(This post consolidates lessons published in the O.C. Register and the “Inside Innovation” blog. For a link to more business lessons from World of Warcraft, see the April 17 post “A double serving of business lessons from World of Warcraft.)
Blizzard Entertainment, the envy of the computer game industry, has learned 11 lessons on innovation that can help almost any business.
Irvine-based Blizzard used these innovation methods not only to create the world’s most popular massively multi-player online game, World of Warcraft, but also to keep the game fresh and challenging for more than 10 million players.
Because many of those customers pay $15 a month to continue playing, Blizzard’s ongoing creative achievement is worth more than $1 billion a year in revenues, not counting the multi-millions it tallies from its other games, such as StarCraft, Diablo II and Warcraft III, plus trading cards, comic books, etc.
This combination of creativity and profitability is much of the reason for the upcoming merger of game company Activision with Blizzard’s parent company, Vivendi Games. The new company, to be called Activision Blizzard, will be valued at about $18.9 billion.
The following lineup of innovation lessons emerged from a video game conference, an interview, and several experts’ comments.
Blizzard executives discussed the company’s innovation processes during the D.I.C.E. video game conference last month in Las Vegas. Then, in early March, World of Warcraft lead producer J. Allen Brack explained his teams’ work methods during an interview at Blizzard’s new headquarters in Irvine. I also invited several business and innovation experts in Orange County to comment on how Blizzard works and how it and other creative enterprises such as the Walt Disney Co. innovate to keep their customers interested.
1. RELY ON CRITICS
Blizzard welcomes criticism – seeks it, in fact – both during game development and after the launch, when games need to be fine-tuned and freshened up.
In a process that is common for software companies, an alpha test provides crucial pre-release feedback from company employees. When the game software is ready, Blizzard moves to a beta test involving a limited number of outside players. Blizzard plans a beta test of its upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack for World of Warcraft, but hasn’t announced when it will begin.
In addition, tens of thousands of Blizzard subscribers sign in to the game’s Public Test Realm area to test and give advance feedback on patches, upgrades and revisions for the current version of World of Warcraft.
“Seeking out customers’ viewpoints and criticisms is an ideal way for businesses to align products and services to what their customers want,” said Ardelle St. George, intellectual property attorney and chairman of the Orange County Innovation group.
Innovation educator Marty Wartenberg of UCI Extension and the ZB Global Design Center in Carlsbad said, “It is very useful when developing your design and product to have third-party objective folks review and critique the design.”
“The idea is that colleagues will not be completely honest and critical with the participants present,” he said. “It would be much healthier if folks could take well-meaning and constructive criticism as a chance to improve the product or service. Unfortunately human nature tends to resist. This is a challenge to overcome in the business world.”
Mike Morhaime, Blizzard CEO and cofounder, said criticism is important, but it’s hard to take at first, as he recalled from tests of Blizzard’s early game The Lost Vikings.
“We thought the game was good enough, but Brian Fargo of Interplay took it home and played it, and had lots of feedback,” Morhaime said. Fargo wanted all the Viking characters to be redrawn so they wouldn’t look so similar, which the game team didn’t want to hear.
“It means he really cares,” Morhaime told them. “When I digested it, I thought, ‘Hey, these are good comments.’ ”
2. USE YOUR OWN PRODUCT
At Blizzard, that’s an easy demand, since the product is a game that’s fun to play. Game developers should find a new job if it they can’t enjoy playing it and, in the process, spot ways to make it better.
“We’re all fans. We all play,” said Brack, who averages 15 hours playing World of Warcraft each week.
At home after quitting time, he often plays his high-level World of Warcraft character for four hours, taking notes on what works and what doesn’t, he said. The next day at work, he meets with team members to discuss the problems he found.
In some industries, taking on the role of the customer “is referred to as ‘eating your own dog food,’ ” Wartenberg said, “actually using your product before subjecting the consumers to what may be an ill-conceived and poorly designed product.”
“In the theme park business (Disney and others), they have a phase in their development life cycle called ‘Family and Friends.’ This occurs right after the state regulatory body approves the event or attraction and before the general public gets to ride your new attraction. This gives the design folks the chance to see how normal or non-involved people react,” he said, “a final chance to make changes prior to opening it up.”
3. MAKE CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENTS
Criticism of the Vikings game “was our first painful iterative process,” Morhaime said, “and it’s happened with every game at Blizzard.”
Multi-disciplinary “strike teams” repeatedly critique the latest version of each game in progress.
“We do it every couple of weeks,” said Rob Pardo, senior vice president of game design, in the panel discussion with Frank Pearce, executive vice president of product development.
“It’s possible to go too far,” Pardo said, “and that’s what Frank and I are supposed to keep charge of. We’re trying to make great entertainment projects, not perfect ones. If we wanted to make perfect ones, we’d never be finished.”
St. George added, “Making continual improvements is a must for all types of goods and services. A competitive advantage can be attained from attention to improvement, innovation and detail.”
“In many industries, near perfection is the goal,” Wartenberg said, “whether we call it Zero Defects or Six Sigma (one error in 3.14 million) this is very true of the biotech/pharma community as well as those in aerospace, where human life is at risk. The emergence of process improvement methodologies in many of our local companies, (Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, etc) attest to the fact that management recognizes that reducing errors, improving reliability and eliminating scrap are worthwhile and quickly drop to the bottom line.”
4. GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Blizzard Entertainment will throw out unsuccessful work rather than try to salvage a fatally flawed plan.
“We come up with a lot of great ideas, we talk about them, we implement a lot of art and game play, and then we go ‘… that kind of sucks,’ said Pardo. “So do we do a re-boot, throw out everything — or do we make the call to cancel a game if there’s no realistic restart to do? It’s one of the things that makes us infamous for never hitting a release date, but it’s part of ‘gameplay first,’ ” a key principle at Blizzard.
“The Back to the Drawing Board concept has applicability across all industries,” said innovation educator Wartenberg. “Start over if a product is not turning out right.”
“The idea that we have spent so much so we should just keep going is a bogus one. If it’s the wrong approach, past spending should not be part of the decision process,” he said.
Wartenberg outlined a Phase Gate method for developing products, which establishes a standard procedure for cancelling projects that aren’t working out.
“At each gate, the decision to stop, go or modify should be made based on achievement of specific identified points. (Will meet market window? Design-to-unit production cost is within profitability range? Customers will want it? Etc.) Some large product companies refer to the decision at each gate as the ‘Kill Switch,’ even though it’s not called that in their official documentation,” he said.
5. DESIGN FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF CUSTOMERS
Blizzard designs its games to appeal to a variety of customers — players from different cultures, in different settings, and with different personalities and experience.
In the recent panel discussion, Blizzard executives focused on how the company tailors its games for multi-national audiences — after making mistakes based on game developers’ inexperience with different cultures.
Frank Pearce, executive vice president of product development, told of a Japanese panda character that an artist drew for Warcraft III.
“He drew this Samurai panda. Turns out the Japanese and the Chinese aren’t big fans of each other, and the Chinese people objected to this animal of theirs being dressed in Japanese garb. So we had to change it,” Pearce said.
CEO Morhaime added, “Living here in the United States, we kind of had a North American focus. We had to catch ourselves when we weren’t considering that we have players all around the world.”
Pearce explained a variation that Blizzard adopted to allow players to experience World of Warcraft in commercial game parlors, especially in Asia.
“People don’t just play the games at home. They play the games in game rooms in China and Seoul, where it’s a totally different payment model, too. It comes down to, if you want to be successful globally, you have to think about what markets you want to go into.”
“One thing we do is send game charges to the account you play on, not to your computer. It’s a small thing, but it really helps people play in that game room environment,” he said.
World of Warcraft lead producer Brack said his teams focus on making sure the game appeals both to high-level and to low-level players. That’s part of what game developers think about when they make plans for new dungeons, new raids and new monsters, he said.
