Sierra_Chris: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat! My name is Chris Mancil aka GM_Chris, GM_Chrissy, GM_Supersize etc. I am the Senior Manager of Community Relations at Sierra Online and head of the FreeStyle Game Master Team. Its great to see you guys.

[Xfire] Matteox: Hello! We are very pleased to welcome everyone to the FreeStyle Street Basketball chat! Please welcome our special guests who will now introduce themselves and start taking your questions!

[Xfire] Matteox: Sierra Chris Jumped the Gun! =oP

Sierra_Chris: Sierra_Chris: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat! My name is Chris Mancil aka GM_Chris, GM_Chrissy, GM_Supersize etc. I am the Senior Manager of Community Relations at Sierra Online and head of the FreeStyle Game Master Team. Its great to see you guys.

Sierra_Chris: hehe

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Sup everyone. Good to see you all here. I am of course Mohawk Dan aka GM_Mohawk, GM_Punkette, and any other spellings of GM_Mohawk. I am the Associate Community Manager of Sierra Online.

Sierra Hiro: Hi everyone, I’m GM_Hiro, community coordinator for Sierra Online. AKA GM_Hiro, GM_Micah. How’s everyone doing?

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: kaos|Fate: Will the level cap be raised anytime soon?

Answer: Great question! Actually, we aren't sure if JCE will be raising the level cap for FreeStyle. At present we only have around 30 people at level 45. We are however going to be making the pro channel a little easier to level in though.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: kaos|Fate: Will you guys put up servers overseas so we dont have a lag problem with overseas players?

Answer: Freestyle for North America is only for the United States and Canada. JCE has versions of the game in Korea, Japan and China, but right now Sierra Online is only supporting the US and Canada.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: problemlyric: Are there any plans to add more tournaments and gm events to the pro channel now that you have made the game free?

Answer: Good question... we actually hop on the game everyday and offer friendly matches to both Rookie and Pros. Right now the GMs don’t have any characters above level 32 so we can’t really do any GM Events for those levels yet. We have to work on our characters like the rest of you! We do have some exciting events coming up for Thanksgiving and the month of December including some really cool items and Leaderboard tournaments.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: I like the leader board on the website, but you can't see your own stats unless you are in ranked in the top 10,000. Will that be expanded or will something similar to the ingame stats be added?

Answer: Hi man, thanks for the question. The answer to your question is ‘no’. The reason we capped the number at 10,000 is actually that’s the maximum number that JCE keeps track of. We are hoping to integrate “Season” stats on the leaderboards in the months to come, so that will hopefully allow more people to see their names in lights =) Including the GMs.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: †KOB†Šñîpëž½®︻┳═一™{AWBO}: What is your future plans with Freestyle(new game modes,stuff,etc)?

Answer: Ahoy, good question AWBO! JCE is constantly working on the game and improving it. We look forward to publishing lots of new additions to the game that I can’t currently talk about. However, what I can tell you is that we have lots of fantastic items coming up over the next 3 months. For example, for Thanksgiving we have a couple special items that you can only win from beating the GMs during a “Beat the GMs” event, such as a really awesome Indian headdress and a Pilgrim hat. They rock! Gobble gobble!

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: [3456]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: How often are you having "Beat the GMs" challenges right now? Will you continue to have them?

Answer: Right now we do “Beat the GM’s” for about an hour every weekday. We plan on continuing them pretty much forever. :D

 

Also, while do hold them in every channel, we more often play in the channels with the most population at the time. So while we do play in every channel, ones like 8-15 and 16-24 will see us more often.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: livejamie: It's rare and very annoying to find a MMO game that doesn't allow a windowed mode, at one point the game even included a minimize button.. What's the reasoning behind this, and with so many people asking for a windowed mode do you plan on listening to their request?

Answer: Hey Live Jamie - perfect timing for this question actually. YES! We are currently working on adding Windowed Mode back to FreeStyle Street Basketball. We will announce when you guys can expect that to be patched into the game very soon.

 

FreeStyle used to have Windowed mode back during beta, but we encountered some problems with lag when using it, so it was disabled until we could solve the performance issues with it, which I think we have.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: OrcishKorean: Are there any plans to add PVP to the game?

