Travis Baldree Interview Page 3

If you had the resources, would you go full MMO in size/content/polish? Or do you see your game(s) as more of niche, semi-MMO, free/casual play title that won't take half a decade to develop and require the big monthly fees to finance?

I'm personally pretty leery of trying to go toe-to-toe with World of Warcraft. That's an enormous product developed over going on 9 years now I think, with enormous investment and an incredible staff. I definitely don't want to aim for niche - but I think that we can structure our game in such a way that it can coexist with that sort of product without having to battle it for subscription dollars. That's one of the appealing things about a free-to-play game with micro-transactions. You don't have to unnaturally slow the player's advancement to keep their subscription going, so your game can be very accommodating as far as time investment. I think we've said this before, but we want you to play one of our games while you're waiting for your raid to start, or when you need a break - or if you've got 20 minutes to kill before dinner. If you want to commit more time than that, well, that's great - but it's not something we want to require to be successful. Shorter development cycles are also very nice - it's amazing how fast the market shifts, and if you're in development for 5 years, a lot can happen. A shorter and more nimble sort of development lets you react to your closed testing group and the market at large much easier.


What's your feeling on Real Money Trading? It seems largely established and accepted in Asian RPGs, but most Western gamers still express disapproval. Will American and European gamers come to accept it in the future, or are there cultural issues that can't be overcome?

I think it's already becoming accepted in the US - I heard that Maple Story's US goods sales for 2007 were something like 30 million dollars. We were attempting to tailor our RMT setup with Mythos to cater more to US sensibilities. We were espousing a dual-currency system similar to the one used by Puzzle Pirates - where players can legitimately trade in-game for purchased currencies without ever spending a dime themselves. I think that makes it a lot less onerous for our market.


Do you think developers can find a way to enhance their revenue stream, allow willing players to spend cash to improve their characters, and not alienate players who want to "earn" their loot with effort and long hours?

I do - that's part of why we came to the realisation that a social environment is hugely important for this to succeed. There's a market purely for the customisation and differentiation of your character - a desire to look or act differently than other players. For gear that actually improves your character in practical ways, a dual currency system really opens it up for non-paying players to acquire those same items through trading 'earned' assets to paying players.

When can we expect your first game announcement? Days, months, years?

I'm hoping it's more on the order of weeks!


What do you think of the current state of the PC game market, especially with online games?

Right now I think it's pretty exciting. These sorts of games are more and more defining PC gaming, and I think they provide a lot of great ways to continue to differentiate the PC from consoles.

Thanks to Travis Baldree for answering the questions.

Related Sites

• Runic Games
• Mythos IncGamers
• Hellgate IncGamers
• Diii.Net