Is Blizz the root of all evil?

[Ruvanal]

This is the standard response that really concerns me.  It means that we as consumers should and expect a crappy experience because that is the NORM.  It is the standard in the industry.  Honestly, is this what people really want?  Isn't the point of Beta testing to iron out all these "crappy technology" problems.  Isn't Beta there to polish a game so that its playable and enjoyable to the consumer?  The current state of MMO's is exactly as described.  But in any other field of service, Blizzard, SOE etc. would have been out of business a long time ago.  Why is this acceptable?  I don't have the answer for that other than as long as consumers are willing to shell out the bucks for "crappy" launches this will continue.
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This is actually an almost standard part of any new products life cycle. As more generations of the a type of product eventually come around, each one should end up shortning the early heavy problem stage and move more quickly to a stable and better form of use that is more 'intutive' for the user/consumer to easily step into. Also there is the matter of proprietary knowledge that companies will typically try to retain for their own use. This in turn means that any other company entering the same field will have only a limited access to the 'secrets' of how the previous generation of product accomplished its goals in its final product. This often leaves a new entrant into a field working with the knowledge base of two generations prior or having to do some sort of reverse engineering that does not violate some patent/privacy law or having to aquire this more current information through aquistion of one the older companies and their existing knowledge base.

For the MMO's they are barely into a third generation of what they can do at this point. This is due in part to what is required time wise for one generation to just go through corrective actions and refinements of what they offer. This means that for many 'new' entrants into the field they only have full access to how the MMO looked prior to Everquest.

By comparison the computer that you have now has been through far more generations of this kind of 'evolution of technology'. It was from the patience and persaverance of many others prior to you that the technology you have can 'work realatively flawlessly' the first time you get it and start it up at home.

What you can expect is that to persue a comparitivly 'new' genre as this (MMO's) is that you will at times be running the risk of being one of the ones that has to work throught the products early infant stage of growing. Yes I know that there have been some sort of MMO'S for many years. But the type of genre that it is is one that each real generation of what it can do is years long (closer to the decade mark per genration from what I have observed from outside).