General Discussion

Speaking ahead of tonight’s launch of WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard COO Paul Sams has told VG247 that its second major MMO - already in development - is going to be a “next generation” title that sounds like a substantial departure from World of Warcraft.

“We want to create a great game,” he said. “Something that’s cool, and new, and different, and kind of next generation in terms of look and feel and gameplay. That’s a challenging endeavour.”

Sams indicated that the project is in the very early stages of development.

“We’re definitely at the beginning, in the first half of development,” said the exec, explaining that Blizzard tends to work to a two-half process when creating new games.

“When we’re building a new game from the ground up, what happens is that it’s slow going for the first bit, while the team goes round and round and round figuring out how it’s going to look and feel, what the player experience is and what the differentiators are, and then the speed at which we then bring in the contet and polish and actually get to the finish line… I think the second half of the process is always substantially faster than the first half of product development,” he said.

Sams said when we’re going to see first mention of the game.

“I don’t know yet,” he answered when asked for an announcement date.

“For us, we want to make sure that the gameplay and the experience that the players are going to have is fleshed out quite a bit.

“The last thing we want to do is say, ‘Hey we’re doing this,’ and everyone says, ‘Oh cool,’ and then we change things completely. We want to have a level of confidence that the direction we’re going in the right one, and that it’s polished enough to be able to show something, also. And we’re not in either of those places yet.”

Sams said he expected the process of getting the new MMO into the public domain would be challenging one, but growing WoW has taught the company a huge amount.

“I think we’re going to get a lot of bumps and bruises along the way,” he said.

“The good news is that we’re been able to do this with World of Warcraft, and so we have a lot of experience, so hopefully we’ve learnt a tremendous amount.

“Not to mention that before WoW launching we were the world leader in online gaming with Battle.net. We have a lot of experience, and so hopefully that’s going to benefit us as [we bring the game to market].”

Source: http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/11/12/blizzard-coo-our-new-mmo-is-cool-new-different-next-generation/

So, I'm thinking 2012 at the earliest.

probably dumb down  the mechanics of WoW even more ... basically a graphical version of Progress Quest.

New and ground breaking= No quest chains, just repeatable quests to grind xp and rep.

Thats all Blizz knows how to do. I miss the days of pre-BC when they added content and had fun things to do, besides grinding.

Originally posted by lugal

New and ground breaking= No quest chains, just repeatable quests to grind xp and rep.

 

Thats all Blizz knows how to do. I miss the days of pre-BC when they added content and had fun things to do, besides grinding.

Grinding is a playstyle choice.  You can do something different every day of the week.

by the way I love when someone makes a picture to make fun of an arguement they have no relevant comeback to.

ala the WoW = Mcdonalds or Britney spears. maybe instead of creating some stupid picture one of you wowbois should come up with an actual comeback to it.

Very interresting. Thanks for sharing. Its very appreciated.

Just watch, Blizz is going to come out with a sci-fi, sandbox, skill based game that will blow everything else out of the water, and they will completely dominate the ENTIRE market.

Originally posted by Ravanos

by the way I love when someone makes a picture to make fun of an arguement they have no relevant comeback to.

ala the WoW = Mcdonalds or Britney spears. maybe instead of creating some stupid picture one of you wowbois should come up with an actual comeback to it.

 Yawn.  I have done already, many times.  I got tired of it so I'm using that signature.  You want my reasoning?  Dive into my post history, like 1 month ago or something.

Yet why bother?  It's not like the kind of people who make these ridiculously stupid statements would be capable of changing their opinion based on solid argument anway.  Scathing sarcasm is the only language that they understand.

Nm I found it, I am so good to you!: 

WoW is nothing like McDonalds. The whole fast-food analogy is fundamentally flawed. Fast-food is synonymous with cheap, mediocre, low quality. WoW is a game of the highest quality, raising the bar so high nothing has touched it since 2004, a fact acknowledged by pretty much every other developer on the planet, most recently Bioware, and of course all of the gaming press reviews.

It had the highest development budget for any PC game ever.
It was made by Blizzard, who are widely considered one of the best game developers on the planet.
It is the highest critically reviewed MMORPG on the planet.
It is one of the most expensive MMORPGs on the planet.

So nothing like McDonalds, that's just an analogy used by people that cannot accept that the game they do not wish to play is enjoyed by so many people. A bit like standing by yourself in the corner at a party, watching everyone else having fun while you brood and pick your nose.

You wanna make an analogy, make one that is relevant.