MMO Stories

The MUD Origins

Tim's MMO obsession traces back to LP MUDs in grad school — Darker Realms, Snow, and the pranks he pulled as a wizard. When EverQuest launched in 1998 (the same year Troika started), it was essentially "a MUD with graphics thrown on the front end," and he was instantly hooked. He played every night, running dozens of characters across multiple servers.

The Mung Bean Evacuate Incident

His most successful EverQuest character was a wizard named Mung Bean. At high enough level, wizards could cast Evacuate — a near-instant version of the Gate spell that teleported your party to safety. The fine print: "not guaranteed to transport the entire party."

During a pickup group in the Estate of Unrest, someone pulled too many monsters. The leader called out: "Mung Bean, your time to shine — evacuate!" Tim cast the spell. Bubbles appeared around every party member... except him. Everyone teleported to safety while the monsters turned to face him. His chat window filled with "We're at the evacuation point, Mung Bean — where are you?" He died. That's how he learned the "random party member left behind" could include the caster.

The Spicy Girls and Themed Groups

Tim stayed friends with his Interplay colleagues even after leaving for Troika, and they formed an EverQuest group called The Spicy Girls — all five Spice Girl names. Scotty played Ginger (he wanted the red hair). Tim was Posh and played a Bard — "the only Spice Girl who could play her own instruments." Chris Taylor joined as the sixth member and was designated "manager."

Their rule: if they ever saw someone about to die, they'd rush over and save them. Victims would see the Spice Girls charging over the hill, dispatching the monster, healing the wounded — then offering a screenshot. Chris Taylor would step in as manager: "I'm gonna have to charge you." Some people actually paid.

The Pattern Continued

• Dark Age of Camelot → The Powerpuff Girls. Tim wanted to be Bubbles (baby blue armor) but logged in late and had to be Blossom.
• EverQuest 2 → The Brady Bunch (six party members). Tim was Jan, playing a necromancer — "of the six Brady Bunch kids, you know who'd be a necromancer. There was a darkness to Jan."
• WoW → A gnome fire mage named Nugget in a guild. Met his future husband through guild members going to Disneyland.
• City of Heroes → A superhero team themed after Tim Gunn from Project Runway. Tim played "Tim Big Guns." Another player made "Ten Big Guns" who wielded two big guns.
• Star Wars Galaxies → Han Solo's cousin, "Pibo Solo," a dashing rakish rogue.
• Lord of the Rings Online → An all-Hobbit group, echoing his all-Hobbit party testing approach from Temple of Elemental Evil.

Why MMOs Fascinated Him as a Designer

Beyond the social comedy, Tim was drawn to the design challenges MMOs presented. They played with RPG tropes in fundamentally different ways:

• Reactivity is hard — In single-player, the world reacts to the player. In an MMO, which player does the world react to?
• Class roles transform — Classes had to fill strict roles (tank, crowd control, damage dealer), which was very different from how Tim conceived of roles in single-player RPGs. This thinking directly influenced WildStar's path system.
• Social dynamics are the content — The comedy, the themed groups, the rescue missions — none of that was designed. It emerged from giving players space to play together.

The Arc: 1998–2011

Tim's MMO era lasted roughly 13 years, from EverQuest through his time at Carbine Studios. When he stopped working at Carbine, he stopped playing MMOs — "it was all part and parcel of the same thing." He moved on to cooperative games like Borderlands, but the lessons from 13 years of MMO play and design carried forward into everything after.

References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgL2HCS-29A