Joe Ludwig is the CTO of Divide by Zero Games. He blogs on all manner of MMO tech and design issues, or at least that's his plan. He doesn't write as a representative of Divide by Zero, so anything you read here is his own opinion and nothing more.
You can reach him at joe TheAtSignGoesHere programmerjoe.com. Sometimes he writes about Augmented Reality and other not-yet-game stuff at ProgrammerJoe.com. Joe is also on the advisory board for the LOGIN Conference, the premier online game conference.
Eric, you've hit on exactly why WoW is not a third generation MMO. It learned most, if not all, of its lessons from EverQuest. There were basically no aspects of other post-EverQuest but pre-WoW games in World of Warcraft when it launched. It didn't pick up on the large inventory ...
There is certainly a balance to be stuck somewhere between total passivity and cutthroat aggression. What I've found is that most people are on the passive side of that balance gradually becoming more and more unhappy until they leave the company in the hope that someplace else will be better. ...
