Since its launch in 1997, Tibia has not only been one of the longest-running MMORPGs in history but also a cultural phenomenon that has left its mark on generations of players worldwide. Over nearly three decades, the game has evolved and adapted to a constantly shifting industry, achieving something truly exceptional: staying true to its essence while its community grew, matured, and diversified.
In this exclusive interview, Steve—one of the key figures behind CipSoft and the development of Tibia—shares a profound and reflective look at the game’s origins, the toughest decisions that shaped its history, the mistakes that provided lasting lessons, and the philosophy that has kept Tibia alive while many other virtual worlds fell by the wayside. Eschewing corporate jargon, his responses reveal the human side of a project that began as a university experiment and ended up becoming a benchmark for the genre.
For TibiaLatina, as a fansite dedicated to documenting, preserving, and analysing the game’s history for the Spanish-speaking community, this dialogue represents much more than a mere interview: it is a first-hand testimony of how a persistent universe is built, the relationship between developers and players, and the vital role the community—particularly the Latin American one—has played in Tibia’s life.
We invite our readers to explore this conversation at a leisurely pace, as if opening a book of living history. The words that follow do not just explain technical or design choices; they help us understand why Tibia is not simply a game, but a shared experience that has accompanied thousands of people throughout a significant part of their lives.
Stephan Vogler
1. When you look back at the early days of Tibia, at what moment did you first feel that this "student project" could actually turn into a stable company like CipSoft and an MMORPG that would survive for decades?[]
Indeed, there really was such a moment. As you rightly say, in the beginning Tibia was a student project. We didn't earn any money with it, everything we did was basically just for fun. At some point then we wanted to turn our hobby into a business. Something we could actually make a living from.
The big question was where the revenue would come from. When we started thinking about this, around 2000–2001, the dot-com era was at its peak. Everyone else was making money through advertising and investor funding. When we were ready to make that step, however, the bubble had burst. Advertising and investment markets were basically dead. So we had to rethink everything.
Considering that the only people who truly enjoyed the game were the players, and not any investors, we decided to introduce Premium Accounts. Looking back, that was absolutely the right decision. Today, paying for online services is completely normal. Back then, however, we were among the first to go that way. It was heavily criticized at the time.
I remember very clearly the evening when we actually activated Premium Accounts for the very first time. And when payments actually started coming in I thought that this could work. I didn't know it would last for decades, I didn't think in such terms back then, but I definitely knew it would go on for a while.
2. Tibia has always been known for its "old school" style: harsh death, real loss, and a very punishing world compared to other MMOs. What is the design philosophy behind keeping that level of harshness, and how hard has it been to resist the pressure to make the game more "casual"?[]
You have to put yourself into the mindset of the time when Tibia was born. When we started, there were basically no online games around. So our reference point was single-player games, and we designed Tibia based on experiences we had with these games. In single-player games, if you die, you die. That was our initial approach.
In an online game, however, you can't just reload a saved game. We had to learn that, too. So at first we literally designed Tibia so that death meant the end. You had to start over.
Once players started investing weeks into their characters, however, and then lost everything when their character died, we realized how brutal that was. Players were devastated. So obviously, our first approach wasn't acceptable in that regard.
So we gradually reduced the loss on death, however, we always knew that some loss had to remain. Without risk, there's no tension, no excitement. If death in a game has no consequences, you just run around without fear, and we did not want that for Tibia.
We carefully adjusted things based on player feedback, step by step, until the majority of the community said: "This is fine. Don't go any further." The current system has evolved following that rule. Tibia is still hardcore by modern standards, and that's one reason why the Tibia community values the game. It's part of what makes the game unique.
[]
That's a difficult question. At the time when I was still directly involved in decisions concerning Tibia, we always had the intention to act in the best interest of the game.
Many of the decisions we made back then were about preventing abuse and exploits. One example I remember clearly is rune-making. That had gotten completely out of control, especially through the use of bots. Players produced a massive number of runes, which devalued runes and destroyed the economy. So we introduced countermeasures. That influenced the game's economy and there was quite some criticism about that. Our intervention there fundamentally changed parts of the game. Players lost some freedoms they liked, but without these changes, the game would have been destroyed in the long run. So I still believe that decision was indeed necessary and a good one.
