The state of MMO games with Scott Hartsman and Qhue.
Grab a venti cup of coffee at the local java shack and then pretend to sit down near a table where you can eavesdrop on an MMO state of the union discusion between Scott Hartsman and Qhue (of FoH guild). The reason for the humongous cup of coffee is that the conversation will take you a while to wade through, but it is chock full of interesting thoughts on their observations of the state of MMOs. The discussion is a meandering walk through the landscape of successes (WoW) and outcomes to be determined (AoC). Touching on leveling, endgame, pvp, and just about everything in between, this is a good read. Scott offers kudos to Blizzard, but adds some interesting observations on risk versus reward as well:
"Its highly counterintuitive, for instance, that OHB [Old Hillsbrad] should be the hardest heroic. Yet, it is. Why? It was just simple-scaled. To make it work right it needed to be upscaled by hand and retested as if it were new content. As it stands, its a black mark on the rest of the experience because the risk vs reward is so out of whack."
As Blizzard discussed at WWI, the thought of competing against their own game is popping up in many conversations, as well:
Scott: The last thing that Blizzard wants to do is create an opening for another game to take over - Even if its one they make themselves. Theres no guarantee that sufficient numbers of your own customers will cross over into your next new product. Theyll cross over to someones, all right, and yours may well be it, but why gamble that if you dont need to?
More questions may be raised than answered, but the lively discussion should make you pause to consider your opinions on some rather poignant and pointed aspects of the MMO landscape. Stop in for your afternoon pick me up mocha and head over to Scott's blog A Conversation about MMOs.
After you've had a chance to read the article in its entirety, drop by the forums and let me know if you agree that Blizzard has created the near-perfect game.
