WoW: Pardo on their Success @ Gamasutra

Gamasutra is the latest site to cover the success of World of Warcraft, offering an interview in article format with Blizzard's Rob Pardo on the subject:

Blizzard, according to Pardo, envisions their market as a donut, with the core players at the center and a more casual audience around that. "It's increasingly important to appeal to both," Pardo said. Blizzard leans heavily on the "easy to learn, difficult to master" mantra, Pardo said, but also does things like lowering system requirements to build a broader audience.

To maximize both depth and accessibility, the company concentrates on depth first and accessibility later, Pardo said. "First we try to come up with what are really cool things, things that will get people to play for two to three years. Then we actually start talking about accessibility, how to make the content approachable and easy to learn. But it starts with depth first."