5 Years of Change

As a gaming geek, I can't imagine my day to day life without World of Warcraft or Firefox. A little over five years ago, neither one existed. This month, both celebrate five happy years of existence.

Five years ago today, Mozilla announced the official release of Firefox 1.0. The open source Web browser has come a very long way since then and has achieved a level of popularity that few would have imagined possible.

Its amazing how things come in twos on the Internet, this quote paralleling with WoW perfectly. Five years ago, NO ONE imagined the level of success that WoW has achieved. MMOGs went from communities of thousands, to millions in one giant leap.

With WoW's five year anniversary coming up later this month, The Escapist is running an interview with Rob Pardo:

World of Warcraft turns five this month, and we sat down with Blizzard VP of Game Design Rob Pardo to chat about the biggest triumphs and biggest mistakes of the mega-MMORPG, and why he's not worried that their new MMOG will kill it.

The full interview is worth the read. It covers the casual vs. hardcore debate, without pulling any punches, which is quite amazing coming straight from a game developers mouth. Its not often we see questions like this levied in an interview:

If you weren't a designer, but a hardcore WoW raider, do you think you would think the game was too "casual" these days?

Quite possibly. I have this theory that, when you're a really elite hardcore gamer, what you really want - what drives you - is that sense of competition; really having that gap between you and the less skilled, and more casual. That's what drives you, and that's not different no matter what game you're playing: WoW, Counterstrike, Warcraft III, games like that. You strive to make the gap as big as possible.

My commentary can't do the interview justice. Catch the full transcript here.

Mighty Big Teacup: Modern Warfare 2 Sells 4.7 Million Copies in 24

I guess Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 is sitting in a pretty big teacup. The game sold 4.7 million copies within the first 24 hours, which is flat-out insane.

"MW2" sold 4.7 million copies and racked up $335 million dollars in sales in the US and UK alone when the eagerly anticipated title made its worldwide debut this week, according to publisher Activision.

I am not one of the 4.7 million, but I'm wondering if I should be. Since WAR launched, I've been wrong about pretty much ever game I've followed.

I thought Spore was to be the greatest game ever. I didn't even buy it and good thing, because it got tore up in reviews.

I thought Free Realms was trash. Millions of users later, I think I was wrong.

I thought Borderlands was going to be great, a true Diablo with guns. Its a good game, but not great and NOT a Diablo with guns.

I thought Dragon Age: Origins was try too hard to be cool. After EVERYONE told me I was crazy and EVERYONE I know was playing the game, I kind of wish I had a copy.

However, with all of this said, I still don't think most of the games on this list are worth the $50 - $70 price tags for new copies. Borderlands, which cost me $35, was the only purchase that presents value to me.

Gah, ending this post now. I fail.

Veteran's Day: Pirates of the Burning Sea FREE For 6 Months

While Flying Labs Software did not make this announcement on veteran's day, I wanted to talk about it:

Military personnel that can verify their status through a .mil e-mail address will be able to partake in an interesting promotion announced by Flying Lab Software this week. The promotion offers six months of Pirates of the Burning Sea to military personnel, however, in order to continue playing after the free six months you will still have to purchase a copy of the game.

I've run the full gambit of decisions on Pirates of the Burning Seas. From almost joining their core audience as a player community liaison to the announcement of SOE publishing the game crushing my dreams, eventually I decided to skip the game's launch.

It turned out that the launch did not go so well and the game was quickly written off as a niche "failure". In my opinion, the game is right where I anticipated, a niche game with a niche audience. Fortunately, this free offer for military members gives me a proper 6 months to evaluate the game (and at $7 for a copy of the game, I may be tempted to just take the plunge down the road).

I started my journey into the game last night. The download and setup was a breeze, but that is a requirement for me these days. Any hiccups at that stage and I tend to dump any free game in a heartbeat.

Character creation was pretty awesome and I feel I've created a unique French Naval Officer, named Captain Heartless Gamer. With a Captain, a ship, and the tutorial complete, I set out for some adventures. The game can really be broken down into four areas: ships, avatars, economy, and PvP.

As I only played for an hour or so, I've only experienced ship and avatar combat. Ship combat is pretty solid and enjoyable. It can be slow at times, but I suspect it will get better as my ship gets better. Avatar combat is a cheap attempt to introduce a little classic diku-inspired MMO into PotBS. It works, but I wouldn't hold it up as a strong point.

At the end of the day, I'm playing for the open seas, the economy, and eventually some PvP. Good thing I have six months to feel the situation out!

The End WAR

Disheartening news has leaked out that a chunk of the recent EA job cutting spree has hit EA Mythic hard:

Mythic laid off 80 people today, which is about 40% of the company and responsible for 90% of the content. According to a friend of mine who left before this happened, they're putting Warhammer into "maintenance mode."

I am not sure if there's been an official announcement, but my friend said that I was free to mention it, because it's surprising it's not out already. (I actually knew about it on Friday but not the numbers.)

There is no hiding it. Many of us (me included) were wrong about WAR. The game has floundered since launch and performed misstep after misstep the entire way. Its only logical that the game's development would be scaled back.

The laundry list of canceled, dieing, or dead MMOGs at the feet of EA is legendary: Earth and Beyond, Motor City Online, The Sims Online, Ultima Online's sequals, etc. It makes one wonder how much the EA merger affected the Mythic office.

Currently, I am part of a company undergoing a similar assimilation by a much larger company and player in our industry. Even with a positive attitude overall in the office, constant commentary from customers about the merger and half-assed quotes from officers of the company easily put people on edge. An environment of mistrust is being born and people rightfully question whether project A or B will exist next week.

In the case of Myhic merging with EA, it should have resulted in a better game. More resources, more manpower, and probably more marketing. However, if the merger created any doubts about the direction of the project, more of everything would have been needed just to keep the ship sailing straight, effectively nullifying any positive gains.

The question now is whether Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is going to be around much longer. Will EA cancel a game that may be costing too much to keep alive or will they dramatically change the way it is managed? Maybe to a point where the game has no chance to do anything other than float on by for a another year before being canceled.

Is there any truth into the "EA = poison" mythos that has been created around MMOG projects they've acquired? Do we need to fear for Star Wars: The Old Republic? IMHO, yes.

This Is Why The Packers Are Losing Games

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday. They handed one of the worst teams in the NFL a win. The root cause is not lack of talent on the team, but a management and coaching issue. This problem is highlighted by the following:

Tampa, Nov 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Green Bay Packers have put the injured Jason Spitz on reserve and instead filled the spot with wide receiver Biren Ealy according to a reliable source.

With the worst offensive line in NFL history and probably one of the best receiving corps, Packers management has decided to replace an injured offensive lineman with a god damned wide receiver. Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy need to go. NOW!