Hello everyone!

We present to you the full interview with Sebastian Wodarski, Lead Product Manager for Tibia at CipSoft, in a classic Q&A format. All questions were prepared by TibiaRoute, and Sebastian's answers are provided in quotes for a direct, immersive experience.
Enjoy the read!

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Question: To start with, could you please introduce yourself to our community? Tell us a bit about who you are, what you do at CipSoft, and what your role within the company is?

Sebastian: Hello, TibiaRoute community! My name is Sebastian Wodarski, and I'm 47 years old. In my free time, I indulge in three main hobbies. First and foremost, I am a gamer, primarily playing on PC and occasionally on PS5. I especially enjoy role-playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and strategy games like Stellaris. I also love riding and travelling on my motorcycle. Photography has been a passion of mine since childhood, and I particularly enjoy landscape photography. At CipSoft, I am the Lead Product Manager for Tibia. In this role, I lead the Tibia team and am responsible for the long-term development of the game. This includes, for example, creating the yearly roadmap and overseeing many other aspects of the game's progress.

Question: How do you evaluate your personal contribution to CipSoft and your relationship with the Tibia community?

Sebastian: That's a difficult question! As part of the Tibia team, we've all contributed to CipSoft's success. Tibia's achievements in recent years have only been possible because of our outstanding team. The strong support from the employees in other departments and the passion and energy they bring to their work are crucial to our success. It's a collective effort that we can all be proud of. As Lead Product Manager, I only have minimal direct contact with the community. Nevertheless, I read the forum and Reddit daily to stay informed about what matters to players. I watch streams and videos occasionally and log into the test server during summer or winter updates. I am always impressed by the community's passion for Tibia and the game's significance to so many people. Your dedication and love for the game make Tibia such a special community. I assure you that your feedback is not just heard, but it's integral to our work. Your passion drives us to make Tibia the best it can be.

Question: Since when have you been working at CipSoft? I'm sure you've faced both interesting and challenging moments along the way. Could you share the biggest challenge you've encountered during your career?

Sebastian: I've been working at CipSoft for a little over 15 years in various positions, and of course, during this time, there have been many interesting events and challenging moments. Answering the question of the most significant challenge during this period is truly not easy. One significant professional change was taking on a leadership role as the testing team lead a few years back. I gladly accepted this challenge because I felt ready to take on more responsibility. I felt similarly about my transition to the Tibia team then. As the lead product manager, especially for Tibia, I am responsible for the game, the community, and CipSoft as a company. You must balance countless interests, making it incredibly challenging but exciting and varied. Every day is unique, and even after all those years, it is never uninteresting.

Question: What motivates you the most to work on Tibia? What brings you the greatest satisfaction?

Sebastian: What motivates me in my work for Tibia is the opportunity to contribute to the further development of the game and to keep Tibia interesting for new, returning, and existing players. I love seeing how the broader strategic topics come to life through the team's work and how, step by step, a new feature or a summer or winter update is created. When players are also excited about an update, that makes me happy and reinforces the importance of our community's role in shaping Tibia's future. As a team lead, another primary motivator for me is the daily collaboration with the people in the team and at CipSoft. I especially value the colleagues I work closely with or who report directly to me. Almost every day, I look forward to seeing my co-workers and talking with them about Tibia, ongoing projects, games in general, or other topics and having thoughtful discussions. Their insights and dedication are essential to our work, and I always look forward to our interactions.

Question: And since we're talking - do you play Tibia yourself?

Sebastian: Of course, I play Tibia too! Admittedly, I don't have the time to play intensively, so I usually stick to shorter hunting sessions in easier hunting grounds. I also really enjoy doing the often fantastic quests in the game. I'm not a PvP player, so I play on an Optional PvP game world. One of my most memorable experiences was when I first started playing Tibia and was amazed by the vast world, the steep learning curve and the sense of exploration and danger it offered. Fun fact: in the beginning of my Tibia journey, I had searched for quite a while to find a way to activate sound that wasn't in the game yet.

Question: Bots have been a longstanding issue in Tibia. Even though BattleEye is active, many players still report their presence. Do you have a plan for fully eliminating bots from the game?

