Matt Firor Interview @ MMORPG.com

Former Mythic developer Matt Firor has been <a href="http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=797&bhcp=1" target="_blank">interviewed</a> at MMORPG.com on his time at Mythic, his new company and the industry:<blockquote><em><b>MMORPG.com: What to you is the biggest mistake you see MMORPG companies/investors making?</b><br><br>Matt Firor: 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.<br><br>I appreciate a good esoteric discussion, but honestly, I think that MMOs are mostly severely over-intellectualized and over designed. Almost every player of these games just wants to experience another world, explore, and enjoy the community. There's enough design problems tied up right there to make designing and producing an MMO extremely difficult. The grand majority of players of these games a  and I'm talking like 99% - don't care about most of the problems that get ranted about daily on MMO-related message boards a  both player AND developer oriented ones. Simplicity a  especially in the first 20 hours of gameplay, is critical to the success of any new MMO.</em></blockquote>