WoW Spoiling PC Game Sales?

[Rushster]

Bigkid has posted*a new <a href="http://bigkid.com.au/2006/02/20/the-dangers-of-monogamey/#more-4483">editorial</a>*which points at WoW*as having a negative impact on the gaming industry because so many gamers are spending their cash on monthly subscriptions and all their free game time on one game instead of buying and trying new titles. Surely not :)*Thanks Xoxotl.

[Caderbery]

Sounds about right, Used to spend at least £100 on games a month now its just £15 a month to keep playing WoW.

[Laringar]

Hrm. I certainly have slowed down on buying new games... but then, I also need to upgrade my compy, because it can't run a lot of the games that are coming out nowadays... it's the minimum specs to play WoW, even.

[Goretusker]

well before wow i havent played any computer games for over four years.

Plus the gaming industry in the US have earned more money than the film industry for four consecutive years now so what do they have to complain about.

[Jerk]

There have been so many games I've thought would be fun, but then when it comes down to buying them, I think "this is just going to take away from my WoW time" and end up walking out of the store $90 richer. Well $70, after minusing my [Subscription of Joy].

/agree

[Steamboat]

This is true for me at least. I used to buy tons of games - for PC and for PS2. Now I'm like Jerk, everytime I consider a new one, I just think "I'd never play it over WoW."

Cases in point: Burnout: Revenge, Age of Empires III, and Rachet and Clank: Deadlocked. They were all games I looked forward to...then I started playing WoW, then they came out and I'm not even considering buying them.

[Elly]

I've not bought anything since getting WoW. I have a beta for D&D Online and I've not even had a shot of that yet either. I don't have much game time but what I do have I'd rather be playing WoW. In my case, bigkid's conclusions are right.

[xXmarkXx]

Well in the last few weeks i have bought Call of duty 2, all 3 of the newer pc versions of prince of persia. Mainly for something to do when the realm is down, or there isnt much guild activity going on.

I gotta admit though, i was really looking forward to buying a PS3 when they come out, but if burning crusade is out before its released i dont think i will bother.

[mugumbo]

WoW is the only game that is value for money atm. If the other games werent such cookie cutter crap they would be worth buying. I dont feel sorry for the developers. Make something worth the money and I will get it.

Tell me one other game that comes close to WoW interms of the amount of control and the amount of content?

Sure it gets repetitive, but that takes longer than other games. I know exactly what a game will give me when I buy it, no surprises. WoW offers more, simple

[Atoz]

heck, WoW even cuts into my viewing free internet p**n... (can I say that on this site??)

[AeroJonesy]

WoW has killed my console gaming. I haven't touched my Xbox since Thanksgiving. Before that I was buying a game every 2-3 months or so. Then again, I think I'm a rare breed in that I wasn't really a PC gamer before WoW. I played Diablo II and Baldur's Gate 2 and that was about it.

[Atredies]

I have been a gamer since Atari & commodore64 days... I have brought, over the years, hundreds of games. Have brought 2 Xbox and dozens of games for that as well.

I have been a serial PC gamer for all that time, since WoW my enthusiasm for any other game has not just dropped off slowly it died a very quick & very sudden death when I first booted up WoW.

That article is spot-on and given the immense popularity of WoW I would say to the other game developers they better watch out or else they will seriously die a death unless Blizzard screw something up in WoW, (can't see them doing that anytime soon).

Cheers,
Atredies

[snowieken]

Yup, applies to me too. Since I started playing WoW in April, I bought about three or four new games, whereas I definately bought one or two a month before that. I just have little intrest in buying a new title if I practically know that I'm not going to play it much because I want to spend the majority of my gaming time in WoW.

I am looking forward to Titan Quest though, the new Diablo II clone. It is looking very good.

[Aerath]

I have bought one game since I bought WoW (which is roughly in keeping with my spending habits...). Only difference being that this one is Imperialism 2 and I picked it up for 1 euro.

Course, I still haven't played it yet...

[Atredies]

I have bought one game since I bought WoW (which is roughly in keeping with my spending habits...). Only difference being that this one is Imperialism 2 and I picked it up for 1 euro.

Course, I still haven't played it yet...

Funny as :grin: , 1 Euro good buy. Honestly nothing else holds any appeal to me at the moment and I haven't even started my end-game raiding yet!

