I was listening to the latest edition of Feedback, a video podcast recorded by G4TV with host Adam Sessler and came across one point of the interview which I found interesting.

This week, the show had two special guests; Tom Chilton and Alex Afrasiabi from Blizzard entertainment. They were there to talk about; you guessed it, World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm release. It’s a pretty good show all around, but the one part that perked my ears was when Tom Chilton brought up Warhammer Online during the discussion. No, he didn’t say anything negative; in fact, it was a compliment about one of the games most highly touted systems. And, you know what Blizzard does when they come across a neat gameplay mechanic in another MMO.

Here’s the link to the interview. Tune in to around 25:45 to hear the following….or just read what I transcribed below.

Tom Chilton: “A lot of what they did with their quest maps and there public quest system is interesting and has some interesting elements to it that we think could be integrated at some point.”

Then the discussion turned into more about why games like WAR don’t/can’t compete with WoW more directly.

Adam Sessler: “Warhammer is a good example, it was a strong game. We talked about it here, I spent some time playing it, but it doesn’t seem to go past that first three or four months and it’s almost like everyone says, “Well, they couldn’t keep everyone away from WoW.” I mean, do you guys feel that it’s kind of an either/or situation?…”

Tom Chilton: “I think to some extent, but not entirely. There’s also a huge segment of former WoW players to pull from that obviously doesn’t have a direct impact on us. You know, people that have been into MMO’s and may still be but they’re just kind of waiting for something new and different. I guess, ultimately it’s really about whether they get that moment to moment gameplay right, and whether or not the experience feels good, feels responsive, and whether the gameplay all comes together.”

Alex Afrasiabi went on to add; “It’s hard to compete with WoW, if you think about it. Every time we add content, every time we have an expansion…when you put your game out, you’re not competing with WoW of six or seven years ago, you’re competing with WoW of today. So, it’s very difficult, and as the game gets older and we add more and more content, people are kind of attached to, it does become difficult.”