EXTomar

"WoW Insider" just did their "good-bye" post. It generally seems to be an issue with AOL suites slashing budgets all sites regardless if they are growing in readership. Less budget, less people and personalities, less content, less traffic which causes a death spiral.

Both "Massively" and other sister sites like "WoW Insider" are being coy with what is happening with them and their future.

Do you know how expensive GTA V was to make? And that multiplayer component that outlived the game is what people are playing with as much as anything today.

Not everyone can make a game as big and expensive as GTA let alone any number of other games like Skyrim. Is a producer going to be excited about spending millions on a sword/sorcery action rpg that has a NN hour single player campaign or a sword/sorcery action rpg that is a 4 player co-op game with an aggressive advancement system that has a lot of opportunities for in game purchases? Hell just look at how much multiplayer and how much stuff is being sold in Dragon Age Inquisition.

"No"?

The issue is that "making video games" is expensive. Making a single player game is an expensive one shot experience with a limited audience. I get the feeling that "single player games" will move into the indie space where it is priced better and more realistically than AAA can support.

Huh, the scuttlebutt a couple of months ago is that the board at Yahoo wants to merge with AOL. If it turns out that AOL is really disappearing then I wonder if the failure to get anywhere on a buyout/merger precipitated this move.

I only know about joystiq from "Massively" and "Wow Insider". Both have been suffering from cut backs in staff but I still like their coverage and will be sorry if they are forced to disappear.

The one thing I think HotS has going for it is that approachability. I have friends who are scared to death of trying to play a Dota 2 match for multiple reasons so they'll never really want to play with me. And frankly I have issues trying to play Dota 2 with some of them because of their temperament. On the other hand if they go "Hey play some HotS with us", I'll jump in and screw around in it and not feel bad either way.

I come from Dota 2 as well and I think the tactic HotS is focusing is a great one: Getting hero levels and kills is helpful but spending effort on goals to boost the team's creeps instead wins the match. But the problem is I have no idea how long term this will work out or even if it is entertaining at high levels of play.

I feel the same as others wondering how long game could run like this because of its "low bar of entry" but I would love to see some sort of one off mode like this (call it "Creep Siege Mode" or something) in Dota 2.

It is simply a matter of not seeing the same thing over and over and over again. It is the same complaint about the "bald space marine" or "brown military shooters" where I would like to look at something different.

The real issue is that Microsoft should have never ever gone with Microsoft Points to begin with. Imagine how "successful" Amazon would have been if you had to buy Amazon Points then buy the item? It would drive people crazy trying to manage a wallet of funny money.

I'm all for R&D and tech and letting companies go wild with this stuff but there are practical, consumer considerations to make for devices like this. Forget the comparison to Kinect where instead I see this as the same "gee-wiz" as Google Glass.