[dinoma]

Add me to the list - I would guess i was spending about £150 per month on games for PC and consoles, since WOW I think I have got two other games in total (one year). I was discussing with my friend and girlfriend the other day how WOW has done wonders at helping us save money both on games and mindless nights out just because we were bored.

[Morollan]

Haven't bought or even played another game since WoW was installed.

[moopy]

Given the number of units that Blizzard ship each month, I suspect that others are sore because some of their games are selling less, I don't think that PC game sales are in a decline overall, far from it.

I prefer games with massive replay value anyway. WoW took over from the Unreal Tournament series for me (constant trickle of new content in the form of free expansions and also third party mods/conversions). I tend not to play many of the on-rails games with "look box, get key" style gameplay anyway; they can be finished in one lazy weekend, and represent very poor value.

[catfive]

The main difference I guess is that internet gaming now has a much much bigger potential audience than back when UO and EQ hit.

The UK for example in 97 had no true 'affordable broadband' so dialling up for 6hrs a night at 1p per min meant you paid £3.60 just to be online.

Broadband is now in probably 1 household in 5? maybe 1 in 7 or so in the UK and time online is part of a monthly £25 or so fixed fee.

WoW timed its release Very well and has caught a whole generation of new gamers - yes you are all noobs and always will be to those of us gaming since the early 90's so harharhar.

WoW will gradually lose some players as the months roll by and new products are released but it has the distinct priviledge of being the first game with mass appeal for the new generation of gamers.

This is WoW's halcyon era - it will last a while but like every other game, it will fade.

I think by far the lesson to be learned by games developers is: standalone is dieing, not gaming but solo gaming. Cheap internet spreading to every home across the world means mmorpgs are in for another huge leap forward in players and the wise company needs to now be working on alternative playstyles and filling the areas wow doesn't cater to.

[Darmo]

I play many games besides WoW such as Dawn of war or rome total war as they offer what i cant get in WoW. I also own a gamecube but there are no titles out that really spark my intrest...untll twilight princes comes out.

[Hettar]

The article is right and everything.
But I also wanted to point out the irony of your link, Rushster : the linked site offers gold and powerleveling services ads :p

Don't read the right part of the page, stick to the middle ! ^^

[moopy]

The article is right and everything.
But I also wanted to point out the irony of your link, Rushster : the linked site offers gold and powerleveling services ads :p

Don't read the right part of the page, stick to the middle ! ^^

Shhh, given the amount of threads about "levelling builds" and "grinding", most folks seem too scared to just play the game anyway, so maybe they need the power-levelling services :)

[DotComm]

It's certainly true for me, since buying wow I haven't bought a single PC game. In fact, when I came back to uni all I brought with me was my PC and DS, left my gamecube and PS2 at home. Course, might have to go get the cube when the latest zelda game is released.

I have bought DS games though, since you can't play wow on the train or in the car (OK so you could with wireless internet and a laptop, but I'm not quite that addicted yet). And WarioWare Touched! is one of the greatest games ever!

SB

[bwirum]

yes you are all noobs and always will be to those of us gaming since the early 90's so harharhar.
Mmmm... what about those of us who've been gaming since the mid-eighties?

Anyhow, I am the kind of guy to buy a few games, find one I like and stick with it for a few years. Diablo 2 and WoW were to 2 latest games I bought. Well.. I would have bought Civ IV I guess, if it weren't for WoW. I may still. Some day.

[moopy]

Well, I haven't bought very many games recently, but I have bought a few since starting to play WoW, and most have been a huge letdown. People like EA feel the need to rush sequels to market with a few strange and half-finished new features crowbarred in and some hastily-chosen "EA traxx" shovelled onto the disk in order to make their loyal players feel obliged to pay for an annual "upgrade". It's not such a vast difference from the WoW subscription model, and indeed, assuming an annual upgrade, costs roughly 50% of what I spend on my WoW subscription.

The difference, however, is that unlike John Madden's Steroidal Freaks - January Edition, or Burnout NotQuiteAsGoodAsTheLastOne, WoW remains a good game. I could maintain a WoW subscription, or buy two or three other games for the same money anually. However.. the constant growth of WoW is a process of adding new content to a game that I already enjoy. I'm not going to be lumbered with a half-baked mishmash of MTV-style meretricious faux-glitz concealing a fundamentally unfinished mutilation of a game that I used to enjoy, and upon whose reputation the shiny new release is capitalising entirely. Nope, I am getting more of the game that I enjoy. Even if the new content is a bit broken at first (witness the problems caused in BWL initially), the old content is still there and playable, and still fun.

