Next-Gen MMO by Blizzard in development

[Mist]

Bioware with EA's money and a long timeframe could produce a very polished MMO in my opinion. The reason Bioware games don't have the level of Blizzard polish is because they actually come out in a timely fashion, Bioware can put out a game+sequel in less time than it takes Blizzard to put out one game.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Mist

Bioware with EA's money and a long timeframe could produce a very polished MMO in my opinion. The reason Bioware games don't have the level of Blizzard polish is because they actually come out in a timely fashion, Bioware can put out a game+sequel in less time than it takes Blizzard to put out one game or one expansion.

Fixed...the glacial speed of expansions for WoW is still incredible painful to even watch let alone play.

[Mist]

Agreed. Once a year would be too much, but once every 2 years is far too slow.

[Ellsworth]

To be fair, they usually do add some pretty cool stuff as just regular updates. ZA and MGT / Sunwell were updates post TBC launch right?

I dunno, its definetlly too slow at the current pace, but they do add a decent amount of content in between expansions.

[Mythas]

Right however if blizzard pushed their dev speed up a little bit they could include those things with the expansions. As is its 2yrs and then some for a single expansion, which is just incredibly slow.

Eqs pace was too fast, but they were doing expansions at 2 per at the peak. Granted they were smaller but level increases / new spells / new tiers of raiding every year was the norm.

Blizzard can throw so much more money into the dev process than eq EVER could, and they still can't get things done in a reasonable amount of time.

Also all the stuff they "patch in" for free at least from Orig wow to TBC was stuff they wanted in the game at live but couldn't get done in time.

[Arakkis]

Fuck that, I wouldn't mind if they took longer as long as they continue to put out their normal quality of game. If every game studio out there pulled their head out of their asses and stopped allowing the businessmen to force half finished games out the door, we would have nothing but Blizzard quality games.

[Mkopec1]

Longer? WTF are you smoking? Like how long do you wanna wait? 3 yrs? 4 yrs?

Quality is one thing, but lets find a happy medium here. If youre taking an extra year to dot the I's and cross the T's there is something amiss. 2 yrs to wait for any content other than some Uber raid shit patched in is way too long.

And the sad thing is that most of us went through all of, or most of, TBC content easily within 6 months, shit I did it twice with 2 characters. And then I quit out of boredom. If they could pump the expansions every year, they could keep the subs running of people like me. And im betting people like me are a shitton.

There is a big tradeoff in having Blizzard quality games, son. Its getting too few and too far between.

[Believe]

Honest question, what other company has released as much free content as Blizzard has?

I can't think of any out of the MMO's I've played, atleast nothing that compares to what they have released.

[Blackulaa]

I love the cat and mouse games of developers holding their cards close to vest. Blizzard is just waiting for 38 Studios or Bioware to drop a press release then hit them with the wham, no one cares about your game anymore, news.

It will be interesting to see who can hold out the longest between the contenders. SOE doesn't give a rip, we know Agency and DC are coming whenever. Everyone else is scared to show their hand, including Red 5.

[Desx]

rofl check back later and ive got -5 internets from WoW nerds. Now i'm going to get more for calling them out.

Sorry but just because the game has the most subscribers doesn't mean its good. Right now there aren't many good alternatives. Back when EQ was going you had better FPS/RTS games to take people away from it. Right now there is nothing.

[Chanur]

I canceled my WoW accounts last month because its just so slow between expansions, im really tired of doing the same thing over and over. I was pretty excited about WoTLK at first, but after reading it, I will likely just pass. I would be interested in trying out a Starcraft MMO though.

[Aamina]

Originally Posted by Believe

Honest question, what other company has released as much free content as Blizzard has?

I can't think of any out of the MMO's I've played, atleast nothing that compares to what they have released.

I'd say some of the LUs from EQ2 have been pretty substantial. The world events that get run are pretty neat and the Hate areas are cool. Those were free.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Aamina

I'd say some of the LUs from EQ2 have been pretty substantial. The world events that get run are pretty neat and the Hate areas are cool. Those were free.

Cosigned. Im no EQ2 expert but there were quite a few major LU's released over its life. Comparing Blizzard to Sony, even when scaled, Blizzard falls short. Done when its done? Whats done? Think about all the stupid content Blizzard has taken 1.5 months after announcing it to push live. Its not just quality control, there is obviously some lax attitudes about work ethic. Just watch the interviews with some of their dev's. Seems like a very GREEN friendly company *cough*. My guess is its supposed to be that way to maintain a creative minded environment.

Brad would fit right in with the Blizzard crew. When I heard Tigole talk about the TBC helms a year ago was enough for me to figure out whats going on.

[Wilfan]

Originally Posted by Believe

Honest question, what other company has released as much free content as Blizzard has?

All EVE expansions are free of charge. Though the content there isn't so heavily dungeon/raid dominated as in WoW, so comparison is a bit tenuous.

Then there's all those free to play MMOs...

In the end, it all comes down to
1) How much you pay per month on average?
2) How many months can the game keep your interest?
3) Will you ever be coming back?

[mylek]

Originally Posted by Believe

Honest question, what other company has released as much free content as Blizzard has?

All content added to Lineage II since its release has been free. The game itself has no pay for expansions. Though technically there is no such thing as free content since everybody still pays $15/month.

I would much rather see smaller more frequent updates to a game than everything chunked into expansions.