Interview with Runewaker

Interview with Tony Tang from Runewaker 18 May 2011

In cooperation with the German gaming website GamersGlobal, here is an interview with Tony Tang, one of the two founders of Runewaker Entertainment.

Source: GamersGlobal and posted in English on the Runes of Magic forums.

Interview with Tony Tang from Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic is one of the most successful free-to-play MMOs and has introduced new standards to the industry. Tony Tang, one of the two founders of Runewaker Entertainment has been discussing with us the future of MMOs, competition, and the free-to-play business model and much more.

By Sebastian Horst, 15th April 2011

GamersGlobal: Tony, operating Runes of Magic is like printing money isn’t it?

Tony Tang: If only! You can never manage to make every single player happy. We try to satisfy at least 80% of our players.

GamersGlobal: Two years on from the start of Runes of Magic, how many players do you have?

Tony Tang: At the moment we have over 5 million players. We hope that this number will continue to grow but as long as we have players, we’ll continue to work on new concepts.

GamersGlobal: How much work is involved in creating a large expansion like the fourth chapter – The Lands of Despair? How big is your development team?

Tony Tang: There are 83 people in the team. Normally, at least 40 people work on one chapter. 80 employees have been working for 9 months on The Lands of Despair, half of whom are graphical artists and the rest are designers.

GamersGlobal: In World of Warcraft lots changes from add-on to add-on. In Burning Crusade there were lots of changes to skill trees – too many perhaps. Blizzard is now focusing on ‘less is more’ again. Do you change things a lot too? Or do you have a set plan and give players only new regions, new opponents and new content?

Tony Tang: Balancing is an ongoing process. Runes of Magic is not really balanced – no game ever is. The biggest problem we’re currently facing is the complexity of the game. This has lead to a few unforeseen errors in skills and stackable items. There are some items that weren’t intended to be stackable. This is a design error.

GamersGlobal: Potions for instance whose effects constantly add up and multiply?

Tony Tang: Yeah, pretty much, we’re talking about items of which only one should be active at any given time. But you can activate multiple items meaning they become far too powerful.

GamersGlobal: How do you correct errors? How do you best avoid frustrating players?

Tony Tang: We try not to nerf too much in updates. But I can promise you that we will still be changing a lot in the future and that these changes may lead to reactions from the playerbase.

GamersGlobal: Do free-to-play MMO players differ from monthly subscription MMO players? Are they less proactive?

Tony Tang: I don’t think so. Players are just players, whatever they play. It doesn’t matter if they pay a subscription or not, they always maintain the same playing style. The only difference is that paying a monthly subscription means that you are less like to let yourself waste money through passively accepting anything.

GamersGlobal: Runes of Magic was one of the most successful free-to-play MMOs and has brought about changes in the whole industry. Many players have seen games such as Lord of the Rings Online move from a subscription model to a free-to-play model. In your opinion, can a subscription-based MMO ever be successful anymore?

Tony Tang: Yes, definitely. It doesn’t matter what payment model you use as long as the game is of high quality. However, due to the choice on the market, it can be very difficult to attract attention and players. You have to offer something risk-free. If you’re not a large and well known publisher, you won’t attract a big enough playerbase for risky projects. This can mean life or death for an MMO. So, you can still produce subscription-based games, but only if you’re one of the large publishers.

GamersGlobal: How many of your players pay for items in Runes of Magic?

Tony Tang: In the free-to-play market it is normal to have around 3-10% paying customers. Our proportion of paying customers is around 11 or 12%.

GamersGlobal: The designers of free-to-play MMOs always have to convince their players to want to spend money. Does this not restrict game design?

Tony Tang: We are a company, we need an income, but we don’t want to mug our players. We offer purchasable game content that doesn’t give the purchaser any unfair advantages and isn’t necessary to gameplay in anyway. When our customers spend money, it of course helps us to continue the game and ensures that Runewaker Entertainment will live to see another day. We don’t try to sell anything that will have a direct influence on the power of the player. As long as we have enough paying customers we won’t have to try and squeeze what we can out of our other customers.

GamersGlobal: But you have to continuously give them incentives to use paid content.

