I think you're all missing the point, here. You're all arguing that WoW is dated and obsolete, but WoW is software, and like all software, it can be updated. What's stopping it from updating it's graphics, it's sound, etc to meet DirectX 10/11 standards? Nothing.
Software can be updated to meet the needs of hardware everywhere. Take a look at what WoW is doing to the Water shaders in Cataclysm, not to mention the increased polygon counts on the land and fire effects from WotLK. Sure, they ain't "High-quality; AoC, in your face; I got an axe and I ain't afraid to use it" graphics, but they are better than what we had before!
I think this just shows ignorance on people's part.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
/agree
That, and people keep forgetting that every MMO will continue to exist as long as they are making money. If WoW loses enough subs, they will start shutting down servers and reepurposing them for their new MMO or migrate them to the general battlenet group. But, B/A is right, WoW WILL become obsolete one day. There's only so much a company can do before they need to overhaul the game from the ground up. This isn't spelling imminent doom- this is just stating the facts
WoW has been obsolete for the past 2 years... now it's just an entry level MMO that draws new people into the genre due to it's low system requirements, and easy play.
WoW has been obsolete for the past 2 years... now it's just an entry level MMO that draws new people into the genre due to it's low system requirements, and easy play.
Yeah... In what world are you living in? Name a single game that has been released that has stepped upto the pate and delievered pushing WoW to a obsolete status. And we might want to notify them 11 million + people playing WoW that they are playing a obsolete game.
Whats kinda funny about this is that a certain guy that has been all but written off after the Tabula Rasa ordeal predicted that the social media market would be the next huge explosion. Hmm.. maybe people shouldn't have written him off so fast.
What will be interesting is to see if they can adapt the warcraft engine to run within a webbrowser. Imagine how many people they could pull in by making that happen and tieing the game into these social media websites where you can hop in and play at a dime. Imagine WoW with a DDO style subscription setup and store where any and all facebook users could login right on the facebook website. Just as if they where playing Farmvile.
You can sure bet someone at Blizzard is testing out just such a setup and seeing how feasiable that is.
But with that said Cata is a step in the right direction for WoW. They are both updating the original world graphics, replacing the quests with more indepth quests and setting the plate for continued expansions to improve / expand the game.
This whole social networking game phase in gaming culture is bringing people online and playing games that would never have to do with a game in there life. With that said it I am not for sure if it is going to kill the MMO industry but it may change it. I have seen an interview with Lord British himself saying that his new company is going to use social networking games to lead people into mmos so to speak and what not.
Personally I think that what I could see happen is that a MMO may interface with said facebook account and you could place across the social network with your friends or something of that sort. I could also see games like farmville eventually growing and becoming more and more like a mmo. Where you truly do interact with one another or something like that. I am uncertain how social networking games work because the last person I know who played one got a virus from the game. Anyways I must be going.
Yes I see it now we will all stop playing our computers, play stations and xboxs to play game on iphone and Facebook! Seriously? That what it sounded like to me haha.
Yeah, it might sounds really stupid, but if you think about it. Our parents did surly laughed at stuff like Internet or cellphones. "Ha ha, talking with somebody on the other side of the planet with the help of a plastic brick? " Didn't loads of inventions or websites/games seem to have taken a far different step then people thought they would?
I remember the Culture minister of Sweden saying that "the Internet is only a fad for the moment. I'm not saying that this will be the way the gaming industry takes. But it sure would be handy wouldn't it? Just log onto your Facebook to game with your friends Online. Cheers.
I just bet the Genius who pitched New Coke (successfully I might add) to the Coca Cola board of directors was using the same logic...lets hope that Activision Blizzards Brass aren't so gullible.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave And it howls! it howls like hell!
games like farmville make more money in a year then 98% of all the other games of all types out there. Of course major companies are going to focus on stuff like that.
When a single person can also make a game in the span of an hour and then sell 300,000 units of it on the iPhone, the investment to return is huge.
I would expect more big companies to realize the 30-100 million dollar project is less profitable and far more risky then the simple game now a days. The reason is that the simple games get played by the billions of non gamers. Those people won't play a huge install game, or an overly involved one. But they will play farmville or petshop, or plants vs zombies, or mafia wars. Because they're quick and easy to play and they get people hooked with all their titles/achievements/bonuses/trophies etc.
Yes WoW makes a ton of money, yes CoD MW2 made a crap ton of money. But the majority of other major budget titles (including other MMOs) are making less money then simple farmville. I think WoW is accepting that no other MMO, including one they make, will hit the sub numbers that WoW had.
