Submitted by Rob
Short editorial on BigKid asking the question whether the success of WoW is having a negative impact on the game industry as a whole.
"Some might claim that World of Warcraft is growing the market by bringing in large numbers of new gamers that may not have otherwise bought video games previously. I contend that the only thing growing is Blizzard and Vivendi?s bank balances because these new gamers are under the same spell as the rest and are only playing World of Warcraft.Far be it from me to disparage a quality game like WoW. Let?s face it, the game is popular because it rocks. World of Warcraft is debatably the best MMORPG experience to date. The question I?m putting forward is whether the success of WoW and the nature of it?s genre is having a negative impact on the gaming industry?"
I have been wondering about this for a while now. Many years ago, I lost many hours of my life playing BBS games - and it was only the severe time restrictions that forced me to do other things with my life.
I won't even consider playing WoW, simply because I don't have the time.
Because these games are 'on-going', people will literally play them forever (as they get upgraded, they interact with other people, etc..). I imagine there will be two main issues (relating to games - let alone social reasons) stemming from WoW overplay:
a) Other MMORG's will not get played - at all. How many people have got time to play more than one at once? We are going to find there are more, and more incentives given to people to play one MMORG over another. Some will be free, some will be sold free, some will do both. Only the most popular will be able to be sold. Note the Penny Arcade joke where Sony is doing anything to get people to play EQ2.
b) Other games will be neglected: This will specifically target home consoles, and more so 'casual' games. Hard-core gamers will still buy their FPS's, Mario's and the like. I wonder if this was related to some of the initial market-downturn felt over Xmas.
(I have one friend who used to be a solid gamer - but now that he is playing WoW, he couldn't care less about anything else - and has been playing it non-stop). Digital crack...
As for Blizzard's bank account - say 5million subscribers, at $10US/month each (a lot of people are using the first month free plans - and getting hooked). That is $50mill a month. I wonder how much it costs to maintain the servers, salarties for techies, content designers and more. I know they posted impressive profit figures last qrt...
But its not all bad. One side effect, is that it *is* introducing more people to gaming - and they are getting into handheld gaming (so far, not in the realm of MMORP's). So that section of the industry is being boosted nicely.
- Mike
I dont think WoW will bring about the end of causal gaming, by their very nature casual games are polar opposites of MMOs - short quick games that you can play in a few minuntes, games that you dont have to invest hours into. Plus i think they appeal to an entirly different audience, mostly anyway.
News flash people: The consoles own the market. You can take your WoW, Half Life, Unreal etc, put it all together and what you end up with is Ken Kutaragi's pocket change.
Funny ;)
True pb, but as online services proliferate you will see more console operated MMORP's. Final Fantasy XI has done pretty well - mainly from a PS2 user base. Although its interesting to see if the lack of a keyboard seriously affects console MMORP's vrs PC ones.
(has there been any announcements of WoW coming out on consoles?)
WoW Rocks?
Hmm, If you find monthly fees, character grind and elusive level-ups is really rocking your world then I think people play more than they live.
Try GuildWars, fast pace, zero grind, competitive and ZERO-monthly fees
(insert comment on shoddy servers that Australians have to put up with for WoW here)
Ive never player WoW but the problem with guild wars is that pvp (any place you go) is so serious that its been ground to the sharp point of a knife... if you go out in a typical match with a top notch warrior (the character class that is all powerful at melee) and you will die in less than a second, every time, unless you're lucky and get another ordinary group
Player vs monsters is good tho