From Mario to World of Warcraft: Evolution of Game

2008-04-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

So this entry is officially the last one to be graded...with that in mind, I guess the appropriate topic is when players quit the game

It's not all that difficult to see players quit WoW...some people just get bored of the game while others are simply overwhelmed by real-life obligations (job, fiance, etc).

Few good-bye posts from my server, Ner'zhul
Emotive
Emotive was a well-respected mage...he has been around since WoW came out ~3 years ago and have been active. He was also ranked one of the best in Arena

Guild "Lost Anarchy"
Lost Anarchy was one of the top guilds on server until they disbanded due to guild dramas...most of the members either transferred to different servers or simply quit the game

Walle
Similar to Emotive, he was also one of the best (and most respected) players on Ner'zhul, whos been playing since WoW came out...

It's probably easy to think "Ok so what's the big deal? They're quitting a silly online game...woopy doo"
However, it's easy to get very attached to the game...you meet friends, spend hundreds of hours building up your character, quest together with friends, etc...for some folks, WoW has become a huge part of their life. Sympathies from other players certainly attest to this--they understand that it's not easy quitting WoW, so they are compelled to bid final farewell to their friend.
I also see various ex-guild members (who quit WoW) still posting on my guild forums to keep in touch with their old friends. Although we may no longer play WoW together, they still like socializing and even trying to find other games to play together (mainly Nintendo Wii hehe).

On a rather comical side to this somewhat sad phenomenon, its also not surprising to find players come back to WoW. In fact, some of my guild members are talking about coming back once again---they usually talk about how they had to fight the urge to come back but ultimately losing the (futile) battle *giggle*...one particular member (without mentioning names) actually vowed to work ridiculous # of hours per week to occupy himself (and hopefully not play WoW)...however, after few months, he couldn't resist the temptation and came back to play (although he doesn't play as much anymore, he's just probably more interested in keeping touch with guildies more).

I was watching a WoW video (created by another player) today and came across this quote
"If it hadn't been for fun people I met, I wouldn't be playing this game"
And I completely agree--it's really the people that makes me continue to play this game...even if I lose interest in game itself, I will probably stick around to socialize

I don't really want my last blog graded blog topic to be somber, so here's somewhat cheerful anecdote

SIDENOTE: On forums, there's a internet phenomenon called RICKROLL...it's basically user suckers others into clicking a link, only to be directed to THIS VIDEO. In fact, it got so popular that Blizzard banned RICKROLLING on its forums

Here's a pretty nice explanation of what Rickroll is
Credit to ROCKETBOOM

And here's a real-life application of rick roll
Credit to onethousand98

So now that you know what Rickrolling is...here's a funny anecdote of a player who Rickrolls a GM (Game Master, they usually deal with in-game problems)...CLICK HERE

And as a final note...
THANK YOU GOOGLE

2008-04-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

There is really no specific theme for tonight...just few "random" WoW related sites

New leaked photos of upcoming WoW expansion: Wrath of the Lich King!!!
I guess I should mention what expansions are here...
It's not unusual to find expansions for computer games...what expansion packs do (in this case, WoW) is that it adds more to the game...for WoW, expansion will introduce many new zones, bosses, items, spells, skills, new level cap of 80, etc. This is actually fruitful because it gives established fan base reason to come back (and that means steady revenue source) also gives an opportunity to attract new customers...also, because Blizzard has already established a Warcraft Lore, they can simply develop new heroes/villains without having to come up another storyline from scratch...needless to say, I'm anxiously looking forward to this expansion :)

A guild manages to kill 25-man raid boss with just 8 people
If you recall my earlier post about raiding, its usually accomplished by 25 people...Gruul (the boss mentioned in the site) is Tier 4 boss (aka probably the easiest raid boss in WoW). Another previously mentioned guild, Nihilum, once managed to defeat Gruul with just 15 people (and I say "just" because when they did it, not many guilds progressed passed Gruul...so the overall gear quality was weak). Now, because numerous guilds have passed Gruul and ventured into the Black Temple (tier 6), they're pretty much OVERGEARED for Gruul, but I guess they wanted to see how many people they had to use to kill Gruul...I might suggest this to my guild if we can be bothered :D

Wow accounts for sale
It's not unusual to find people get bored of WoW...rather than letting their WoW subscription die, many people opt to sell their accounts...some of the really geared accounts can fetch a lot of money (and we're talking few hundred dollars in real life money) since it takes a LOT of time to build a character up...the cheapest level 70 character (level 70 is the cap--you cannot level past 70) were ~$100 because they pretty much had no gear...
Account trading/selling/buying isn't just ubiquitous in WoW--basically ANY MMORPG games (some of WoW's rivals like Everquest 1/2, EVE online, etc) have account tradings

A nice chart showing how WoW's competitors are doing
Not much I can say on this matter...as you can see, WoW is simply dominating the market...

