The Spoils of Warcraft

[[AK]Hylander]

I'm a little behind on my reading, so I brought a few of my seemingly endless periodical subscriptions to work with me today (Yes, I'm working hard - can't you tell?). Anyways, in the March 19th edition of Fortune, there is an article about Warcraft. I went to the website but unfortunately it's not available there. I'll cut the pages out and scan them if anyone is interested. Here is a small synopsis though:

Spoils of Warcraft, by Robert Levine

Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi, built World of Warcraft into the most profitable videogame of all time by betting that orcs and warlocks weren't just for the Dungeons & Dragons set. World of Warcraft, known as a “massively multiplayer online” game is a hybrid of a traditional PC game and an online Second Life-style virtual space. As in Dungeons & Dragons, players create a character from a selection of races and occupations—gnome, dwarf, warrior, warlock, etc.—and use keystrokes to slay monsters, gather treasure, or just talk with friends as one might in a chatroom. At this point nongamers might be tempted to write off World of Warcraft as the latest in a series of hyped-up virtual worlds that seem to be populated entirely with digital tumbleweeds. Except for one thing: World of Warcraft makes money—a great deal of it. The game has eight million subscribers around the world. In the U.S. , players buy the software, then pay a $15 per month all-you-can-play subscription fee (European gamers pay a similar sum, while in Asia , players purchase time cards). That makes World of Warcraft the most profitable videogame ever made.

[[AK]FiGHT*CLuB]

Thats very sad. Why, because you know every dam video game developer is looking for there chance to cash in on the pay to play gaming now. So our future is screwed! I guarantee that future game development is going to be all about on line subscription multi player. 50 Bucks just isnt enough any more.

DAM you WOW. You ruined my only enjoyment I get anymore And you paying players, Its all your fault!!!!!!

[Slaughter]

Just play on emu servers, imo.

[[AK]Hylander]

Thats very sad. Why, because you know every dam video game developer is looking for there chance to cash in on the pay to play gaming now. So our future is screwed! I guarantee that future game development is going to be all about on line subscription multi player. 50 Bucks just isnt enough any more.

DAM you WOW. You ruined my only enjoyment I get anymore And you paying players, Its all your fault!!!!!!

Actually, they make a point in the article that they aren't sure that WoW is increasing the number of online players of massively online gaming, but they are pulling in alot of players from other communities like Everyquest and such. It's more about the success of WoW itself, not so much a particular model. Although "online communities" is definitely the hot catch phrase.

It also mentions they are at work on their next expansion, but refused to comment on it. Something about implementing a "Bastid" filter that will limit the number of alts you can have, and greatly increase the xp required to level based on the number of alts you have.

[[AK]Brorlis]

It also mentions they are at work on their next expansion, but refused to comment on it. Something about implementing a "Bastid" filter that will limit the number of alts you can have, and greatly increase the xp required to level based on the number of alts you have.

Thanks for the laugh this morning.

[[AK]Hylander]

Attached is the article I scanned and created into a PDF file. Let me know if you have any problems with it.