Oh, and note it's Eberron, not Greyhawk. Interesting.
Friday, March 24, 2006
The King is Dead, Long Live the King?
Are World of Warcraft's days numbered? Unlikely, but possible. Guild Wars has the advantage of having no monthly fee, but I hear it's just not up to the standard of WoW. Plus, it's sure to get dated. The monthly fee is what allows Blizzard to keep churning out new content for WoW (and it allow them to make ungodly profits...). Now however, a new competitor emerges. That's right kids the original big dog, D&D, makes it's entrance into the MMORPG world with D&D Online. Will it unseat WoW as king of the MMORPG hill? That remains to be seen. Certainly it has the advantage of being a tried and tested brand name, but WoW has pretty effectively established an almost hegemonic dominance of the genre since it was released. Plus, who is to say whether the two games will even appeal to the same audience- are WoW players D&D players getting their computer fix, or are they a new generation of gamers that have never been exposed to the game that started fantasy role-playing and thus, don't know what they're missing? In short, will D&D's history and name recognition count for anything in today's marketplace, or has it already been irreversibly dislodged from its place of prominence in the fantasy gaming world? I guess we'll see.
Oh, and note it's Eberron, not Greyhawk. Interesting.
Oh, and note it's Eberron, not Greyhawk. Interesting.
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10 comments:
Input from a non-D&D gamer:
As far as computer gamers go there is no bigger name than Blizzard. You guys at the library are some of the very few people I know that still play D&D, so I think the Warcraft game has a much broader audience.
Hadrian is a good example of how great WoW is. Not even a fan of Diablo, vowed to never get a pay-per-month game, yet now owns and frequently plays WoW.
Here is the kicker: D&D online is an Atari game. The Atari D&D games have sucked ass. I would be a lot more optimistic if Black Isle of Baldur's Gate fame had made D&D online.
D&D online hasn't exactly gotten rave reviews either. Gamespy.com gave it 3/5 stars while giving WoW 5/5.
Speaking of WoW, I am currently alt-tabbed out of that. I also just realized that this post is very, very sad.
Guild Wars is monkey turds compared to WoW.
You make an excellent point vis-a-vis Atari D&D games. The Temple of Elemental Evil has to own some place of honor in the "Buggiest Games of All Time" hall of fame. It was nothing less than a defective piece of beta software. And then Atari never actually fixed it.
I haven't played it. And, since it's Eberron, I'm not in favor of it. But I liked the Neverwinter games.
And, I much prefer the old-fashioned pencil and paper d+d. It's probably going the way of the dodo, though.
The Neverwinter games ruled. WoW is like Neverwinter times a million.
I have nothing against the pen and paper D&D, in fact I'd like to give it a try sometime. It sounds like a lot of fun.
The lack of technology appeals to me. That's why I got Warhammer. I wanted a wargame but didn't like the PC ones available, and the tabletop game is a whole lot more fun.
Then there's the lag......
I should also mention that D&D online has been out for about 28 days and it has bombed a bit. It's good to be the king.
It is a lot of fun. If I get a new campaign together, I'll put you on the list of possible players. Probably won't be until after our beloved Hadrian gets back from his legal studies.
The D&D board I visit is pretty positive about D&DO.
I can't afford the time to play. Games like MMO, you've got to be able to dedicate 2-5 hours at a time, and I can't afford it. (and seriously, who wants to play one 1 hour mini quest online then leave?).
Besides, I'm too cheap to upgrade my computers anyway (and I do mean plural, Pink would want to get in on it too).
Monthly subscription fees I can justify with the entertainment, but the time...sowwy.
But...if it was Forgotten Realms...then I might scrape pennies to try it out. :)
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