Warhammer Online cuts its own balls off It's shocking to me that so few game companies use the business model of releasing finished, complete games that are fun to play. Instead, most game developers seem to follow the release unfinished garbage, promise a miracle patch then fire most of the dev team and whine about how much money you lost model. It's shocking because I always assumed game developers want to make money. If I'm thirsty and have two liquids in front of me--a glass of water and a glass of antifreeze--I'd almost certainly choose the water every time. I think most people would. At least 90% of them. Logic, then, suggests that 90% of game publishers would rather release a game that made them rich than fling dung at a dartboard praying the hype will cover development costs. Yet this obviously isn't the case. http://www.massively.com/2008/07/11/...hammer-online/ Quote:
Most games are utter crap. The vast majority of these could have actually been good had they been, you know, finished. Water or anti-freeze. Which do you choose? It's just astonishing, really. Especially MMORPGs. How they can spend so much money creating their game only to ceremonially disembowel themselves as they approach the final stretch is a concept I simply can't wrap my head around. I mean, say you're Mythic. Let's pretend you've been working on an MMORPG that millions of people want to play. Let's pretend you even have an MMORPG so hyped that a good chunk of your competition's (WoW) player base is salivating over it. They've been waiting for years. They want it. They want to leave WoW. And let's pretend you have an intelligence on or above the level of your average squirrel and understand that the reason Blizzard's games (including WoW) always succeed is due to their long development cycles and attention to detail and polish. Now, I present before you two paths: You can have $0 today and $1,000,000 over the next two years, or you can have $25 today (which won't even cover your debt) and $0 over the next two years. Water or anti-freeze. Which do you choose? Anti-freeze, obviously. I mean, who wouldn't? Good job, Mythic. Good fucking job.
6 Comments:  At 12:00 PM on Monday August 8th 2008 (584 Days 22 Hours ago)DranoK posted the following: I've been a Blizzard fan since Lost Vikings, despite their rabid anti-gay stance.  At 01:29 PM on Monday August 8th 2008 (584 Days 21 Hours ago)Colonel Lance posted the following:
Edit to make onion happy: I meant Activision not Vivendi.  At 03:54 PM on Monday August 8th 2008 (584 Days 19 Hours ago)Onionpaste posted the following: Actually Blizzard has been with Vivendi for several years, they just merged with Activision =) I have to say though based on COD4, the business decision doesn't really disappoint me, Activision is a good company. By the way, DranoK, I wasn't aware that Blizzard was very anti-gay? Inform me of this? At 05:49 PM on Monday August 8th 2008 (584 Days 17 Hours ago)DranoK posted the following:
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Onionpaste posted the following:
That's the reason I like Blizzard so much... They basically tell the people who whine about not meeting development deadlines to shove it, because they're making their games to be the best that they possibly can. They don't care about they money as much as they care about making quality games.. At least as far as I can tell. There are a lot of people bitching about Arenas right now, which I don't really understand. Maybe because I have an ounce of skill so I can get the rating for 3 or 4 pieces of S4 armor.
Either way, this is why I will always buy Blizzard games without demoing / reading reviews.. I know they will be quality, and until something retarded happens like EA buying them out, I will not doubt it.
Edit - Yes I'm a fucking Blizzard fanboy. Deal. Just be glad I don't spew lore at all of you.