WoW and the PC gaming market
by Michael Gray 
Jun 3rd 2008 at 7:00PM
With over 10 million subscribers, World of Warcraft commands a pretty hefty chunk of the PC gaming market. Stopping by my local Best Buy, I asked their Geek Squad members to simply: "Show me the machines for WoW." One guy smiled, nodded, and took me to what he called "the WoW rack.""These are the machines," he promised me, "that'll get you through the game." According to my Geek Squad advisor, there's been more than a few memos in the store about which machines to recommend for World of Warcraft. "Corporate wants to be sure," Brian told me, "that you people can get Warcraft machines right out of the box."
Best Buy isn't alone in this preparedness. AMD Game! is a branding label that, in theory, recommends the best-of-the-best, all according AMD. They prescribe a set of base, minimum requirements for a computer, and then run that box through a series of games to be sure the game plays the way it's supposed to play. If the system passes muster, then the system is allowed to stamp itself with the coveted AMD Game! label. And, yup: World of Warcraft is certainly on that list.
And since the World of Warcraft XPS sports an nVidia card -- you can be pretty tootin' sure that gets tested as well. While the XPS still costs a little more than most might pay, it's branded, toyed-out the wazoo, and all about WoW.
WoW: Im in ur PC market, designin' ur boxes.
[Via Gamers Hell]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Retron Jun 3rd 2008 7:27PM
"These are the machines that'll get you through the game." Wait, we're talking about World of Warcraft, here, not Crysis, Bioshock or Age of Conan? WoW's recommended system specs have stayed low since it was released years ago... Sounds like the so-called Geek Squad is just capitalizing on the popularity of WoW to sell the top of the line pricey systems.
jbodar Jun 3rd 2008 7:41PM
You have a good point. Although it may be harder to distinguish a decent WoW laptop from the chaff.
InsaneAssault Jun 3rd 2008 7:45PM
Seriously, any rig built/bought within the last 3-4 years can run WoW just fine. You don't need anything special for this game. Unless you're really are into decals and zboards.
Sakerin Jun 3rd 2008 8:49PM
@3 This is unfortunately not true. There are laptops that are more geared toward business use that have an anemic 8MB integrated video controller that gets you 1-5 fps in pretty much any spot in WoW.
jack Jun 3rd 2008 7:39PM
well, if u have to ask someone at the store what computer to buy that can run wow... theres not much hope for u
Barlin Jun 3rd 2008 7:50PM
And I'd say if you can't spell the word "you" there's not much hope for you either...
jay Jun 3rd 2008 9:30PM
Back to the topic...
My opinion is basically build one yourself, chances are you will save more and end up with something the will not only run wow, but almost anything else.
Above poster that mentioned that these companies are cashing in on the wow market is correct, first rule of most businesses anywhere in the world is to take your money... that's it.
Zali Jun 4th 2008 10:58AM
After years as a network engineer I've built more PC's than I care to count. I don't care if it costs a couple extra quid, I'll buy an OEM model, thanks. Why spend a couple hours puting things together, installing drivers one at a time, etc? I've got a raid coming and all of my cooldowns are up on Shadow, Spell and Mooncloth and so I've got a ton of mats I need to go farm.
Who has time to put all that real world effort into playing WOW? I have enought virtual effort that I've got to deal with.
jay Jun 3rd 2008 9:35PM
Adding to to my last, I'm also aware that some people would be daunted by the prospect of building their own, but bear one thing in mind, if you do build your own, whether it be you that builds it or someone you know or what ever, you know exactly what your going to get.
And your still covered by the warranties of the parts you use too.
jbodar Jun 3rd 2008 10:32PM
Building your own is great and all, but some people just don't want to research whether their RAM is compatible with their system board or worrying they're gonna crack their CPU core while installing the heatsink, and I can respect that.
Building a system just lets you invest time instead of money, especially if you're a first-time builder. Yeah, there are warranties on all the parts, but what does an average person do when they put the rig together and it Blue-Screens on first boot? For many, it isn't worth the potential headaches, and it's not some panacea for buying a PC.
jbodar Jun 3rd 2008 10:57PM
Actually, I take back what I said about cracked cores, since I don't think it's possible with modern CPU's. They're better protected nowadays, but you can still bend pins, improperly apply thermal pad/grease, etc.
SBKT Jun 3rd 2008 9:47PM
Take into account a hardware's age, too. Computers start to slow down, make weird clicking and screeching sounds, smoke, and die a violent death (At least in my case) as they age.
Personally, I don't want to upgrade because of XP's compatibility mode which I use for a couple imports is so much more usable than anything Vista and if I have to upgrade for real because it seems my computer is dying, I'm going to go Linux just because the apple computers can't run them either and I'm not about to fork over 2000 for a WoW-only machine.
Most Cheap-But-Not-Eee laptops bought today, say the 300 dollar Acer thing we picked up should be able to run it at minimum specs.
Vepa Jun 3rd 2008 10:20PM
You want a machine that runs WoW great? You don't have to spend 2 grand to make that happen.
Get any video card with at least 256 mb of VRAM (even an old ATI Radeon 9600 would fit that bill), get a gig of decent RAM, and make sure you've got any kind of processor after Intel's Pentium series. All the duo cores will fit this no problem. Slap Windows XP on your machine, and make sure you've got enough hard drive space to install the game...and you've got a perfect WoW gaming rig.
jbodar Jun 3rd 2008 10:45PM
$2000 was in reference to a Mac, though it is an exaggeration when talking about desktops. More like $1200.
@SBKT
Many if not all PC manufacturers allow you to "downgrade" to XP for no charge due to the way Vista's licensed to them. I'm not sure how much longer that'll last since soon XP will be unavailable for sale, for real this time.
Milktub Jun 3rd 2008 10:32PM
This really confuses me. I have a four year old desktop and a three year old laptop. Both run WoW just fine.
But hey, commerce is commerce.
jbodar Jun 3rd 2008 11:00PM
Sys reqs are not that high, but if your onboard graphics are lackluster, you may have to downgrade settings, which many people would not expect on a new machine. Not all machines are designed with gaming in mind after all.
Badger Jun 4th 2008 12:29AM
"Corporate wants to be sure," Brian told me, "that you people can get Warcraft machines right out of the box."
Is anybody else unnerved by the way the Geek Squad rep used the phrase "you people" in this statement?
Yeng Jun 4th 2008 11:01AM
I know all about you people. Living in your mother's basement, existing on a diet of hot pockets and Mt. Dew, looking into the advantages of catheters.
Oh yes, I know you people. The Geek Squad has its eye on you.
Zali Jun 4th 2008 11:17AM
Not really. Those of us that work in the IT support side of things look at you people as "you people" no matter what company we work for. Sometimes we call you people "users" or "end users" or even "lusers." If you people have a problem with that, then maybe you people should form some sort of support group. You people can call it Incredibly Deficient Intellectually On Technological Stuff, or IDIOTS for short. I mean, really... there should be a twelve step program for you people.
Badger Jun 4th 2008 11:32AM
Wow ... I don't know whether to laugh or call the cops. O_O
Coincidentally, I promise I'm not really an I.D.I.O.T. I worked for campus tech support for two and a half years in college and I built my computer piece-by-piece. =P