ZeniMax Online Studios Interview
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The MMO Gamer: On a tenuously related subject to an MMO marketed towards children, I'd like to hear your take on the quote-unquote (dumbing down) of MMOs.
Everyone has their own particular definition of what that phrase means, but, to me, it's the steady erosion of the launch feature base (and thereby overall complexity) in the genre with each subsequent release.
You said earlier that you believe that the concept of (MMO fun) has been obscured by features that most players don't care about anyway but, how do you know when you've crossed the line from (cutting a few unnecessary features) to cutting ones that are selling the game?
Matt Firor: The market will answer that one for you. The best solution is to have a game big enough to allow different playing dynamics for different players.
That way a game can be both casual, if played one way, and hardcore, if played another. So (dumbing down) doesn't mean much to me, as it is usually a pejorative hurled at games by groups of hardcore players who represent a very small percentage of the market.
If you have a good game design, it's a good game design. Stick to it.
The MMO Gamer: Coincidently enough, you just invoked the subject of my next question.
Gameplay and design are, of course, only half of the equation. We also have to consider the other half, without which there wouldn't be much of a game: The players themselves.
It seems to me that the average MMO has more schisms in its playerbase than all the world's religions combined, but, two groups in particular stand out in nearly every dispute: the so-called (Casual vs. Hardcore.)
Few words can evoke such virulent hatred among men as those two can among MMO players. What do you, as the person developing the games which the arguments are derived from, think of that whole debate?
Matt Firor: I'm not very happy with the label system of (hardcore) and (casual) anyway - after all it was possible to play EverQuest casually (as I did, never attaining max level) and still have a great time.
Hardcore/Casual to me is the way that a game is played, not descriptive of the game itself. You can play Tetris obsessively for hours a day, making you a hardcore player of a (casual) game. On the other hand, you can also play WoW one or two hours a week, if you want. So, to me, hardcore/casual describes a playing style, not a genre.