Funny WoW related license plates :)
Part 2 :)
Pretty self explanatory...TRANSLATION:
NUBL2P - Noob/Newbie...learn to play (very frequently used phrase in WoW hehe)
WOWMAGE - There are mages in WoW :p
LFGPST - Looking For Group Please Send Tell (aka I'm looking to group up for [insert dungeon name or other group activity], please message me)
LFGUBRS - Looking For Group for Upper Black Rock Spire, which is one of many dungeons/instances in WoW
WTFNOOB - Uh...do I need to explain this one? :p
GGNOOB - Good Game Noob (phrase mentioned in my earlier blog post)

WoW themed cake!!! Yummy.
Cake for the Horde!!!!!!
Some fans decided to make really cool looking cakes that resemble Alliance/Horde flag...just to refresh your memory, you have to decide if you want to be part of the Alliance (simply by picking Night Elf, Dwarf, Human, Draenai or Gnomes) or the Horde (Undead, Tauren, Orc, Troll or Blood Elf) when you create your character...Horde and Alliance have never been friends...they're always in conflict

And last but not least...
Wikipedia for WoW...Wowwiki!!!

2008-04-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

So from my blog posts, I was hoping to convey how modern computer games (WoW, which is arguably the most popular computer game at the moment) have evolved into a very social game with multiple features in the game that foster social aspects.

Now we come to one of the most interesting "spawns" of WoW--internet forums

It's basically a place where WoW players gather and post msgs and/or respond to msgs by other players...

The official site is HERE

You will initially be greeted by types of forums you can browse--WoW General, Realm forums (for your own realm), class forums, etc etc etc. On the forums, you can opt to post on your "main" (or the character you play with most often), your "alt" (alternative character you play...after all, playing only a single player all the time might get boring) or "forum troll", meaning some really low level character you post on to flame (internet lingo for posting inflammatory comments and such...generally just acting really rude behind anonimity that internet offers). Because each character is such a huge investment (in terms of time, in-game money, etc), you can easily develop a positive or negative reputation on the forums...this is especially true if you post on your own realm forums since only residents of that realm will likely carouse realm forums...people talk about anything, whether it's guild recruitment (example found here), message directed a specific person/people/guild (example found here), bartering (example found HERE), technical in-game how-tos (example found HERE), a request for in-game change of mechanics (example found HERE)...the list goes on

Sadly, the general forums are filled with really whiny posts....and derogatory comments...all because people have anonimity thanks to the power of internet. I personally stopped visiting the general forums because the amount of garbage was pretty astounding...I like to frequent my realm forums to see what some players and guilds are upto--how far are they in raiding? did anyone quit the game? any guilds recruiting?

Because we're essentially a small community, it's very easy to keep in touch with each other through the realm forums...

There was once a poor guy who wanted attention on our forums (his character name is Thunderkitty)...so he began posting a lot of useless, spam threads that basically annoyed everyone
THIS THREAD just kind of shows how much of negative reputation he developed...prior to this, I still don't know how, but somehow people found out his Myspace and posted photos of him, calling him names and such

Strangely enough, forums developed its own LANGUAGE (jokingly known as NERD language...after all, this is all possible since English is like an OPEN SYSTEM)
Some of the acronyms:
LOL - Laughing out loud (aka "haha")
WTB/WTS/WTT - Want to buy/sell/trade
WTF - What the ****
DIAF - Die in a fire
PST - Please Send a Tell (aka msg me)
FFS - For ****'s sake
QQ - Synonym for whine...it's because QQ kind of looks like someone crying (it's really hard to explain this via text)

