No other MMORPG has captured the audience that WoW has. This alone is a reason to study this MMORPG over all others.
As for upcoming MMORPG's, none of them will command the attention that WoW has. If Lord of the Rings Online couldn't make a dent in WoW, especially given the long, great history of the Tolkien Universe, what chance does any other MMORPG have?
Warhammer might have a chance to top some of the other MMORPG's like EQ, Eve, AO, etc... But that is only because they copied a lot of the aspects of WoW and present a very similar style of game and universe. Don't believe me, look at the goblins in both games. It's like looking at cousins.....
So yes, WoW deserves to be studied to understand how they could capture and maintain an audience many times over any of the previous MMORPG's.
There is a simple solution to this. Instead of banning accounts and ignoring the fact that no matter what they do, people are going to pay hard cash for in game items, Blizzard should follow Sony's lead.
If they would control the whole secondary market process, it would help them track stolen property and give them a lucrative second source of income. Instead, they would rather take a hard stance and deny this is even happening.
As a somewhat successful Independent Internet Broadcaster, I can tell you this guy has it absolutely correct. It is about controlling the music you hear and keeping the small guy from being heard. I play an average of 1 or more independent artist songs an hour. Big corporate music business doesn't like that. They want to control everything you hear.
I would like to address the people who keep telling us Broadcasters to play non-RIAA music. This is fundamentally flawed. First, most people do not want to hear 100% independent stations. If they did, this wouldn't be an issue. Next, the RIAA will still come after you as a streaming Internet Radio station and put the burden of proving there have been no RIAA songs played on your station. If it comes down to that, you might as well fold up because we can not afford to pay the legal costs to fight them.
I equate this to the gazillion commercials before movies start. The theaters saw it as a way to increase revenue and the consumer is still paying a premium for tickets. It all boils down to the amount of saturation the market will bear and has nothing to do with lower game costs.
I applaud Anarchy Online for their Ad based business model. In exchange, they actually give you some value. So far, all other games want premium dollars for the game, then still want to show you ads. Ala Battlefield 2142. No thanks!
I started http://gamersradio.com/ many years ago with the idea that I could mix gaming music with traditional music and gaming related interviews. Unfortunately, this did not work like I wanted and I scraped the idea in favor of a more traditional Rock station. While it has been a success, I really wanted to provide an outlet for Game Related music. I think the time is right, so I have been working on a third station for Gamers Radio that will be mainly Gaming Music. I have been collecting music for the station and I find there are some incredible symphonic tunes from games.
I still get shivers when I hear the theme from Battlefield 1942 and the theme to Baldur's Gate brings back great memories of hours and hours of entertainment.
The real question I have is can I bring in the mom's and grandmothers as well as the geeks?
Can the music carry itself beyond the association I have with the game's the music originated from?
I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out.
Enterprise decided to follow the same storyline. They started bringing in moral elements of what is happening in the world around us. After 9/11, Enterprise had a whole season that mirrored everything that was happening because of 9/11.
The new season of BSG did the exact same thing. They started focusing on the morality of the world around us. They had terriosts and suicide bombers.
I'm sorry, but I watch SciFi because I want to escape from the problems we face in the world today. Didn't Universal learn anything from the ratings dive Enterprise took when they did this?
Then again, this is the same channel that is cancelling Stargate SG1, even though it's one of their highest rated shows.
It really has nothing to do with copying each other, even though it does seem that way. It really is about Intellectual Property's ability to reach an audience.
For example, Eve Online and Anarchy Online. When I hear those names, I know nothing about them. In order to experience the story line, I have to find a reason to jump into the game. This is a huge hurdle for the game and one of the reasons why they are offering Free Trials and even Free Play with Ads in the case of AO. They need something to suck you into the world in the first place.
However, let's take a few games that are not fantasy based and do not currently have a MMORPG. How much do you know about the storyline, the environment and the history of the game?
StarCraft Command and Conquer Total Annihilation
If Blizzard takes what they have learned about MMORPG's from WoW and applies it to a MMORPG featuring the Starcraft Universe, I dare say it will be bigger than WoW is today.
C&C and TA may not be as big, but they have enough history to create an interesting and already familiar environment.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc Right click edit on the file named hosts Add {127.0.0.1 ads.igaworldwide.com} (remove {}) or what ever they name their ad servers.
If it's server side, then pushed to the client, even better. Then it will only take the server doing this to protect everyone. You can even edit the host file on a linux server.
