Naoki Yoshida recent interview

[Fendred]

When I said Yoshida was clueless, I did not mean that he was clueless in terms of being a developer. I meant he was clueless as to the true state of the genre because its literally been stagnant for more than half a decade. The only thing certain from the current state of affairs is that making MMORPGs like giant lobby games doesn't work. That's a far cry from saying MMORPGs are in decline or dying. Definitely the lobby based ones are in decline, but its impossible to say that of all MMORPGs in general because no AAA developer has honestly attempted to dust off and refine mechanics from things like Star Wars Galaxies or EVE online for over a decade. And a little history lesson: Those didn't die off because of lack of popularity. They died off because World of Warcraft blinded every AAA publisher with dollar signs, so they were relegated to the dust bins of history before their time had truly passed.

Unfortunately, we're in a state of emergency because if someone doesn't try to polish those old mechanics soon, everyone who originally worked on those games will be in retirement or dead.