BioWare Admits World of Warcraft Has Set MMO Standards

BioWare is currently in the late stages of development for their MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, and at a recent panel at the DICE conference, one of the leading executives for the company said that much of their work was based on standards created by Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

Greg Zeschuk, who is the overall creative director at the BioWare group, has talked about World of Warcraft, saying, “It is a touchstone. It has established standards, it’s established how you play an MMO.”

He added, “Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that’s pretty dumb. If you have established standards, WoW established them.”

Mike Morhaime, who is one of the co-founders of Blizzard, was present at the same panel at the DICE summit and said that one of the biggest issues with MMOs at the moment was that those titles that launched with issues and then slowly drifted towards cancellation harmed the genre as a whole, including the leader World of Warcraft.

Unhappy players tend to abandon the genre as a whole and never try quality products even if they are well received by the gaming community.

Talking directly to BioWare about Star Wars: The Old Republic, he added, “So, do a good job.”

At the moment World of Warcraft is the leading of the MMO field, leading the subscription-based world with more than 12 million gamers.

Electronic Arts has sought to play down expectations linked to The Old Republic, saying that the game only requires about half a million subscribers to be profitable, even if the company aims to attract more than that.

BioWare is creating an MMO that is focused more on narrative, with most instances having decisions that affect the larger world and are delegated to the players, but traditional combat mechanics have not been ignored.