So some of the more common phrases could be something like
"WTB Social Life, PST" (since a stereotypical gamer has no social life)
"(Angrily or jokingly directed at a player) FFS, go DIAF"
"This game is such a timesink QQ!"
"LOL WTF"
"HI2U QT" (Hi to you cutie)

You wouldn't really know how a nerd talks like unless you know one, but overall I find the whole gamer/nerd language to be fun...it's constantly changing and evolving as we speak...sometimes a new word is born

For instance
..
In Starcraft, it's pretty customary for a player to say GG (Good Game) after a match...because I said GG so much when I was playing Starcraft...so sometimes in real life, I find myself muttering "GG" after certain events

Another famous example...in a shooting game called Counter-Strike, players used the word OWNED to indicate how they've won
e.g. "He got owned" or just "OWNED. (When someone dies)"
However, a player accidentally typed PWNED (since O and P are adjacent to one another on a typical keyboard) and people actually started to use the word PWNED rather than OWNED...soon, PWNED turned into PWNT...and now it's a pretty common word used by gamers

Unfortunately it's really difficult for me to explain how gamers interact on the web--it's just wayy too complex...I hope I gave a pretty good example of how we talk on the net :D

2008-04-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Now we finally get to the 2nd biggest aspect of WoW: PvP (Player vs player, where players basically just fight each other rather than computer-controlled units)

Here's a really long (and arguably nerdy) article on evolution of WoW PvP system:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17820

I'm going to try to keep the explanation simple...

Basically, when the game first game out, there was no "PvP" system...you either played on realms where you were free to engage opposing faction at any time (You have to pick either the Alliance, which basically appeals to the mass market with races like Gnomes...Night Elves...Humans...Dwarves...Draenei, or Horde, which includes the Undead, Tauren, Orc, Troll and Blood Elves) on PvP realms or if you wanted to be left alone and quest, you had to play on PvE realms

Just to clarify, on PvP realms, world PvP (where people just fight each other in the world with no real purpose or goals) is encouraged...whereas in PvE realms, you can't freely attack opposing faction like in PvP realms

With that out of the way...Blizzard realized that PvP was a very popular activity, so they wanted to implement reward/progression system related to PvP....along came Honor system

In other words, if you kill any member of opposing faction (because you can't kill members of your own faction), then you receive honor...honor is then used as a currency for you to buy PvP gear...with that, now there was PROGRESSION and COMPETITION for players, which is what really makes games fun--if there is nothing to look forward to, then why should you continue to play the game? Not to mention, everyone loves a bit of competition :)

Throughout the course of the game, Blizzard implemented more features to cater to players that thrived in PvP environment--Battle Groups where massive groups duked out in a map, world PvP objectives and rewards, and finally, Arena, where players form teams of 2/3/5 and fight against other players.

Again, I'm going to say that I cut out a LOT of details because it could've gotten quite extensive and boring...however, one PvP system, Arena, is worthy of more attention

Sidenote: I should have mentioned this, but in the game there are 9 classes total, each being able to specialize in 3 types of talents...so for instance, there are the heavy-armor wielding Warriors, who could specialize in Protection (absorbing damage), Fury (Pumping out maximum damage with double weapons) or Arms (The most popular talent set up for PvP)...there are also leather wearing Rogues, who likes to specialize in stealthing and ambushing enemies...basically, if you look hard enough, you will eventually find a play style you like since there are basically 27 to choose from

Arenas are THE MOST competitive PvP system there is--you have to form the right combination of teams and practice to succeed...more successful your team is, more arena points (similar to honor, its the currency to buy arena PvP gear, which is the best PvP gear there is in the game) you can get, better gear you can get sooner, etc. There are "flavors of the month," meaning hackneyed setups that seemingly EVERYONE seem to use due to explosion of popularity...what does this really mean? Does it mean that the game isn't balanced enough?

Interestingly enough, Blizzard occasionally steps in and makes adjustments to classes, but what usually happens is that these popular setups usually fade away and another popular setup comes into light...in other words, the game sort of balances itself out because as a new popular setup comes into light, counters-strategies are formed and in comes even "better" team setups...

Blizzard recently started to sponsor official Arena competitions with real cash prizes...more information found HERE. In the end, WoW caters to those who enjoy PvE (aka raiding bosses) and those that enjoy shooting laser at other players faces (metaphorically speaking).

