Gamesindustry.biz interviewed Warhammer: Age of Reckoning's CEO Mark Jacobs yesterday. One of the questions came up was regarding a recent move by Blizzard.
The move was that Blizzard has seemed to be taking a page out of the design of WAR for WOW. In the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, Blizzard has announced they are going to be giving a renewed focus to open-world PvP / Realm vs. Realm features and the ability to que into PvP battles from anywhere -- something they never said they were interesting in doing until WAR was successfully launched.
To the question "Do you believe Blizzard's plan to introduce open world PVP into World of Warcraft is an attempt to position themselves against WAR" Mythic's Mark Jacobs answered:
"Oh absolutely. I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You have a game that's been out for four years, they've never put in world PVP like ours, they've never been able to level through PVP like in ours.
I think it's absolutely a reaction to Warhammer. It wasn't like all of a sudden the idea of open world PVP or levelling through PVP came into their heads and went 'nobody's ever done this before'. I don't think it was accidental that they're talking about doing it when Warhammer comes out. Four years and suddenly, miraculously, at the same time Warhammer comes out that's when they start talking about these things... I think it was Jeff Kaplan who said they like to look at other games and learn from them - well, I'm flattered."
Flattery? That's a good way to look at it. And if there is any company that has been flattered in this way, it is Blizzard.
You can read the rest of the interview here.
