You just need $100 million to beat it. No, we're kidding -- after Activizzard founder Bobby Kotick's presumptuous statement a few months ago that any game company would need at least half a billion dollars to challenge World of Warcraft, EA/Mythic's Mark Jacobs has responded in kind on the eve of their big Warhammer Online release, telling MTV Multiplayer that the number is closer to around $100 million. And that they spent less than that on their big MMO.
We'll be realistic here: we don't think anyone believes, including EA, that WoW's numbers are attainable for another MMO coming out this year -- even Blizzard believes that eventually WoW will go by the wayside, but as Jacobs says, anyone releasing a game today isn't just competing with WoW, they're competing with WoW and Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. And no matter how long your development cycle or how big your budget, you can't compete with three years of people working around the clock to make the game better for live players.
But EA does want to be successful, and Jacobs says success for him would mean upwards of half a million players. Six months from now, he says, if Warhammer is folding servers and not adding them, the writing is on the wall. There's no reason to think that will be the case, of course -- Warhammer looks like a great game led by one of the biggest publishers in the world supporting one of the best MMO developers, and it's about as close to guaranteed a success gets in the MMO space. But even Mythic would say WoW stands on its own -- while WoW is running, it's highly unlikely we'll see any MMO come anywhere near its 10 million total subscribers.
Forticia of Dragonblight does not care for battlegrounds, but was tempted by the Spirit of Competition event to give it a go.She discovered her own secret to finding a little enjoyment in PvP: "Don't look at your health bar."She realized that death isn't permanent and that sometime you just need to jump in do what needs to be done.Other posters joined in with more suggestions:
Palpatina of Uldum, "Play smart (i.e. don't let your team down) but don't worry too much about whether you're winning or losing. Enjoy outsmarting and outlasting your enemies. Have fun."
Abracapocus of Whisperwind, "I'm frankly amazed at how when I run into a group of Alliance and hit Ice Block, LOTS sit there trying to hit me even though I'm invulnerable"
Nevermore of Malfurion, "The secret to enjoying BGs is winning. Sorry, but that's all that does it for me."
Kalerender of Thaurissan, "I like to go in, annoy pvp whingers who sook because I'm wearing T6 and not pvp gear, and then 2-3 shot people as a super-duper glass cannon."
I love the battlegrounds, but I understand that not everyone does.I get frustrated when players refuse to work as a team. I enjoy the battleground most when grouped with my buddies so that we can work together toward a given objective.I disagree that winning is everything, but it is a lot of fun. I find it a great way to take out frustration.
It looks like it's looking to burst back onto the scene in a big way, though, as Blizzard announced the end of the 2nd qualifying round of the tournament today. The next round will see the winning teams from the 1st and 2nd qualifying rounds facing off in live matches in Boston, Madrid, Seoul, and Taipei in the coming months.
The list of first round winners has some familiar faces in it already. MLG San Diego winners Frag Dominant will be competing in the Boston event, WWI winner Council of Mages will be competing in Seoul, and WWI runner up Improved Clicks will be headed to Madrid. There's no word yet on which teams won the 2nd round, or when the next round's matches will take place, or whether we'll get live streaming from the events. We'll be sure to let you know all the details right here as soon as they're available though.
Nick Bee over at GotFrag interviewed members of Evil Geniuses (previously called Frag Dominant), and revealed a few points about the Arena that many casual players don't necessary see. While Nick doesn't actually say to which member he talked, the interview doesn't seem about the individual as much as the team.
When asked about perceptions of Frag Dominant, the Evil Genius responded that before the MLG San Diego tournament (which they won), the only really available basis for opinions was from the Tournament realm and other tournaments. But his real point is that since Frag Dominant could run multiple class compositions using the same players, they had a very good chance of winning -- their adaptability was higher than other teams'.
He reinforces that idea of composition flexibility at the end of the interview. The Genius says whether you like it or not, you need to be aware of WoW's metagame if you're going to compete seriously in the Arena. (This means each person on a competitive team should have experience with multiple classes, and how the dynamics between those classes change.)
I think this outlines an idea that many folks miss about the Arena. Arena competition isn't just about your character competing, but also the players behind the characters. I could be the best Hunter to ever tame a pet -- but I probably don't bring much to a team if I can't tell the difference between a Silence and an Interrupt. Your skill isn't just fast-twitch reflex or single-class knowledge: it's overall knowledge about the whole enchilada. In the midst of nerf-calling, we should keep in mind that player skill doesn't just mean "skill at my class."
