Slashdot Mirror
Blizzard Announces New Warcraft MMORPG
An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Blizzard Entertainment makers of the enormously popular Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series, have announced their next game: World of Warcraft, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game set in the famous Warcraft universe. Gamespot has an extensive preview available complete with screens and loads of info on the game." It looks very pretty. I still want the Star Wars MMORPG to rock my world tho.
What, me worry?
Sam Lantinga, author of SDL, was hired by blizzard. Is he working on this title? is new warcraft will be sdl based? if so linux port should be piece of cake.
http://www.sgalaxy.com
I believe it's the first graphical MMORPG.
Shattered Galaxy just came out of beta and is in commercial release since 21st August. Looks pretty good, won quite a few awards at shows.
Blizzard will have its hands full playing catch-up, but it'll probably win the Warcraft fans over just like Ultima Online did and Star Wars Galaxy will when (hahahahaaa) it is released.
I just hope Blizzard won't be like the idiots Electronic Arts were when they forced the Origin developers to drop the Ultima 9: Ascension project for Ultima Online. Can you imagine them putting aside Warcraft 3 for the MMORPG version?
"Though Blizzard Entertainment is still hard at work polishing up its highly anticipated real-time strategy game, Warcraft III, for an early 2002 release..."
Uh huh. "Highly anticipated" is right. Oh look! The vapourware awards from 2000! [wired] Coming in at Number 6, Warcraft III. I love Blizzard (mostly), and I think they do some great stuff, but until it's shipped, it doesn't exist."If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
First Blizzard were "inspired" by the Warhammer Fantasy universe for Warcraft, then they were "inspired" by the Warhammer 40,000 universe for Starcraft.
Were Blizzard once again "inspired" by Games Workshops announcement of a Warhammer MMORPG? It's been said that Blizzard have been working on Warcraft Online for a year. Warhammer Online was announced in April 2000. You do the math.
If any of you are looking for a non-3D MMORPG, you should check out http://www.redmoon-online.com :) 3D just isn't my thing for an MMORPG. Too many blind spots that people can attack me in. Redmoon is a 2D game with overhead graphics but it has 3D buildings and whatnot. It's got some really cool features such as armies, a Battle Dimension, 9 characters to play, and about 6 skills for each character. It's being developed constantly and updates to the game are free (as well as the game itself). You do however have to pay a subscription fee on a monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual basis.
The gameplay footage looks good, but the CG movie is simply amazing. I wonder how many years until the games look that good.
I think video game companies need to realize something:
Not all of us can guarantee having enough time available to warrant a monthly service fee for a game.
Some of us like playing on our own.
We don't all have Cable or DSL! LAG.
High graphics and bandwidth just don't work well, and it's always slow and irritating. Even Diablo 2 has this problem on Battle.net
Everyone wants to release an MMORPG. The fact of the matter is, most companies don't know how to successfully build and support an online game. They have become too used to releasing it, and that is the end of development. Expansion packs not included.
The things that all successful MMORPGs have in common are, decent customer service, a stable client/world/communication setup, and a "world" rich with content and/or things to do, items to gain, monsters to challenge.
We saw Anarchy Online pretty much crash and burn on release. It was horribly unstable. I had been playing AO since the first public beta. When I heard they shipped version 12.1 in a box I couldn't believe it.
Then we saw them crash and burn again on Customer Service. Do GMs exist in that game? As far as I know there is no phone based support what so ever.
My point is, a publishing company better get it's act together if they want to release an MMORPG. It's a very long term investment. With so many companies producing them, there are going to be a lot of sub-par products, with a few games that actually meet the standards a successful MMORPG has.
It would make us folk a little happier.
This is the trailer from ETCS: Download here. You need DivX codec to view the AVI file. :)
:)
I have to say WoW for this game!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This is the gameplay trailer from ETCS: Download here. You need DivX codec to view the AVI file.
:)
I have to say WoW for this game!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
MMORPG is a silly and unnecessarily complicated acronym which will serve to turn off people who don't know what one is. I suggest at the very least simplifying it to MRPG, with the M for Metaverse-like, or some such.
"Great characters"? No mention of it.
"Fascinating stories"? Not mentioned.
"Player-driven plot"? Yeah right.