And of course, here are few random videos, showcasing what Arena is like
Credit to Warcraftbabii:

Credit to Masterbrax1:

If you remember my earlier blog post, the most popular WoW video website was THIS ONE...some of the most respected and skilled players tend to record themselves and publish it on the website for entertainment and educational (aka novices can watch how the "pros" do it) purposes...then they can visit websites dedicated to WoW arena such as THIS (probably the most frequented WoW arena website) to discuss strategies and such...

That's the gist of PvP environment of WoW :)

2008-04-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

This post isn't strictly gaming related, so to speak, but Blizzard always has some April Fool's jokes and such...so here are some of AFD stuff :)

Blizzards new game!? SNAP

New hero/class for WoW

Ah yah, Tauren Marine in SC2!!!

Diablo loot table adjustment keke

Flying Penguins! (not game related but I found it to be amusing)

WoW insider's coverage of AFD

WoW insider's recap of past Blizzard's AFD jokes

Nihilum, world's #1 (and Blizzard even acknowledged them) guild, has their fun with AFD

Zelda Movie!? (IGN's AFD)

2008-03-31T00:49:00.000-07:00

So I want to finish up with discussing "raiding"

Last time I glossed over what raiding exactly is, so for this post I will discuss in further detail what raiding is REALLY like

There are different levels to raid dungeons--they vary from tier 4 (4 because WoW has expansion out...used to be from tier 1-3 pre-expansion) to tier 6. Basically Tier 4 dungeons are novice-friendly dungeons that any guild can participate in. Tier 6, as you probably would've guessed, are only for HARDCORE (hardcore as in its for guilds who has members that raid ~5-6 hours at least 4 days a week) guilds which have already gotten all the necessary loot from tier 4-5 dungeons.

This leads to an interesting competition amongst guilds to see who can kill the top bosses fastest...this site is often used to keep track of guilds' progression. Players that raid (often called RAIDERS) often know top guilds' names. They can often keep track of top guilds' progression because popular wow sites, such as THIS and THIS are filled with news relating to other guilds accomplishments and updates to WoW

SIDENOTE: Recently, there was a huge patch to the game (huge as it was ~300MB) that included a brand-new tier 6 dungeon, so right now there's a competition amongst world's best guilds to see who can claim the title of "First to kill the hardest boss in game." Wow news sites, consequently, are keeping track of the race.

Of course, because WoW is such a social game, there are GUILD DRAMAS...the most notorious one is from another top guild, DEATH AND TAXES (their website found HERE)
What happened is...A girl raider from DnT (who shall now be referred to as Jill) and another member from DnT (who shall be referred to as Jack) were real life couples, but they had some rough fights and ended up breaking up. Jill wanted to exact revenge on Jack, so she found another DnT member (who will now be referred to as Daniel) and invited him over to live with her. Daniel ended up moving in with Jill and started having a very very sexual affair.

Sidenote: Daniel and Jack have been friends for years

Eventually the news got out and entire DnT crew felt like something had to be done. They somehow procured very graphic photos of Daniel and Jill (and we're talking about rated X stuff) and posted them all over their site and disseminated it all over official WoW forums, calling Jill names like S***, W****, etc etc etc. The scandal got so big that even I, who never really dig into guild drama stuff, ended up hearing about it on MY guild forums.

Without going into details, my guild also had some dramas in the past--guild member who seriously cried due to raiding...members quitting the game...angry guild members over stupid fights that could've been prevented...the list goes on

Despite all this, I still find raiding enjoyable...sense of killing tier 6 bosses (that many WoW players only dream of) and just having fun with your guildies is fun :)

I think I covered raiding pretty thoroughly, so I'll close with some more social aspect of WoW

One of the funnier things that WoW players do in WoW is trying to come up with character names or guild names
Some of funnier guild names
Warning: Some names are very explicit or racist, so gloss over this section if you can't handle it

POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE GUILD NAMES
Naga stole my bike (Sidenote: There's a race called the NAGAS in Warcraft lore, link found here)
Rosa Parks stole my seat
Halaa at a Naga (Sidenote: There's an area called Halaa in WoW)
Sapped girls can't say no
Rogues do it from behind
Ghouls gone wild
Your mom is my mount
Two Dollar Hordes (Sidenote: There are two nations, the Alliance and the Horde, in the game)

