World of Starcraft or World of Diablo

B

brandons1313

It Wandered In From the Wastes
http://pc.ign.com/articles/712/712554p1.html

June 13, 2006 - A sequel to Starcraft is right at the top of many gamers' "Please, God, Make This Happen" list. Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways. If not a true sequel, gamers may be getting some more Starcraft action after all.

During a presentation to Wall Street today, a company representative from Vivendi reportedly said, "All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs." The rep said they have a model in place to produce an MMOG for $50 million over the next three years.

World of Warcraft is one of the great success stories of our time. The big question is: with WoW already sucking hours/weeks/years of gamers' lives away, how will we ever find time to play World of Starcraft or World of Diablo? Alas, that these evil days should be ours!
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I was hoping for a new Starcraft game but not this. Why are all the game companies these days making MMOG games? I've played Star Wars Galaxies, WOW, D&D Stormreach and none of them have impressed me enough to keep playing them after beta testing. I'll stick with good single player games.
 
Diablo already is a semi-mmog in its own shitty unique way. However, doing this to StarCraft? Fuck that. Blizzard can choke.
 
noooo. What's happened to the world of non mmogs? Everybody seems to be chasing the dream of making millions... How many of them really succeed?
 
If Starcraft has no single-player it'll be dead to me. I'm mean sure I played more in multiplayer than single, but the fact that they actually made a story and a relatively good one is why I started to like it to begin with.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
Funny. I've been playing Starcraft for the last couple of days. Found a budget edition (5 euros!). It's pretty neat, especially the first couple of Terran missions, but it gets too hard really fast methinks. I had to replay some of the last Terran missions thrice before I won. I very recently started playing the Zerg campaign. What's so great about it is that the civilizations are so extremely different from each other. Something I miss in Age of Empires 2 - although it is still a superior game, IMO.
 
I have a question: what is it that you can do in a MMOG? No, really what is the point? Where do you get your kicks? Not the quests because they are most likely boring kill & fetch. The leveling up is mostly mindlessly slaughtering legions of generic monsters so that gets really old really fast. Ok, so you waste like three monts or so of your life to get a 'decent' char and perhaps a year or so to become *uber* but then what? You walk around killing newbs and noobs? What pray tell would be the endless source of fun that these games are supposed to have? Why should one pay the monthly fee? A watered down story line and killing. The apex of this is killing in a party... now that is some wholesome fun! I played one of these for about a month and a half but when I got to the point where it took me two days at least to level up I just said no...
Fun in multiplayer? Lots of carnage? Play Unreal Tournament or Quake... Starcraft in multiplayer is fun but were it not for the single player how would one get to learn the ropes? And what about the story?
Could you imagine (without without getting sick instantly) Fallout or Gothic as MMORPGs? (shudders) The very thought gives me nightmares... just imagine some noob coming here asking where he can get the mega Bozar so he can pwn some other noob in a duel or something...
But back on topic: Starcraft MMOG? That would probably suck! If they go through with it the would deserve to be skinned slowly with an old, rusty, dull knife.

Alec, nice sig :lol: . A truly inspiring one too :roll:.
 
MMORPG's are fine, c0ldst33ltrs4u. l2p... ;)
but in essence, you start for the game & exploration but keep playing for your friends.

and yes, i can imagine an mmorpg in the FO or gothic setting, but granted it wouldnt be a 'fallout' or 'gothic' game.

diablo MMO? yeah i see that happening. the game is already pretty dumbed down & it's not really hard to turn it into an MMORPG.

starcraft MMO? i hope they dont. WoW has been about simplicity & balance. sadly, most of their 'balance' simply means 'being the same'. now, i dont quite see that kind of balance in skills from protos, humans & zerg... tbh, i'd almost expect zerg to be NPC only. i really wonder how much of the original characteristics of the races will remain if they go ahead with this...
 
MMOs, after the initial large investments, if they pick up, and I doubt they won't, mean a steady flow of cash onto bank accounts, from selling the required software and one-two months later from the monthly payments for server access.

Several tens of thousand players regularly paying cash are something that's too tempting to overlook.

Fuck them straight up in the ass with a spiked, wooden vibrating dildo if they do that.
 
brandons1313 said:
I was hoping for a new Starcraft game but not this. Why are all the game companies these days making MMOG games? I've played Star Wars Galaxies, WOW, D&D Stormreach and none of them have impressed me enough to keep playing them after beta testing. I'll stick with good single player games.
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The amount of money that can be made from MMOGs is completely incomparable to that of any other game, even other "normal multiplayer" games, like Diablo.

Keep in mind at any time when trying to look at the gaming industry that this is a broken, immature industry. Nobody has a long-term vision, nobody has long-term plans, nobody actually tries to analyse trends, but rather everyone just jumps on whatever bandwagon passes by.

Since MMO is the bandwagon of the decade, that means that even big singleplayer games like Oblivion try to emulate the MMO-feel. It's the MMO-era of gaming, and MMO generally means bad gameplay, bad balance, bad design, but ridiculously addictive gaming.

As the MMO market expands and more and more huge hits strike the wall, in the end it'll burst. The market isn't without its limits and there's a defined limit to where you can still make huge MMO-hits. Of course the gaming industry generally floats on many, many flops balanced by the occasional hit, so it'll take a while to understand.

WoW isn't the biggest MMO, though it has a 50% market share in the West, the market being much older and expansive in Asia, where it's almost the settled core of gaming by this point.

Maybe we're looking at the same thing. Fallout MMOG, anyone?
 
World of Starcraft is the gimpest idea of all time. How the hell will they balance the gameplay with everyone is wearing power-armor?
 
Kharn, while I understand there is a lot of money to be made in MMOs... how many really succeed at making that much? I mean, I can win millions through the lottery but buying a ticket doesn't necessarily mean I've won.

