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Why is Blizzard the most successful company?
pjalmeida
Member UncommonPosts: 13
I am sure that no one disagrees with this topic, but why is that a fact?
I will not compare Blizzard games and this thread isn’t about Blizzard games, what I am trying to compare is why they have succeed where others keep failing.
Blizzard have one of the best support, it is easy to manage your account, and I don’t known not even one case of people having problems creating an account, don’t know anyone that stopped playing a Blizzard game because felt tricked or because was unhappy about the support.
On the other hand, I know lots of people that have stopped playing other mmo’s just because of those reasons, some of them was really good mmo’s but the true is, once someone feel that the company don’t care about him or solving his problem he will be one step away from that game.
The fact is every new mmo will always have problems like crazy bugs, huge lags, long queue files, installation problems, account issues, the only difference is how they will handle that and how fast they will solve they customers complains.
We all remember Aion catastrophic launching (not the days before launch), everybody was having like 4-5hours queue, and how did Ncsoft reacted? Took forever to solve, and without writing a line about that. I and some of my friends were unable to play for at least 5 days.
When we asked they support for a compensation 2-3 days, they just answered with an automatic response saying NO. For some was the end of Aion forever.
Did we had problems like this in a blizzard game? YES, with two major differences.
1º 30 minutes of a long queue and lags, when we checked the forums, they was already posting that they was aware of the issue and taking care of it.
2º without anyone asking for it, they was giving the days back to people
A few days ago my wife and a few friends, decided to Start Aion trial to bring us back to Aion.
(yes I have a lovely wife and great friends)
What a disaster…. Everyone already had a NCsoft account because of Guild Wars, even easier they believed. WRONG
Not even one of them managed to create a EUROPE trial account.
Support took 3-4 to reply and in the end, the reply was WRONG. Since I am a lot clever then them (joking) I decided to create one for my son..Disaster, I managed to create a Europe trial account at my 3rd time. Even in http://uk.aiononline.com/ the trial account will be a NA trial.
“I am sorry to hear that you received a trial account for the North American servers, when you wish to play on the European ones. The Account Support Team cannot delete an account once it is created, and we also do not have any European Trial Codes to provide.”
This can happen in a Blizzard game? NO
I tried to create a trail account for WoW and, went really smooth, everybody can easily create one. No problems without Europe/American at all. I Wrote an email to Blizzard asking for support to create a trail account, 5 minutes later I had a answer with a link to download and explaining in a way that even my grandmother could created one.
Mmo companies need to change and start to believe that no matter how good the games they create are, if a customer feels miss leaded, or have problems that aren’t solved, they will just go elsewhere. They need to have Great support, Account must be very easy and clear to understand, good forums to people be able to read and search for solutions, and only after all that, a good game so people can just pay and play, and not spending time with other issues.
And always keep in mind if one player stop playing a lot of their friends will leave also, will be just a matter of time. It is a MMO, where people are supposed to be playing online with the friends.
Comments
Are you serious?
Either 1... Your delusional..
2, Your a Blizzard Employee.. or 3... you are a troll..
I'm opting for 1.
Blizzard doesn't succeed with others fail... you are comparing apples to apple pies.
Blizzard is a Pioneer of concepts within the industry, they take huge risk, and it pays off them, thats how the company was founded.
When Orcs and Humans, the first of the Blizzard titles launched, RTS were none-existant, if you wanted to play a Strat, management type game, you usually went for the CCC's (Colonize, Culture, Conquer, Like Civ 1/2), or a Sim game (Maxis titles - SimCity, Sim Ant, Sim xxxx) -- They were not exactily successful, but the company did not crash on their first attempt...
When the company released Diablo, it also had moderate success.. still nothing of note worthy...
It wasn't untill Warcraft 2, and more so - Warcraft 2 B.net edition that Blizzard really started to shine -- Why you ask?
First off, Blizzard took advantage of the IRC framework that pre-existed prior to B.net - Allowing for a 3rd party expedietion of gaming over the "Magical" internet.. they were the first company to see the prospects, and what futures the internet really held, leading to the first true MMORTS that was mainstream. -- in-time an interface was produced for the IRC framework they were using, and this became known as Battle.net -- In the early days of Bnet you could contact people who were on BNET through IRC/mIRC chat programs.
After that is was Diablo 2, then StarCraft.. all pioneering in new scopes of gaming -
When they decided to make WoW - The industry was dominated by Everquest, UO, and DAoC -- No mainstream casual MMORPG existed..
That left the door wide open, and furthermore, they also already had a very strong following becuase StarCraft became a game internationally used in tournaments, during the early days of E-Sports, garnishing allot of exposure for the company.
