by Alexander Wall on Mar 17, 2015
Like a giant tyrannical empire forcing fealty while simultaneously destroying everything you've come to know and love, the Blizzard dynasty continues to decimate. The fact that I've held out so long has less to do with any dislike for their extremely well-made and well-polished games than it does the fact that I'm just a really big fan of games that serve a more archaic mindset. Okay, maybe archaic is a strong word, but I've historically been a fan of games that are just so different from most of Blizzard's line-up that it's taking me a while to catch on and really appreciate what they're doing.
While I did play a solid year and a half of vanilla World of Warcraft, the game was never (and will never) be my MMORPG of choice. Mostly because it isn't an RPG at all. Unless of course you consider staring at add-ons and cooldown trackers a role. To me that just never really gave me the good old classic RPG "feel" of a game like vanilla EverQuest or Ultima Online. There were other games too, but they all have been slowly perishing in a war of attrition as WoW continues to dominate the genre and skew market perceptions to the point that very few dare to spend AAA money producing a non-linear or sincerely multi-player RP/sandbox experience.
I've talked with friends and colleagues at length and the perception is that Role-Players are a niche community and not a core audience in the MMO genre - which is probably pretty accurate by now. Fans of real role-playing games which actually sport mechanics that reward players for the context of their character choices are virtually non-existent. Even games of old like EverQuest that boasted arguably the most immersive graphical multiplayer experience in the gaming world are now shadows of their former glory. Update after update aimed at making the game more accessible over time have done little but water down the original game-play that once existed.
It's true that as we as gamers have all begun to grow older, we don't have as much time for the hardcore gameplay we used to devote dozens of hours a week towards. Additionally, younger gamers have such a massive variety of games to choose from that they're just not spending as much if it in one place as those of us who committed to one of the first generation MMORPG titles. The market has changed, largely because Blizzard saw an untapped audience and had the capital to spin up the wonder that is Azeroth to a degree of quality that now dwarfs just about every other MMO in quality, if not size as well.
Part of me hates that it happened, but it's not all bad.
Blizzard set the bar higher, and as new technology emerges (particularly in the artificial intelligence department), I look forward to seeing more authentic sandbox RPGs get realized and tap the spectrum of the market that WoW and it's legion of un-related B-rate clones have left wanting. We're getting closer as games like EverQuest Next and Revival push the RPG/PvE front and Crowfall and Camelot: Unchained make strides on the PvP front. We're still a year or two out, but one of these four titles (or all of them combined) should finally make a dent in hull of Blizzard's flagship MMO.
As long time player and fan of Wizard's Magic: the Gathering trading card game, I still haven't fully gotten into Hearthstone. That's not to say that I haven't played it extensively, and that I don't think it's done well - it's just too hard to let go of a collection of thousands (and I mean thousands) of physical Magic cards. Additionally, there is something to be said about actually getting to sit down with friends and play some classic MTG in person with fully constructed decks that can be both competitive and totally amusing. Hearthstone doesn't offer that.
Then again, how many people really collect physical cards these days? Also, in the event you still do collect and meet up at the local hobby store to play with people - unless you've got a regular group of friends you meet there, the younger generation of MTG players is just different. In order to survive mechanically, the game has had to create different formats, and the majority of hobby shops rarely organize anything outside of a standard or draft tournament - which means most of my cards never get to see any use unless they are currently reprinted and "in-season".
Hearthstone is polished, and like every other Blizzard product: ridiculously accessible. WotC has their own digital version of MTG, but it just pales in comparison to the level of quality Blizzard has done with HT. Which is probably a combination of Blizzard's commitment to quality as much as Wizard's lack of it. Considering WotC also owns the rights to the progenitor of modern fantasy gaming in Dungeon's & Dragons - there should be absolutely no reason that it's official MMO: D&D Online should be anything less than a AAA title. Like MTG online, it's a very B-quality level of digital entertainment (if even that).
Once again, Blizzard has seen a gap in the market and seized it with swiftness, confidence, and a level of quality that few other game studios can match. Some can, but none of them can afford to take their time to polish and market quite like Blizzard does. It's sometimes painful to watch, as Blizzard operates as sort of an online gaming monopoly to some extent. They just have all the power (and to be honest, they've earned it - which is probably what I hate the most, because I can't even dislike them).
