TR - The Hollywood Reporter Interviews Richard Garriott : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

http://www.playtr.com/news/archives/2007/02/the_hollywood_r.html

02 / 21 / 2007

We have even more from Richard Garriott this week as he talked to The Hollywood Reporter on a variety of topics, including Tabula Rasa.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

THR: What's your strategy then for beating WoW's numbers? What makes you think "Tabula Rasa" has the same mass-market appeal?

Garriott: My goal is always to create a great game and then let the cards fall where they may. "Tabula Rasa" is a fast-paced, science fiction role-playing game — with the key words being "fast paced." I find that most MMOGs are frankly quite boring compared to solo games. In most MMOGs, you walk up to a monster, you highlight it to identify it as your target and you no longer have to look at it. You go 'fireball, fireball, fireball, sword swing, healing potion, and repeat.' You go through this mechanical, repetitious combat that requires no strategy or tactics. In fact there's a name for it — "the level grind." As great as I think online games are — I mean, we've built a whole company around them — I still think the game design for online games is totally in its infancy. But I do believe that "Tabula Rasa" represents a radical step forward because it drops you into a world that is dynamic and exciting throughout.

THR: Do you have any predictions for what sort of numbers the game is going to achieve?

Garriott: I've never speculated about whether we can beat WoW and, in fact, that's not really our goal. I definitely think it has that potential. But whether we will go from the ones of millions to the tens of millions, well, the fickle public is a really hard thing to predict.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/playing_games/e3ia1541b8b6708262e7ba81d98d4f03c00