Sebastian: The goal in the fight against bots has always been and still is to eliminate all bots from Tibia. It's a never-ending battle, and we must continuously fight it. Together with our partner BattlEye, we are constantly working to improve bot detection and continuously developing further complementary measures in this area. I want to reassure you that fighting bots in the game is one of our top priorities. Your gaming experience and the integrity of Tibia are of utmost importance to us, and we are committed to ensuring a fair and enjoyable gaming environment for all players.

Question: Are you considering implementing an option to disable visual effects and animations in the client, to improve performance especially on lower-end systems?

Sebastian: Of course, we are aware of the topic of visual effects through community feedback and observations. We have made it a point to examine this subject regarding client performance and the readability of in-game action. The specific topic of visual effects does not currently have the highest priority. However, overall client performance is always essential, and we continuously look for ways to improve and optimise it.

Question: Dominando is a phenomenon that stirs a lot of emotions. What's your take on this? Do you think it should continue to exist in the game, or are there any plans to address it?

Sebastian: As you rightly say, that is a delicate question because it is an emotional topic in many respects. Let me briefly approach the matter from a more objective perspective. What is generally called 'Dominando' has many different facets. To a certain extent, it is part of a competitive sandbox MMO like Tibia, especially on PvP worlds. The battle for dominance in a game world, for example, is part of what makes Tibia unique and appealing. However, we also understand that some aspects of 'Dominando' can be viewed more critically, as they can deter new players and even cause existing players to quit Tibia. We are committed to maintaining a balance and addressing in-game issues when necessary, always intending to create a gaming environment for all players. Maintaining this balance is not always easy, as the boundaries are often blurry and there are different types of players.

Question: Tibia has an enormous codebase built over decades. How do you manage such a large amount of legacy data? Do you have internal tools that help make your day-to-day work easier?

Sebastian: The codebase of a game that has been running as long as Tibia is a significant challenge. Over the years, large parts of the code have been revised and improved, but naturally extended and expanded, which always introduces the risk of regressions. These risks are addressed in various ways, and we use standard tools commonly found in software development. For example, we employ tools for static code analysis and performance measurement of different components. Unit tests are written, and we regularly perform refactorings in selected areas. The codebase, which has evolved over many years, is a constant topic for us and plays a significant role in every project.

Question: Have you ever released something in the game that turned out to be a complete failure? If so, what lessons did you learn from that experience?

Sebastian: We haven't released anything that could be considered a complete failure. However, we have certainly released things that didn't meet our expectations or weren't well received by the player base in some way. And of course, we also make mistakes! But there's always something to learn from these situations: sometimes a misjudgment was made, or an important aspect was overlooked; sometimes the community may not have been involved enough; sometimes feedback was misunderstood or misinterpreted. In any case, we analyse releases comprehensively that didn't meet our expectations or received critical feedback from the community after launch. We then look for opportunities to improve or make changes, and in admittedly sporadic cases, we remove things from the game.

Question: Have you considered introducing an instance system - private hunting spots accessible, for example, through special tokens and available only for a player or their party?

Sebastian: We've discussed instances within the team from time to time. It is vital that players in Tibia engage with one another with varying levels of intensity. For many years, we have been adamant that there should be no areas in Tibia where players or groups can play alone or in isolation for extended periods. As those two attributes of Tibia are essential, they currently rule out things like private hunting spots.

Question: What are your thoughts on introducing a pet system, where pets could automatically collect loot (e.g., gold, stackable, and non-stackable items)?

Sebastian: I find it difficult to imagine a pet system for Tibia. However, I see the question of what lies behind such a request quite interesting. As a thought experiment, let me make the following assumption: the pet collects loot and delivers it regularly to the depot. The underlying wish is to save myself specific trips back to the depot and hunt more comfortably and efficiently. That kind of desire could be addressed in many ways, not necessarily through a pet system.... Almost all suggestions and wishes have such a core, and I find it exciting to get to the bottom of these things. And yes, we've discussed a pet system within the team in the past, but we discarded the idea again fairly quickly. At the moment, we have no plans in that direction.

Question: Recently, the Fist skill received a rework. Do you have similar plans for the Fishing skill?

Sebastian: The rework of the Fist Fighting skill was directly related to the introduction of the monk. As for a vocation based on fishing, we currently have no such plans :-). Of course, we've occasionally discussed within the team how fishing could be made more interesting or relevant for Tibia. However, we haven't designed anything we'd like to implement to enrich the game sensibly.

