Observations Regarding Wrath of the Lich King News

Earlier today, WoW Insider (http://www.wowinsider.com), published a slew of new Wrath of the Lich King information for the general public. As many others have indicated, the timing upon which this information is released is "coincidentally" just before the Age of Conan release. At any rate, the depth of the details include some specifics regarding Death Knights as well as some zone videos but the major changes published today have to do with PVE raiding. While I won't publish the Death Knight Specifics, here are some headlines regarding PVE game play:

• All 5-man dungeons will have a Heroic mode
• Heroic dungeons will have a separate loot table than non-Heroics
• A new token system will be used, similar to the Badge of Justice one used now
• All raid dungeons will have both 10-man and 25-man versions
• The 10 and 25-man progressions will not depend on each other
• There will be no attunements or keys necessary for any raid
• The 25-man loot will be a tier higher than the 10-man loot
• The 10 and 25-man versions of the same raid will be on different timers so that each can be attempted on the same day by the same people

It's quite clear that Blizzard is constantly adapting the game. Here are some observations from the changes listed here.

1. It is rather obvious that Blizzard has segregated its population with regards to game play intensity. The PVP crowd has been largely given a very hardcore environment upon which to progress while by contrast, the PVE element of the game has largely been watered down and made very casual friendly. This isn't to say there is no room for a hardcore raid guild or a casual arena team but Blizzard's intent for those demographics have been definitively established.
2. I am still on the fence with the Death Knight although the information provided in the articles do make them sound fun to play. Still, while there are obvious differences with game play mechanics, there does seem to be a lot of functional redundancy between Death Knights, Warriors and Paladins. More information is needed to really get a good understanding of the class and its capabilities.
3. With the introduction of a new class, there are always players who abandon a character to begin a new "main" character. Will this be at the cost of core classes, most notably healer classes who get burned out or former protection warriors who want to be able to dps and tank? Impossible to speculate for now but it is something to keep in mind down the road.
4. The changes to the PVE raiding system were alluded to in previous statements by Blizzard, which indicated that Blizzard wished more of the player base was able to experience the upper echelon of game content in Burning Crusade versus the ~2% of players working on Sunwell encounters. Providing both a 10 and 25 man option to every raid instance in the game allows guilds of large numbers and small numbers to participate in game content.
5. Furthermore, the changes to raid composition may result in more social and guild stability by giving players in a smaller guilds a platform to advance without high degrees of regular recruitment. This lessens the dreaded "feeder guild" phenomenon where smaller guilds gear up good players who hit a wall progressionally that can only be scaled by moving on to a larger, 25 man capable guild. The only potential downside is that current hyper focused 25 man raiding guilds may have more difficulty recruiting in the event a core, high attendance raid member suddenly vanishes. This isn't to say there won't still be guild hopping; it's just that if the motivation for guild hopping is to experience content, the likelihood of a player making the commitment to end game raiding is less likely.
6. It's clear that Blizzard learns what works and what does not. While I too grow weary of the same daily quests, there is no better way to accumulate gold in a reasonable time frame. Badges of Justice allow the disparity in gear between casual and hardcore players to a minimum but still keep the hardcore player ahead with more options at their disposal. 10 and 25 man raid templates have been very successful. All of these things have been expanded upon in Lich king. By contrast, the process of key flagging players necessary to field a 25 man raid consistently is the kind of "time sink" grind that generates burn out. These have been removed from Lich King.
7. While this is just speculatory, it is reasonable to assume that the consequence for no key quests to enter raid instances is that the first encounter in every new 10 man and 25 man instance will be quite the "gear check" encounter. The days of being indirectly rewarded with encounters such as Attumen, The Loot Below and Loot Reaver are over. In fact, don't be surprised to see an encounter like Brutallus as we venture into new raid content for the first time, where a raid of players will need optimal gear from every member just to defeat the encounter.

There will be certainly more news ahead and rest assured whenever the chance to enroll for the open beta arrives, I'll be applying. Until next time...