NON-OFFENSIVE
Gnomeland security (Sidenote: There is a race called Gnomes, link found HERE)
Hello kitty assassins
OMG lazer gun PEW PEW PEW
Gnome Punting Champions
Hanging with my Gnomies
Beep beep i'm a jeep
CtrlAltElite
I m Godzilla U R Japan

I think you get the gist :)

There are some silly threads on WoW forums...like
Example 1
Example 2

Basically, WoW has its share of SERIOUS, HARDCORE gamers and casuals who just want to mess around and act silly....and not all WoW players are social losers! heh :)

I hope I helped to overcome some of stereotypes of gamers with my blogs...I personally find games to be appealing because I can just relax and home and play whenever I want while being able to socialize with my real-life friends and game friends. If I get tired of being stuck home, I can opt to call my friends to go out to hang out.

I don't really know what I want to discuss in my next blog post, but look forward to it!

2008-03-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

I thought it'd be pretty nice to talk briefly about one of the most anticipated new game rather than me trying to educate on games...

Recently, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl came out...super smash series has been one of the most popular fighting game (aka multiplayer) franchise that Nintendo owned...so when Nintendo announced that the newest SSB will have online capabilities, the anticipation was HIGH...basically, ALL of my friends (and guild buddies) who had Nintendo Wii bought it and played. The great thing about the game was that guildies were posting their online IDs on our forums and started to play with each other while utilizing Ventrilo, which is voice chatting program we use for raiding and such. I'm also contemplating on purchasing Nintendo Wii (along with SSBB), but we'll see how that pans out...

Wikipedia link: here

Video Review and in-game footage

If I hear about more interesting new games, I'll post about it...but for now, good night :)

2008-03-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

There as many aspects of the game that can be studied, but there are two that stands out the most: PvP (Player vs. player, where players fight each other) and PvE (Player vs. environment, which is what raiding is all about)

So what exactly is raiding? As mentioned briefly in previous blogs, raiding is when numerous players participate in a gigantic group endeavor to defeat a boss and collect epic loots... in the early days, a raid party consisted of 40 people, but Blizzard (creator of WoW) decided that 40 people was too huge of a raid party and reduced the # to 25. Now how does the whole raiding environment work for modern world?

Modern world is basically characterized by social networking, such as Myspace and Facebook. What raiding does is basically incorporating social networking with other WoW players and giving them a group endeavor to participate in

Let me explain

Raiding is actually a very time consuming activity...you have to have adequate gear just to participate (meaning before you can even think about raiding, you have to collect loots from pre-raid dungeons). Also, you have to spend a lot of in-game money on buying potions, materials for gear, gear repair money, etc. Basically, you have to prepare and "farm up" (game lingo) for raiding before raids can happen

After players are prepared for raiding, there's the actual process of aggregating for raids...remember, raiding is a big joint effort, meaning group meeting times and dates must be set before raids can start. My WoW guild, for instance, has raid times on tuesday/thursday/sunday at ~7p.m., meaning all participants usually log on prior to 7 and meet at a designated place in game. Once everyone's present, raid members will venture into raid dungeons and proceed to try to defeat bosses for better loots.

This all may sound really dumb and dull, but human beings naturally have the drive to attain more...remember, the more you raid, the better gear you can accumulate. Also, raiding is a fun environment--raid members would usually joke around and horseplay (while trying to seriously defeat the bosses)

These are some excerpts from my raid outings...and the wordings aren't exact, but you get the gist
warning: contains crude language

Sidenote: Our raid leader, whose WoW name is Jimjones (nicknamed JJ...Raid leaders are usually guild leaders who organize raiding events) is currently still stuck with an inferior cloak called "Cloak of the Inciter" found here.