Question: Dwarves in Kazordoon continue digging tunnels toward new Warzones. Are you concerned that they might one day uncover an evil force threatening the entire world of Tibia?

Sebastian: Since dwarves tend to dig too deep in every universe, the only possible answer is "Yes!" :).

Question: What do you think about adding more interactive, real-time events that involve the whole community and whose outcomes could influence the game's lore?

Sebastian: Unfortunately, I can't say much about that, as what kind of events are being referred to is unclear. In principle, however, I find the idea exciting that the community could influence Tibia's lore and thus help shape or alter the game world.

Question: How important is community feedback to you? Does player input truly influence the direction in which the game evolves?

Sebastian: Community feedback plays a significant role in our development and influences the further development of Tibia in many different ways. Many of the quality-of-life features in the summer and winter updates come directly from the community, so to speak. We receive feedback from the test server for the summer and winter updates, as well as through many other channels. It may not always be immediately apparent whether feedback is being considered, or sometimes it takes time. Of course, we can't implement every suggestion. But at the end of the day, we're making Tibia for you and the community, and your feedback directly and indirectly shapes the game's development.

Question: Are there still quests in the game that remain undiscovered? If yes, could you at least hint at how long the oldest one has been waiting to be found?

Sebastian: I really appreciate our content designers and their work, so I don't want to blurt out anything intentionally or unintentionally. So, I'll remain silent.

Question: Where do you see Tibia in 5 or even 10 years? What changes do you think are essential for its survival and future growth?

Sebastian: I'm convinced that Tibia will still be around in 10 years, that there will still be a large community passionately playing the game, and that Tibia will keep contributing to CipSoft's success as it has so far. One key factor in achieving that is also having attracting new players in focus. Over the past year, we've already taken steps in that direction that we intend to continue: we revised Dawnport and the transition to the main continent, made Yalahar accessible to free account players, and increased our investment in marketing efforts. In addition, the release of the monk has clearly shown that new content and game mechanics have the potential to bring players back to Tibia. Attracting new players, investing in marketing efforts, and delivering new and exciting content and features are courses we intend to stay on.

Question: Tibia will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary - how do you plan to keep developing it? Are you considering the introduction of new systems that could further engage players?

Sebastian: I want to begin by acknowledging that the 30th anniversary is an incredible milestone for Tibia, and it almost feels unbelievable to me! I'm genuinely looking forward to the celebration. Our commitment to developing Tibia remains strong, and we plan to add new elements to the game continuously. We have no intention of simply maintaining the status quo; our goal is to keep improving and expanding Tibia. CipSoft continues to invest in the game, and the number of people working on it has steadily increased, enabling us to make fantastic additions to the game like sound, music and the monk, to name just a few.

Question: Have you considered developing a full mobile version of Tibia - something beyond TibiaME?

Sebastian: Yes, we've already considered this as a mobile client. However, numerous aspects must be thoroughly considered before developing something in that direction, such as usability, handling connection interruptions, bot prevention, and more. A mobile client is one of the many topics on our radar, as it has enormous potential, but there are currently no concrete plans.

Question: Recently, you launched Tibia on the Epic Games Store. Have you also considered collaborating with Twitch, for example through Twitch Drops?

Sebastian: We've examined this topic more closely several times in the past. However, so far, we haven't seen a way to implement it that works for us and creates lasting value for Tibia and both new and existing players.

Question: What are your thoughts on the content produced by Tibia players on YouTube and Twitch? How do you view their overall impact on the community and the development of the game?

Sebastian: There is some fantastic content on YouTube and Twitch, which is excellent for the community. You can find everything from information, guides, and update overviews to pure entertainment! This brings life to the community and keeps Tibia in the conversation. In addition, some content creators have a certain degree of influence on the game's development, too. For example, a stream of a boss fight can provide insights that go way beyond pure data analysis. Since we also watch videos and streams about Tibia, they impact the game, alongside many other factors, of course.

Question: And lastly - is there anything you would like to directly share with the Tibia community?

Sebastian: First, thank you for the great questions - answering them was a pleasure! And to the Tibia community: stay as passionate as you are and give us feedback and criticism. What unites us is that Tibia is something we all care deeply about - and for many of us on the team and at CipSoft, it's far more than just a game!

Thank you for reading! If you have more questions for the CipSoft team, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Interview for TibiaRoute.