WoW really is the first mmorpg to grab the public imagination .Its came along at the right time it also did'nt require a PC aimed at gaming to play it . Its a matter of fact that every game has a shelf life or we would all still be playing the likes of Pacman,Space Invaders and Pong so its inevitable that it will become obsolete in time .
It still looks pretty good even and I think it was wise to go with the cartoony look as such graphical styles don't outdate as quickly . Although I think there is a case for saying it is starting to look aged . I've argued in a thread quite recently that improvements in technology may be what finally slays the beast that is Warcraft .
The rise in 3D technology may influence the next generations of consoles and graphics cards leading to the next jump forward in gaming . The first 3D ready tvs will be on sale this year and the first 3D tv channels should be live by the end of the year . Its not much a of a leap of the imagination to see what the consumer will want to be able to play on them game wise .
I think some of the comments I've read about Warcraft lasting 20 years and maintaining the same subscriber base as it has now are laughable . Although a company like Blizzard are well placed to create the mmos of the future ,whether they can catch lightening in a bottle a second time remains to be seen .
Nothing lasts forever but i m sure we'll see some mmorpg version of Warcraft or another for many years to come and many years after the current one finally closes its servers .
Exactly. Shareholders will initiate a lawsuit based on any unexpected loss in value of their investment these days. If you dig deep enough you might also find that WOW may be replaced as a form of entertainment when radioactive trans-sexual nymphs from Alpha Centuri give us a better game to play. You can thank lawyers for this nonsense.
There's one word that's not truly read right: "Newer technological advances in online game software may also render products such as World of Warcraft obsolete.". They keep in mind that one day WoW will become obsolete, but we knew that already for years. We're just waiting for it to happen. Will the social networks take over MMORPGing? I highly doubt it. I think when DX10/DX11/3D will be implemented in full in most games, and WoW sticks to their current cartonish gaphics, then WoW might become obsolete. Till then:11 million users are wrong
I highly dought there are 11 million players playing wow now,that was ages ago before the recession hit.Blizzard has already stated wow has quit growing so there is no way to be sure. I know when I log in that you see many servers on low now days so to keep rehashing the 11 mill thing is getting old.
This is quite simply the most retarded thing I've read in the last few minutes.
My guess is more people drive a Ford than an Aston Martin, but do you hear the CEO of Aston Martin saying "You know what, we don't sell that many cars so bollocks to the luxury car market, we're going to start over and make 1.2 litre city cars instead". No.
And do you know why? Because the Ford Motor Company owns both brands so that it can appeal to different markets without compromising brand identity.
Activison and friends would commit business suicide if they poured all their efforts into the intensely competitive and fickle 'apps' market in a vain effort to create a cheap-o winner, when they've already go the MMO audience sewn-up.
A sh.tload of people may play Farmfest or whatever, but some people will never touch it and very few devs are likely to repeat it's success with such a flood of games like it out there (Risky).
Blizzard has a captive audience of 11 mil who will almost certainly try whatever pile of turd the drop as there next MMO (Safety).
What would I do if I was Activision? Both.
Aryas
Playing: Ableton Live 8 ~ ragequitcancelsubdeletegamesmashcomputerkillself ~
There will always be an audience for non-facebook casual games that aresimilar to farmville (BTW, I hat farmville with a burning passion). Chances are there's a reason 11 million people play WoW over farmville. Especially considering farmville is free. They're two different games with two different audiences, and both are very profitable.
Besides, WoW is making more money than any other MMO. I wouldn't be surprised if WoW makes more money than any other video game out there, including farmville. I mean when you're raking in over about 165 million dollars every month from subscription money alone, Activision would be a fool to call WoW obsolete. My advice for Activision is milk every ounce of money out of WoW until that day when WoW's servers close indefinitely finally comes. Making WoW obsolete is illogical.
Originally posted by Trihflu I mean when you're raking in over about 165 million dollars every month from subscription money alone, Activision would be a fool to call WoW obsolete.
off -topic -/ just for info
There is something wrong with this numbers . All of 11m not paying 15$ monthly fee , half of players numbers come from asia (mostly china ) and noone knows real western numbers pay monthly fee except activision/blizzard
IPhones make me sick. If I want a phone, I'll use a phone. I don't need a mini-computer I can't do REAL stuff with (reading email and surfing tiny websites != REAL to me).
