Noah, party of 2 please...

Gaming, Opinion, Prediction 5 Responses »
Jul 072009

Hi everyone.  Genda asked me to take a few moments and post some thoughts on the end of the world as we know it.  No, I’m no a preacher with a wooden sign over my shoulders screaming about Armageddon.  No, I’m not talking about people paying 5 grand to watch Kobe Bryant talk at Michael Jackson’s Memorial (And really, Kobe?  why?).  And no, I’m not talking about Star Wars The Old Republic’s release date (which we all know we’ll be clamoring for).

No, I’m here to talk about The Cataclysm.  Not “A” Cataclysm.  THE Cataclysm.

The cataclysm is the Greek expression for the Deluge, from the Greek kataklysmos, to ‘wash down’ (kluzen “wash” + kata “down”)* – Source Wikipedia.com

This past week, Blizzard decided to file for copyrights to the name regarding computer games, paper based products, and, lo and behold, online entertainment services.  COUGH wow COUGH.  Everyone knows with Blizzard you take it as it comes.  Some people have already looked at this as the name of their next Generic MMO, rumored to be working on the Xbox.  Others have seen it as something to do with Daiblo III or potentially Starcraft II.

One smart guy though saw this… and said, oh wait…

Swirlies for the win... or complete wipeout

Swirls for the win... or complete wipe-out

Yup, that’s the center of the map from your friendly neighborhood WOW MMO.  It’s been like that since pretty much day one.  Speculating that this is truly the name of the next WOW expansion, and taking into consideration some facts about WOW Lore, here’s the short run down.

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Posted by Antitoxyn at 12:36 AM Tagged with: ,

What Constitutes an MMO Success or Failure?

Business, Gaming, Opinion, Prediction 11 Responses »
May 062009

FAILAs discussion on some of the blogs in the MMO blogosphere seem to be discussing the slowdown of activity in some of the WAR-dedicated blogs recently it occurs to me that there are all kinds of different definitions of what makes an MMO commercially “successful.”  While some companies look at anything less than Blizzard-Level numbers as too small, many companies are looking at smaller niches or alternate styles and saying “yes” to new game development.

So what DOES make an MMO a success in your eyes?  I think that is a complex question.  There are certainly different levels of success.  There are definitely different levels of failure.  When you see a game like Tabula Rasa close down so soon after launch, you have to probably agree that it’s a business and critical failure.  Same for games like Auto Assault.  But what of those games in between?  Certainly I’ve written enough about how big a DISAPPOINTMENT Vanguard turned out to be, but with a dedicated team still working on it and a small but loyal customer base you may be able to successfully argue that it’s not a total failure.  Certainly the economy of scale that SOE has working allows for some marginal games by today’s standards to stay open and running.  Whether the publisher thinks a game is successful or not is certainly dependent on the investment they have in it and how profitable it remains.

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Posted by Genda at 9:23 AM Tagged with: , , ,

WAR Buzz Becomes Tangible

Business, Design, Gaming, Opinion, Prediction, TGG 7 Responses »
Aug 082008

War Pre-OrderThere is a beta for WAR, and I am in that beta.

That’s all the detail that my NDA allows me to disclose.  If you are wondering why I haven’t been writing much lately other than the fact that I’ve had a busy home life, it’s because I can’t write about what interests me most at the moment. It’s actually all I’m playing right now.  I’ve even gotten off of TF2, save times when they are doing something that keeps me from logging in.

I’ve now gone past the “anticipating a new game” stage to the “excited about the new game stage.

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Posted by Genda at 10:24 AM Tagged with:

WoW Hits 10 Million Subscriber Mark

Business, Prediction No Responses »
Jan 232008

It seems that Santa was good to World of Warcraft. Possibly due to the lift the holiday season would give, Blizzard announced that subscriptions to WoW have surpassed the 10 Million mark world-wide. They also gave a breakdown of where those subscribers are for the first time that I can recall. According to Blizzard;

Interest in the game has remained high in all regions, with thousands of new and returning players signing up through the holiday season. World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.

So fully 55% of their market is in Asia, which uses a different subscription model than in the US and the EU. They also had a section in the press release defining what they count as a subscriber;

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

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Posted by Genda at 7:26 AM Tagged with:
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