Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Interview

MMORPG.com interviews recently appointed Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison about his new position, his plans to evolve the game, and more.
We have heard that you have a community-oriented approach to game direction. Can you tell us a little bit about your philosophy of MMO development?

I think as far as the community interaction goes I will let my actions speak for themselves there, hopefully people are already starting to see the communication improve and the feel that the feedback does reach us. I think as I have come from a community background it's an area that I obviously believe strongly in and having a good relationship with the players is very important to me. We won't always agree that's for sure, but I always feel that providing the player-base is aware of our intentions and we keep explaining things that it can always remain constructive.

As for my design philosophy I think it breaks down quite easily. The single question I am always reminding myself of, and having our designers ask themselves, is '˜is it fun?' It is all about the experience for the end user, for our players, and we always have to keep that front and center in our thoughts. It's very easy as designers sometimes to design as much for ourselves as for the players and we have an obligation to always be level headed enough to take that step back and analyze whether or not what we are attempting will be fun and engaging for the player.