Member 1: Cloak of the inciter? More like C*** of the inciter...
Member 2: Yeah...you seriously need to get a better cloak JJ...that C***'s been hanging behind your back for too long...it's pretty homosexual
Member 3: C***blocked!!
JJ: :(

Member 1: HAVE YOU BEEN NAUGHTY TODAY!?
Member 1: ...crap, mistell (message sent to wrong chatbox)
Various members in raid: WTF...o_o;;

Member 1: *starts playing Spongebob Squarepants theme music on audio chat program*

Sadly I don't remember some of the funnier moments but you get the gist

Wow raiding environment popular enough such that players sometimes produce videos (which are anywhere from 200MB to 700MB), showcasing their achievements (most popular WoW video hosting site being this one)...there are other funny WoW related videos...here are some of them

Credit to animpinabox

"Mario theme in World of Warcraft"
Credit to Lososak

Movie "300" parody
Credit to ondskab100

And the infamous LEEROY JENKINS video that so many WoW players know....
basically, the premise of the movie is...a guild is in some raid dungeon...there's a player named Leeroy who was AFK (Away from Keyboard) while guild leader was explaining what to do in an upcoming room, full of baby dragons...and...well...things go wrong
Warning: Minor cursing found in the video, but nothing really excessive

Basically there's a HUGE variety of wow-themed videos out there...you just have to look at the right places...

Even South Park had a crack at parodying WoW
Credit to Randumbjunk
Warning: if you're not fan of South Park and its crude humor, don't watch
Video found here

Soo...basically to sum it up...raiding is a social experience for gamers

Many guilds actually like to show off their accomplishments via websites...my guild is no exception
Guild website
We also have forum set up such that guild members can talk about anything, from real life events to game related issues to raid scheduling...I guess because of this, I prefer forum social system rather than...say...facebook

I didn't really have chance to discuss PvP environment of the game, so I'll probably discuss that next time...

2008-03-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

I was growing out of console games by the time PS3 and XBox 360 came out; I had started playing computer games like Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft III and had fallen in love with online games. However, it's still noteworthy to point out how the game trends have changed since the days of Nintendo and Mario

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

2008-02-25T00:29:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Today I want to focus on the story of Sega post Sega Saturn age particularly because the story just isn't really well known to the American audience--to my knowledge (and I'm sorry I don't really have websites as references), Saturn was simply DOMINATING the market in Japan against PSX...hard to believe right? First, you have to understand a bit about the Japanese culture

In Japan, Anime (which is basically their version of cartoon...things like Dragonball, Pokemon and Digimon are Anime because they originated from Japan...Simpsons, Futurama and South Park would be cartoons since they originated from U.S.) has been around for as long as I can remember. You might have heard of it because its popularity has been increasing at an exponential rate recently. To show how they're different, here are few screenshots from some Anime series

And here are some of screenshots from American cartoons

(I'm sorry if the photo sizes are all different...I don't know how to change them without affecting the quality of the photos)

There are numerous types of Anime--comedy, romance, action, horror, thriller, etc. What Sega did is offer many Anime-esque games...

Credit to MedionSF

Credits to tapamn

They offered a really unique gaming experience--so unique, in fact, that Sega of America judged that the American market was not ready for these anime-esque games (which is really what made Saturn so popular...I've played some of these great games since I was still living in Korea) and decided to publish more Arcade-based games, like Virtual Cop...Sega Rally Game...etc. Fortunately for Sony, Final Fantasy VII was a global success, which established PSX as THE system for RPG (and other blockbuster) games and Sega started to trail behind. Rest is history--Dreamcast came out...did OK until PS2 came out...Sega ended up leaving game hardware market.

I still remember when I returned to America, I immediately bought a Sega Saturn because the system had many great games...however, I found out that none of them left Japan (and since I was 9 years old back then, I didn't fully understand why). I ended up buying PSX because of FFVII and other great RPGs that followed afterwards (most of which weren't for Sega Saturn); I also bought Sega Dreamcast on its debut day because I still had faith in Sega, but Sega was basically dying by that point and Sony was the game console leader.

IF the Anime industry was as well established back then as it is today, and IF Sega of America brought all of its successful (which were all anime-esque games), then I truly believe that Sega would have beaten Sony in game console market...however, Saturn simply was not ready for the American market and Sony was fortuitous to have FFVII in its lineup

From next blog post, I'll briefly cover PS2 and finally move on to World of Warcraft--what the hell is it? Why is it so popular? Etc etc.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention...
Also, Genesis (and as matter of fact SNES) also had these anime-esque games--again, from what I heard from my cousins, Genesis was also doing better than SNES in Japan. Sega had a dedicated fanbase prior to Saturn's release, which just contributed to its dominance in Japan

I came across a youtube video, showcasing some of unreleased SNES (which is known as Super Famicon in Japan) games, just to give a flavor of what the American market missed out
Credit to Gaian000

Note: the FIRST game that's shown on the video is based off an Anime "Yu Yu Hakusho"

My-interesting-exit-link-of-the-post:
Gamer's Haven
It's arguably THE BEST RESOURCE SITE for all your console gaming needs...basically all the guides and reviews they have are written and updated BY gamers FOR gamers

2008-02-15T00:12:00.001-08:00

I remember when Nintendo first came out with its first console system--the NES...although I was ~5 years old back then, I still remember watching my older cousins play Mario...Zelda... and some other games I can't remember well...since I was living with my relatives in Korea back then, all of the games were in Japanese.

