Eco 365
January 7, 2013
Week Three Team Assignment - World Of Warcraft
World Of Warcraft derives from the Warcraft series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. World Of Warcraft has been one of the leading multiple player online-based games on the market for years since its initial release. The game maintains a high level of subscriptions that cost a fixed rate of $15 per month. The game itself once controlled over 50% of the multiple player market shares in 2006 for the western region. Subscriptions have reached more than five million by 2006 and exceeded 10 million subscribers for a 2nd time by the end of 2012. Subscriptions for this game have even exceeded 14 million in year 2009. At …show more content…
Player interactions are mostly controlled through preset actions and game rules. These virtual worlds are player driven; therefore, requiring low staffing for game related issues. One customer service team could handle multiple servers by addressing concerns from a queue based system. This allows the company to increase profits by reducing the number of staff needed for daily operations. Weekly maintained servers help to reduce downtime from technical issues and reduce repair costs. Increased operation costs are minimal when compared to the amount of users who one new server could host. Server stability is rated as one of the more important aspects of a successful multiplayer online game.
Success within this market is quality driven by the ideas and themes implemented into the game. Attributes which make the game more competitive by expanding user function and player interaction, appeal to more serious players. The complexity of objectives combined with the time for completion can greatly shift the user satisfaction level. Casual gamers often do not have time to complete tasks that can take hours in the same day. While this is unfavorable for casual players, more serious players enjoy possessing a chance to obtain items and achievements that cannot be easily obtainable. The perfect balance between casual player satisfaction and maintaining a satisfactory level for the hardcore