So, where's the role-playing? As far as I can tell from the article, there isn't any. The trailer didn't show any talking. So, maybe MMOH with an H for Hackfest would be a better name.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
Maybe I'm not part of Blizzard's intended audience, but although this looks damn cool, when am I supposed to find the time to play all these great games?
It seems the only worthwhile games on the PC any more are these whiz-bang immersive-world internet-enabled games that require 20 hours a week to enjoy, or 40 if you really want to get the most out of them. Where am I supposed to find the time to play these?
Back in the past, there were dozens of great games that didn't take so much time. They were fast, furious, and you could get a lot of fun out of them in a five-minute coffee break. Like Pac-Man, Galaga, and the like. There aren't many "hop on and have fun for a bit" games like that any more. Nowadays, games need commitment.
So I spend most of my time on the PC playing games like MAME.
Am I the only person who has this problem? Am I the only one here who between job and friends doesn't have all evening to chase down the old man who'll tell him to say "syzygy" to get past the rabid monkey guarding the gate to the blue unicorn?
Blizzard HQ (South) in Irvine, CA, has two product development teams. Team 1 is their RTS team, composed of many of the developers who brought us Warcraft II and Starcraft. Team 2 is comprised of mainly new hires (from companies such as Activision and ID) as well as some previous members of Team 1.
Blizzard North is taking a short break after working on Diablo games for six years. They have not announced what their next project will be, but their design team has probably begun story-boarding it already.
EQ *was* original. Not good, but original. It was the first 3d graphical MUD of any quality - and so, original.
Of course, whether it's a waste of time (compared to MUDs) or not depends on what you want out of a game. Good MUDs (usually actually MUSHes or MOOs) feature good stories, intense player participation, etc. Good MMOHs feature lots of blowing shit up. Which one you chose to play depends on what you want.
My sole point is that it's not accurate to call WoW a MMORPG, because there's *no role-playing*.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
For anyone who plays a lot of Diablo.. Do you find it amusing that the characters are either:
1) Standing Still
2) Fighting
3) RUNNING!
A lot like Diablo II...
Doesn't anyone walk anymore?
Who else thought of NetHack when they saw the acronym for that title?
You zap the Wand of Wishing. You may wish for an object.--More--
For what do you wish? Box of World of Warcraft
l - World of Warcraft box
a
What do you want to use or apply? l
You start playing World of Warcraft...
Oh wow! Great stuff!
I still want the Star Wars MMORPG to rock my world tho.
The official Star Wars MMORPG FAQ is updated from time to time. (I like this FAQ: "2.13 Will I cast twin shadows on Tatooine?" "We are remaining true to the continuity of the movies, so only one shadow is cast on Tatooine.")
They're saying "second half of 2002"; patient, a Jedi must be.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
That just means that they had the inkling of the idea that they might want to create "world of warcraft" game in 1999, so they bought the domain for $70.
My plan is to pimp before they realize I'm a jackass. Hit 'em hard and fast.
It can't possibly end up any later than Team Fortress 2 (if you don't know don't worry, but it was originally supposed to come out as a mod for quake2).
The WoW FAQ is somewhat less than informative...n -PC-hardware) port?
For what platforms will the game be available?
The game will initially be available for PCs.
Wow, that helps. They do forget that not all the world's a Windows box, don't they? Where's the (Linux/BeOS/*BSD/QNX/other-fave-thing-that-runs-o
...that worked on a quest-based CRPG set in the Warcraft world (now, I guess, it's the "World of Warcraft") for a couple years before abandoning the project because they couldn't meet their own standards.
Don't expect them to release this unless they can do it right. (This is a good thing.) So don't get your hopes too high. If it doesn't come to fruition, it will be because they couldn't make it as fun as they thought it should be. If it is released, it will probably be late. (Blizzard has a reputation for taking the extra time to do things right.)
It will probably also be very good.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
They could've just been snapping up any domains with "Warcraft" in the title. If "worldofhalflife.com" is registered, does that mean Half-Life will come out in MMORPG format?
Doubtful.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
About 95% of the target audience for MMORPGs has access to a Windows computer. An additional 5% gain in revenue cannot justify the cost and maintainance of ports to alternate platforms.