To improve the game’s appeal to experienced players, Blizzard is planning to add 10 additional experience levels as part of its upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, he said. The top level, which is currently 70, will increase to 80, he said.
In addition, Blizzard will give players new ways to customize characters, including new hairstyles, he said. That’s aimed at increasing the game’s appeal to “social players,” including many women, who are interested in creating a unique look for their characters, he said.
6. THE IMPORTANCE OF FREQUENT FAILURES
“One of the mantras that a large software development company uses is ‘Fail Often, Fail Fast,’ ” Wartenberg said.
“As Alan Mullaly said when he led Boeing Commercial Aircraft, ‘We celebrate mistakes; bring them into the open, because we can’t help fix what we don’t know about.’ ”
To show Blizzard’s devotion to this principle, CEO Morhaime and other executives listed the titles of canceled games Blizzard had worked on: Nomad, Raiko, Warcraft Adventures, Games People Play, Crixa, Shattered Nations, Pax Imperia, and Denizen.
“We don’t have a 100 percent hit rate. We just cancel all the ones that aren’t going well,” Morhaime said.
“Failure begets success,” intellectual property attorney St. George said. “Many successful companies and CEOs have noted that their best successes have come from failures. The lessons learned from failures will provide the stepping stones for the next innovation.”
7. MOVE QUICKLY, IN PIECES
“In today’s rapidly moving market, the only way to get products out is to use various rapid prototyping methods to build products or services and try them in controlled pilot groups and then change as you go along,” Wartenberg said.
“A new concept in software development – dubbed ‘Agile’ methods, which includes techniques called Scrum, XP, etc – basically forces developers to build in small increments, review with the clients and continually iterate the design until the customer is satisfied.”
At Blizzard, small teams focus on narrow elements of the game. For example, different teams of artists specialize in trees, rocks, the game environment, and monsters, said lead producer Brack.
Multi-disciplinary “strike teams” serve as critics of how the different aspects of the game work together.
Raman Unnikrishnan, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at CSU Fullerton, said:
“With entertainment software and online services, it is all about understanding what the gamers want and then proceeding to incrementally deliver that unmet need. The developers cannot follow a traditional waterfall style development (First requirements, then design, implementation, verification and finally maintenance) because they have millions of software users whose allegiance depends on the ability of the software developer to deliver new user-demanded features quickly and reliably.”
Quick work doesn’t mean that Blizzard will introduce a game before it’s ready, said Blizzard PR representative Bob Colayco. As evidence, he noted the release date of Diablo at the end of December 1996. Because Blizzard insisted on getting the game right, it missed the entire holiday shopping season, he said.
Diablo was a critical and sales success, proving to Blizzard that getting the game right was more important than meeting a deadline with a flawed product.
8. STATISTICS BOLSTER EXPERIENCE
“Innovation and player behavior have to be the focal point of Blizzard’s business model,” said Don Hicks, executive director of the AEA high-tech trade group in Orange County. “I am certain they have figured out how to monitor and measure player behavior, and have outlined an innovation process.”
When Blizzard’s game designers sit down to figure out whether a game can be improved, they have more to go on than just their personal game-playing experience and other players’ comments.
Statistics also help Blizzard find ways to make games more enjoyable.
Many statistics are automatically generated, such as what kills the most players and what is killed most by players, Brack said.
That helps game designers determine whether the game’s various monsters and classes of characters are fairly balanced.
Class designers hold regular meetings to decide whether to adjust the strengths of different classes to keep the game fair, Brack said.
9. DEMAND EXCELLENCE OR YOU’LL GET MEDIOCRITY
“We could ship a sub-par game, but ultimately it hurts the brand. We should ship it when it’s ready or we shouldn’t ship it at all,” said Pearce, the executive vice president of product development. “It’s an issue of making sure we’re not risking long-term gain for short-term benefits.”
Brack added: “That’s a core value of Blizzard, not a luxury that it can afford now that it’s bringing in so much revenue.”
“Living with mediocrity can be the downfall of a company or service firm,” said St. George. “There are many companies that have learned this lesson through failed product lines and even company closures. Requiring or demanding quality and excellence is a must for all companies and service firms.”
“Demanding excellence is a tough call, as it often requires that we accept ‘good enough’ to meet tough shipping schedules. The concept of ‘perfect’ is one that most cynical employees will laugh at,” Wartenberg said.
“But one of our local companies, QLogic in Aliso Viejo, has that exact title posted through out their facility – a big sign saying ‘Perfection: Our Clients Demand It.’
“If you ask for excellence or perfection, you many never get it, but you will sometimes get something approaching it – and mostly will get good enough. If you ask for good enough, however, you will never get anything approaching excellence and will often get below-average results. People tend to rise to meet expectations,” Wartenberg said.
10. CREATE A NEW TYPE OF PRODUCT
Blizzard was one of the pioneers in a new category of game – massively multi-player online role-playing games.
[That's a controversial statement, which is discussed in a follow-up post, "How innovative is World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment?" and in many comments below.]
In addition to Blizzard’s original product line – the game software itself – the company created a new type of product line by selling ongoing subscriptions for online access to the game, said Unnikrishnan at CSU Fullerton.
Blizzard remains ahead of the competition because the company was able to parlay its strength in one game format to create an online service, which created a whole new product line and different type of revenue stream,” he said.
In Asia, where gamers typically play World of Warcraft in Internet cafes, Blizzard uses a variation on monthly subscriptions, which wouldn’t work well in that setting. Instead of subscribing with a monthly payment, gamers purchase prepaid cards. In addition, in China Blizzard has licensed World of Warcraft to the publicly traded entertainment company The9, which also runs other online games.
11. OFFER EMPLOYEES SOMETHING EXTRA
Working at a computer-game company can be fun, but that’s not the only type of company that can benefit by providing employees with more than just a paycheck. Any innovator needs something beyond just monetary incentives.
“One advantage that Blizzard Entertainment has over many product organizations is the high degree of ‘fun factor.’ For young programmers, getting paid to develop what you love doing anyway is ideal,” Wartenberg said.
He added, “The trick is how to take the techniques that are so successful for Blizzard into other industries. It’s relatively easy in the life science field, in that the companies can replace fun with a deep sense of purpose and high societal value of the products delivered. For many engineers and life scientists, this is what drives them and allows them to work on very long-term projects without getting too discouraged.”
What a great Article.. Bookmarked and saved for future reference. I only wich My bosses would understand even a tenth of it.
The reality is quite simple, make a quality product, and keep working on the product. That’s what keep people coming back and the money coming in. People will come to you to buy, no chasing necessary
Except they never rolled out Australian servers and made the playability in Australia and the surrounding region extremely sub-par because of the latency issues. This despite their EXTREME profitability and income from the game. It’s contempt.
With regards to #10 — World of Warcraft wasn’t really the first MMORPG to hit the scene, or particularly innovative in terms of the genre. WoW was released in 2004, while network games of similar concepts date back to 1984. More recognizable games (true MMORPGs like Ultima Online) showed up in the late 90’s. If anything, WoW is a third-generation MMORPG.
The business model wasn’t new, either — early online games had been doing the same thing in the early 90’s and almost all MMOs before WoW (there have been many of them) had the exact same model.
WoW’s success was more in pushing the MMO genre further into the mainstream rather than innovating it.
You couldn’t be more wrong about #10. Blizzard didnt invent the MMO, they weren’t even one of the first 10 big ones. Just because they’re the biggest doesn’t mean they did it first. Ultima Online, EQ, Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage.. all huge, all came first.
True, Blizzard had some games before the MMO, but that’s the reason they’re the biggest- the original games were great too. The same formula has been applied to other IPs. Most notably Lord of the Rings Online, and soon Warhammer. Taking an already existing, popular property and making an MMO out of it is no different than making a movie out of a tv show. How many Star Trek movies are there now?