The Five Most Undesirable Group Members

Greetings! It has been over a week since the last article. This has been in large part due to an online class I have been taking. All of the work for the class was due this week and of course, I had procrastinated and hadn't looked at the assignments required. It is rather sad that the same stupidity I did at 20 has carried over to age 30 but at least this time around I can blame my apathy on a full time job and an 8-month old baby (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). At any rate, all of the work for the class was completed in two days and my goal is a "B" in the class. The class itself was not difficult but it was the kind of topic that doesn't really translate to academia very well. It is the kind of class that would be better taught using kinesthetic learning but online classes do not lend themselves to this kind of learning except on an individual basis. Regardless, on to this week's article...


Exactly how many of us enjoy pugging? I know I sure don't. It's not that I am a recluse but more that I have a limited amount of time to play and wasting time on incompetent groups incinerates that time in a non productive manner. I also have an intolerance to stupidity and that intolerance shuns me away from the roulette wheel of pick up groups. With that in mind, I have a list of the five least desirable group mates in the game. I am sure we can all pick out one of these people in our travels throughout Azeroth. In my gaming experiences, here are the five player stereotypes that have facilitated my disdain for pugs.



5. The Emo Caster


This is the 20 year old second year college student playing in his dorm room in the dark. The world doesn't understand him so he immerses himself in the world of Azeroth, only to discover that he truly doesn't understand himself. The backlash is seclusion. He plays a warlock and solos most of the time, in dark, deserted places while listening to Flyleaf and Linkin Park via Itunes. In the rare instances he does unveil himself to group, he is the guy who fears mobs at every turn and instinctively death coils anything that gets near him only to meet an unfortunate demise by the seven mobs who his feared mob have now pathed and brought to the group. After his death, he begins lamenting about his "miserable" life and how he cuts himself when he's alone. The immaturity and self loathing suck the fun out of the experience like a vacuum. The group disbands and logs as C-SPAN 2 suddenly seems uplifting.


4. The Stoner Healer

This is the 22 year old college drop out who spends most of his life under the influence of illegal drugs. He starts the group off with mildly entertaining group chat but as he smokes more dope while playing the game, becomes less and less focused and begins drifting. As he drifts, his attention to detail and reaction times become slower and slower and eventually net persistent wipes. His once entertaining banter has become incoherent rambling and grinds the group to a halt half way through an instance. In the end, the group has to boot him because he is no longer responding to chat and his toon isn't moving. He has either fallen asleep or the munchies have sent him on a quest for twinkies.


3. The Patchwork Tank

This is 15 year old Johnny's pride and joy; his level 70 warrior creatively named Taurenwar. He gets to play two hours a day after his homework is done. As a result, his gear is a mish mash of battleground gear, auction house fodder and a few quested greens. Unfortunately for Johnny, his gear has no focus to it in any aspect with some pieces having dps statistics while others having defense. He even has a ring with spirit and agility because he got it as a random drop while fighting in Nagrand. When this guy gets in a group, that group is in for a long night.

Within the first pull, it is readily apparent that this guy has no clue how to tank. Furthermore, even if he did know how, his gear is so god awful that he couldn't hold aggro if you super glued it to his head. He keeps his two hander equipped at all times because his shield is in the bank and because it's a "sucky green". The rogue and enhancement shaman inherit the role of tank and are killed many times over as a result. The group attempts to keep going but there is no hope with him in the party. His dps sucks. His tanking sucks worse. He doesn't use battle shout. He doesn't use commanding shout. He used retaliation on trash, thinking the pretty swords that fly around him might entice monsters to hit him. His first aid is leveled up but he doesn't have the cloth to make bandaids. This guy is a cancer, sucking up coin and loot. He is eventually replaced as the group cannot progress with his presence after which he begins spamming the group members asking why he was kicked. After futile attempts to reason with the group, his mom tells him time's up and he logs off till tomorrow.

