Blizzard: You Can't Beat WoW Out the Gate

[John Funk]

Blizzard: You Can't Beat WoW Out the Gate

Gamers and publishers dreaming of a wildly popular new MMO that crushes World of Warcraft from the get-go are dreaming an impossible dream, says Blizzard.

From Guild Wars, Vanguard, and Warhammer Online to the upcoming Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, it seems like MMO makers have been dreaming about a game that unseats kingpin WoW from its throne since 2004. Unfortunately for them, Blizzard doesn't think that such a thing is possible - that is, not without time and a whole lot of elbow grease.

The Escapist sat down with WoW lead systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street last week at BlizzCon to speak about WoW, Cataclysm and the state of the MMO space in general. When asked if he agreed with comments made last year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95008-Bill-Roper-Maybe-an-Impossible-Bar-Set-For-a-New-MMOG] by Bill Roper, then-producer of Champions Online - that there was perhaps "an impossible bar" for a new MMO to try to clear out of the gate - Street said that he didn't think it was possible for a new game to compete with WoW on all fronts, especially with six years of live development and the revamp of Cataclysm on the way.

"I don't actually think it is possible," admitted Street. "No developer is going to be able to take six years - the four years it was in development, and the six years afterwards - you can't take ten years to make a game."

So, should other MMO makers can't hope to replicate the success of WoW, what should they do? "I think the only viable strategy is to come out with something really, really well-done and then, if you can keep the players, expand upon it," he elaborated. "That's exactly what we did."

"We didn't have Battlegrounds at launch, we added those later. We added a lot of stuff later on and so I think - I don't know why I'm giving advice to our competitors," he laughed, "[But] what I would do is do something really, really well and, assuming players like it and you've got something there, then you can start adding everything else."

Whether it's fair or not, an MMO just launching will inevitably be compared, not to WoW at launch but to WoW as it is now, with six years of polish and development. So if any MMO is looking to dethrone it, according to Greg Street the developers better be preparing for a long haul.

That includes Blizzard itself: Last year, Executive Producer of Game Design Rob Pardo until 2012 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96113-Blizzards-Rob-Pardo-Talks-Five-Years-of-Warcraft]. So, the long haul indeed.

The full interview with Greg Street will be posted on The Escapist later this week.

Permalink

 

[Direwolf750]

The problem is that so many people have invested so much into one game, and networked so much in that one game, that switching to another one would most likely pale in comparison on lack of familiarity alone. Any new MMOs are based off of WoW because so many people use it. I don't see anything knocking it off its high horse any times soon

 

[sir.rutthed]

Blizz took ten years to make Starcraft II. OH SNAP!!!!!!!!

 

[Woodsey]

It's the community that tries to declare the games WoW killers, not the game makers.

Still can't wait for TOR.

 

[Exterminas]

A well made advice.
Two words:

Minecraft MMO

Do something well and expand.

 

[Magners]

Minecraft is fine as it is I think

 

[samsonguy920]

It's the community that tries to declare the games WoW killers, not the game makers.

Still can't wait for TOR.

The term killer needs to be purged, as nothing will "kill" WoW except WoW itself. But the idea of bumping it down to number 2 in most popular MMO of all time is something that is more solid and can be strived for. Much as I like WoW and am excited about the changes coming, I would like to see other companies get out the elbow grease and use everything in their arsenal. And then some luck would help, too. I am kinda hopeful that The Old Republic gets the effort it deserves. Edit: Okay, not kinda. I would love to see TOR skyrocket. But with care and time.
Just don't try to put in too much at once, and make sure you get attention. Yes, I am looking at you, APB.

 

[LitleWaffle]

Blizz took ten years to make Starcraft II. OH SNAP!!!!!!!!

Dammit, Ninja'd!

OT: What MMO creators really need to do is to make something completely new. Sure its a risk, but many people are hoping for something new out of the MMO genre, not just more WoW clones. You can't really beat something that is 10 years in the making by doing what they did, so go a new route that isn't so grindy and a lot more interesting. Don't be a WoW clone, be a whole new type of game that can lead the genre out of the Dark Ages.

 

[GoGo_Boy]

Yep people should just develop something good and build upon that.

Problem, few and I mean like very few developers are skilled enough and taking their time to create something good to build upon.

And even if a company develops something good the support afterwards can always be a different story...

Will be interesting to see how SWTOR does.

 

[Zeekar]

World of Warcraft is a crappy bar to be setting your game for. As it was mentioned above, mmos are currently in the dark ages, greatly thanks to WoW and the string of wannabes it spawned.

Game developers need to seriously stop trying to make a better WoW and instead make a better mmorpg instead. Actually I'm not complaining. I already have such an idea and I don't need any theoretical competition.

 

[Racthoh]

Because people don't want to pay two different sub fees at the same time. Hence why GW2 will succeed; B2P > P2P.

 

[Daemascus]

Bird fly, shit stinks, and any MMO that trys to directly compete with WoW is doomed to fail.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well since Guild Wars has never tried to be WoW and second still isn't and it has a lack of subs providing an incentive to try it out without the need of two subs I see it as most likely to succeed in cutting into WoWs market share.

 

[Nouw]

Unless they fuse 5 MMOs into one package or something, WoW will not fall.

 

[rsvp42]

Honestly, I just hope something can come along and compete with WoW because I'd like to play something other than WoW. I'd like there to be another big, fun game with a big budget and a lot of players, something I can enjoy getting sucked into. I'm hoping TOR can do that, but it can be something else too, if it's good. I like WoW. I enjoyed my time with it. I may even pick it back up for a bit to check out Cataclysm. But still, it'd be nice to see something new.

 

[Spectre4802]

I think they're right on the money - no matter what your MMO is, it can't beat WoW from release day, no matter how different it is. WoW has a lot of support and development time behind it, not to mention the 12 million subscribers.

It has to be good (originality is nice, but good is better), different enough from WoW for people to go "hey, that's new", and the dev team (and the publishers) have to understand that trying to beat WoW is a marathon.

Trying to come barging out of the gates with the expectation that millions of WoW players will come rushing out to play it is not only naive but childish, too.

 

[Chocomint]

I agree, at least on the 'initially' part - WoW built up having millions of subscribers over time, and I doubt any new release is suddenly going to skyrocket past that in the first few months (or year). GW2 looks like it has something going for it though, appears to be a completely different beast than the original, as far as some gameplay elements. Having a continuous world, environments and mobs that 'react' to your reputation, that kind of thing.

'Course that's just what I've heard from friends who won't shut up about how amazing GW2 will be, so on the flipside it may not live up to the hype. If it does, I'll try it, but since there are no monthly fees, I'll also keep playing WoW on the side (probably). I've invested a lot of time in it and it seems like a shame to just ditch it entirely.

 

[Draksune]

Planetside was a fantastic FPS-MMO. If only there had been real investment from SOE, I think it would have been epic by now. So far the only Fps-mmo options in the recent years have stuck with the god awful hot-bar combat system instead of live combat. Imagine how much more fun Eve-online would be if you could use a joystick and fly like X-wing vs. Tie-fighter or Freespace? Down with the clones of hot-bar combat. Make us work for our wins!

As for MMO's coming out of the gate strong? I've been burnt by too many MMO's I beta'd. They promised great things, and never delivered. Horizons, Vanguard, Lineage 2, AO, etc. The IDEAS sound good, but the company heads push them to get it out the door to make a profit and it goes Retail in a half-assed version. Who wants to pay to beta? My best advice for any MMO that wants to compete with WoW? Stop pushing out games too early. Even WoW was rough at the start, but it's foundation was solid.