It may sound absurd but the general consensus is that the success of the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft lies on men in tights. Damion Schubert, Lead Combat Designer, Bioware elaborated on this phenomenon through a talk he gave at the recently concluded Austin Game Conference titled "Moving Beyond Men in Tights."

"I think that we as an industry are very myopic about what people really want, what they're actually looking for in terms of the innovation side of the industry," says Schubert. Adding that too many people are focused on replicating the success of World of Warcraft, that being revolutionary goes out the window.

He pushes the metaphors further by saying that "WoW is Coke," and unless you have some Pepsi money you can never topple this giant. But the biggest question is how did WoW become a Coke and everybody else a Pepsi? Is it really the men in tights?

Before this goes anymore cockeyed, Sony Online Entertainment game designer, Raph Koster, has narrowed it down to five reasons - combat-oriented, classes, grindtastic, men in tights (of course), and gamey games.

Combat-oriented doesn't necessarily mean that gamers are looking for a new way to whack somebody, but that they are looking for something repetitive. And to quote Koster, "People WANT to play these games for hours and hours a month because this is where they spend their social time."

Classes as Schubert pointed out, makes a lot of sense for the developers. As an example he says if a developer were to add a new skill to a system without class limits, the problem would not be easily solved. "You basically have to compare a billion possible combinations to a billion other possible combinations," Schubert said. "Classes help keep that under control."

Probably the most irreplaceable of all the ingredients that make up an MMORPG are the experience points and levels. Not only does it allow players to know where they are in the food chain, but also the promise of new abilities, fame, riches, and glory that comes along with it.

Men in tights embodies the fantasy genre that majority of MMOs are built on. Schubert expounds on this stating that fantasy is suited to MMO games because it's ideally suited to the player's sense of progression. It can start players out against giant rats and move along to orcs, dragons, demons, and other nastier creatures.

An admitted gamey guy, Koster has this to say to developers, "Make a world, but don’t depend on players finding their own fun. Some enjoy it, but most don’t. In the Sims online, there was a way to find the stuff tat was good — you don’t want users to wade through crap."

If men in tights are really what gamers are looking for, should we stick to the successful men in tights formula? "I'm not saying don't innovate," Schubert emphasized. "I'm really not… but I really want you guys to be sure that you're not over-innovating, that you're not going out of bounds. Be sure that your innovations are things that players want."

"Concentrated Coolness" is the an important part of Blizzard's game design philosophy as said by Rob Pardo in the Austin Game Conference. He continued by saying to not try to do everything at once and start small, start "cool" - address problems as the pop up, determine what gamers like, and build from there in logical steps. That way, unwieldy situations like having to fix major problems in a wide range of big areas can be avoided, reducing player frustration. Go for Depth first, then Accessibility - but don't forget that both are required.

As an example, he spoke of a dev team who  kept a dungeon classified - then had to redo it because they had forgotten about the accessibility when designing the depth. Passages in the high level dungeon were too small for the large raid that would have to pass and fight through them. The Scarlet Monastery content, on the other hand, is an example that clearly illustrates Pardo's "donut" metaphor. Hard-core gamers could blitz every wing in one session, while casual gamers can just to a single wing.

What connects Depth and Accessibility is Pacing, says Pardo. In WoW, Blizzard provides a well-paced leveling curve and re-playability.  "In WoW you can Solo to Sixty if that’s what you want to. Then most of our players play another to sixty and then another."

Finally, Pardo emphasized that Blizzard will "release no game before its time."

"What we found in every review of WoW was the word polish. How well polished the game is. That polish has to permeate every aspect of a game. You may not notice the one polished aspect of the game, but you sure notice it when 1,000 polished aspects come together," Pardo said. Like the dating game or a Broadway opening, you get one shot to impress your audience. "You publishers out there. Listen up. You don’t get a second chance."

While Blizzard's philosophy seems like a brilliant business plan, it is - like most great ideas - based on simple, common sense principles.  Decide what it is you're doing, determine your market, create a philosophy - then start small and build from there.

As a Chinese philosopher said over two millenia years ago, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Since World of Warcraft has graced the walls of the MMORPG Kingdom, it is safe to say that no other title comes close in terms of subscriber dominance. Just last March, the guys at Blizzard said that they've surpassed the 6 million mark. Six months later, in the Austin Game Conference, Blizzard has another announcement to make to the faithfuls.

This Wednesday morning, WoW reaches the unprecedented number of 7,000,000 active subscribers worldwide. Such number, despite expected is still overwhelming. Technical problems and player complaints never beleaguered Blizzard as these were just minor bumps along the way.

The Burning Crusade is coming and it will just make Azeroth a lot more crowded and a lot more intense. Outside the World of Warcraft, we wonder if the other MMOs are prepared to make war.