"I still believe it is a good idea to focus an MMOG on roleplay. Whether that naturally means you must eliminate combat or not, I'm more in doubt about, but I am sure that roleplay is worth making a game about." Looking at Seed, he says, "I think it takes a game with more broad appeal gameplay [styles] than the ones we had, and I definitely think it takes a lot more testing and fine-tuning than we had money for. I think the basic idea was sound. I just think we failed on the execution of it."
The atmosphere in the office around that time was "rather sentimental and sad the last week or so. We had been walking on the razor's edge for quite a long time, holding our breath and hoping one or more publishers would 'bite' at the last minute, so [when] we finally got word from the last ones, we were sort of relieved. We had internally agreed that we didn't want to limp along. We would either have a solid long-term solution or go out quickly. So the last couple of days were quite sentimental, saying goodbye to the community and reading their postings."
Runestone was a company built with a strong emphasis on storytelling. Other companies with a similar focus tend to have track records similar to Runestone's. Is there something about the industry that eats those who focus on story? "Yes, there is something about the industry that eats storytellers," he answered. "It's called 'gameplay.' Gameplay has a tendency to overshadow the story aspects of many games: Stuff like accepting in the name of fun gameplay that the hero of a shooter game can easily survive multiple headshots, etc.
"There's also something in the industry that eats game designers. It's called 'storytelling.' This is often seen in so-called interactive movies: 'games' where the interactivity is very limited, in order to be able to tell a convincing story. ... There is a natural opposition between gameplay and storytelling. It's annoying the living daylights out of me, but I think that the 'story' and 'fun factor' elements of a game [are] almost always in competition and opposition. I think the perfect MMOG would be the one where some brilliant game designer/storyteller figures out how to tell a strong, engaging story with the gameplay. Not with cut scenes, not with quest logs, not with NPC dialogue trees, but with the core gameplay of the game. I don't have the formula, and I don't think the formula is necessary to have a very good game, but if someone cracks it, I want to play the game."
As for what's next for Lars and his team, he tells me, "Runestone is getting split up as a company. We are planning a Christmas lunch, which is a big deal in Denmark; [it's a] traditional company party." The team is "keeping in touch via mailing list. Some of the Copenhagen-based game developers have hired some of the guys, while some others are getting jobs here in Aarhus, in gaming or otherwise." Lars himself is "taking a little vacation and, after that, I want to work somewhere in the industry." What happened to Seed and Runestone haven't stopped his MMOG dreams, he says. "At some stage, though, I want to make an MMOG again. Probably roleplay-based, if the competition isn't too stiff when I get around to it." For roleplayers worldwide, his return can't come soon enough.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire Shannon Drake.