2. The Omniscient Advisor

This is the 23 year old guy who joins the group with his level 70 mage in full green garb. At first the guy is harmless but as the group gets configured, it starts. He begins instructing the druid how to heal, the rogue how to fight and the warrior how to tank. Not only is his advice unwarranted, in most aspects, it is completely wrong. Things like mortal strike is the best skill in the game for threat and full resto druids are uber dpsers with wrath spam. Meanwhile, he is so busy telling every one else what to do, his performance as the mage is miserable. His dps is garbage due to his amazing green gear and his 250 spell damage. After focusing on the other members for the first 25 minutes of the instance, his haphazard play wipes the group. This begins the whining about how if the group listened to him, they would have been done by now. After 30 minutes of his bitching, the warrior in the group gives him the infamous "STFU" and the fighting starts. The warrior intentionally stops tanking in an effort to get the mage killed. After two deaths, the mage finds the largest pack of mobs in the instance, frost nova's them, ports out and disbands. The group may wipe but assuming they can replace the mage, they are far better off.

1. The Ebayed Character

This is the story of 16 year old Mikey. Mikey's dad is too busy with his business to really deal with Mikey and Mikey has been telling stories about how all the cool kids at school are playing this game called World of Warcraft and little Mikey wants to join. In an effort to compensate for being a marginal father, Mikey's Dad buys him a level 70 priest from Craigslist for $500 and tells Mikey to enjoy. Little Mikey jumps right in and begins looking for his friends. Unfortunately for Mikey, his friends are on a different server but Mikey has no clue. He begins the futile quest for looking for his friends on the wrong server. After spending an hour figuring out how to log in and press the buttons. Mikey begins searching the world. He has some of the best gear in the game with Memento of Tyrande and Full Tier 6 healing gear. He gets random whispers from people saying "Awesome gear, man" and "Dude, I wish I had your stuff" but Mikey has no clue how to respond. In fact, Mikey has his combat log up and never sees these whispers. Inevitably, Mikey dies 22 times running around the world looking for his friends only never to see them. After a while, Mikey begins to click his interface and discovers the chat channels. He begins reading the general and trade channels frequently.

After messing with the channels for a while, Mikey begins to understand how to talk and communicate. After a few days, he gets invited to a place called Karazhan. Mikey has heard his friends reference this place and thinks, "Hey, I might find my friends there!" and promptly joins the group. The group gawks at Mikey's gear with phrases such as "OMFG, your gear is ridiculous!" and "Damn man, why the hell are you coming to Karazhan with T6?" but Mikey is oblivious to any of this banter. Instead, he asks if he will find Aaron inside. The group replies "Ya, Aran is a few bosses away but we will get to him." Delighted by the response, Mikey says "Thank god - I've been looking for him for a few days." The group ignores this and begins to start. The group asks Mikey for Fort and he tells them that the last fort he saw was back in the Orc city. They ask him for Spirit and he guides them to the spirit healer, a place he is most familiar with by now. The group laughs as they think he is being sarcastic. He has no spells on his bar as he doesn't know what spells are in the first place. The raid starts and Mikey watches the group kill stuff and begins to melee mobs but then he sees the other priest in the group summon a shadow fiend. This intrigues Mikey to figure out how to do that so he begins clicking on buttons. Meanwhile, the group has begun to fight Attumen. Mikey is far, far away and dies to Attumen's repeated charges. Pleas by the group to collapse on the tank go unnoticed by Mikey who is still enraptured by locating a way to summon a shadowfiend. Regardless of Mikey's epic failure, the group defeats Attumen and moves on to Moroes. That's when it happens.

Mikey clicks on the spell book and finds his spells. While he doesn't click on the shadow tab, he does open to the holy tab. One spell sounds exceptionally interesting; Holy Nova. He figures out how to bind a spell to his casting bar and now begins spamming holy nova throughout the entire raid. He runs up the stairs to a host of aoe mobs where his holy nova is met with a zerg. The group asks what Mikey is doing but Mikey doesn't respond. The group presses on and urges Mikey to wait for the AOE pulls before using Holy Nova. He has no idea what AOE means so he just keeps using it for every pull. After clearing the trash for Moroes, the group gives him the healing assignment of the main tank. This turns out to be a bad idea.

