New strategies proposed for beating World of Warcraft

 

A lot of bids have been/are being made to beat the current king of the MMORPGs – Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft. NCSoft Europe director of development, Thomas Bidaux, spoke about this in the Swedish Nordic Game and suggested ways of toppling, as he called it, the “Tyrannosaurus Rex” of the current kingdom.

According to Bidaux, the only way to take down this behemoth is by establishing one’s own niche and not challenging the current niche of WoW. He cited a simple example in CCP’s EVE Online. This space MMORPG has catered to a different set of gamers and enjoyed some success in penetrating the market.

Aside from this, he also spoke about the main problem that developers and game publishers are encountering in their attempts to enter the market and why they are failing:

There’s a hubris issue with MMORPGs: most of them want to be the bigger game and most of them fail… If you want to be successful you have to survive. And if you’re a dinosaur then you have to fine the right ecosystem. You have to find your own market, your own niche: you have to find your consumers.

He also pointed out another problem that involved the differences in Asian and Western markets. He said that “Chinese and Korean markets are already at a different step in their evolution. There are lessons to learn from them.” Very interesting points, all in all, but implementing all of the changes will take a lot of redesign and planning on the parts of those who have already made forays into the MMORPG market.

Via GamesIndustry

 

A lot of bids have been/are being made to beat the current king of the MMORPGs – Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft. NCSoft Europe director of development, Thomas Bidaux, spoke about this in the Swedish Nordic Game and suggested ways of toppling, as he called it, the “Tyrannosaurus Rex” of the current kingdom.

According to Bidaux, the only way to take down this behemoth is by establishing one’s own niche and not challenging the current niche of WoW. He cited a simple example in CCP’s EVE Online. This space MMORPG has catered to a different set of gamers and enjoyed some success in penetrating the market.

Aside from this, he also spoke about the main problem that developers and game publishers are encountering in their attempts to enter the market and why they are failing:

There’s a hubris issue with MMORPGs: most of them want to be the bigger game and most of them fail… If you want to be successful you have to survive. And if you’re a dinosaur then you have to fine the right ecosystem. You have to find your own market, your own niche: you have to find your consumers.

He also pointed out another problem that involved the differences in Asian and Western markets. He said that “Chinese and Korean markets are already at a different step in their evolution. There are lessons to learn from them.” Very interesting points, all in all, but implementing all of the changes will take a lot of redesign and planning on the parts of those who have already made forays into the MMORPG market.

Via GamesIndustry