MMO Weekly 28/07/09 Page 2

28 Jul 2009 at 11:24:51 by Jeff Hollis

One of the more interesting revelations at this year's Comic-Con is that MMOs have certainly become a part of mainstream culture.  They were beyond prominent at the con, and everyone clearly understood the genre.  City of Heroes was obviously featured prominently, as was DC Universe Online, but the MMOs at the con were not limited to comic book related material.  Warhammer, Aion, Final Fantasy XI, a bucket load of NCSoft MMOs... they were all present and conspicious.

Of particular note, there was a very odd moment at the con, and I need to let you all know about it.  At the LucasFilm booth, there hung a huge screen on which a number of LucasFilm and LucasArts properties were being displayed.  In particular, the Clone Wars cartoon series was featured very, very prominently.  I passed that booth a dozen times going to and from various locations inside the convention hall.  People stopped by, posed with the costumed actors and statues, and that was pretty much it.  Most people just amiably ambled past.

That is, until they played the latest trailer for The Old Republic.  You know the one: a Sith and his compatriot make their approach, and ultimately some bounty hunters, Jedi, Sith, and everyone else gets into a big fight with lots of explosions.  Apparently, that trailer is like gravity for the human eyeball.  Every single eye within visual range was glued to that huge screen.  The bustling crowd stopped, and stopped completely.  Having seen that trailer many times before, I wanted to keep moving.  That was impossible, and I mean literally impossible.  The crowd was frozen, staring at the screen. 

Mind you, that trailer is more than four minutes long, and Comic-Con ground to a halt for every bit of those four minutes.  When the trailer ended, the gathered crowd erupted in loud cheers. 

What does that mean?  I'm not entirely sure.  While I had anticipated that The Old Republic would be a big game, I didn't think non-MMO players would really take to it.  I just assumed that the potential audience for TOR was going to be somewhat limited, as the general public doesn't get into MMOs.  Apparently, I was very wrong.  Clearly, a lot of the Comic-Con attendees know of the game and are looking forward to it.  Those that didn't know if it before this moment, certainly know of it now.  And they're utterly, unabashedly enthusiastic about it.  This game may just turn out to be huge.

I'll wrap up with an odd event at this year's Comic-Con: the utter absence of WoW, and of Blizzard in general.  When perusing the show floor on Friday, I'm certain I saw some Blizz people at a rather small booth near the back of the convention floor.  We didn't stop, figuring we'd catch up with them later. 

That didn't happen.  I tried in vain to find that Blizzard booth after that one, brief moment.  I scoured the show floor, and they were simply not to be found.  I dug out the official Comic-Con guide, found Blizzard's booth in the directory (booth number 5001, just for the record) and headed over there.  When I arrived, it turned out to be an Activision booth, and a handful of Activision games were on display.  Not a Blizzard game was to be seen.  I grabbed the attention of the Activision team and asked where the Blizzard display was. 

“They're not here,” he told me.

“I saw them on Friday.”

“They're not here, man.  Not at all.”

I found another Activision employee, and asked him the same thing.  He told me that Blizzard wasn't represented at Comic-Con this year.  When I told him I saw some Blizz people at a booth across the venue on Friday, he said, “Maybe they were giving away some miniatures or something.  But that's it.  They're not here.”

I'm not sure it's significant in any way, but I found it odd.  Blizz has a game that's (probably) going to be released later this year, has the biggest MMO in the world, and has a number of other titles in development, and they're not promoting them at all at Comic-Con.  Blizz had a large presence last year.  Obviously, Comic-Con is one of the biggest conventions in the world, and is a gathering place for their target audience, and they chose not to attend.  Hmm.

And on that odd note, I'm out.  I hope you enjoyed this little write-up, and I'll see you all next week.  For now, ciao!

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