Recurring subscription based content access is hardly new either. Paying for MMOs monthly is pretty much the standard. There are free to play ones as well, but not with the support that comes with subscriptions.
Section 3: Six Sigma is 3.4 defects per million opportunities, not 1 in 3.14 million.
Please, please do your research before you come up with numbers like 1 billion in revenue. A large majority of the 10 million accounts are in China, which has completely different pricing. No where near 15 dollars a month. It was about a 10th of that last time I checked (which I admit was awhile ago).
Er, Blizzard did not invent the online game subscription, and they were not pioneers in the MMO business. That model of payment has been around for over a decade, as have MMOs themselves. Blizzard has brought a lot of improvements into MMOs, but mostly in the field of creating a well-polished and complete game; none of the real fundamentals of World of Warcraft are innovative at all.
The last one is the exact opposite of my company’s policy, which is to make its employees suffer and hate their job and senior management.
Very good tips.
Connecting employees to customers is a very good idea. I think that employees get more involved, if they feel that a real person needs and uses their products.
Good article, however this lack of research just propogates a problem in this industry, which is not giving credit to where it is due, but rather to whoever sells the most.
I would like to point out that many companies created and Pioneered the MMO game genre long before Blizzard entered into the scene.
There is no question there success is unrivaled, however to say they are the Pioneers is snubbing hundreds of game developers who pour their heart into the work, for it to quickly be dismissed within a poorly researched news article
Number 10 is a bit wrong and people might misinterpret it. There were many MMORPGs before World of Warcraft and Blizzard did not create a new type of product or invented subscriptions for an online game. What aboue Everquest, Ultima Online, or City of Heroes. The way it is worded says that Blizzard did it first. It was because of the previous attempts at MMORPGs by other companies that Blizzard was able to come up with a perfect formula to make these type of games mainstream and highly successful.
12: Crush public criticism
13: Sue producers of macros
14: Sell out to MS and bail on distributing your Linux client (even though it was on pre-release CDs).
15: Ban linux users running your client under alternative win32 implementations.
Back to Eve
Number 10. Blizzard is far away from being a pioneer of the MMORPG genre. The market was preceded by many years by Ultima Online, Everquest and Asherons Call. Blizzard merely took Everquest and remade better and slicker. Lets get facts right shall we?
“Blizzard was one of the pioneers in a new category of game – massively multi-player online role-playing games.”
How old do you have to be as a genre to be considered “new”? Ultima Online came out in 1997. Meridian 59 came out two years before that, but they weren’t using the term “massively multiplayer.”
Blizzard’s main contribution to the genre thus far has been taking everything learned by a mass of other companies and executing it a whole lot better, but I don’t know if “pioneer” is an appropriate term here.
Good article otherwise.
Number 5 is complete horse crap. They ONLY cater to the level 70’s now. I’m a casual player. My highest character is level 42. I am SICK of having to grind the same areas over and over again with new characters, when the level 60’s and up got Outlands as somewhere new to go, and now they have Sunwell. Once Lich King drops, the high levels will have yet more places to go whereas the rest are stuck grinding the usual crap in Wetlands, Loch Modan etc…
NOTHING EVER CHANGES in the game. Those Gnomeregan evacuees have been running up that ramp endlessly since the start. Topper McNabb will always be behind the SW auction house. And when players try to make their own creative content, such as kidnapping flightmasters etc… Making the game INTERESTING (after all it is called WARcraft), the GM’s just reset it. The most fun time I ever had in WOW was when someone kited Teremus the Devourer to Stormwind. Awesome fun. Now doing stuff like that is considered griefing and gets you suspended.
Nothing in the game EVER changes. Sure, they add new content (like the changes in Dustwallow), but again, it’s 99% for the end game folk. They don’t give a damn about anyone who isn’t level 60 or higher. Oh sure, they’ll chuck in a few new quests here and there, but if you’re grinding at, say, level 25, your choices and quests now are identical to what they were more than two years ago when I first started playing. The areas I’m running with my current character (level 29) are IDENTICAL to those I ran more than two years ago. One reason why I cancelled my account for over a year. Blizzard say the game world is “ever changing”. Someone should sue them for that as it’s clearly false advertising, as it never bloody changes.
Blizzard, rather than innovate, are terrified of change. They are so used to their MASSIVE revenue stream that they won’t rock the boat or do anything truly innovative lest they lose some of that revenue. Blizzard will NEVER EVER do anything to truly innovate in WOW again. At least not until they get a worthy competitor. Blizzard make a good product, but to say they innovate is hugely misleading. And it will stay that way until their market position is threatened, which isn’t going to happen for a very long time.
Point number 10 is inaccurate. The MMORPG genre and monthly subscription business model predate World of Warcraft by nearly a decade.
Thanks for this consolidated list. This is a good resource and contains valuable lessons for teams/companies outside of the gaming industry. Subscribed!
“People don’t just play the games at home. They play the games in game rooms in China and Seoul”
Seoul is not a country. Although, it is probably the biggest concentration of Blizzard players in the world. It is a city in South Korea. So much for knowing your market.
Blizzard is not a pioner in MMORPG’s they have been around for quite some time now. Examples Ultima online, Everquest
What a bunch of bullocks rofl
I was building multi-user online world back when they still had text interfaces. I was one of the early people to give them graphical interfaces to these systems and ever since I’ve doubted that it was the right way to go. IMO these worlds have become to rigid and repetitive and just aren’t as fun anymore. I wonder if Blizzard survives on the wow factor of people to young to have become bored with their limited worlds. Has Blizzard made any effort to make their worlds more reactive and open ended? I don’t think they get much feedback from people like me or they’d make their games more fun.
Some fact-checking might have been in order. Claiming public beta testing and account-based subscriptions are Blizzard innovations or saying that Blizzard is among the MMORPG pioneers is just . . . wrong.
#10 utter rubbish
I was playing linage 2 and ever quest 2 when WOW came out , both required monthly subscriptions.
UncleBoogie - QQ more newb
getting to 70 isn’t hard and bliz recently made lvling faster so they did change something. They made it easier to get to the real game content AKA new lvl 70 content.
Never getting to 70 means your missing the game. This new content your talkinb about is dev’d for level 60-70. The non expansion game is to lvl 60 you need to get past that to find new content u ignorant twat.
Gotta agree with the guy complaining about repeating the same content for casual gamers. Blizzard needs to add new midlevel outdoor content so that the 20-60 phases are as full of quests and originality as the 0-20 phase. We cancelled our two accounts after buying the Blood Elf expansion and levelling up until we hit the same damned quests we’d already done. The worst thing about them is not even the repetition it’s the long commute times between them.
Diablo came out before everquest =p. There was multiplayer online in that game too.
To all those who are saying that Blizzard is not a pioneer in the MMO market; you are wrong.
World of Warcraft (WoW) was the first MMO to attract a mainstream audience and to have continual growth and success for more than 3 years. Its success has garnered new business models and opened the eyes of other MMO developers to what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t pay attention and learn from WoW’s success you WILL fail (Vanguard anyone?) and all your time and money will have been for naught.
No other MMO has paved the way to mainstream success like WoW. EQ was a nat and still niche when compared to WoW and few even knew about UO or Meridian 59.
“Rely on Critics”
“ignore the general population of players, dont even bother reading the suggestion forums, and then hand out forums bans when players voice their opinions”
fixed
Inside Innovation with Colin Stewart
“12: Crush public criticism
13: Sue producers of macros
14: Sell out to MS and bail on distributing your Linux client (even though it was on pre-release CDs).
15: Ban linux users running your client under alternative win32 implementations.”
Amen to the above comment.
