Red 5 Studios interview: How to fail-proof your MMO
During a recent interview with Ten Ton Hammer, Red 5 Studios' Mark Kern described his views on why games like Tabula Rasa and Hellgate: London had recently failed, and how his colleagues at Red 5 are making sure an early game closure isn't in their future.
"I think the key is that you need to marry whatever your theme is to the nature of the gameplay," Kern advised. "I think that the issue comes in when you take a theme or a genre that doesn't fit with the style of gameplay that you're making. I think that's some of what you've seen with these failed games. If you just go out and try to make a WoW-type of game with a few tweaks, then try to place the sci-fi genre on top of it, I think you've got some big issues there."
Ouch! We can only speculate as to which game he's referring, but we tend to agree with his point here. Shoot us your opinions on a topic that's probably not going to go away any time soon.
