World of Warcraft (WOW) Essay -- essays research papers fc

World of Warcraft (WOW) IntroductionAccording to the World of Warcraft Community Site, World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online gameenabling thousands of players to come together online and engagement against the world and each other. Players from across the globe can leave the real world behind and undertake grand quests and heroic exploits in a debark of fantastic adventure (World of Warcraft Guide). Although the origins of MMORPGs can be traced to the 1970s, the release of Ultima Online and Everquest, commonly called UO and EQ respectively, in the late 1990s brought MMORPGs to a broader PC playing period audience. Since the release of UO and EQ, MMORPGs have become a multi-billion dollar market. World of Warcraft went live in November of 2004, and its community has since grown to over 1.5 million players. Effective community counseling was made a staple in the industry by its two most notable pioneers. Community management is vital to the success of a MMORPG, and howler monkey is no exception. Need for Player Representation in MMORPGsA system of communication between the players and developers has the potential to directly influence customer satisfaction. Jeremy Kelly points out it is untrue that developers seek to maximize profits (Kelly). From a developers standpoint, knowing the thoughts and feelings of the player base is one of the most weighty parts of the ongoing development MMORPGs argon known for. Joshua Hong states that the key difference between a MMORPG and other online or offline videogames is the existence of a persistent world (6). Creating a MMORPG costs upwards of 15 million dollars, and this figure does not even include the cost of continued support after the game launches (Hong 8). These games demand virtual worlds, significant hardware requirements from the developer (e.g., servers and bandwidth), and sacred support staff (MMORPG). Due to the unusually large investment needed to develop a MMORPG compared to normal games , MMORPGs only thrive financially through longevity. It is hence imperative that good communication exists so customer satisfaction can be kept high. As seen in Figure 1, 63.5% of MMORPG players consider the most important aspect of the game to be influenced or directly controlled by mechanics coded by the developers (Making friends and Pretending to be someone else are considered to be in the beginning soci... ...esentation system for World of Warcraft similar to the systems used in other leading MMORPGs.Works CitedBlizzard recreation Announces World of Warcraft Street Date November 23, 2004. Blizzard Entertainment - Press Releases. 4 Nov. 2004. Blizzard Entertainment. 13 May 2005. Hong, Joshua. Play for Keeps. Play for Keeps. 2003. Juniper Networks. 13 May 2005. Kelly, Jeremy. Play Time. Anthemion.org Words. 8 Feb. 2004. Anthemion. 13 May 2005. MMORPG. 2003. implicit Astronomy. 13 May 2005. Team Leads. The Camelot Herald. 2005. Mythic Entertainment. 30 April 2005.Who are Co rrespondents and What do They Do. Station.com Star WarsGalaxies. 2 Nov. 2004. Sony Online Entertainment. 30 April 2005. World of Warcraft Guide. World of Warcraft Community Site. 2005. Blizzard Entertainment. 30 April 2005. World of Warcraft Sets New Milestone with 1.5 Million Subscribers Worldwide Blizzards MMORPG Achieves Unprecedented Global Success. TMCnet News. 17 March 2005. TMCnet. 13 May 2005. WoWCensus - WoW Classes. WoWCensus. 10 May 2005. 13 May 2005. Yee, Nick. The Daedalus Project. The Daedalus Project The Psychology ofMMORPGs. 11 May 2005. 13 May 2005.