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> It’s surprising now to think what might have happened had Blizzard not controlled the intellectual property rights for the Warcraft universe — it’s highly unl
by twelvechairs 14y ago
> It’s surprising now to think what might have happened had Blizzard not controlled the intellectual property rights for the Warcraft universe — it’s highly unlikely Blizzard would be such a dominant player in the game industry today.
This seems a very important observation. Its interesting how most of the major pre-computer fantasy universes with big fan-bases (Battletech, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Star Wars etc.) never managed to really transition seriously into computer games (a few hits but lots of misses and certainly no dominant series like warcraft and starcraft). I think the licencers of these worlds have been guilty of being far too greedy over the years as a general rule, and hurt their own pockets through doing so...
Also - great article. I loved playing Warcraft 1, and despite the fact that the 'RTS race' soon exploded and left it in the rear-vision mirror, it was still incredibly important in defining the genre... (as a side note, most of the other Blizzard games around this time were great too - must have been a great team).
- justin 14y ago> Its interesting how most of the major pre-computer fantasy universes with big fan-bases (Battletech, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Star Wars etc.) never managed to really transition seriously into computer games (a few hits but lots of misses and certainly no dominant series like warcraft and starcraft). Don't think that is entirely accurate. Star Wars: The Old Republic is the fastest growing MMO ever, achieving 1 million users in 3 days. It might never be WOW but it is definitely a major game.
- mikeklaas 14y agoWhat? DnD was the dominant force in 90's computer rpgs (BG/BG2/IWD/IWD2/Planescape Torment), and continued into the aughts with NWN/KOTOR/KOTOR2. There are several candidates for greatest rpg of all time on that list. Star Wars has had its share of filler games, but also produced many truly great games. X-Wing/Tie Fighter were huge, and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight were pretty important in the early fps days. I've already mentioned KOTOR.
- twelvechairs 14y agoI guess that statement was a bit of a stretch, probably I could have worded slightly differently, but I'm not sure its too far from reality. If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PC_video_games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PC_video_g... the only games which are up there are BG/BG2, NWN, and Star Wars Galaxies. Which is pitifully few for such previously dominant companies which had huge fan bases.... Also probably reflects that WoTC did a better job after buying the D&D trademarks (1997 - just before for 3/4 of these games) after TSR completely failed to capitalise for 15 years or so...
- Retric 14y agoLists like that are dominated by recent releases because of how rapidly the industry has expanded over the last 30 years.
- twelvechairs 14y agoThis is true, but through the 80s and 90s (excluding the last few years discussed above) there were very few big games from these franchises either. Battletech had its most successful game in Mechwarrior 2, but this wasnt really huge. Star Wars fared a the best with a few reasonable hits - Tie Fighter, X wing vs., Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, but none of these were really anything approaching the scale of Warcraft 2. D&D released games all the time but few of them were better than mediocre (Eye of the Beholder was probably the biggest). Warhammer had nothing either.
- theycallmemorty 14y agoDune (mentioned in the article) is one counter-example I can think of.