In the end, Blizzard has only had 3 - IP's - StarCraft, WarCraft, and Diablo -- They are successful becuase they broke open, and created new standards, some would say they got lucky, but they also made sure they have allot of replaybility, and polish in their games, which is why they are so often used for E-Sporting, which creates HUGE amounts of exposure, not to mention, they use their sizable captial reserved for mainstream marketing, thats big point too.
There customer service, has, and always will suck - Blizzard considered it'self, and it's employees omnipotent in their games, and don't care what you think, it's their way, or the ban-way.
blizzards prior games were innovative and pioneering but I would not make the same claim for wow
WOW only had 1 new standard --- POLISH, all of WOW features already existed before in other online games
EQ2 fan sites
"Your delusional." You should write that as "you're delusional". The word "you're" is what we call a contraction; "you" and "are" in casual conversation are often pronounced as one word. And, that's how you write it.
But, that doesn't make you a clown. That's just a careless mistake unless you never learned in school what a contraction is.
What makes you a clown is suggesting that the OP could be a Blizzard employee or could be a troll.
The man has an opinion. He makes a case for it. How is he trolling?
Do you know what trolling is?
Are you employed by the CIA? I'm using the same criteria you used to conclude that the OP could possibly be a Blizzard employee.
I wouldn't even say their prior games were innovative or pioneering. (maybe diablo was, i wasn't into that sort of game so wouldn't know. But RTS wise i give a big "HAH") They may have had some "shinies" others didn't have but overall they are as pioneering as a random generic shooter. It's just that people overhype them because the name "Blizzard" automatically gives them a boner (i call it the Coca Cola effect)
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
has everything to do with "right place, right time"
it was the perfect storm for them.
One thing I would put money on is.... I bet more people have quit WoW then any other MMO.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
When you have more than 11 million active accounts, even getting down to 5 million (which is outrageous in of itself) is a crowning accomplishment HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of MMO's dare dream to reach.
So, Everquest was originally an RTS game and got ported to an MMORPG?
No? Then I guess Blizzard doing it is pretty "Innovative and pioneering"
------- END TRANSMISSION
Dune II.
IMHO thats a pretty bad example of " Innovation and pioneering "
They also didnt invent the RTS or the Hack n Slash. What they did create was creative, fun and polished products.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Same reason that these crappy pop music acts are so successful: people don't have a taste for quality products anymore. Blizzard was just the first developer to happen across the perfect packaged combo of features, accessibility, atmosphere, etc., and they proceeded to drag it out for the next seven years. I'd give the credit for its longevity to their ability to mix and match existing mechanics with each expansion to make things feel somewhat fresh, or just wholesale rip off ideas from other games and fold them into patches as if they were original concepts.
That, and the psychologist that they employ to refine the itemization system into a fine poison, so they can keep players crawling back for their next crack fix.
For the same reason eBay, Amazon and others did it and countless other did not: they had a reasonably good product (as many others) and they got lucky.
My thoughts are Blizzard has been a successful company because they put out quality products, and that goes all the way back to before they Blizzard.
When they were still Interplay they made two of the best games ever for Supernintendo, The Lost Vikings and Rock & Roll Racing. (Perhaps you may have seen the three Lost Vikings in the dungeon in WoW.. darn, drawing a blank on the name now).
It carried forward with the Warcraft series, Startcraft series and Diablo series. I''ve owned them all and have never had a problem with any of them.
And a very important item not to be overlooked. Blizzard tries to make their games playable on all levels of computers. There have been many games I would have loved to try out but my computer wouldn't meet the minimum specs. Some companies lock out a lot of potential players by making the system specs too cutting edge.
Like I said, all my opinions though.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I cant wait for blizzards 2nd mmo, Its either going to shut a lot of fangirls up or a lot of trolls up. I personally believe their 2nd mmo will suffer the same fate as all the other wow clones out there. Assuming its a themepark mmo. The only thing that blizzard could do that would shock me would be to make a sandbox MMO. Then all bets are off.
As for WoW like another poster said it was the perfect storm, it was released at the right place and the right time. The only thing WoW did first was make a casual game in a genre dominated by games that required hardcore playing.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
No they don't.
Aion has ~ 3,5 - 4 mil of subs, majority in Asia.
WoW still has ~ 10 Mil.
So while Aion is second in sub based games, it does not have more than WoW.
Best Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising campaigns ever for a MMORPG. Most money well spent on making people even think about WoW. Negative and postivie feedback accounting for millions of accounts world wide. Don't be stupid, it's magic in the strategies used by Blizzard. I remember years back when I couldn't visit a website without a WoW ad. Put 2 and 2 together and make 4. You take strategy and money with a target audience and a solid product and you get success.
I struggle not with life, money, emotions, and world, but against old mindsets and selves to be proven obsolete in a age and time of rapid changes. Go create fun, so you can have fun.
Because they make the most money? :'
Please link your source.
