Tag: World of Warcraft

Red 5 Marketing to China? The9 To The Rescue!


He says he's not dead...

Who would have thought I would be following up on a Blizzard story and a Red 5 story at the same time? The9 is a spurned lover. After losing the rights to World of Warcraft Asia-Edition earlier this year to NetEase (granted, who promptly got the game banned just as quickly) and taking a massive loss in revenue, assuming that the company was in some financial difficulty would not be too illogical. Of course, you would be wrong. Not only does The9 have some moolah saved up, likely from the time World of Warcraft was feeding them seven or eight million players in the Asian region, they have enough to financially back two companies: Fire Rain and Red 5.

“Wait a minute, Omali,” you say. “I know that name, Red 5!” I would certainly hope so, I mentioned them just about a week ago. Red 5 has been in the news several times, not only because their MMOFPS is so tightly under wraps that the company actually suffocated (and will likely cancel) it, but because of the substantial number of employees who have been laid off over the past few years. A company of over one hundred has been reduced to approximately 35, and according to my last report, is currently focusing on an MMO for the Chinese Market.

Red 5 has been to death’s door and back, but will it be enough to sustain the company to completion of its Chinese MMO, let alone to spark a re-interest in that MMOFPS they were working on so many ages ago?

More on Red 5 Studios, and the obligatory Star Wars references, as it appears.

New WoW Armory Sparks Privacy Outrage


Because you didn't look enough like a nerd before.

Ask someone who strays away from MMOs what their biggest fear about the genre is, and chances are one of those answers will be along the lines of “looking like a nerd.” Despite World of Warcraft, among other games, bringing MMOs into the mainstream audience, many MMOers (alongside video games as a whole) still fear the age old stereotype that we are all basement dwelling nerds with pale skin who live with our parents at the age of 30, dress up as female characters, and participate in LARPing. Now, I may not have a basement, and my Irish/Croatian/German mixture does leave me with mayonnaise-esque skin, and I am under all consideration a nerd, however I am at least ten years off of 30, and still in college.

But I’m getting off track here. Blizzard’s recent update (as with all updates) is causing quite an outrage among privacy advocates. The update to the Armory now broadcasts all of the player’s feats in real time, with the option to subscribe via RSS. Players are also unable to opt out of this feed, or keep it protected to friends and family, making it the bane of players who either shouldn’t be playing World of Warcraft, or those who happen to boot the game up at work.

Now, these players may just be wearing their +10 armor tinfoil hat, but there is something to be said about not wanting your activities broadcast for all to see. Chances are, most of you have had marathons that you wouldn’t want broadcast, staying up that extra half hour that turned into a 3am raid, and by the time you got to sleep the sun was coming back up. But I digress.

One of the MMO Fallout Scouters in WoW reported that this is in fact a useful tool to guilds. Using the RSS feed for raids, Guild Leaders could consolidate the members of the raid to a feed, where they could monitor what the players are looting to ensure that no one is breaking the guild’s rules secretly.

I’m not going to bother going into the legality that people are bringing up, because the move is legal. Blizzard does still have full ownership over everyone’s account, and this is in the terms of service and EULA. Whether or not Blizzard adds an opt-out for this feature comes down to how many players are willing to vote with their wallets and leave over this. Other than that, this all comes down to player’s prerogative.

World of Warcraft: Misses You, China


Minister of Culture, at your service.

Hello, China! Enjoying your World of Warcraft? Between the switch from operators (The9 to Netease), subsequent banning, delay of The Burning Crusade expansion (yes, I said Burning Crusade), reopening under a test phase (no new registrations), and subsequent rebanning, it is unlikely anyone in China did much enjoying of World of Warcraft. China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has required that Blizzard and Netease change some content in the game, not specifying what. Certain content already altered in WoW China includes piles of bones being changed to piles of sacks, and the undead showing less bone and more skin. Players do not leave corpses, but leave behind gravestones. Players and monsters also spew green and black blood.

More after the break…

Continue reading “World of Warcraft: Misses You, China”

2010: The Blue Moon Year


We enter January as 2009 comes to a close, we look at the year before us, and the year ahead, and remember that life goes on, no matter what happens in the present. I’ve dubbed 2010 the blue moon year because it has the pleasure of beginning with a blue moon, an event that won’t be occurring on New Year’s Eve for a long time to come.

I’m going slightly out of character with this article, if anything just to be the one time a year I get to be a jerk and pick on the same companies I spend the other 364 days vying for the attention of (Thank you Tork, Hasbro, Aventurine, Cryptic). This is a comprehensive list of some questions I have going into the new year, that I hope to get answered by this time next year.

Continue reading “2010: The Blue Moon Year”

Should WoW Go Cheaper?


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...

Here in the first world, most of us have the luxury of looking upon $15 dollars as a small fee, hardly enough to buy dinner for two at a restaurant slightly more fashionable than McDonald’s (Actually, you probably won’t get a combo meal for two for $15 at McD’s either). When it comes to MMOs and subscriptions, however, people seem less keen to offer up their hard earned cash.

Which segues into Blizzard and the most popular MMO on earth, World of Warcraft. I think Blizzard would see a massive influx of profit and subscribers if they were to lower the monthly subscription price to $9.99, out of the enormous amount of new and alternate accounts that would be created. It seems like a slight change in price, however to the consumer’s psyche, ten dollars feels like a lot less than fifteen. To put it into perspective, whenever the store I work at has a sale on Vitamin Water, the price drops to 10 for $10, or $1 a bottle. The price, without sale, is $1.02 per bottle. For the fact that it’s a two cent drop in price, the sale (the image “sale”) always generates a massive response that knocks the product out of stock after just a couple of days. Without fail, every time. After about five sales this past year, no one has apparently caught on.

