Expectations
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Capcom expects Lost Planet 2 to sell 3.7 million units in second half of fiscal year
Capcom's recently published financial report for the first half of the current fiscal year contains some fairly gutsy estimates for sales expectations of the developer's upcoming titles -- for instance, the report anticipates selling 300,000 copies of Resident Evil 5 Alternative Edition by March 31, 2010. However, the company expects one game to be its biggest blockbuster by a fairly enormous sales margin: Lost Planet 2, which, according to the report, will sell 3.7 million copies in the second half of FY 2010. That's a fairly monumental increase compared to the sales statistics for the original Lost Planet, which has sold 2.28 million units life-to-date according to VGChartz. Don't get us wrong -- we've enjoyed what we've seen from the game thus far. However, if Capcom's hoping to approach that target, it may want to consider tossing some Pokémon in there. Perhaps a cameo by Master Chief, too, for good measure. Read: Capcom Results of Operations and Strategies report (.PDF)
We have a Tabard: New kid in town
Looking for a guild? Well, you can join ours! We have a tabard and everything! Check back for Amanda Dean talking about guilds and guild leadership in We Have a Tabard. So you've got goals for your guild, and you've been working very hard toward recruiting new members. One of your next big challenges is keeping them around. Turn over is a plague among beginning and middle-tier guilds. Sure, guild dynamics like raid rules and bank privileges play into who stays and who goes from your guild, but it is more important to help make someone feel a part of the team. Think about your own experiences in joining guilds. Have you ever been in one where nobody seemed to talk to you, except to ask if you could make them a flask? What about the guild that shifts their raid times, and doesn't make it clear to all members. WoW is a social world and new guildies are subject to the same anomic forces that someone might feel during their first few weeks at a new job. First things first. Let your new guildies in on your expectations. It's helpful to have guild policies posted permanently on a website so that they can quickly learn what to do and what not to do. Be firm, fair and consistent with enforcing these rules for new guildies as well as established guild members. For example, loot systems can be daunting at first. Have a clear explanation and be prepared to answer questions. You may consider appointing an established member to helping your rookies learn the ropes.
We Have a Tabard: Gone but not forgotten
Looking for a guild? Well, you can join ours! We have a tabard and everything! Check back for Amanda Dean talking about guilds and guild leadership in We Have a Tabard.Over the last several weeks, we've talked about everything that guild leaders need to do to try to maintain peace, order, and progress amongst your ranks. I'm going to let the rest of your guild in on a little secret: it's like a job, except you don't get paid.Theoretically it should be a job that your GMs and officers love. Your leadership has less flexibility when it comes to scheduling than rank and file members. When it comes to raiding or other activities, your leadership doesn't have the opportunity to slack off. They are working hard to make sure things run smoothly and to set a good example for their members.Is it better to burn out than to fade away? I am currently on a wee bit of a leadership hiatus. After struggling to fill raids and going over the same fights countless times, I kind of snapped. I told my team I needed a break. I have to admit that while I feel a little bit guilty, it's been blissful. I've slept more, had fewer migraines, and generally enjoyed WoW more for the last couple of weeks than I have over the last several months. It won't last though. Let me offer you a few suggestions to avoid getting to the place where I was:
Breakfast Topic: Great expectations
So as BlizzCon fades further and further from view in the rear window, I'm getting more and more excited and impatient for news of Cataclysm, so much so that I've sort of forgotten to get excited about Patch 3.3. I want Worgen, and new conflicts, and new lore, and a redesigned old world that offers a massive leap forward in the story as things change forever and the Horde and Alliance finally shrug off all pretense of peace and rush headlong into a war that has really never truly ended. But then I start thinking. The combo I really wanted to play, Worgen Paladin, looks like it won't make it in. It seems like Worgen may not get their own capital city (instead, said city will become a battleground under siege by the Forsaken), which may put a damper on how much their awesome quasi-Victorian scenery and architecture actually features in game. While some zones are getting complete revamps, others are only getting minor tweaks, which makes me fear there may be some zones that still feel out of place and some old lore story lines that still remain unresolved or out of place.
Do we expect too much from our MMOs?
Gordon of the We Fly Spitfires blog wrote a post that has generated some pretty good discussion on this very topic. His original argument is that people don't seem to mind spending upwards of $70 on a singleplayer game that will deliver anywhere from 10-80 hours of gameplay, yet you will rarely find someone willing to pay $50 for an MMO to enjoy it for the same amount of time and then put it aside (insert unnecessary WoW tourist joke here).By their very design MMOs are built for long-term committment. How many times have you been able to hit the level cap in an MMO and experience even half of what it has to offer in a single month of play? The goal of MMOs it seems is to suck players into a long-term committment and get them to either subscribe at $15/month or spend money on microtransactions. Semi-successul MMOs can be quite lucrative, so maybe we aren't expecting enough? That said, a game like GTA IV has worldwide revenues of $1.1 billion (or more) yet gamers don't expect to get as much enjoyment out of it over the long term as they do from MMOs. One wonders how a game like Guild Wars fits into all of this.