Even with his ridiculous amount of overgear, Mikey's holy nova's can't keep the main tank alive. Worse, his holy nova's have broken the shackle and the frost trap, thus resulting in the death of the hunter and second priest (go go no threat from Holy Nova!!!!1!). The group now understands what they are dealing with and put Mikey on raid healing the rest of the night, where he spams Holy Nova over and over and over again until he is OOM. By the end of the night, the group only can get to Nightbane, where Mikey repeatedly dies to Charred Earth and his lack of healing ensures the main tank's death. The group disbands and blacklists Mikey from further raiding. In the end, Mikey never finds his friends and begins to hear the ramblings of 10th graders about Halo 3. After telling his dad about Halo 3, His dad once again buys him the game and Mikey never plays World of Warcraft again.


So there we have it. My questions to the masses are as follows:

• Which one of these do you fear the most and why?

• Is there a stereotype that I missed that you feel is more undesirable than one of the five mentioned above?

• Why do you hate pugs (not the dogs)?

Trampled by the Engine of Progression

Earlier today, I was reading the MMO blogosphere and came across Tobold's article:

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/

followed up by this article:

http://potshot.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/fixing-wows-progression-problem

Tobold's article was a follow-up to a previous article regarding guild hopping and a rather radical way to prevent it from occurring; having the raid epics from a guild member vanish and enter the previous guild bank when a member /gquits. Tobold presented a follow up to his article today which was a bit more reasonable by providing some numeric ways to track guild loyalty and tenure. Potshot wrote a follow up on the second article with more potential game play changes done in an effort to level off progression and keep people gearing up at roughly the same tempo. Both articles are well done and provide solid solutions to the problem. Nevertheless, I don't agree that game play changes are the answer to this issue.

The fundamental problem with guild hopping stems from an issue that has been touched upon this blog before and will continue to be a point of contention. The issue at hand is that players value the binary code over the people who made the binary code possible. Once the flow of more binary code decreases, these players ditch the guild that made the first set of binary code possible so more binary code can be accumulated. The cycle rehashes itself from this point forward. There is a way to solve the issue or at least make the advent of such an issue unlikely. It is the responsibility of the guild leaders and officers to curtail this issue by inviting the best quality people to their guilds.

To some degree, the player base has created this issue in and of itself. Many guilds evaluate the basis for inclusion to a guild only from a game play and gear standpoint, requiring a gear minimum. While this can be necessary for the content, using this as the only requirement for guild membership is an invitation to failure through e-bayed accounts and these lewt mongers who hop from guild to guild leeching as many upgrades as possible before bailing to the new flavor of the month. From a personal standpoint, I will invite someone to my guild who shows a true interest for people but is in all greens versus the individual who is epicced out but does nothing but talk about pushing content. I can teach the newer player what to do and feel good about it. I can't change the ways of a lewt whore who will leave after he gets what he wants at the expense of my guild members.

But, by in large, WoW manifests this behavior by its design. The whole game can be soloed if desired. While this in and of itself is harmless, it does harbor a lone-wolf style of player who only plays the game to upgrade their character, without cause or concern for anyone else. Guild hopping in WoW is significantly more prevalent than I recall in EQ simply because in EQ, you had to have a guild to progress. The group aspect of the game bred more friendships and more concern for the fellow gamer. People knew just how hard players worked for gear, with countless wipes and late nights with no loot to distribute. While WoW can certainly bring about this style of game play, the ratio of players who engage it is considerably less.

Given this environment, the players are ultimately responsible for who they include in their guilds and this should be more than a check of the armory to ensure an applicant has all their gear enchanted. Talk to these people. Interact with them and gain an impression of what their motives are and if they will mesh with your guild. Behavioral based interviewing isn't required but some form of true interaction and social grouping should take place. Guilds that don't live by this creed will find themselves trampled by the engine of progression.

Observations of Age of Conan

I've had some people ask about this game and if I recommended it or had interest in it. As such, I did some reading and I can't say the game peaked my interest. By no means do I think the game will be a failure. To the contrary, the numbers the game is posting with regards to sales are outstanding. Nevertheless, I have two major concerns with the game as a whole.

