Ok, so here’s something that bugs me. Maybe it’s because I got my degree in marketing, maybe it’s just picking nits, but I swear the most obnoxious advertising technique is the “I’m better than the other guy cause I’m not him” tactic. No, I get it, I understand that you want to set yourself apart; do the “blind taste test” that “4 out of 5 dentists” will agree to, but come on! You have to be able to stand on your own without your big selling point being “I’m like them but not”. Drives me crazy! Rawr!
I’m a pretty big watcher of the shows on The Escapist, and they’ve been pushing the Rift ads pretty hard lately… guess it’s coming out or something. One such advert, just shows a few seconds of pretty cinematics and (gameplay?) before plastering the words “We’re not in Azeroth anymore“. So if you want to go against the goliath, it’s not a great idea to instantly compare yourself with wowcraft from the get go. They basically just planted the seed of flame wars of the people who say it’s completely different and those who say it’s just the same. I saw so many previews of the game saying “it’s not wow”, “totally different”, “anger anger rage”, and what have yous, but I tried the beta for all of 3, maybe 4 hours before getting bored, and while it’s not wowland per-say, it’s definitely got the vibe. Not to mention when they bust onto the scene with an ad like that, it’s only natural to start drawing the comparisons.
Sure, wow isn’t new or original, sure there’s been games like it before, but blizz packaged it in such a way that’s been able to completely corner the market for what? 5-6 years now? Not bad. And as much as we like to speculate what the next wowkiller will be, I highly doubt it will come in the form of a well dressed clone. There, I said it. Sure it’s not an exact copy like many others that have tried before, but it’s like comparing a nice beer battered grouper sandwich to some bread encrusted trout… they’re pretty different but when you slice through the superficialness it’s all just glorified fish sticks.
So yeah… Rift has some interesting things in it I guess, some cool talent trees and spells, but I’d have to say it’s a lot like a cross between wow and allods. And honestly, I just don’t see too many people hanging up their lvl 85 spurs to pay for another game that, at it’s core, is just the same old grind but in a different box.
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The only people rift will steal away are those that want better graphics, want a darker and more serious mood and thus those that are annoyed with the overtones cata reached (wouldn’t expect you to know this if you only play horde, but they get some very rich stories, and the allies get to have fun and wacky adventures; Rambo in redridge and we get Fargo Flintelock in twilight highlands) and more generally: harison ford. A lot of people do like those elements, but they are getting a bit annoying.
For people that are tired of keyboard based mmo’s, rift will have a harder time stealing people away because the system works so similar that people may be reluctant to move away from wow. It’s also funny how some of the spells and talents are direct copies.
I’ll stop ranting about what I’ve learned in the last few weeks, but if you are bored and have an hour to kill, watch the WTF is: rift that totalhalibut (totalbiscuit) did on it because he explains it more thoroughly than I am.
Ah, this is true. And probably why I like the Horde much better. I guess for people that want something a little familiar but different, it’s not a bad choice… well, neither is Allods, but I was never really able to connect with the races/classes in that game.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that some were pretty much word for word… but I see that in a lot of places. Even in Dragon Age they had “Cone of Cold” and other spells that seemed like exact copies of the ones in wow. Maybe it’s a common enough thing that it just seems like copies to us, but have been around for much longer.
BTW, I love that totalbiscuit guy’s site! He’s so funny… and uh… British… good times! You can check out his website at cynicalbrit.com!
This hype sounds so familiar, like I heard it 1 year ago with a game called Aion….
“It’s wow with wings!”
yeah, it didn’t last long. same with a lot of games like it. idk… maybe the genre just can’t support more than one superpower at a time? it also goes to show, super graphics aren’t always the selling point. wow has dated graphics by today’s standards, but still draws a good crowd. who knows, maybe some indy developer will come up with the next big thing.
I just wish I could play Rift with more than 5 fps. I mean, I never saw 200-man raids forming that fast. Also, giant water monsters half-way through a portal look good :3.
yikes! see, now that has some pretty cool appeal to it! the monsters and giant raids part, not the 5fps. Think my computer would probably start going into the negatives at that point.
I’m really not trying to say Rift is a bad game, just it’s marketing tactics are horrible. I don’t really see it as the wowkiller or full package it claims to be though either. But things like huge server raids is something I like. Other games had qualities I liked but weren’t enough to make it a switching point. Like the whole “you build castles to defend and other players destroy it” thing that I think Conan had. but hey, who knows, maybe it’ll surprise us all and become the next megabeast mmo!