I applied for one of those jobs in Dallas. I received a telepone interview, then an in person interview. Having been a technical manager for a national ISP, I have been on the other side of the interviewing fence. So, I expect a certain level of organization and professionalism from those handling the interview process.
This was not the case during the in person interviews. In fact, one manager flat out lied to my face. Based on the way the managers handled the interviews, I would not have gone to work for them if they had offered to double my current salary.
Funny thing, I keep getting emails from multiple recruiters looking for Network Engineers to work for a Global Finance Company based in Dallas. Sounds like they are having some problems with staffing.
You grandmother can only download her pr0n at half the speed of before?
This is silly. The average person really doesn't care unless their email is "slow" (usually due to a server issue or application issue and not a bandwidth issue) or their webpages are not coming up as fast as before. In reality, only power users really care and if you are trying to pinch every last M/Kbps out of your ISP, you really need to put the computer down and step away from the keyboard.
I remember the days when I could read the BBS's faster than my 300Baud modem could pull down the words. I got compression software that pushed it to 450Baud and I thought I was smoking!
..one wonders how Sony will defend against these charges.
Sounds Like A Good Excuse For multitiered pricing.... Ok, Cheap Trick, we will start paying you the 30% we owe you.
Dear Apple,
We have recently restructured our contract with our artists to properly credit them for the music they create. In doing so, we so no choice but to increase the fee's you charge for songs. All songs from Cheap Trick will now be priced at $3.99 a piece and the rest of our catalog will be $2.49.
Thank you for complying,
The Evil Empire II
PS Arbitrators are standing by to discuss this price increase. However, should you decide to use them, the prices will be $4.99 and $3.99. We suggest you take the first option. Mmmkay? Buh Bye Now....
I feel this is the single most important factor in any software design be it applications, games, websites, etc... However, I have a myspace site and I find it cumbersome. Editing different things on the page are in different places. It really feels like something a programmer threw together and not something that was designed with usability in mind.
I come from a HTML background. Customizing MySpace has not been easy for me.
I am not sure, but I believe that is why there are programs out there that will do it for you. If it was so easy to customize, I doubt there would be a market for middleware design apps.
As for youtube, it is easy and straight forward. I would not call that usability, but it's just as good in my book.
Remember a while back when, (was it Suse), did the what apps would you most like to have on Linux. The majority of the apps were from Adobe and Macromedia. Apple has the best of both worlds right now. They have most of those apps and a *nix based OS.
If Adobe/Macromedia stopped making Apps for Apple, the 3.1% of the desktop market they have today would shrink even smaller. I never considered it, but Adobe/Macromedia continuing to support Apple is extremely important to selling Apple Computers.
From a business case standpoint, it may become very important for Apple to buy Adobe to continue selling Macs.
-- Now if we could only convince them buying Tivo was as critical to their business.:-)
Ok, so you think I'm being Flamebait. I guess I need to clarify. I buy a lot of EA games. I am tired of buying a game when it's released only to wait a year or more before all the bugs and issues are worked out. In my comments, I said making games and not coding games. Making games includes Quality Assurance and Testing. While the coders may work their butts off, EA has continued to push games out the door before they were ready. Even then, they would rather start working on the next game instead of fixing the game they have already pushed out the door.
Case in point, Battlefield 2 has been out a year. To this day there is a bug where a member of your Team (Blue Tags) actually shows up as an Enemy (Red Tags). You kill them and it's a TK. Slightly more rare, there is a bug that does the exact opposite with an Enemy appearing with a Blue Tag. After complaining for months, they finally made it a priority to fix the bug. The 1.21 patch was suppose to fix it. Guess what? It's still there. Oh, then there is the 1.22 patch which came out to fix problems introduced by the 1.21 patch. Again, where is QA? Where is testing? Where is a commitment to the customer? There is more to making a game than just "coding".
So, what is EA focusing on? Releasing two Paid "Booster Packs" with 3 maps each. Most companies release this stuff for free. Then there is the next Battlefield game BF2142. Marketing has already started hyping and pumping these games, yet the games that are currently out there continue to have major issues. EA is a Marketing company that happens to make games, not the other way around.
So, what you mistook for Flamebait is frustration from a paying customer.
Slashdot Mirror
No other MMORPG has captured the audience that WoW has. This alone is a reason to study this MMORPG over all others.
As for upcoming MMORPG's, none of them will command the attention that WoW has. If Lord of the Rings Online couldn't make a dent in WoW, especially given the long, great history of the Tolkien Universe, what chance does any other MMORPG have?
