Would you keep us all updated on what you’re contributing to in WoW?

I understand it isn’t easy to start a gaming company because the upfront investment is so steep. What makes me even sadder is when companies like Zynga or EA get a hold of something that has the possibility to make a decent profit and then they let their greed get a hold of it. All any MMO needs if they have a great game is to learn Zynga’s model and then dial it back from there (Zynga is incessantly greedy). Restaurant City was a well-loved game, but once EA got it’s hands on the opportunity to make monthly revenue from it, they rode it hard and sent it off to the dog food factory once they wore it down into nothing.

Anyone who played the game under Playfish knows what created the fans. If EA REALLY wanted to make money from it they would have studied the residual opportunities to make money that grew up from the player base and facilitated that subculture in a way that promoted more growth. Instead, EA bought the game from Playfish and thought it could cater to only those wealthy enough to spend $100s of dollars to play online games.

If EA had catered to the kids who were willing to take $20 in allowance money to build their place in the game up and trade things with other players who didn’t have money to spend but had plenty of time to play everyone could have been happy. As soon as the people who were willing to spend that $20-40 per month to buy things realized they could trade with those who had no money, RC created more monthly spenders, which means more money for the company who created the game. Sometimes, less is more because when more people are willing to spend less the company gets more money by providing a place to spend that money in a way that supports the trading sub-culture in the game. Definitely sounds convoluted, but I haven’t been to bed yet.

I hope new MMO companies will consider that in the future. There are lots of little industries that pop up in the wake of a game or TV show people like – you see these industries when you go to any convention. Certainly there’s a way for a company who owns the rights to such properties to cash in on some of those side industries as well without having to go to the WoW model of monthly charges for the server. Heck, if Wong Fu Productions can make enough money selling shirts and stuffed animals to sustain three salaries, a company with something as precious as art rights can find a way to bring money in (even if it has to be started through a company like Cafe Press where things are not made until someone orders them; i.e. no inventory to worry about).

If the record industry had embraced Napster, they could have been making a lot more money earlier on. A lot of those people would have bought the physical CDs back in those days after previewing an album (like they used to in stores back in the 60s) because music collectors will always be music collectors. Instead, the music industry just upset a lot of people who became more determined than ever to seek revenge by buying nothing at all.

I wish you the best of luck in your next endeavor and I hope it’s with a company that looks for many different ways to come up with additional revenue to support whatever game you are creating.