One of the legendary developers of first-person shooter games admits that he became addicted to Blizzard‘s MMORPG.
John Romero, one of the creators behind classic FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and Quake, revealed that of all the games he has played, he prefers Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft the most. It is about as far removed from what he is best known for as you can get, since it is an MMORPG with stylized visuals and a tab-targeting combat system.
“I have probably logged over 3,000 hours in World of Warcraft. God, I lived in that game every day for five years. Six hours, usually every day. And then on weekends, I played for as long as I could stay awake. I was developing an MMO at the time, so studying that game was important to me in terms of answering the question, ‘Why do I want to do this?’ Why am I putting up with this? What are you thinking about second to second while doing this?” I was in a raiding guild. I did so much stuff – you name it, I did it. I had five main characters, each with gear from different classes. I had ten characters total. When you start a new character, you start the game from the beginning. But I knew how to optimize burning through. I could reach level six in half an hour.
It’s important to examine successful games and their systems, which have been battle-tested by millions of players. Millions of people have played the way they implemented it, and they have kept it for years. It works. It’s important for designers to look at those examples. You wouldn’t directly copy anything, but you would understand why it was done that way and how it works,” Romero told PCGamer.
John Romero worked on an MMORPG that never saw the light of day. It was probably developed during his time at Slipgate Ironworks between 2005 and late 2010. That timeline aligns with World of Warcraft‘s heyday and matches the five-year stretch he described. All we know is that it was based on an original IP. Romero received a special thanks credit in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, a free MMO launched by Gazillion Entertainment in 2011.
Romero recently confirmed he is in talks with other companies to continue developing his next game after Microsoft pulled its funding. He added that it will be a very unique title, and that it aims to be as innovative for open worlds as FromSoftware‘s Elden Ring.
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