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Breaking down Blizzard's world event so far
Blizzard, as we've said already, has really outdone themselves with this latest world event. It's been so fun and so innovative that players are wondering just why the rest of the game hasn't been this good so far (even though, of course, it's been superb anyway). The zombie invasion really gave players of MMOs everything they've wanted since this genre first came into being -- a growing, changing world populated not by mindless AI characters stuck in static patterns, but actual, creeping story and chaos. For all of the anti-zombie whining, this world event has been MMO gameplay at, I'd say, the best it's ever been.And while I was waiting until the event completely ended to do a final analysis, Colin Brennan over at Massively isn't waiting -- he's got a good analysis up over there about the zombie event and just why it was so brilliant. He describes how the world event not only gave players a terrific reason to hate Arthas enough to go to Northrend and want to fight him, but how the gameplay design of the event (when you are killed by a zombie, you become one) was tuned towards fueling the story and the immersion. As he says, the best way to fight the plague was to embrace the fact it was in the game, whether you were a zombie or a cleansing Paladin.There's lots more to dissect with this world event, including how Blizzard brilliantly invoked something that had happened by accident -- the Corrupted Blood plague -- and incorporated it into the game itself, and how the various zombie abilities were aimed directly at gameplay only possible in an MMO, from the AoE healing to the shrinking plague incubation time. I'll go so far as to say it expanded the boundary of what an MMO can do -- Blizzard let zombies loose on the populace not by hiring GMs to run around on every server, but by giving power to the players. But again -- there'll be time for analysis later, once we've discovered ingame just exactly what's going on here and how it all ties to Arthas. Colin's analysis is a good start, though -- Blizzard really outdid themselves with, even considering the complaints, one of the best world events ever seen in an MMO.
Solving the holiday boss summon problem
We've heard about a lot of problems with the Headless Horseman summon this year already (and Coren Direbrew had issues as well), but Kimberly over on WoW LJ has the worst story I've heard so far -- a group asked her to heal, claimed they all had summons, and then after killing the HH with her summon, ditched her, presumably to find some other sucker with a summon. That's not just scamming someone into taking you along for a round of summons (as we heard about in Guildwatch yesterday), it's actually scamming someone out of the rest of their chances, because, assuming Kimberly is honest for the rest of the day, why would another group take her?So this is clearly a problem. Let's fix it for Blizzard: how can we make sure everyone has five chances a day at summoning the Headless Horseman (one per day per group member) without ripping off people for helping their guildies or friends? Basically, we need a clear way of seeing whether someone has a summon or not -- maybe a debuff that resets at midnight every night, or a changing number of candles on the pedestal based on how many people in the instance can still do the daily quest? Right now, there's no accountability at all, and with droprates the way they are, getting screwed out of another chance at the HH (or even four chances, in the worst cases) can make the difference between having the achievement and not.Any other good ideas on how to solve this problem and keep players accountable? I'm sure players with less than upright morals have no problem claiming their brother used their summon or lying to steal the summons of others, but it would be a lot more fair for everyone if the possibility for scamming wasn't there at all.
Bartle, gender, and the demographics of WoW's classes
A little while back the gamerDNA blog did a nice breakdown of how WAR classes correlate with how gamers do on the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology, a widely used test that can break down exactly what type of player you are (Achiever, Explorer, Socializer, or Killer). It was such an interesting writeup that I hoped they'd do it with WoW classes, and apparently I wasn't the only one -- they've got a new post up now examining which classes in Azeroth align with which types of players.They throw gender into the mix as well -- turns out that while the classes have generally the same percentage of players (not surprising, given that gameplay dictates the classes should be fairly balanced), things start to break up when you add gender to the mix. Priests and Warriors seem to have the biggest separation: according to their data (obtained via the profiles on their site), most Priests are played by females, and most Warriors are played by men. Paladins as well tend to be male, though not as much as Warriors, and Druids tend to be female, though not as much as Priests. Women also tend to prefer the elven races (Blood and Night), while guys apparently prefer Orcs and Dwarves (which helps my -- sexist, I admit -- theory from way back on the WoW Insider Show that the Dwarven starting area appeals to guys more than women).The Bartle breakdown is interesting, too -- Killers prefer Rogues (duh), Warriors tend to be Achievers, and Hunters have the slight Explorer edge, but in general, the classes have a fairly even distribution across the board. All of the different roles can be filled by all the classes, which speaks to the way Blizzard has built the classes -- you can really solo, PvP, or group up with any of them. WAR's differences were distinct, but in WoW, Blizzard has done their best to make it so that whatever Bartle type you are, you can log in with any class and do what you want. gamerDNA promises more research here (including a Horde and Alliance breakdown), and we can't wait to see it.
