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Message: <blockquote data-quote="happyelf" data-source="post: 3291751" data-attributes="member: 40394">I didn't say they should take action, but they can't beat Blizzard in the MMO stakes. They're too strong. This is particularly true considering how many companies are already trying to create the next WOW or some variation therof. WOTC and any company would be better off staying away from the MMO model, unless they simply want to create a profitable MMO and feel they have a niche, as may be the case with White Wolf.I'm no fan of the warcraft setting but a lot of people have played those games and for a great many of them that is the generic fantasy setting. You ask these people what fantasy isto them and they will say warcraft and the LOTR movies.Blizzard has een around a long time and they have a generation of loyal fans who have grown up playing their games. There are even many people who look at Dawn of War and claim that Games Workshop is ripping off Starcraft(as opposed to Starship Troopers). And we're not talking small numbers here, we're talking huge numbers of fans.I really think you're underestimating the huge power of Blizzard and it's games. This is an industtry giant in an industry much larger than this one. And while MMO's are still a niche hobby, WOW is hugely suceessful and is clearly tapping into mainstream demographics, many of wich is brushed against with it's earlier games.The best way to win a battle is before it is even fought. Blizzard did that, by creating a brand and a loyal fanbase years before it took on the MMO genre. And when it did hit that genre, it turned that fanbase into the a core wich has grown to enormous size. Nobody can struggle with them now, they already won, and there's no shortage of would-be-giant killers viying for future market share.I'm aware that you're not nesecarily proposing a straight up mmo brawl here, but the reality is that if you try and tpa in that market, you're competing with WOW and other potential giants directly, and they're already taking players and consumers away from computer games and hobby games. The solution to that isn't to meet them head on, it's to find a niche they're not serving.I personally think that niche is variety. Variety of preference is at the core of this hobby and WOTC or another large company were to really embrace that as part of their product, that could give them a more genuine service to sell to subscribers, for instance. Ideas like player matching (not just by location, but by play style, freetime, ect), some kind of simple prefernce language, and a versatile approach to mechanics and the like would give players the tools they need to find the games they want.This is of course the opposite of the MMO approach, where everyone is in a big tent and variant play styles are at best poorly understood. Even WOW has at least partially failed to sevice variants like more casual players and PVPers. but they can hardly avoid doing so since such attempts clash with the MMO model.</blockquote>

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