Aion is going F2P for a reason, its bleeding subs at an alarming rate.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Are you serious? Either 1... Your delusional..2, Your a Blizzard Employee.. or 3... you are a troll..
Yes I was serious. I Don’t consider myself delusional, but a madman will never realize how mad he is. Sadly I am not a Blizzard employee and willnot bother to respond the other.
Regarding the last 3 choices, I have a 4th one, I can disagree from someone and still respect his opinion without the need of trying to offend him.
You are comparing apples to apple pies… Didn’t got this one…honestly
I have to agree with you in most aspects but in this post I was trying to leave the quality of games out of this post, and trying to show what makes non gamers, and people without very experience in games, what don’t make them go away, not what make them play.
As I stated before, I am a lucky guy, a wife and sons that like to play, and most friends and they wife’s also like to play. Some are very experienced others never played until a few years ago, and apart from WoW, I don’t think they will play another game soon.
You really think that ANY game will ever reach 5 million players that pay a fee every month, don’t need to bring to the game, people that aren’t used to play? There will ever be games for the most experienced players like Eve but hardly will ever past the 1million players
And for them any complication could be the only reason for them to just quit.
We know those players will spend most of the time killing fluffy bunnies and will never Raid or even reach the end game, but the true is…they will be paying for a company to make a better game for the rest of us. That is why support and simplicity in a simple registration is so important.
About the story of blizzard let me disagree with some points please.
I don’t think Blizzard ever made anything new what Blizzard have always done like no other was, taking a type of game into a new whole level, and making a game that would appeal to the casual player and the hardcore one.
Warcraft one? We already had the amazing Dune2 from Westwood . Was a minor success? Hum…sold like hotcakes and evry magazine gave at least 85% to the game if I recall correctly.
Diablo having a moderate success? Every magazine gave him 90% at least and sold at least 2 million copies, in that time was a HUGE success. A new Kind of game, don’t think so, just simplified the kind, and introduced more action appealing to ALL kind of players.
About WoW , that was even less innovative, they just looked what others mmo was doing and made things more appealing to all kind of gamers.
Blizzard having a BAD support… have to disagree again. Sit back and send a email to Blizzard asking “ I want to see if WoW is appealing to me to get back, and no need to get up, 5-10 minutes later you will get a personalized mail, giving you the 3 days :P
If I personally have complains…A LOT , but nothing that made me left the game to be honest. Unlike other companies that took like 4-5 days to answer. (Left WoW a few months ago, but nothing related with support)
Choose a friend that you consider the worst player, and ask him to write to the support asking for any help and you will be amazed. (We laugh about some support mails, some of our lovely wife’s wrote, and they ended always smiling and felling that Blizzard care about them.)
If it is easy to register and buy a game, and pay a monthly fee ..without questions.
Blizzard considered it'self, and it's employees omnipotent in their games, and don't care what you think, it's their way, or the ban-way. (never had someone i meet in game or real life banned)
This is a fact, I can’t argue with that, they don’t listen or at least don’t appears to.But should they?
Remember how we all complained about Diablo 2 having Outside Areas? And in the end, we all loved.
Now we are all complaining about Diablo 3 having too many colors instead of the dark feel of Diablo 2, are we right? We will know soon.Not to mention that I complain every single day not is able to play it: P
Am I a Blizzard fan? Not really , i am a fan of good games ,but so far I have been enjoying and playing every game they made. If I want other companies having better support making better games, yes , I need a good MMO to have some fun, and even if the hype of most go really High, after 2-3 months I just leave, and wait for the next one.
Ps: Sorry to all, I need to start making smaller post and replys.
Aion EU is going Freemium, cause NcSoft is withdrawing from directly operating in EU.
Besides Aion main market is Asia and propably it have like 90% of subs there.
If Blizzard made a sandbox mmorpg...Well that would be an interesting day. I'd love to see what they could come up with if they targetted the sandbox crowd.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
That one of the things that i realized when i made this post. I gave Ncsoft Aion example, but almost every mmo had problems with support.
Is going free to play becasue if a bad game? I dont agree, it is a nice game, realy nice indeed, but everybody i know, stopped and dont even started to play due to a lousy support. a few days ago a few friends tryed to make a trial before buying the game. None suceed.
I am sure the same happened to a lot more people, and in ANY mmmo, if you have all your friends playing, you will extend the duration of the game a lot more, and it is a lot harder to quit becasue they will keep pushing you back into the game :P
Sorry to disagree with you, Aion isn’t going free because of Ncsoft is withdrawing…, is more like NCsoft is Withdrawing becasue Aion isnt making money
Ncsoft have a very good policy regarding f2p games, Guild Wars and seems that two more will arrive next year, Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar. (not sure about Wildstar)
Guild Wars is the ONLY F2P I always enjoyed and still like to go there from time to time to have a bit more fun.
I don’t imagine a company withdrawing from a game that is making money.