The end of Azeroth advisor in World of warcraft.

Azeroth Advisor Shutting Down Services February 17th | Ten Ton Hammer


Azeroth Advisor Shutting Down Services February 17th

38 Studios shutting down the Azeroth Advisor.

38 Studios recently announced that they will be discontinuing services for their World of Warcraft add-on, the Azeroth Advisor on February 17th, 2010. Players can continue to use the add-on until February 17th, at which time support for the add-on will cease. The decision was made to focus the team's resources into 38 Studios' other products such as their upcoming MMORPG codenamed Copernicus.

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Well i would like to scratch beneath the surface of phenomena and comment on the tectical move made by 38 . I strongly believe that in terms of marketing they do know their lesson very well . Bravo .
The move to acquire the advisor was despite Curts ,courtious noble statements a very clever one in terms of player base mechanics. I believe that beyond providing- a -service -to- a- game- we- love (or loved) It is a very clear cut penetrating move that simply gets to know and be able to contact millions of players . Have you ever heard of Trojan Horse? (the real one not the viruses ,from Ancient Greek mythology ) . Well thats about it .
Suffice it to say that it will not add up to something extraordinarily unexpected just the fact that you can contact or have the respect of these players. As far as marketing is concerned though its just how you start off 1)Getting the headlines (when 38 bought azeroth) 2)And then of course providing players a service that will resemble the care you give to the paying customer in your future game.

This is just the clever but boring part of seeing what everyone sees but that noone admits publicly for the obvious reasons .
The very nice thing is that
Ra salvatore will give a 60 minute lecture at GDC at 03/11/2010 (march) on the story telling about ips and worlds in game designing .
The road has opened for the NEWS! to arrive ....
Finally the veil of mystery will start to perish under the bright illuminecense of one of the great games to come ! Codenamed copernicus...

Let me show you something, it's my happy face. -_-

Seriously though, can't wait to hear Robert's speech and I am looking forward to finally hearing things about Copernicus.

Couple points.
1) We didn't get in 'touch' with several million players. We only 'spoke' with subscribers, which was far short of several million. You don't speak to Blizzard customers as a whole, unless Blizzard says you can
2) The move was initially one we thought would be beneficial both financially and business wise. We never made a penny on the advisor and kept the service up and running for internal reasons (To allow ourselves to test the tech as obviously it's HIGHLY useful in an MMO if done at launch) as well as the ironing out of teams and processes. The biggest reason for me was I was a fan of the service and knew there were others, and we wanted MMO players to know as a company we recognize the immense investment in TIME as well as money that MMO's are, and will respond accordingly with Copernicus.

Thanks for that, Curt! Appreciate the added clarification!

Nice , i like when someone actually responds especially when it is a busy someone.
I would add this to the customer care shelf .
Yup , i know and i agree to what you are saying .
Although i know that you know far better than me or anyone else who is not in the industry much more than you tell .Its how it works ...
I dont want to in any way patronize or ,mouhaha, ''expose'' anything really.
I just congratulated you in my own ,non licking a... way .
++ I wanted to express my joy because i understand that all these moves , azeroth , gdc and many that you have planned point to the direction of FINALLY!!!! learning about the game that will stigmatize us after wow (sadly...)
And hopefully ! Even claim the throne of the king him self.
BUT ! apart from being all selfish and blah blah saying how nice to see the game and so on . We re living historical moments i believe in the mmo gaming industry .
I am far more concerned to see the different view , way of approach you guys did .
I totally agree with the opinion that every groundbreaking mmo will redefine the course of how we see mmos and thus evolve the genre itself .
THATS the way ah ha ! i like it a ha a ha .... !

Keep in mind that, I'm fairly certain, Bob will be duscussing the process he goes through to create an online world, not the process and details behind this particular online world.

Granted, his first foray into games was, for the most part, DemonStone, in which he didn't create the world, just some background to the characters, and a basic story line. ie he wasn't building from the ground up.

Copernicus is a different beast all together.

I think there may be a SLIVER of info given, maybe not, but I think he might spill a bean or two here and there
I know I see the results of his creation, daily, and it's staggering, just staggering. Especially when you see an incredibly talented design team turn a fantasy writers creations into game play...

Originally Posted by Ngruk

I think there may be a SLIVER of info given, maybe not, but I think he might spill a bean or two here and there
I know I see the results of his creation, daily, and it's staggering, just staggering. Especially when you see an incredibly talented design team turn a fantasy writers creations into game play...

i hope he spills enough beans to make a bean soup ...
Just a small bean soup ...

Heh I've bugged Bob the last two times I've seen him for any slivers of details. I believe, at this point, there is a chip in his brain that prevents him.

Also, I'm fairly certain that last year, he was afraid Mary had sent some assassins to make sure he stayed in check.

Bob simply astounds the heck out of me. The creativity just oozes out of him, and it sickens me And his balancing act of Drizzt (hooray! for he new 6 book contract!), finishing up Saga of the First King (Corona. Man I hope we see a Corona movie!!), 38 studios (Man I hope you guys have a beta, when it's ready! ), family, and everything else. I know he just popped in on his forums and hammered out answering a dozen pages worth of questions in the Interactive Threads he has going.

You people and your "work ethics" Now, off I go. I need to get some work done. That's why I'm on vacation. Work in peace.

LOL!!

I've been out of pocket (with no computer, even) for a few days, so forgive the delay, but.....Thanks again, #38! Love these little voices in my head that come randomly (cuz I hear voices as I read. Yes...each of you has your own voice! Call me crazy....).

....ok, so call me an RP'r....

And, Curt...I haven't forgotten your message. Probably next week....Thanks!