Comments on: Does Blizzard enjoy a competitive edge from the community?

By: Mumlock

Mumlock — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:02:39 +0000

Aye, well said.

Cheers!

By: Pookie

Pookie — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:06:29 +0000

I will have to say this. When considering WoW’s community vs another MMO. Its apples and oranges. It isn’t fair to compare the WoW community of today which is 4 yrs running strong to another MMO that has just started up. The community we enjoy with WoW wasn’t there in the beginning it grew over time. Give the other MMOs time and see if they garner as much community support. I know Mythic actively supports their community and post on the realm forums regularly. (which is part of why they opted not to do their own forums for WAR)

WH40K only wins if I get to play a Sister of Battle and truly flame the hell out of ppl. *pets her exorcist tank*

By: ARA

ARA — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:14:28 +0000

I think Blizzard is very aware of sites like wow insider – how could they not be? I even remember an interview with Jeff or Chris – when asked about the popularity of the game, they responded that it’s really all about community. That’s what keeps people coming back for more. But in the grand scheme of (wow) things, wow insider is just not that important. Blizzard have so many ways of reaching and responding to the community: I see no reason why they should give special mention any one of the thousands of third party websites out there, nor would I draw any conclusions about the publications they do choose to talk to, or those they dont. There’s just too many reasons flying around behind the scenes – and most of those reasons are probably pretty prosaic and un-significant at that.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:05:15 +0000

Interestingly, the community is what kept me away from WoW for the first few years. (Beside the subscription thing.) I just don’t want to play with a bunch of anonymous internet jerks. Now that the old world is nearly empty, it’s much more appealing.

That said, it’s thanks to the community that I can analyze a metric crapton of data about the game, effectively data mining the community for game design concepts without actually needing to play the game. As such, I’m pretty indebted to the WoW community… at least the part of it that’s professional and dedicated enough about it to make merely reading about the game interesting. (Which is one reason why I hang out here, by the way.)

By: Stupid Mage

Stupid Mage — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:28:25 +0000

My friend, you are one of the good ones.

By: Ellis (Eonar)

Ellis (Eonar) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:18:45 +0000

Honestly, I think Starcraft: Ghost getting axed might have been a good thing. The whole action/shooter/platformer thing was a new kind of game for Blizzard, as all they’d done by that stage were a bunch of RTS games, and Diablo. If you remember, there was supposed to be a point-and-click adventure game about Thrall’s quest and rise to power before WC3, but that eventually failed to materialise as well. For whatever reason, Blizzard were unhappy with both, and canceled them. Failed experiments, as it were. Given their track record with the titles they *have* released, I’m inclined to trust their judgement here.

I think it’s a good thing that there’s at least one company out there who isn’t willing to release garbage despite the fact that it’d most likely sell very well just on the strength of its franchise. One only has to look at the existing libraries of some consoles for some examples of how bad Starcraft: Ghost could have been.

As for the WH40K thing, as much as I love the setting, I’m not sure how it’d work as an MMO. It doesn’t even work very well as an FPS, as Fire Warrior demonstrates. Relic did make a damn fine RTS game using the material though, called “Dawn of War”, and it actually captures the scale of the table-top game pretty well, and the attention to detail is amazing. There were 3 more expansions, and there is, at last, a sequel around the corner. We might even see Tyrannids in it this time. :)

By: Mannyac

Mannyac — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:30:51 +0000

Some of you that remember BBB give me just a bit o’crap about being bribed into playing EQ2. Took me just over 2 months to get thoroughly bored & subsequently quit. In comparison I played WoW for something like 2 years. I think a good part of the difference is the amazing amount of info that is available to WoW players. I was spoiled, EQ has nothing to compare with the quantity ANd quality of the sites for WoW.

By: DSJ

DSJ — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:17:06 +0000

Actually, you are selling yourself short … It is not the big sites like wow-insider or even wow-wiki/information sites that really comprise the community. Having specific sites like yours that tie a player to actual people playing the game as they do is far better social reinforcement than the larger ad driven and subscription driven sites could ever do.

By: phantomelen

phantomelen — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:56:01 +0000

I think from a community standpoint, the only way that another game will pass wow is if blizzard takes a big time fall. They have a 4 year head start, and 11 million subscribers, how do you topple that? Answer – you don’t.

By: br3ntbr0

br3ntbr0 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:59:17 +0000

From a community standpoint, I think that any edge that WoW enjoys is purely based on the large numbers of the community. Blizzard’s 11+ million subscribers by default will ensure a larger community, and from that a larger quality blogging community. Warhammer Online has one of the best blogging communities I’ve seen outside of WoW, and since Mythic has no official forums (which they reversed course on today and announced official forums for WAR oddly), they have actively reached out the blogging community and forum owners to give them interviews and information. I’ve never seen that level of community outreach from Blizzard, at least not to those of us that blog about mmo games regularly. When you are making so much money (400 million this year, half of Activisons total revenue o.0) I guess you don’t have to work as hard at community relations as the smaller guys do.