As for a mistake we made: We actually once believed we could hide information in the Tibia client from players by obscuring it visually. Take "darkness", for example. Early on, dungeon areas were completely dark, even though the client technically knew what was there. Later we realized that some players found ways to remove our "darkness" entirely and thus gained an unfair advantage over other players. In hindsight, it was naive to believe you could hide information that the client already had. Today, darkness in Tibia is optional, decorative, and semi-transparent. Anything the client knows, players can and will access. That was a hard lesson we had to learn.
4. Today the industry talks a lot about "aggressive monetization" and pay-to-win models. How does CipSoft position itself with respect to that trend, and what ethical limits have you set for yourselves when deciding how to make money with Tibia Coins and the in-game store?[]
We firmly believe that offering a free-to-play version is fair, both for developers and the players, if it's done right.
We are basing this on the fact that different players engage differently. Some players log in a few times a month and want to spend maybe 1 €, yet again others play eight hours a day and have Tibia as their main hobby. Just like people who have other hobbies, they want to be able to invest more. Offering free-to-play, as well as a subscription model, as well as extra services on top, caters to all preferences.
For us, the key terms are fairness and transparency. Players must always be in the position to make informed decisions. They must know exactly what they're buying and whether it's worth it to them personally. We never want to push players into spending more than they intend. As long as the principles fairness and transparency are respected, we believe free-to-play, as well as options to spend money, is a win-win situation for players and developers alike.
5. Tibia has always had to coexist with parallel markets: account selling, power gaming leveling services, and so on. From your perspective as CEO, what worries you most about that external ecosystem, and what have you learned from observing it for so many years?[]
Our biggest concern has always been whether these practices actually disturb players. If something bothers our players, it becomes our problem.
If we look at the past, some things, like account trading, for example, eventually became so widespread that most players had accepted that as a possibility. While there had always been an amount of negative feedback concerning account trading, we once dug into our database and discovered that actually the majority of high-level accounts had been traded at some point. So fighting it really no longer made sense. Account trading was and still is risky, however. Passwords are being shared, scams happen, there are security issues. So we introduced Character Trading instead, since players didn't care so much about the accounts, but really the characters. This significantly reduced illegal account trading and made the process saver. Once again, listening to players was the key.
6. The Latin American community has always been a huge part of Tibia's player base. Why do you think Tibia connects so strongly with LATAM, and what moments or player stories from this region have really stayed with you?[]
First of all, a big shout out to our Latin American players! You are amazing.
I think Tibia fits very well with the passion, emotion, and intensity of players in South America. Tibia offers drama, challenge, suffering, triumph, all of it! It seems to be a perfect match. Tibia allows you to live out your emotions to the max. We appreciate the South American community very much, as all of our players! You all bring so much life to Tibia, it is simply great.
One unforgettable moment for me was at the Gamescom LATAM in 2024 in São Paulo. We went there mainly to introduce our new game Persist Online, but everyone really wanted to talk about Tibia. People described how they themselves are involved in Tibia, or their kids, or family members. So many people told us that Tibia was really part of their culture. We were welcomed with open arms. It is a really special memory. One evening we were sitting on stage in front of hundreds of cheering Tibia fans. That was incredibly moving and overwhelming. I'm very grateful for that moment, I'll never forget that.
7. Many players literally grew up with Tibia, going from teenagers to adults inside the game. How does that idea of "growing up alongside your players" influence the decisions you make about content, events, data protection and security?[]
Ha, not only the players grew up, we did too. It's been a shared journey. When you get older, expectations change. Also our way to handle Tibia has changed. It is not a student project any more.
Players now have jobs, families, children. Many Tibians visited us at Gamescom with their kids. Naturally, players have less time to play Tibia when they grow up, but essentially a bit more money. So that's where systems like optional purchases really make sense. They help a bit to balance personal time and money. And it's really an honor to see that players stay loyal to Tibia for decades. We are working hard on keeping Tibia fresh and interesting, keeping our community in mind, of course.
