How innovative is World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment?
April 7th, 2008, 6:17 am · 15 Comments · posted by Colin Stewart
Don’t miss the batch of lively comments that readers submitted about the recent post “11 innovation lessons from creators of World of Warcraft.”
Many said Blizzard Entertainment isn’t as innovative in massively multi-player online games as I claimed (although many missed the point was that Blizzard’s 11 techniques for innovation can be useful to other companies. I didn’t say that Blizzard invented each of the 11 techniques). Other readers said they only wished their employers were as innovative as Blizzard is. A few examples:
“I only wish my bosses would understand even a tenth of it.”
“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.”
“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.”
Personally, I think readers are being too harsh when they exclude Blizzard and its breakthroughs from the ranks of pioneers in massively multi-player online games. In the American West, for example, pioneers included thousands of early settlers, not just the first few to explore the land.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Blizzard is one of the few compaines in O.C. to make over a BILLION dollars per year on WoW alone. At $15.00 a month with around 10 million active accounts that’s a TON of money. They are not the pioneer’s in the MMO space, but they took a long established IP and gave gamer’s just about everything they could want or imagine with that IP. I’m personally not a WoW fan, I’m looking forward to Age of Conan next month.
http://www.ageofconan.com/
April 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
“kill X number of Y” - thats how “innovative” WoW is.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:27 am
You wrote the article. You tell us what is so innovative about WoW. I think the readers said everything that was needed in the first article. The ONLY thing that made WoW so successful was it’s polish and the fact that it is an MMO that is completely dumbed down to appeal to the retarded masses.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I agree that WoW is not innovative in the way the original article hinted; the title for this part of the text read “create a new type of product”. As other commenters noted, there were many other MMOGs long before WoW, so Blizzard did not create a new type of product. But there’s no way to deny that they have re-invented this niche, making it accessible to people that were outside of the “gaming circle” without making it look too stupid for hardcore gamers. That’s not an easy thing to do, and Star Wars Galaxies is a living (barely!) example of that.
True, many elements in the game were simplified so that the average Joe could log in and have some fun without having any previous gaming experience - this is what Sludge said in his comment. But if you want to get serious and go crazy about the game, there is a whole new layer of complexity waiting to be discovered. There are entire forums, blogs, sites, etc. dedicated to exploring “class mechanics” and game economics, with pretty advanced topics. This is another example of how WoW mastered the “cater to different kinds of customer” thing without embarassing itself in the process.
To solve THAT specific problem, I think that yeah - they were quite innovative…
April 8th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
In a way blizzard did help innovate the MMORPG. They didn’t actually create the first MMORPG (as stated in comments, FAR from it) but they did create games that a ‘massive’ amount of people played online (Diablo, with the battle.net network chatrooms, 4 player games etc, if I recall correctly).
IMO, and this is from a consumer’s perspective, WoW really followed the ‘improve on an existing product’ model. I personally don’t like WoW gameplay, but their quality of service is second to none. No matter how many people they have complaining, they are still the best to date as far as server crashes, patch releases, etc. On top of that as someone mentioned was their ‘polish.’ They basically took the MMORPG and Blizzard’d it. Blizzard makes very good, very popular games that aren’t MMORPG’s so naturally a good game company and a good game model is a formula for good happy success.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:48 am
“Personally, I think readers are being too harsh when they exclude Blizzard and its breakthroughs from the ranks of pioneers in massively multi-player online games. In the American West, for example, pioneers included thousands of early settlers, not just the first few to explore the land.”
Unfortunately for you, WoW is neither the early settlers nor the explorers; they’re the millions of people living in modern cities. The explorers were the first people to bring text-based role-playing into a graphical format. The early settlers are the early MMOs: UO, EQ, etc. WoW brings NOTHING new to the table, it simply builds on what its predecessors have created - it’s the modern citizens of America who live in the nation established by their early settlers and discovered by their explorers.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:57 am
I wouldnt say Blizzard pioneered the MMORPG genre, there was a very long process before that. I mean there was more than a decade of MMORPG’s before Blizzard had even entered the market, and there were quite a few that were very successful. Dark Age of Camelot, Ultima Online, Everquest, Asheron’s Call, Phantasy Star Online, Runescape and quite a few others came long before World of Warcraft and did see quite good success given the limitations of the internet in their times.
