I’m going to be starting up something different soon, a kind of Q&A column where people ask me MMO questions and I try to provide answers. Not trivia or game advice, but more like industry questions. Think of it as a column like you see all the time on sports sites, like this one, asking about what the columnist thinks about various players, teams, or general recent hot topics.
The problem is, of course, that I don’t have any questions for my first column. That’s where I’d like you to help out. Leave me a comment asking any question about the MMO industry, and I’ll see about getting it into my first column, which will be featured on a major MMO news site. For obvious reasons, the response won’t be here, but I’ll either respond to your comment with a link once it goes live or make a follow-up post. Thanks!
Wintry Mix 
What genre is really missing a quality MMO right now and is there one you think has promise for that genre coming soon?
1) ESO is coming out soon. Do you think that an MMO is by definition too detached from the lone hero of the single player games to grab the same audience? Does having an MMO prevent more single-player RPGs of the series from being released?
2) For a couple years the idea of the Death of the Subscription has been floating around as more and more MMOs were released without one. This year we have at least too big games (ESO and WildStar) releasing with subscriptions. Do you think that these are outliers or that there is still a place for subscriptions in MMOs? Do you think think these games have the intention of remaining subscription based games or are just trying to quickly recoup development costs before swtiching to a F2P model?
Jason, I’d like to learn more about the different business models found in mmo’s and what, if anything, that means for us, the consumers. What I mean by business model is how companies are structured, organized, funded, managed, etc…are there outliers that predict success?
In relation to the recent paid level 90 boost in WoW, what’s your opinion on creating a strictly raiding focused MMO? Do you know of any that skip traditional solo PvE content in favour of well-done group content?
Thanks!
Actually, why the hell doesn’t Dark Souls have a proper boss-slaying co-op? It would sell me on the game instantly…
It seems like a lot of people believe sandboxes are the Next Big Thing. Do you think they will ever come to threaten theme parks in a major way, or is it all just a lot of hot air?