The Quest To Build a Better Warcraft

Red Herring tackles the rush into virtual space, talking about the MMOG goldrush and the business consequences World of Warcraft has had on the games industry as a whole. Though sometimes it doesn't seem to fully understand the difference between a single player game and a Massive one, the article still touches on a number of important points. Lots of folks are looking to cash in on WoW's success, and they're importing or licensing every Massive game they can find to get on the bandwagon. "The problem is that no one knows what the next WoW killer will look like. Creating a hit video game, which combines strong characters, a compelling story, and top-notch production values, is part art and part inexact science. Making a hit game can be much more difficult than producing an Oscar-winning movie. After all, the hit video game must be compelling enough to keep players coming back for more." Even if a lot of their conclusions are odd, and they call Puzzle Pirates silly, it's worth a look. What do you think it's going to take to crack Blizzard's deathlock on the Massive genre?

Re:"Warcraft" is not a MMORPG. Warcraft is an RTS.

[Negatyfus]

Yeah. Sounds absolutely simple. A BABY could do it. :P

Re:Second Life

[TeraCo]

Sure, except there's no fucking gameplay in Second Life. I play WoW because I want to kill dragons with morons, if I wanted to stand around with morons I'd go outside.

Re:World of Starcraft

[geminidomino]

The classes are very balanced, maybe not in EVERY single aspect but overall.

Put down the joint. Your over-enthusiastic quoting makes it clear you've had enough, long before anyone even reads your fangasm screed.

Re:The easiest way to beat WoW.

[Randolpho]

Well, I'll say this about a Pokemon MMORPG:

I'd really love to grind Pikachu. Into dust.

Or, I'd really love to grind that Team Rocket chick Jessie. In an entirely different way.

Or,

Nah, I'll stop there. :D