Great. Linked again. And this time, I didn't even have anything interesting or newsworthy to say. I guess it must be summer, with nothing else going on, so let's all visit Ragnar's journal, shall we? Happy times.

The flaming, of course, has already begun: Aaah, Funcom's making another game, they're abandoning Anarchy Online, screw 'em, the blood-sucking vampires, they're incompetient [sic], talentless hacks, and someone should put a gun to their- Well, no one's gone that far...yet. I'm just paraphrasing. And there haven't really been any major flaming. Yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't get flamed. We wear protection at all times. Flames can no longer hurt us. And besides, God knows we certainly deserve a good flaming now and then. I definitely do. I expect people to tell me straight out what they think. After all, that's what I always do. To mixed effect.

This time around, though, logic seems to have gone out the window, as my earlier comments about a second online world weren't exactly Breaking News, and shouldn't have caught anyone by surprise.

Facts: About a year ago, we announced Midgard as our next MMOG. We'd already assembled a medium-sized team (some of us had been working on the game since the end of 2000), and we'd commenced pre-production - even some production - on the project. We showed invited journalists some exclusive material (concept art, rendered screenshots, a video, and a real-time demo of our water technology) at ECTS in London last August. "Midgard" was no secret. It had a freakin' website (where the forum is still active - God bless the faithful fan. I feel totally awful about our total lack of follow-up, but AO's been a huge priority for us). But then, for various reasons, we decided to put "Midgard" on hold in order to focus on AO. Back then, we told everyone that we'd get back to Midgard when the time was right. That's never been a secret either. Times change, however, and now we have to ask ourselves whether or not Midgard is going to be our next game. And even that has been no secret. I've mentioned this to members of the community on several occasions, and to the press, most recently at this year's E3. We're looking at Midgard, we're discussing the future, and we're going to make a decision one way or the other. I can't even begin to tell you what the answer's going to be...because I simply don't know yet. And yes, as Funcom's Creative Director, I'm part of that process. While my journal isn't an official Funcom news source - despite what some people might think - I have a habit of being in touch with reality.

Fiction: "Funcom's giving up on AO!" Why would we do that? It doesn't make sense. AO is supposed to run for many, many years to come. After all, even if we started production on a new game today - and that's not going to happen - it'd still be at least 2-3 years before we could launch it. And we learn new things from AO all the time - it's a first-generation MMOG. If we gave up on it, we'd never have a second-generation MMOG, would we? We'd be permanently behind everyone else. And we don't want that to happen.

Fiction: "Funcom's moving everyone from AO to a new project/to Midgard/out the door!" Uh, no. Right now, Funcom is sized for one project (with a few people, like myself, who are "floaters" - i.e. we work primarily on AO, but sometimes we spend time doing other stuff that's in the pipeline). If/when we start working on a new online world, we staff up. That's the way the industry works - you get the people when you need the people. Besides, I don't think AO would last very long without a live team, and someone's bound to notice pretty quickly. Who'd do the patches? Maintenance? We've also announced an expansion pack, remember? There's a team working on that one as well, and they're going absolutely nowhere. So would we sabotage ourselves - cut our losses - and put everyone on a new game? Nope. Doesn't work like that. Until AO winds down - hopefully a long, long time from now - it's going to remain our primary focus. Not just because we owe it to the players, but also because it's a business, and abandoning something that works, and generates income, is usually bad business.

Fiction: "Funcom won't bother to improve AO if they start working on a new game!" Why wouldn't we want to keep improving AO? Again - AO is teaching us everything we need to know about running an online world. If we stopped improving AO, we also stop learning from it. That's just bad business, and, more importantly, bad for the designers. I want to know what works and what doesn't, because I don't want us to make the same mistakes twice, but I do want us to do something that works well again. And again. And...yes.

Fiction: "Funcom/Ragnar wants to push AO under the carpet and start over!" Right. I want the game to stagnate and disappear. I want the players to cry out for my severed head. That doesn't make sense. If you've read my journal, you'll see that my main focus is AO's story - right now that means I'm working on the new NPCs as well as some other stuff (check out the AO forum thread mentioned below). But at the same time, I also want us to make a decision about the future, so that we have something to work towards. As a creative person, I don't think it's particularly strange to be excited about the Next Big Thing, even when we're still putting our all into the Current Big Thing. New stuff gets my juices flowing, which is beneficial for everything that I do. And that goes for my colleagues as well.

I'm sorry if all of this sounds a bit confrontational, because I do understand everyone's concerns, and I agree with some of it. As a player, I'd hate to see something I've invested time and money in go to waste, and there is that concern. But it won't happen. When we do decide to pick up on "Midgard" again - or go with a different online world - it won't happen overnight, it won't be at the expense of AO, and it won't split the current workforce in two. It'll take a long while for any game to emerge from a concept stage - where only one or two people are involved - into pre-production, and at that point the staffing situation will be different. Most importantly, we're not talking next week here, guys! While the decision will be made soon, the actual work won't begin until...the future. At some point. Maybe not even this year.

The only thing we intend to say is whether or not our next game will be "Midgard". That was the deal. That's why I wrote the previous post. This is not about brand new online worlds, or about AO going bye-bye. It's all about "Midgard". And I'm starting to regret those quotation-marks. People ask me, I've got to tell them something. It's only fair.

Besides, look at it this way: If we're discussing our next game, what are the chances that we'll suddenly go belly-up and AO will shut down, leaving you all without your daily fix of Rubi-Ka? See? It's all good. It really is.

Phew. Bedtime.  ¶ 02:07