Sadly, as gaming has become a more mainstream "industry", it is suffering from the same malaise as both Hollywood and the record industry. As a reaction to the costs involved in marketing (and sometimes even production, goodness me) of a new title, The Powers That Be have become amazingly risk averse, and don't want to touch anything that hasn't been focussed-grouped into total blandness, or isn't a sequel/remake (a "brand", natch).. If all of these conditions have been met, even better. Thus we're saddled with yet another whiny chinstroking (yet utterly meaningless) guitar band because they're "the next Coldplay", or endless deeply mediocre Hollywood remakes of old trashy TV shows. This is the main reason that I don't feel the urge to play many games, and why my purchasing of mainstream music and fondness for cinema have all but evaporated.

Maybe more Katamari Damancy-style games and fewer "<Tendious Faded Sports Personality>'s <sport> <year>" titles would pique my interest more. However, even games that I used to enjoy (like the Splinter Cell series) start to look a little derivative after a few sequels; playing such games starts to feel very much like merely going through the motions, and that's really not all that much fun. After all is said and done, is this not the eventual aim and object of the excercise? Aren't games supposed to be fun?

Sorry, a bit of a ramble, there :)

DotComm, I agree with you, the Twilight Princess looks darned fine, I can see a few raids being missed due to cantering across Hyrule field.. :)

[DotComm]

Sadly, as gaming has become a more mainstream "industry", it is suffering from the same malaise as both Hollywood and the record industry. As a reaction to the costs involved in marketing (and sometimes even production, goodness me) of a new title, The Powers That Be have become amazingly risk averse, and don't want to touch anything that hasn't been focussed-grouped into total blandness, or isn't a sequel/remake (a "brand", natch).. If all of these conditions have been met, even better. Thus we're saddled with yet another whiny chinstroking (yet utterly meaningless) guitar band because they're "the next Coldplay", or endless deeply mediocre Hollywood remakes of old trashy TV shows. This is the main reason that I don't feel the urge to play many games, and why my purchasing of mainstream music and fondness for cinema have all but evaporated.

DotComm, I agree with you, the Twilight Princess looks darned fine, I can see a few raids being missed due to cantering across Hyrule field.. :)

I agree with you there, and I hate to be a fanboy (well, fangirl) but Nintendo take risks! Take a look at the DS: wario ware touched, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing. That's Ninty not being afraid to take risks, releasing "weird" games, all of which I've listed are fantastic. I've always kept an eye on Ninty cos they've always been innovative and coming up with new gaming ideas. Can't wait to see what the Revolution's like.

Aye I'll be missing raids for Zelda too, I think Ocarina of Time is my favourite game ever, yes even better than WoW!

SB

[moopy]

Oh dear, how terribly tedious. I am about to agree completely and without reserve.

I think Nintendo's magic comes from not only taking risks with the unusual, but due to a very particular attitude to their games. Their approach is more or less the opposite of the big US games studios, who tend to crank out mediocre games in a short time, and slather them in glitz. Nintendo titles tend to be late, they also tend to look rather crude to the untutored eye, compared to the Nth version of Need For Speed or similar.

However, their secret isn't just one of originality, it's how well the darned games play. It becomes obvious that everything has been honed, balanced and tweaked, the sharp corners lovingly removed. Nintendo are masters of what someone once called "features without interface". That is to say, you discover richness in the game (sorry, this is going to sound pretentious) through subtle or emergent self-consistent behaivior traits. It's a fancy way of saying "things work properly". Their games are fun, absorbing and charming, and even when you've been playing them for ages, there are still new tricks and feats for even the most skilled of players to discover.

Ok, so I am not going to completely agree.. Ocarina of Time isn't my all-time favorite game, but it's certainly in my top five. I'd have to list Deus Ex and Elite as having fascinated me more, but Ocarina comes very close. Now, if only the music didn't get stuck in your head so badly.. That darned forest theme won't go away, and I blame you :)

If more games had that sort of care lavished upon them, then maybe WoW wouldn't be OMGWTFpwning quite so heavily. However, WoW is a lot of fun, and it's a very very polished game indeed. Frankly, I am not surprised that so many people play WoW rather than other games, given the amount of utterly average stuff out there.