So far so good! I mean… I’m a Pyromancer with an earth golem who can self heal! Wait a second… that sounds exactly like a shaman (except I can chain-cast the spells instead of waiting LvB to refresh)!
Heh… I can’t stop having those tools around ;)
Seen the gameplay. Reminded me of Lineage 2 and why I don’t play it anymore. However, the first reaction was: freakin’ rippers.. That’s true, sorry ;| [/flame]
I’m writing my MA about language in advertising, glad to hear you’re also partially in it ;)
ha! you should see some of my art projects (cough… on deviantart…)! I had a little series going all about mock ads. still have some sketches for new ones… but who has the time? ah well. but yeah, I love the whole strangeness that is corporate propaganda. (a fun tidbit for ya, I took some ad/marketing classes while in art school and realized that a lot of the principles in advertising are the same exact ones in art. like what makes a good picture and what makes a good ad. something to think about with your paper there. >)
I think at this point, WoW is pretty much unkillable due to sheer inertia. No game is going to break off enough players from WoW’s base to make its own community unless it either a) comes in at the end of WoW, b) comes from Blizzard (and even then if WoW keeps going it’ll be a slow transition), or c) does something incredibly groundbreaking. WoW is a solid MMO with a 12-million-member community, and it’ll take a major shock to knock it off its perch on top of the market.
it is pretty solid! almost like the walmart of gaming, it made some very good decisions early on and kept a decent flow to keep it going. this is not to say they are immune to failure. they could do something down the line that just POs players off, or it gets stagnant, or people just get bored and move on. but most likely, until they release their next mmo, they’ll probably to keep going strong. I just have a really hard time seeing any new contenders coming in and stealing enough of the player base to make it crumble. but then again, who knows… like I said… Boarderlands the MMO… make it happen! and I’ll play till my eyes bleed!
Well I’ll be honest, Rift did steal me away from WoW not because of anything it did but simply due to it being there. I got to 85 twice and since my schedule doesn’t really give me time to do anything but level or due dailies I got tired of Cata so I’m taking a break.
I due agree with Skyburn though there is just something about the invasion raids when the entire zone just stops questing and turns its hand to crushing the invading npc horrors.
yes, this is one aspect that really intrigues me! one thing that I wish wow had gotten into more! I always loved the idea of world bosses that groups of people would gather their forces together and destroy. Kind of like why I loved doing city raids with 80+ people. It starts out as a mess, but people end up filling roles as needed until either the boss dies or it wipes.
Kinda wish I could have gotten to that point in the beta though. >\
The thing that I kinda get from the people at Blizz by their attitudes…is that they don’t really seek to destroy, they seek to aspire. The company started with a bunch of video game geeks who played games and saw developers of the games they were fans of as heroes. They have challenged other companies to do the best they can, they want to be defeated and humbled, it only makes them stronger.
It’s the type of mentality that’s like “I will kill the town hero and become the next town hero” vs. “I will learn from the town hero, admire him/her, train and when the hero passes, I will be the next hero.”
ah, so they’re the Obi-Wan of the videogame industry? hehe! XD
I don’t think it’s fair to criticise games for ‘copying WoW’. WoW in itself was nothing more than a natural development of its outdated predecessors. It’s also not entirely valid to criticise games for copying WoW’s abilities. WoW is hardly innocent of this, either. Magic missiles, anyone?
heh, this is true. though I’m not really criticizing the “copying wow” as much as I am their advertising method of saying “buy this game cause it’s not the other one”. It’s like the coke vs pepsi thing. but at the end of the day, they’re still just brown fizzy sugar water. I’ve never been an advocate of the “we’re not them” method of marketing. If it has a cool and unique selling point, then promote it! but when you use their method, it just draws attentions to similarities and differences to a specific competitor, which just muddy up the message. poor form I say!
As for my feelings on if it’s a clone or not… well, in the words of South Park, “Simpsons did it!” lol! isn’t that the truth? everything’s been done before, just some package it in a different way. but I guess the benefit we consumers get from this is that as ideas trickle down the timeline, they get refined as things that work, succeed and those that don’t, fall off the face of the planet. (Like Rampage controls for the Wii… and thus, we’ve all learned a valuable lesson about user input)