There's a Q&A with NCsoft on GameSpot chatting with Taekjin Kim, the CEO of this Korean publisher about Lineage: The Bloodpledge, the insanely popular MMORPG, discussing "NCsoft's entry into the US market, offline violence, and Richard Garriott." The article makes mention of the record 200,000 simultaneous users Lineage has boasted, and the following question and response give a feel for why he feels the game is so successful:

GS: Lineage has been viewed as one of the most successful online games in Korea and showed a great deal of success in marketing to other countries, such as Taiwan. Why do you think it has been so successful?

TK: Lineage has been able to successfully appeal to the generation of Internet subculture users by being the first online game to ever offer superb full-scale 3D-rendered graphics and by providing a host of chatting modes. Also, the strategic/collaborative battles enabled by the use of the world's largest large-scale database management technologies have provided an effective means of delivering surrogate satisfaction for modern humankind.