It seems a complaint I've heard a lot about Blizzard lately is that 2 years between expansions is just far too long. We'll languish too much without new content, and people will leave for Age of Conan and Warhammer Online and other games, they say.
Myself, I think the length between expansions is acceptable, provided that Blizzard is working on improving and adding new content. To some extent, they are doing this. 2.4 was a tour de force that granted us a whole new area to grind and quest in, and if Blizzard can be out patches like 2.4 on a regular basis, I can forgive them for a few delays in the expansions.
That said, I do feel like they could stand to pick up the pace.
There's been quite a bit of buzz around that whole little Warhammer game that's coming out soon, and while we're not a Warhammer blog or anything, we've at least covered the questions that keep arising over how it stack up to WoW. Will Warhammer Online be the game to beat WoW? Is Blizzard stealing Ideas from them?
"Warhammer Online [will be] a strong entry in the MMORPG space," Riccitiello said at the William Blair & Company's investor meeting Tuesday. "No, I don't think it's going to rival WoW, but no one would ever predict that. But it is a strong game that will ... get our returns for us. We're proud of it."
Lanwar holds a variety of large-scale events focused on computer gaming. Their 7th MillionManLan convention is in Louisville, Kentucky over the weekend of July 4th. The MML events have, in the past, hosted over a thousand gamers, so it's fair to expect a pretty big turnout this year.
What's interesting about the contest line-up this year is that World of Warcraft is making a different kind of appearance. Lanwar is hosting a levelling contest. And, yup, there's cash money as the prize. (How much will be determined by the number of registrants.)
This is a fairly significant diversion from the kind of eSport that's usually associated with WoW. You have to wonder what the rules are going to be like -- Lanwar's web site doesn't go into a lot of detail. Does everyone have to start with the same race and class? Or is that decision considered to be part of the contestant's strategy? What's the time limit like? Do you use your own account? Is Blizzard aware of this contest? I'm hoping to see more information posted as the date for MML gets closer -- it's certainly an interesting idea.
The Championship Gaming Series, which is having its second-annual WoW competition this year, has just announced that they are opening registration to the public! Previously, the tournament was invitation-only from the top-rated 1000 Arena teams.
The tournament will be 3v3, played on special tournament realms, just like Blizzard's own tourney. The qualifier rounds start on this coming Monday, June 9th, and run through the 22nd, and the top two teams in the qualifiers from each region, North America and Europe, will be flown out to Los Angeles for the final competition, live on July 19th. The cash money totals to $50,000, with the winning team taking home $25,000, the second-place team $12,500, and the third- and fourth-place teams $6,250 each.
If you are interested in registering, which is free, do it by June 8th, since that's when registration closes. You have to be 18 or over and a resident of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium or United Kingdom to compete. Here are the registration links for the different regions: Europe, North America. For more on the CGS tournament see their rules and FAQ.
Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational contest is becoming quite a production. They've just announced another contest as part of the lineup: a costume contest! Just to recap, let's see what has been announced:
Actual gameplay contests, in Warcraft III, Starcraft, and WoW
Hands-on play of Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King
...and now a costume contest.
The fourth annual WWI will be held in Paris, on June 28th and 29th. So you have just over a month to scrape together your best Curator suit and learn how to say "gallery rules will be strictly enforced" in that disaffected, slightly psychotic robot voice. Get cracking! I want to hear your costume ideas in the comments.
Slorkuz has posted some information of interest for European PvPers. The first qualifying round of the Arena Tournament is over, with the second one beginning today, May 21st, and lasting until June 2nd. You can sign up at the European Information page (for Americans, our information page is here). Ranked matches for this round will be starting on June 16th and last until July 16th, so you should have plenty of time to prepare and practice, and plenty of time to get in your matches.
Remember, if you win, that's a good 25,000 dollars in the bank. Not bad for a bit of 3v3, if you're already into it. Good luck to all competitors!
This is old news really: we all know that there are 10 million of us playing Blizzard's MMORPG juggernaut. In MMOGChart's latest report however, there appears to be a little growth spurt in the early part of this year.
This is surprising when we consider the fact that WoW is three years old. In the video and computer game business, three years is considered "old", even for a game that is constantly updated. Other games would usually see a tapering off in terms of population growth at this stage. Not only is market-dominating WoW bucking the trend, it's actually enjoying a surge in its population!
Is this growth spike the result of anticipation for Wrath of the Lich King? Probably so, according to MMOGChart: "There appears to be a slight acceleration of growth a month or two before the release of an expansion, which then continues for approximately 3-6 months afterwards." With the unprecedented size of WoW's playerbase, we can probably expect the hype to be built up a lot sooner than "a month or two".
