While I was working on that What You Should Know Before You Roll article the other week, I became interested in incorporating race/class popularity into the piece. I figured interested onlookers would want to know how common a race is, to add that data point into the mix of attractiveness/style/class choice, etc. To do that I referenced the Warcraft Census over at WarCraftRealms.com.

The census gets its data from a plugin, meaning that the information is from a self-selecting group. Only the folks who deigned to get the plugin were counted. By the very nature of WoW addons, I’m going to posit this means overall Warcraft Census has collected data from a more dedicated group of players. The average WoW player (less than 20 hours a week, no 25 man raids) probably doesn’t have any plugins installed.

That said, I thought it was useful enough information to include a few conclusions in that post. Data from over 6 million characters is still a decent-sized set, even if it is self-selecting. I find datamining endlessly fascinating. With that in mind, I thought I’d make some more obvious statements fueled by the service and try to guess at why some things are the way they are.

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Now that the pain has faded somewhat, I think it’s obvious that MUO’s death may be a good thing after all. If it was going to be a broken, license-groaning mess there was no reason for it to make it to launch. Given the rumors of confusion on the dev team about what the game was going to be like at a fundamental level, pulling support from the project seems like a no-brainer. Still, I think MUO’s death highlights Microsoft’s sordid history with Massively Multiplayer games.

If you look down the big list of cancelled or never-released Massive games, Microsoft’s name comes up a suspicious number of times. AC2 anyone? Mythica, True Fantasy Online, Vanguard, and now Marvel Universe were all dented by the Redmond giant’s deft touch. On a fundamental corporate level, I think that MS just doesn’t understand the whole MMO ‘thing’. Trash talking jock douches calling each other ‘fag’ on Xbox Live? That’s understandable. But having the patience to see something like an MMO through - not so much.

Even more than that, I think Microsoft’s stupidity when it comes to this genre has left a huge opening for Sony and the PlayStation 3. Though there are no firm plans in the public eye right now, the tide is rising for MMO experiences on Sony’s console. Has Microsoft ceded the fight without even firing a shot?
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I sat down earlier this week to write yet another blog post about why Blizzard (and MMO developers in general) should treat their mid-game content with more respect. I was inspired by a few posts around the sphere, from Cameron and Tobold. I’ve blathered about it so many times in the past, but this time I had something new sticking in my memory. A second post from Cameron, talking about comments from THQ’s Head of Development, really brought this discussion into focus.

Cameron makes the excellent point that if WoW has peaked, it’s Blizzard’s fault.

The interest in making WoW “the best game ever” simply doesn’t exist. Instead, they seem to be fine with doing just enough to make sure that people pick up the next expansion pack and sit on the cushy laurels of 10 million subs … A game that keeps you playing is good enough. They’ll worry about the long term tomorrow, and screw the players that they’re alienating– there’s nine million more where you came from.

That was when it hit me. We talk and we gab and we wring our hands over this game, because we *get* it. I’ve been writing about games professionally just a month or two longer than WoW’s been commercially released; in that time I’ve seen the impact, I know what this game really *means* to the players.

Blizzard? Even they don’t know what they have on their hands. And that’s terrifying.
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I hope you’ll join me in raising a glass for Games for Windows magazine, and the hearty pirate band over there. Jeff Green announced in a blog post today that the print version of the venerable publication is going to be discontinued.

Well, goddamn. Here’s a post I hoped I’d never have to write. As you no doubt know by now, we’re closing Games for Windows magazine. We will get to the “positive” to be gleaned from all this in a moment. Because there actually is some to be had, and it’s not even just “spin.” But, that said, you will all have to forgive me if I first take a moment to express what I know many of you are feeling right now: This blows. This is tough. This is just not in any way “good news.” For me personally, the closing of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine is not just a business decision (though, obviously it?s exactly that in reality), but feels more akin, in fact, to the passing of a loved one. Drama much? Well, you can scoff if you want, but the fact of the matter is that I have poured my heart and soul into this magazine, month after month after month, for over 10 years now.

They’re moving to an online-only format, so the editors should be keeping their gigs.

Many thanks to Jeff, Sean Molloy, Shawn Elliott, Ryan Scott, and all the rest of the folks behind them for a quality magazine. End of an era, indeed.

My last session writeup for IMGDC is up on Gamasutra; I’ve got interviews to turn in and get posted still, though. Good stuff.

This one is all about Nick Fortugno’s chat on the casual view of the MMO genre. In my opinion, this was probably the most important talk given all weekend, and it was very sparsely attended. As usual, there are a ton of notes that got left out of the talk, especially from the end. Read on after the cut for more content from the talk.

I also want to say, Nick had an incredibly engaging speaking style. If you ever get the chance to hear him give a talk, do it! Good times.

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Another post up on Gamasutra from the IMGDC event - and this one I’m simultaneously pleased and saddened by. The article is all about Dr. Richard Bartle’s Sunday Keynote. It was an inspiring, awesome look at the future of the genre. Pleased because they really got the core of his speech from my notes. Saddened because they cut out his awesome Good, Bad, Ugly analogy using movies and muppets! Ah well - just means I can post those notes here. They also cut out his rationale for why the Good would ultimately triumph, which I think is well worth reading about.

If you’d like to check out the full slideshow from the talk, Dr. Bartle has put up his Powerpoint presentation on mud.co.uk.

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My writeup of Gordon Walton’s inspiring IMGDC talk is available on Gamasutra today. There were a couple of events/conversations that made the event totally worth the trip, and this is one of them. He really hit home with great ideas about hunting up new markets and sticking to passion. He particularly got to me when he talked about getting inside people’s heads; it was a way of talking about content creation I hadn’t really heard put quite that way before. I actually helped me to understand why I do what I do a little bit. I’m not sure that makes sense, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t articulate that sentiment well to him when I thanked him after the talk, but there you go.

Massively did a quick writeup of my talk writeup, which is good and awesome as well.

As you probably know, though, w/u’s like that are just a portion of the event - I have a ton more notes that didn’t get drawn on for the piece. I think they’re plenty valid, though, so read on below the cut for the extensive cut material from his talk. Also features probably my favorite quote from all weekend.

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