So, Blizzard didnt pioneer the genre, but it is definitely a key point to mark in the history of MMORPG’s.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Will you guys honestly stop. …? Like really. All you guys do is bitch about how “WoW isn’t a pioneer of MMO’s, its boring to play, its not unique, yadda yadda”. If that was the case, it wouldn’t be the most successfull MMO to date, now would it.
Besides, i don’t see any of you rolling in success. Since you can’t get to blizzards level, you just nit pick them and try boycott the whole scene because you’re jealous of how they are full of win, and you’re full of fail
/end thread.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
In response to “The G”’s comment (“kill X number of Y” - thats how “innovative” WoW is)
I’ve been playing WoW since ‘05. I actually currently have 2 accounts, I like it that much. I think it’s an exceptionally innovative game from an innovative company. There are a lot of “kill X number of Y” quests, but there are also complex raid encounters, world pvp objectives and many elaborate, challenging and often humorous quest lines.
Perhaps you can make a better MMO?
Back to the original topic. If WoW was the same as the MMOs before it, it would have been just as popular and well known. But it’s more popular, and better known. So Blizzard must have done something different.
Innovate [in-uh-veyt]:
to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.
I think it fits the definition pretty well.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
A little history lesson, since perspective seems to be lacking here:
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. Ultima Online launched at $10/month because of Meridian, and every other MMORPG since has followed suit.
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 — Warcraft and Starcraft, RPG — Diablo and Diablo 2, and now MMORPG) and fine tune them, perfect them, and release a market-leading product. That ability is a talent in and of itself, and is just as worthy of praise as the ability to invent, pioneer, and innovate.
When writing an article on a company, it’s probably best to attribute to them the things they *actually* do, rather than the spurious thoughts of some short-sighted analyst who has no grasp on the history of the game industry. Research FTW, folks.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
“Will you guys honestly stop. …? Like really. All you guys do is bitch about how “WoW isn’t a pioneer of MMO’s, its boring to play, its not unique, yadda yadda”. If that was the case, it wouldn’t be the most successfull MMO to date, now would it.”
Well, you’re wrong there.
Blizzard are great at -business-, but not (in recent times) at creation.
Blizzard made it (the genre) -mainstream- by catering to different markets - particularly the asian market, and they advertised it well. They’re not innovative in that regard - and their product isn’t even that great, they’re just the most popular.
Think of it in terms of those horrid comic/game-to-movie adaptations; they’re blockbusters because they sell well, but nevertheless they -suck- (from a critic’s or even average viewer’s point of view).
(Personally I’m surprised many IP holders can tolerate that kind of embarrassment. Well, the revenue probably helps.)
“Perhaps you can make a better MMO?”
Even if someone did make a better MMO (in terms of quality, storyline, support, etc.), that does not necessarily mean they’ll make a more popular or successful MMO. WoW is about quantity over quality.
“So Blizzard must have done something different.”
Funny how you can’t -name- anything they did different.
But okay, I’ll tell you. (I’m repeating myself here.) Yes they did do something different. No it has nothing to do with innovations in the genre. Instead it’s about how they catered to and promoted to different- larger- markets with their product.
I do have some respect for Blizzard, but only because of their business sense, not because of anything they’ve created (especially in recent times).
April 10th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I agree with Colin, Erin, …. Say what you want about Blizzard being a pioneer with MMORPG, but we cannot deny that they have successfully delivered a MMORPG that has taken the world by storm. There are not many teenagers (or young adults) with access to Internet that do not know what WoW is.
A result of excellent packaging, marketing and game experience. To achieve that, they must be pioneers or amongst the pioneers of games development, online hosting and product design, etc
If Wow is not your cup of tea, wait to try StarCraft 2 before you rule out their innovativeness. Looking at Blizzards track record, chances are SC2 will be worth waiting for.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Seems most critics are missing the point of the article. It’s about innovation in marketing, not innovation with regard to creating a game. A business’ responsibility is to create wealth for its shareholders, not to create art or a challenge for elite gamers.
Criticize the game all you want, maybe in a forum about actual game design. But don’t criticize Blizzard’s marketing until you’ve put down the games and learned something about marketing.
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