Lessons In Success
If you want a sense of how big World of Warcraft is consider that The Burning Crusade expansion sold nearly 2.4 million copies within the first 24 hours at retail. A big number to be sure, but not only did that 2.4 million break the single day PC gaming record for sales, it broke the PC record for sales for an entire month. Let me say that again, The Burning Crusade sold more copies in 24 hours than any PC game had ever sold in entire month. That's how big a deal this game is.
Yesterday Blizzard piled on a few more largely deserved heapings of self-praise, pointing out that the expansion has gone on to sell roughly 3.5 million copies in its first month, expanding the total player base for the game to a staggering 8.5 million worldwide, it is worth thinking a bit about what makes the game arguably the most successful title in PC gaming history. It's the question every developer in the business is asking themselves: what makes World of Warcraft so great?
-- Genre Specific --
Successful Launches – The launch of the game in 2004 may have been somewhat imperfect, a victim of its own bloated succes, though the key point is that the fault lay not in the software itself, but predictably because Blizzard underestimated the immediate and sustained demand for their game. Equally significant is the swift response from Blizzard in launching new servers, and controlling the flow of new product hitting the street. The important point is that once players were in the game the experience was nearly flawless, and because of Blizzard's consistent diligence in putting only finished products on retail shelves, they are rewarded with a loyal and large fanbase.
Perhaps even more significant is the tremendously successful launch of The Burning Crusade, which learned every lesson of 2004. It was taken for granted, particularly in the corners of the net that were anxious to see Blizzard's baby implode, that the expansion would bring the entire World of Warcraft to a tremendous trainwreck of mosntrous queues, server instability and crashes. The peanut gallery topped off their endless supply of peanuts, took their seats and anxiously taunted WoW players to make other plans for all the downtime to come. None of those dire predictions manifest, and even against the tumult of 2.4 million new players, Blizzard pulled off an absolutely stellar expansion launch.
Appeal To Everyone – It's the lesson that games like Vanguard and Everquest 2 stubbornly refuse to learn, though EQ2 eventually conceded many points in a massive revamp. Given the choice between appealing to a minor niche market or a broad consumer base, why would a company consciously choose to severely limit one's market appeal? Granted that World of Warcraft leaves a fractional sliver of players frustrated with the accessibility of the game, often the most difficult gamers to please anyway, but their numbers are so small as to be commercially unsustainable, which is pretty much why successful games ignore their often elitist demands.
This isn't the classic question of pitting casual MMO gamers against the hardcore, though an argument can certainly be made that no MMO gamer is casual. This is about appealing to both, which leads to ...
Content For Everyone – Building on the theme of broad appeal, don't force the dynamics of individual styles of play at your players. It's fun to do the things I like in a game, and when I'm having fun I keep playing. It's just basic psychology here.
While WoW is known to suffer from an end-game problem where those who invest heavily in raid and PvP have an advantage over those who solo, this issue only manifests because there are optional paths leading to both end games. Except for the raiding end-game option, World of Warcraft doesn't favor one style of play over another, and infuses most classes with skill options that can be applied to either method. Blizzard has diligently ensured that every class can be constructed to be viable in every setting, and while Hunters may have an advantage at soloing where Priests clearly have a strong group role, both classes still have their place in nearly every situation.
The concept of the "rested state" alone could be seen to give the more casual player an unfair advantage, but what it really does is encourage the most difficult to retain customers, those who are most put-off by the idea of 'grinding', to keep their subscriptions. It balances the field while keeping the revenue flowing. Don't underestimate its genius.
Zones – This used to be a dirty word in MMOs, and as the genre tried wandering toward the goal of fully seemless worlds, I felt like the only person on the planet who thought that zones were one of the many things that games like Everquest really got right. Yes, it's not very realistic to go from a landscaped of barren and twisted earth to moist, giant-mushroom infested swamp in the matter of a few footsteps, but neither is it particularly realistic to have crossed through an inter-spatial portal onto a mangled world populated by orcs, so my suspension of disbelief is already working in full.
Zones offer designers great freedom to manipulate the landscape and create well-populated and varied points of interest. In seemless worlds, so much time is lost in transitions from one landscape to the next that the sense of wonder at crossing into an entirely new environment is lost. While World of Warcraft's original landmass might not be the size of other MMOs, it is more densely populated with interesting things to look at and compelling landscapes, which encourages players to keep playing.