Lowering the subscription rate on World of Warcraft would effectively knock off the numerous players who are sitting on the fence about starting/restarting their Azeroth adventures, and what better time than right before the release of a new expansion? Try the new and improved World of Warcraft, now at a cheaper rate! It is the most popular, now it’s among the cheapest!

More after the break…

Continue reading “Should WoW Go Cheaper?”

Blizzard: Don't Copy Us


Look, it Harry Truman!

Harry Truman once said that, given the choice between a Republican and a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, people will always vote for the real Republican. Saying that, we can translate the phrase to our own MMO world with World of Warcraft, where when given the option of World of Warcraft and WoW clones, the majority will always stick with World of Warcraft.

Blizzard has caught in on this, with producer Shane Dabiri saying;

“I know that World of Warcraft is very successful, and so people think if they were to make another game just like it they could somehow capture that audience. However, I don’t think that’s what players are looking for.

“Players that have invested time in WOW don’t just want to do the same thing in other game – they want to try something completely new and different,”

Absolutely true. Let’s look at World of Warcraft’s biggest competition, shall we?

  1. Eve Online reports over three hundred thousand subscribers, a number that continues to rise. What differentiates Eve is that you’re not at a disadvantage because someone else has been playing longer than yourself. All ships have their weak spots, and knowing those weak points can help you turn a fight to your advantage. The free expansions are a nice addition.
  2. Lord of the Rings Online may be low on player vs player, but the game’s long arching storyline and plentiful free updates is where the draw comes in.
  3. Runescape, with over a million paying subscribers, thrives on the stat system, and weekly updates. Unlike many other MMOs, quests move above the boundary of kill, fetch, and kill/fetch, to create a world with a rich history.

Blizzard: Don’t Copy Us


Look, it Harry Truman!

Harry Truman once said that, given the choice between a Republican and a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, people will always vote for the real Republican. Saying that, we can translate the phrase to our own MMO world with World of Warcraft, where when given the option of World of Warcraft and WoW clones, the majority will always stick with World of Warcraft.

Blizzard has caught in on this, with producer Shane Dabiri saying;

“I know that World of Warcraft is very successful, and so people think if they were to make another game just like it they could somehow capture that audience. However, I don’t think that’s what players are looking for.

“Players that have invested time in WOW don’t just want to do the same thing in other game – they want to try something completely new and different,”

Absolutely true. Let’s look at World of Warcraft’s biggest competition, shall we?

  1. Eve Online reports over three hundred thousand subscribers, a number that continues to rise. What differentiates Eve is that you’re not at a disadvantage because someone else has been playing longer than yourself. All ships have their weak spots, and knowing those weak points can help you turn a fight to your advantage. The free expansions are a nice addition.
  2. Lord of the Rings Online may be low on player vs player, but the game’s long arching storyline and plentiful free updates is where the draw comes in.
  3. Runescape, with over a million paying subscribers, thrives on the stat system, and weekly updates. Unlike many other MMOs, quests move above the boundary of kill, fetch, and kill/fetch, to create a world with a rich history.

With Scammers At Bay, The Players Will Play


This article has nothing to do with T-Mobile's Sidekick
This article has nothing to do with T-Mobile's Sidekick

All two of you who visited my message boards will see that I am not a big fan of being explicit with rules. In fact, there are three rules on the Orb Boards; Don’t incite a flame war, keep your account secure, and don’t be a spambot. Apart from those basic rules, I don’t think the rest needs to be explained. What it comes down to is: Anything you wouldn’t do in real life, don’t do here. Unless you make a living out of stealing people’s identities, in which case…still don’t do that here.

I often like to see Game Masters getting intuitive when it comes to removing problems that may not warrant a complete rule, or that may be such a special case that putting a rule would be far too generalizing. Say, for example, the issues Aion had when it launched last month. Players were clogging the servers by going away from keyboard so they could sleep, go to school, etc, without being logged off. Rather than pull out the ban-stick and taking things far over the edge, NCsoft quickly released a patch making such an exploit impossible.

The idea is that you don’t have to issue permabans to get a point across.

More on Aion, World of Warcraft, and more after the break.

Continue reading “With Scammers At Bay, The Players Will Play”

WoW: 10 More Years


500x_magazine_logo

In a recent interview with Joystiq, J. Allen Brack (Lead Producer over at Blizzard) had this to say on the game’s longevity:

I have said, internally, and I think externally as well, that I fully expect WoW to be around for at least 10 more years.

Good news for anyone getting worried (IE: Borderline paranoia) about World of Warcraft shutting down. 10 more years? Hopefully by then World of Warcraft will have transferred over to a neural system beamed directly into our cerebral cortex so we can monitor real life with one eye while leveling to the 100 level cap, raiding, gaining tier 25 armor in the other.

I’ll see you all in 2019 to see where WoW is.

Tibia ME: The WoW of Mobile MMOs


In the world of PC MMOs, ten thousand subscribers is around the lines of Asheron’s Call, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and Planetside. For a large company, the number can mean imminent cancellation of a title, as it no longer becomes profitable to develop for, let alone run the servers. Others wing it, limping on with what they have, determined to please those who have stayed loyal, and possibly turn around the trend.

Continue reading “Tibia ME: The WoW of Mobile MMOs”