Tabula Rasa Interview
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GG: But if you're right with what you just said: Wouldn't that be the proof that, at their core, Massively Multiplayer Online Games are not about the gameplay or the graphics or the features at all, but simply about the bonds that form between the players when they share adventures and experiences?
Richard Garriott: That's a big part of the ongoing success for sure. But I also think that each game attracts an audience because it has features that are appealing to that audience. And there are some examples of how you can alienate your audience. Like Star Wars Galaxies that went through a major upheaval as they changed their fundamental game design. It's definitely possible to attract new audiences, but it's equally easy to alienate your existing audience. And even as I think that online games can go on forever, it does require close cooperation of the developers and the player audience.
GG: So is this what makes Blizzards World of WarCraft the astounding one billion dollar mega success it is at the moment?
Richard Garriott: Before answering, let me explain my analysis on MMO game design for the last ten years. Ultima Online and EverQuest, which were developed at about the same time, both used a suite of features that are relatively similar. And literally all MMOs that came out between then and now basically had the same feature set as developed either by EverQuest or Ultima Online. I think that World of WarCraft is a fantastic game, it is one of the few games I played extensively myself.
