World Of Warcraft: Blizzard is keeping secrets

You've read all the World of Warcraft interviews, you've perused all the screenshots (674 TIMES!), you've drooled over the movie previews, and now you are like a ravenous beast waiting for Blizzard Entertainment to toss you another tasty table scrap to devour. So, where's the beef???!!!

Blizzard is keeping secrets from you.

The developers of World of Warcraft have learned a great lesson from the hindsight of their MMORPG predecessors: Don't put all your cards on the table too soon!

Most MMORPG's take approximately 3-4 years to develop before they are 'ready' for release and even after it is shipped, consumers are still scratching their heads thinking, "I could swear I'm still testing the beta!" Blizzard's WoW staff knows (and has probably shared) your pain waiting for a promising, upcoming 'smash-hit' MMORPG, only to be drastically disappointed when it fizzled in the content (beef) department.

Regarding game content, Blizzard is coming to the card table with a stacked deck. In this case, that is not a bad thing! You see, due to the massive success of the Warcraft series of strategy games, Blizzard already has a rich storyline and background full of potential content waiting for them to 'drag and drop' into their persistent world. They will be relying heavily on their pre-established lore to give a familiar element when you immerse yourself in their world, recognizing towns, quest NPC's, beasts, races, and themes. Having strong content at release will give Blizzard a big edge, in that, while all of us newbies are enjoying and exploring lower level content, the dev team will be able to focus on the development of newer content which we will be demanding at later levels. Their goal is to have a head start on us. This will keep us interested at higher levels by giving us more choices in quests, land to explore, skills and abilities to train, etc.

Some developers of such games felt the need to have a press release too early in the development process, sometimes having nothing more than a few concept sketches, and a basic synopsis outlined. Watching and anticipating the development of a massive multiplayer online game that way can become extremely tedious over 4 years. Not so with World of Warcraft!

Blizzard recently announced in September 2001 that they were embarking on a new quest (World of Warcraft) and had already been secretly developing it for over a year while no one was looking. They are just now beginning to hint at larger things to come. For now, we only get to see the tip of the iceberg...

There is a silent rustling going on behind closed doors over at Blizzard Entertainment, where secrets are being spoken, so be sure to keep yer eyes peeled here at WoW.Warcry.com for updates in the VERY near future!