Tony Tang: It’s hard since we don’t want to force our players into anything. There are other games that you have to pay for in order to gain access to certain parts of the game. We don’t believe in that. We believe in a game that players can enjoy for free. We will continue with this concept as long as we make enough money. We, of course, try to introduce new things here and there such as more mounts or costume which are quite trivial but if you buy these sorts of items, you help us to continue.

GamersGlobal: Other than some specific pets, is there anything in Runes of Magic that cannot be achieved by simply investing time instead of money? Are there any quests that cannot be completed without paying money?

Tony Tang: Everything in-game can be achieved for free by investing time or trading with other players. Wait, there are a couple of things, dyeing costumes and buying inventory space. But these things are very banal and hardly play any role at all. You do not require extra inventory space to play the game.

GamersGlobal: But it makes gameplay much easier.

Tony Tang: Yes of course, it means you can carry a gazillion more items around with you.

GamersGlobal: A few MMO heavyweights are about to hit the market, some with the same payment model as RoM, some with subscription. What are your thoughts on Star Wars – The Old Republic?

Tony Tang: It will certainly be a coup for Star Wars fans but it will probably attract a few others too. If you don’t feel at home with the background and history, then you won’t really be able to dive into The Old Republic with much ease. In my experience, players quickly lose interest in a game if they don’t feel like they’re part of the story. I think it will be very important to know about the background history to really get into The Old Republic. I’m sure that they have a massive fanbase and that they will attract a lot of players. Saying that, I have played the game and found it to be somewhat disappointing. I didn’t feel like I was real Jedi, so to speak.

GamersGlobal: What do you think of Guild Wars 2?

Tony Tang: Oh, that’s a good game. Guild Wars is still predominantly played in Asia. Guild Wars 2 is going to be a big title – it’s great and looks fantastic. It plays beautifully and has very good and simple game mechanics. I like the combat system and that the hardware requirements are similarly low to Runes of Magic. It’s going to be one of the biggest MMOs.

GamersGlobal: Can you explain why 99% of all MMOs are fantasy-based?

Tony Tang: Because they’re easier to make? Pretty much everyone gets fantasy; Science-fiction, on the other hand, is slightly more of a niche market. Take the film industry for example. It produces far more fantasy films with dragons and the like than films about UFOs.

GamersGlobal: Wouldn’t a modern scenario interest players? Seeing as we find it all the time in films and TV series?

Tony Tang: We already live in the real world, why should we want to play in it too? Asian players most of all value being able to flee reality when playing games.

GamersGlobal: But I can still escape reality if i play an American mafia-gangster game for example.

Tony Tang: In examples like GTA you have the limitations of the real world. You can’t incorporate flying people like Superman. City of Heroes is based in the real world but uses a fantasy theme. An MMO with real and modern themes has its limitations. One step in the wrong direction and the game won’t feel quite right. Who would want to play a title like that? What could you even play as, a cowboy or a sheriff? What even is ‘real life’?

GamersGlobal: Is this the reason for APB’s lack of success. Could it successful as a free-to-play?

Tony Tang: Reloaded Productions have changed a lot since they acquired APB. They sound excited about it but I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. I think APB most of all had problems with very bad game mechanics.

GamersGlobal: Let’s discuss mobile playing. More and more people play games on mobile devices and there are increasing numbers of complex games on offer out there. There are even the first signs of MMO-style games for on the go. Is this something that could affect your business model? Or will you be transferring Runes of Magic onto handheld devices and smart phones?

Tony Tang: Smart phones and iPads are a totally new market. It’s only a question of time until somebody connects these devices to the wider gaming world. We don’t feel threatened in any way since there will always be gamers who want to play from home. We are trying to reach portable device users by offering special apps, which connect the devices with the main game.

GamersGlobal: Like the Auction App for World of Warcraft for instance?

Tony Tang: Yes, exactly. It’s just the first step.

GamersGlobal: But will it actually be possible to play an MMO on a portable device? The connections are always bad and there are loads of connection disruptions.

Tony Tang: That is a problem. Another problem is that most devices do not have enough performance to be able to display 3D graphics. But this situation is bound to improve over time. You’ll be able to play your favourite MMO on your mobile device at some point, but it could take a while. We are working on reducing game mechanics for the mobile devices. I think many development teams have the same idea.