Terra Nova looks back (and forward) at the Diku legacy
EverQuest, World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and many other MMOs all have one important thing in common. Well, okay; they have a lot of things in common -- like about 85% or more of their gameplay mechanics. But the main thing -- indeed, the reason why they have so much in common -- is that they are all descendants of a kind of text MUD game called Diku.Acknowledging that, virtual worlds blog Terra Nova published a "State of the Diku" article for the year 2008. The article was written by Timothy Burke. It's mostly a dispassionate look at game design -- serious business. Burke starts out questioning the purpose of "vendor trash" drops (or grey items as they're generally known in many popular contemporary MMOs). Then he analyzes the public quests of Warhammer Online, viewing them as a positive variation on traditional Diku design.If you're into thnking critically about MMO design, it's worth checking out. We take for granted the fact that most of today's MMOs are based on the Diku formula; maybe that means we're clinging to old ideas that don't make a lot of sense in today's world.
Rumor: Wii attracts ... cockroaches?
Recently, a Japanese magazine called BARKS published an article claiming that the Wii emits a cockroach-attracting sound frequency. We've heard some people say negative things about the Wii before, but this rumor takes the cake. We find this to be highly unlikely, but then again, we're no bugologists. Well, no one is a bugologist, since we just made that word up, but that's neither here nor there.So, anyone have any cockroaches drop in on their Wii parties lately?[Via Destructoid]
Lore and storytelling in the MMO genre
KillTenRats has a good commentary up on lore and its role in MMO games. Story in videogames is a tough thing to get right, and it's even tougher in a world where you don't just have one hero-- you have hundreds or thousands of them. (Sidenote: while it's not an MMO, Portal-- my vote for Game of the Year this year-- deals excellently with story, and you should read this long but insightful debate between N'Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo about it). How do you describe a changing narrative in a place where the world itself is designed to be persistent?The common answer is world events, but those are still so complicated that even their little brothers, instanced events, are still in the stages of infancy. We may be able to clear out a castle in an instance, but can we destroy one? And the very fact that it's instanced means that we can leave, walk back inside the door, and nothing has changed. We chalk it all up to coding right now that the prisoner we just rescued a few minutes ago still remains in his cell, and we simply sigh, resigned to the fact that we're not really changing the world, just leaving it reset for the next group of players.Still, there have to be some ideas floating around that could work to bring around a great story in a persistent world.
Two Bosses Enter: Rajaxx vs. Mandokir
Two bosses enter... but only one gets to leave! We've made a list of 32 of the most interesting raid bosses in World of Warcraft and are going to pit them against each other, one at a time, until there's one ultimate victor remaining. And who gets to decide who wins? You, of course! Each of our winners will be decided by your votes.Interested yet? For this week's fight we're matching up Ahn'Qiraj's General Rajaxx (not to mention the General's many soldiers!) and Zul'Gurub's Bloodlord Mandokir. To find out a bit more about these two -- and for a chance to voice your own opinion -- keep reading!
