Together they fielded a flurry of questions on some hot genre topics, including whether MMOs are headed to consoles en masse, and why there are so few successful massive sci-fi titles out there. We were there too, taking notes.

The Rising Cost of MMO Development

Cryptic chief creative officer Jack Emmert: "Expectations are so high now because of WoW that [some] publishers aren't even going to try."

BioWare general manager Ray Muzyka: "[Five years ago] who would have imagined [Portal] winning game of the year? Perfect execution, very polished. There is no one business model. It's about tuning the game to your audience. You can succeed [in both] but you gotta know who you are."

Blizzard VP of game design Rob Pardo: "It's interesting almost to hear that no one wants to compete with WoW's success. As a business person, that's great. As a game player, I hope that's not true. As a game player, I really want to see other companies go and compete with WoW and make the next great game. I think you can do it still. If you're going to do a big budget MMO and it's going to be content-based.. you're competing not against WoW but expansions as well."

Are MMOs Headed to Consoles?

BioWare's Ray Muzyka: "I think there's a huge market on PC. It's not a simple matter to get onto console [due to economics and manufacturer fees]. It's a challenge that can be overcome, but you've got to pick and choose your battles."

Cryptic's Jack Emmert: "I just think it's absolutely ridiculous to think that MMOs aren't going to migrate [to consoles]. I'd like to discourage everyone here, especially Blizzard, from doing that. It's very hard."

Blizzard's Rob Pardo: "Of course there's going to be MMOs on consoles.. The way we approach things is we decide what kind of game we want to make.. The types of MMOS that are out there right now work much better on PC.. Decide yourself what the game is you want to make and make sure you pick the system it will be most fun on."

Micro-transactions or Subscriptions?

Cryptic's Jack Emmert: "[Microtransactions] are like the new hip thing. But subcriptions are nice. I like paying one fee and then not worrying about it.. It's not the wave of the future guys. The world's biggest MMO is Rob's game [World of Warcraft]. Last I checked, it ain't item-based. It's a buzz term.. It just makes me want to die. Frankly I'd rather send out mass e-mails saying 'send me a dollar.' I think I'd get the same response."

BioWare's Ray Muzyka: "I think it comes down to the design of your game. You have to understand what you're making I think it really comes down to the individual game and the design. Start with something brilliant and then go from there. If there's people that actually want to buy micro-transaction items, and you're not meeting their need, then you're losing customers. I think there's a great promise for both models. It's not like they have to be mutually exclusive. If you can make a game that enables both modes of play.. without compromising your design [or disenfranchising your audience.. that'd be beautiful."

Blizzard's Rob Pardo: "It's not the magic bullet. You have to make a great game and then decide.. what is the right model. There's also kinda ways to do both. We actually charge people for server transfers and name changes. [Though] the reason we did it was more of a deterrent. I think you're going to see a lot of different exploration and experimentation in all sorts of business models in MMOs.. Subscriptions aren't going anywhere."

Can A Sci-fi MMO Be Successful?

Cryptic's Jack Emmert: "I think it has some significant hurdles. Here's the problem: when you buy a fantasy game you know what you're going to do. Kill orcs and wizards. What are you going to do [in a sci-fi MMO]?"

BioWare's Ray Muzyka: "If you always strive [to be the best] people are always going to be there to play it."

Blizzard's Rob Pardo: "I think the question is a bit silly. Look back at the 70's, "sci-fi can't be a mainstream thing" in cinema. Star Wars changed that. Lord of the Rings changed fantasy. All it takes is the right product. You just gotta have the right product and I think it could be easily as successful as WoW."