Faith in Imagination

Richard Bartle, asked if he knew what differentiated people who grok virtual worlds from those who don't, answered: "Faith in our own imaginations."

From Massively Multi-Player to Mass Market

This may be the key for the first MMORPG to break out into the mass market: Writing a game which helps people who don't have faith in their own imaginations (or find their faith limited when they try MMORPGs) to find that faith.

While FaerieMUD does not try to be massively multi-player (let alone "mass market"), such a difficult task might be a good one to which we should aspire. Even for people who have faith in their own imaginations, a system which facilitated that might be a good idea. And the fact that even SW:G and EQ haven't achieved mass-market status shows that it must be a hard problem.

— Scotus - 27 Oct 2003