-- Non-Genre Specific --
Work on Every Machine – I don't care how realistic and detailed a game looks if it becomes a slide show at crucial gameplay moments. Nothing turns me off a game faster than having to endure significant framerate issues, and very little impresses me more than an artistically vivid world illustrated through a well-tuned engine.
Games can be visually compelling without bringing the average gamer's system to an agonized crawl. The recent Command and Conquer 3 demo, assuming it is representative of the final product, is a good example of how maximizing an existing engine with reasonable requirements is, perhaps, better than creating an entirely new engine that exceeds the hardware of an average gamer, as we've seen with Supreme Commander.
Customizable Interface – Gone should be the days of Everquest's painfully constrained UI, and long live World of Warcraft which not only allowed players to customize their experience but developed a UI that encouraged it. I recall how hesitant MMO developers were to even allow alt-tabbing out of the game for fear of modifying their pure vision of how players should experience their game. It was really quite silly.
But, WoW should be an example not just to MMO developers, but other genres, again most notably RTS games. In an age when strategy games regularly populate half a player's screen with bulky and often unneeded interface, allowing players to customize and even improve on the design should be required.
Finish The Damn Game – I'm on record as saying if you can't finish your game, MMO or otherwise, with the funds you have then you either need to find another investor or scrap the project. Granted, bugs are a natural fact of the gaming and PC industry, and I'm not speaking to the unpredictable and minor, but to game makers and publishers that make the decision to generate the revenue needed to complete a game by releasing early.
And, if you as the consumer become aware that a game has been released in an incomplete state, don't buy it!
Blizzard has a track record of releasing quality products that take advantage of extra months of development not only to squash every last bug, but to polish their games to as near perfection as possible. True that Blizzard now has the revenue in place to be this meticulous, but the reason they have that revenue and credibility is because this attention to detail has always been a hallmark of the company.
Conclusion - World of Warcraft has become not just a megalithic PC game, but a cultural phenomenon, and it's hard to think of a developer more deserving of such an accolade. Blizzard has countless Game of the Year and retail awards under its belt as a result of their jealous pursuit of crafting outstanding games. The company and their games have much to teach other developers pursuing similar goals, and the ones that listen, the ones that are disciples to Blizzard's genius enjoy the benefits.
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My thoughts exactly. I have never been a graphics snob, and have always been happy playing my games at 1024*720 resolution that runs fine on my computer. The Supreme Commander demo made my computer curl up and whimper when large scale battles started to take place. The C&C 3 demo ran just fine and it brought back some awesome memories to me. I passed on picking up Supreme Commander (which at one point had been a "Must Buy" title for me) and will now instead pick up C&C 3 (which I had written off as a modded version of C&C Generals). While gameplay in both games was the primary reason for me making this choice, I was not about to go out and pay $50 for a game that would not run well on my machine, when I can pay about the same price for one that will.
A Mind Without Purpose Will Walk In Dark Places
"I may be out of ammo but I ain't out of chainsaw B*TCHES!" - Sinister's warcry for Gears of War
Pft, this guy can't spell, why should we listen to him?
Great article. I think the visual style of World of Warcraft is the first hook it uses to draw new people in. The bright colors and dynamic character design are compelling to anyone who takes a glance at it. There was a huge difference in the "Ooh what's that?" I got while playing WoW, and the "Uh, what game is that?" I got in my brief dabbling in Everquest II: The Hunt for Colors Other Than Brown (They didnt find any)
ThePolypusher
WAR - Dolz
All good points, Elysium. Why Blizzard is such a standout in large part because of these seemingly inescapable points, is perhaps the most amazing thing about their success. They do this EVERY time. They take a genre, put a fresh coat of paint on it, but then make sure the mechanics are near flawless.