Blizzard’s “we do not evil” attitude reflects 99% on its fan base. They all use Windows(TM) and have minimal clue of what the outside world does or desires. Blizzards WOW development was supposedly going to serve all type of players (casual and hardcore). The fact of the mater is that Blizzard used to release their games in OpenGL and under different platforms.Their support for the Linux community nowadays though has been nonexistent and they need to stop sucking on Microsoft’s tit and supporting their monopolistic reasons.
Ohh and Blizzard, since you are so welcoming on taking criticism from your fan base then how about this: The Linux community does not respect you or your games unless you give them the same respect you give windows users.
The article has some obvious short comings in research, but I would like to point out that Blizzard is one of the few companies that actually follow what they preach. Every MMO company out there has talked about a list of “innovations” like this, but most of them never actually follow through on them. Blizzard talks the talk, but more importantly, walks the walk.
One big item missed in this discussion is the fact that Blizzard has had an “online gaming network” for some time in the form of Battle.net which was free of charge and still is free of charge. So, moving Warcraft online with WoW is a bit misleading as it was online since it’s inception.
Let me also tackle Subscriptions. Ultima Online (UO) was really the pioneer of monthly payments and most players paying $14.99 now have a big THANK YOU to give to UO. UO started at $9.99, a BARGAIN, which has shaped monthly fees for MMOs ever since. If UO had no started at $9.99, current games could easily be upwards of $30 per month. I know I would pay $30, but that doesn’t mean I’m not glad I don’t.
“Please, please do your research before you come up with numbers like 1 billion in revenue. A large majority of the 10 million accounts are in China, which has completely different pricing. No where near 15 dollars a month. It was about a 10th of that last time I checked (which I admit was awhile ago).” - John
Unfortunately you are the one that needs to do some research John, as Blizzard’s revenue is publicly available and exceeds 1 billion annually. No need to do the math yourself, just go look at their year-end financial statements.
Granted most of us that have been into the MMOs since before WoW will get annoyed at #10. But the fact is, Blizzard is the most notable player in the industry. They figured out how to market to not just the D&D players, but to all gamers. I have tried other MMOs but I keep coming back to WoW. You don’t need to be a hardcore gamer to enjoy the game.
So they may not be the first company out there to make an MMO, but they are no doubt the most successful. They are so successful that other companies have a hard time bringing anything new to the genre without being criticized that “it looks just like WoW or plays just like WoW.”
Regarding question number 10. I do not think they are trying to say that Blizzard is the creator of all MMORPG games. I think they are trying to say that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft was a revolution to online gaming. In some ways this makes Blizzard a pioneer. You should think a little before posting aggressively.
This article continues in the long line of business articles written for non-business people. It’s completely useless for anyone who’s run, or even attempted to run a business for more than six months. The trick is not in learning these 11 things. The trick is figuring out how to achieve these 11 things without blowing budgets, resources, and time-lines. This article is little more than “buy low sell high”. Gee, thanks for the insight.
Listen to criticism? You’ve got to be kidding me.
The shaman dot shock spam? Purging of thoughtful posts as well as the banning of many of the most vocal and informed forum members?
Blizzard does not want to listen to their community unless its mindless drivel.
Blizzard were nerfing Shaman, calling it a buff. The shaman community proved that it was a nerf, but Blizzard decided instead to purge all work done, ban those posters, and then you got the dot shock spam, which resulted in unhappy people not just in the shaman class community.
Blizzards’ own in house community is in shambles, there is a huge lack of communication between GM’s, Blues, and the developers, this article itself is proof. The Developers feeling that they actually Listen to criticism? GM and Blue responses are often times incredibly contradictory, not to mention between one GM and the next.
Your article does not provide any insight into the other side of the issues that Blizzard makes claims on, some research would have gone a long way to make this a balanced article.
The banning continues to this day, Megatlf’s purge, highlighted among all the others that take place every day. Blizzard does not want our criticism, or they would actually accept it instead of punishing us for it.
1. Ban any player that is critical from speaking on your forums.
1.a. this includes a standing TOU rule that organizing protests is a violation of the rules.
2. Rip off Games like Everquest, Ultima Online, and Dark Ages of Camelot.
3. Deny the need for any improvement on any issue at all times.
4. Never, ever change.
5. Create a game that requires pain and suffering to accomplish anything beyond sight seeing.
6. Never admit to any failure, ever.
7. Take over a year to release your first much needed bug fix game patch.
8. As long as some Chinese guy is willing to pay $1.50 a month to play everything is A OK.
9. Create a tool that helps players looking for a group that doesn’t help players look for a group. Then force this on them by cutting off and making bannable any other method of finding a someone to play with.
10. Rinse and repeat what others have done for the last twenty years and fix what those before you failed to fix.
11. We under pay our people who do programing and we have an in-house slave program for customers who someday may want to get paid to work for us. It’s an awesome system.
Unless you only have two brain cells left, (and one hanging by a thread),
I think further readers of this article have gotten the idea that Blizzard is NOT the pioneer in MMORPGs.
But just in case you missed it the first SIX times.
Blizzard is NOT the pioneer in MMORPGs!
I don’t care much for WoW. I’ve tried it twice and just don’t care for the way the game plays. I gave my feed back and I know I can’t be the only one complaining about the things I did, as I had friends and other online games I know complain about the same issues.
Did they change the 2nd time I tried? Nope. I am sure they are changing things but what I’ll never know (well only by the comments left here).
I am sure they have learned some great things as I hear plenty of people playing their games. Give them their due but keep in mind they are still a business and out for profit.
Not to mention blizz hasnt creatively designed … for like 10 years.
Every single wow class, spell, enemy, ability, etc has come from either Diablo, Statcraft or Warcraft. Not that thats all wrong, but i wouldnt mind gettin some REAL NEW content, something i havent seen b4. Its true its a game based on a great story with an inmense lore, but that doesnt mean it has to stick to it so damn close to it.
I really miss AQ, it was great new stuff i gave me a lot of false expectations on the game.
Innovative? o’rly?
Uncle Boogie.. you’re so right on about the attention paid to developing characters. It’s all about the level 70’s..
Do a google search for MMOGlider. It’s an add-on for the game that really brings some fun back in.
It’ll help you with all the boring parts and is a really interesting “side game”.
Good Luck.
While the article is great in showing how being brave as a company and really committing to *quality* first- even over deadlines, the Christmas shopping season, and all the other BS companies use to ship mediocre product- makes you boat loads of money.
It is a shame that the author of this article did so little research and published so many obvious mistakes about the MMORPG universe (no mention of Islands/Legends of Kesmai or Meridian 59?)- but people should not let those errors distract from the main message: quality sells. Spending the time, effort, money, and *having the courage* to face the defects in your product and really fix them is the ONLY way to achieve massive and long-lived success.
After all, what did happen to EQ, DAoC, Ultima Online, etc. that let WoW eat their lunch? It’s because Blizzard carefully studied everything that came before WoW, took the good stuff, dropped the bad, and has continued to push new content. Although point taken- no MMORPG has ever gone back to existing zones and changed them much, which if they did it would really add to replay value. Think if all of the old tricks didn’t work with your new twinkie, you’d have to really learn everything again about how to level up- that would be much more like the real world.
Get your facts straight. Blizz didn’t pioneer blah blah blah..
I love that people like say the same thing over and over and over…. and over again. I’m sure that the point has come across by now.
20 posters complaining about Blizz not being the first MMORPG - OK we got it. But still, using the term “pioneer” a bit more broadly I agree with it.
I would say they are pioneers of quality and gameplay improvements on the genre. The two biggest examples I can think of would be battlegrounds & arenas. The nearest competition a few years ago was arguable Everquest and I’m pretty sure it did not have anything that cool for PVP. And now, we have a PVP tournament where u can win thousands of dollars
Not only is Blizzard not a pioneer in MMORPGs (which existed over a decade before World of Warcraft) or “subscription based access to a game” (which has been around for God knows how long), but every single one of these “lessons” is like … business 101?
First to the casual player.
