The best advice I can give to a company wanting to create a successful MMO is very simple: Expand resources beyond the game itself. Not through pay shops (though for silly vanity items, go on and use a pay shop) but by giving people information about the game through phone apps. For example, gear calculators, skill point/talent calculators and all that good stuff.

Second, developer blogs. Give people a chance to chime in, as well. Developer-consumer interaction is key. Don't repeat the Skyrim/PS3 debacle, or that will surely doom this MMO.

Endgame content. Believe me, hardcoe gamers will blow through the leveling in only a matter of days if not hours. You need some good endgame content so those hardcoe gamers can get their fix while the casuals have fun exploring and immersing themselves (I am the latter).

Give people leveling up plenty to do as well. If I have multiple zones I can visit for a few levels, I'm the type that will visit them all as long as they're not terrible (Desolace in WoW comes to mind, or later Stranglethorn Vale).

Class balance. People like to have fun with their particular classes. So make them all work.

And last, something that Bethesda/Zenimax have already mastered: Be EXTREMELY aggressive in the marketing campaign. A great example is the marketing done for Skyrim. It was fantastic. And it got people playing.


All these things are a major reason why WoW has been so successful. If the company follows this, ESO will be just as successful. Don't just rely on the Elder Scrolls label for success. SWTOR did that, and look at the state of their game now.

Put housing and player driven economy, let me live in Tamriel instead of just making me log in and doing some raids..

Yeah i agree Matt and co need to be told how to make a MMO work, you have been making MMO's a lot longer. I doubt they have even thought about the things you have mentioned, remind me to hire you if i ever have enough cash to fund my own mmo.

The biggest problem with the "what should be in X game at launch argument" is the WOW problem. WOW has been around for so long now that they have packed just tons and tons of stuff into the game. Just countless amounts of stuff to do. However, nobody can pack a fraction of that stuff in at launch and hope to keep any semblance of a budget intact.

Did Matt and co ask to you post that for them? Thanks for letting us know what Matt and co want. I was under the odd impression that the fact that forums exist implied that we were supposed post any range of things regarding the upcoming game?