Your piece also helped clarify for me why, despite all these impressive features, I cannot ever seem to become involved in WoW: I don't want to play a denizen of that world. For all its polish and finesse, ultimately WoW leaves me flat for the simple reason that its art direction make me feel I'm in a cartoon intended for children. I feel its damn near impossible for an avatar in WoW to look cool. And whereas many of the vistas in WoW can be impressive, up close everything is back to cartoonish. It doesn't help that I tried WoW shortly on the heels of CoH. And while I'd never argue that CoH is as good a game as WoW, still I felt I could become immersed, and most importantly, liked how my avatar looked. If there's anything Blizzard overlooked, I feel its this simple factor: people would really like to look good in their virtual worlds. Sometimes even bad-ass
"I am a cipher; a cipher, wrapped in an enigma, and smothered in secret sauce!" - Jimmy James
I think the single biggest reason for WoW's success is that it is solo friendly. While there may be no such thing as a casual MMO gamer, there are certainly lots of us who aren't going to play games where we must committ to a schedule and rely on guild-mates to be online every time we play. The flexibility a game allows by being solo friendly is an absolute must for gamers with lives.
I'm not sure I understood your commentary on zones. Are you saying zones are a good thing or a bad thing? You seem to suggest that WoW is zoned and that is a reason for its success. Depending on how you define a zone, I think most would consider WoW much more seamless than zoned. In any case, I believe the seamlessness of the continents in WoW give a much greater sense of being in a real world than more highly zoned games like EQ.
That is what I'm saying. One cannot go from, say Redridge into the Burning Steppes without seeing the significant transition, and that is zoning to me (though it doesn't require a loading screen). I think it's a great move.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Another point - WoW has created a large number of newly annointed gamers (i.e., my wife) that are willing to pay for games, but not willing to drop 400-500 bucks on new hardware.
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The battleground PVP feature is what's keeping me in the game at this point. I generally only get an hour or so of PC gaming time most evenings, so raiding is out of the question. I find the early game grind much more enjoyable than the late game spend-two-months-in-Eastern-Plaguelands grind. So, it is great for me to take my higher level toons, get into a game quickly, play a battle against something smarter than the average mob, and save up points to get something close to raid gear.
I have to say that I still only have WoW and one turn-based strategy game installed on my PC. Pretty good success I'd say.
All this "everyone" talk about MMOs -- Bah, humbug. I barely have enough time to play Gears these days (sorry, GnB guys!), let alone sink my life into that MMO stuff.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
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This is so critical because a lot of that is taken for granted when it just works well. I mean how many of us think about how the casting timer bar works and exactly how the weapon swings delay casting? It just worksso well, its transparent. Its fair to both the caster trying to get off a last ditch haymaker and the melee person trying to interrupt the caster.
Combat
Regular attack animations are dynamic and varied. Yet the special attacks aren't watered down because the generic attack isnt just a liftless poke.
Character Appearance
I think its safe to say that comic book/disney artstyle has a much broader audience than unnecessary realism. Blizzard had enough initial character creation customization and not one ounce more. In MMO's players are 90% of the time recognizable by their hair, skin color and horns should they have them. Why waste all those dev cycles on a facial feature simulator?
Crafting
Crafting is there and is deep with a trinkle of sought after items over the course of a characters life. Yet combat is the focus of the game by a 10-1 margin over crafting. Having crafting an impediment to furthering the players combat prowess/growth is a mistake. EQ didn't make this mistake. EQ focused on combat and its crafting was incredibly limited by its cost and time commitment.
DAoC made this mistake up until the Catacombs expansion. EQ2 made this mistake. And it seems Vanguard may further this mistake by adding another focus on something other than combat, diplomacy. WoW has proven that you dont need crafting and other non combat distractions to lure in casual gamers by the droves.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
I think you guys are all missing the big point. WoW is addictive. You hit a monster and something pops out. Usually it's junk or nothing. Sometimes, it's something cool. And then once in a while, it's something REALLY cool. This is the classic intermittent reward structure that gets people addicted to things like gambling. You can't walk away because next time might just be the "big one."
