The dish on parenting ... check out the new ParentDish!
Posts with tag sony

Blizzard on Live Gamer: No way, no how

I've been reporting on our sister site Massively (just like WoW Insider, but for all MMOs) about Live Gamer, a startup that claims to be legitimizing RMT (real-money trading, which is spending real money on virtual items) in MMOs. But while there are a few big names supporting them already (Funcom, which is making Age of Conan, and Sony, which makes lots of different MMOs, including all the Everquests), there is one name that's missing from their supporters: Blizzard.

And now we've heard that that's not going to change anytime soon. A "Blizzard rep" says in no uncertain terms that they're not interesting in RMT at all, in a sanctioned form or otherwise. "Not only do we believe that doing so would be illegal," they say, "but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun." Wow. Tell us how you really feel.

If I can be biased for a moment, that's great to hear. Blizzard has definitely been taking steps to make RMT obsolete rather than legit (by doing things like adding in daily quests and requiring things other than gold-- reputation, turn-ins-- to buy virtual items). There's no question that there's a lot of money to be made in RMT-- every day, virtual items seems to gain more and more real world value. But it's good to hear that Blizzard is invested in making their game fun, not selling the virtual items they create.

Rob Pardo at the Hollywood and Games Summit

The always awesome Alice Taylor from Wonderland was at the Hollywood and Games Summit this past week, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo made an appearance in a panel about creating a "parallel experience" between entertainment media and MMOs. Alice put up summaries of the various points made, and the result is a pretty interesting read into how Blizzard is working on their upcoming Warcraft movie.

The whole panel is a good read (reps from MTV and Sony also make appearances to talk about how they're taking audiences across media), but Pardo specifically makes the point that in whatever media you're in, you have to balance how you're using that media against how you're using the intellectual property the media is based on. "Demographics," he says, "follow the IP," so Blizzard clearly thinks that if a Warcraft movie is released, that Warcraft players will run to see it in droves. But at the same time, he says the media must define how you use the IP-- Warcraft RTS is a different experience than WoW, and WoW will be (supposedly) a different experience than a Warcraft movie. He does want to make sure "the epic scale of the IP shows up in that movie."

He also speaks to Blizzard's plans to make "episodic content" for WoW rather than "boxed content," and says that they haven't delivered content as fast as they've wanted to yet. But he also claims, "We've got our head round it now." So maybe they really will have a new expansion for us ready on time next year.


RESOURCES

Class Columns
Pimp My Profile (1)
(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (40)
(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (33)
(Hunter) Scattered Shots (14)
(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (35)
(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (47)
(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (20)
(Rogue) Encrypted Text (33)
(Shaman) Totem Talk (44)
(Warlock) Blood Pact (26)
(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (48)
Gameplay
(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (22)
(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (21)
(Casual) WoW, Casually (17)
(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)
(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (55)
(Professions) Insider Trader (55)
(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (17)
(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)
(Raiding) Ready Check (19)
(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (36)
Hybrid Theory (13)
AddOns and UI
AddOn Spotlight (79)
Macro Anatomy (12)
Reader UI of the Week (25)
Reader WoWspace of the week (28)
The Creamy GUI Center (11)
Lore and Stories
Around Azeroth (472)
Barrens Chat (2)
Know your Lore (51)
Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)
WoW Moviewatch (466)
Features
15 Minutes of Fame (18)
About the Bloggers (24)
Ask WoW Insider (55)
Azeroth Security Advisor (1)
Back In The Day (3)
Breakfast topics (675)
Build Shop (34)
Gamers on the Street (19)
Guildwatch (76)
He Said She Said (4)
It came from the Blog (25)
Phat Loot Phriday (86)
Two Bosses Enter (61)
Well Fed Buff (22)
World of WarCrafts (19)
WoW Insider Show (52)
WoW Rookie (35)
[1.Local] (6)
Classes
Death Knight (54)
Druid (264)
Hunter (252)
Mage (156)
Paladin (266)
Priest (219)
Rogue (160)
Shaman (245)
Warlock (172)
Warrior (182)
News
Account Security (10)
AddOns (231)
Analysis / Opinion (2695)
Blizzard (1471)
BlizzCon (184)
Bugs (212)
Burning Crusade (358)
Contests (204)
Economy (183)
Events (366)
Expansions (562)
Fan stuff (821)
Features (605)
Forums (244)
Guilds (461)
Hardware (25)
Humor (723)
Interviews (136)
Lore (265)
Mounts (128)
News items (1403)
NPCs (186)
Odds and ends (1590)
Patches (1112)
Podcasting (73)
Ranking (50)
Realm News (274)
Realm Status (226)
RP (159)
Rumors (32)
Virtual selves (610)
WoW Insider Business (278)
WoW Social Conventions (135)
WoW TCG (49)
Wrath of the Lich King (262)
Strategy
Alts (85)
Arena (167)
Battlegrounds (104)
Bosses (311)
Buffs (114)
Cheats (67)
Classes (285)
Enchants (29)
Factions (146)
Guides (323)
How-tos (361)
Instances (614)
Items (790)
Leveling (245)
Making money (163)
PvP (691)
Quests (342)
Raiding (670)
Talents (120)
Tips (539)
Tricks (215)
Walkthroughs (74)
Media
Comics (63)
Fan art (34)
Galleries (136)
Machinima (541)
Podcasts (52)
Polls (55)
Screenshots (610)
Races
Alliance (103)
Draenei (61)
Dwarves (15)
Gnomes (39)
Human (15)
Night Elves (42)
Horde (102)
Blood Elves (68)
Orcs (25)
Tauren (42)
Trolls (22)
Undead (21)
Professions
Alchemy (75)
Blacksmithing (55)
Cooking (66)
Enchanting (70)
Engineering (106)
First Aid (16)
Fishing (57)
Herbalism (44)
Inscription (10)
Jewelcrafting (78)
Leatherworking (58)
Mining (42)
Skinning (27)
Tailoring (63)
Retired
Azeroth Interrupted (24)
World Wide WoW (8)
/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

    Featured Galleries

    Magisters' Terrace walkthrough
    Patch 2.4 Sunwell Isle
    Kil'jaeden loot
    It came from the Blog: Mother's Day Event
    It came from the Blog: Children's Week Gallery
    Children's Week: Stormwind
    Children's Week: Orgrimmar
    M'uru loot
    Children's Week: Dornaa's quests

     

    Most Commented On (30 days)

    Recent Comments

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: