Oct 27
Fear Who?
Darniaq brought up the question: Who does Blizzard have to fear? Judging from their responses, the posters on F13.
I kid! I kid cuz I love!
For reals, though. Haemish hits it on the head:
“No one. Seriously, they don’t have anyone to fear. No one has the IP, the limitless budget or the publisher support to pull it off… at least no one who is actually serious about MMOG’s. Microsoft? Fuck no, they’ve been burned too much in the past. Sony? Too busy trying to expand your orifice to include a $600 paperweight DVD drive. EA? Completely inept to the point that they had to buy a company to produce an MMOG with a chance of making a splash. “
I am sure that Conan and Tabula Rasa and Warhammer Online and Vanguard are going to do okay. I definitely think they’re a bigger threat to some of the older games than WoW. (Vanguard vs. EQ, Tabula Rasa vs. what’s left of Planetside) And, of course, there is the tights fight I’m expecting in a year or two.
In the meantime, though, there is nobody with an announced product who is going to take down the big W.
But.
There’s this company called Bioware? And this guy named Damion?
I know this is a new team, but you can’t help but reflect on past company efforts. This is a business entity that has made some of the all-star best games I have played in my entire life. Baldur’s Gate I and II, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR … these titles ring with weight and tone because they’re just so good. They’re not flawless, to be sure, but the sheer quality of the experience in each of these games has left impressions few other titles can offer my jaded gamer memory. I’m so looking forward to Mass Effect that my wife can probably quote the exchange between the bartender and Commander Shepard at this point. Dragon Age has me enthused as well, though somewhat to a lesser degree … Mass Effect will be coming out first, after all.
It’s going to take something huge, something titanic, to move the mountain. It’s going to take a lot of money, a lot of creativity, and a hell of a hook.
But.
If there’s anyone who can do it, I think it’s Bioware. Good luck, ladies and gents. We all want to be excited again … I can’t wait.
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Zonk says,
“In the meantime, though, there is nobody with an announced product who is going to take down the big W. …if there’s anyone who can do it, I think it’s Bioware.”
Interesting. I’m equally excited by Bioware’s upcoming entries into the fray.
Yet, will their success or failure will have anything to do with WoW? From what I know of them, neither Mass Effect nor DA are MMORPGs, so each could do extremely well, and Blizz doesn’t bat an eyelash. WoW players could try those games and get right back to their raid schedule. :)
My thoughts,
./covert.c.
Based on what I heard from the Bioware guys at AGC, I actually don’t think Blizzard has anything to fear from them. They seemed to be touting the same approaches to success that Blizzard handed everyone their shirt over. To me, this basically admits defeat. No way Bioware has $100mil, game-based IP and patience to create a WoW killer. Not if they’re accepting the same rules of play.
The only thing Blizzard really has to fear in my mind is if the rules change. We already KNOW that people who play microtransaction-based games generate more money (and have higher stickiness) than those who pay a flat monthly fee. And we know this from the metrics mentioned by such companies as Wizet and Sulake, with their games commanding WAY many more accounts than Blizzard.
Those get ignored by the general punditry (and the mass media who are just catching up) because they don’t appear on MMOGChart. Well, the revelance of SirBruce’s work is tied to measuring success the way Blizzard now dominates. It can’t easily scale to games that measure different things because what numbers MATTER are different.
There’ll always be a WoW for the current crop of been-playing-since-before-Felucca MMOGers. But we’re not that many when compared to those playing community-based games, nor those in the NEXT generation of gaming.
The PLAYERS are dinosaurs too.