Yes Blizzard does cater to the high level characters for the specific reason that the majority of subscribers “main” characters are level 70’s.
But they also added new quest and lowered the amount of experience required to get from level 20 - 60. They also increased the amount of experience gained from quest from level 30 - 60 and changed a lot of items.
As far as being innovative. No they did not bring anything new to the MMO genre EXCEPT that the grind from beginning to end game is over all much less then the average MMO allowing more people to experience end game content.
Comeon yall, we know reporters can’t get facts correct unless it strokes their own ego. The spirit of the article is a good effort though.
Wow, simply wow. There’s some good points there and it’s interesting to talk about, but hardly a single word is true (as outlined expertly above). It is too bad it’s such rigid gameplay, it’s not a social game. It’s an upgrade to the Mario Paint fly swatting game… with a chat room. Keep swatting flies and after 2 years of your life you’ll be a higher level! Is there a point? Is it fun to waste your life on repetitive tasks hoping to level up?
It would be really awesome to have a game more like second life but with true AI characters that have to go home at night and walk to work to open the store and sell their wares. And having changes to the existing world (and gnomes actually finish their trek) would be amazing. The closest I’ve seen is Guild Wars, but it’s not really the ‘global’ environment changing, just big environment changes as a player plays through. It’s a start though.
I agree that their virtual world is basically static, but that doesn’t mean its not fun. There is a huge amount of content, and getting to end game can be quite easy (a month or two, depending on how much time you want to sink into it).
One of the brilliant things Blizz did is make half the game open up after hitting the end game (raiding, some battlegrounds, arena, daily quests)., so there is a very strong incentive to make it easy to get to the endgame. Consequently they keep adding content for end-game, to ensure that those who have end-game characters do not get bored.
If you are leveling there are many different quests, such that you could level 3-4 characters and not repeat too many quests (maybe 25%). If you find the leveling game too boring, then you aren’t likely going to stick around and enjoy the fruits at the end-game. I agree that it’s unfortunate that they never bother to update their ‘dynamic’ game except at end-game content, but that’s their business model, and it works for them.
Points 1-3 are BS. Point 10 is flat out wrong.
1: Criticism on the PTR? Please. These folks had a few hundred topic posts about certain changes (and how they need to be fixed, or what was lacking) for the latest WoW patch. They ignored them completely. They won’t listen to criticism about how they ignore some classes and in fact take an active part deleting posts that are criticisms.
2: The developers have stated they do not play certain classes. These classes often get sweeping changes that are not tested thoroughly and are knee jerk reactions to losing in the game at home. How is this good for a company when your lead developer has a known bias against a percentage of the user base and wants the classes he plays to get better while other classes are made worse so it is easier for him to win? It reflects rather poorly on the company.
3: The developer states they are hoping to make improvements for one of the weak classes. They then make sweeping changes without any feedback (see my comment on points 1 and 2) and the end result is that things are actually worse for this class in that very venue that was supposed to be improved. If the goal is continual improvement, changing an icon without actually making the class able to compete even close to fairly is a poor showing.
8: Statistics are only good if you use them. 9 classes. If things were equal, you would expect around 10% the base to be in each class with some small fluctuations. Each class has 3 trees which modify how they play. One would expect each tree to be roughly equal as well. Currently the bottom 3 classes have well below 10%. One is currently at around 4% of the user base. Another has around 80% being a healer tree. This is especially strange because the class is billed in all their promotions as a melee fighter.
10: This type of product was popular well before Blizzard came into the game. When it started people predicted it would die to the then powerhouse, Everquest. It surprised a lot of people.
I could pretty much take apart each point and show how Blizzard USED to be this way and how Blizzard does this only in certain areas. Currently the worst thing about Blizzard is how they have allowed developers to control the game and not had any input from the actual players. It is lip service and damage control when they do communicate with the players of certain classes. Effectively if you are not one of the developers pet classes, you will not enjoy the game as much.
That is a sad thing and I plan on looking at Mythic and Funcom for better products. They seem to actually b doing what Blizzard claims to be.
“… keep the game fresh and challenging…”
WoW is no longer fresh and challenging. It never really was. Far from being
fresh, WoW brought together all the features of existing MMOs of the time in one place to create a best-of-breed game.
They’re definitely clever for doing so. I spent a great deal of time enjoying WoW. Looking at it dispassionately though, WoW isn’t innovative.
Their end game strategy is raiding. In fact they have Everquest 1 raid designers on their team.
Raiding is a huge time sink and a copout. Clever and innovative would have been to deliver new content on a much faster and grand scale.
The world is a static, unchanging place - like every other MMO on the market.
Characters advance in levels, max out and then can only advance by getting
better gear - like every other MMO on the market.
See a pattern? Best of breed - yes, innovative - no.
Get this, pay 5000 gold for a flying mount at level 70. Move on to the second expansion where you won’t be able to use it until level 78. What a slap.
Instead of being innovative, Blizzard takes the easy way out again.
“Number 5 is complete horse crap. They ONLY cater to the level 70’s now. I’m a casual player. My highest character is level 42. I am SICK of having to grind the same areas over and over again with new characters, when the level 60’s and up got Outlands as somewhere new to go, and now they have Sunwell. Once Lich King drops, the high levels will have yet more places to go whereas the rest are stuck grinding the usual crap in Wetlands, Loch Modan etc…
NOTHING EVER CHANGES in the game. Those Gnomeregan evacuees have been running up that ramp endlessly since the start. Topper McNabb will always be behind the SW auction house. And when players try to make their own creative content, such as kidnapping flightmasters etc… Making the game INTERESTING (after all it is called WARcraft), the GM’s just reset it. The most fun time I ever had in WOW was when someone kited Teremus the Devourer to Stormwind. Awesome fun. Now doing stuff like that is considered griefing and gets you suspended.”
Not to derail the article (I will address my issues/comments about it) but if you are to criticize an opinion or or knowledge based on your opinion, then please try to be consistent. There isn’t a point in interjecting your opinion on what was reported and then go on to talk about doing “fun” things that can pretty much only be done by those same high leveled players (not really a level requirement but that isn’t the point).
Please don’t try to say that only the high level characters are catered to, and the belittle it by saying high level characters can’t do anything without getting in trouble. You’re representing the community of gamers when you make a post like this and need to be a bit more responsible about it.
Now for the article-
Yes I agree with many posters about the misrepresentation of certain #s, like the “pioneer of MMOs” etc. Blizzard is not to do it. I used to play “dsw1″ (Diablo Shareware 1) before I ever heard of Everquest (which I played for about 3 years) and watched EQ handle Asheron’s Call, and Dark Age of Camelot assault the gaming world before WoW was ever introduced. Not saying Blizzard is wrong, or at fault, but I’m not going to give Blizzard credit over Sony in that realm. Like some above posters sourced, there is plenty of games who were out first, and whether it’s a quality issue, longevity issue, or even an existence issue… Blizzard is definitely more progressive, but that doesn’t mean pioneer, as they improved an existing model in that regard.
Although I do like the idea giving employees perks, and encourage that interaction between employees and customers, I would advise with caution- Put enough employees on the same forums that gamers flame, complain, suggest, or even just chat about is going to give the employees to their sway and that isn’t necessarily good. Elementally it is sound as it gives feedback, sure. But we are all human and I’m sure the Mage based employees and the Warlock employees will start petitioning for more and more changes to further their own class based competition. That isn’t necessarily catering to the gaming community on the customer level.
And speaking of catering to the customers…
There was an additional article that I picked up (worldofraids.com sourced it although I do not have the link) and read about the “new” changes for patch 2.4 concerning the reasons for removing attunements being because of how the cutting edge progression guilds enjoy different content that the casual player does not.
But isn’t that the point? There is a reason people spend all their free time leveling mass #s of alts to 70, and those who farm gold, play the AH(Auction House), spend their time in pvp, keep level 19/29/39/49/etc alts in pvp battlegrounds and also strive for excellence in the arena.
