Blizzard Entertainment's Internal Development Roadmap Leaked - Page 4 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

SebC · 02-26-2011, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Yeah, if you want to be smart with your money you need to cancel when you're not playing.

Isn't there also a reactivation fee though?

WhiteTiger · 02-26-2011, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SebC

Isn't there also a reactivation fee though?

Nope. You just resume paying your monthly fees, and you pick up where you left off, basically. Your characters stay on the server for a long, long time. I quit playing at the end of Oct, and could reactivate my account immediately with my characters just as they were.

It's a great feature for when you are going on a vacation, want some time off from the game, etc.

Mazrim · 02-26-2011, 04:52 PM

Hey Tyler, don't you play Call of Duty on XBox Live?

TylerSVT · 02-27-2011, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llama64

MMO's are stupid and annoying for the most part - but the subscription isn't the irritating part. You're paying for server maintenance and game content updating (a lot gets released for "free" in these games as a part of minor content updates).

MMO's generally suck for single person games - as in you're not playing with a bunch of people you know. However, they rock if you happen to have a couple friends who like to drink beer, talk on Skype and do something while you're shooting the breeze. It's like poker night, but for people in different cities who like to pretend they are cow men with giant schlongs.

Yea i imagine you are correct.

I just hate that developers KNOW that money can be easily made in MMO's and so they are starting to make more and more games that cater to the MMO scene. I remember when they were talking about charging for Battle net 2 sort of like a MMO...

And Activision alone pisses me off with their money hungry crap.

Mazrim · 02-27-2011, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

I just hate that developers KNOW that money can be easily made in MMO's and so they are starting to make more and more games that cater to the MMO scene.

Which is also more risky since it's common knowledge that the average gamer will not pay for multiple MMOs. Generally they'll play one and only one at a time, so you can run into problems that we've seen the last few years with a number of new MMOs having a shelf life of less than a year. It's not "easy money", but it's a popular genre that developers are trying to get into.

Nehkara · 02-27-2011, 11:04 AM

Yeah... developers only make money in MMOs if they are good. I mean, Blizzard makes a killing but there can be no denying that WoW is a phenomenal game and eclipses all other MMOs.

Honestly I think the only company able to dethrone WoW will be Blizzard.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a shot at being a strong competitor if it is really good.

Blaster86 · 02-27-2011, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Yea i imagine you are correct.

I just hate that developers KNOW that money can be easily made in MMO's

Ask the developers of Age of Conan and Warhammer how that's working out for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

and so they are starting to make more and more games that cater to the MMO scene. I remember when they were talking about charging for Battle net 2 sort of like a MMO...

And Activision alone pisses me off with their money hungry crap.

I hate Activision as much as the next guy, but they were never going to charge for battle.net. They were setting up a system for some regions where they could pay $3 - $4 a month for access to battle.net and Starcraft II to play online but not have access to the single player game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a shot at being a strong competitor if it is really good.

It really doesn't anymore. All signs are pointing at this game being crap, sadly =\.

Warhammer 40k is the next best hope on the horizon.

Nehkara · 02-27-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blaster86

It really doesn't anymore. All signs are pointing at this game being crap, sadly =\.

I haven't been keeping up with it... could you elaborate? I was looking forward to it.

Blaster86 · 02-27-2011, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I haven't been keeping up with it... could you elaborate? I was looking forward to it.

Essentially, things were looking really good until laid off a bunch of employees late last year and this popped up.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/item/bi...st_failures_i/

At the beginning this was sorta of written off as sour grapes, but the claims started gaining steam really quick. What was written off was actually an opening of the flood gates.

What has followed is reports of terrible game design, a WoW-clone circa 2005 that adds nothing but voice acting to the original WoW model while not capitalizing on any WoW innovations from the expansions (such as area phasing)

I have not heard a favorable report about this game from outside of EA sources since that report by the EA employee.

Nehkara · 02-27-2011, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Essentially, things were looking really good until laid off a bunch of employees late last year and this popped up.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/item/bi...st_failures_i/

At the beginning this was sorta of written off as sour grapes, but the claims started gaining steam really quick. What was written off was actually an opening of the flood gates.

What has followed is reports of terrible game design, a WoW-clone circa 2005 that adds nothing but voice acting to the original WoW model while not capitalizing on any WoW innovations from the expansions (such as area phasing)

I have not heard a favorable report about this game from outside of EA sources since that report by the EA employee.

Wow.. and with a massive $300 million budget. That is going to hurt really really bad if it fails as thoroughly as that report suggests.

