Sony Online Entertainment Interview

[GameBanshee News]

MSNBC offers an interview with SOE's John Smedley, talking MMOs of the past and of moving forward, including a discussion of SOE's goal to reinvent the genre.

The topic of your speech was reinventing the MMO. Why does the genre need reinventing?

For the past nine years, it’s been the same formula. Basically, kill stuff. And if we’re going to expand the audience to one that’s a lot broader, both in age range and sex, we’re going to need to reinvent. And we’re going to need to make efforts to reach girl gamers, to reach younger gamers … it’s something we need to be conscious about.

You’ve been in the MMO space for a really long time. From your vantage point, how have things changed, from “EverQuest” to today?

Everything’s gotten a lot better, higher production values, the competition in this space has gotten very substantial, obviously. “World of Warcraft” is a terrific and formidable opponent. But I would also say the games have gotten more fun over time and I’m really pleased to see more and more people starting to play.

I’ve got four kids, and my oldest two actually play MMOs. They play probably because I’m their dad, but also because they hear about them from their friends.

Spotted on Massively.