The MMO Gamer: Yes, I do, and that sort of thing is exactly the problem with trying to cover MMOs, or finding a rhythm, as you said. Everyone has their own opinions on where the industry is going, and there is no right answer until whatever major shift is going to happen, actually happens.
The guys who make the micro-transaction games say that micro-transactions are the way of the future, “They’re going mainstream this year, mark my words!”
I’ve been doing this job for three years, and I’ve been hearing that every year so far. The same thing with the art versus entertainment debate, or the casual versus hardcore debate, and so on.
Paul Barnett: Yes, so the challenge you have there is how do you reach this new market? How do you talk to people in a way that makes them say, “Aha! Yes, you’re right! Relevance, I understand now!”
How do you explain new gaming concepts in a way that doesn’t bear any of the lexicon language that has been used so far to build up what it is?
The MMO Gamer: I don’t think the old lexicon and language is going anywhere any time soon, because it’s what everyone still uses. It’s much easier for the previous generation to teach its jargon to the new generation than it is for someone to create all-new jargon from scratch.
Right now, MMO coverage is controlled by what I would consider to be two competing sides: The fanboys, who say everything is terrific, and the cynics, who say everything is horrible.
And then you have a smaller middle ground, places like Gamasutra and Ars Technica, who try to put a respectable veneer on it, but they still do it using the same language as everyone else.
I would probably fall more into the cynics category, myself.
Paul Barnett: What? You think everything is horrible?
The MMO Gamer: Well, not everything, but I can find cause to gripe about many things.
Take your game, for example.
Paul Barnett: Right?
The MMO Gamer: One of the reasons for that burnout I mentioned to you earlier was the queue system, for instanced PvP combat…
Paul Barnett: Where you can join a scenario from anywhere in the world?
The MMO Gamer: Correct.
Paul Barnett: The one that was so good it’s been added to other games? That one?
The MMO Gamer: You made scenarios the best source of experience in the game, so everyone was doing them, constantly. That wasn’t so bad when you could go from zone to zone for variety.
But then you rolled out being able to queue up from anywhere in the world for any zone’s scenario, without adding any mechanism to balance it.
So, everyone just ended up going to the scenarios that required the least amount of players, because those always popped up first.
You started out in Tier 1 doing Nordenwatch, then Tier 2 was Mourkain, Tier 3 was Tor Anroc, and Tier 4 was Serpent’s Passage.
You rarely, if ever, did any other instances until you balanced it out.
Paul Barnett: Which we’ve done.
The MMO Gamer: But how long did that take you? Between the time you could queue for any scenario anywhere in the world, and the time you balanced it?
Someone could go from level 1 to 40 in that span without ever seeing any of the other scenarios.
You can only do Serpent’s Passage so many times before you get the urge to quit.
Paul Barnett: Look how much we learned from that, and we fixed it! Look at our reactive ability to show that we’re less stupid when we take data and bother to pay attention to players.
If it wasn’t for you, figuring out how to abuse our game like that, we wouldn’t be able to grow, and offer you a better game than ever-with the free trial, for ten days, he said!
Isn’t that a fair reply?
The MMO Gamer: It was, but it’s the little things like that causing my cynicism.
Paul Barnett: So you’re basically jadedly grumpy about it?
The MMO Gamer: I’m one of those guys who still talks about Jimi Hendrix’s music. I’ve been playing these games since back before anyone even knew what an MMO was, I was playing MUDs.
So, when someone screws the pooch, I try not to hesitate to call them on it.
Paul Barnett: I think the world thrives on jaded cynics, as long as you’re able to take that negativity and apply it in a positive fashion.
We all need people railing against the system, if we don’t have them we have that dot-com boom madness.
Imagine if your attitude was available in the financial markets, we would have been saved from this terrible recession! You would have been out there saying, “Things were better in the good old days! We’re over-inflating at 35:1 ratio? What are we thinking? These people are mad! Don’t invest!”
See? People thinking like that is important to keep things sane.
The MMO Gamer: Unfortunately, in the perspective of the MMO genre, all we had covering the financial sector were fanboys.
And…
Paul Barnett: Is that a dead pigeon?
The MMO Gamer: What?
Paul Barnett: [points to bird on the sidewalk] Is that a dead pigeon?
The MMO Gamer: [nudges pigeon with shoe, bird does not move] Yes, I believe it is.
Paul Barnett: No, no, its head moved! No wait, it’s died. We’ve done well then, urine and dead pigeons.
The MMO Gamer: Lovely San Francisco.
At this point, we had reached the convention center and the interview drew to a close. I plan on pulling Paul aside the next chance I get and picking the non-Bright Wizard related portion of our conversation up where we left off. Until then, I’m also going to have a word or two to say about this interview on the blog in the next few days. Keep an eye out for it.
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