Answer: Interesting question. If you haven’t been able to actually play the game yet… FSSB is a purely PVP type of game. But, if you are looking for the more traditional PVP that meets basketball you may find some disappointment. I don’t think scantily clad women warriors and wizards that throw lethal basketballs at local rivals down in the ‘burbs would be a logical addition to the world of FreeStyle. Haha. However, the thought of aggro’d monster ballers and magic 3pt Dunk spells are entertaining.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: [BBF]BigT ӝӃӡӍӌ: Will Sierra make more advertisment of Freestyle on TV, over the internet, ect. ?

Answer: Hi Big T - yes, Sierra Online will be doing more advertising on Television and the Internet. It’s a big part of our ongoing strategy after going free. Just last week, we actually saw FreeStyle on a DeVry commercial while eating lunch, which was pretty cool.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: [3456]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: What are your personal records? Points/Rebounds/Blocks/Meh

Answer: It depends on the character, my “main” GM_Hiro isn’t very good, but GM_Micah is 11-1 for the current season right now with a 39% 3pt :D

 

After this chat, we will put an article on the website with the stats of all the GM's, so look for that this evening on the website.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: DD*moneyjorge┌╦╤─: are we getting in game voice chat?

Answer: FreeStyle has no plans on implementing our own in-game voice chat. However, we encourage you to use 3rd party software to do so, such as TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, and yours truly, Xfire.

 

On that note, us GMs talk with each other as we play as this type of game lends to healthy communication of plays and strategy… and the occasional trash talk, heh heh.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: JJmac1221/xWhiteTigerx: How long does Sierra think it will be until we have the official five versus five full court gaming setups? Could it possibly be by Christmas?

Answer: Sierra Online is currently working very closely with JCE on a lot of new ideas and features for the game. Five vs. Five is obviously one of those features we have been evaluating and discussing but we won’t have anything like that before Christmas - sorry. But we will have lots of awesome and funny Christmas items - you have never truly laughed until you have seen Mohawk Dan getting stuffed by a block in a Santa Claus outfit - its pure magic.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: ☭ wMute ☭: Will there be more hip-hop artists and music planned for future updates?

Answer: That’s a great question! We are always looking for new artists and music for FreeStyle but currently we have no plans to expand the musical selections in the game.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: OrcishKorean: Are any of the developers basketball fans themselves? And if so what are your favorite teams?

Answer: Hah - its kind of hard to not like Basketball and work on FreeStyle. I can’t speak for everyone but I will tell you that my favorite NBA team is the Houston Rockets - yeah, two time World Champions, and the Texas Longhorns - the Runnin Horns, uhhh 0 time National Champs…… O.o

 

Mohawk Dan likes the Los Angeles Lakers and Hiro loves the Timber wolves, he’s from Minnesota, but you have to be from there I think to even like them at all.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: The keyboard is a bit unorthodox to play a sports game while the gamepad is the predominant control scheme for most other basketball games. Will gamepads such as the Xbox 360 controller be supported in the future?

Answer: Personally, I avidly use a gamepad when I play FreeStyle. I find it much more enjoyable and easier to pull off ego-crushing dunks. However, the gamepad I use isn’t supported nor is it available in the stores anymore. I’m talkin’ a straight caveman, primitive controller, lol.

 

Officially, we are looking into adding support for current controllers on the market. We have heard of some third party programs that will allow you to use some controllers, but we haven’t verified that. If you guys find any, please feel free to use the FreeStyle forums to let us know.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: LaReece: For someone who hasn't played the game but an avid sports lover, what would you tell me that could draw me to play the game?

Answer: FreeStyle Street Basketball really plays like a real basketball game, you have to learn to pass the ball to the open man, find open shots, play good defense, and ultimately be a great team player to truly find success in the game. It’s a very good basketball simulator that way. In fact, some of the very best international teams and even some groups here in North America actually run real basketball plays on both offense and defense - its very very incredible.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: ﮎτΰήήάPG: Are there plans to get a better swear word bleeping in the game?

Answer: Currently, we have a pretty strong and thorough word filter implement in the game. But, at the end of the day, users feel the need to creatively find ways around the filter.

 

Words are added to our filter on a regular basis and the list continues to grow. Unfortunately, we can’t catch everything, but we do not tolerate obscene language of any kind. If we catch you, or hear from the grapevine, about the mouth your mother would be ashamed of hearing about we will certainly make you eat a bar of soap and slap you up a bit with a couple suspensions if needed.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: psiphasah: What ideas are being discussed between JCE and Sierra online to resolve latency "lag" issues?

