EVE Online Head Honcho Pushing For More Non-Fantasy MMO’s

Does it seem to you that most every new MMO is based in a fantasy world? If so, you’re not alone.

Hilmar Veigar Petursson, the CEO of CCP, the Icelandic developer of the sci-fi MMO EVE Online, has suggested that developers who try to create fantasy MMO’s should be focusing their efforts on other genres. In fact, he goes so far as to say, “I just don’t understand why people do yet another fantasy game. Why make a clone of World of Warcraft? World of Warcraft is the perfect implementation of this [genre]. It’s been done. Do something else.”

Now, I kind of wondered why a developer who, by consensus, probably has the sci-fi MMO market sewn up neatly would want more competition. Petursson addressed that in the interview as well, saying, “If Blizzard were to make Starcraft the MMO and make an accessible game similar to World of Warcraft, I think it would actually add to our subscriber base rather than retract.”

You know, there’s something to be said for this theory. Look at the MMO’s up against WoW. As of now, there is NO WoW-killer. Vanguard crashed and burned, and LotR Online isn’t pulling the numbers. Sure, there are lots of MMO’s out there, but none of them are a threat to Blizzard. Maybe it is time to look elsewhere for our MMO fix.