World of Warcraft Intro Movie

[Pielorinho]

I think that game companies or computer companies, are going to have to start ponying up DSL or Cable connections for people if they want them to pay per month in addition to paying for their online service itself per month.

I think the numbers disagree with you . Plenty of people, by which I mean hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people, are willing to shell out the premium.

In exchange, we get a fully-supported online world with GMs, new content, punctual patching of any errors that occur, and all kinds of fun. I figure that I'll not be buying any new games for awhile once WoW comes out.

It's not for everyone--heck, before WoW, I had no desire to play any MMORPG, and the one other sample of the genre that I've tried (Final Fantasy XI, I think) left me cold. But there's an ample audience of folks who do like the genre and format, and are willing to pay a premium for it.

Daniel

 

[WizarDru]

Why should I get World of Warcraft? Sure, the trailer was pretty, but ..

You shouldn't, really. I'm certainly not going to try and convince you...heck, I'm not planning on getting it, myself. I just thought the movie was a cool visualization of the World of Warcraft, showing different races and classes.

Different MMORPGs have different things to offer. I remember playing Asheron's Call for several years, and one of the cool things was how players got into the story, sometimes. During one monthly event, a dungeon rose out of the desert sands, with a powerful crystal at the bottom. The crystal could be destroyed, but would inadvertantly release a creature that would wreak havoc on the gameworld in ensuing months. It took players a while to notice this, and 2 out of the 8 servers cleared the path and found out the hard way (as designed).

However, when the community begain sharing the news of this new quest, adventuring guilds formed up and began defending the crystals, to try and prevent other players from completing the quest. The dungeon was a Player-vs-Player dungeon, so it was generally viewed as good players versus evil one. One server held out until the last 24 hours of the event...but eventually all of them fell. But it was exciting (for the developers, too, as they hadn't forseen such an event) to watch players try to alter the course of events. MMORPGs have a lot of appeal...although I've always, historically, ended up playing with people I know, somewhat defeating the purpose, I suppose.

Right now, CoH is all the rage for most of my friends.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The subscription model, it should be noted, is not a way to rob the players. MMORPGs have most of their programs running on servers, not on the end-users computers, and hosting a hundred thousand or more players (WoW is actually expected to be the first North American MMORPG to break a million players) costs a LOT of money. In addition, there's bandwidth, in-game customer support for when things go wrong and, most importantly to the players, on-going additions to the game world and live events.

Some MMORPGs don't do the latter, and I wouldn't argue against them needing to drop their prices as a result, since they don't need the same level of manpower, but City of Heroes, for instance, did a quite nice Halloween event over that weekend, and I definitely had fun logging on for it.

Even during beta, World of Warcraft had a few minor things like this, like special fireworks vendors with never-seen-before-or-since firework for sale.

The easiest way to know if the game is worth it to you, though, is to find a friend who bought the Collector's Edition, which comes with a coupon for 10 days of free play. They can install the game on your computer, you type in the code off the paper, and you get your days, free and clear. If you decide the game's not for you, no loss. If, on the other hand you see the appeal, you buy a full copy of the game and retain all your characters.

A lot of people aren't ever going to like the MMORPG subscription model, and that's cool. I know people who refuse to pay for cable, too, since they'll never watch 50 channels of golf or Mexican soap operas. But the industrialized world is getting wired ever-faster for broadband Internet, and it's awfully hard to buy a new computer that doesn't meet or exceed WOW's minimum specs.

A subscription fee of $15/month is less than a movie, popcorn and drink in my area, and I assure you, a good MMORPG will get a whole lot more than two hours of playtime a month. Popcorn and soda extra, of course.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm still on dialup at home.

I thought that Charlottesville would be wired up for broadband, incidentally.

I guess we see, once again, how Hokies are superior to Wahoos.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I thought that Charlottesville would be wired up for broadband, incidentally.

I guess we see, once again, how Hokies are superior to Wahoos.

Actually, it is. I just refuse to pay the outrageous prices to get broadband, when I'm on one of the fastest university networks in the country at work. Faster, I believe, than Tech.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yes, but it only connects to Wahoo computers. So that, technically, makes it the equivalent of smoke signals.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Yes, but it only connects to Wahoo computers. So that, technically, makes it the equivalent of smoke signals.

Ah, you're just jealous.

 

[Pielorinho]

Dude, my connection speed's smokin!

Daniel