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DEVELOPER SPOTLIGHT
Getting to Know the Head of SOE: Seattle
LQGaming Services:: Any ways in which you intend to push the boundaries for massively multiplayer titles?
Matt Wilson: My focus is to bring mainstream gaming to the MMO space. That doesn't just mean making [INSERT NAME BRAND HERE] Online, or dumbing things down to Preschool Online. That means hitting the quality level of the best PC or console game you've played with story and community hooks that demonstrate the real power of shared online persistence.
LQGaming Services:: The MMOs that most excite you personally now are which, and why?
Matt Wilson: I'll start with EverQuest. It had a long-lasting effect on me. I spent a good deal of my life in that world. I had some of my best community experiences in Dark Age of Camelot and Asheron's Call too. World of Warcraft is great as well. it showed that MMOs are not just for nerds. Or maybe it showed there are a lot of us out there. ;-)
LQGaming Services:: What lessons could the MMO market stand to learn as a whole?
Matt Wilson: Try something different. It's OK to bring something to the market with a different business model, with a non-fantasy setting, with mechanics beyond knocking numbers out of a monster's head. Groups are trying to do this, but when a game is called an MMO it has a certain reputation that comes with it. It's time for MMOs to ditch that reputation and just start becoming better games.
"When a game is called an MMO it has a certain reputation - it's time to ditch that stigma and just start releasing better games."
LQGaming Services:: If there's one thing you could change about MMO gaming, it would be?
Matt Wilson: Cost of development. You have to make a huge bet to build an MMO. That makes it harder to take chances and makes it harder to break away from the established norm.
LQGaming Services:: The most touching/surprising/shocking thing you've ever experienced as part of an online game is?
Matt Wilson: I have been a part of weddings, parties, and some great gaming experiences. But the one that stands out the most is when I was brought up to our guild's tribunal for saying that I was destroying gems that I was collecting. I had to sit in our guild's court and plead my case. It was a great realization on how real this stuff can get. BTW: I won't tell you the outcome.
LQGaming Services:: The number one reason MMOs are here to stay?
Matt Wilson: Community. We all like playing games with our friends. Long-term gaming is all about the pull of the community that springs up around those friendships. MMOs have this in spades. They touch that primal part of all of us that wants to belong, that wants to share, that needs to be a part of something. even if we just lurk solo in the shadows staring from a distance. MMOs may take different shapes over time. Heck, we might even just *gasp* call them games in the future and not even use the acronym MMO. But the concept of community isn't going away and neither are the games that empower them.
- Scott Steinberg
For more information, forums and more check out our
Everquest II, Matrix Online , and Star Wars Galaxies Communities.
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