MS: I completely agree! The old model of $50 boxes, huge development teams, huge budgets, and long development schedules has resulted in market stagnation, a lack of innovation, no risk-taking, a𒉰nd has really been an anchor on the PC game industry as a whole. The only rational response is a new approach to the market, and real innovation usually comes from the indie community. Having a small, tight Mythos development team has been a great experience for all of us.
GR: The RPG formula seems to be in a state of flux at the moment. We still have the traditional MMOs and Japanese-style single-player epics, but genre boundaries seem to be starting to blur. Shooters like Bioshock and Huxley are taking on RPG-like elements, GTA IV could almost be construed as an action RPG in a lot of ways and Fallout 3 is looking like a very inter🥃esting hybrid indeed. Do you see this trend continuing until the genre becomes much less definable, or will it always stand apart as a game style all of its own?
MS: I think th✃e RPG umbrella should be considered broa🐽d and expansive. One of the reasons we made Diablo back in the day was the feeling that RPGs were too narrowly defined, and they began to appeal to a smaller and smaller niche of hardcore, stat-obsessed RPG orthodoxy. We just wanted to whack skeletons with clubs and find cool loot.
The internet has turned all gaming into a more social experience, and people are able to create and grow online personas for everything from WoW type games to golf games. We think this is great – terms like RPG are just label𝓀s used for easy 🎐categorization. We should think of RPGs as a full continuum of possibilities, not isolated archetypes to which each game must adhere.
GR: How healthy do you think the RPG scene is🦄 these days? Is anything within it particularly promising or worrying to you?
MS: I think RPG gaming is here to stay. Right now there’s a lull in the PC market as a whole, which is, I believe due to the stagnant, onerous business models used commonly in the US/EU. In Asia, PC gaming is booming, and they’ve adjusted much better to the demands of the market. While the quality of the product created in the US/EU is still the best in the world, we have a lot to learn about how to quickly and efficiently deliver this product to cus☂tomers.
GR: Mythos is a game that's taken a very interestin🌃g route into a very competitive market. What do you see it having achieved in a few years time?
MS: Our greatest satisfaction comes from people playing and enj🦩oying our games. If we have a large, happy gaming community, that’s literally all we can ask for. The risks we’re taking, we feel, only increase our chances of accomplishing that goal.