The first issue I have with the game isn't really a fault so much as it is the intellectual property of Conan being redundant with games like WoW, LoTRO, and EQ2. I've played EQ1, EQ2 and WoW extensively and the advent of learning and playing another fantasy MMO doesn't appeal to me. Sure, I do find the combat system as a solid innovation to the traditional fantasy MMO but the game play isn't what I find redundant despite the hot key based system to which most gamers are accustomed; What I find needs changed is the fantasy genre in general. We can only grind casters, tanks and dps classes for so long, despite the innovative combat system the game employs. Something different as far as setting would have peaked my interest more. Most of the classes in AoC, by in large, seem to be rehashed versions of EQ and WoW classes (e.g. Dark Templar = EQ Shadowknight). Perhaps this is a product of my apathy more then a flaw in the game but this article really isn't written to point out flaws with the game; it is simply a list of things that concern me about the game as a whole.

The second concern I have with the game has to do with the overall system requirements. This is something that Tobold touched on today and I agree with him in most aspects. Something I have said with persistence is that World of Warcraft is the pinnacle of MMO marketing and that creed rings true in most aspects of the game, including the minimum system requirements. This allows more casual gamers, who aren't in the habit of updating their computers frequently, with a game that can operate without issue. By contrast, the system requirements for AoC are amongst the most demanding I've seen in a game to date. My current desktop, purchased in 2004 (NVIDIA GEFORCE 6800GT 256 meg, 3.4 single core p4, 160gig hard drive and 2 gigs of ram) could barely run the game using the minimum AoC requirements. These kinds of requirements relegate a game to only the most tech savvy of the populous at release. Nevertheless, this will not deter hardcore gamers from obtaining the game. Past history has shown that dedicated players will upgrade their systems to run a game they feel passionate about. My primary concern is that the game will still fail to operate with minimal latency even with a system that meets the required guidelines. In a game as twitch based as this combat system appears to be, an optimal system with little to no graphic lag or latency seems paramount to the game's success. This is my primary concern.

Does this mean I won't attempt to get into the open beta? Probably not. I will in all likelihood attempt to download it although this will be quite a download. By in large, I don't expect to purchase the game unless I find the game to operate without issue on my machine and the game surprises me in fun value or game play. Perhaps the open beta will change my preconceived notions.

Format Change

Avid readers will notice quite a format change from before. This comes after receiving some feedback from several people, one of whom has one of the best MMO blogs in circulation. The comments are almost all the same. The writing is fantastic; the page format is not. In an effort to persistently make the site better, I made a change to the format. At first, I was simply going to adjust the HTML code to expand the original page template into a more reader friendly size, particularly for those running 1280 X 1024 but the template did not take well to my adjusting the width of the page. So, I decided to change the template altogether. This layout definitely maximizes space efficiency and as a whole should be easier to read. The only thing I dislike about this template is that I wish the Date Header and Post Title had a space between each other. I tried to adjust the code using basic HTML but alas nothing worked. A long as it is legible, I can live with it for now. Any comments on the new format are most welcome!

Evaluation of the Five Problems with WoW

Earlier today, I ran across this article from Mobhunter http://mobhunter.com/001564.html. The individual who wrote this article is Loral Ciriclight. He is an old school EQ player who happened to play on the same server that I did. The guild he ran with back in the day was one of the most friendly on the server. He is also an exceptional writer and has been writing on MMOs far longer then I have. He is someone who's opinions I value and respect so I felt it necessary to provide some insights about his most recent post.


Here is Loral's article:


Weakness 1, A Focus on Solo Gameplay

Early on in the days of Everquest, the game designers stated that one of the strengths of their game was a requirement for group play. Characters would be very good at a particular slice of gameplay but not at others. Warriors could tank well but did only moderate damage and had very little ability to heal. Clerics could heal but were not able to tank or dish out a lot of damage. Rogues could pour out the damage but couldn't take much and couldn't heal at all. These dependencies forced players to work together which led to the true strength of an MMO - getting people together.

World of Warcraft built itself around soloing. Players can log in, play for ten minutes, finish a quest, get some experience, get a new item, and log out without worrying about leaving others behind. Characters can level from level 1 to level 70 without ever grouping with another player.