Blizzard VP discusses mistakes made and player expectations
Blizzard may be reigning supreme in the MMO world, but that doesn't mean they haven't made some mistakes along the way. Indeed, it's actually refreshing when a company is willing to come out and admit to those mistakes, namely during the BlizzCon panels, as Blizzard's Senior VP Frank Pearce addresses in a recent interview with James Lee from Gamesindustry.biz. "The panels are here about being open with the fans. I don't think the mistakes we've made are big, huge secrets anyway, right? You can see the mistakes in the results of the work anyway. It's more important to acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them than to keep them a secret," Pearce says.Over the course of the interview, Pearce speaks about a few of the ways that the company may have been off the mark, and about what the players expect of Blizzard, particularly in terms of expansions. Pearce also acknowledges the possibility that delaying console MMO development could open Blizzard up to increased competition further down the road, with those companies who establish themselves there first. See the full interview with Frank Pearce for more on Blizzard's approach to the industry, and their ambition to have their content quality trump that expected one-year interval between World of Warcraft expansions. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Wii Warm Up: Your WiiWare experience
You've told us about your collections, but what we want to know today is: how do you feel about WiiWare now? Let's set the space issue aside for now, though it's certainly important, and just talk about the service itself. Are you pleased? Disappointed? Is this any different than how you expected to feel about WiiWare?
Zul'Aman bears to disappear with next content patch
The Zul'Aman bear mount has been a popular treat -- popular enough that folks offer paid runs to get the bear mount. We already knew the chance to get the bear was going away when Wrath comes out. However, in the bad news category, Zarhym revealed over the weekend that bear mounts will no longer be obtainable when the content patch comes out. While I know a lot of folks already have their bear mounts, in my opinion, this change kind of sucks. I have a small raiding Guild who I've been working with to get our bear mounts (with a few bumps along the way). Since we knew the earliest we'd lose our opportunity would be November, all of our planning has been focused on getting the bears this month and next. And now, that's changed without enough warning to alter our plans. Heck, I can't even plan since all I know about when the patch is coming out is "soon." To be clear about it, the problem isn't that the chance to obtain the bear is going away. That's fair -- the timed event would be stupid easy after level 70. The problem is that Blizzard set one expectation (when Wrath comes out), and has now vastly reduced the opportunity without warning. That's a problem for me.
He Said/She Said: It's a man's WoW
Welcome to another edition of He Said/She Said where Amanda Dean and David Bowers take on some of the deepest gender issues in the World of Warcraft universe. This time we discuss the expectations of men and women in guilds and how WoW reflects the larger society. Amanda: I don't know how many times I've heard of women flirting their way into raids or excellent gear. Perhaps this happens in some cases, but these are the bad apples. I find myself growing kind of tired of the stereotype that girls can't play WoW. The truth is that many women play WoW, and many of us are very good at it. Because of the stereotypes, A lady has to work considerably harder in a guild to earn respect. It's like being guilty of being a twit until proven otherwise.
Breakfast topic: Class consciousness
Day 1 of the World Wide Invitational has been filled with exciting news for WoW players, and well as some fascinating displays of entertainment. Blizzard hosted panel discussions with information about changes for each of the classes in Wrath of the Lich King. In case you've missed it, here's the good news for each of the classes: Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior I'd like to know what everyone thinks about these changes. It looks to me like some classes are making out better than others. I, for one, am nearly giddy.
HDTV sales to surge in China, not due to Beijing Olympics
Couple the fact that the standard of living in China is set to rise substantially in the coming years with the perpetually dropping prices of flat-panel HDTVs, and it seems quite easy to see how some analysts are predicting huge HDTV sales in said nation this year. According to research firm DisplaySearch, LCD shipments to China are set to jump 70-percent this year to nearly 15 million units while plasma sales nearly double to over 1 million. Interestingly, the looming Beijing Olympics aren't being pinpointed as the main driver, or even a passenger, to be honest. For starters, the Chinese government canceled May Day holidays this year, "a major shopping season," and Lehman Brothers' James Kim even went so far as to note that the "Olympics can help sales, but it won't change the market fundamentals." If only they knew how fantastic the long-jump looked in 1080i...
Behind the Curtain: Great Expectations
I'd like to talk about what MMOs you've gone into with expectations, and what disappointments, if any, you've had during your time there. Perhaps you paid just a little nit too much attention to the press releases, maybe you fell for the bullshot (yes, I know I've linked that comic before), it doesn't really matter. I'm going to share some of my disappointments, hopefully you'll feel moved to do the same in the Comments. Star Wars GalaxiesI love Star Wars, so when I started playing Galaxies, I had visions of TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers, running battles with Imperial Storm Troopers and making shady deals in the Mos Eisley Cantina. What I got instead was a game where all I ended up doing was taking random missions from computer terminals which invariably involved me running out into the wilderness to kill some 'malevolent' creatures on behalf of some farmers who never actually seemed to appear in-game, for a paltry reward. I spent a lot of time on Corellia – having read extensively in the Expanded Universe, I imagined a bustling, thriving metropolis with smugglers and scoundrels round every corner, and with opportunities for exciting adventures right under the nose of the Empire. What I got was a collection of buildings dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the nowhere, at times seemingly populated only by myself and the NPCs.
Asus exceeds expectations, ships 350k Eee PCs in one quarter
We're not exactly sure why, but we never really had a feeling that Asus wouldn't be able to move a copious amount of these things. Nevertheless, DigiTimes has it that Asus actually sold through 350,000 Eee PCs in a single quarter, beating industry expectations by a solid 50,000 units. Also of note, the report mentions that Asus is planning to launch the little bugger into Best Buy stores in the US while also kicking off sales in Japan next year, so there should plenty of opportunities to grab one if you've somehow missed out thus far.