Feel free to have developers quote about naxxramas and onyxia’s lair having the “greatest content we’d love to share with players” getting outdated as to the attunement restrictions being lifted, but SERIOUSLY, why not remove those attunements as well then?
Be consistent for the love of the gaming gods. I understand patches, and hot fixes, and changes are going to be necessary, I’m not asking to stop that. I’m just asking to not revamp a progression aspect that hardcore gamers (like myself if you haven’t noticed) can appreciate being in that elite node. I know we still get the content, and its farmed, and we don’t really “lose” anything.
But we do. We do lose the sense of fulfillment and the level of accomplishment dwindles with each passing “nerf”.
And yes, I do condone the “favoritism” level 70s receive. I firmly believe that not being the max level means you are still making your way to to that targeted goal. I’m not saying to ignore the level 10s and 20s etc, but I am saying that the point of the game is to get to level 70 and (following the storyline) progress into new territories. Just because the the “high end” community is only the top 3% of subscribers doesn’t necessarily make us a minority, it just means that there is 97% of people to catch up.
Not that everyone has to progress, to each their own fun and playstyle. But is it not true that the progressive raiding guilds are not following the most linear path set in place by the developers?
Hope you enjoyed the wall of text and that your eyes didn’t bleed too much.
As many people have already pointed out, number 10 is just plain wrong.
Most of the control interface, targeting system, questing system, payment options, chat, class system etc. are taken almost 100% from other, older, games in the MMORPG genre.
In fact, there is very little about WoW that is either innovative OR original. They made a name for themselves by using the brand-loyalty of the Warcraft series, and by presenting new players with a low-risk ‘vanilla’-flavored fantasy game with an extremely easy learning curve.
Uncle Boogie had some valid points about Number 5. DESIGN FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF CUSTOMERS. Recently Blizzard made leveling to 70 easier by removing Elite NPCs and making many quests rather tard level to accomplish. For people like Uncle Boogie and myself its the journey, not the destination that makes the game great. By nerfing the content Blizzard has facilitated incompetent players and made leveling a new toon boring for vets. This has flooded the high levels of 60 plus with incompetent players and is having a negative impact on the teams required for end game success. You no longer need to hone your skills in your class or try all specs as you level your toon based on applicable situations so you are ready for end game. Just rush to 70 and be a burden on the Vets in both PVE and PVP. Such is WOW now. Because of that low level instances are rarely even used as intended too.
Catering to the dumbest, youngest and most impatient players in the game is not good for the long term business return. Keeping the smart players challenged and weeding out the idiots is imperitive for a game of this level of social dynamics to prosper. If they keep dummying down the content in PVE and fail to make the BGs more challenging and entertaining for PVP, I’ll be trying Warhammer when it comes out.
But I must say this for Blizzard. WOW is a WONDERFUL game and has brought me hours and hours of fun and entertainment. It is a beautiful world and a great escape from reality. By far it is the BEST game I have ever played and has held my interest at least 100 times longer than any other passtime.
Some suggestions for you from a loyal fan.
Give the Aussies/Kiwis more servers - they are cool and deserve it.
Dont lower the bar Blizzard, raise it. Make em work for it, dont throw the Booty at em like some MMORPG whore. Bring Engineering into the BG with siege weapons and tactics. Make teams win the support of NPCs in the BG by killing their enemy NPCs and then have the NPCs become your allies. Make BG quests essential to winning BGs again as they once were and now are not. Bring in mounted conflict, castle defense and ships. Keep it new, keep it challenging and keep it unreal. Arenas require mandatory teamwork but the BGs let individuals join temporary teams and should be keep challenging for the solo players. Keep quest content challenging for PVE individuality. Make it more challenging, not easier. Stop rewarding incompetence.
My God.
Post a blog about World of Warcraft and the all-knowing MMO geeks emerge to voice their expertise on the subject. Anyone who started playing Blizzard games with good-old WC: Orcs and Humans knows that the company is one of the pioneers of online gaming. Go back to the days of Kali.net and research IPX gaming and the beginnings of battle.net and you’ll see how Blizzard changed online gaming forever.
Sure, they copied many previous games to make World of Warcraft, but so did most of the other MMO developers mentioned here. They’re also produced the most popular MMO of all time, a world they continue to add to regularly. Sunwell anyone? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m having a blast in 2.4 and have loved this game since beta.
the ONLY reason i still stick with WoW is coz my friends r still playin it…other than that, Blizzard is GREEDY…end o story.
People need to read better.
#10 says “10. CREATE A NEW TYPE OF PRODUCT” and then elaborates saying “Blizzard was one of the pioneers in a new category of game – massively multi-player online role-playing games.”.
This never says they were first. It just says they are one of the most apparent examples of doing it well
WOW is gay.
#12: Ignoring the whiners.
Looks like a lot of regurgitated concepts from just about any development process book, with a nice dose of executive BS spin (look! it’s a paradigm shift!). I used to work for a development company very much like Blizz, and really, they’re just high on themselves. I especially like the last one — basically, screw real compensation, lets work long hours for low pay, because “you will love our corporate culture! free jellybeans!”. I’m now in a much better, more boring job. And loving it.
I smell propaganda, in a year this artickle might be what people beleve to be the truth.
guys..
blizzard made best MMORPG on the world. dot.
and sorry - your whinning about PTR, about nerfing content just acknowledges it.
because you are whinning about details, yes, little details.
people at other games are whining about general gameplay, lack of content, server stability, custommer support.
remeber this, please
Blizzard are now more focused on revenue and the bottom line that player satisfaction. Australian players a screaming for a local server presence but their ’solution’ was to place servers on the closest possible point to australia WITHIN american soil. This is utter bull imo. Leave an entire area that is VERY keen on ur product out and force them to play with sub par latency and it creates some very frustrating gameplay experiences. I have lost count of the number of petitions to a local australian presence for WoW and now also South american people are going to get the same treatment. Have a localised language translation but be forced to play on US servers no doubt. So blizz are not looking to impress the gamer anytime soon their just looking to line the pockets of their board members.
Age of Conan > Warcraft is time to move on and leave the kids with their christmas pc playing wow flame me if you want like it or not this comment will bother you and you have to say something against me only thing i will have to say is if i have to pay less than 15$ a month on wow then i stick with wow otherwise that’s it for me no more wow for me. kids play T ” teen games” adults play M ” Mature” games just like AoC and yea cant wait
I have been playing WoW since beta release 3+ years ago and I totally agree with alot of the comments said here.
Regarding game content, I firmly believe Blizzard changes things that should not be changed.
For example, a clever hunter ingame awhile back found a way to tame the spirit wolf. Blizzard found out about this and publically announced that they wonr be changing this because it was a clever use of ingame mechanics.
What happened in the following patch?
They made the spirit wold untamable - and hence going back on their word.
I use the above situation as an example of what makes this game fun. Farming scriptable bosses in endgame is not fun (having done it for 3 years - spending 1 year in Molton Core!). Infact being an end gamne raider it is boring and sole destroying having to farm instances every evening for an epic that may or not drop.
Well heres some suggestions to make this game better:
1. Make the environment changable - move NPCS around, get them to do things MAKE THEM REAL.
2. Encourage players to try new things - like taming a spirit wolf or kiting an endgame boss to a city - DONT PUNISH PLAYERS WHO DO THIS.
3. Create more diversity in the design of the game. In other words, allow people at all levels choose their destiny!
4. Raiding - make it EPIC. before blizzard nerfed all the endgame you needed 40 people in a raid to kill a boss. FFS make this game EPIC!
What is sooo epic about a 25 man raid killing Arthus???
I hope to god that it takes 40+ people who know what they are doing to kill the biggest villan in the whole game!
