Blizz numbers are meaningless because most of the players don't make a choice. Most of the players there are like a fish in a pond. They dont even know of other games and certaintly will not move. It's just a matter of play wow or play nothing at all to them.
That they play wow doesnt mean they found it to be the best mmorpg - to make that decision they would need to know other games first.
There are certainly some parallels I can agree upon.
Like the mythical "invention" of the "WoW standard" as it has never been seen before according to delusional WoW fanboys (who of course are all "vets").
Just the same as the mythical "invention" of the "Apple design" as it has never been seen before according to delusion Apple fanboys
And the marketing stomping over all reality.
They must be really good then if they can get even the biggest haters (like yourself) of WOW to get in line for WOD beta key.
After all these years of bad mouthing WOW and community and yet always first in grabbing beta keys.
I wouldn't be surprised if you have a WOW account and play it regularly.
There is another simularity between them and that is the greed, Apple release all there products very expensive but for there computers there is nothing different inside them from a pc. You could build your own mac as a pc for half the price of what they are selling it for and if you really want a stable pc that you can't play on then just install linux insteed of windows and it's the same. There mobilphones is the same.
Blizzard charges you for everything and they overprice everything, why cause they can and the money comes rolling in. What other game that is 10 years old can keep there prices up like this.
WoW was just lucky, any other mmo like EQ that would of released in WoWs place at the time would be massive, just like WoW is today
Lets face it, if WoW was released as a new mmo in these times, it would be below average at best
Such as EQ2 for example?
Personally I think Apple produces well-marketed, over-priced products which largely rely on snob-appeal. What it does have in common with WOW is that it takes other people's technology and refines it into an appealing product.
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.
----
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.
----
The only thing they do well is how they monetize the game with packs and crafting. Very nicely done.
If it's so easy to make a game highly profitable by making a genre simpler and more accessible, why doesn't everyone do it? Don't discount the genius involved in making a previously niche product palatable to the masses.
WoW was just lucky, any other mmo like EQ that would of released in WoWs place at the time would be massive, just like WoW is today
Lets face it, if WoW was released as a new mmo in these times, it would be below average at best
Such as EQ2 for example?
Personally I think Apple produces well-marketed, over-priced products which largely rely on snob-appeal. What it does have in common with WOW is that it takes other people's technology and refines it into an appealing product.
In desktops and laptops, Apple merely offers okay hardware in a slick form factor. If the point of a computer is as a fashion statement rather than what the computer actually does, then Apple is probably the best there is at this. On a price/performance basis, Macs fall apart.
But the iPhone and especially the iPad are a very different matter, as Apple does offer genuinely high end hardware for the form factor. The Apple Cyclone cores are the best ARM cores on the market and have been for months, implementing ARM v8 months before the competition. The Apple Swift cores were likewise the best ARM cores on the market in their day. Apple puts far superior GPUs into their iPhone and iPad chips than most of the competition, as well, though Nvidia's new Tegra K1 will probably shake that up. The push for higher monitor resolutions was almost entirely driven by Apple--and hasn't yet come to laptops largely because Apple has never been more than a minor niche player there.
WoW was just lucky, any other mmo like EQ that would of released in WoWs place at the time would be massive, just like WoW is today
Lets face it, if WoW was released as a new mmo in these times, it would be below average at best
Such as EQ2 for example?
Personally I think Apple produces well-marketed, over-priced products which largely rely on snob-appeal. What it does have in common with WOW is that it takes other people's technology and refines it into an appealing product.
In desktops and laptops, Apple merely offers okay hardware in a slick form factor. If the point of a computer is as a fashion statement rather than what the computer actually does, then Apple is probably the best there is at this. On a price/performance basis, Macs fall apart.
But the iPhone and especially the iPad are a very different matter, as Apple does offer genuinely high end hardware for the form factor. The Apple Cyclone cores are the best ARM cores on the market and have been for months, implementing ARM v8 months before the competition. The Apple Swift cores were likewise the best ARM cores on the market in their day. Apple puts far superior GPUs into their iPhone and iPad chips than most of the competition, as well, though Nvidia's new Tegra K1 will probably shake that up. The push for higher monitor resolutions was almost entirely driven by Apple--and hasn't yet come to laptops largely because Apple has never been more than a minor niche player there.