Warhammer might have a chance to top some of the other MMORPG's like EQ, Eve, AO, etc... But that is only because they copied a lot of the aspects of WoW and present a very similar style of game and universe. Don't believe me, look at the goblins in both games. It's like looking at cousins.....
So yes, WoW deserves to be studied to understand how they could capture and maintain an audience many times over any of the previous MMORPG's.
There is a simple solution to this. Instead of banning accounts and ignoring the fact that no matter what they do, people are going to pay hard cash for in game items, Blizzard should follow Sony's lead.
If they would control the whole secondary market process, it would help them track stolen property and give them a lucrative second source of income. Instead, they would rather take a hard stance and deny this is even happening.
As a somewhat successful Independent Internet Broadcaster, I can tell you this guy has it absolutely correct. It is about controlling the music you hear and keeping the small guy from being heard. I play an average of 1 or more independent artist songs an hour. Big corporate music business doesn't like that. They want to control everything you hear.
I would like to address the people who keep telling us Broadcasters to play non-RIAA music. This is fundamentally flawed. First, most people do not want to hear 100% independent stations. If they did, this wouldn't be an issue. Next, the RIAA will still come after you as a streaming Internet Radio station and put the burden of proving there have been no RIAA songs played on your station. If it comes down to that, you might as well fold up because we can not afford to pay the legal costs to fight them.
I equate this to the gazillion commercials before movies start. The theaters saw it as a way to increase revenue and the consumer is still paying a premium for tickets. It all boils down to the amount of saturation the market will bear and has nothing to do with lower game costs.
I applaud Anarchy Online for their Ad based business model. In exchange, they actually give you some value. So far, all other games want premium dollars for the game, then still want to show you ads. Ala Battlefield 2142. No thanks!
I started http://gamersradio.com/ many years ago with the idea that I could mix gaming music with traditional music and gaming related interviews. Unfortunately, this did not work like I wanted and I scraped the idea in favor of a more traditional Rock station. While it has been a success, I really wanted to provide an outlet for Game Related music. I think the time is right, so I have been working on a third station for Gamers Radio that will be mainly Gaming Music. I have been collecting music for the station and I find there are some incredible symphonic tunes from games.
I still get shivers when I hear the theme from Battlefield 1942 and the theme to Baldur's Gate brings back great memories of hours and hours of entertainment.
The real question I have is can I bring in the mom's and grandmothers as well as the geeks?
Can the music carry itself beyond the association I have with the game's the music originated from?
I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out.
Enterprise decided to follow the same storyline. They started bringing in moral elements of what is happening in the world around us. After 9/11, Enterprise had a whole season that mirrored everything that was happening because of 9/11.
The new season of BSG did the exact same thing. They started focusing on the morality of the world around us. They had terriosts and suicide bombers.
I'm sorry, but I watch SciFi because I want to escape from the problems we face in the world today. Didn't Universal learn anything from the ratings dive Enterprise took when they did this?
Then again, this is the same channel that is cancelling Stargate SG1, even though it's one of their highest rated shows.
In Soviet Russia, horrible legal system comes to you.
Red Rover, Red Rover, send the ads Over! ;-)
When I read Puffed Up Planet, I thought it was new geeky cereal. :(
Nuff Said....
It really has nothing to do with copying each other, even though it does seem that way. It really is about Intellectual Property's ability to reach an audience.
For example, Eve Online and Anarchy Online. When I hear those names, I know nothing about them. In order to experience the story line, I have to find a reason to jump into the game. This is a huge hurdle for the game and one of the reasons why they are offering Free Trials and even Free Play with Ads in the case of AO. They need something to suck you into the world in the first place.
However, let's take a few games that are not fantasy based and do not currently have a MMORPG. How much do you know about the storyline, the environment and the history of the game?
StarCraft
Command and Conquer
Total Annihilation
If Blizzard takes what they have learned about MMORPG's from WoW and applies it to a MMORPG featuring the Starcraft Universe, I dare say it will be bigger than WoW is today.
C&C and TA may not be as big, but they have enough history to create an interesting and already familiar environment.
If it's client side.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Right click edit on the file named hosts
Add {127.0.0.1 ads.igaworldwide.com} (remove {}) or what ever they name their ad servers.
If it's server side, then pushed to the client, even better. Then it will only take the server doing this to protect everyone. You can even edit the host file on a linux server.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
It has been all downhill from there.....
PM me with your offer.
;-)
(sic)
The artic ocean has not fallen 2mm. The sky has fallen 2mm. This gives you the impression the ocean is down 2mm. ;-)
I applied for one of those jobs in Dallas. I received a telepone interview, then an in person interview. Having been a technical manager for a national ISP, I have been on the other side of the interviewing fence. So, I expect a certain level of organization and professionalism from those handling the interview process.
