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[Column] World of Warcraft: Speculation on Blizzard's Next Move

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  • fanglofanglo Member UncommonPosts: 314

    A long time ago Before Warahmmer Online, Mythic was in the same position as Blizzard. They actually had a secret game in development for some movie coming out. Ultimately the game got scrapped and they created Warhammer Online instead. Still it showed that rather than work with their own IP they worked with a different company and used that IP.

    In today's MMORPG world plenty of companies are trying to use the IP's already established to help give them that edge on the compettition. IMHO Blizzard will be doing the same thing. There are plenty of IP's for them to choose from BUT the company/movie that I hope they are going to make an MMORPG for would be the Avatar series. 

    I healed Mistwraith and all I got was this stupid tee-shirt!

  • AtibraAtibra Member Posts: 65

    I don't think it will be a Sandbox in the sense that everyone is thinking -

    - There will be a persistant MMO world in which a character exists and a wrapper storyline associated to that world.  Based upon the name Titan, let's assume initial setting is Sci-Fi... and then for sake of arguement throw in Terminator style ability to travel through Space/Time (i.e. you can't bring anything from the fixed MMO world when you travel)

    - Blizzard has formed a partnership with Bungee: 

    ----You can either assume that thus it will be an FPSMMO (which makes absolutely no sense since not a single FPSMMO has come even CLOSE to become successful.. Planetside peaked at like 80,000 players).

    ----Or, more realistically, you can assume that there will be missions available within the game that drop you into FPS combat mode; and allow for another means of progression.  This would also allow Bungee/Blizzard to sell the FPS portion of the game as a standalone product for those not interested in the fixed MMO aspect.  This standalone could potentially funnel more players in the MMO, if they become interested in the storyline and additional progression.

    -Blizzard is working on updating battle.net to allow inclusion of 3rd party programs.

    ----You can either assume that Blizzard plans on turning Battle.net into a Steam/Origin clone.

    ---- Or, more realistically, you can assume that Titan will be a platform MMO with which Blizzard will allow other companies (like Bungee) to plug into.  Accessing these plugged in games would be done through time portals or missions or whatever and result in a completely unique experience and alternate means of progression.  This assumption is further backed up by the Franchise position they are hiring for.

    It's really not that far fetched at all.... if they implement the platform properly they could plug every game they've ever made into it.  Allowing a person to jump through a time portal and suddenly be in a Dungeon Crawl in Diablo 3.  They would simply need to develop a point system similiar to Xbox Live and Steam, and apply that point system to the Fixed MMO character progression (i.e. completing a dungeon in DIablo 3 levels your Diablo 3 presence at normal rate, but it also applies 100 exp to your Titan Character).

     

  • SirBalinSirBalin Member UncommonPosts: 1,300
    Would love to see a large company take on a sandbox with ffa owpvp

    Incognito
    www.incognito-gaming.us
    "You're either with us or against us"

  • SilverbranchSilverbranch Member UncommonPosts: 195

    "Titan" = playing in Sargeras' time leading up to his going nutzo.  I suppose helping / adventuring while he encounters/banishes various demon races?

     

    Blizzard has an entrenched habit of reusing available or past lore, so why not this?

     

    And I had to take a Dramamine once I got through with your first paragraph.

     

    As to "We've had Burning Crusades, Lich Kings, grumpy dragons, and now Kung Fu Pandas - and there's still no end in sight."

     

    That's right, no end, because it's going nowhere.  It's a circular gerbil wheel of insipid repetition that's been going on for years.  Not worth the sub anymore.

     

    /shrug

    Wherever you go, there you are.

  • benit59benit59 Member UncommonPosts: 114
    Anyone who thinks Titan will be some sort of platform that Blizzard allows third parties to tap into has lost their minds. Those guys would rather use an exfoliating sea-salt scrub to clean their eyeballs than let a third party company touch one of their precious babies. Do not underestimate the obsessive control-freakish monster that is the design philosphy of Blizzard Entertainment.
  • benit59benit59 Member UncommonPosts: 114
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Blizzard's next move? Pandaria. What is Titan? Besides the best hope for methane-based life in our solar system, who knows?

    I am done with Blizzard though. Their approach to Diablo 3, being completely devoid of ethics, ruined them for me.

    Oh my god...someone with half a brain posted something. Diablo 3's development was alot like watching Anakin Skywalker. RMAH was gonna give players the ability to bypass those shady 3rd party item and gold vendors...then all of a sudden it was killing young-lings. 

  • benit59benit59 Member UncommonPosts: 114

    Well, first of all you have to bear in mind that Blizzard has laid off 500-1000 emplyees in the past year to maximize profits, remember folks their actual total turnover is actually decreasing this year 6% or so.

