Thoughts on iPad and MMO's

Ever since the announcement from Apple™ about the iPad all the world is a buzz about tablet computers and their relationship to MMO's. There has been little coverage of this topic so far but there is certain to be an explosion of controversy soon to come. I did find this editorial from Massively written by Shawn Schuster which covered the pros and cons of the iPad and MMO's and i really liked it. Give it a read for some of his points and here is a picture he used.



Now here is my view on the iPad and MMO's. First, let me talk about the iPad in general. I'm a brass tacks kind of guy, and this is the first generation of the iPad so let's not get too excited just yet. I'm sure there are bugs and kinks that need working out. But they are going to release this with no Flash support? I gotta say, i am really surprised. Every ad online is a Flash banner around the main content of the web page so if the iPad is gonna be intended for internet browsing and social networking it's not going to look very good and i would not spend advertising dollars on banner ads that can't be viewed. This disqualifies any market research that might be done targeting iPad demographics. Let alone the fact that many web sites are all Flash based. For example my very own online portfolio is Flash based. So no one could view it on an iPad.

Secondly, MMO's on iPads are a long way off. Shawn was talking about external blue tooth keyboards and mouses. These would be a must. There is no way i am playing WoW without my WASD. I don't know if there would be a way to navigate without a mouse either. This could stir up a whole hornets nest of controversy. The army of protesters against keyboard turners would most certainly have a collective aneurysm if you take away their mouses. Let alone the computer hardware industry and their endless menu of LED lighted and two million button navigation devices. Let's just say, i am a long way from touch screen turning.

Lastly but certainly not finally, i have one word for you. Apps! I don't mean to over use the exclamation point but this i feel deserves one. The iPad is app driven. It doesn't use the MacOS interface from what i understand. It uses the iPhone operating system which is decidedly different and, i feel, less tried and tested. Apps are the future i think but until Blizzard and other gaming companies design their games using an app platform, i don't think they are going to run well on tablets such as the iPad. Let me throw net books into this fray. Net books are small and inexpensive. They are made to run fast for web surfing and emailing. Social networking and blogging are great on them. But when you get home from a long day of "texting while driving" do you open your 1ghz net book with a 256m graphics card and 60gig hard drive to beat down some unsuspecting dwarf paladin who was AFK on a beer run. No, you go to that tower in your basement with the 1.5gig graphics card that needs a fan the size of an NBA arena air conditioner and an LCD screen you could land a plane on. Net books can't run WoW like i want them to.

Let's just say. iPad and MMO's are a long way from being a "cute couple". I for one will wait until at least generation five of Apples iteration of the iPad and we'll see where they have taken it. Keep your eyes pealed for the World of Warcraft App expansion. Could get interesting.