There exists a distinct lack of social interaction in World of Warcraft. Friendships aren't as easily forged. Relationships aren't as easily built. You're not very likely to meet someone in World of Warcraft the way you were in the old days of Everquest.

We have seen what sort of success a group-based game would have these days. Take a look at the popularity of Vanguard or the lack thereof. MMO philosopher Richard Bartle states that World of Warcraft has broken the ability for a new MMO to build the sort of world that conducts the formation of rich relationships. No one can make another game that forces groups and expect to succeed.

The ability to solo in World of Warcraft is a great strength, but for it we pay a heavy price.



While I certainly agree with this statement, I have to disagree that it is a weakness of the game. Players have the option to group or solo at their leisure. It is a matter of apathy. It is easier to solo in WoW. It is easier to log on, grind out quest content and log off. With that said, I think it is safe to say Blizzard has made it too easy to solo however they are simply catering to the player base. Players are inherently lazy and will do whatever is easiest to better their character. Others may live a lifestyle that doesn't allow much time for gaming so the solo option best fits their needs. It is much the same reason why people don't have time to sit and eat a family dinner. The "on the go" lifestyle has become status quo. Perhaps worst of all, players will go into great detail about just how bad casual grouping in World of Warcraft is. The consequence of a high volume of players soloing is that basic group dependent skills go unused and render players unqualified for group play.


The reality is that the social networking aspect of online gaming has largely been replaced by websites like Myspace or Facebook. It is unfortunate that the most successful online game has such easy soloing that it has come to this but it is simply more evidence that WoW is more an exercise in marketing that it is in MMO innovation.


The advent of social interaction exists in WoW but the players must take the initiative and embrace it. As it stands now, it is simply easier to go it alone.


Weakness 2, A Focus on Player Vs. Player

Unfortunately, one of the few ways players do meet in World of Warcraft is to kill each other. Many players enjoy the battlegrounds full of fast and furious battles but what sort of social interaction exists when the goal is to kill the other players? Player vs. Environment (PvE) is one of the great strengths of an MMO. That becomes broken when one of the primary reasons players play WoW is to fight each other. It has taken one of the deepest games and turned it into Halo.

Players also behave at their worst in the battlegrounds. Unless one forms a select team of people they already know, likely from either a guild or people they know in real life, they are likely to face completely silent allies who are there strictly to farm some honor. There is no longevity to the relationship and no interest in discussion. One simply kills the enemy and moves on to the next battleground.

Battlegrounds is the rotten core of World of Warcraft.


I have to agree with Loral here. Players go here to obtain resilience gear necessary for Arenas and that's it. Players don't go here to interact on a social level. Hell, they don't even go to battlegrounds because they have fun. They go there to earn points to better their character. A battleground that requires group tactics and interaction does "sort of" exist in Alterac Valley but too many people just go there to farm honor kills and not actually interact with the game strategy. The scale of the zone is designed to compensate for that but the attrition of so many "commando" types and honor farmers has rendered this compensation useless.


Battlegrounds are a means to an end, a redundant timesink to obtain necessary gear to participate in arena play at a competitive level, and more marketing tactics to keep players paying subscriptions. In essence, battlegrounds represent the worst in WoW on every level.


Weakness 3, Redundant Quests

World of Warcraft prides itself on the incredibly vast array of quests. When people saw how many quests World of Warcraft offers, they had to question Everquest's choice of name. There are more than enough quests to move through all of the levels in WoW. The quest system is very robust and easy to use. It is the single path that moves players through the game, often tying them to the lore and giving them reason to do what they do.

These quests are also often sterile and boring. Many of the quests revolve around killing some number of creatures and retrieving some number of items. Many of these quests have drop rates far too low to make them worth while or stories that seem scripted out of a fortune cookie. Sure, a player can quest through the entire game but how many of those quests are unique and interesting? Many are, but many are not.


I understand his view point on this issue and while I too get sick of doing the same quests from time to time, I will play Devil's Advocate and say that it could be construed as a strength of the game in a sense that players have a strong and viable leveling path to get from 1 to 70. In Everquest, the path needed to go from 1 to 65 was a long, hard road of grinding. There was no easy way. The only option was to spend countless hours grouping in dungeons or grinding mobs. A somewhat interactive script through the zones is at least an upgrade to the mindless EQ grind.