Blizzard may be absolutely dire at dealing with customers, but they do know a thing or two about making truly amazing games..

[WingedNazgul]

Haven't bought or even played another game since WoW was installed.

Same with me. I'm usually good for about 3-4 games annually too. Heck, when I bought my then-new video card, it came with a free coupon for the upcoming Half Life 2; a game I'd been waiting for before I discovered WoW.

I never even bothered to pick it up.

[dgrampa]

People please STFU or Blizz is going to raise our subscription fees!

[Raer]

Bought Neverwinter Nights a few months back, installed it but forgot about the expansion. Played it for a few hours and went back to WoW. Bought LOTR: The Third Age last week, i play it for a few hours but i still play WoW more. (Oh, and please don't bash me for buying an EA game. I really don't see why people hate them. :/))

[snowieken]

Bought Neverwinter Nights a few months back, installed it but forgot about the expansion. Played it for a few hours and went back to WoW. Bought LOTR: The Third Age last week, i play it for a few hours but i still play WoW more. (Oh, and please don't bash me for buying an EA game. I really don't see why people hate them. :/))Neverwinter Nights is a marvelous game. Really fantastic. It's actually a shame you have decided to buy it when you already were playing WoW. :)

[SURFEROSA]

Yep.. I just cant seem to quit WOW. COD2, AOE3, FM2006, SA:SC, BF2 have all been flirted with, without ever really getting lucky. Best one was Civ4 (which looks very good). Had a game this weekend (now my old Civ3 games used to last a week or so.. maybe 24 hours played time). I managed to get through a game in 3 hours- thought to myself "that was great, top game", and then spent the rest of the weekend as a tauren :laughing:

Bizarely, I also got NW Nights Platinium recentely. It was on my harddrive less time than it took to install.. only played the 1st game.. should I have tried the expansions?

Someone mentioned D&D online.. anyone played it? Is it anygood?

[moopy]

Bought Neverwinter Nights a few months back, installed it but forgot about the expansion. Played it for a few hours and went back to WoW. Bought LOTR: The Third Age last week, i play it for a few hours but i still play WoW more. (Oh, and please don't bash me for buying an EA game. I really don't see why people hate them. :/))

The problem with EA is that they bring out the odd good game, just to keep you guessing. Then they go and ruin it with a stream of increasingly pointless sequels. This is particularly true of the stuff that they develop themselves, rather than merely publish.

It's a shame that you got NWN after WoW was released, it is bound to overshadow it somewhat. NWN was a lot of fun in its day, despite having some strange logic bugs at first in that implementation of 3rd edition AD+D rules. Getting a game that good at budget prices seems a total bargain.

[brandondash]

Mmmm... what about those of us who've been gaming since the mid-eighties?
Mmmm... what about those of us who've been gaming since the 70s?

<-- old :[

brandon-

[DotComm]

Ok, so I am not going to completely agree.. Ocarina of Time isn't my all-time favorite game, but it's certainly in my top five. I'd have to list Deus Ex and Elite as having fascinated me more, but Ocarina comes very close. Now, if only the music didn't get stuck in your head so badly.. That darned forest theme won't go away, and I blame you :)

Haha I apologise for that. I have the soundtrack to that game on MP3 and listen to it when I want to relax :) I love the Gerudo Valley music as well, superb.

But that's besides the point :)

SB

[FodderCannoned]

The problem with EA is that they bring out the odd good game, just to keep you guessing. Then they go and ruin it with a stream of increasingly pointless sequels. This is particularly true of the stuff that they develop themselves, rather than merely publish.

It's a shame that you got NWN after WoW was released, it is bound to overshadow it somewhat. NWN was a lot of fun in its day, despite having some strange logic bugs at first in that implementation of 3rd edition AD+D rules. Getting a game that good at budget prices seems a total bargain.

EA is a great developer, I buy about 2 games from them a year, last year i bought tiger woods 06 and madden 06, this year i will buy madden 07 and fight night round 3. And WoW hasnt cut into the amount of games i buy, i only buy about 2 games a year anyways.

