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What if another Developer had made the Warcraft MMO?
tro44_1
Member Posts: 1,819
What if another Developer had made the Warcraft MMO?
How do you believe it would have turned out? Better or worse?
In the hands of some MMORPG developers like: Sony, Mystic, Bioware, NCsoft, Anet, Cryptic Studios, Funcom, or even Aventurine,
How would a Warcraft themed MMORPG turn out?
What got me interested in the topic, was a discussion I had with a friend with the idea of how IP’s effect the current MMO lack trend from developers, and how many Strong IP MMOs get more favor for their IP alone rather than the gameplay. Examples: Star Trek online and Warhammer.
That subject changed into a argument dealing with WoW (as usual), where my friend stated and I quote “that Blizzard is a terrible MMORPG developer, and the only reason for their World of Warcraft success was because of the Warcraft IP”
Well if that’s true, then how well would WoW be in somebody else’s’ hands?
Comments
Blizzard is not a terrible MMORPG developer. If they were, they would not have 11+ million subscribers over the last 5 years. Your friend just thinks that because Blizzard didn't make the game in his taste or style of game. Or maybe he didnt like how Blizzard made the MMO "easier". If it was true that people play WoW just because of the Warcraft IP, but the game itself was horrible, they would not have the number of subscribers they have, and that number would start to decline over the last 5 years instead of the rather steady increase they have.
To not like WoW or Blizzard for making it is fine, but to say Blizzard is a bad developer of this style of game is wrong just going by the numbers that say otherwise. Tell your friend to play something he likes. Now I'm curious, what does your friend consider a "good" developer and MMORPG?
Edit: I forgot to answer your question about another developer making WoW. It would fail. As your friend would probably agree, Warcraft was a popular strategy IP. That was made popular by Blizzards team. To have someone else take over Blizzards vision of how the Warcraft MMO should be just wouldn't be the same. I feel to carry on the same Warcraft feel to a different genre of game can only be done by the same team that created it originally.
I couldn't vote since none of the 3 feels correct. You did listed quite a bit of companies, and among those Sony, Bioware, and NCsoft might have been able to pull off similiar successes, but the rest is quite a gamble.
I guess first thing to look for is the size of the company. One of the reason WoW was successful was attributed by being a Blizzard title. Blizzard is reputable and large company with existing fan base (quite a large amount might I add) of Blizzard and Warcraft series alike.
When you look at this point alone, truthfully only a few company have this advantage, except maybe NCsoft's advantage works better in Korea than in the NA market at least. However, no one really have as much support necessary to pull off WoW like success as Blizzard in a NA market.
WoW itself in terms of game mechanics go is not so much groundbreaking so I am sure most company can at least handle general gameplay, but not many will be capable of WoW lore as Blizzard. This is of course the core design of the game did not change because a different company did it.
Basically, the issue is rather complex. However, I'll go out on a limb and say it is likely worse if other companies do it, but not for the reason of WoW core gameplay. It is for the reasons that other companies don't have the necessary community support to achieve the type of subscription numbers and fandom even if it is the same exact game done in the same exact way.
In the end Blizzard is a rather big part about what made WoW what it is today. Hitting the critical mass that WoW had was the first important step to achieve world wide high subscription number. After hitting the magic number, everyone would jump aboard for many reasons, and Blizzard made WoW widely accessible so it is easy for anyone to jump aboard.
The success didn't come from then name.
The success came from their design team knowing how to design a fun game, and their marketing/programming/art teams being excellent at following through with that design.
Blizzard isn't perfect, but neither is democracy*. You take the best of what you can find.
(*democracy is the worse form of government, except all the others that have been tried.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Nobody can really make a good case either way on this, it's just a hypothetical 'what if?' without an answer.
The game is made by Blizzard, it is what it is because of the IP, the artists, developers and the portly lady that brought everyone's coffee each morning.
What if Mickey Mouse had been drawn by Fred Smith?
What if the moon were made of cheese?
What if......
What if Ford invented the computer?
What if GM created an OS?
What if the Germans had won WW2 ?
Waste of time to discuss ?
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
to many people in the world like Blizzard thats why wow did good lol and at the time it came out it was a good game but now i think wow is just over rated :P never played and never going to play it lol
lol, you are judging a game - even in the then and now - form without even playing it - lol
Talking about pre-judgement , probably based on a photo snap and some cool forum discussions.
Way to go dude.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
If Blizzard hadnt made warcraft but some other mmo then that some other mmo would be the 900lb gorilla of mmo's and everyone that hates wow would be hating that some other mmo.
Not the whole success, but part of it came from Blizzard being well.. Blizzard.
While WoW is definitely a solid game loaded with contents. Fun game is very subjective as many WoW players only reach the cap of 80 and rolls another character simply because they don't find the post cap raiding fun. Basically while WoW is overall a fun game, not everyone enjoys the main endgame design.
I do agree also on Blizzard being a good gaming company, however, I did not say their success came from name only. I don't really think anyone said that on the thread really. Most of us refer to the company as company and not so much as a name alone.
lets see blizzard created warcraft I, II, and III. starcraft and diablo. all pretty good games imho, so who better to try and develop WOW
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Blizzard was taking a gamble, they had never made an mmo before. Some of those companies have not and had not at the time.
QFT
if the moon was made of cheese then I am sure someone would be loading a rocket full of corn chips and a micro wave to go live in nacho land
The fact that blizzard made the previous warcrafts it would maybe be worse if a different company made it. This however does not mean blizzard are "better" than any of the others, just that they already knew what warcraft was and got it right. The launch from what i've heard was total shit. The lucky thing is not to many MMOs was about at that time. If it came out today and had a crap launch it would probably be down with WAR.
Developed at the right time. WoW isn't the godly MMO, it just came out at the right time and now that other MMOs fail at launching (Just like WoW) they don't see the reason in moving from WoW to a new MMO that is a worse state.
It would almost certainly be worse, or less sucessful to use a less value ladden term.
Blizzard has a long history of making games with a high gameplay value, perhaps more so than any other current developer (though I'm tentative to go too far out on that branch). From Warcraft to Diablo to Starcraft Blizzard has show themselves to have a knack for making games with appealing, addictive and engaging gameplay. They are simply very good at making these sort of games, like em or not.
Frankly I concider “that Blizzard is a terrible MMORPG developer, and the only reason for their World of Warcraft success was because of the Warcraft IP” as a downright ridiculous claim. WoW is by far the most sucessfull game in the franchise, so it clearly is not simply riding on the coattails of the other Warcraft games. Simularly is seems a very weak claim to say that it's all down to Blizzard having a good name and large fanbase prior to WoW. If these claims had merit wouldn't Blizzards fanbase prior to WoW have to be larger than after? How does it explain continued growth?
I don't think any of the companies listed would have produced as successful a game (I'll stick to successful as using 'better' is a very debatable term; surely there are some that would for instance say that WAR is better than WoW); and to note many have allready tried. Sony had a go with the Star Wars IP, Mythic tried with Warhammer and Funcom with Conan; NCsoft has quite a few games to their name as do Cryptic; ArenaNet and Aventurine have games that can be held in comparison too. Value judgements aside non have achieved even comparable success, even when using very high profile IP's. Bioware remains the odd one out as their mmo is not out yet, personally I think their traditional reliance on storytelling rather than gameplay will work against them, though I hope to be proven wrong.