Is the WoW quest grind perfect? Not at all. Is the WoW quest grind better than grinding an inordinate amount of Plane of Valor mobs? Absolutely. Is there a better way to do it? Most likely although I find it as the consequence for a linear path to leveling a character and if this allows players to create new toons for more options during their gaming experience, I find this as a comparable trade-off.


Weakness 4, Long Duration Dungeons

The dungeons in World of Warcraft could be the one area that truly brings players together and helps them build the lasting relationships that a MMO should allow. However, after getting players used to completing quests in about 20 minutes, having dungeons that require a two-hour commitment is too demanding.

World of Warcraft should cut all of its single-group instances down to an hour. It should also include a few half-hour instances that can bring players together but ensure there is enough freedom to leave when needed. Longer instances should be limited to ten-man raids such as Karazhan. We have become spoiled by the instant gratification of World of Warcraft's quest system. The gap between the ease of solo questing and the heavy time requirements of WoW's instances is too great.


I can't really see how the dungeon experience translates into a weaker game. We touched on the fact that WoW instancing is a source of player pain largely because there are so many players that grind from 1 to 70 completely solo and as a result, are not qualified to play the class effectively in a group scenario. The results from this are that players will either go it alone or will only group with a select group of players. Once again, the typical Min-max WoW player will go where the easiest path to advancement takes him. Perhaps shorter dungeons would entice players to interact with this content on a more frequent basis both post 70 and during the leveling experience. Regardless, I don't classify this as a weakness of the game.


Weakness 5, No Console Support

This is the weakness that will likely raise the most eyebrows. With the ease of play of World of Warcraft, the beauty of its design, and the simplicity of the gameplay; it already feels like a console game. However, the complicating factor of the PC will always get in the way. Right now Blizzard spends a fortune tuning World of Warcraft to run on a nearly infinite array of possible machine configurations.

Were it a console game, WoW would only have to focus on a hand-full of possible configurations. While WoW would have to be substantially different on a console, the console world is clearly ready for a good WoW-like MMO and if Blizzard isn't careful, such a hit on a console system could steal their crown.

Ten million players is a lot, but there are currently 20 million Wiis and 18 million Xbox 360s in people's homes all networked and waiting for the next big MMO. If Blizzard is smart, they will begin using their talent for MMO game design on the next generation platform. If they don't someone else will.


I think at some point, Blizzard will go down this route but these kind of numbers are misleading. Sure, there are 20 million Wiis and 18 million Xbox 360's in circulation but does this mean that half of all users, the current WoW subscriber base, would gravitate toward the consoles for MMORPGS? I find that unlikely. Sure, it would increase the already incredible player base Blizzard has for WoW but to water down the already elementary world of Azeroth into something that would function on the console level would be something too simplistic to hold interest. I would assume the console world would attract a younger crowd and dilute the server population into too many kids and that may detract interest from the current player base. Rest assured, if Blizzard believes they will profit from it, it will happen. It is something that I personally don't wish to be a part of. Perhaps World of Diablo can make its way to a console system but I'll pass on the demographic that permeates that platform. WoW is already bad enough in that regard and I think there are a significant volume of players who agree.


So what have we learned? I think it is safe to say we have learned that WoW is by no means a perfect game. But I think the major lesson I take from it is that the WoW rewards system as a whole has ruined the social aspect of the game largely because the motivation to play World of Warcraft revolves around improving character gear versus the social manifest of the MMO. It is a recurring theme throughout this piece. Battlegrounds are done for gear. Quests are done for experience and gear. Soloing is done to leveling a character individually. Sure, there are avenues for the group player but those require organization, initiative and drive, things that a smaller percentage of WoW players gravitate towards versus the masses that honor or quest grind. Even then, the end game can attract players that just value gear versus friendships. Blizzard will take stock in what the majority of its players want and tailor the game to that end. This means more easy quests for gold, relatively easy level grinding and minimal required social interaction. There is no change in sight to this other than player interaction. This to me is the glaring weakness of World of Warcraft.