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The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best business model?
Free-to-play MMO business models come in all shapes and sizes. There are those that are completely free, those that sell only cosmetic items and nothing else, those that nickel-and-dime you to death with cash-shop barriers, and those that offer VIP packages so players can still sub and get everything that a normal subscription game would offer. With so many existing MMOs making that F2P conversion, it's safe to say that the market hasn't really figured out the perfect business model yet. Or has it? Let us know which MMO has the best business model in your opinion, be it subscription, free-to-play, or any combination. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Ten innovation lessons from Blizzard
The OC Register (Blizzard's HQ -- I'm pretty sure that's where it's at, as they're not exactly open with their location info -- is located right down near them in Southern California) has a blog post up featuring 11 "innovation lessons" other companies can learn from the folks behind World of Warcraft. While the lessons aren't exactly innovative themselves (I think there are lots of companies that do this stuff, and none of them have a ten million player game), the post does provide a good look inside Blizzard's process and the thinking behind what they do.Blizzard is pretty stubbornly committed to quality -- not only do they notoriously release things "when they're done," but if something doesn't work they apparently are happy to trash it completely (see Starcraft: Ghost). It is amusing, too, that Rob Pardo says he and Frank Pearce are trying to make "great entertainment projects, not perfect ones." WoW has its bugs, sure, but when you look at Blizzard's catalog: Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, you have to wonder what a "perfect" game looks like in Pardo's mind. Those are about as perfect as they come.And they "eat their own dog food," too: J. Allen Brack apparently spends four hours a night (up to 15 hours a week) playing the game on his own time at home. Seems like it would be tough for other companies to pull these strategies into their own plan (Blizzard really releases one-of-a-kind products), but as consumers, it's neat to get another look into the way they work.[Via Slashdot]
PC Mag gives iPod Touch an Editor's Choice
PC Magazine has given the iPod Touch a 5/5 score and their Editor's Choice award. High praise even from a definitely non-Apple source. Tom Gideon calls it "a thing of beauty," and says it's the best iPod ever. Well, no duh.He does say a major drawback is that the WiFi store doesn't contain movies, but that's just a matter of time, isn't it? Otherwise, he says the store works great, and will allow for plenty of spur-of-the-moment music purchasing (which surely Apple will love). Gideon even spends quite a bit of time on what I really think is one of the most important features of the iPod Touch-- the Starbucks integration. Every time you pass a Starbucks, an icon shows up in the dock of the iPod Touch's iTunes WiFi screen, and that is huge. Advertisers with even a little bit of forward-looking ability are probably fainting at the thought of what they can do with what.Strangely enough, Gideon doesn't mention the one problem I have with an iPod Touch, and the reason I'm sticking with my video iPod: the memory. 8 and 16gb are just embarrassing for a serious music player, whether the interface is amazing or not. For Gideon and other folks with only 16gb of music, obviously it's not a problem. But for us music lovers, who want to carry around our entire collection in our pockets, the current Touch doesn't cut it. Better to stick with a classic and leave the awesome interface for the iPhone.
Breakfast Topic: The perfect server
Spiritus has a good quesiton on WoW Ladies: if you could transfer, right now, to any server, what would you look for in the server you moved to?What makes the perfect server? I can think of a lot of things that would go into the server decision. If you had friends there already (this was the reason I rolled on the server I'm on now) Server population Server age (you reroll locusts) AH prices Guilds and progression Server type (PvE, PvP, or RP) And does anyone consider the server name in their choice? Would you rather be on Arthas or Thrall? So if you could conjure up your perfect server, what would it be like and why? If Blizzard offered transfers tomorrow to any realm, what would server heaven be like for you?
Wii Sports bowling "power throws" perfected
Just a few short days after we posted our challenge for video evidence of a perfect 890 in the Wii Sports bowling "power throws" mini-game, video evidence of the feat has surfaced courtesy of Joystiq reader Koz. Not content to just show off his skills, Koz has also written out the method that led to his perfect run in scientific detail over on the WiiModWii forums. Apparently, imported Belgian beers and a "vocabulary of thousands of cuss words to scream in anger" are the keys to success.
