Posters Name: Kagato
Posters Email: kagato@mwgl.org
Subject: Warcraft Goes MMORPG
News:
Well, WarCraft III hasn't even hit the shelves and already there is word that Blizzard is brining the WarCraft family to the on-line (aka EverQuest, etc.) arena. WarCraftIII Network has posted a full preview of World of WarCraft as it is tentatively known. It's a bit of review mixed with Q&A about the upcoming title. Here's a snip:
When will the game be released?Could be a cool game, but with no ETA and a market that has plenty of new games on the horizon (Dark Age of Camelot!!), time will be the judge.
With a wry smile that spoke volumes Blizzard is not going to be drawn on this question at this point. They inevitably miss it as they strive for perfection and some bright spark claims "It would be cool if we could x,y,z" and of course any date given now will fall by the wayside like all those before it. Bill did say that the game has been in production for a little over a year (which is about the same length as Warcraft III when that was announced in September 1999). Some websites have reported two years in production and that's incorrect. But it will be released this Millennium.
The press conference left attendees hankering for more information. From the presentation it was obvious that Blizzard had thought long and hard about creating the World of Warcraft as their next game and bypassing a completely new franchise or even Starcraft II. Speaking to some of the other journo types after the press conference it was apparent they'd had a very positive reaction to it. There was a real buzz and no doubts from anyone that this would take the MMORPG genre by the scruff of the neck and give it a right firm shake.