WoW and games like it will never be obsolete because I refuse to join the silly bandwagon of stupid gadgets being the "end of desktops" crap. I think games like Farmville have their place, keeping the idiots occupied however briefly. However, I will demand and I will PAY for games that are more than just a flash app deep. And where there are PAYING people, people will develop stuff for them.
All games will evenually be obsolete because new software and graphics are being updates all the time.Maybe one day,we will be the the ones who create and provide and MMO...and "Upcoming" MMORPG.COM'ers,may ask us the same question(If this website is still around...)
CA vs. WoW? Since both are set in a high-fantasy range?
CA hands down. Oh boy, small rant inc...
I could write pages on the details that made WoW great. I could then follow each of those pages with a page of its own detailing when and how WoW removed everything that made it what it is (using Blizz's own words of admittance through the years nonetheless).
WoW is a casual's game now. What was left of accomplishment value is long gone. This could be argued till both sides get blue in the face, but compared to what it *was*, on its own terms, it is a shadow of its former self in this department. If I want challenges that offer rewarding experience, I look elsewhere.
CA is as casual as they come. Drop en/sta, come back 12hrs later, 10min of passive clicking each time. I can start a boss, CTA and let others passively take it on over a week's time. I've got some min/max'ing available to appease my mathematically charged brain, I've got very well drawn art (Andreas Rocha got any other projects by chance? This guy has unlimited talent in the fantasy world.), and I've got a list of friends that is synonymous with who I actually know IRL. CAN IT GET MORE USER FRIENDLY?!
WoW's 'casual solution' of giving everyone gear via tokens each patch backfired in so many ways. You *THINK* you're being handed a bone, until you escape from the brainwash and realize you have to work harder still just to keep up with badges for when the next patch hits. There's more farming now for gear than there ever was in BC, much less classic. What you had, once you had it, lasted a long while. Blizzard's marketting wins here, but not its game.
I play a game that knows what it is, and meets its means. It works within its definition, and works well for what that is. Hint: none of this describes WoW. CA until the cows come home, or an MMO with gameplay and polish comes out that sets standards and doesn't trip backwards to appease investors/customers' every crying whim. Ah, FFXIV and 40k- you cannot come too soon...
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc. We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be. So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away. - MMO_Doubter
Originally posted by nyxium They should never have merged. Activision is doing crap, finding any excuse to vilify anything but their own rotten performance. Blizzard should walk away from the table and take WoW with them for this unappreciative report on their main source of income. [Mod Edit]
Um, you do realise that Vivendi owns both Activision and Blizzard right?
When a single Facebook game brings in over $1 billion in revenue a year then this article may actually have merit.
WOW could be around for a long time yet. Newer mmos coming out aren't even as good.
I think a lot of people who play WOW are ready for the next big thing, it just hasn't materialized yet...nor will it for quite some time in my opinion. The only thing that could change this is if Blizzard somehow missteps and screws up the game. Or if they release a better game...
Why can't they simply let WoW die off and actually make a better mmo for the masses but it seems they may be headed to compete with Farmville, lol good luck! Farmville = WoW killer.
Comments
/agree
That, and people keep forgetting that every MMO will continue to exist as long as they are making money. If WoW loses enough subs, they will start shutting down servers and reepurposing them for their new MMO or migrate them to the general battlenet group. But, B/A is right, WoW WILL become obsolete one day. There's only so much a company can do before they need to overhaul the game from the ground up. This isn't spelling imminent doom- this is just stating the facts
A witty saying proves nothing.
-Voltaire
WoW has been obsolete for the past 2 years... now it's just an entry level MMO that draws new people into the genre due to it's low system requirements, and easy play.
Yeah... In what world are you living in? Name a single game that has been released that has stepped upto the pate and delievered pushing WoW to a obsolete status. And we might want to notify them 11 million + people playing WoW that they are playing a obsolete game.
It;s a CYA clause....
Whats kinda funny about this is that a certain guy that has been all but written off after the Tabula Rasa ordeal predicted that the social media market would be the next huge explosion. Hmm.. maybe people shouldn't have written him off so fast.
What will be interesting is to see if they can adapt the warcraft engine to run within a webbrowser. Imagine how many people they could pull in by making that happen and tieing the game into these social media websites where you can hop in and play at a dime. Imagine WoW with a DDO style subscription setup and store where any and all facebook users could login right on the facebook website. Just as if they where playing Farmvile.
You can sure bet someone at Blizzard is testing out just such a setup and seeing how feasiable that is.
