Larisa has a great post up on making your own Cataclysm while you wait for Blizzard to release the real thing. I highly recommend it, found thisaway. Her bonus link to Ixobelle’s PvP adventures is worth following as well.
Commenting on her post, I noted that I would love to see Blizzard really shake things up in the industry by changing business models.
With Guild Wars as a spiritual model, Blizzard should:
1. Instead of consigning the Old World of WoW to the digital scrap heap, slice it off into its own phased existence and sell it as a standalone subscriptionless product. Call it “PreCataclysm Azeroth” and watch it sell like hotcakes and introduce a new batch of newbies. It’s like a free trial on steroids… that you can charge for. Forget a piddling $1 for a week, try $30 for a lifetime sub, a direct stab at the market that GW has had mostly to itself, and a kick in the teeth to those other guys who sell lifer passes.
2. Watch the rest of the industry scurry about trying to reconcile the notion of the biggest sub MMO in the lake stomp through the F2P shallows. (Note, there are Subscriptionless games and Item Shop games, both possibly referred to as F2P… here, I’m talking more about Subscriptionless games. Marketing matters.)
3. …
4. Profit.
OK, OK, I’ve written about this before, and I doubt that they will follow my admittedly selfish wishes on this, but I’m really very curious as to whether they might have some sort of long-term plans along these lines. Not that I’d mind, mind you… Still, with a new MMO in the pipes that may well cannibalize their WoW base, it’s a good time to start tinkering. The natural split of “old Azeroth” and “Cataclysmic Azeroth” is a perfect vehicle to segment the market a bit and diversify their death grip on the industry.
Whether or not that‘s a good idea is up for consideration, perhaps… especially since what’s good for Blizzard need not necessarily be what’s best for gamers. It’s not like WoW is the root of all evil and the herald of doom and all that, after all. (Please read that whole article. Ferrel is having a bit of fun, but voices some legitimate concerns.)
Tish Tosh Tesh 
Something tells me they’d be shooting themselves in the foot. On the other hand, I wonder if many players would end up purchasing BOTH.
Yeah, I don’t think they would make more money with it on Cat’s release compared to keeping everyone in subs, but it’s a viable “endgame” for the product lifespan, and a legitimate market segmentation idea, since it echoes the *game design* segmentation. It’s one way to get the most out of those “old world” assets, too.
I also wonder who would purchase both.
Similar to what you’re suggesting, I think they should box off the original WoW, remove all group dungeons and content, limit the levels to 60 and create a single player console version for the Nintendo DS, PSP, Wii, etc.
Porting can be expensive, but you can be sure that it would sell.
At least from my experience, it is a good idea.
When classic World of Warcraft launched, most of my colleagues and friends (mostly dinks), including myself were not playing any online games.
Somehow, someone talked about WoW launching, and the idea came, to start playing a game together.
Although we had our doubts regarding the subscription, we started with roughly 20 people.
The first two month were great, the mixture of exploring and social contacts, was fantastic for all of us and made it a great experience.
When we arrived in the Endgame, were scheduling was necessary, one after the other stopped playing.
My point is, that we are talking about accessing a new customer base here.
People who do not play that often, besides a browser game maybe and who do not care much about their system.
Gaming is not a regular part of their free-time, but it was when they were younger (we all grew up with Zelda).
If you have a few hours to kill, a boxed price will keep you away from trying it out and subscription is not appealing, if you think you will just play a few hours per month.
So yes, good idea Tesh.
Exactly; this is all about reaching that segment of the market that, for one reason or another, hasn’t taken the plunge yet. It seems to be a prime opportunity to do so.
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