"We'd never be able to do this at Blizzard," said Flagship director of technology Tyler Thompson, but I'm not really paying attention. Instead, I'm trying to catch a tidbit of a shotgun statistic as it flashes on-screen. 72-100 damage, rate of fire... but I'm too late. Already Thompson is out of the menu and blasting dog-like monsters with what he calls a "shotgun of rockets," or what FPS gamers would commonly refer to as a "big fucking gun." With one carefully-aimed blast he reduces a creature to a pile of flesh, laughing as he moves his character further down into a decayed subway dungeon, looting all that he sees.

Thompson has every reason to make comparisons to his former employer. After serving as a programmer on Blizzard's Diablo II and as lead programmer on its expansion pack Lord of Destruction, Thompson left the company in 2003 along with former Blizzard director Bill Roper and a sizable crew. Forming Flagship Studios, the team's first major project bears much in common with the Diablo series, both in title and in practice. Hellgate: London may look like a shooter, but nearly every other aspect of the game is an evolution based on the addictive formula of Diablo, right down to tech trees, randomized dungeons, and the frenzy of click-based combat.

One of these evolutions addresses the problem of markedly rewarding players for their personal achievements, rather than leaving rewards as random draws amongst group members. When a monster dies, you only see an item drop that is specifically attached to your character. No other players in your group sees this item, and they all can receive different drops depending on their class and level. "We're not going to shove it in your face all the time," Thompson remarked, referring to the frustrating experience of finding loot that your character can't use in other games.

Logging out of the rifle-based Marksman class, Thompson activated a Blademaster character, and began stylishly hacking away at incoming enemies. One enemy approaches that spreads flame as it moves, a random effect that has been attached to that particular entity--a holdover from the Diablo series, as he quickly notes. While the game looked and ran solid, it's impossible to judge an MMO based on a few minutes of gameplay, so I soon gave up and focused my attention on the creator of the code.

Before we get too far into our chat, I asked him a question that was raised by a Shack community member when news of Hellgate's subscription fee was announced: what happens to a subscribing player's subscription-based items when he stops paying for the service? The answer, Thompson confirmed, is that the items simply become unusable. Players can can leave the game for a period of time and subscribe again later, reclaiming their bonus materials at any time for the $10-a-month fee.

As Thompson continued to mass a pile of monsters at his avatar's feet, I spoke with him on a number of non-technical topics related to Hellgate. Read on for the industry veteran's comments on pricing models, online item trade, incremental updates, and future expansions.

On pricing models:

"There's a $10 a month subscription. We're not doing any models. We are doing a $10 a month subscription. This is our model. We have one model. [Pauses for effect. Laughs.] Any time you do any new model, you have lots of debate, but we're sticking to our guns.

"You pay 10 dollars a month. You get extra storage space--and by the way, I think the basic storage space is more than enough. I've been playing a lot of these characters and I haven't even put anything in my storage locker yet. But you know, people are item oriented, they'll get more space. You have access to hardcore mode. And then ongoing content, extra features, extra stuff in the game. New weapons, armor, character classes. Guilds, guild officers, guild creators. Average players will go online and say, 'You know, I'm playing this game a lot. I want more characters. I want more stuff. I can pay $10 a month to get that stuff.' And the new content, they'll have to evaluate it and see if it's going to be worth it."

On MMO currency trade:

"It's definitely a sign of a healthy economy in a game, when items have value, and currency has value. That's a good thing. If people are actually putting value on those things because they're putting value on their time, that means people are really enjoying and playing the game. As far as the actual economics of it, and whether it changes the game or not, I'm not too concerned about it. Because we have instance play, you're not gonna be running into gold farmers that are going to be stealing all your stuff or taking all your kills. It won't be a physical annoyance to all of those players.

"I know plenty of guys who like to go online and buy those cool items and make the guys stronger and go out and play. You know, that's fun for them, they have fun with that, and that's cool. We can't directly put monetary value on the things within our economy. And so, we don't directly participate in it."

Turn the page for Thompson's thoughts on gold farming, post-release updates, and RPG mechanics in other genres.