It doesn't seem like such a big thing. You'd think it'd be kind of easy to just tinker with drop rate and make cool loot. However, WoW seems to be the only game that's gotten it right, probably due to the pedigree of Diablo II. Remember, before WoW, Diablo II was the most addictive online game ever, and for the exact same reasons.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Agreed, and I think the main reason I just can't get into WoW--and I've tried--is the same reason why I never finished Diablo II. I know it's a very purposeful and successful design decision to make a very simple, addictive game, the mechanics of which can be grasped by even the most hyperactive preteen, but it just doesn't suit me. I think the preference for difficulty/complexity certainly puts me in the minority, though I don't think I fall into the elitist camp. WoW's a fun date, but I'm lookin' to get hitched
Anyway, more power to Blizzard--they do deserve their success, especially for putting out a polished, stable product. I've got my eye on Vanguard, but the bugs & general unfinished nature of it keep me away; the design decisions do not. Until they get it right, or until I'm blown away by Age of Conan or some other upcoming MMO, I'll stick with EQ2.
"Come, amigo, throw away your mind." --Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
As an aside, when I read your Location, Yon Rabbit, I just happened to be listening to that very song.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
I think many companies still miss this. Even in the case of an incomplete game at release having a smooth functional launch is a big deal. Games like AO, which certainly would never have been HUGE, were virtually dead from the getgo by creating such a bad impression. DAoC however played it smart and had most of the core systems in their game stable and functional right off the bat. There were tons of content missing, terrible itemization, pathetic PvP balance, etc to work on... But you could log right into the game and play. EQ2 and VG had fairly stable launches for the most part. SWG, Shadowbane, and AO on the otherhand had all sorts of terrible server issues, client issues, and such plaguing their games and making it hard to stay interested from the getgo.
Launch timing is something people need to think about as well. The geniuses at Sony not only released Vanguard incomplete... But they chose to do it one week after the first expansion for the most popular U.S. MMO ever was released? They probably could have doubled their box sales had they waited 2-3 months to release. Which would also have given them more time to iron out bugs. Why compete directly with what you pointed out was the best selling title in video game history?! *shrug*
This I don't entirely agree with. I think had Vanguard and EQ2 stuck to their guns and made a more "Hardcore" game they would actually be more popular now than they are. For some reason VG towards then end of its development cycle decided to go "all wow" on folks and began dumbing down the game to appeal to that audience. Where this left them is somewhere stuck in between. You have content that at times makes WoW look hard and then just randomly transitions into something you would expect from EQ1. The game now has no direction and doesn't really appeal to either side of the spectrum. Had Sigil trully made a hardcore game they certainly wouldn't have been able to appeal to an audience as broad as WoW... They certainly could have appealed to those who have become bored with WoW and are looking for something more challenging in addition to the existing niche hardcore market. I don't think any company at this time is capable of producing a game that can compete directly with WoW and even put a small dent in their massive subscriber base. So why not pick up the people who aren't happy with WoW?
This I think is more of an issue with the way the game is laid out moreso than zones vs seamless worlds. WoW is basically a seamless world sans continental travel and instances. Whereas AO is zoned EQ style but the world fits together more like Vanguard where changes are gradual. I think seamless worlds are much nicer in most respects. "Loading please wait..." is annoying. Then again I don't really like instancing either. I think the problem with most seamless worlds is that in most cases (VG and DNL come to mind) they try too hard at making the world vast and intimidating.. and just end up with boring. There are parts of VG and DNL where you can literally run for 5+ minutes without seeing another person, npc, or mob. Smaller more populous areas would have felt much more .. alive?! Bigger isn't always better.
This unfortunately simply isn't realistic. No company is going to pour 50 million into a game and then simply scrap it if they can't find an investor to finish up the last 10-15% of the game. I think it's stupid for a company the size of Sony to blow millions putting together a game and then just tossing it out to die when for a few million more they could put the finishing touches on it that would actually let it hold its own in a genre that already has dominant competitors. *shrug*
The rest of your post I pretty much agree with. To me WoW's cartoony world is much more believable and immersive than EQ2 or VG's "realistic" simply because the world looks and feels more alive. The art style is consistant throughout the game and your character actually feels like it fits in the world. The other games have some absolutely gorgeous graphics in places but the characters, NPCs, mobs, flora, etc at times don't even look like they are part of the same world. Throw in the fact that you need top of the line hardware to experience the beauty of the realistic games and it starts to lose its appeal. I don't think WoW really does any individual thing better than other games on the market. It simply does them all well enough that as a whole it is the best 3D MMO to date.
Yeah but if it were that simple, then everybody'd be doing it. That's the core of why they are so successful, though.