    It really becomes easy to see what side of the political fence people swing on when they use the word "profits" as a dirty word and criticize a big business for cutting employees that they don't need anymore.

  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722
    Originally posted by ste2000

    I'd really love to, but I don't think so.

    Titan will be either an FPS MMO (perhaps Call of Duty Online) or something heavily social, something like  Facebook + The Sims + Virtual World

    not CoD online, thats for sure. CoD online is being developed in china right now for the chinese comunity only. We would have known by now if that was Blizz's Titan....

    i have no idea whats gonna be like but i hope is good





  • dotdotdashdotdotdash Member UncommonPosts: 488
    9.1 million != "close to ten million".
  • jusomdudejusomdude Member RarePosts: 2,706
    Originally posted by benit59

    Well, first of all you have to bear in mind that Blizzard has laid off 500-1000 emplyees in the past year to maximize profits, remember folks their actual total turnover is actually decreasing this year 6% or so.

    It really becomes easy to see what side of the political fence people swing on when they use the word "profits" as a dirty word and criticize a big business for cutting employees that they don't need anymore.

    Almost all those employees were in CS also. It was 600. Nice spin with the 500-1000 though.

  • Kykyryz-aKykyryz-a Member Posts: 113
    Originally posted by arctarus

    I believe Titans will be a sandbox mmo.

     

    After developing themepark mmo for 8 years and counting, i believe they do realise that theme park end game is getting harder and harder to chun out.

    So in order to make their life a litlle bit " easier", and to be able to have the best of both worlds, yet not collide with WoW, hint from vege growing in mop etc...

    They will release a sandbox mmo.

    Those that say blizz is thumping down the mmo genre, just need to look carefully at vannila wow :

    1. Running to level 40 till first mount
    2. Outdoor elite
    3. Outdoor dungeons (  Jintha'Alor  )
    4. Group quest ( escort quest )
    5. Very far graveyard
    6. Huge seemless continent
    7. Day and Night cycle
    etc etc.....
     
    there's still those old school hardcore elements in WoW
     
    If iirc, its true that the old dev have gone over to create Titans, than be ready for something that is not only fun, but also may re-design sandbox mmo as we know it
     
     
    1.  

    sorry but you are wrong  saying its was HARDCORE.  it was  simple marketing thing   Running to 40 lvl with cap 60  was simply to make life  slower  so ppl will stay and pay SUB.  

    Outdoor dungeons  hmm  its not--- dungeons with out roof still dungeons which got separate instances for every group

    Far graveyeards same  if you was playing 2-4 hours a day and  running from graveyeards sometimes were 20 min  =  longer you stay in game  with out actuall gameplay   more you pay with sub

    Yes 40 man raids were fun for sure but since 2004 year Blizzard knew only 1 thing  - HOW to do less and make ppl believe in things doesnt exist. 

    Same was with D3  awful product but Hyped for 10+ years  result huge sucess in box sales  and tons of  F****ed fans

    "Titan" will be same crap for sure    i even sure it will be B2P like GW   but probably with 100+$ price tag       somethg   like Historical mmo with sci fi things  but it doesnt matter.    Game will be Hyped  sooo much  will be  insane in box sales   But actually will be same crap they are doing last  years.  Blizzard doesnt care about  Good player base they are strictly  money making business =  they need more children in their games as they stay for ages and became addicted for all other products from developer. ppl from 25+ years  understand  (major part of them) difference between  "good" and   "damn i need 4 more weekly runs to get  Sparkly head armor  to show off for ppl i dont even know and who doesnt care about my life".   

    Can be wrong and  world economic will fail  before 2015 and we will live in a world with out money and just barter.  And Titan Will be great game.  maybe somesort of  "life replacement" idea    like  Near future or hictorical times  but  will have all aspects of Real life   not just " i can run forever and doesnt need food/drink Ever"    somethg  with "jobs"  "salary" "cars" "RL problems"  along with super hero things like saving  towns from  somethg, zombies near the town   Just like regular Super hero movie now    - regular human during day and unstopable killing machine at night hehe :)

    image

  • AtibraAtibra Member Posts: 65
    Originally posted by benit59
    Anyone who thinks Titan will be some sort of platform that Blizzard allows third parties to tap into has lost their minds. Those guys would rather use an exfoliating sea-salt scrub to clean their eyeballs than let a third party company touch one of their precious babies. Do not underestimate the obsessive control-freakish monster that is the design philosphy of Blizzard Entertainment.

