Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Interview
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An excerpt from part one:
The MMO Gamer: So, bring us up to speed. Launched last year, game went through some tough times. How is it doing now?
Craig Morrison: I think we're doing much better. I would say that, I'm biased. [Laughs]
After last summer, we sat down and we looked and assessed what parts of the game needed to be addressed, and what the player feedback was.
Which parts were responsible for, you know, I think it's very well documented that the player retention wasn't as good as we would've liked.
So we had to sit down and look through the different feedback channels and see what exactly was it that meant that players didn't continue to subscribe.
And an excerpt from part two:
The MMO Gamer: That was the brilliance of WoW. EverQuest took the fun parts of MUD and distilled it, took out everything basically that Brad McQuaid didn't like about them.
And then Warcraft went back and took out the bad things about EverQuest, so you were left with only the most fun of MUDs.
Craig Morrison: I think they have actually expanded on it. I think technology has expanded on it, too.
I think correctly used, things like instancing have a very important role in MMOs. I think over time they have expanded, and like I said, our game, Anarchy Online, had a hugely complex skill system, which even I will admit that I don't know the intricacies of fully, and I was Game Director for two years.
I don't think it's fair to say that it's come downhill, that it's only been distilled down. I think different games have taken different takes on it, and players have reacted very differently.
I remember the very early days of exploring the zones in EQ, and meeting other players for the first time, and going through and exploring the game world.
Now it doesn't really have as much that appeal to me, because I've done it in a dozen games before. I don't necessarily want that, now. I want to get to the place that for me is the fun part of the game, so I can understand approaches which try and move away from level base because to me the most fun I've had in MMOs has been in the high levels.
I love an MMO that doesn't have leveling, and then I can do the fun parts straight from the beginning because I don't necessarily have the inclination to do it again in a different setting.
