According to Mythic’s Mark Jacobs Blizzard has altered its PVP formula to better challenge Warhammer Online, as he remarks ”imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Jacobs believes it wasn’t ”accidental” that Blizzard starting talking about it when Warhammer was releasing - ”well, I’m flattered.” Spot on or total hogwash?
”I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” remarked Jacobs speaking with GamesIndustry.biz.
”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,” Jacobs added. “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.”
I’m sure many Blizz fans will be quick to highlight the ‘hidden’ smugness between the lines of his sincere viewpoint. World of Warcraft lost a number of subscribers to WAR, only for a lot of them to return soon after according to Blizzard.