Cain · 02-27-2011, 05:39 PM

I think I'm done with WoW. I only played it for the pvp, and while the pvp in this expansion is miles ahead of where it was last expansion I just can't devote the time to it anymore.

Eve has always looked like the perfect mmo in a sense to me, but if I can't play WoW casually, I imagine eve being even tougher.

Back to single player it is.

I'll still buy all of the blizzard products though to try them out, they put out quality games. WoW is deserving of its spot as top mmo.

Blaster86 · 02-27-2011, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cain

WoW is deserving of its spot as top mmo.

As hard as I am on the game, it really is. All its bugs and all its glitches and it is still heads above anything else and you cannot go head-to-head against WoW by making a WoW-Clone.

If I am playing the same game, playing the same grind, playing for the same type of loot, then why the hell would I want to play a level 30 character that I've put a couple hours into over my 85 toon that I've kitted out and put expansions worth of time into? Add to that, the fact that TOR is not just being called a WoW clone, but a Vanilla WoW clone and you have yourself a game that isn't going to last long at all.

I think DC online has done a pretty good job of moving away from WoW and I think they will be moderately successful because of it. I think they made a mistake basing it through consoles though. Consoles update and change likely leading to requiring to purchase new systems to play expansions.
WoW will likely get a few tweaks but still be playable on your original computer in three or four years.

Komskies · 09-23-2014, 12:11 PM

Well, it's official now, after 7 years in and out of development 'Titan' has been cancelled.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/683...ext-gen-mmo-pc

Quote:

This revelation comes after at least seven years in development and word last year that the developer was going back to the drawing board to reevaluate the project.

Speaking to Polygon, Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime reiterated that the company has technically never officially announced Titan, though it hasn't been shy to talk about the game over the past seven years. "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs," Morhaime said. "So we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn't come together.

"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."

FlameOn · 09-23-2014, 12:14 PM

Wow... what's next for Blizzard then? Are they going to just get milked to death then monetized to hell like other Activision franchies at this point?

Jbo · 09-23-2014, 01:14 PM

Please, please, please start development on Warcraft 4 (RTS)

Blaster86 · 09-23-2014, 01:37 PM

I'd expect a StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm focus from here on in. Let WoW just do WoW things.

Ashasx · 09-23-2014, 03:22 PM

Warcraft is by far Blizzard's best IP so they really need to make WC4. Though I'd rather they start a new IP (not Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, or mix).

This makes me pretty sad overall. I wanted to see MMOs take the next step. Right now they all seem to be following the same repetitive cookie-cutter build than WoW has fallen into.

I don't know if there is another developer that can do that.

chemgear · 09-23-2014, 03:36 PM

When I got to visit the Blizzard campus earlier this year, they had a lot of areas that were restricted with unannounced stuff. They have a ton of people there and a large complex (and an outdoor beach volleyball court, of all things).

I'm sure they have a ton of stuff in the pipe that they will take their time with. They've got the funding and resources to release stuff "when it's ready(tm)."

SuperMatt18 · 09-23-2014, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chemgear

When I got to visit the Blizzard campus earlier this year, they had a lot of areas that were restricted with unannounced stuff. They have a ton of people there and a large complex (and an outdoor beach volleyball court, of all things).

I'm sure they have a ton of stuff in the pipe that they will take their time with. They've got the funding and resources to release stuff "when it's ready(tm)."

Off topic and not sure it has been brought up before but... what do you do in the game industry that allows you to go to all these awesome events?

chemgear · 09-23-2014, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Off topic and not sure it has been brought up before but... what do you do in the game industry that allows you to go to all these awesome events?

I'm not in the video game industry at all.

I'm just a huge video game fan and have had some great (lucky) opportunities to meet people that actually make videogames, art and music. Got to meet a ton of people at things like Comic-Con & BlizzCon (Blizzard, IGN, Video Games Live, Naughty Dog, etc.) and they're universally awesome people who love their fans.

Like that "The Last of Us: One Night Live event". We managed to get tickets when they were up on their website for a few minutes - I think I posted the link on the forums when I saw it. We see and chat with the Naughty Dog guys at Comic-Con and next thing you know we're having drinks with Neil Druckmann, Troy Baker, Geoff Keighley, Ashley Johnson, Gustavo Santaolalla and a ton of people at Naughty Dog.

I've been really lucky and I'm thankful for the opportunities. Everybody we've ever met in the games industry has been really generous with their time even just to chat about their work. It would be even more fun to be a gamer if I lived in southern California though.