backseatdev

Today was patch day (1.3.4) for Warhammer Online.

A few changes went in that will improve the game, unfortunately, the key word in this statement is “few”. very little actually is being patched in, instead, existing content is just being shuffled around.

In my opinion, this patch is an indicator of how few resources are available or are being used on growing the content of the game at this point in time.

On to the point of this post. I overheard some respected and established players calling this patch the last straw for them. The were citing that Mythic was spending too much time and resources trying to spread the game to additional countries (like Korea) and not enough time appeasing existing North American subscribers with additional development.

At first thought, I was right with them. I know a decent number of people barely hanging onto their subscriptions after 1.5 years with a lot of the same iussues and very little new content or itemization. After giving it further thought, when I consider the decision as a business decision, I would probably consider that people hanging on till this point are probably not going to suddenly all disapear, but continue hanging on (for the most part) for the small new items being offered. Thinking along those lines, maybe the most intelligent course of action is to attempt to get into this new markets and take a risk to bring in large amounts of subscribers. This of course could up profits, which ups the amount that can be spent on development and perhaps even speed an expansion, which is even more money from sales and it generates new “buzz” around the game.

It is a hard call, but I think it was a reasonable decision by Mythic to push the new markets, even at the slight expense of the current one. I for one hope it works out.