Project Lore

Activision Blizzard CEO Robert "Bobby" Kotick on Thursday said he is "optimistic" about the future of the game industry as "a very low cost form of entertainment, if you look at the dollar-cost-per-hour." CNBC interviewed Kotick, who was in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the relatively secretive annual Allen & Company media mogul conference. Here's what he had to say about Activision Blizzard stocks performing above expectations in a down economy:

While Kotick does not speak specifically about WoW, there were some pretty interesting aspects to the interview that I wanted to elaborate on a bit because they can be applied to our favorite MMORPG. The journalist interviewing Kotick first points out that Activision Blizzard (and Electronic Arts) stocks were performing well Thursday. That's just a snapshot in time showing the trading levels at that point in the day, but if you look at the levels over the past six months or so, you'll see that the values have been rising steadily. Not surprisingly, the stock market apparently was on the minds of many Thursday who attended a panel on the economy at the conference. Although not an expert on the economy, Kotick pointed out that the availability of new hardware and the diversity of gaming experiences combine as a way to satisfy a lot of different entertainment needs all in one punch. As Kotick puts it, "While I'm relatively pessimistic about the economy, I'm very optimistic about the ability for video games to satisfy entertainment needs of consumers." And since we've been talking a bit about the future of WoW lately, I also found it interesting that Kotick said he's been looking at his expectations for Activision Blizzard over the next 5 to 10 years. He said that increasing production values, more effective in-game social interactions and the physical aspects of gaming "are really great catalysts for expansion of our audience; and we're still in the early days of markets like Western Europe, (and) in China." So perhaps WoW (or the next MMO) will be more of a world-wide audience? It seems that Kotick is hinting at that thought, which seems like smart business to me (more subscribers = more $$). Also along the idea of more money, Kotick said that lower the price of hardware, "the more consumers will be willing to purchase (it)." Makes perfect sense to me. Of course, a PC is a pretty hefty pricetag for someone just to play a game. But one would assume most people would have their computer for other uses, as well. What does everyone else make of this interview? Can you think of any other ways in which Kotick's ideas may be applied to WoW or the future of other Activision Blizzard MMOs, or do you think his points were too general to draw any real conclusions?

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Healer? Tank? Bueller? DPS? The little guild I call home is still struggling to recover from the quarterly event known as the Summer.  The hiccup in raiding, filling and scheduling, has caused me to focus my efforts on things outside of Naxxramas domination and Ulduar subjugation.  First and foremost is the leveling of one Holy/Shadow Priest that is to become an end-game healer.  This of course assumes that I don't suck at healing in a raid setting.  Another bulk of time, I am talking about a 60/40 ratio here, has been spent on my favorite past time, farming the Auction House.  With my trusty Auctioneer equipped, I have begun to refill my coffers that were plundered for recent purchases. Over the last few weeks of datamining I have come across what I believe is an undeniable trend, a drastic reduction in key supplies.  Frost Lotus, Abyss Crystal, even Deviate Fish are barely available on my realm, relatively speaking.  Following the good old supply and demand model, what items are available are made so at drastically increased prices.  For producers and investors of the market this is a good thing, while for a consumer this is a bad thing.  Upon discovery of the trend I dug further.  According to my collection of anecdotal data, the changes are for numerous items, items that span the gauntlet of locales, from Mageweave to Knothide Leather, not just top end consumables used by raiders. The question at hand is what is causing the fluctuations?  Is it normal changes in the market?  Unlikely.  Could it be a wealthier investor than myself cornering whole swaths of Azerothian goodies?  Doubtful, it'd need to be on the scale of organized crime (Defias) to have such an impact.  Or, like I suggest in the title, is my realm (Magtheridon-North America) emptier than normal?  If that is the case then it would explain the depressed amount of supplies, and why they are coming in at higher prices.  Coupled with the numerous responses of guild trouble in a previous thread, I believe we have some credible evidence that our home away from home is a little less cozy, and far more expensive, than we are fond of. This is where you readers come in.  To make any kind of overarching statement about WoW's economy we need more information.  Do your realms feel underpopulated?  Are commonly used consumables being placed on the market for far higher than normal prices?  Are you still logging in as normal, or has Summer sucked you away along with the unrelated loss of six million other players? And yes, the issues are completely unrelated.  Blizzard's troubles in China have no effect on the gold farming market.  Those players need the localized version (read North American/European) of the game to play on the same server as us.  So the lack of Wrath in China doesn't make an impact on our supply levels.

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