But with that said Cata is a step in the right direction for WoW. They are both updating the original world graphics, replacing the quests with more indepth quests and setting the plate for continued expansions to improve / expand the game.
This whole social networking game phase in gaming culture is bringing people online and playing games that would never have to do with a game in there life. With that said it I am not for sure if it is going to kill the MMO industry but it may change it. I have seen an interview with Lord British himself saying that his new company is going to use social networking games to lead people into mmos so to speak and what not.
Personally I think that what I could see happen is that a MMO may interface with said facebook account and you could place across the social network with your friends or something of that sort. I could also see games like farmville eventually growing and becoming more and more like a mmo. Where you truly do interact with one another or something like that. I am uncertain how social networking games work because the last person I know who played one got a virus from the game. Anyways I must be going.
Dustin
Yeah, it might sounds really stupid, but if you think about it. Our parents did surly laughed at stuff like Internet or cellphones. "Ha ha, talking with somebody on the other side of the planet with the help of a plastic brick? " Didn't loads of inventions or websites/games seem to have taken a far different step then people thought they would?
I remember the Culture minister of Sweden saying that "the Internet is only a fad for the moment. I'm not saying that this will be the way the gaming industry takes. But it sure would be handy wouldn't it? Just log onto your Facebook to game with your friends Online. Cheers.
ummm..yeah.
I just bet the Genius who pitched New Coke (successfully I might add) to the Coca Cola board of directors was using the same logic...lets hope that Activision Blizzards Brass aren't so gullible.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! it howls like hell!
games like farmville make more money in a year then 98% of all the other games of all types out there. Of course major companies are going to focus on stuff like that.
When a single person can also make a game in the span of an hour and then sell 300,000 units of it on the iPhone, the investment to return is huge.
I would expect more big companies to realize the 30-100 million dollar project is less profitable and far more risky then the simple game now a days. The reason is that the simple games get played by the billions of non gamers. Those people won't play a huge install game, or an overly involved one. But they will play farmville or petshop, or plants vs zombies, or mafia wars. Because they're quick and easy to play and they get people hooked with all their titles/achievements/bonuses/trophies etc.
Yes WoW makes a ton of money, yes CoD MW2 made a crap ton of money. But the majority of other major budget titles (including other MMOs) are making less money then simple farmville. I think WoW is accepting that no other MMO, including one they make, will hit the sub numbers that WoW had.
They should never have merged. Activision is doing crap, finding any excuse to vilify anything but their own rotten performance.
Blizzard should walk away from the table and take WoW with them for this unappreciative report on their main source of income.
[Mod Edit]
WoW really is the first mmorpg to grab the public imagination .Its came along at the right time it also did'nt require a PC aimed at gaming to play it . Its a matter of fact that every game has a shelf life or we would all still be playing the likes of Pacman,Space Invaders and Pong so its inevitable that it will become obsolete in time .
It still looks pretty good even and I think it was wise to go with the cartoony look as such graphical styles don't outdate as quickly . Although I think there is a case for saying it is starting to look aged . I've argued in a thread quite recently that improvements in technology may be what finally slays the beast that is Warcraft .
The rise in 3D technology may influence the next generations of consoles and graphics cards leading to the next jump forward in gaming . The first 3D ready tvs will be on sale this year and the first 3D tv channels should be live by the end of the year . Its not much a of a leap of the imagination to see what the consumer will want to be able to play on them game wise .
I think some of the comments I've read about Warcraft lasting 20 years and maintaining the same subscriber base as it has now are laughable . Although a company like Blizzard are well placed to create the mmos of the future ,whether they can catch lightening in a bottle a second time remains to be seen .
Nothing lasts forever but i m sure we'll see some mmorpg version of Warcraft or another for many years to come and many years after the current one finally closes its servers .
Exactly. Shareholders will initiate a lawsuit based on any unexpected loss in value of their investment these days. If you dig deep enough you might also find that WOW may be replaced as a form of entertainment when radioactive trans-sexual nymphs from Alpha Centuri give us a better game to play. You can thank lawyers for this nonsense.
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<ahref="http://profile.xfire.com/aetiuslonginus"><img src="http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sh/type/2/aetiuslonginus.png"; width="450" height="34" /></a>
wow has long ago been obselete about 2 years after it came out
I highly dought there are 11 million players playing wow now,that was ages ago before the recession hit.Blizzard has already stated wow has quit growing so there is no way to be sure. I know when I log in that you see many servers on low now days so to keep rehashing the 11 mill thing is getting old.