;-)
This was not the case during the in person interviews. In fact, one manager flat out lied to my face. Based on the way the managers handled the interviews, I would not have gone to work for them if they had offered to double my current salary.
Funny thing, I keep getting emails from multiple recruiters looking for Network Engineers to work for a Global Finance Company based in Dallas. Sounds like they are having some problems with staffing.
Tell your brother he was better off....
You grandmother can only download her pr0n at half the speed of before?
This is silly. The average person really doesn't care unless their email is "slow" (usually due to a server issue or application issue and not a bandwidth issue) or their webpages are not coming up as fast as before. In reality, only power users really care and if you are trying to pinch every last M/Kbps out of your ISP, you really need to put the computer down and step away from the keyboard.
I remember the days when I could read the BBS's faster than my 300Baud modem could pull down the words. I got compression software that pushed it to 450Baud and I thought I was smoking!
Oh HELL!
I can't put "less than" and 3 together?
OK, fine....
I HEART Judge Edwards!
I 3 Judge Edwards!
I believe the problem with Email is usually only 10% of what you are trying to communicate is actually understood.
:-)
Sort of like posting on slashdot.....
They won't.
..one wonders how Sony will defend against these charges.
Sounds Like A Good Excuse For multitiered pricing.... Ok, Cheap Trick, we will start paying you the 30% we owe you.
Dear Apple,
We have recently restructured our contract with our artists to properly credit them for the music they create. In doing so, we so no choice but to increase the fee's you charge for songs. All songs from Cheap Trick will now be priced at $3.99 a piece and the rest of our catalog will be $2.49.
Thank you for complying,
The Evil Empire II
PS Arbitrators are standing by to discuss this price increase. However, should you decide to use them, the prices will be $4.99 and $3.99. We suggest you take the first option. Mmmkay? Buh Bye Now....
hey are easy to use (usability)
I feel this is the single most important factor in any software design be it applications, games, websites, etc... However, I have a myspace site and I find it cumbersome. Editing different things on the page are in different places. It really feels like something a programmer threw together and not something that was designed with usability in mind.
I come from a HTML background. Customizing MySpace has not been easy for me.
I am not sure, but I believe that is why there are programs out there that will do it for you. If it was so easy to customize, I doubt there would be a market for middleware design apps.
As for youtube, it is easy and straight forward. I would not call that usability, but it's just as good in my book.
If I remember correctly, wasn't there an initiative to put DRM on analog audio ports?
Remember a while back when, (was it Suse), did the what apps would you most like to have on Linux. The majority of the apps were from Adobe and Macromedia. Apple has the best of both worlds right now. They have most of those apps and a *nix based OS.
:-)
If Adobe/Macromedia stopped making Apps for Apple, the 3.1% of the desktop market they have today would shrink even smaller. I never considered it, but Adobe/Macromedia continuing to support Apple is extremely important to selling Apple Computers.
From a business case standpoint, it may become very important for Apple to buy Adobe to continue selling Macs.
-- Now if we could only convince them buying Tivo was as critical to their business.
Ok, so you think I'm being Flamebait. I guess I need to clarify. I buy a lot of EA games. I am tired of buying a game when it's released only to wait a year or more before all the bugs and issues are worked out. In my comments, I said making games and not coding games. Making games includes Quality Assurance and Testing. While the coders may work their butts off, EA has continued to push games out the door before they were ready. Even then, they would rather start working on the next game instead of fixing the game they have already pushed out the door.
Case in point, Battlefield 2 has been out a year. To this day there is a bug where a member of your Team (Blue Tags) actually shows up as an Enemy (Red Tags). You kill them and it's a TK. Slightly more rare, there is a bug that does the exact opposite with an Enemy appearing with a Blue Tag. After complaining for months, they finally made it a priority to fix the bug. The 1.21 patch was suppose to fix it. Guess what? It's still there. Oh, then there is the 1.22 patch which came out to fix problems introduced by the 1.21 patch. Again, where is QA? Where is testing? Where is a commitment to the customer? There is more to making a game than just "coding".
So, what is EA focusing on? Releasing two Paid "Booster Packs" with 3 maps each. Most companies release this stuff for free. Then there is the next Battlefield game BF2142. Marketing has already started hyping and pumping these games, yet the games that are currently out there continue to have major issues. EA is a Marketing company that happens to make games, not the other way around.
So, what you mistook for Flamebait is frustration from a paying customer.