8. Tibia has survived several "eras": the rise of classic MMORPGs, the arrival of MOBAs, the boom of battle royales, and now mobile and short-session games. What strategic adjustments were most important to keep Tibia from fading away amid so many changes in the industry?[]
The surprising answer might be: basically none. We have indeed seen many games appear and disappear, and have wondered at times why Tibia is still alive today, too. Maybe the reason is that we never stopped believing in Tibia's core features. And we have never stopped developing the game, either. We have never chased trends. Tibia has always kept its identity. Newer games are not like Tibia. Maybe that is part of the secret.
Even if players play other games, we have very often witnessed that players came back to Tibia after a while, to experience Tibia again.
9. Internally, how do you keep a team motivated when they have been working on the same universe for so many years? Do you have rituals, creative spaces or side projects that help feed innovation within CipSoft?[]
I think the greatest motivator for employees working on Tibia is really the community. Seeing how thousands of players enjoy something you have created is a real privilege. Also getting immediate feedback is really rewarding. We have long term employees working on Tibia. They do not want to switch into other departments. That speaks for itself.
Tibia is also deeply embedded in CipSoft's culture. We celebrate updates, we have summer festivals, a Christmas party and at all events, Tibia is always at the center. There are many opportunities for employees who work on Tibia to meet in person and to talk about successes, and to exchange ideas.
In addition, innovation is a big topic for CipSoft. Everybody is invited to make suggestions, of course, and on top of this, employees can spend 20% of their time on ideas for new games, which keeps creativity alive as well.
10. One of the most sensitive points in any MMO is the fight against bots, OT-servers, cheats and abuse. Looking at Tibia’s history, what lessons has CipSoft learned from that constant war, and what would you do differently if you could start over with all the knowledge you have today?[]
Well, we didn't listen to the community enough for too long. Several years ago botting overshadowed everything. The community was very clear on that topic. Whenever we asked for feedback on anything, we were hit with complaints about bots. It took a while, but eventually we took it seriously, prioritized it, and found solutions. Today the situation has become far better. "Listening" is the key lesson, I think. Our goal is to identify the important topics in the community and then work on them.
11. Official fansites, such as TibiaLatina on the Fandom platform, act as a bridge between players and developers. What do you expect from a serious fansite, and what kind of contributions do you value the most: guides, news, critical opinion pieces, event organization, conventions, historical preservation…?[]
First of all: thank you for the passion and the engagement and the work to all fansite admins. We appreciate TibiaLatina a lot, we love the fact that the Spanish speaking community has a place there to find information about quests and creatures and gameplay itself.
I really value the fact that fansites do things that we deliberately don't. We do not want to share too many details about quests on the website, for example. From our perspective, players need to have the option to discover things themselves. However on fansites, sharing such information, as well as stories, opinions, as well as Tibia's history is really great. Such information enriches the community, and that's invaluable for us.
I love the fact that Tibia inspires people to spend time on gathering information ingame and enhancing it to present it to others. This way, players who appreciate a bit more information on things than we are actually willing to share have a place to gather and exchange opinions.
It's also appealing to players to get opinionized information. Information from CipSoft always has to be neutral. Fansite admins on the other hand can talk with their communities more biased, more openly. Such exchanges are nice for us to see, too.
12. If you imagine Tibia ten years from now, how do you see it from a technical point of view? Do you think the classic PC client will still be at the center of the experience, or do you picture a stronger integration with mobile, streaming, or other platforms?[]
10 years really is a long time. I think that generally there will be more inventions in the coming 10 years than we witnessed during the past 10 years. I believe at this point nobody can really predict what the situation will be like in 10 years with AI on the rise and all that is connected to it. However, Tibia has a very distinct identity. So Tibia is, and will remain, in my current opinion, a PC game.
When other platforms develop, we will look at them of course. Also, we are open to complementary tools, an example being the Tibia Observer as a mobile app, but I believe for Tibia the PC client will remain central.
