading Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2 on November 14th.

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