This is quite simply the most retarded thing I've read in the last few minutes.
My guess is more people drive a Ford than an Aston Martin, but do you hear the CEO of Aston Martin saying "You know what, we don't sell that many cars so bollocks to the luxury car market, we're going to start over and make 1.2 litre city cars instead". No.
And do you know why? Because the Ford Motor Company owns both brands so that it can appeal to different markets without compromising brand identity.
Activison and friends would commit business suicide if they poured all their efforts into the intensely competitive and fickle 'apps' market in a vain effort to create a cheap-o winner, when they've already go the MMO audience sewn-up.
What would I do if I was Activision? Both.
Aryas
Playing: Ableton Live 8
~ ragequitcancelsubdeletegamesmashcomputerkillself ~
There will always be an audience for non-facebook casual games that aresimilar to farmville (BTW, I hat farmville with a burning passion). Chances are there's a reason 11 million people play WoW over farmville. Especially considering farmville is free. They're two different games with two different audiences, and both are very profitable.
Besides, WoW is making more money than any other MMO. I wouldn't be surprised if WoW makes more money than any other video game out there, including farmville. I mean when you're raking in over about 165 million dollars every month from subscription money alone, Activision would be a fool to call WoW obsolete. My advice for Activision is milk every ounce of money out of WoW until that day when WoW's servers close indefinitely finally comes. Making WoW obsolete is illogical.
This statement is false.
off -topic -/ just for info
There is something wrong with this numbers . All of 11m not paying 15$ monthly fee , half of players numbers come from asia (mostly china ) and noone knows real western numbers pay monthly fee except activision/blizzard
IPhones make me sick. If I want a phone, I'll use a phone. I don't need a mini-computer I can't do REAL stuff with (reading email and surfing tiny websites != REAL to me).
WoW and games like it will never be obsolete because I refuse to join the silly bandwagon of stupid gadgets being the "end of desktops" crap. I think games like Farmville have their place, keeping the idiots occupied however briefly. However, I will demand and I will PAY for games that are more than just a flash app deep. And where there are PAYING people, people will develop stuff for them.
CA vs. WoW? Since both are set in a high-fantasy range?
CA hands down. Oh boy, small rant inc...
I could write pages on the details that made WoW great. I could then follow each of those pages with a page of its own detailing when and how WoW removed everything that made it what it is (using Blizz's own words of admittance through the years nonetheless).
WoW is a casual's game now. What was left of accomplishment value is long gone. This could be argued till both sides get blue in the face, but compared to what it *was*, on its own terms, it is a shadow of its former self in this department. If I want challenges that offer rewarding experience, I look elsewhere.
CA is as casual as they come. Drop en/sta, come back 12hrs later, 10min of passive clicking each time. I can start a boss, CTA and let others passively take it on over a week's time. I've got some min/max'ing available to appease my mathematically charged brain, I've got very well drawn art (Andreas Rocha got any other projects by chance? This guy has unlimited talent in the fantasy world.), and I've got a list of friends that is synonymous with who I actually know IRL. CAN IT GET MORE USER FRIENDLY?!
WoW's 'casual solution' of giving everyone gear via tokens each patch backfired in so many ways. You *THINK* you're being handed a bone, until you escape from the brainwash and realize you have to work harder still just to keep up with badges for when the next patch hits. There's more farming now for gear than there ever was in BC, much less classic. What you had, once you had it, lasted a long while. Blizzard's marketting wins here, but not its game.
I play a game that knows what it is, and meets its means. It works within its definition, and works well for what that is. Hint: none of this describes WoW. CA until the cows come home, or an MMO with gameplay and polish comes out that sets standards and doesn't trip backwards to appease investors/customers' every crying whim. Ah, FFXIV and 40k- you cannot come too soon...
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
Since when could you not already play WoW on your iPhone? Last I heard it was possible...
When a single Facebook game brings in over $1 billion in revenue a year then this article may actually have merit.
I cannot explain WHY....but this comment made me laugh out loud and for a LONG time. I'm actually STILL laughing.....
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
WOW could be around for a long time yet. Newer mmos coming out aren't even as good.
I think a lot of people who play WOW are ready for the next big thing, it just hasn't materialized yet...nor will it for quite some time in my opinion. The only thing that could change this is if Blizzard somehow missteps and screws up the game. Or if they release a better game...
Why can't they simply let WoW die off and actually make a better mmo for the masses but it seems they may be headed to compete with Farmville, lol good luck! Farmville = WoW killer.