I think there's a lot of similarity. Both Apple and Blizzard focus on what their customers want, polish a lot, and are able to launch ridiculously profitable products as result.
They take what is out there and polish/package it fetter than anyone else. Hearthstone is the latest example.
Closest statement to reality. All apple ever did was take something that was already created by someone else, and market it better. Not a shred of originality in that whole company. Steve Jobs was one of the best fashion designers, but one of the worst innovators. Gotta give him credit to for being able to market easily to hipsters.
I really don't know where to begin - you all have good points.
This thread is EPIC.
I agree about WOW and APPLE both being in decline, almost in a sad nostalgic way - kinda like seeing Nintendo go downhill...
World of Warcraft will perhaps experience more of a decline than apple most likely, as it is more of a niche market.
Honestly, lets take a step back. Look at myspace, and how facebook overtook that.
Before the internet was big, it was beanie babies.
There is always some fad that has everyone's focus.
Everquest got MMO's noticed, World of Warcraft made them a fad for a while. This all stemed from mario and pacman tho, remember this guys.
I think hearthstone looks great - but I invested years in to wow. I was an ex guild leader. Top end raiding guild, pvp gladiator as a (lol) feral druid. I had epics and exalted factions, tanked illidan and sunwell in bear form - the works.
But times change as you get older. You still play games to pass the time, yes - for fun. Life needs to be enjoyed. But honestly I thought wow was too much of a time commitment, with having to manage a guild - God if you didn't, you would have crappy gear as pugs SUCKED. And that's what life's about, being the best at something. We're all so quick to get competitive on the next fad. LOL deep stuff I know but hear me out. For me, I decided I wanted to start my own business and own my own website. Economy sucked and I lost a lot, dropped out of college - still gaming to wow thought because in that virtual world, you don't have evil parasitic BANKERS screwing with the in game economy. In this world, you gotta struggle to make money to survive - and that's a huge time commitment.
Granted I could have made a LOT selling gold on wow, I had dozens of guildies donating thousand gold a day for dkp -but blizz was so nazi against that. I have no idea why!
And to top it all off, I put 3 or 4 years into the game - had I put just a few bucks a month into bitcoin, I would be a millionaire right now. Set for life.
It's all a game really. It's why people will even buy wow gold.
My honest opinion? Games that use bitcoin are the next big "fad" if you ask me. Imagine your wow gold being worth real money and instantly spendable. Fellas, we ARE rocketing into the space age after all - soon robots will create all human needs - so what will we pay for? What will we buy? TIME - and information. Most people only want entertainment. Everything is information really, and entertainment is what we most seek. There will always be games like wow and people will invest time and money to play, for the fun, and for the competitiveness.
I honestly see bitcoin games being the next big thing. I've looked into several and right now one that has my eye is Dragon Tales. It's an mmo that plays in bitcoin. I'm a little addicted to this game right now. I didn't have to pay ANYTHING, just downloaded it for free at their site www.dragons.tl and I have earned several thousand of these mini bitcoins - there's all these soldiers and in game characters that just give you coins for playing. Worth real money and unlike blizz they aint trying to control their player base - which is cool because as soon as I logged into the game I was met by cool people, not psycho trolls like I was always having to deal with in trade chat in wow. I already have met 10 or so friends who were very welcoming and I totally just spent the last 5 hours chillin out with in game.
Apparantly the guy who created Dragon's tale is a HUGE bitcoin advocate and filthy freaking rich off of bitcoins, so I guess he is giving half his coins away to promote bitcoin and give people a fun game to play. I think it's pretty epic, and I don't have to raid 6 hours a night just to get loot that in 1 year is worthless with the next blizz update. lulz
There IS one thing that has me slightly annoyed however - just like in world of warcraft, you have to invest I don't know how many hours playing and leveling up before you even see your first real dragon >.< still addicting and fun as heck to explore tho.
Doesn't bit coins have weak controls around money laundering and is used by criminals a lot?
All transactions in Bitcoint can be tracked. Which means laundering with bitcoin is impossible. You may have an anon account with coins flying arround on it but the moment you try to cash out your real data comes into play and it's gg.
Relative to attempting to money launder through more traditional routes, bit coin does offer advantages, but thats probably more down the the lack of maturity of the currency
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.
