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Jan 10th, 2007 at 02:57:01 - World of Warcraft (PC) |
Addendum: WoW Game Log
1/9/2006
So, WoW has managed to do it again. Or, rather, try and not succeed. For those of you just tuning in, the expansion set (Burning Crusade) comes out next monday night. And thus, to commemorate the event, Blizzard has started an in game event.
Now, this is the third in game event, and thus far it has been by far the best. Which is sad, because this event is absolutely terrible. The first event was marked by server-killing lag, making the event unfinishable because it rolled back by 5 or 10 minutes every five minutes. The second was much more similar to the current event, and featured hordes of undead invading the realm. Well, more like standing around in a circle outside of towns and not doing anything. At all.
In this event blizzard shows that it has at last managed the incredibly complex idea of 'Having Monsters that know how to walk in a line.' This, in and of itself, would be a fine premise for an event. Except that there are only about six of these monsters spawning at any given point, and they generally die within afew seconds of being spawned.
Now, the event is supposed to last a week. From the /yells and conversation text of the NPC's, it sounds as though the event could pick up steam. Hopefully it will, at any rate, as thus far there is but a single quest which yields a novelty tabard as a result. And no, none of the invaders drop so much as a copper piece.
The event has managed to accomplish one thing, at least. It has successfully fomented world pvp. The area in and around The Dark Portal (Which has, for some odd reason, turned green. This is unexplained.) is littered with corpses from rampant PVP. Alas, this means that if the event ever does pick up steam, we'll all be to busy killing each-other to do anything about it.
Oh well. Ryle hira. More shall come depending on the event's outcome and development.
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Jan 8th, 2007 at 21:15:39 - World of Warcraft (PC) |
World of Warcraft PVP Gamelog
Section 1: (3:00-4:00)
Game 1: Arathi Basin. (win)
Game 2: Arathi Basin (Lose)
Game 3: Arathi Basin (Lose)
Interlude: World PVP
Perhaps one of the more fun games I've played in quite some time, We managed a win. For those of you just tuning in, I play an alliance Mage. The Alliance, as a whole, tends to lose badly in these sort of games, though no one is exactly sure why. It could be that we're disorganized, or that there is an internal hatred against the alliance. Who knows.
Regardless of the reasons, PVP in WoW is one of the two major things that players can do upon reaching Level 60. This PVP, however, is done only in extremely controlled situations, namely 'Battlegrounds'. The Battleground of the week is Arathi Basin, which at least functions under a somewhat interesting mechanic of being the first team to 2000 resource. Resources are gathered by taking and holding any or all of the five nodes on the map.
While this idea is novel, it is not particularly deep. Infact, it is probably some of the least deep PVP I've ever encountered in an RPG, and feels like it would be significantly more at home in a Shooter game. While that's not a bad thing, per se, it means that the game gets very boring very quickly.
Interlude: World PVP
Occasionally, PVP in the 'wide' world of WoW does happen. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon some today. A group of horde had shown up in Iron-forge, and were messing around. This was pretty fun, and lead to me having a very dramatic fight with another mage on the Deeprun Tram. However, it ended pretty quickly.
Second Section: (4:15-5:15)
Game 1: Arathi Basin (Loss)
Game 2: Arathi Basin (Loss)
Game 3: Arathi Basin (Loss)
Okay. While the first hour or so of WoW was very fun, and pretty rewarding... The second was significantly less so. By the second half, the games had slipped into rather repetitive monotony. While it's possible that this simply stems from the fact that there are a total of three battlegrounds, of which I only played one, I've come to believe that the issue is deeper than that.
You see, it's not just that there are only three battlegrounds. It's more that, outside of a few changes to Alterac Valley, the battlegrounds are exactly the same as they were on the day they were first added. There is no feeling of accomplishment after most battles; It is simply another round.
This issue goes to the core of WoW, however. You see; No matter what you do in the game, none of it remains long term. If you kill the opposing factions leader, that NPC will return in full health but a few minutes later. Quests are no different. I have thwarted the same plans of the same monsters time and time again. Plans which, Outside of the first half of a single plotline, not advanced at all. There are no world events. There are no lasting marks. There is nothing that we as players can do to affect the world around us in any meaningful way.
An MMO should, in theory, present a dynamic and realistic world. Sure, some things aren't at all realistic, like death, but some of it has to be. The world cannot be perpetually locked in summer, with the trees and grass green year round, despite snowstorms that darken the sky. The World must change; It must live; It must breath.
Instead, WoW offers a world that is pretty. But beneath that prettiness there is very little. There are a few quests, but most are the same. There are a few types of PVP, but two of the three feel like school yard games (Gnomes and CTF) and the final feels like a poorly implemented version of a very old game for Warcraft Three (Defense of the Ancients).
And yet, despite all this, WoW is a run away success. It has well over 7 million players world wide. Obviously they must be doing something right.
Section Three.
The question the becomes, (for me at least), what I can I learn from Blizzard to make my own eventual MMO successful. As of now, I'm not certain what I would implement the same way as blizzard. Instead; I am painfully aware of what I would change. The List is as follows.
-Death
-PvE Game
-PvP
-Scope
-Character progression and Development
In other-words... Almost everything. However, Blizzard did manage to make one aspect of World of Warcraft work very well. Despite how complex many aspects are (They're not deep, mind you, just complex) WoW is still a very easy game to simply pick up and play. That is, perhaps, the lesson I have learned most from WoW. A successful game needs to be simple enough that anyone can pick up and play it with relative ease, while being complex enough to keep interest up long term. WoW has done a great job with the first part of this; The months and years to come will show how well it can do the second.
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Ramenth has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 27 days |
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