For years the MMO industry has been growing into its own. Massively multiplayer games were rare in years past, or were limited to text-based and turn-based games. Those times have passed and now online gaming is becoming a heavy hitter in the video game industry. Successes of games like Anarchy Online, Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron’s Call have helped the genre grow from its infancy into adulthood. Now that the MMO industry is hitting its stride many games are being produced and released each year. Even more are ending before they’ve begun, terminated during their development. As the industry becomes more competitive developers are looking back and asking themselves what does it take to succeed in the online world?

I had the chance to interview Terri Perkins, Online Product Manager-Funcom, to find out what the people behind the popular Anarchy Online think about what it takes to create a game that will succeed, entertain its players, and survive the rough-and-ready competition of the online world.