Challenges Facing MMOGs: AGC 2006
September 8, 2006 on 10:05 am | In Playstyles, Innovation, Reporting, Industry6 Comments
At the Austin Game Conference this year, Jon Grande of Sigil Games and Rich Vogel of BioWare Austin hosted a session entitled "'New' Challenges Facing MMOG Development".
Overall, I felt they cast a blind eye to a number of emerging trends, but the stuff they covered about the "core" marketplace (basically as defined by diku-inspired games) was pretty good. And insightful.
Planned sellout of Burning Crusade?
September 4, 2006 on 7:43 pm | In WoW, Industry4 Comments
I've been to a few GameSpots over the past few days, because they happen to be in locations we take our family for shopping. I can't help myself though. I love playing dumb and asking the staff what they know about my genre. I never correct them either. I figure what's the point, they're there to the easy-to-sell console games anyway.
But I have learned two interesting things about their perception of WoW:
- Expected on-shelf date was November 28th. This means I was right. I love being right.
- Blizzard is only planning to ship 4 million units of Burning Crusade boxes.
Huh?
Categorizing Players and Buyers (again)
September 1, 2006 on 8:38 pm | In General Gaming, Playstyles, Reporting, IndustryLeave a comment
In a new discussion at Grimwell Online, Tide posted a short overview of research he came across, from a company breaking down player types into a few new market targets.
This research is compelling not only because it's public but because it corrolates pretty closely to a bunch of other research as well.
Violence and Video Games (again)
August 28, 2006 on 8:05 am | In General Gaming, Playstyles, Reporting, Industry4 Comments
A guildmate of mine dug up last year's Game Revolution article about the corrolation, or lack thereof, between youth violence and video games. I'm reminded of the recent discussion over at Lum's place about the conventional wisdom of addiction and video games. And, of course, various states around the country pushing agendas that purportedly protect our youth from themselves.
The hysteria is reaching epidemic proportions, but I wonder if it can be stopped at all.
I have seen a future future
August 25, 2006 on 12:08 pm | In MMO (Upcoming), Playstyles, Innovation, Industry6 Comments
Lum recently posted a report from the Leipzig Gaming Conference panel discussion on the 'Future of MMOs'.
On the one hand, I'm getting worried that I'm getting to the point where I've been around long enough to be seeing new people learn old lessons.
On the other, it was interesting to hear their take on my favorite topic. I think some of the talk was a bit single-minded though, particularly the focus on hardcore gamers.
Rose-colored glasses
August 24, 2006 on 9:15 pm | In MMO (Live), Playstyles, IndustryLeave a comment
It's funny how people can romanticize game systems they either never played, or remember many years later with a perspective skewed by time.
But it's also fun to see how the community in which they don their rose-colored glasses rises up to, err, remind them of what was.
Temporal ignorance, elitism
August 19, 2006 on 2:49 pm | In Reporting, Industry2 Comments
Two recent posts got me thinking about temporal ignorance and elitism in video gaming. That there is a lot of this that goes on in the real world is auspicious, but I'm going to focus on this industry, and my favorite genre within it.
From the mouths of babes…
August 18, 2006 on 7:11 pm | In Innovation, Industry1 Comment
While discussing the viability of Genesis, some have wondered about whether the guy behind the concept has actually not ever played an MMORPG as he has claimed. To some, having played these games is a rite of passage to designing them.
I don't agree.
Acclaim getting into the act
August 8, 2006 on 11:29 pm | In MMO (Upcoming), General Gaming, Industry3 Comments
In pursuing their vision of free games supported by revenue generated through ingame advertising, PC GameZone has announced that Acclaim is building a new MMORPG called 2Moon.
The new dot.com: RMT
August 6, 2006 on 8:45 am | In General Gaming, Playstyles, IndustryLeave a comment
With the rise of corporate-backed RMTing in games like Space Cowboy, Archlord and even Everquest 2's trade-enabled servers, I've beginning to see some parallels to the dot.com bubble of years back.
And I don't think this'll turn out any different.
Site powered by WordPress. Pool theme designed by Borja Fernandez and modified by Darniaq.
RSS Article and RSS Comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^