Comments on: WoW 2.0: Lord of the Rings, Everquest Creator Challenge Warcraft http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:05:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: exercise home pilates http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133394 Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:32:05 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133394 exercise home pilates

Books about exercise home pilates.

]]> By: JP http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133400 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:09:52 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133400 Minigames on a website affecting your character is a tremendous assault on the very idea of a roleplaying game. Even if all or most players do not stay in character, the game itself should ALWAYS maintain the integrity of the game world.

]]> By: GigaOM » Vista, Amanda and Lord of the Rings http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133399 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:57:40 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133399 [...] Can anyone compete with World of Warcraft, now with 8 million worldwide subscribers? Two new online fantasy games with high name recognition are trying to do just that– and one of them’s even using Web 2.0 apps like Google Maps and wiki software to try and gain an edge. GigaGamez considers their prospects against the Vivendi/Blizzard behemoth. Continue Reading. No comments Share/Send Sphere Topic: Asides Tags: none [...]

]]> By: Jon R. http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133398 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:42:49 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133398 Oh good. A link to an open reply. In the comments.

Fucking bloggers.

And the thing about MMOs, so far, is that you can be incredibly half-assed with the infrstructure and even the server code and still make enough to at least stay alive. The deal with Ragnarok Online was the first real indication of this, with the private servers ultimately being more capable than the actual code used for the official servers. Yet Gravity is going on to make Ragnarok Online 2.

I find it utterly baffling that anyone would wonder if it were sustainable at this point. WoW is probably the biggest developmental trainwreck the genre has ever seen, yet it’s apparently capable of supporting (for a great lack of a better term) the largest playerbase of all MMOs for two years, and allowed for an expansion.

Is it sustainable? APPARENTLY SO, NIMROD. Not only are people paying the highest subscription fee yet, people are evidently willing to pay an even more ridiculous fee for problems that WoW’s fucked architecture itself creates, like character transfers.

I don’t even know what factors would lead to the question. Millions of players, $15 dollars a month. None of which can be seen as going into hiring those moneysinks we call “competent developers”. And none of the players seem to mind that one bit.

By the by, i love that Au’s example of what LotR:O has going for it is a feature that apparently has not at all materialized.

“Minigames on the website will affect your real progression in (currently unspecified) ways.”

Yep! Sounds promising! That’ll make it in!

The fact is that the only thing we’ve learned so far is that we’ve reached the absolute market limit of games made by Brad McQuaid. WoW, grievous infrastructure issues notwithstanding, is the only game to really break away from his brand of grindy, soul-sucking proto-games.

]]> By: Adam MacDonald http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133397 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:36:57 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133397 Tide’s Horizon: An Open Reply to GigaGamez

]]> By: Adam MacDonald http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133396 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:29:18 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133396 Surely one criteria for success is profit and not overall revenue, right? I ask that because I never see anyone ever mention anything about Blizzard’s costs. Yes, they have a river of money. But outside of some private discussions and things overheard at the AGC, no one ever seems to ask how much WoW is actually costing Vivendi per month domestically and overseas. Particularly in China. And is that sustainable? (Some people who saw their China co-lo datacenter didn’t think so.)

My point is that you seem to be dismissing VG and LotRO and really any other MMO title compared to WoW because of their sub count. Doesn’t that interpretation only makes sense if you are going for a monopoly? Winner-takes-all as a success criteria doesn’t seem to make sense for online businesses who can succeed in a niche. Plenty of providers are succeeding with

]]> By: Brinking - Nabeel Hyatt http://gigaom.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133395 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:39:36 +0000 http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/31/wow-20-lord-of-the-rings-everquest-creator-challenge-warcraft/#comment-133395 The first MMO to go Web 2.0

One very surprising thing to note is that these Web 2.0 innovations did not come from the current crop of “casual MMO” folks. For the most part Habbo Hotel, Runescape, and even the recently launched Nicktropolis are still Web 1.0 endeavors — largely…

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