[Raistlin Majere]

Bought Neverwinter Nights a few months back, installed it but forgot about the expansion. Played it for a few hours and went back to WoW. Bought LOTR: The Third Age last week, i play it for a few hours but i still play WoW more. (Oh, and please don't bash me for buying an EA game. I really don't see why people hate them. :/))
Get both of them. NWN Hordes of the UnderDark is a godsend when the internet dies.

I have mostly spent my money on upgrading my computer for WoW lately. I still play Prince of Persia and NWN and plan on getting the Twilight Princess when if finally comes out.

[Valas Azuviir]

Haha I apologise for that. I have the soundtrack to that game on MP3 and listen to it when I want to relax :) I love the Gerudo Valley music as well, superb.

SB

:laugh:

I do that with the WoW music.. *pats HD* All nicely stored anyway, from when they were offered online. Toss in some other songs, and I got a playlist which lasts two hours. :grin:

[Tenchiro]

Much like music, I am on the "try before I buy" plan with video games. $50 is just too much to spend unless I know I am going to play it for more than a few days.

[Tenchiro]

Mmmm... what about those of us who've been gaming since the 70s?

<-- old :[

brandon-

ET for the Atari was the first game that burned me. What a horrible POS that was. :sad:

[Metatron]

Same here. Recently got a copy of GTA San Andreas and just can't get into it. Wow is dominating for me. Haha. Elite. Man I loved that game. Used to play it all the time on my Nes. Could never get past Highly Dangerous though. Spent months just flying from planet to planet and exploring the galaxies and never ever could find a way to get to Elite. Did they ever release that game again? Man I would love to play that game in MMORPG format. It was so damn cool! And I guess my favourite sequence from that was when you had to hunt down the pirate who had stolen a highly secret spaceship from a research lab. Man that was tense! I actually started the whole game again just to play that sequence again! Chasing him from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, him always being one step ahead of you and when you did finally manage to catch him up the ship was too hard to gun down or he just hyperspaced and went somewhere else and you just had to hope you could find him again and maybe gun him down next time.

Also FFVII was a game I loved. Had it on the pc. Never unlocked all of the game but loved it for the storyline. Kept me occupied for 2 weeks solid. (By solid I mean no daylight seen for 2 weeks!)

But yeah. The all consuming wow has taken me away from many other games I would like to play such as GTA San Andreas.

Just a quick add to this post. Found out that Elite II can be downloaded for free from this site http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/elite/faq.html (One of the designers of the original game making his own site) Man! I think I may have just found something to drag me away from wow!

[LunarSolaris]

I'm thinking I need to be added to the list as well. I haven't purchased a new game since December, 2004. However, I don't think WoW can be blamed...

Up until I got WoW, I had been getting burned out in video games. After playing D2 for several years, it finally lost it's appeal and I just couldn't get motivated to get into any other games. I bought Doom 3 and played it through not long before getting WoW, but didn't play that extensively. There just wasn't a huge pull for me anymore.

I got WoW and really enjoyed it and it revitalized my desire to play again. There just isn't anything out there that "appeals to me" right now.

[Asriel]

MMORPGs in general, at least in my opinion, are burning out the misc game market. I was a fan of FFXI before I came over to WoW, and even that had me spending little to no time at all with other games, whereas before I got into the whole MMORPG game craze, it was a game or two a month, if not more.

Now if only I could have my actual life back, I'd be pleased. =\

[Urrakat]

Same here, I'm an avid gamer since Atari 2600 and I have bought hundreds of games... then I started playing SWG (R.I.P.) and I stopped buying a lot of console games (PS2) except for the Madden, NCAA and MG series. After the SWG disaster I left MMO games for a while and I bought WoW because all my ex-SWG guildies started to play it.

I simply haven't played anything else but WoW since then. Period.

But the PC Gaming industry should not worry about sales this year, the WoW expansion will give a HUGE boost to their sales :laughing:

[bwirum]

ET for the Atari was the first game that burned me. What a horrible POS that was. :sad:
Hmm.. I started out on a Spectrum? I think it was a Spectrum, which was a friend of mine's. We hammered in our own sprite games from magazines. Then I got my own Commodore C64 and Panic Manic (or the other way around) as my first personal computer and game. Ah.. the times. Hmm.. must have been the first half of the eighties.

