Breakfast Topic: Primetime WoW
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 26th 2007 at 8:00AM
First the Toyota ad, then Judge Judy and How I Met Your Mother. Lately, WoW has been appearing all over the place. It's been popular before, of course (we've seen the Office Space commercial, and of course the South Park episode), but World of Warcraft has been popping up all over pop culture lately, and I've been wondering: it's been showing up in primetime, but has World of Warcraft hit its prime?It's been the top online roleplaying game for quite a while now, and The Burning Crusade was actually released as the biggest PC game sequel ever. But as popular as videogames are, they're still a niche market in the terms of popular culture. Every gamer may know what Warcraft is, but that doesn't mean your parents or grandparents do (unless they play, but that's another Breakfast Topic).
Until now. Is World of Warcraft finally breaking out of the gamer barrier and moving into the mainstream? There are more WoW players in America than farmers, and while I was kind of joking about seeing realm outage news on the local TV station, maybe it really will happen-- the game's already appeared on the sitcoms before the news. Are all these mentions just a coincidence, or has WoW finally hit its mainstream tipping point?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chriasas Oct 26th 2007 8:21AM
Well... WoW recently was a part of the scene in "The Big Bang Theory" (admittedly, it's about nerds). And, as a bit of a side topic, Second Life was part of the latest episode of "The Office".
MMOs are still part of the nerd sphere, but with more and more nerds around, it's getting into the mainstream.
Autumnbear Oct 26th 2007 8:31AM
Warcraft is a specialized niche. It isn't D&D, or EverQuest, in terms of lore flexibility and never-ending storyline potential. It rigidly follows old lore background, leaving few possibilities for future growth.
Right now World of Warcraft is quickly running out of content. Soon, one after another, legendary villains will die and storylines will change. Blizzard can pump out expansion after expansion, but sooner than later we will run out of 'lore' content.
The only way to make World of Warcraft a 'permanent' best seller is to basically ruin it for lore loevers and design it to be more free-form like EverQuest.
That said, Warcraft has steadily leaked into our culture. Certainly it's as popular and widely recognized as D&D. Unfortunately, marketers for commercials and T.V. shows probably don't personally know the game like we do. All they know is that it's a popular game with a large chunk of gamers, and that by airing a comment or two about it, they hope to gain more viewers or sales by those who relate to the game.
We all know better though, don't we. A 'casual' gamer who spends 4-6 hours a day playing/rep-grinding, after work or school, NEVER watches T.V.. So those commercials with WoW content are just novelties that we happen to find on YouTube when the WoW servers are down.
By the time WoW has finally sunk in as a major part of the 'mainstream' though, it may be too late. Gamers may find it cute or cool to see a WoW-themed commercial or Ad now and then. But when it's as common as Santa in a Christmas commercial, it really starts to grate on our minds.
We as gamers have our 'special' identity, our place to escape. When commercials, advertising, and culture starts promoting a game that we've been enjoying for years, can we 'escape' anymore?
Seriously, a commercial now and then is fine, but if WoW is going to be increasingly used as a sales crutch for other products, I think I may just end up being sick.
Baluki Oct 26th 2007 8:36AM
Yea, I definitely think that WoW is probably at its peak right now. It still has a ton of life in it though, but we're not going to see more growth, at least not in English-speaking markets (I think it's still growing steadily in parts of Asia).
But at least the mainstream media is picking up on it while it's still hot. It seems like Second Life is mentioned more and more these days, and it's a joke; it definitely peaked around 2005, maybe early 2006. But then, it's so much easier to make fun of Second Life.
Tayluka Oct 26th 2007 10:34AM
Was also mentioned in this month's Playboy. Was a small article about new MMO's coming out and their likelihood of replacing WoW as the leading MMO but still, a mention in Playboy is nice. :P
alienatheart Oct 26th 2007 10:53AM
there was also a mention of it on one of the stargate episodes
Worcester Oct 26th 2007 11:09AM
Fox 29 in Philadelphia will be covering the World of Warcraft trading card event today. The story will probably mention the popularity of the online game as well.
Charlie Oct 26th 2007 11:42AM
Everyone who knows what wow is, its just a fact.
Krianna Oct 26th 2007 11:49AM
Autumnbear-
I think Blizzard is working on making a future for the game-- for example, in Nagrand(sp?) there's a fellow who has you go kill a crud-ton of the broken who destroyed his village, then he basically says he's riding off into the sunset. That is not a bad setup for a future hero.
I think that we'll soon see blizzard working to build up future enemies before they run out-- although we may have to have a WoW II so that the current game can be going, then we can *see* the future plotlines. (It's be tough to make it work out well, but if any current major company can do it, it's Bliz.)
Gimmlette Oct 26th 2007 3:33PM
I hope WOW isn't mainstream. I honestly don't want every 5th house on my street having someone who plays WOW. Blizzard might love the income, but I like the semi-exclusivity of the game. Of the 5 billion people on the planet, only 8-9 million play. That's still not a huge percentage.
There are a number of places where additional content could be added, if only in very small doses. Wasn't there, at one time, a plan to adventure above IF? There's an airstrip and I think I saw a gryphon master up there. Loch Modan doesn't have an instance. Raise your hand if you have the key to the Searing Gorge gate. (One of those 'lost quests'.) Other than rep and the occasional trainer, is there any reason why someone not a Night Elf needs to go to Darnassus or Exodar? Potential for something there. People who have been around the game a long time speak in hushed tones about killing the "end-game dragons". Huh?
I hope the popularity of the Hallow's Eve quests inspires Blizzard to do more of those kinds of things. What if next year, there was a mummy quest in Uldaman available ONLY to level 45-55? Or a Zombie quest in Deadmines open only to levels 15-25? Bring back the horde undead who ran amok in Southshore.
It's a fine line. In order to grow, you need to expand your client base. But there comes a point at which you are everywhere and go from anomaly to annoyance. I hope WOW stays the anomaly.
Fescoc Oct 26th 2007 8:11PM
There has also been a refrence on either the First or second Episode of moonlight