Lockheed Martin eyes quantum entanglement radar
We've got quantum dot lasers, cryptographic data networks, teleportation (saywha?), and a pesky company to boot, but the (in)famous defense contractor Lockheed Martin has apparently hit the loony sauce a bit too quickly on its latest patent application. In a proposed effort to concoct the ultimate omniscient radar, the firm is suggesting that it can break the boundaries of theoretical physics and create a "quantum entanglement" scanner that can "penetrate any type of defense to identify hidden weapons and roadside bombs from hundreds of miles away." The theory -- which hasn't been realized in a product just yet -- suggests that two particles can be joined so that whatever happens to one must also happen to its partner, however far apart they are, which could be used to detect contraband from faraway locales (or peek through suspicious garb). Interestingly, it doesn't seem that we're the only ones wondering just what type of Kool-Aid the outfit's R&D department is sipping, as a physicist at Manchester University has reportedly insinuated that even in the far-reaching world of quantum physics, "the mechanics are just wrong." Seriously, isn't a Big Brother blimp enough for you guys?[Via Wired]
Scobleizer wasn't wrong about products at WWDC; this just wasn't the right time
Some are upset at The Scobleizer, as his predictions of a 'dizzying' amount of post-WWDC Apple products and wish for an Apple Store sleepover didn't exactly come true. Scoble even went so far as to apologize on his blog Tuesday, offering a theory as to why our credit cards aren't getting maxed on a fleet of new Apple gadgets: he proposes that Apple didn't bring the goods because they didn't want to screw up their back-to-school sales. If Apple dropped something huge now, they might not have been able to supply enough product in time for all those young whipper-snappers to go back to school. It sounds plausible enough, but I propose a different theory.This is the World Wide Developer Conference, not the World Wide Consumer Gadgets Conference. This is an event first and foremost for the developers, so Apple can get them (and also the press) excited about what's coming down the pipeline in terms of developer-related OS improvements, innovations and new tools, as well as pro hardware like the Mac Pro. Events like January's Macworld and out-of-the-blue, invite-only media blitzes are where Apple drops their crazy new products for the masses.So I don't think the Scobleizer was wrong, I just think his predictions were shooting a little early. Don't worry, y'all will get your shot at an Apple Store sleepover yet.Thanks Jonas!
The Economics of Warcraft
This interesting article attempts to explain the economics of Azeroth in terms of real life economic theory. As players, I'm sure we can all poke holes in this theoretical view of our favorite game, or perhaps find the lack of game knowledge frustrating. For example... Goods rarely cost less in the neutral auction house (though sometimes lower prices will reflect lower prices on the Alliance or Horde side - but usually neutral prices are jacked up to the highest possible profit rate), due to the higher cut the Goblins take out of the transaction. Trade-skill items are of less economic importance than seems to be placed on them - very few craftable items being desirable, long-term, over bind on pickup drops found in dungeons. And it does not consider Blizzard's continued efforts to rid the game of gold farmers, which has an ongoing (though variable) impact on the available supply of gold in the economy. However, it is always interesting to see how real economic theory can apply to a virtual game world, and I would say the article is worth a read.Update: The comments below may well shed more light on the subject than the initial article - so read on!
"I Hate You, E3," declares Escapist writer
Okay, so maybe not hate completely.The eye-catching title of an essay from the latest installment of The Escapist puts the emphasis on the negative aspect of the love-hate relationship many industry vets have with E3, but there's surprisingly a lot of love for the trade show here, even if you don't subscribe to the hardened "I hate E3 because I love it" theory of convention devotion.While the Joystiq staff hasn't been to quite as many E3s as the founder of the International Game Journalists Association (IGJA), we can certainly empathize with the world-weariness that might accumulate after years of weeklong death- press-marches and working in overcrowded, sensory-overloaded spaces. We just hope our love of the game(s) will stay with us as it has for Mr. Thomas, whether we're watching from home or working the show floor in person in post-apocalyptic L.A. The parties will be sure to be awesome.See also: Joystiq at E3 2006 mega-site The Escapist's big E3 issue this week, with references within to Joystiq's Paris Hilton story and some E3 party pics orig. from Joystiq The Game of Journalism -- the IGJA's official web site
MMOs: the near and distant future [Update 1]
Academic blog Terra Nova is asking a big and important question -- what does the future of massively multiplayer games hold? Arguing that current games like World of Warcraft are the best the current-gen has to offer, what's around the corner for next-gen MMOs?A few buzzwords that are floating around the comments thread: middleware; user-created content; no grinding; item-based revenue; user-hosted MMOs; dynamically-changing worlds; non-high-fantasy-themed games; customisation; co-operative control of vehicles; massive-scale MMOs; celebrities; console platforms.That's a lot of theorising, and a lot of potential for new MMOs. Whether new games get personal with localised, user-hosted mini-worlds, or create their own celebrities with ingame content creation that ties into a large-scale international world, there are some exciting possibilities around the corner.[Update: reinserted mysterious vanishing end-of-post.]