Or even better, make the killing of arthus in the next expansion and multiple guild event - you need 200+ people to kill him!
5. Introduce random game events. Like bosses attacking a zone, invasions, shortage of supplys from a vendor, npcs going away, cities being over-run by the opposing faction…
Make this game more real!
To Dave F.-
(first post, April 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm)
and all the other haters….
1 BILLION dollars a year in revenue.
The end.
Am I supposed to be impressed? World of WarCrack isn’t doing anything different from every MUD written since 1978.
You guys are right, this article is a load of BS. But it does have ONE good point:
DEMAND EXCELLENCE OR YOU’LL GET MEDIOCRITY
This is proof that the author is not bright enough to learn from his own research.
I would suggest that this article be removed from the Web and the community should demand a rewrite - from someone competent.
#10 : Haven’t you heard of EverQuest? Ultima Online? Lineage? Dark Age of Camelot? Neverwinter Nights? Anarchy Online? Asheron’s Call? even EVE online came out earlier than WoW… >.>
You need to get your facts straight imo.
other than that, WoW is quite good, considering.
10 million subscribers are still 10 million subscribers, no matter where they come from, the money they generate is pretty sweet(being a contributor myself)
@treewind : cities ARE being run over by the opposing faction. doesn’t the opposing faction on your server do any world peeveepee?
I’ve been playing since pre-release beta, and I think a great many of the complaints here simply show peoples’ continued ignorance of the game, how difficult it is to make an international game appealing to millions and the ripples that one little change can make.
Uncle Boogie and others that are complaining that quests are the same, you’ve obviously missed a great deal. Every race has completely different quests from 1-20 with the exception of the gnome/dwarf and orc/troll who start in the same zones. Once you hit 20, you have at least two different paths in front of you. By the time you hit 40 you’re simultaneously working in four different zones. At 50 you have to choose one of three different paths or you’ll go insane trying to do all the content. You’ll hit 60 well before you see all the quests.
Now with BC and 2.4, you’ll never see about 50% of the quests because you’re leveling much faster and you’ll hit Outlands at 58. Outland quests are much more linear than Azeroth/Kalimdor ever were. If anything the +60s should be complaining. There is never, ever, EVER any reason to simply grind (repeatedly kill mobs) solely for XP. Reputation and resource farming are completely different. Players get so much more XP from quests than from straightforward, brainless grinding it’s ridiculous. If you ever find yourself killing only for XP, you’re playing inefficiently and bringing the boredom on yourself. There is always another quest in the next zone or in a “parallel” zone of the same level elsewhere.
In the past a valid complaint was the lack of variety in types of quests. All we had were kill counts, drop counts and “fedex”/courier quests. That improved greatly with BC. Bombing runs, shape shifting and kill assists, summoning, crafting quests, resource gathering quests… it’s a good variety now.
A worldwide game is a monumental achievement. When playing UO they introduced “localization” to assist other countries. Later the game took on a strong Asian theme to appeal to largest percentage market. UO didn’t do so well at appealing to a wide variety of backgrounds or playstyles. THAT is why WoW is so successful. Not only do you have a “universal” theme that is well known and accepted from previous games, books and lore, but you have an environment that allows almost anyone with basic computer skill to jump in and really be *playing* in an hour. No game other than Tetris has offered such ease with getting into a game. From there it can become all consuming if you want to learn all there is about the game: classes, combat, talents, strategies, professions, PvP, raiding, equipment, etc. WoW caters to different playstyles: casual (few hours a week), hardcore (several hours a day) or anywhere in between. It easily caters to the four basic player types: socializers, explorers, achievers and player killers. Appealing to this huge variety of players explains why there are more than 10 million people actively playing.
I often read/hear players complain about the lack of “freedom” as some described dragging a boss to SW or altering the landscape or NPCs. With my 7.5 years experience in UO, probably one of the most free-form of all MMOs so far, I can tell you that giving the players the power to change the world is a bad, bad idea. Over the years it has become clear that players enjoy the anonymity of MMOs (internet in general) and easily move into jerk roles of PKs, griefers or whatever loopholes the game allows to cause disruption.
Imagine you’re level 10, you’ve just spent a few hours getting used to the game, making accomplishments and finally feel you are getting somewhere. A lvl 70 drags a huge boss into your vicinity and you and the other 20 lvl 10’s in the area die in one shot, costing you 10% of the money you’ve earned to repair. How much longer are you going to play this game if random events like this can bring a night’s effort to a screaming halt? Not long. My wife can attest to that after attempting UO three separate times during the pre-Trammel days.
Players should NOT be allowed to affect the world because it has become obvious over the past 12+ years of MMOs that players, in general, lack common sense, general courtesy or socially accepted behavior. It only takes one jerk to ruin a party.
I’m completely satisfied with the changes Blizzard has made to WoW over the past 3.5 years. It’s fascinating to see the world change after a big patch: new buildings, new NPCs, new quests, new items. It’s intriguing to follow the overall storyline.
From my perspective, Blizzard has provided us with more game than a person can consume. Anyone whoever says they “finished” WoW obviously played one character to max level and raided enough to get their uber gear. They missed 80% of the game. Since launch I’ve achieved two lvl 70s who raid, at least one of every other class on multiple realms (actively play 4-5 of them), I play at least 2 hours a day and I know that I’ve yet to see 20% of the game. I absolutely feel that Blizzard is giving me my money’s worth and they deserve every merit awarded them.
Do I have complaints about WoW? Sure, I think there can be adjustments and tweaks, and I feel that too much emphasis on PvP is annoying and distracting from development of the rest of the world. There are lots of little annoyances: pets/minions dragging a mob behind you, druids able to do some things in shapeshift but not other similar tasks (herbing vs. mining), drop quest chances, quest rewards limited to certain classes, etc. Yet I still believe that Blizzard’s dedication to quality shines through.
Bottom line: I’m still paying and playing and have no inclination of stopping in the foreseeable future. I think 10+ million players agree with me.
16. Ruin the lives of millions of young gamers around the world with an addicting never ending cycle of leveling and gaining experience, developed by the hard work of hundreds of computer programmers and the hours, days, months, years of 8 million strong.
congrats.
I don’t think this forum is here to debate with other players. Players did not write the article. Make your own blog.
We are here to comment on the article.
Kudos, Flames, and criticism. All cool as I’m sure the author does appreciate feedback.
But this isn’t the place I don’t think for debating the players vs players opinions.
But I digress. I was here to post something I found in regard to those players arguing with themselves. Too many people like using very emphatic words to describe mundane feelings or opinions to make it seem so much more than trivial. “pioneer” “revolutionary” and the like.
I’m not hating on Blizzard. I play the game, have been playing the game, hope to keep on playing the game. I like high end content, I understand WoW isn’t more than it is. I’m not looking for a huge escape from the real world. I fully understand that this is yet another MMORPG in the gaming world.
I’m not going to say Blizzard did anything wrong or anything bad or even anything ultimately good.
Everquest was “revolutionary” and “pioneer” when it was in it’s prime. So was Ultima Online. So will be Conan. And Warhammer. And the next MMORPG after that.
Technology. That is what phases out games. Everquest was IT for hardcore MMO players who liked the idea of having 60 people kill one epic boss. Then technology changed. Blizzard had a better foundation to work from. WoW wasn’t 3 years in the making when bigger better faster hardware and software was available. They tried to adapt. Everquest 2 came out. Tried a demo, liked the graphics, but wasn’t about to subscribe to 2 pay to plays and was already satisfied with WoW after taking a few years break from pay to play games.
Again, WoW isn’t bad. I don’t approve some fo their changes, and some things impress me. Whatever. I’m not going to be a gungho fan of a MMO I know I will drop for another when the technology gets better. As will you.
As will you all. You WILL get tired of the same old pixels. You will get tired of yet another negative change for “balance”. It’s a natural order of things.