Genuine ideas are a dime a dozen. What matter is polished, implementation and details and both Apple & Blizz are masters at that.
Heck .. lots of people here propose lots of ideas. How many produce a success game?
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.
There's about 8 million people that would argue otherwise.
Yes, there is probably 8M people who like sushi, they have bad taste too.
Hear, hear!! I hate sushi with a passion! I've never actually tried it, but I hate it anyway!
Originally posted by bliss14 There is a parallel, although I think Apple's decline feels more certain than Blizzard's. Just mah gut though
Yeah. But wasn't Blizzard looking for a buyer?
I think Vivendi (Blizz ex parent company) wanted to sell Blizz. Blizz got away from them without being sold, becoming sort of independent again.
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.
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That they play wow doesnt mean they found it to be the best mmorpg - to make that decision they would need to know other games first.
Pi*1337/100 = 42
They must be really good then if they can get even the biggest haters (like yourself) of WOW to get in line for WOD beta key.
After all these years of bad mouthing WOW and community and yet always first in grabbing beta keys.
I wouldn't be surprised if you have a WOW account and play it regularly.
There is another simularity between them and that is the greed, Apple release all there products very expensive but for there computers there is nothing different inside them from a pc. You could build your own mac as a pc for half the price of what they are selling it for and if you really want a stable pc that you can't play on then just install linux insteed of windows and it's the same. There mobilphones is the same.
Blizzard charges you for everything and they overprice everything, why cause they can and the money comes rolling in. What other game that is 10 years old can keep there prices up like this.
I agree with OP on all she said and more.
WoW was just lucky, any other mmo like EQ that would of released in WoWs place at the time would be massive, just like WoW is today
Lets face it, if WoW was released as a new mmo in these times, it would be below average at best
Such as EQ2 for example?
Personally I think Apple produces well-marketed, over-priced products which largely rely on snob-appeal. What it does have in common with WOW is that it takes other people's technology and refines it into an appealing product.
If it's so easy to make a game highly profitable by making a genre simpler and more accessible, why doesn't everyone do it? Don't discount the genius involved in making a previously niche product palatable to the masses.
In desktops and laptops, Apple merely offers okay hardware in a slick form factor. If the point of a computer is as a fashion statement rather than what the computer actually does, then Apple is probably the best there is at this. On a price/performance basis, Macs fall apart.
But the iPhone and especially the iPad are a very different matter, as Apple does offer genuinely high end hardware for the form factor. The Apple Cyclone cores are the best ARM cores on the market and have been for months, implementing ARM v8 months before the competition. The Apple Swift cores were likewise the best ARM cores on the market in their day. Apple puts far superior GPUs into their iPhone and iPad chips than most of the competition, as well, though Nvidia's new Tegra K1 will probably shake that up. The push for higher monitor resolutions was almost entirely driven by Apple--and hasn't yet come to laptops largely because Apple has never been more than a minor niche player there.
OK Hipsters, here is your precious Apple.
http://s4.photobucket.com/user/sigilaea/media/Funny/linuxmacwindowscomparison_zps71e5ea77.png.html
good points made, I agree with them.
Blizzard have bought themselves out of Vivendi, just have to wait and see what happens.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/13/activision-blizzard-vivendi-buyout/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/26/activision-blizzard-splits-vivendi
Closest statement to reality. All apple ever did was take something that was already created by someone else, and market it better. Not a shred of originality in that whole company. Steve Jobs was one of the best fashion designers, but one of the worst innovators. Gotta give him credit to for being able to market easily to hipsters.
On top of seeing them the same way I also cheated them as well.
WoW was so boring I sold my first account then use a bot to level characters up to sell them.
Apple was such a sucky product I had to jailbreak it to get any use out of that piece of shit.
Both products are now somewhere in a huge pile of trash at my local dump.
I would not use either product to wipe my ass because I don't wipe my ass off with more shit!
I really don't know where to begin - you all have good points.
This thread is EPIC.
I agree about WOW and APPLE both being in decline, almost in a sad nostalgic way - kinda like seeing Nintendo go downhill...
World of Warcraft will perhaps experience more of a decline than apple most likely, as it is more of a niche market.
