PAX East 2015: Senior designer Adam Hetenyi talks Trove, future of MMOs

2:45

How Trove is involved in the future of MMOs:

• Trove has smaller, faster updates rather than slower, bigger ones. The game is treated like a television series rather than a cinematic film-- players need frequent "hits" of entertainment.
• Trove has a strong emphasis on user-generated content, which strengthens the tie to the community, keeps the development team small, and enables that much more content to be added. The intenional 'lo-fi' art style allows users to jump in and make content with ease, particularly people who have never done it before.

22:20

On crowdfunding:

• "All upside".
• Trove has a traditional publisher (Trion) but still gets a lot of the benefits of the crowdfunding through things like early access, etc.
• Crowdfunding gives the developers an immediate connection to the customer and their feedback, and allows customers to be involved in development, which produces a better product. Early supporters tend to be more invested.
• Don't screw over your customers.

37:50

Living up to expectations and defining your game:

• Rapid integration process: less time between development/design and implementation means more time to determine what you're trying to do with the game.
• Developer's ideas don't always end up being "fun".

46:00

Discussing "pay to win":

• Pay to win, even being perceived as pay to win, is a "poison pill".
• That being said, developers have to make money because it's their livelihood.
• You can't get power out of Trove's in-game store, but you can buy speed (in the form of crafting materials) and status (costumes, etc.).

47:30

• World of Warcraft will last forever.

50:18

How do you maintain your playerbase when faced with juggernauts like WoW?

• "You update all the damn time."
• Be in people's faces, show them what you're doing, and rely on players to publicize the game.

58:56

What single improvement could be made to make MMOs about people again?

• Trove's focus is on cooperative gameplay. People feel "really really good" about working together, particularly when building things.
• Developers need to find more and better ways to allow people to share their creations with others (such as through social media, streaming on Twitch etc.).