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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?
"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.
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.
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?