    First, it's a new IP, they've stated that.  So no 3rd party would be touching any of their "babies"

    Second, as stated - they have formed a partnership with Bungee and are updating Battle.net to allow 3rd party program management.  So, it's a new business model.

     

  • benit59benit59 Member UncommonPosts: 114
    Originally posted by Atibra
    Originally posted by benit59
    Anyone who thinks Titan will be some sort of platform that Blizzard allows third parties to tap into has lost their minds. Those guys would rather use an exfoliating sea-salt scrub to clean their eyeballs than let a third party company touch one of their precious babies. Do not underestimate the obsessive control-freakish monster that is the design philosphy of Blizzard Entertainment.

    First, it's a new IP, they've stated that.  So no 3rd party would be touching any of their "babies"

    Second, as stated - they have formed a partnership with Bungee and are updating Battle.net to allow 3rd party program management.  So, it's a new business model.

     

    Titan IS one of their "babies".

    I have no doubt that they are utilizing Bungee for design purposes. That process still takes place under Blizzard's roof though. Battle.net != Titan. Blizzard is working on using Battle.net as a distribution/hosting ground for third party "applications". Right now those applications are in the form of SC2 mods/TC's. That particular system already has a name...it is not Titan. I don't understand why anyone would think that Blizzard is building another platform. Titan is a game. 

     

  • AtibraAtibra Member Posts: 65
    Originally posted by benit59
    Originally posted by Atibra
    Originally posted by benit59
    Anyone who thinks Titan will be some sort of platform that Blizzard allows third parties to tap into has lost their minds. Those guys would rather use an exfoliating sea-salt scrub to clean their eyeballs than let a third party company touch one of their precious babies. Do not underestimate the obsessive control-freakish monster that is the design philosphy of Blizzard Entertainment.

    First, it's a new IP, they've stated that.  So no 3rd party would be touching any of their "babies"

    Second, as stated - they have formed a partnership with Bungee and are updating Battle.net to allow 3rd party program management.  So, it's a new business model.

     

    Titan IS one of their "babies".

    I have no doubt that they are utilizing Bungee for design purposes. That process still takes place under Blizzard's roof though. Battle.net != Titan. Blizzard is working on using Battle.net as a distribution/hosting ground for third party "applications". Right now those applications are in the form of SC2 mods/TC's. That particular system already has a name...it is not Titan. I don't understand why anyone would think that Blizzard is building another platform. Titan is a game. 

     

     

    It's not a platform in the traditional sense - and you're right, it's just going to be a regular game.  As it makes no sense for them to incorporate and consolidate all their knowledge of cross-genre gaming, social networking and 3rd party program management.

     

    But your logic is flawless, by your reasoning if the battle.net update had anything to do with titan it would be renamed into something appropriate like battletitan.net.

     

  • TokkenTokken Member EpicPosts: 3,547

    I think Blizzard will go into WOW and build bridges over the great divides/ fissures that have ripped through the lands from Catacysm.  LOL

    How about WOW 2, That would be cool.


    Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004!  Make PvE GREAT Again!

  • nagawaranagawara Member Posts: 32
    Originally posted by sammandar
    Originally posted by Nadia
    Originally posted by urthal22

    Lets get excited when they actually give us something other than a Project name.

    couldnt agree more

    its been 4 years since they announced this project and no meaningful info since the 2008 Wire magazine interview

    http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/10/qa-blizzard-ceo/

     

    1. Forget GW2, this IS the "second coming" of not just mmo's (if it is an mmo) but of all gaming = FEAST

     

    Keep dreaming buddy

  • SulaSula Member Posts: 17
    Whatever Titan ends up being it's gonna be unsinkable, right? I dont think the world could handle that much irony if Blizzard's new flagship would crash and burn straight out of the gate...
  • menowhitemenowhite Member CommonPosts: 12

    CEO Morhaime spoke of the game in broad terms during a panel discussion at the 2011 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said that the company had its most experienced MMO developers working on the project. He explained that they were using lessons from the years of working on World of Warcraft, and he also emphasized the significance of players gaming with people they know as opposed to strangers.

    (wikipedia)

     

    Wonder what that means...

    Another mmorpg seems unlikely, that would kill of wow for sure.  A science fiction sand box wouldn't really be new, we have Eve, how about a mmorts sandbox with guild controllable city's maybe? :D

     

     

  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    Originally posted by menowhite

    CEO Morhaime spoke of the game in broad terms during a panel discussion at the 2011 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said that the company had its most experienced MMO developers working on the project. He explained that they were using lessons from the years of working on World of Warcraft, and he also emphasized the significance of players gaming with people they know as opposed to strangers.