A company like Blizzard has a good chance at succeeding in the MMO field has they have some very strong IPs that have rabid followings.

But there were easily 20 MMOs at E3... how many people do they need playing monthly to justify the massive up front cost and the servers? Is it possible for even a moderate portion of these to survive?

Does anyone know an approximation on how many subscribers an MMO needs monthly to turn a profit in two years?

What also worries me is that a lot of people who play MMOs don't really play any other games... will this mean that once MMOs get massive, the total games in the field will dwindle since there will be fewer people looking for a new title?

Sigh maybe I'm just doom and gloom but I don't trust MMOs and like c0ld, have never understood the fascination with them.

But I'm curious how they would make a Starcraft MMO. If they do it in the same style as WoW...they're going to aggravate the majority of the Starcraft fanbase that already feels betrayed with the phantom Starcraft: Ghost. Would they make an MMORTS? That would be different but would it have broad appeal?
 
Lets see. Here is a list of upcoming MMO games for PC I copied from gamerankings. How many of these are really going to turn a profit? Pirates of the caribbean and Pirates of the burning sea?? Star trek online?? Pretty soon you'll see a Simpsons online and a Jurassic Park online.

1. Citizen Zero
2. Exarch
3. Charr: The Grimm Fate
4. Tabula Rasa
5. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
6. Darkfall
7. Mourning
8. Pirates of the Burning Sea
9. Glympse
10. Universe Unlimited: Earth's Assault
11. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
12. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
13. Civilization's Dawn
14. Rule in Hell
15. Reclamation
16. Soul of the Ultimate Nation
17. Star Trek Online (working title)
18. Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion
19. Twilight War: After the Fall
20. Atlantis Rising
21. Tales of Eternia Online
22. Everown
23. APB
24. Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising
25. Pirates of the Caribbean
26. Night Watch
27. Anarchy Online: Lost Eden
28. Huxley
29. Ryzom Ring
30. Universal Combat Online
31. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
32. Endless Saga
33. Hero's Journey
34. Stranger
35. B.O.U.T.
36. ArchLord
37. Stargate Worlds
38. Sigonyth: Desert Eternity
39. Untitled DC Comics
40. BOTS
41. Dungeon Runners
42. 9Dragons
43. WAKFU
44. Untitled Square Enix Next-Gen MMORPG
45. Bang! Howdy
46. EverQuest II: The Fallen Dynasty
47. EverQuest II: Echoes of Faydwer
48. A Tale in the Desert III
49. Crusade
50. Dark World Online
51. Horizons: The Settlements
52. Fury
53. EVE Online: The Path to Kali
54. The Legend of Ares
55. Hero Online
56. Tatsumaki: Land at War
57. The Fallout MMO that Interplay is going to pull out of thier asses
 
SimpleMinded said:
Kharn, while I understand there is a lot of money to be made in MMOs... how many really succeed at making that much? I mean, I can win millions through the lottery but buying a ticket doesn't necessarily mean I've won.
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Yes. Basic economic logic.

Now try selling it to the marketing people in the gaming industry.

Like I said, it's an immature industry.
 
brandons1313 said:
Lets see. Here is a list of upcoming MMO games for PC I copied from gamerankings.

28. Huxley
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hmz, huxley rated so low?

it's been uberhyped. you'd expect it to rate higher...

i think it's guaranteed that huxley will make a profit, regardless if it delivers what it's supposed to.
 
Kotario said:
SuAside said:
hmz, huxley rated so low?

it's been uberhyped. you'd expect it to rate higher...
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I believe the order is meaningless in this list.
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Correct.


Oh, I forgot to add to the list the Fallout MMO that interplay is going to make. 8) I'll edit it...
 
greed

only reason they do this is the money it costs less to run the games since you have minimal techsupport its 30 bucks per expansion and 13-14 bucks per month plus the extra charges you slap them with if they want to change name/server/server with gear still intact and so on and the name and server ones are 45 dollars per change and the server with gear on is like 55-60 dollars (i play everquest....or at least i used too) besides there are true flaming retards that play them all and pay for each so lets see everquest, everquest 2, WoW, star wars galaxies, (dreaded) matrix online just those games alone is 65 bucks a month or more unless you work as a game guide then its free to play (how did you think you got players to become the evil that runs the game and tells you that oh we are sorry but we are not allowed to help you with any and all game malfunctions or replace the 2000 dollars worth of gear that just magically vanished from your character) and yes thats a literal 2000 dollars in us greenback even though its illegal to sell the in game gear people still do it (sony sued ebay over it)
 
Bullet dodged? Too soon to say.
Article said:
This morning, Blizzard officially responded to last night's reports: "No, that rumor is not true in regard to Blizzard. We believe that the rumor circulating about this subject is based on a misinterpretation of information provided to industry analysts. We do not currently have any MMO development plans beyond the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, and furthermore, we don't have any intentions to focus on only one genre or platform with our future games."
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Despite their statements, layoffs and company staffing show a shift away from single-player gaming. Their single player dept is getting smaller and smaller by the day. They bought Swingin' Ape Studio which was near to them to finish Starcraft: Ghost(and became their console division). They put the project on hold, and laid off most of the staff. They wiped the diablo team, and moved a small percentage of the to their main studio also, and shelved their project. A look at their careers page shows their hiring trend is currently all for WoW, with little to no employees being groomed for any future single-player releases. I saw this happen before with Origin, and it's all looking too familiar.

In either case, watching this is quickly killing what love I had for Blizzard, what little of that wasn't already brutalized by my foray with WoW. Their usual quality control and standards seem to be completely gone now, replaced instead by EA-analogy-invoking moneygrubbing and ignoring quality, balance, and hardware issues while focusing purely on expansion.
 
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