JPGames: Interview with Yoshida Naoki

[Pharmacies]

Well exactly, if it's okay to clone a 2004 game, why not 2003, 2002? Whats so special about 2004? Answer: $$$. WoW was a successful model back then, but their subscriptions are decaying today too.

But I guess it was just easier for them to justify to the corporate big wigs the idea of copying a successful game feature-for-feature rather than copying the idealogy which made it a successful game in the first place: innovation.

Hey, they already tried innovation. The result was 1.0 and everyone hating them. Even if they polished it up, 1.0 is still fools gold. It's easy to say "innovation" when you'll have no part in it. But for these guys, they need to make a successful MMO no matter what or they get the boot.

[Shurrikhan]

Hey, they already tried innovation. The result was 1.0 and everyone hating them. Even if they polished it up, 1.0 is still fools gold. It's easy to say "innovation" when you'll have no part in it. But for these guys, they need to make a successful MMO no matter what or they get the boot.

Innovation didn't make 1.0 the failing that it was. Shortsightedness and lacking thoroughness did, along with generally haphazard implementations. You can make an interesting experience out of the kind of gameplay 1.0 planned. They didn't reach it, but that's a problem of execution, not the innovation.