Let me first start off by stating that I am an absolute Riot Games fanboy, and a true connoisseur of MOBAs. I got my start with MOBAs back in the original Defense of the Ancients map-type which was actually a detailed map-mod for Warcraft 3 (and technically MOBAs really had their origin in the original Starcraft, but I digress). I played DotA for quite a while before I eventually caught wind of League of Legends and jumped on that hype train. I enjoyed helping test LoL in open beta, and even bought the physical in-game copy of the now MOBA giant back when it was actually sold in stores (and I've got the Silver Kayle to prove it!)
Nevertheless, I finally got my hands on Heroes of the Storm and gave it my very first test-run and all I could do was secretly hate myself. Even while playing the tutorial, I was just grinning like a kid who'd found his long-lost dog. I had to actively suppress my enjoyment and try to force a straight face. It felt like total betrayal. I absolutely love League of Legends, and it's so difficult to admit that Heroes of the Storm already feels like a better fit for me.
The reality is that I'm married, I have three kids (all younger than 6), two jobs, and I write about mostly MMORPGs. The majority of my time goes towards playing in those massive, persistent digital worlds, so for the small bits of MOBA time I still get to enjoy - it's all totally casual. I just don't have the time to keep up with the heady nature of League these days. After playing the game for nearly four years straight (with my longest gap of non-play being about 6 months), I may have finally found a new distraction.
Heroes of the Storm just eliminates so much of the extra leg-work with building by eliminating all the runes and masteries and itemization choices. Sure, that means the game isn't quite as deep - but that's not the point. Blizzard isn't in the business of deep and compelling games. They're in the business of fun and accessible ones. Which is why I believe HotS will start to dominate the MOBA genre much sooner than later.
When you consider the rise of Riot Games because of their stellar free-to-play model and what was originally (and still is) a very streamlined version of DotA, it is probably swarming with tons of players that value both polish and accessibility - two facets that just about every Blizzard product possessesin excess. It's bound to eventually start leeching players, especially considering that the most casual of League players are probably tired of getting their faces wrecked. HotS offers those players a chance to be more competitive with much simpler gameplay and even more streamlined MOBA mechanics.
Not only that, but the attrition of the bottom-of-the-barrel filthy casuals departing from LoL will lead to even fiercer competition in League itself, as the bottom ELO of players will get thinned out. This means we may see a departure of many of the mid-range ELO players as well, who will have less people around to beat up on. Of course, League will probably always be sitting very close to the top of the MOBA genre (if not still leading it), but I fully expect to see a slow exodus of players making their way to HotS for many of the reasons I described above (and probably some I haven't yet thought of).
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As with World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, I don't doubt that Blizzard has done its homework and will take a hefty portion of the MOBA pie home with it in the relatively near future - and I haven't even spoken a word about Overwatch yet. Lots of my fellow staffers are very high on Gigantic at the moment, but already Overwatch looks to be offering some relevant competition for that team-arena objective-based game-mode. It's almost kind of frightening how much they continue to excel at both generating and leeching audiences. It's not their fault either. All they're doing is making good, quality games for the gaps in the market that they are seeing.
Blizzard would never have had the time and capital to create their flagship game World of Warcraft if they hadn't already done a great job with their older titles and in building a solid franchise with Warcraft (the IP they used to break into the MMORPG genre). However, the fact that Blizzard is as much of a powerhouse as it is has just as much to do with the shortcomings of other studios as it does Blizzard's own achievements. The lack of vision and standards of quality other studios have had over the past couple of decades are part of the reason why Blizzard titles are so dominant.
We can cite the perfect storm of circumstances that lead to all of this, but that would really just be a cop-out. After all, some of Blizzard's top titles started out very small in scope with a small team of developers. They simple refuse to aim higher than they can deliver (which can be evidenced by the company's recent closure of the Titan project, and assets they're now likely converting into Overwatch). It's a business model that hasn't really harmed them yet, and other developers would do well to take notice and emulate. Instead of spending all their time and money trying to recreate World of Warcraft, they need to just copy Blizzard's business practices:
Keep your head down, run a tight ship, and only promise what you can deliver with a high level of quality and polish. The onus should be on making solid, fun games that actually fit a section of the market. It feels like too many developers over-hype and under-deliver, and too many get overly-ambitious with trying to make the "perfect" game instead of just making a "good" one.