Small random fact: Game translation industry was basically non-existent back then in Korea (and to my knowledge, it still doesn't really exist even today)...what ended up happening was players had to refer to gaming magazines or websites for translations...why? I don't really know the reasoning behind it, but geographically, Korea is adjacent to Japan, so all the newest games out of Japan was available in Korea almost immediately (although they were at exorbitant prices; each game was ~$150...considering that standard of living and average salary in Korea was much less than of U.S.'s, games really were outside of many young gamers' reach)...so what ended up happening was that bootleg versions of games were sold widely in stores so that you can buy PSX/Sega Saturn games for ~$5 rather than ~$150. I don't really remember how much NES/SNES/Genesis game packs ran for since I was still ~7 years old and didn't care much about pricing or marketing...my cousins were trading games amongst themselves so that they didn't have to buy all the games they wanted to play

Of course, because I was ~5 years old, my cousin forbade me from touching and playing his precious NES since I'd potentially do something stupid and possibly ruin the system...all I got to do was get some Q-tip and clean game cartridges because dust usually accumulated in the cartridge. I grew up by watching my cousins play games (which wasn't really a bad thing--I like watching people play games)--they were huge fans of RPG games since RPG games arguably offered the most bang-for-the-buck (each game would take anywhere from 30 to 70+ hours to complete...not to mention you can always replay the games). Back in the days, RPG games required a lot of level grinding, so the chore of level grinding was given to me (woopydoo) and they would reap the benefits by progressing through the game. This trend basically continued to the days of SNES/Genesis, until I returned to U.S.

Since the game industry was still just a fledging back then, the games were pretty rudimentary (at least in comparison to modern games).
The following video, by laffer35, is a nice montage of all genres of NES games--sports, multiplayer shoot-em-up, RPG (Role Playing Games), etc

And just to inject something more interesting into this entry, here's a video of what's called a "speedrun"--basically, you try to beat the game as fast as possible

NES Mario Speedrun by joshyleearm:

Few years later, Super Nintendo (nicknamed SNES) and Sega Genesis entered the market. Suddenly the graphics were much better! These much more capable systems enabled game producers to produce much more quality games--more content, better graphics, better music...just better everything.

The biggest appeal for me were still RPG games--they offered solid storyline and long playtimes, not to mention they were extremely fun. I grew up playing/watching Final Fintasy...Dragon Quest...Chrono Trigger...Secret of Mana...etc

Again, here's another montage showing SNES games (again thanks to laffer35)

Now here's an interesting question for you gamers...do you remember Sega Saturn? If answer is yes...why did it fail so miserably in U.S. when PSX was dominating the competition? I'll answer this question for the next blog entry :)

Before I exit, here's food for thought--did you know that avg. age of gamers is 33 years old?
Here's a fun site you can visit to digest more gamer statistics

Gamer Statistics

The beginning

2008-02-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Hello

My name's Kay and I'm currently studying Business Administration at University of Southern California. In this blog I want to incorporate what I learned from USC (regarding business related topics, such as marketing) and my lifelong hobby of gaming. Specifically, I want to take a look at how games have evolved from the days of Nintendo to the world of Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft and Nintendo Wii that we see today.

Some of the subtopics that will pop up would include things like emerging online gaming lingo, social networks that have sprouted out, how game developers market, how console game trends are constantly changing, etc.

However, my blog will probably end up scrutinizing Blizzard & its games (Starcraft, Diablo and most significantly, World of Warcraft, which I will start referring to as WoW) in the weeks to come--I'll incorporate my personal experiences and then-emerging gaming trends

Wikipedia has a nice summary of WoW:

World of Warcraft by Wikipedia

I would just like to exit with a fanart of WoW to give flavor of the game...