MMO Weekly 23/09/08

23 Sep 2008 at 12:06:30 by Jeff Hollis

Welcome to this week's issue of MMO Weekly, the article that explores not just the news, but all that's weird and quirky in MMO gaming!
 
The big story this week simply has to be the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.  WAR has been touted by some as the next big thing in MMOs, and this week the game finally went live.  Mythic was very clever about the launch, first making sure the game was stable via an extended beta.  After the beta, they arranged for a staggered launch.  Those that ordered the special edition were allowed into the game four days early.  Those that pre-ordered the game were allowed in two days early, and then finally the masses that bought the game at retail were allowed to play on launch day.
 
This all worked out very well.  The biggest challenge was that well over a million players had ordered the game.  However, at each of the previously mentioned intervals, Mythic allowed progressively more people to play.  This allowed them to discover, and resolve, any issues with the servers that arose at each stage.  The final result was that, on the 18th (the official launch day) when everyone was finally allowed to log in together, the launch was extremely smooth.  Gotta give some serious kudos to Mythic for pulling off a very smooth beginning to a very big MMO.  Nicely done.
 
Staying on the subject and in one of the quirkiest stories in crossover marketing, it seems EA is pushing both Red Alert 3 and Warhammer Online to the exact same audience.  As the MMO-playing crowd and the RTS crowd aren't exactly bunk-mates, this is a strange maneuver.  Anyone that purchased RA3 got into the Warhammer beta, while anyone that purchased Warhammer was given a free RA3 map.  On September 18th, Warhammer's launch day, EA even rolled out a brand new Red Alert 3 promo video, and it a doozy.  Jenny McCarthy is featured, and she's hotter than the surface of the sun.  George “Sulu” Takai riffs "All Your Base Are Belong To Us", and even Tim Curry appears, proclaiming how much he likes the ladies (!?!), all to a hoppin' techno soundtrack.  Check it out here.
 
In other news, Tabula Rasa's father and guiding hand, Richard Garriott, appeared on the nationally syndicated Colbert Report this week.  He announced that he's taking Steven Colbert's DNA into space with him as a part of his Operation Immortality.  While OI is certainly little more than a publicity stunt for  Tabula Rasa, it's certainly a successful one.  Garriott has generated a lot of media attention for his odd stunt, but his appearance on the Colbert Report is bringing Tabula Rasa to the attention of the general public.
 
As for Colbert's motive for participating in Operation Immortality?  He says, "I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001 [A Space Odyssey]."
 
The announcement this week that Myst Online will be relaunched is big news.  Of course, the fact that the game was originally launched in 2003, and has been shut down twice for being about as interesting as staring at a painting, has apparently been lost of its developers.  They feel that this time, since the game now supports user-generated content, Myst Online will be popular and successful.  The three dozen people who've actually played the game over the past five years reportedly responded to this news with a collective yawn.  Yippee.
 
In an analyst's conference call, Blizzard revealed how much it has spent on World of Warcraft since the game's launch in 2004.  The total cost, including salaries for employees, hardware, customer support, and everything else?  200 million dollars, or roughly 50 million dollars a year.  While that may sound like a lot, remember that Blizzard now profits a billion dollars a year.  With a B.  

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