Posts Tagged ‘Blizzard’

Blizzard released patch 3.2.2 today. Highlights include the return of the Brood Mother, Onyxia, two new pets and one new mount.

The Onyxia encounter is available for testing as a 10- and 25- player raid. One of the rarest drops to win is the Brood of Onyxia, a 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia. The two new pets are the Little White Stallion and the Little Ivory Raptor. And as usual, bugs have been squashed, skills changed, and the interface tweaked. Check out the patch notes on Wow.com or in your patcher.

GameSpot writes in a news article on Monday that Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick, stated that their unannounced MMO will have “more broad appeal”. But can any MMO have broader appeal than World of Warcraft?

MMOs are inherently niche products catering to a distinct audience. I may like fantasy themes but dislike the science fiction genre. You may like crafting and hate adventuring. And then we have those that just want to sit in the cantina and drink with their virtual friends and not be bothered with pointless PVP and endless grinding on PVE mobs.

We also have more competitors breaking into the MMO space with no less than a dozen games released in 2009 to attempt to capture your interest in their genre or different approaches to game design. And with the recent trend toward free-to-play, micro transactions, in-game advertising and less grinding, is there an MMO concept that can capture more than 10 million players that World of Warcraft has gained? While a lot of these new entries to the MMO gaming universe will die out within a year or so, some will thrive and grow, others will limp along in a micro-niche, but I predict none of them released this year will surpass 10 million subscribers.

In the last couple of years we have seen some high profile and well advertised MMOs not doing so well after their initial launch: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are two examples. Both are awesome games compared to Everquest and Ultima when they were released over 10 years ago. So why do they fail to capture a broader interest? Is it because we are starting to drift away from the MMO genre? Are we looking for another kind of game that doesn’t require the time commitments that MMOs generally do? Or maybe its because they substantially change the gameplay like with Star Wars Galaxies Online.

What will the first MMO with 20 million players look like? What kind of mechanics will we see? What genres will attract 20 million players? Will MMO games fade away in a few years just like all fads to be reborn in another generation?

I believe the first MMO to attract 20 million players will have a SecondLife kind of universe where you log in and pick a place to live, work, eat and play. This is where a lot of the socializing takes place. Within the game you have virtual email, twitter and facebook accounts as well as virtual interfaces for reading news, playing music, videos and other media so you don’t have to leave the game universe as often.

Within this universe, the developers will have places that you can visit that are similar to the MMOs that we play today. So if you want a Sci-fi adventure you go to the spaceport and take off for the “EVE Galaxy”. And if you want to slay dragons and trolls you go to the EverQuest Theme Park. Implementing this kind of “universe” is the only way to grow an MMO beyond niche status. And this is because the game serves many different interests yet provides a common place for socializing, sharing your adventures, loot, and accomplishments and also provides a great platform for competitive tournament and cash prize play.

Let’s hear your ideas.