World of Warcraft builds an e-sports empire

by Andrew Russo May 29th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP

World of Warcraft, with around ten million customers, is one of the most popular MMOs out there. So what does this mean for a game seeking to expand on unrivaled success? Many of those ten million players enjoy a good show on the floors of the arena. With many players donning gladiator armor and doing battle, why not promote the events and make a sport of it? In an e-sports interview with Gotfrag, Blizzard talks about success and offers up their strategy for keeping their games fresh in our minds.

According to Blizzard, the arena is what started it all for World of Warcraft e-sports. Players became involved and eagerly pursued fame and glory on the sandy floors and battlefields throughout Azeroth and Outland. Many new changes and concepts, some based on player feedback, are being placed on the desk of developers and programmers for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. So expect to see some new fights and new ways of mopping the floor with our opponents. To bring the action to more gamers, Blizzard is experimenting with some new broadcasting technology. We might eventually be able to see ourselves, standing gloriously over our fallen foes, on millions of computer screens across the world. That makes winning (US)$75,000 from WoW arena combat so much more glorious.

Tags: blizzard, e-sports, gotfrag, tournament, world-of-warcraft, wotlk, wow, wow-arena, wow-tournament, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

loopinvariant said on 1:53PM 5-29-2008

Well, sure looks like someone got the easy job of repackaging a Blizzard press release into "news" this morning.

Arabica said on 2:09PM 5-29-2008

I loved WoW. It's probably still a great game. That being said, if they wanted to make an "e-sports" initiative something to hang their hat on then they shouldn't have waited months or years to fix problems in their battlegrounds. It's cool that people are liking the arenas, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth left over from Blizzard's inability or unwillingness to fix terrain that could be glitched or exploited. I'd ask them, "if you wanted your PVP to be taken seriously as a competition ready event then why wasn't the effort there from the beginning?"

There were a lot of people that wanted Blizzard to care about PVP, but that wasn't in the cards back then...but now they want to have World Chamionship finals for cash prizes? Uh, if you all loved it so much then what was up with letting people hump terrain to get to areas where no one else was able to get to them? That's something a "e-sport" wannabe outfit should have taken seriously and fixed in a matter of days, not years.

WoW PVP was fun. WoW PVP was not competition ready. Things probably have changed a lot over the last year, but it's their attitude that gave me pause. It never seemed like Blizzard cared about massaging the maps until they were perfect, so why should I care about them?