    (wikipedia)

     

    Wonder what that means...

    Another mmorpg seems unlikely, that would kill of wow for sure.  A science fiction sand box wouldn't really be new, we have Eve, how about a mmorts sandbox with guild controllable city's maybe? :D

     

     

    I doubt the game will be a RTS, but there could be RTS elements (such as the guild controlled cities theory). I also doubt it will be a FPS, too much importance on ping times/latency. I even have my doubts about a sci-fi setting, well a traditional sci-fi setting.

    My guess is that the game is going to be more of a hybrid setting of Sci-Fi with heavy Fantasy elements. More action oriented gameplay, but still tab targetting (like GW2). More focus on small group content for PvE, and casual gameplay elements to extend gameplay. I would say there will be RTS/Sandbox elements, because player controlled content will always have more longevity than traditional themeparks can provide.

    If anything, I think there is going to be more social elements to the game too. Considering how they expaneded Real ID in D3, and how they are building battle.net to be more of a social gaming entity.

  • SilverbranchSilverbranch Member UncommonPosts: 195
    Originally posted by Sula
    Whatever Titan ends up being it's gonna be unsinkable, right? I dont think the world could handle that much irony if Blizzard's new flagship would crash and burn straight out of the gate...

    Blizzard has had the luxury of "coasting" on sheer numbers of WoW subs who've been tied to the strong emotional link to time spent and earnings (gear, achievements, whatever) in game, not necessarily that the game is great anymore.

    Some of this is valid, such as long time friends, etc.  It's not totally negative stuff as the first paragraph has implied.  The point is the same however:  Sheer number of players coupled with the fact WoW looks just like Stitches out of Duskwood nowadays and a whole lot less like Sylvanas Windrunner. 

    Thus one can only expect a ton of people piling into whatever Titan is to be at launch.  Of course.

    Which means attempting to judge anything "right out of the gate" if/when it launches isn't even meaningful.  At launch i will have a huge influx of players simply by virtue of the "addiction syndrome of earnings earned and time spent" of existing WoW players, not even counting those that have personal reasons to actually still like playing WoW as a game.

    Wherever you go, there you are.

  • AngztAngzt Member Posts: 230
    Originally posted by ste2000

    I'd really love to, but I don't think so.

    Titan will be either an FPS MMO (perhaps Call of Duty Online) or something heavily social, something like  Facebook + The Sims + Virtual World

    juuust mentioning, titan was the working title for the halo mmo too, which disapeared from screens shortly before blizz announced their "new" mmo (or rather leaked).

    just starting speculations :P

    "believe me, mike.. i calculated the odds of this working against the odds that i was doing something incredibly stupid… and i did it anyway!"

  • AtibraAtibra Member Posts: 65
    Originally posted by menowhite

    CEO Morhaime spoke of the game in broad terms during a panel discussion at the 2011 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said that the company had its most experienced MMO developers working on the project. He explained that they were using lessons from the years of working on World of Warcraft, and he also emphasized the significance of players gaming with people they know as opposed to strangers.

    (wikipedia)

     

    Wonder what that means...

    Another mmorpg seems unlikely, that would kill of wow for sure.  A science fiction sand box wouldn't really be new, we have Eve, how about a mmorts sandbox with guild controllable city's maybe? :D

     

     

    They also said that Titan and WoW will coexist, and that they expect Titan to be around for 15-20 years. 

     

    The only way the first statement can be true is if it's a completely different genre and market - and it would be completely against every strategic move Blizzard has ever made to completely alienate their entire fanbase.  So, it makes more sense that WoW will be accessable through Titan. 

     

    The only way the second statement can be true is if they decentralize the burden of content development from a specific team - as an in-house team is unable to keep up with consumer content consumption (Blizzard learned this from WoW, and every MMO developer knows this). 

     

    So - I still vote Titan will be a sort of "Blizzard Universe" MMO... in which all of their previous programs plug in to it... and they create partnerships with 3rd party developers (maybe even indie/player developers) that allow them to plug in to the platform.  Setting up a code review team (similiar to what Apple/Android/MS do for App reviews) is much cheaper and more easily sustainable than a development team attempting to keep up with player consumption.

     

    Personally, I think it's a brilliant concept.  Think about it, currently there exists not a single reason to revisit any old-school Blizzard programs (i.e. Diablo 1, Starcraft 1, WC1 etc..).  Now, launch Titan, and these games are plugged into Titan - for completing accomplishments in these previous games, your Titan character earns rewards/exp.  They've just revitalized their previous titles, and made them relevant in their existing title.

     

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