13. Today a teenager has hundreds of "free" and very fast options in the market. If you had to explain to a brand-new player in 2025 why it is worth starting Tibia and pushing through the initial learning curve, what would you tell them in just a few words?[]
Ha, I would simply ask the question: How many online games are still played after 30 years? That alone says everything. If there are still players after 30 years playing a game, that's enough to know to take a look and to give it a try.
14. Tibia has a very complex internal economy, with systems like Tibia Coins, housing, rares and regional markets. At what point did you realize that the economy was almost as important as combat itself, and how do you monitor it today to avoid collapses, extreme inflation or abuse?[]
That is really a nice observation. Many people don't realize how important the economy in a game like Tibia is. We noticed really early on that an online game can have a real economy. Several other games preferred to disregard that part and to fight it by limiting trading, for example. We have always embraced, however, that there is a circulation of goods and that values develop following economic principles. Also, each trade is an action. Trade helps to create a feeling of a real world, it keeps players engaged. So instead of limiting this, we decided to encourage trading and implemented features for it. First we implemented the safe trade option and much later on we implemented the market that many players use today. Trading has become a big part of Tibia.
So to prevent economic collapse ingame, we track many metrics: gold supply, leveling speed, Tibia Coin prices. If something spikes unexpectedly, we investigate. Often this might be the case after an update, then we need to look closely. Also after balancing measures. And sometimes there are bugs that need to be found and fixed. The economy is an important topic for us and we act quickly to protect it.
15. In the whole history of CipSoft, is there any memorable technical crisis or mistake – a bug, a rollback, a problematic update – that you now remember with a mix of embarrassment and affection, and that left a very clear lesson for the team?[]
Indeed, that connects well with the previous question. Something that comes to my mind in that regard are duping bugs. An abuse of a duping bug can affect the entire game economy and thus all other players. So we need to be aware and act quickly if we notice something like this.
I remember one specific case. One of the early bugs allowed players to duplicate items with the help of closing a door and dying in the swamp behind it. Players dropped their inventory in front of the door, closed the door, were pushed into the swamp, died there, and upon return, they had their inventory back, and thus duped their items. It took us too long to notice this bug, and we had to roll back the game worlds almost an entire week. That taught us how dangerous these bugs are, and led to much better monitoring systems.
16. In recent years there has been a lot of talk about diversity in creative teams and how different cultures enrich an online game. How do you see diversity within CipSoft, and in what ways do you think it is reflected in the world of Tibia?[]
We believe in equality and have zero tolerance for discrimination. Every employee is welcome here, regardless of religion, origin, any preferences, nobody gets excluded or treated any differently. That has always been very important for us. Also, from the very beginning we wanted to have international servers. People should be able to meet and play together, regardless of where they are from. Technical constraints caused some form of separation. Different server locations do make sense, however, for a better gaming experience, but a separation is never enforced by us.
17. If one day a serious history book about MMORPGs were written, what would you like the chapter about Tibia – and about your personal work on the project – to say? What legacy would you most like to leave?[]
Legacy? Oh my! I'll turn 50 soon, indeed maybe a good time to reflect a bit on what you want to leave behind. What comes to mind is the saying that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. Meaning, that we were inspired by many before us.
We created Tibia because we loved Ultima and the fist text muds. These games taught us well. So getting in line and being aware that others are influenced by us in a similar way is really a nice and rewarding thought. I am always very moved when I meet somebody at a conference who tells me that he got into game development because he used to play Tibia.
Back then we simply did what we wanted to do, and seeing that this affected others in their path of life in such a way is simply wonderful. I like this very much. That's an incredible legacy.
Concerning Tibia, if a history book says one day that Tibia was one of the first MMORPGs and that it lasted really long, I'll be happy.
18. Finally, this interview is being done on behalf of TibiaLatina (Fandom), a fansite dedicated to documenting and preserving the history of the game for the Spanish-speaking community. What message would you like to send to Spanish-speaking players and to the content creators and fansite administrators who have been supporting Tibia for so many years?[]
Thank you for decades of loyalty, for maintaining the fansite, for helping players finding their way in Tibia, for preserving Tibia's history. We're deeply grateful. You guys are amazing.