General Discussion

Not a bad write up.

I'm still bitter about ToA though.

And now I'm jealous about the whole "I got enough money to take time off" thing.

daeandor... 666 posts

But anyways... great article. I like that he pointed out what MMOs are really about, and I think a lot of people lose touch of.

The plain and simple fact is that we want to have fun. Too many people make games that have really neat and complex end games, and the beginning of the game is nothing but grind with little to no community involvement (teaming, helping, etc). If people would take a step back and look at the more successful titles, they always stress a fun early game experience, with community involvement.

In WoW you get to experience your first instance (the most team based gameplay in all of WoW) within the first 20 levels.

Anyways, great write up, glad to see he is happy.

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Too many MMOs fall into the trap of being designed for a small group of loud hardcore enthusiasts.

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You, sir, are my hero!

"Honestly? Making bad, overcomplicated games. MMOs are about losing yourself into a new community; being able to meet friends, slay monsters, and feel like you're part of something bigger than your everyday life. It doesn't have to be over-designed, over-produced, have the most insane graphic requirements, etc."

Gee, Matt, you mean like DAoC? My main criticism of the game is the clunky UI -- tiny icons at a high resolution makes a game complicated to use.

DAoC's graphics requirements are a bit high also. I can play WoW, Guild Wars, even UO without problems on my notebook, but not DAoC! Choppy frame rates and transparency problems make it very difficult to "lose myself" in the community. The underlying game is good, but you have to pentrate bad usability to get there.

I hope you gave Mythic the same message in your exit interview

Honestly? Making bad, overcomplicated games. MMOs are about losing yourself into a new community; being able to meet friends, slay monsters, and feel like you're part of something bigger than your everyday life. It doesn't have to be over-designed, over-produced, have the most insane graphic requirements, etc. It just has to be fun and make people want to log in and experience it. Too many MMOs fall into the trap of being designed for a small group of loud hardcore enthusiasts.

Sounds like he's talking about Vanguard to me.

Great interview. Good luck with those kids Matt!

Give this guy about five years and this guy will start thinking about making a new mmo.  With three of four of his friends, they could start a new company and make a new mmo that will probably mirror DAoC.

It seems to me that he is leaving for very wise reasons.

Adobpting two kids at the same time sounds like a big decision that is going to eat a lot of his time.

DAoC was groundbreaking to say the least so I'll be interested to see what his next project will be.