But one day in the summer of 2000, as we were talking about Magic: the Gathering, we realized that it was a perfect blend of persistent character progression and strategy. Instead of progressing your character by leveling up, you progress by collecting more spells and abilities, which don't make you strictly more powerful but do give you a wider variety of strategies that you can pursue. We realized that while almost all existing MMOs and online RPGs were based on the Dungeons & Dragons tradition, it was perfectly feasible to create one based on the Magic: the Gathering tradition instead. And that's how Guild Wars Gold born.IGNPC: We've heard the franchise has sold six million copies, which is quite an accomplishment. What can you tell us about the average Guild Wars player, though? Are they likely to identify themselves as a hardcore or a casual gamer? How long do they stick with Guild Wars?
 

Mike O'Brien: Guild Wars Gold tends to attract a very diverse audience of people who play the game in different ways and for different reasons, so that's not an easy question to answer. In general, younger players are more likely to identify themselves as hardcore gamers, whereas older players are more likely to be casual gamers. There is a strong female contingent across all age groups, but the majority of players are male. And since Guild Wars Gold has no monthly fee, players keep coming back to it. Even after they stop playing daily or weekly, they still come back to check out holidays and other special events.

IGNPC: Four years ago, making an online game that had no subscription fee seemed like a big risk. Today, it seems that free-to-play seems to be the wave of the future. Yet many free-to-play games also rely on optional microtransactions. Do you think it's possible that Guild Wars Gold will follow suit eventually?

Mike O'Brien: Well, we've been offering optional add-on content like additional character slots, mission packs, and unlock packs since long before microtransactions were all the rage. We view it as putting our money where our mouth is. Instead of forcing players to pay a certain amount every month like subscription games do, we offer players new content and upgrades that we think are compelling, and then the choice to buy or not to buy is entirely up to the player. That was an important part of Guild Wars Gold and it will remain an important part of Guild Wars. But I think that's not really what you're asking.