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I see Blizzard like I see Apple
grimal
Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
They both brought an extremely polished an artistic genius to each of their respective industries. Apple stole the limelight with Jobs return and the new flashy iMac at the birth of the millenium. Blizzard stormed into the MMO scene with World of Warcraft. A game that with it's ingenious simple restructuring and polish of a clunky new genre still to this day, a decade since it launched still reigns supreme in the world as the MMO god. But times have changed for both. Steve Jobs' passing has taken a lot of the spirit of the Apple it once was. I myself believe that Apple is forever changed and has lost that magic that kept it reigning. I think it's only a matter of time that Android and some of the hardware coming from Samsung (bendable phones) are going to blow the design away of any of the new iPhones planned. And the iOS is already looking dated. The only thing that could take down Apple was Apple itself. Sadly, most of what made Apple was Steve. Back to World of Warcraft, the game is showing its age and with the steady decline of subs and the changing of the developers over the years and studio shifts, has Blizzard also lost their Steve? I think so. I don't think any game will come along and have those kind of numbers any more. If any do, it will be due to some new integrated technology and interface that fundamentally changes the gameplay. Maybe someone will do it with the Occulus Rift and bring the MMO market to greater numbers, but anything short of that I just don't see it happening.
What are your thoughts?
Comments
Blizzard is indeed Apple-
They take what is out there and polish/package it fetter than anyone else. Hearthstone is the latest example.
Difference being that technically you can offer claims that Apple has done something good.Technically Wow is outdated and not good at all,Wow can only say look at our numbers.
Numbers don't mean anything to any individual who can think for themselves,to those that just follow the crowd,then yes you might be able to convince them to follow your marketing/sales pitch.
I guess the similarity is that Apple was never a forerunner but playing catch-up to Windows systems.It offered systems to a small market while Blizzard already had it's huge following more like WIndows users continuing to buy Windows PC's and products.
Apple again is different because it tired to be bigger bolder in offering a choice from Microsoft.Blizzard on the other hand looks to copy and use low budget designs to make sure that if they fail they don't lose much.Apple is only NOW selling on it's name,Blizzard already had that luxury of "they could sell anything to their followers".
Blizzard is more like Microsoft/ Windows,they happen to be the popular choice,that does not mean the better choice.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Yeah. But wasn't Blizzard looking for a buyer?
Yeah nothing good at all like a quality product that millions like to play.
So anyone that doesn't agree with your opinion on a game is only playing it because they can't think for themselves. It couldn't be that they play because they actually like it...they've been tricked or brainwashed by marketing into it.
How about the only reason you don't like it is because you can't think for yourself and are just following the wow hate train that moved on years ago and you just forgot to get off.
There's about 8 million people that would argue otherwise.
So i am right,even you NEED to point to numbers rest my case.
Again CHOICE is to the individual,people don't run to any game because it boasts numbers.If that was the case we would all be playing Farmville.
It also proves the NON similarity between Blizzard and Apple as Apple was/ is trying to convince consumers to have CHOICE,Blizzard on the other hand is trying to convince consumers to NOT have choice,just follow us because we have the numbers.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Actually WoW, when it was released was really technically advanced... It was way more fluid than what we used to know about MMOs back then. It's just that the game got old... Still, It aged well.
i don't like WoW never have and i don't care what anyone thinks lol but i know better than to put everyone who does into the same category also.
Nonsense. What took Apple down, at least from a position of dominance, was high prices. If you build iPads for $250 and sell them for $500, there's plenty of room for competitors to build quality products and undercut you on price. That's exactly what happened, first in cell phones and more recently in tablets. Indeed, that's exactly what happened to the early Macintosh computers. The iMac was never anything more than the niche product that it is today.
But I don't feel sorry for Apple. They made a lot of money on each of those markets before losing their dominant position, and they're still profitable today.
With Blizzard, on the other hand, computer games are poor substitutes for one another. If you like one game, it doesn't follow that you'd just as soon play a different game entirely with game mechanics that you don't like at all. And there's a lot less room to undercut on price: if one game is $15/month and another is $10/month, and you're willing to pay for the cheaper game, the game you're going to pick from those two is the one you like more. Price barely matters, and undercutting by $5/month is very different from undercutting a price tag by $200 up front.
Or mister Hipster they offer a product in a market full of other choices that is better than the other offerings thus has more people playing it because it is the superior product. In a world where WoW is one of the more expensive options that says a lot. McDonalds with all their numbers gets them by offering the cheapest product so people eat it up, but WoW offers a more expensive product with a high buy in and still out does the cheapers low barrier to enter options. That sir is the sign that they offer a quality product that people seem to like.
Blizzard so far never had a genuine idea themselves. They stole most of their "IP's" from Warhammer and other companies. They strip them down to the bare essentials and make them easy to use for everyone and most profitable for themselves.
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Hearthstone is the latest example of reducing a card game to it's bare essentials. The game has little strategy and player interaction left. It feels more like playing against an AI than against other players. Mechanics are stripped down and the game is more luck than skill.
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The only thing they do well is how they monetize the game with packs and crafting. Very nicely done.
There is a difference ....
Apple has little really new after the ipad.
Blizz is doing Hearthstone and a MOBA, completely different from what they have done before. Games are easier ... blizz can easily find another genre, put their own IP (or invent new) and have another success.
I feel the same way... except for different reasons.
I think both Blizzard and Apple products are absolute garbage and overpriced and I hate everybody who is pro either company.
Yeah both are genius at marketing but really don't innovate as much as people some give them credit for, instead they mainly just take other peoples ideas and make them more marketable. Both also have benefited from great timing and they both have some of the most irrationally rabid fanboys around who will buy literally anything these companies put out.
Yes, there is probably 8M people who like sushi, they have bad taste too.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
They are similar in that I've never spent a dime on either a Blizzard or an Apple product.
That's not by design, that's just me knowing crap when I see it.
Like it or not both have built hype behind being trendy, and for people that don't care about trends, they're both a nonfactor and may as well not exist.
I think Vivendi (Blizz ex parent company) wanted to sell Blizz. Blizz got away from them without being sold, becoming sort of independent again.
There we go again.
Only because something is popular it must be bad and anyone who enjoys it is a sheep. Please tell us more i have never heard this reasoning before.
Vivendi was looking to sell blizzard so Vivendi could clear some of it's massive debts. they wern't looking to get rid of Blizzard but they needed money so they wanted to sell their biggest money maker.