I seriously thought I was about the oldest generation of gamers, but I guess I was wrong. Go Brandon. Go old people. Are you moving to a home soon?

[cyradis2003]

Hmmm ... I have bought City of Heros ... left it to come back to WOW. Dungeon Seige II ... back to WOW. Zoo Tycoon :grin: when one of my polar bears was eaten I vowed never to touch it again!

Although I did have fun letting a huge heard of cheetahs, gorillas, flamingos (beware tha flamingos of DOOOOOM!!!) and rhinos loose on the unsuspecting patrons of my zoo..... not until I placed a croc filled moat across the park entrance though! :innocent:

All in all I am back to WOW and not looking to leave any time soon.

[Fancy Pants]

Being a former Counterstike: Source fanboy (hostage down!) im amazed by how ive become so obsessed with wow. Ive only played two other games since dec 16th 2005 and that was on only two other occasions.
As for buying new games theres no chance of that. Im far too absorbed in this one. For me i think the reason for so little interest in other games is that theres just soo much to do in wow. So many nooks and crannies, quests, bgs, world pvp, lvling and whatnot to investigate that no other game even comes close atm.
I dont think the social aspect to this game should be overlooked either. Im the Gm of The Orcbusters (who ya gonna call?) on the Khadgar server (UK) and part of the reason for the hook is the constant day to day soap opera of guild chat.
Its got so bad that from time to time i had wow related dreams...

Hmmn time for bed methiks....its 4am and maintainence in wow world no chance to play :cry:

[Atoz]

Mmmm... what about those of us who've been gaming since the 70s?

<-- old :[

brandon-

Pong FTW.....

[Nakh]

Thats true for me too, didn't buy any video games since wow came out. My PS2 now just stop dust from hitting the ground :grin:

[Psyclon]

For me, the main reason has been lack of any real interest in recent games.

I DO plan on picking up both Oblivion and NWN2 when they come out (expect to see me disappear from WoW altogether for a particularly long time with the latter).

I'm an old school CRPG fanboy, Baldur's Gate, Planescape, etc etc... and unfortunately these days, the market is rather dry in that genre, so there really isn't much else for me to play except for perhaps RTS games like Empire At War, but it's just a matter of getting off my butt and picking that up, although to be honest I'm currently trying to save my money for going out on the weekends (one night at the club runs about the same as a trip to EB Games, these days...)

[Beatboxer]

I cant even bring myself to play the other games I allready have, that I used to play alot, since Wow.

I took some time off a few months back and bought guild wars and tryed Coh, but I got back into wow.

[catfive]

My apologies to all the guys who played snap, rummy or link the dots in the 70's, I assumed especially considering the gaming heritage you claim you would realise that a board for MMORPG gaming had posts referring to exactly that.

Standalone, linked with one other pc or plugging some primitive console into your tv set really don't bear bragging about ;)

The first MASS online MMORPG that had anything but a niche market was UO - meridian59? puhlease.

So having established an mmorpg forum oddly enough refers to mmorpg games... as I said , if you joined the MMORPG market once wow appeared you are a nubkin (similar to a moonkin but far less experienced). The mmorpg communities were already 7+ years old when you first logged in.

Finally yes, I played manic miner on my speccy, I played mud's briefly back in the 80's and haunted BBS as 'notext' in the days I had to log on via a console session, I'm old enough to remember it all and despite that I still maintain - UO was the first Real mass game and wow is merely the latest.

darkfallonline? IF it ever launches it will drain a huge number of players from wow simply because it harkens back to our roots online. WoW is the best of its type but its still one of 'those' games.
level based
item based
class based
restricted pvp
= wow.

[brandondash]

...which is why MMORPG is a massive misnomer. MUDs certainly weren't a niche market in the late 80s; at least, they weren't any more niche than pc gaming in general. I'm sure I could scrouge up a few hundred thousand diku mudders who would disagree with your statement.

brandon-

[brandondash]

My apologies to all the guys who played snap, rummy or link the dots in the 70's, I assumed especially considering the gaming heritage you claim you would realise that a board for MMORPG gaming had posts referring to exactly that.
Actually this particular OP wasn't about MMORPGs specifically. It was talking about the PC game market in general. Thanks for the condescending attitude though! :)

brandon-

p.s. Magnavox Odyssey ftw

[Raistlin Majere]

when I think of 70's gaming, I think of D&D.

