Warcraft design musings
Oct. 6th, 2007 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayI haven't actually played for a few days, but during a quiet day at work, I read some intriguing news about upcoming changes. Blizzard is concerned about the widely perceived (relative) suckiness of the 20-60 experience, and is taking measures to address it. These measures are unfortunately going to be fairly brute force, but they are much better than nothing. Basically, they are just going to turn up the XP dial on those levels, so that players progress about 30% faster. I would have preferred new and improved content, but this is clearly a much easier change to implement, and one that was probably easier to justify to their accountants.
(Of course, the downside of this is that the min-max-er side of my brain now thinks that any playing time in those level ranges is 'wasted' until such time as these changes take place. I shall try and overcome this.)
In addition, several (but not all) formerly Elite mob groups in those level ranges are going to lose their Elite status. Two examples that were called out were Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands and the Crushridge Ogres in Alterac. The general reasoning appears to be that, in those relatively-sparsely-populated levels, it's difficult to get a PUG together for just a few group quests, and this problem will only get worse as they speed up the leveling curve. Makes sense to me. I eventually did do both those quest areas, but only way over-leveled and solo, and only because I was a completist.
On a similar note, this week's incremental patch, in addition to unlocking a bunch of holiday content, also installed a large number of new graveyards in zones where they were formerly sparse, thus making corpse runs there much less punishing. And I've been noticing new flight paths turning up in various parts of the old world as well.
All these changes point to an interesting trend. When WoW first came out, many pre-existing MMO players derided its mechanics as simplistic, and its gameplay as too easy and free of real risk. Hardcore PvPers referred to the non-PvP servers as "carebear". Yet WoW was a great success and continues to be. Since launch, they have moved further and further in this ease-of-use direction, with only occasional forays into a more punishing one. Nor have they overshot yet: 9 million active accounts and still climbing.
During production of BioShock, one of our primary goals was to make a game that, while strategically deep, was still extremely accessible: our mantra was "Does this say 'Yes!' to the player?" Blizzard seems to have embraced a similar philosophy. And as much as the grognards grumble, it seems to me that this is clearly the way the medium moves forward. I, for one, welcome our accessible overlords!
(Of course, the downside of this is that the min-max-er side of my brain now thinks that any playing time in those level ranges is 'wasted' until such time as these changes take place. I shall try and overcome this.)
In addition, several (but not all) formerly Elite mob groups in those level ranges are going to lose their Elite status. Two examples that were called out were Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands and the Crushridge Ogres in Alterac. The general reasoning appears to be that, in those relatively-sparsely-populated levels, it's difficult to get a PUG together for just a few group quests, and this problem will only get worse as they speed up the leveling curve. Makes sense to me. I eventually did do both those quest areas, but only way over-leveled and solo, and only because I was a completist.
On a similar note, this week's incremental patch, in addition to unlocking a bunch of holiday content, also installed a large number of new graveyards in zones where they were formerly sparse, thus making corpse runs there much less punishing. And I've been noticing new flight paths turning up in various parts of the old world as well.
All these changes point to an interesting trend. When WoW first came out, many pre-existing MMO players derided its mechanics as simplistic, and its gameplay as too easy and free of real risk. Hardcore PvPers referred to the non-PvP servers as "carebear". Yet WoW was a great success and continues to be. Since launch, they have moved further and further in this ease-of-use direction, with only occasional forays into a more punishing one. Nor have they overshot yet: 9 million active accounts and still climbing.
During production of BioShock, one of our primary goals was to make a game that, while strategically deep, was still extremely accessible: our mantra was "Does this say 'Yes!' to the player?" Blizzard seems to have embraced a similar philosophy. And as much as the grognards grumble, it seems to me that this is clearly the way the medium moves forward. I, for one, welcome our accessible overlords!