There are many reasons for a company making many of the choices it does in design, programming, UI, revenue model, and so forth for its online games. Usually not mentioned in the open is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft as a factor for what companies imitate and avoid, even though it almost certainly plays a role. Except in the case of Runic Games and its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Torchlight. Runic announced that Torchlight would not be adopting a subscription-based model. Yes, Virginia, WoW has something to do with that decision.
“You can’t really approach any MMO project without taking into account World of Warcraft,” Runic CEO Max Schaefer said. “It’s the elephant in the room of every MMO company.
“I don’t think anyone can do [subscriptions] anymore because pretty much everyone that does subscriptions has one for World of Warcraft.”
Torchlight, nearing the end of development, is tentatively scheduled for launch later this summer.
[Source: Neoseeker]