Honestly, lets take a step back. Look at myspace, and how facebook overtook that.
Before the internet was big, it was beanie babies.
There is always some fad that has everyone's focus.
Everquest got MMO's noticed, World of Warcraft made them a fad for a while. This all stemed from mario and pacman tho, remember this guys.
I think hearthstone looks great - but I invested years in to wow. I was an ex guild leader. Top end raiding guild, pvp gladiator as a (lol) feral druid. I had epics and exalted factions, tanked illidan and sunwell in bear form - the works.
But times change as you get older. You still play games to pass the time, yes - for fun. Life needs to be enjoyed. But honestly I thought wow was too much of a time commitment, with having to manage a guild - God if you didn't, you would have crappy gear as pugs SUCKED. And that's what life's about, being the best at something. We're all so quick to get competitive on the next fad. LOL deep stuff I know but hear me out. For me, I decided I wanted to start my own business and own my own website. Economy sucked and I lost a lot, dropped out of college - still gaming to wow thought because in that virtual world, you don't have evil parasitic BANKERS screwing with the in game economy. In this world, you gotta struggle to make money to survive - and that's a huge time commitment.
Granted I could have made a LOT selling gold on wow, I had dozens of guildies donating thousand gold a day for dkp -but blizz was so nazi against that. I have no idea why!
And to top it all off, I put 3 or 4 years into the game - had I put just a few bucks a month into bitcoin, I would be a millionaire right now. Set for life.
It's all a game really. It's why people will even buy wow gold.
My honest opinion? Games that use bitcoin are the next big "fad" if you ask me. Imagine your wow gold being worth real money and instantly spendable. Fellas, we ARE rocketing into the space age after all - soon robots will create all human needs - so what will we pay for? What will we buy? TIME - and information. Most people only want entertainment. Everything is information really, and entertainment is what we most seek. There will always be games like wow and people will invest time and money to play, for the fun, and for the competitiveness.
I honestly see bitcoin games being the next big thing. I've looked into several and right now one that has my eye is Dragon Tales. It's an mmo that plays in bitcoin. I'm a little addicted to this game right now. I didn't have to pay ANYTHING, just downloaded it for free at their site www.dragons.tl and I have earned several thousand of these mini bitcoins - there's all these soldiers and in game characters that just give you coins for playing. Worth real money and unlike blizz they aint trying to control their player base - which is cool because as soon as I logged into the game I was met by cool people, not psycho trolls like I was always having to deal with in trade chat in wow. I already have met 10 or so friends who were very welcoming and I totally just spent the last 5 hours chillin out with in game.
Apparantly the guy who created Dragon's tale is a HUGE bitcoin advocate and filthy freaking rich off of bitcoins, so I guess he is giving half his coins away to promote bitcoin and give people a fun game to play. I think it's pretty epic, and I don't have to raid 6 hours a night just to get loot that in 1 year is worthless with the next blizz update. lulz
There IS one thing that has me slightly annoyed however - just like in world of warcraft, you have to invest I don't know how many hours playing and leveling up before you even see your first real dragon >.< still addicting and fun as heck to explore tho.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Lol good question.
Do criminals frequently use the USDollar?
When they get caught with drugs and it's only the USD, the media puts focus on the drugs or some celebrity whose heart they broke etc.
But if bitcoin is involved they jump on the opportunity to make it look bad.
WHY? Bitcoin is a banker's worst nightmare, and the bankers own the media.
All transactions in Bitcoint can be tracked. Which means laundering with bitcoin is impossible. You may have an anon account with coins flying arround on it but the moment you try to cash out your real data comes into play and it's gg.So tldr: laundering with bitcoin is impossible.
Pi*1337/100 = 42
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-how-does-bitcoin-work
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Genuine ideas are a dime a dozen. What matter is polished, implementation and details and both Apple & Blizz are masters at that.
Heck .. lots of people here propose lots of ideas. How many produce a success game?
I only played WoW 15 days or so. The trial. It wasn't for me.
But, Alas, I cannot live without my Iphone. It's my experience, and it demonstrates that at least, for me, this paralelism is a phallacy.
It is a question of fangs.
Hear, hear!! I hate sushi with a passion! I've never actually tried it, but I hate it anyway!
That made me chuckle a bit.