“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever”
-George Orwell
If you substitute the "boot" with Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and its competition for the "human face" you’d have a pretty good idea just how huge WOW is compared to other MMORPGs. With 4 million subscribers paying a monthly fee that varies from $12.99 - $14.99. You’re looking at a beast that generates at least $51.96 million a MONTH for Blizzard! The competition isn't even close to those numbers- prompting some people to ask if WOW has gotten too big for it’s own good. I would argue it hasn’t.
Sure there were some early hiccoughs in the beginning but that seemed due to sheer size of the playing audience and server allocation, not because WOW shipped with a ton of bugs that had to be fixed. What Blizzard has done is quite simply build a better mousetrap. They built upon the existing game play of the Warcraft franchise, rather than inventing a whole new one or basing it on ideas that don’t lend themselves to that type of format (uhh Matrix anyone?) New players are able to jump into the game far faster and easier than with other MMORPG's out there. Since gathering of resources was already an existing feature of the game play in previous incarnations, it was relatively easy for the casual gamer to get into the thick of it. This is a template for how to launch a MMORPG. Building upon existing game play=Success. Just be ready when the world beats a path to your door.
Can WOW keep it up and continue to attract new users? I think they can, but I don’t think the numbers will stay that high as people move on and find other games to play. They have definitely proven there’s far more market out there than previously thought.
What I find amazing is that there’s no Star Trek MMORPG out there, if that was released (and it was good unlike SW: Galaxies) I think you’d see WOW blown out of the water. But would a ST MMORPG have such colorful players as Leeroy Jenkins?
I doubt it.
-George Orwell
If you substitute the "boot" with Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and its competition for the "human face" you’d have a pretty good idea just how huge WOW is compared to other MMORPGs. With 4 million subscribers paying a monthly fee that varies from $12.99 - $14.99. You’re looking at a beast that generates at least $51.96 million a MONTH for Blizzard! The competition isn't even close to those numbers- prompting some people to ask if WOW has gotten too big for it’s own good. I would argue it hasn’t.
Sure there were some early hiccoughs in the beginning but that seemed due to sheer size of the playing audience and server allocation, not because WOW shipped with a ton of bugs that had to be fixed. What Blizzard has done is quite simply build a better mousetrap. They built upon the existing game play of the Warcraft franchise, rather than inventing a whole new one or basing it on ideas that don’t lend themselves to that type of format (uhh Matrix anyone?) New players are able to jump into the game far faster and easier than with other MMORPG's out there. Since gathering of resources was already an existing feature of the game play in previous incarnations, it was relatively easy for the casual gamer to get into the thick of it. This is a template for how to launch a MMORPG. Building upon existing game play=Success. Just be ready when the world beats a path to your door.
Can WOW keep it up and continue to attract new users? I think they can, but I don’t think the numbers will stay that high as people move on and find other games to play. They have definitely proven there’s far more market out there than previously thought.
What I find amazing is that there’s no Star Trek MMORPG out there, if that was released (and it was good unlike SW: Galaxies) I think you’d see WOW blown out of the water. But would a ST MMORPG have such colorful players as Leeroy Jenkins?
I doubt it.