I am genuinely surprised that someone hasn't called Elysium a WoW fanboy yet.
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Great article Elysium.
I think it's success first and foremost has to do with the beautiful world they have created and the solid and deep lore behind that world. Combined with the insane amount of little touches and polish, you know that the devs are putting a tremendous amount of effort into the overall experience.
Lobster's also right too, a good deal of the game is spinning the ol' lottery wheel and hoping it lands. However, this is just one of the multi-layered experiences woven deep into it's tapestry, so it's not fair to conclude that's the basis of this game's appeal. It becomes more of a problem only when people go through the content so fast that Blizzard simply can't create new worlds quickly enough, so all you're left with is the dice - if the loot is all you care about.
You can be a loner, a social butterfly, a murdering gankster, a heroic raider, a wealthy businessman, a master craftsman, a mighty arena combatant, or an adventurous backpacker. You may choose which class you play, but it becomes more than apparent when you play how your real personality translates into the game world, and that defines your actions in this virtual space, and separates you from the rest.
With the success of WoW, the niche Second Life, and PS3's newly announced Home network (still under debate), we're going to look back at games like these and see how they are a brilliant peek into the amazing multiplayer experiences we will be having 10 years from now. Offline games will always exist, but the future of gaming is going to be heavily focused even more so on sharing your experience with your friends, families and strangers.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
Myself, I've really been into the game since it first came out. Now that I've been playing BC to 70 I'm really getting bored, I think it might be time to finally try something new. I was so excited for the add-on, I can't figure out what it is about the game that I'm so rapidly losing interest.
Anyone else bored with it? Sure they sold alot copies of BC, I wonder how many people will stick with it? It's not all that exciting anymore.
Do the sales of BC expansions really count as new players? Aren't they still the same WoWers, but with an expansion?
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
How fast are you pushing through the game Crick? I've played a lot since BC and I've barely scratched the surface of all the new dungeons. Old Hillsbrad was simply brilliant, and it made me wonder why every instance couldn't be more of an experience like this, providing a huge insight into the world and lore.
Been to Mount Hyjal yet?
I'd say at this rate I probably won't hit the wall of boredom until later this year, depending on how good a job Blizzard is at releasing new content of course. If it becomes anything like it was late last year with the end game raiding, it will get shelfed until the next expansion.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
I don't disagree, but then make it work with the 50 million you've got. Bad management isn't an excuse.
That all said, I think most game companies get this relatively right.
No. There are 2 relevant numbers. 3.5 million sales of TBC, and 8.5 million subscribers, which I believe is up from just topping 8 million at the start of '07.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
That's certainly what hooked me in. The week that I found a Glowing Brightwood Staff, an Axe of the Deep Woods, and another purple (the memory fades!) all in the Noxious Vale will always stand out to me. I'm still convinced that the loot tables were corrupted that week.
edit -- But the other important thing is that no matter how unlucky you are, as long as you keep killing and are not an idiot you are still guaranteed a minimum income of gold that will let you buy stuff on the AH and get epic mounts and all that. So you're always able to work toward getting more power, which is a big motivator in games for me.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
Bingo. It's like collecting agility orbs in Crackdown. A lot of why I enjoy games is the motivation it provides to make your character better, and personal accomplishments. This is not unique to WoW. Getting to the top of the Agent Tower in Crackdown was easily as impressive for me as getting my Epic Flying Mount. I grinned like a little kid and went "I did that!" like a nice little badge of honor. I don't care how many people did it before me, or how many people think it's pointless - I set out to achieve a pretty cool goal, and I did it.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
Indeed, the subtleties of game mechanics are crucial yet always overlooked. It's probably been done before WoW, but I think the "cooldown reversal" on WoW spells is brilliant.
A typical programmer would implement something like this:
Player launches cold spell instantly.
Player clicks on the cold spell in futility as it recharges.
WoW approach:
Player launches cold spell and it starts to power up with a cool effect.
The spell fires off.
Player is free to immediately launch another.
The "strength" of the spell is exactly the same in both cases, but the latter reduces frustration and adds the whole "I can see what you're about to cast" element into the mix.
I think the reason he asks is because in the "smooth launch" section you say:
I had the same thought as Word' but was too lazy to bother articulating it.