[Beatboxer]

when I think of 70's gaming....o wait. I never think of 70's gaming. :afro:


No but seriously, some hot new game needs to come out for PC. I hadnt thought about how wow could take up new game sales but of course it does.

The PC game market has to innovate and work harder now in response to one game...pretty impressive effect Blizzard has had.

[D.K.night]

I would have bought Dragon Quest(the latest one) for the PS2 from EB Games but then I thought "How much time would I putting into this game? I'll be playing WoW. I better check the reviews for it online first."

I had exactly the same thoughts for the 2-in-1 Castlevania GBA title(Metroidvania for you cynics out there) but I might just get that one, because it's portable play and hence gaming on the go. Something that WoW can't do - something I can play and enjoy immensely on a small, portable, fold-up console that fits into my pocket. And yes I checked the reviews on that one too - the consensus by even the pessmists is that it's good and worth a purchase, assuming you don't already own the aforementioned games on separate carts already.

But after checking the reviews online for Dragon Quest(I read both the good and the bad - the fanboys completely gloss over the bad points, insisting the good smothers the bad entirely)...I decided that I'm not going to buy it anymore. Plus the Dragon Ball Z-type artwork turned me off just a little. Reminded me too much of the cartoon series where you have unrealistically buff kids who *just don't die*, even from extreme punishment. Come on, that's enough punishment - just expire and give the completely unrealistic story something to hold some tear-jerking drama over. Anyways, to wrap this up, the article does make some very good points. If I didn't play WoW, I might have bought more PS2 games, on average 1 - 2 games a year. But since WoW is such a time-sink, there's no real reason for me to get another console title unless it really is that good. Plus it's once you get wrapped up in the social element that WoW offers(from in-part being in a good guild) it's dang hard to go back to single-player play on a console. Unless it's portable.

[CreslinHellscream]

Hi this is my first post here. I've been reading up on all these forums while I'm at work doing very little. Had WoW for about 3 months now and I'm so into it. I've played multitudes of RPGs, everything from Zelda to Final Fantasy to Exile to Frontier haha amazing games. About 6 years ago I started playing a MUD (Multi User Dimension) which is basically a text based WoW.

I never thought anything would manage to get me to give up that naff old game but now I just play WoW. It has taken over my spare time and now I no longer have any. I still think one day I might go back to the ole MUD just because you can't beat games like that. The only game I can think of that had equal playability to WoW and the MUD is Frontier Elite II which someone posted about. These are real epic games which really outplay anything else I can think of in the same genre. Anyway its nearly home time now so I can go home and play WoW, hurray!

[Trepidation]

Nah. Bliz isn't hurting the industry, they are just helping bankrupt the companies who make games that suck. We have a case here where somebody makes a product that everyone wants and other companies are saying "no fair no fair, I can't compete". That is the capitalism for yah...sink or swim.

-tReP

[jibbrish]

Personally, since starting WoW just over a year ago, i've bought 2 new games. Both have been in the works for quite a while and i was looking forward to both. Neither held my interest beyond the first weekend and it was back to WoW. If i hadn't been playing WoW, i likely would have bought 8-10 games in that time instead of 2 - and there likely would have been some expansions in there too.
That said, I doubt WoW has hurt console game sales and it might have lit a fire under PC game developers. PC game dev's now have a model for a game that doesn't compete with consoles, has a consistant money stream and almost assured expansion possibilities. Maybe we'll start to see some solid online PC games because of WoW's success.

[zkajan]

Plus the Dragon Ball Z-type artwork turned me off just a little.
you do realize that that is because the artwork for Dragon Quest is done by the same artist that wrote and drew Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z, right?

[Wingwingwingdamage]

The only game I've bought since playing WoW from launch is City Of Villains. And I only purchased it as a means to compare how other MMO's stood up to the fit and polish of WoW. I'm not surprised at all that WoW's sales could actually be monopolizing the video game market.

To me, $15 a month for unlimited entertainment every month is well worth it. I've saved quite a bit of money by playing WoW instead of constantly going out to be entertained.

And before you laugh... I'm moving to Alaska soon and need to save some $$$.

[zkajan]

Also, the only PC game I've bought since WoW beta is Age of Empires 3 and I played the single player for 3 weeks (in between sessions of wow, lol), beat it, and havent' touched it since.