Stephanie Shaver (HERO'S JOURNEY):
Hero's Journey is a massively multiplayer fantasy game set in Elanthia, the same world setting we've used for two of our other games (DragonRealms and GemStone IV). Our design philosophy is "less tedium, more fun" and also "customizing stuff is super awesome!"

Daniel McMillan (FRONTIER 1859):
My drive is to build a world where players actions will affect and change something about the world around them. Since more and more people are going to play MMOs, I want to see players be able to accomplish more in the time they are on rather than spend their real-life away on a static world with extraneous interactivity potential. I guess you might say in that respect, I am taking responsibility for what I am designing.

Frontier 1859 MMORPG will be an authentic wilderness survival game set in the American Great Basin country, Western Nevada, during the historic era of silver-mining, conflict, and settlement. After players learn how to survive, they can begin claiming land, building towns, and eventually monopolizing. Native American tribes will already occupy the territory when emigrants trespass. Participants will be expected to camp and build settlements that can potentially translate into Boomtowns.

Since I've funded it straight out of my pocket thus far, the project is currently in pre-production, and the community continues to grow. I know that it has been a long and slow process, but I've been open and honest with the public all along, and have really taken the time with the community to hash through the pros and cons of the features.

Christophe Watkins (FALLEN EARTH):
Fallen Earth is set approximately 150 years in the future. Several factors including global political tensions, genetic manipulation abuses, and a deadly pandemic virus all culminate in a rapid downward spiral for the human race. Players enter the world well after the “Fall.” The society has had some time to reorganize, but it is no better off for that organization. What remains of the populace is ideologically, spiritually, and even genetically split. The players’ jobs will be to evaluate the situation and progress along a path that they believe has the best chance for allowing the human race to survive. This may mean giving up all attempts at rebuilding civilization opting instead for growth in spirituality, or it may mean desperately seeking any and all pieces of old technologies so that the world can be rebuilt as it was. Or maybe something in between.

As to the status of the game, we are polishing and adjusting gameplay and adding features as needed. Most of the difficult work is behind us.

Brian 'Psychochild' Green (MERIDIAN 59):
Meridian 59 is a classic online RPG. The game was originally developed by an independent studio which was later acquired by The 3DO Company. It was commercially launched by The 3DO Company in 1996 and ran until late 2000, when 3DO shut it down. Near Death Studios, Inc. purchased the rights to the game in 2001 and commercially relaunched the game in 2002. Depending on who you ask, Meridian 59 is often considered the first of the modern MMORPGs; it was the game that transitioned from games on networks that charged per the hour to games available in retail that charged a monthly subscription fee. The game has now been running for many years in both the U.S. and Germany and has many fans all over the world.

Meridian 59 is a swords-and-sorcery themed game with a heavy focus on player vs. player (PvP) combat. The game specializes in fast advancement and strong community in a very flexible skill-based system. Other PvP-focused games have been inspired by Meridian 59. The game’s age means that it has dated graphics and an unfriendly newbie experience, but the games’ ages also means that it is very stable and practically bug free. People who stick with the game will find a deeply rewarding game that rewards skill and knowledge as much as time invested in the character.

gamebunny: 
Why the creation of a PC MMO? Why not a single-player title, console or handheld game?

Stephanie Shaver (HERO'S JOURNEY):
Simutronics is exclusively an MMO company. We've been doing it for over fifteen years. We started for the sole purpose of making multiplayer games, and that's what we do.

Daniel McMillan (FRONTIER 1859):
Actually, Frontier 1859 should have a console version as well as a 'day planner" for use on mobile.

Christophe Watkins (FALLEN EARTH):
When we started Icarus, we really felt that the next major wave in gaming would be online. We felt that with our knowledge in making online games and the extensive penetration of broadband and faster machines, there would be an opportunity to create an online game with the production values of a standalone game and the compelling entertainment value of an online game.

Brian 'Psychochild' Green (MERIDIAN 59):
I worked on Meridian 59 while working at 3DO. I felt the game offers a lot of features you still won’t find in other more modern games. The focus on very balanced PvP is rare in the industry. I was glad to be able to purchase Meridian 59 with Rob ‘Q’ Ellis II and relaunch it for others to enjoy.

But, before we purchased Meridian 59, our company intended to create other online games. Why PC online games? Because I feel games are social in nature. There are things you can do in an online game that you can’t do in a single-player title. Socialization, cooperation, competition, all the things that make interacting with other players more interesting. You get some of this in other media, but only online games really take advantage of it. It’s quite different playing with four or five good friends in your party than playing with two or three of your friends sitting around a TV. Not to say one is better than the other, but I have more experience developing PC online games.

gamebunny:
Would you agree that massively multiplayer games are more difficult to develop than any other?

Stephanie Shaver (HERO'S JOURNEY):
Absolutely, and I suspect it's got to do with the lengthy development cycle. I have friends in the industry who started out doing MMOs who have sworn they'll never work on them again simply because they take so long. You need a good team and a good, solid plan to make an MMO today. Without both, you're screwed.

Daniel McMillan (FRONTIER 1859):
Every product will have its own set of bunnies to iron out - more or less, but speaking about my own, I would say that when your looking at overhead, and long-range staff/passion burn-out - the incentives need scalability as much as the game does.

Much of the content in Frontier 1859 must be created and maintained by players rather than developers. So our greatest workload is in creating solid and secure user-friendly editors, and the most interactive environment ever created for a MMORPG. Another is that our design-directive needs to fully-utilize people together from various time-zones. So one of my solutions will enable people to feel like they are a part of a Tribe or Secret Society and make contributions towards their communities no matter what time zone they occupy. On top of all of this, I've always thought that an MMO needs to operate like a theme park, with solid customer service, safety measures to thwart addiction and harassment, and advertising that is pertinent to audience interests.

Christophe Watkins (FALLEN EARTH):
Yes, undoubtedly more difficult. The challenge is that you have all the problems of a standalone game plus you have the challenges of making it work over the internet, dealing with scaling issues of hundreds of thousands of users, keeping players entertained for years instead of hours, creating massive and interesting worlds, handling nonlinear game progression, and of course dealing with the host of player to player interaction issues.

Brian 'Psychochild' Green (MERIDIAN 59):
The individual pieces required in the development of an online RPG like Meridian 59 are not really very different than the pieces of developing any other game. Controls, UI, artwork, graphics engine, network code, server, databases, writing, gameplay, billing; most of these elements are found in other types of games. What makes it harder is that you have to implement every single one of these pieces to a very high degree of quality. A traditional game can focus on a great single-player experience and have simple deathmatch multiplayer experiences. Online games can’t rely on a single-player experience to carry the game: every single piece must be the best quality. If your graphics engine isn’t as pretty as everyone else, if your network code is laggy, if your server is unstable, if your gameplay is boring, if any part fails then the whole game suffers. And this is just considering things on the technical side.

To give an analogy, traditional single-player games are like juggling 3 balls. Creating a game with a multiplayer server that players host is like juggling 5 balls. Creating an online RPG is like juggling 10 balls; maybe 9 balls and a chainsaw. But, anyway, it’s tough to keep all the little pieces running smoothly all at once.

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