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Commissioner, GWJFFL|GWJFFL2
That's the spirit!
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
What can I say? I knew some troll would be along to nitpick eventually. ;P
Xfire|XBL
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Commissioner, GWJFFL|GWJFFL2
I might have stayed longer with WoW if I'd ever found a purple. Made it to 60 and nope, no purples. Mind you, I didn't particularly like groups or instances, so there you go.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I basically had the same experience after my guild made it most of the way through Naxx. I had been excited about the expansion coming out. I preordered 5 CEs of the expansion, stocked up a mule with full sets of armor and weapons in 10 level gaps 1-60 for the new Draenei warrior I was to roll, stocked up hundreds of gems for jewelcrafting, etc etc. I started getting burned out... I quit the guild I was in and cut my playtime down to like 1/3 of what it was, then hopped back in for a bit of excitement when the PvP changes rolled out, got bored with that and started playing less and less. Played VG beta for a while and haven't been able to make myself play WoW regularly since. After playing VG's release even keeping in mind all of its flaws, something just feels missing when I play WoW. I finally just cancelled my accounts a couple of weeks ago.
I am not sure if I have just played too many MMOs or what. WoW just doesn't offer what I *think* I want. Maybe I am crazy but it simply feels like people play WoW like it's a single player game. The community aspect of WoW seems so insignificant compared to past games. I have still made friends and joined guilds and done pretty much everything the game had to offer pre-expansion. It just didn't feel the same. On top of that the "fun fun fun fun" of WoW just seems shallow to me after playing games where accomplishment was strengthened by painful failures. I know everyone hates the mentality of "punishment" in games but to me my experience in any online world is more enjoyable when I experience a variety of emotions. For "fun fun fun" type games I will typically pick up an FPS or single player game and play it for a short period now and again. MMOs I tend to like to spend a good deal of time with. If it's all happiness and good times it seems to be missing something. *shrug*
Oddly enough, I could barely make myself finish Diablo II one time (I think it was with a Paladin) and I have been playing WoW more on than off since release- I came back for BC and am having as much fun as ever. There are still things about DAoC (pre-ToA) that I miss, however- I wonder if WAR will be any good.
One thing I am enjoying about BC is that I am having a really easy time finding groups to finish normal world quests, which had become really difficult even 6 months ago when I took my pre-BC break. Basically, if you need to kill 30 of a type of mob, you can just look for someone who is fighting one of them and chances are they will be more than happy to group with you to get it done twice as fast. It's a lot easier even than trying to put a guild group together to do something.
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Actually, you're not crazy. The fact that I can solo successfully is one of my favorite things about WoW.
As soon as I'm forced to group to complete quests, I tend to drop them from my log. I know from experience that I'll probably never finish that chain. It's not that I disllike running in groups, instances, or anything like that. I just prefer to game on my own time, and in my own way.
I actually think this element is one of the main reasons WoW is as successful as it is.
Skriss: lvl 70 undead mage - Bloodhoof
Kyrator: lvl 63 night elf rogue - Blackhand
Thadryn: lvl 70 draenei mage - Blackhand
WoW is a success because of Blizzard's reputation.
I think if EA made the same game with the same launch it wouldn't have done as well.
People are fanatical about Blizzard like people are fanatical about Nintendo. And the reason is, love the games or not, they release games that generally have a higher quality level than most other developers. They seem to devote a little more love to polishing the gameplay than your average developer.
So I think a large part of Blizzard's success was seeded over 10 years ago with their first games. And over the years you don't see them release alot of half-ass products. They don't spam xpacs and sequels. I mean if Blizzard was Ubi or EA we'd be on Starcraft 10 by now. But it's been almost 10 years and we haven't even seen a sequel yet. Blizzard also supports their products for years afterwards. Diablo2 got a patch last year I believe. 6 or 7 years after it was released.
Oh and like was said, let's keep graphics development charging ahead at the same rate, but let's curl it back to always pushing the fastest $100 vidcard on the market instead of the fastest $600 vidcard. It sucks that just when games start playing really nice that they push sequels on us that run like crap. GAme developers have to realize that the pcgaming install base is potentiallly massive. If they'd only curtail the leading edge back a bit.