Jessica Mulligan has experience designing, playing and writing about online games, and since April 1997, she's had a column about MMOGs: "Bite the Hand." Archives of the column start on a site called "GamerGals" (no longer in existance) then BTH moved to GameBytes , Happy Puppy, and now continue on Skotos.net. Her old material seems to be a good place for some insider analysis as these games became increasingly popular.
Interesting footnote on her career - she helped build the original online NeverWinter Nights - on AOL: "1988 - Jessica Mulligan, now a Quantum Computer Services [later AOL] employee, writes a white paper on the gaming industry and recommends that Quantum license the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game from TSR, Inc. It does so, and AD&D: NeverWinter Nights is born, based on SSI's Gold Box series of AD&D games. Once launched, NeverWinter Nights will run continuously for several years, even though the technology of the graphics interface is hopelessly outdated. In it's last year of existence as a for-pay game, 1996, it will rake in an estimated $5 million dollars. " (from her History of Online Games.
She's now President of The Themis Group, a consultancy to companies building MMORPGs, helping them with customer support and game architecture issues, as well as publishing expensive MMORPG industry overviews.
Posted by justin at October 27, 2002 04:46 PM