While I was looking up some information on Arena Net history, I followed a wikipedia link to Jeff Strain and found a link to his GDC talk back in 2007.

Not sure if anybody read this back when it was first released, definitely a very good read now.

http://www.guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/gc2007/gcspeech.php

My new favorite quote:

"Truly great games are made by passionate teams who are on fire with the notion of changing the industry. If you are aiming at a competitor rather than aiming to make something fresh and innovative, you've lost."

 

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This is why WoW has become the 800 pound gorilla.

They didn't aim at any competitors since there really weren't any back then. You could argue that Everquest was the Big Dog, but it didn't have nearly the subs that Blizzard has now.

This is also why so many new, and overly hyped, MMOs have failed so miserably. They all tried to compete with WoW instead of doing something new.

This is also why I still hold hope, although fleeting, that MMOs like Anarchy Online will eventually hold a higher market share. AO may have had its problems, likely still does, and it's obviously very aged (though they are supposedly working on a new graphics engine), but it was always far beyond the other MMOs in mechanics. The amount of customization (aka twinking) a person could do in AO has never been matched. Granted, it sometimes requires a masters degree in mathematics to pull off the truly obscene, but it could still be done. Even at max level it required (assuming things haven't changed in 5+ years) min/maxing to a level that makes WoW seem like Kindergarten.

Eventually someone will come up with something, both in game mechanics and overall story/setting, that will unseat the 800 pound gorilla. I count the days.

 

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The only thing WOW did that was straying from the pack was they didn't go for the photo-real graphics. They got some bad press because of it but it turned out in the long run that it was the right decision.

Its amazing to think that companies think that everybody should run out and buy a new graphics card every year just to play the new games.

Well, the first time I read this was last night,I was pretty shocked when I read it, this has been the basis of my argument for why other MMOs have failed. It was interesting to find the man who helped create WoW in the first place stating much of what I have been saying, saying it four years ago.

Have you checked out Guild Wars 2 by chance?

 

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He's wrong

Wow Copied the best bits from the best mmos at the time,and then polished it and added a shine.

Theres nothing you could find in wow that you couldn't in another mmo at the time.

Wow had a few major things going for it,very few bugs and crashes,a lot of players and a hud that worked very well with its good quest system.

It's major strengh was raiding,it's never had a good pvp system.

Was it new? not a chance...

WoW's success is solely based in its lies and bait and switch techniques, period.

It has been that way from the beginning, keeping a steady churn.

 

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