The report has gone on to break down WoW's existing 10 million subscribers by territory:
There have been a few records set recently. Some are people claiming to have leveled to 70 the fastest, some are groups of players downing a boss on the PTR before anyone else in the world, while others are PvP records yet to be made. Everyone likes to say "we broke a record." It makes them feel good, gives them a sense of purpose and measurable accomplishment, and generally will put a smile on their face. Even I've done that here at WoW Insider occasionally: "Hey, we had a record number of hits that day, cool!" (No, I'm not going to say when that was, I'll leave it up for you all to comment on and guess.)
With all these record breaking accomplishments, it begs the question: do they really mean anything? Does it matter if you've leveled up to 70 in the time that most people are still working on getting the Deadmines quests done? Let's take a look at what records do and do not provide.
One thing that they do provide is competition amongst a small group of players. To borrow a phrase from marketing, we'll call these players "alpha players." They are the ones that will always be the first to jump on new content, the first to let everyone know how to do it, the first to complain, and the first to get the benefits of completing the content. These alpha players are pretty hard core, and use world firsts and records to challenge each other. There is literally a whole 'nother side to the game that many of us don't ever see – hard core time based competition.
Read on for more and vote in our poll, after the jump!
Booty Bay's Fishing Contest started just an hour ago. I don't participate every week, far from it. Once a month, tops. I've been doing this since the contest started, and I just can't seem to pull off a win.
I'm not nearly aggressive enough for the contest, the winners always seem to be the people that muscle others away from 'their' Tastyfish Schools on my server, and I just feel bad doing that to people. That's probably why I don't play on a PvP server. I've gotten close to winning a few times, usually only 4-5 Tastyfish short, and I would've pulled off a win if I didn't run by so many schools that had other people fishing them. I'm sure there's other factors at work, I don't exactly have a proper circuit down because I do it so infrequently. I can't really 'practice' when I do it once a month or less. Looking at forums and the like, I don't seem to be alone in my failings. There's not a whole lot of winners when only one person per week can take the crown. So I'm curious, how many of you participate or have participated in the contest? How many of you have actually won? As a bonus question, how many of the rare fish have you caught? I've only gotten the Blue Striped Racer. QQ.
Believe it or not, World of Warcraft is the most popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying game in the world! Our super blogger Mike Schramm shared this report over our sister site, Massively. It probably comes as no surprise that WoW is topping the chart. There are more active accounts on WoW than all of the competition combined.
I didn't know there were quite so many MMORPGs active on the gaming market. WoW is unique among this video game genre because of it's continued growth. The player base for other games have leveled or tapered off. I couldn't even guess where the population will top out. With the popularity of the Burning Crusade and anticipation of Wrath of the Lich King, I would not be surprised to see more than fifteen million WoW players.
Gather 'round the screen, orcs and gnomes, it's time for another edition of Ask WoW Insider. Last week we debated the post powerful character in Warcraft, and this week we return to contemplating game mechanics with a question from Valyre, healing lead of the Ascent guild on Scarlet Crusade (H):
Is healing competitive? And should it be?
The fundamental mechanics of playing a dps class seem to encourage competition. Your target has an unlimited pool of health to act upon, so if you have the mana/rage/energy, you always have an outlet. Each ability you use to create damage stacks with the other fifteen people in the raid doing the same thing. You never hear "Your melee attack made my spell worthless." Some buffs will aid your party members, but for the most part it's individuals striving to do the most damage. And there are meters to chart your progress.
Healing mechanics tend to work against themselves. Your target may or may not have enough of a hp deficit at any given time for you to act on. Your abilities don't universally stack. If your heal tops off someone's health but beats out another healer's heal, you've just wasted their heal on a healthy person and threw their mana in the trash. To make things worse, "divide and conquer" assignments are more based on being able to heal through an encounter than to actually provide a level playing field for all healers. How many times do you see 3 healers on a tank that might take 30k damage, but 4 healers on the raid that takes well over 100k damage? At the end of the night, meters show love to the people with the highest damage assignments.
With this system, can you be competitive? Should you be competitive? If so, how?
What do you think, people -- are healers just as competitive as face-melters? How do you determine the "best" healer?
WTB your questions! Send us what you want to know and we just may publish it next week. Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Forticia of Dragonblight
Nick Bee over at GotFrag 
It seems a complaint I've heard a lot about Blizzard lately is that 2 years between expansions is just far too long. We'll languish too much without new content, and people 
Lanwar
There have been a few records set recently. Some are people 
Booty Bay's Fishing Contest
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