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Blizzard going mobile... and perhaps, an untapped potential
Galadourn
Member RarePosts: 1,813
No, no, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to praise Blizzard's decision to release a Diablo version for mobiles. After the initial "shock" (I'm not a Diablo player myself, but I can sympathize), I started thinking that maybe - and that's a big MAYBE - this move by Blizzard can lead to a positive side-effect.
If Blizzard sees the future of its revenues in mobile gaming, that could be a chance to start treating its other games differently - being willing to take more commercial risk and thus make more daring decisions in terms of gameplay.
Retail WoW was watered-down over the years in an attempt to please everybody fast to keep subscriptions coming (despite this having the opposite effect, apparently). Securing other sources of (main) revenue might be the catalyst for a turn to more challenging gameplay design - much like the gameplay found in Vanilla WoW, where effort was rewarded and nothing was free.
It might all be wishful thinking on my part, but it's not entirely impossible either.
Comments
I consider mobile gaming shallow, quick experiences that don't offer me anything long term, and the amount of crap you have to dig through to find the good is probably also more than Console & PC combined.
If they can find ways to create mobile add-ons that help enhance their core IP's on PC/Console that would be best.
Hey Blizz, can you make a mobile game that's core gameplay loop is to help grind my crafting for all my WoW toons? Fun little mini-games where leveling up in my mobile game actually increases my crafting levels in the main game. Just a thought....if people are interested and want to level/grind boring crafting that new more entertaining way then they can. If people aren't interested then they can just do it the normal way in the main game.
They can do that with lots of aspects of all their games if they can figure it out. Their WoW pet battle mechanic is just begging for a mobile iteration, and could you imagine all the fun things they can do with all the hundreds of Pets in the game?! Even if they just rip off Pokemon it could be another entertaining way to level up our Pets.
Gut Out!
What, me worry?
I would more expect Blizzard to contribute more resources to mobile gaming if their first forays prove hugely successful.
Blizzard's own forays into mobile - when they were still part of Vivendi - were not overly successful. Which may be why AB now have a business unit called King. Which they paid several billion dollars for. Candy Crush ring any bells?
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
What happened to MMOs is a subset to what has happened to gaming as a whole, looking for ever bigger markets in terms of player base has meant the people who now make up the baulk of players do not have the ethos we have. Though to be accurate we did not exactly have one voice back then, roleplayers had different ideas to non-roleplayers for example.
But relative to back then there is no gaming ethos now, the baulk of what we hear from gamers to gaming journalists is "Is it fun"? That is the only thing they seem to care about.
Mobile gaming now makes more money for gaming studios than PC and console. Players are dodo's still wondering if this will have an effect on our games. Companies go where the money is, PC and console are not as attractive as they once were.
Mobile gaming is the LEAST risk,they are not doing for a challenge or risk,they are doing it because it is a MARKET they have yet to attack.That is all this business is doing is trying to get a foothold in each market.
When you hear "mobile"you might as well kiss that developer goodbye because Diablo for example was already a cheap game,going mobile means Blizzard's intent is to go cheaper and likely attract micro transactions in a bigger way.it also means Blizzard has no intentions of making Diablo a better game.
Remember all that anger,talk,hostility towards loot boxes,well guess who is still using them?
Blizzard is trying VERY hard to cut costs without losing revenue,this is their tactic,weather it succeeds or not idc because i care about quality games or games i find some VALUE and not how much money Blizz/Acti makes.
Know what engine Blizzard used for hearthstone>>Unity,this giant business can't create their own damn engine,ru serious?People need to wake up,Blizzard has been making sub par games since FOREVER,they are good at marketing and aiming at high end markets like Esports.
Blizzard is one of those operations that is a leaps and bounds a BUSINESS first and game developer second.
When i see them come out with their own quality engine,a DEEP game with NO cash shop,NO esport i will and only then take notice,even if they get to that point,can they produce a good game?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
add to it everyone want make progress and since they can't be bothered playing for hours $ 1-$ 50+ for instance progress in X game is a easy sell, since it allows them to brag how they go so far earn X item in said games. it why angry birds was huge easy money and everyone jump on to it easy to play can play any amount time and walk away also can " pay " to earn things to help make progress.
at first the market did not seem so bad since many felt ( myself included ) that causal now had gaming and when they wanted the real stuff they could play a console/pc it's a win/win. instead people with more money then brains wanted faster progress for less time spent, more power, more of X items for less time invested, exclusive things. so the game Devs said " ok but it cost you " and they been throwing money at the games ever since.
the worst part is because it happens in small waves you lose that sense of money spent an keep throwing more at it, happen to me in few gatcha games FGO, summoner wars. mobile gaming is not meant for the player, is a very deadly market that made to profit from you. if you have the option in a mobile game to spend 20+ with no end cap on what you can spend, it was made to leech you dry before you move on and they next game does the same.
TLDR
mobile gaming is a easy market to drain those with more money then sense, just type in "how much did you spend in mobile gaming " or something like that to see how much money is been bled away for these lazy games...
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I also sometimes will spend 45 minutes playing a game in bed if I lose track of time. Other times I will be dislodged from my regular habitat for whatever reason (visiting relatives or some such) with all its entertainment systems.
Otherwise I generally agree. It's not that I love playing on a 5" screen as much as the convenience of having it anywhere.
There are some things that only mobile devices can do, like Ingress, but that's a different animal.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
http://twitch.tv/woetothevanquished
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.