Answer: FreeStyle, as most of you know uses a peer to peer connection system. Peer to peer has always been difficult in that it takes only one bad connection to hinder the experience for everyone playing. With every patch JCE and Sierra is working on streamlining and improving the game’s performance, but as with any online game, lag will always be present for some players, some of the time

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: c a F F e 1 n e: Throughout the release of freestyle basketball what was your most memorable moment?

Answer: Oooo…. Yeah… I’m ashamed to say, but there was one team that beat me 4 to 50. I went home totally defeated and bummed, haha.

 

Also, we had a special contest called “Best Caption Contest” which I dressed up as an all-star baller wannabe and had user from the forums come up with the best captions. I got owned from just about everybody! There were some hilarious comments!

Sierra Hiro: My most memorable moment, would be the first time I fired up the game and created my first character, GM_Hiro. Taking him out onto the court and using the dash move to swerve around a defending player and going in for the dunk was pretty awesome in my opinion.

Sierra_Chris: Dude, I have one of the best stories from one of our Beat the GM Events. We were playing a really close game in the 8-15 channel against a great team. We were down by 2, with 5 seconds left I think - on defense…. And my Center (GM_Chris) stole from a Forward, grabbed the ball, and launched a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer which won the game.

 

The entire Vivendi Games office heard the Game Masters screaming with that victory. I mean… c’mon, a center? Steals from you, launches a 3, and beats you at the clock. That can make a grown man cry.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: bunso: I like to have a shirt with my FS char printed on it. Is there any chance you guys allow that?

Answer: Totally! As long as you aren’t trying to sell the shirt we have no problem with it.

 

In fact, if you make the shirt… take a picture of it and post it to the forums! We will give you an awesome prize for doing so.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: bunso: Are there any updates for the game available soon?

Answer: Right now, we have a patch coming real soon with some special thanksgiving items as well as some additional Ecko gear. We also have some Christmas items coming soon right after that.

 

A little birdy also told me there may be a 50% off store sale coming around Thanksgiving as well, but I would keep that on the down low ;)

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: omara209: Will there be a place where Friends can Challenge you for FUN instead of having to just getting low XP or Points?

Answer: Hmmm… that’s a good idea. We should probably look into that.

 

Sierra_Chris: Question: BBF]BigT ӝӃӡӍӌ: Will there be graphics enhancement to FSSB in the future?

Answer: Hey BigT, I can’t say for sure what improvements we will be making to the graphics engine, though we will be adding new stuff in the future. What I can say though, is that you can dramatically improve the quality of your graphics by manually turning on anti-aliasing before launching FreeStyle.

 

Sierra Hiro: Question: daniz0rz: Windows Vista has had several problems when it comes to games. How has this game performed on Vista and have there been any issues?

Answer: We did have a few bumps in the road with Windows Vista early on, they have since been resolved and as far as I know everything seems to be on the up and up with Vista. If you are having additional issues specific to Windows Vista, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service or let us know on the forums.

 

Sierra_Mohawk Dan: Question: amazingmikeymike: Is it possible to let spectators watch others play?

Answer: Currently, there is no way to do that. That is a great idea for a new feature. We will talk to JCE about that and see if that is something we can do.

 

Until then, us GMs will be filming future events and tournaments to allow you to watch the killer matches that go down.

 

[Xfire] Matteox: Ok, that concludes the chat Sierra Online! Thank you to our Special Guests and Thanks to everyone participating! Now onto the prizes! Be Patient there are 20 Winners! PM Me if you’ve won!

[Xfire] Matteox: 15 Winners an FSSB prize pack including: a signed box copy of FreeStyle Street Basketball, a signed poster, and a freestyle lanyard.

[Xfire] Matteox:

1.†KOB†Šñîpëž½®︻┳═一™{AWBO}

2.GDK

3.psiphasah:

4.ﮎτΰήήάPG:

5.Jaded420:

6.Annihulus:

7.kaiito

8.ColdFootz:

9.L1v3:

10.bunso:

11.ImStoned:

12.mclazyj

13.nakinoh:

14.omara209

15.amazingmikeymike

[Xfire] Matteox: 5 Grand Prize Winners:

[Xfire] Matteox: a copy of World in Conflict and Fear: Perseus Mandate along with an FSSB prize pack

[Xfire] Matteox: 1.BBF Big T

2.THTH

3.! c a F F e 1 n e:

4.leleok1992:

5.jjmac1221/xWhiteTigerx

[Xfire] Matteox: Alright Thanks everyone!

[Xfire] Matteox: PM ME IF YOU WON!