Bill Roper Interview

RPGVault has conducted an interview with Blizzard’s Bill Roper, talking about the origins, ideas, and strengths of their upcoming MMORPG, World of Warcraft. An excerpt to follow:

Jonric: As you enter the online world category, what kind of philosophy or guiding principles are you following? And what do you regard as the key challenges?

Bill Roper: An online world should be a living, breathing organism that is driven by a constant interaction between the game, its players and the developers. These types of games are modeled around a strong sense of community, and it is vital to approach this from the perspective of both player-to-player and developer-to-player. The organic nature of these types of games also require that a constant stream of new experiences – usually presented in the form of new content – be available for even the most veteran player, and this is the single biggest challenge to making an MMORPG. Fortunately, we have a lot of ideas on how to keep our players engaged with the game, and this will be the main focus of our Live Team that will continue to grow and mature the world after the game has launched.