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The Queue: I have looked into the face of absurdity, and its name is Goku
Joystiq by Anne Stickney May 3rd 2012 at 11:00AM Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) has gone Super Saiyan on this thing today. |
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Addon Spotlight: Despite its name, WeakAuras is anything but
Joystiq by Mathew McCurley Mar 1st 2012 at 4:00PM Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. |
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Google+ Relaxes 'Real Name' Policy, But Might Make You Provide Proof Of Your …
Forbes In another camp, where you'll find Twitter's tent, are those who think pseudonyms are important so that people can have different identities in different spaces, so you can have one pseudonym for playing World of Warcraft, another for commenting on … |
 Daily Mail |
How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2
Joystiq Where World of Warcraft is concerned, Blizzard lives in a different world where rather than have to choose the perfect partner to make the next StarCraft game, it has to operate as the LucasArts-like party, finding the right people to make everything … Record-breaking Star Wars epic is first to beat World Of Warcraft at its own game Star Wars: The Old Republic Pre-review Video Game Review: 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' |
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps.
My first article on the issues of brand licensing and Bobby Kotick’s comments pondering the profitability problems that Star Wars: The Old Republic could potentially have due to the amount of money it costs to license the Star Wars franchise received some nice follow-up emails. Many readers sent in emails about why people hold their licenses to their chests and charge so much, when it would logically be better to get the brand name on anything and everything people touch. After all, more products with your logo on them is good, right? Well … Not really, and not always.
Last week, I confessed to not knowing the amount of money Lucas was going to be paid for the Star Wars license for The Old Republic, but we could surmise that it would be a hefty fee. Readers pointed to an article by Eurogamer that interviews Michael Pachter, a games industry analyst many people know of. He believes that the cut LucasArts will be taking is around 35% of the revenue split after Electronic Arts makes back all of the cash that it puts into the game itself. If that’s true, it’s pretty astonishing, since LucasArts has so much faith in EA and BioWare to make this game have some intense staying power.
Where World of Warcraft is concerned, Blizzard lives in a different world where rather than have to choose the perfect partner to make the next StarCraft game, it has to operate as the LucasArts-like party, finding the right people to make everything associated with its brands. Where The Old Republic is another Star Wars product, Blizzard’s most popular franchise is a game first and a world of products secondary.
Continue reading How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer
How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps.
Back at the beginning of the year, I wrote a piece for The Lawbringer called The power of licensing, including a brief account of what licensing is and what effects and benefits licensing your product has on brand recognition and where you make money on your product. Licensing is essentially granting someone the right to make and sell stuff with your intellectual property on it. Usually, you’re not allowed to sell “stuff,” in the loosest sense of the word, with images, artwork, characters, and so on that are not yours. Ownership rights are a little weird to grasp.
Back in November, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick made some comments before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic concerning whether the game would be profitable at all, given the amount BioWare is paying to Lucas for the rights to even make a Star Wars game. Kotick’s comments rang a very special bell in my brain, prompting me to think about the licensing contract that BioWare and Lucasfilm have over the Star Wars franchise, as well as the reverse Blizzard model in which the entire franchise is owned in-house.
George Lucas was a pioneer in the realm of movie merchandising, keeping the rights to all of the Star Wars characters and creating one of the most profitable toy and promotional brands in the history of entertainment. The Star Wars franchise is so incredibly far-reaching and part of our society that my younger brother knew that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father years before he ever saw the movies. He was, however, very surprised at the whole Luke and Leia sibling deal. The reach, power, and control that Lucas exerts over his licensee partners is second to none.
Continue reading How much is a brand name license worth?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer
How much is a brand name license worth? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
While he obviously touches on traditional rogue names like StabYourFace and StabbingLots, Wowcrendor also address the use of accents and non-English characters. The WoW community loves coming up with interesting twists on names, so maybe this video will help.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
WoW Moviewatch: Picking Your WoW Name originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW’s newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated.
Especially on old servers, it can feel like all the good names are already claimed. Creating a new character with a strong, iconic name is one heck of a challenge, especially if you want to avoid joke and parody names like McDoomChicken. You can give up your dreams of finding real-world names like Stephen or Michael; the only way you’ll grab a straightforward name is to grab it on a brand new server (and we’re fairly unlikely to see a brand new server any time soon).
With Mists of Pandaria careening toward us with all the excitement of a monk rolling along in a fuzzy ball, now’s the time to get your unique snowflake name reserved. Rest assured that every variation of Jack Black you can create has already been taken. Let’s talk about how you can create a unique, interesting name without resorting to all the special font characters WoW will allow.
Continue reading WoW Rookie: How to pick a good name when all the good ones are taken
Filed under: WoW Rookie
WoW Rookie: How to pick a good name when all the good ones are taken originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Queues: Name that companion pet.
Joystiq Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Josh Myers will be your host today. As one of the youngest writers on the WoW … |
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Study's the name of the game
Brisbane Times Welcome to the world of ''gamification'', where schooling looks less like a conventional classroom and more like a game of World of Warcraft. The concept is simple: that game mechanics such as virtual currency, puzzles and point systems could one day … |