Tabula Rasa Interview
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Q: What do you feel is the biggest problem or shortcoming with the MMORPG genre?
A: The biggest problem to date has been a lack of real innovation. The vast majority of games coming out have had improved graphics and somewhat improved interface but most have been a retooling of their predecessors in this young segment of the industry.
Since the first generation of games was so fraught with problems, in my mind, when we create more of the same on a bigger budget with bigger marketing dollars, we run the risk of enticing people into this gaming segment but leaving them with a bad taste in their mouths for what an MMO could be and we will all have a much harder time getting them to come back a second time. That is one of the reasons we've been so excited about the success of City of Heroes because we believe it kept enough of the tried and true features to be successful but then changed everything from the genre through a lot of the details of combat and economy in such a way that it made the game far more accessible to non-hardcore gamers. We have similar hopes for Guild Wars.