Draegan said:
This is just my guess. As far as establishing IPs, releasing other games is not the only way of establishing an IP. Can anyone here tell me another form of media that establishes setting and content.
Come one now, think long and hard.
I always enjoy reading your posts Draegan.
I?ll take a guess that you mean by comic and book format, since McFarlane was doing that with the shelved UO2 anyway, and Salvatore has already written books based on established MMO?s. Both comic, and fantasy novels, appeal in varying degrees to the 16-24 male market that are the bulk of MMO gamers. The buzz they generate at comic, fantasy conventions by name placement alone would be very easy to capitalize on with further online content updates and forum interaction.
Sales for both products wouldn?t be high, average Salvatore book sales aren?t what they used to be, and the average comic is even less. But that wouldn?t be the point, the brand entering a healthy spread of the public domain would be.
Saying that, this is the reason I don?t think the game (which is so far away that even commenting on its future is ridiculous) will ever attract anything more than a respectable subscription base.
This has probably already been said, sorry for repeating. But from a marketing perspective, you?re hitting the demographic World of Warcraft has already got in the palm of their hands. Salvatore, and McFarlane?s work is very much a domain that offers nothing Warcraft doesn?t already have in spades. Frankly, no matter how good the game is, or how much ?cool? it has, you?ll only attract the jaded and those prone to flip-flop from game to game.
Warcraft even has a healthy grasp on the female section of online gamers, granted not as much as some of the other online games. But really, the only way to attract a higher percentage of female gamers would be to prioritise the game dynamic as a cosmetic simulation with a secondary priority on social interaction.
Blizzard must jump for joy every time a new western MMO is on the horizon; it only boosts their numbers from the campaign blitz. Anyway, if that wasn?t what you mean... then I don?t know.
With Warhammer, and Warcraft, both ability systems are far too similar to even matter in the grand scheme of things to make a difference. To something you said on another forum, Public Quests are cool, but they are flawed because they require more than one person on quite a few of the stages which have no time limit. Without a limit on time, you can be stuck without being able to get any faction until server reset, or if you get lucky and happen to find someone near your levelling range that?ll group up and help out. After Warcraft, quite a few people are only interested in solo?ing while levelling up. PQ?s work quite well while the levelling rush is ongoing, but fails miserably when only a handful of people are near your levelling range and spread out all across the world.
