World of Warcraft

"We felt there was such an opportunity in that genre, and that Warcraft was such a great universe for a game like that," said Blizzard's Rob Pardo, the first lead designer on WoW. "We started talking about it, getting excited about it, and we decided to make it. "

Read more: World of Warcraft Quests Remain Compelling, 5 Years On | In this article: Blizzard Entertainment, Rob Pardo, Ken Levine, BioShock, Warcraft, Wired.com, Mmorpg, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

The fastidiously detailed underwater dystopia of BioShock was influenced by WoW's grandeur, Levine said: "Any project where you need to sell people on a space in a videogame, you can learn something from World of Warcraft. "

Read more: World of Warcraft Quests Remain Compelling, 5 Years On | In this article: Blizzard Entertainment, Rob Pardo, Ken Levine, BioShock, Warcraft, Wired.com, Mmorpg, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

"WoW is going to be a bigger world five years from now," he said.

Read more: World of Warcraft Quests Remain Compelling, 5 Years On | In this article: Blizzard Entertainment, Rob Pardo, Ken Levine, BioShock, Warcraft, Wired.com, Mmorpg, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

I think when we look at (Blizzard's other upcoming titles) Diablo III and Starcraft II, we're constantly evaluating, "What would the WoW playerbase think of this?" and "What types of gameplay do they react well to? "

Read more: Blizzard Reflects on Five Years of World of Warcraft | In this article: Blizzard Entertainment, Warcraft, Diablo III, EverQuest II, StarCraft II, and EverQuest

"Going forward we will still believe that the company will continue to put in more effort in doing selling and marketing activities," said Choi, refering to WoW. Most observers said the Chinese regulator's order was the result of a government turf war, and less a reflection on NetEase itself. "The regulatory concerns regarding WoW is still an overhang for the stock,"

Read more: UPDATE 2-Higher costs, competition weigh on China's NetEase | In this article: NetEase, China, Revenue, and Jpmorgan

"Going forward we will still believe that the company will continue to put in more effort in doing selling and marketing activities," said Choi, refering to WoW. Most observers said the Chinese regulator's order was the result of a government turf war, and less a reflection on NetEase itself. "The regulatory concerns regarding WoW is still an overhang for the stock," said JPMorgan analyst Dick Wei. "For the fourth quarter, gross margins may be lower because they have to do revenue-sharing with Blizzard."

Read more: UPDATE 2-Higher costs, competition weigh on China's NetEase | In this article: NetEase, China, Revenue, and Jpmorgan

"World of Warcraft and Everquest seem to be the ones that individuals identify most often," says Moore, who is the admissions manager at the Illinois Institute. These addicts typically stay at the Institute for 30-90 days, paying up to $1200 a day (though many insurance plans cover at least part of it) to follow the same treatment program that alcoholics and sex addicts go through. "We have a philosophy here that an addiction is an addiction, and that those who suffer from gambling or sex or Internet or alcohol can all learn from one another,"

Read more: Advisor: Are you an Internet addict? | In this article: Poppycock, E mail, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Boing Boing, Nicotine, and EverQuest

"World of Warcraft" title as well as a sequel to the "Starcraft" franchise. Both PC titles offer high margins and a subscription-based revenue model. "With two major high-margin PC titles confirmed for next year - 'Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty' and 'World of Warcraft: Cataclysm' -- and a strong slate of titles from the Activision side of the business, we continue to believe that consensus estimates for 2010 are far too low," wrote Heath Terry of FBR Capital Markets.

Read more: Activision gives video-game stocks a boost | In this article: Activision, Revenue, StarCraft II, Activision Blizzard Inc., Tony Hawk, Blizzard, GameStop, and THQ Inc.

"World of Warcraft" computer games. Schachter said that, beginning in 2010, "Blizzard moves from being a one-game story for investors (World of Warcraft) to launching 'StarCraft 2' and the new Battle.net," an online gaming platform Blizzard is relaunching. "To get an idea of the passion and potential of Blizzard players, investors should look up 'Spectral Tiger Loot Card' on eBay, where you'll see many collectors paying upwards of $1,000 in the secondary market for the right to have their World of Warcraft character ride a digital translucent Tiger in the game,"

Read more: Activision Blizzard shares rise after 3Q results | In this article: Activision Blizzard Inc., Blizzard, Activision, Battle.net, Vivendi SA, EBay, Bobby Kotick, and Santa Monica

In a Wednesday article in the Beijing newspaper Economic Information Daily (translated by the Times), a Culture Ministry official declared, "In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority. They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming."

Read more: WOW row inside Chinese government intensifies | In this article: Blizzard Entertainment, China, Mmorpg, Beijing, and Revenue