But don’t try to say Blizzard reinvented the wheel. They did not. They only added spinners.
Oh and just for you passionate “Blizzard is god” who like to say that they pioneered MMORPGs, I greatly suggest you do not only research, it’s apparent you are too young to remember the last “pioneered” game that everyone played, but I do suggest google.
And dictionary dot com. Look up “pioneer”. You might find it interesting in the terminologies you use.
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pi·o·neer Audio Help /ˌpaɪəˈnɪər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pahy-uh-neer] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a person who is among those who first enter or settle a region, thus opening it for occupation and development by others.
2. one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress: pioneers in cancer research.
3. one of a group of foot soldiers detailed to make roads, dig intrenchments, etc., in advance of the main body.
4. Ecology. an organism that successfully establishes itself in a barren area, thus starting an ecological cycle of life.
5. (initial capital letter) Aerospace. one of a series of U.S. space probes that explored the solar system and transmitted scientific information to earth.
6. (initial capital letter) (formerly) a member of a Communist organization in the Soviet Union for children ranging in age from 10 to 16. Compare Komsomol, Octobrist.
–verb (used without object)
7. to act as a pioneer.
–verb (used with object)
8. to be the first to open or prepare (a way, settlement, etc.).
9. to take part in the beginnings of; initiate: to pioneer an aid program.
10. to lead the way for (a group); guide.
–adjective
11. being the earliest, original, first of a particular kind, etc.: a pioneer method of adult education.
12. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of pioneers: pioneer justice.
13. being a pioneer: a pioneer fur trader.
[Origin: 1515–25;
What is really awesome is the amount of comments about #10. Yes, you are right, and thanks for not reading other’s comments before deciding that you probably are the only one that has lived in the past 10 years.
As much of a fan of WoW as I am, Blizzard did not invent, or even pioneer MMORPGs. They did not come up with the monthly subscription model for MMORPGs.
The term “massively multiplayer online game” was coined by Meridian 59 creator/lead designer Mike Sellers, at 3DO back in 1995. The $10/month subscription model (updated to $15/month in recent years) was first featured for Meridian 59 when it launched in 1996. The price was suggested by Mike Sellers’ wife.
But considering that Mike Sellers’ son-in-law is World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft, Blizzard is quite aware of the history of the genre.
Blizzard itself would never have made these claims. Blizzard has openly said that they take existing genres (RTS, RPG, and MMORPG) and fine tune them, perfect them, and release a market-leading product. This is their talent, not forging new paths.
This is an example of poor research and poor reporting, end of discussion.
QQ, dork. What would be the point of a game where you got to level 22 (out of 70) and just stayed there? None, except to have losers like you cry that the developers aren’t constantly giving you new level 22 content. That’s stupid. Just man up and play the game.
ajjp that’s just stupid.
Why would you play another 40 levels of boring grinding and “kill X number of Y” quests? Just to REACH the ability to obtain DECENT content? Great mentality you have there.
I find all the points to be generalizations except point seven which states that you need to move quickly and in small increments; thats a good thought. Building up a software portfolio this way can either save you time or make you return to the drawing board if you miss out a few links building up the product.
As for the:
12: Crush public criticism - I see enough of it online all over the place, maybe they’ve stopped people bitching for pages and pages on their own forums, but there’s enough criticism out there. And they do have 10 million customers, they’re doing quite a lot right, I think.
13: Sue producers of macros - Sue producers of game wrecking, cheating, and gold selling macros, oh no, what a shame, they’re hunting down the people that ruin my gaming.
14: Sell out to MS and bail on distributing your Linux client (even though it was on pre-release CDs). That I didn’t know about, so I’ll give you that, but really, the facts are the vast majority of gamers are running with XP or Vista now. Maybe they ’sold out’ or maybe they realised it wasn’t worth having a team working on constant updates for a client that 17 people would be using.
15: Ban linux users running your client under alternative win32 implementations.” Again, I have no knowledge of this, being one of those dumb gamers who uses windows to play games, so I’ll give you this one. Do remember they support the mac tho, which puts them pretty high up the list of companies supporting anything that is non windows.
[...] Innovation Lessons from World Of Warcraft “One of the mantras that a large software development company uses is ‘Fail Often, Fail Fast,’ ” Wartenberg said. “We celebrate mistakes; bring them into the open, because we can’t help fix what we don’t know about.” [...]
There is one more thing i concider worth to be mentioned. Age range
The game looks like a kindergarden nowdays. And the worst is that this rating is wrong.
As for critisism if blizzard claims they accept critisism let me laugh
Have you seen a complaint thread in their forums?
Inovation yes sure. I dont know many games but may be ganking, vandalising and mess PVE with PVP are probably inovations. If you want to play PVE there is no place for you
I stoped playing this game today and I am happy for it
[...] some insightful fruit has dropped from the Web tree, in the form of the ‘11 innovation lessons from Blizzard‘ lessons consolidation article published on the Inside Innovation [...]
well the game is awesome this i will admit…but the customer service staff and game master staff leave ALOT to be desired….they dont answer petions they send automated responces, they wait till you are extremly busy to answer youif they decide to so you dont have time to talk. they argue with you about any complaint you have and there is no resolution i had been playing since beta conception and quit recently because of the lack of customer sevice and lack of game master feed back. every petion that was submitted was ignored or simply not answered..i waited for 2 weeks but got bo responce…thats why thios sucks…its not the software that is fine its the people you have working for you and the training you DONT provide them. you wont be getting anymoremoney from me i have learned…have a nice day blizzard.
#10… please…. lol i wont go into it enough already have.
10 million customers. Ok…. how many of that number includes the accounts they’ve banned from farmers? I’m willing to bet a lot.
Listen to customers? please, this company USED to be a major business model for customer service pre-WoW. Battle-net, warcraft, starcraft. All an Excellent job in game design and fun. Now… not so much. Any posts made on forums with positive suggestions are ignored (name one forum post from a player thats been implemented, i thought so) or any threads made in outrage (i’m talking about sensible threads not raging flamming threads) are banned and erased.
To the poster who talked about the Dev’s doing things for personal reasons…. you couldn’t be more on the money. The name you were looking for is Kalgan. Changed several classes to suit his view of what was right an wrong. Also changed what he felt his arena partner felt was right and wrong (his arena partner is a warlock who posted a blog about wanting certain things changed and voila!! next patch people got nerfed right along with what was said in the blog….)
Did WoW start as a great game? Hell yes. I still play, true. Why? Warhammer online hasnt released yet. WoW released when everyone was starved for a MMO that was new. EQ was how many years out? UO? People we’re dying for anything to be thrown at them. Since WoW’s release every other company has merely been trying to maintain. Now Age of Conan bombed (well, not as good as many people thought it would be)…. everyone is looking to Warhammer.
WoW DOES cater to the majority of high level players. Why is that? Because there isnt anything else to do. If your not 70 then it’s a grind fest. Once you get to 70 if you cant spend 4+ hours, 3+ days a week in a raiding guild then your out of luck and doomed to running around outland with nothing to do. Yes i have multiple 70’s and do Raid quite often. I see the other side of the coin and why a new player to WoW is left out to dry. I’ve also level toons with this supposed “new exp from quests”… sorry…. it’s not that much once you break 30. It’s a grind, it’s boring due to the fact that 98% of the player base is now level 68-70, so any type of old world instances are almost out of the question unless you want to spend all day long trying to find people… if you do gluck.
Their Forums GM’s are snotty, rude and arrogant. Most of all…. they are two-faced. They will tell you one thing and promise it will be all roses and sunshine… then 1 week later delete that post and make a thread stating the exact opposite and expect people to forget what they posted and deny they ever made any posts. If you’ve ever visited they forums for any amount of time you will see this is an on-going issue not a one time thing.
For the record… that interview is the most loaded with PR BS i’ve ever read. Talk about a Sunshine and roses fluff speach……