For instance, cel-shaded games have started to pick up popularity. Basically, what cel-shaded graphics meant that the games resembled Anime (I guess the popularity was simply a reflection of growing popularity of Anime in U.S.)
Here are few screenshots of some of cel-shaded games from various consoles
note: I intentionally included few screenshots from Zelda/Mario games to show how even such iconic games flirted with cel-shaded graphics
Not only were cel-shaded games were becoming popular, but multiplayer games were also becoming very popular as well, such as Halo and Guitar Heroes. Whenever I go to visit my good buddy in Malibu, we usually play his Nintendo Wii and some other multiplayer games (like Guitar Heroes and Halo hehe) because they offer good fun for group of people. Also, console gaming started to get into online market (Dreamcast was the first console to flirt with online gaming, but not many games offered to utilize its online capabilities...I remember I played this RPG called Phantasy Star Online, which had online capabilities, and loved it...but Dreamcast had died out before any real potentials were explored) with Xbox and its Xbox Live service...now, it's becoming more prominent with PS3 and Xbox 360
The biggest appeal with online games is that you could now play with people from all over the globe. To me, however, consoles games still couldn't match computer online games; my friends played online computer games rather than console games, so I started to play with them.
I personally think that Starcraft really started the whole computer online game revolution...for those that don't know, Starcraft is an online strategy game developed by Blizzard and became a HUGE (and I really do mean HUGE) success.
sidenote: the Blizzard games that I mentioned before, including Diablo and Warcraft, are all online games
Eventually, Blizzard got into MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG) market with World of Warcraft . Unlike many online games where online play is free, MMORPGs are usually pay to play (usually monthly fee of $10~$20) RPGs. Why do they have to be pay-to-play? It's because maintaining huge game servers are costly and with steady inflow of revenue, game companies can constantly add new content and offer better in-game services. What World of Warcraft is that it uses the lore and world already established by Warcraft games and turn that into an MMORPG experience. This worked because
1) Blizzard had developed a reputation for publishing high-quality games--basically, any games they published were going to be a commercial success
2) Blizzard had already established a fanbase of Warcraft players, so they were already guaranteed to buy World of Warcraft
3) They were reaching out to MMORPG fanbase, which they've never done before...before WoW came out, the only real MMORPG out there was Everquest...I tried EQ briefly and stopped playing within an hour because it was really horrid...at its peak, EQ had around ~200,000 subscriptions...to give you an idea, WoW currently has 10million subscriptions and the #s are still increasing
Why are MMORPGs so appealing? Simple--it taps into basic human need for social interaction and success/progression. As mentioned before, WoW already had its world established around Warcraft universe--there were heroes to revel and villains to be defeated (which goes well with the whole human need to succeed and progress). Basically, players would join in-game guilds and sometimes participate in raids (which is usually a guild-wide endeavor of 40, 25 or 10 people (which depended on raid dungeon) to defeat bosses and collect better loots) or just choose to stay hang out with guild members.
On the next blog post, I'll explain in more detail about the whole raiding environment and other aspects of WoW
Here is a link to a blogging site by and for WoW players: WoW Insider
No comments:
Post a Comment