Champions Online Interview

One Last Continue has published an excellent interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper about not only Champions Online, but a host of related MMO and RPG topics. A sampling:
Well, and speaking to the table top stuff, I'm curious to know how you feel and how much you know about D&D 4th Edition which has. well.

Yeah, yeah, and it seems like it's built to be MMO. A mini-size MMO.

Right. Meanwhile the Hero System based Champions table top game isn't. It's still a hardcore tabletop roleplaying game, even though there would be some obvious cross-promotion. It seems like there are some shared ideas, art assets, some branding stuff, and some of the fiction but the game isn't shared. There are different rules and mechanics. Do you think that the separation there is the way it should be? Hardcore pen and paper stuff versus more casual video and computer games?

I think there's room for both, there can be a wide variety. If you want hardcore, crazy, bean counter MMO you can play EVE Online. It's a massive graphic spreadsheet almost, and that takes nothing away from the game. I play EVE, it's very cool, it's extremely hardcore, right? But you can also jump online and play casual games, get your Bejeweled fix. And I think table-top games are the same, you can certainly sit down and play a game of Munchkin, or you can play a game of Champions.

I think that the difference is that in the scope of the size of that market, there are more players that appreciate the difficult mechanic. They push for that. And that [hardcore mechanic] is a huge strength that the Hero System has. It's all about (What do you want to make? Here's how you make it.) The Hero System is about more than just the Champions. There's the new Hero games core set, and then the new Champions set. I think one of the things that they're doing that is really cool is that they're going to say (Hey, if you've played Champions Online, here's how you build the power set players. Here's how you would build Flame Strike), right? (This is how those powers are constructed.)