Garriott Brothers on the future of MMOs

[Monkey]

Found this interview with Richard and Robert Garriott (of Ultima Online fame) linked via Penny Arcade:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/42/3

Some really interesting thoughts both on gameplay and on the business models of online gaming. Here's a quote talking about the basic gameplay structure of MMOs:

While some are content to rest on that particular design until the end of time, you can sense a bit of dissatisfaction in Lord British when he says, "But, fundamentally, I think it's not particularly elegant." Looking to the future, and including his own Tabula Rasa, he sees developers learning from and expanding beyond this model. He continues, "Most of the developers who have built one successful online game realize the error of their ways and now have moved on and said, 'Okay, what can we do that's bigger and better than that?' And so some of these answers, which to me should sound pretty straightforward these days, are things like, as opposed to demanding a level grind where the only way you can feel successful is to be doing it for 12 hours a day, we've got to create games where people can have 30 minute play cycles. You get in, you get out, and [you] don't feel that while [you're] out, [your] friends are going to level beyond [you] to a point where you can't even play together anymore."