My Corner of the Interweb

Let's talk about entitlement.

Mood: Bloody.
Music: Zion, Fluke
Game: World of Warcraft (60 Rogue, 13 Priest)
Book: On The Road, Jack Kerouac.
Muffin: Peach-Strawberry.
Punchline: "5: Where's Bob?"

I woke up this morning with a bloody nose...probably a function of the fact that it's really dry in my apartment, and I THINK I hit my head against the dresser that's flush up against my bed while I was thrashing about in my sleep. Been very restless while sleeping lately...not sure why. Probably just stress.

Anyway, that's not what I'm blogging about today. My nose isn't bleeding any more, but it's tender and sore, but it's not going to be an issue or anything, so whatever.

Today, I'm going to talk about all the complaining going on about World of Warcraft. If it at all sounds like I'm commenting on this like a jaded gamer...it's because I'm a jaded gamer. I've played just about every Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game in history, been in more than my fair share of betas, been party to their launches, and for a notable span of years, was a dev and GM for one.

The general jist of the complaining is that Blizzard doesn't care about the players, that they're focussing on dumb things, that they're not fixing the thing that the complainer is most concerned about.

If this sounds familiar to you, I have a message for you: Relax.

I am not at all interested in the "I pay my 15 dollars a month and I demand 'X'" comments. Based on the number of hours any one of us plays, $15 is a steal. I can honestly say that I clock about 20-30 hours a week on World of Warcraft...and for 100 hours of gameplay, $15 seems eminently reasonable to me...even if I may not like the relatively infrequent lag.

What's kicking off this latest round of screaming is the institution of queues when you log on. If the server is overpopulated, like the server I'm on, if there are "too many" people playing, whatever that number is, it throws you onto a queue, and you wait until the population reduces to the point where you will not burden the server past the dev-set limits. I was in a queue last night for all of 45 seconds...and I was number 15 in the queue when I hit it.

If I were playing EQ2, I'd still be waiting for the freakin' zone to load after 45 seconds. I'm pretty sure I can wait a minute or so for me to get into the game.

However, some people are completely up in arms about this. I guess they feel somehow entitled to define how the game they're playing should be run. I'm pretty clear on this, having told more than one player "Thanks for your input. We're working on this." In short, fuck off. We're not interested in your biased view of how we ought to be running this game.

While the playerbase on the whole is good at defining a problem, and even occasionally coming up with a solution that doesn't fuck up the rest of the world, the thing they have no concept of is how complex it is to change anything in a system that complicated.

Yes, it may seem like a "simple fix." It may even BE a simple fix...but what else will it break? One of the common complaints when a dev patches a game is "Well, yeah...but they broke X, Y, and Z when they fixed A. Good work, Devs." There's simply no comprehension of how complicated these systems are.

The concept of prioritization in fixes is also pretty funny to me. When I was working on my game, I was responsible for the Warrior class, the Guild system, and some minor vendor and commerce issues. I had jack to do with armor, combat, weaponry, spells, other classes.

What that meant was that if I worked fast, it seemed like "the devs" were focussed completely on the Warriors! "Why are the Sorcerers still waiting for this simple fix?!" Well, because the Sorcerer dev is busy doing something else right now. He's got his own responsibilities.

This is happening in World of Warcraft. I have no doubt that the interface team has jack to do with the combat system. But some people are complaining about certain combat fixes not getting done in a timely fashion...but instead, in the next patch, we're getting some UI upgrades. I am positive one has nothing to do with the other...but some people can't see it that way. And I don't understand why not. Yes, I'm sure the problem is annoying...but I'm equally positive that it doesn't make your character unplayable...because there are players that are level 60 in all classes and races. So it might be a bit tougher. It isn't the end of the world.

If it seems like I'm addressing specific people and their complaints through thinly veiled comments, in a way, I am.

I've played this game for months now, and I can state with absolute certainty that it's one of the best balanced, best designed, and has the lowest grind requirement of any game I've ever played. In short, I've never felt like I was grinding experience. When I felt like doing something else, I did something else, and it rewarded me anyway. I didn't HAVE to be somewhere and do something, other than my class quests, EVER.

Think about all the GOOD things about this game: The population is high and stable (Unlike SWG, where you can play for 8 hours without seeing someone else...in a CITY), the game loads quickly and looks pretty impressive (Unlike EQ2 which looks great, but takes, no shit, 5 minutes to load a zone, which happens every 15 minutes.), the amount of grinding is kept to a minimum (Unlike Lineage II or City of Heroes which is ALL grinding), and the devs are releasing new content regularly (Unlike AC2, which was a static world for a year before they added ANYTHING to it.)

The tradeskills are pretty enjoyable. The creatures, while not as varied as I would like, are at least very enjoyable the first time you see an archetype. (Anyone remember the first time you saw a Devilsaur? Or a Giant?) The combat system is well-balanced...and deep. Lastly, it's easy to find reward...either levels, cash, or items. Which makes the gameplay fun, even over a long period of time.

Last night, I helped a guildmate finish a pretty tough quest in W Plaguelands (it was FUN), I helped a friend finish a pair of quests in Winterspring, finished a quest to kill a pair of level 60 elites with a pair of folks who were looking for a hand (and earned myself a tasty little dagger), then helped a guildmate chew through a tough little quest...all in about 2 hours. And I enjoyed it all! I am no longer earning experience, but I'm still having fun...and that, to me, is indicative of the game.

Yes, you can complain about the occasional lag, you can complain about the lack of certain fixes for certain classes, you can complain that the whole PvP battlefield concept they've been touting since launch isn't out yet...but so what? It's all coming. The game is less than 6 months old...and for less than six months, it's certainly more stable than just about every other game of the same type that's been released in the last five years. In a year, this game will be everything people had hoped, and then some.

I acknowledge this much: If people didn't love the game so much, they wouldn't complain so much about these things. I simply counsel patience...it'll all get fixed.

In the meantime, I'm going to get some more friends up to 60 so we all can explore some of the really high level content together...and then another whole part of the game opens up.

If you're getting frustrated with World of Warcraft, all I can suggest is that you play another MMORPG. You'll come back in a few days...or you won't...and you'll have found a game you like better. I know this is the best one out there right now. And I'm having a great time.

As a side note, a few days ago, I was riding through the Barrens, and the channels starting calling for help at Camp Taurejo. Seems that a group of four level 50-54s were killing guards, and slaughtering the 25-40s that usually hang out around there as a base for the quests in the area. I headed over, poisoned my blades, stealthed, then killed all four of them in the span of 2 minutes, killing one of them three times in a row as he raised himself and immediately tried to attack someone else.

After realizing that they couldn't win, they all waited until their flags were down, gathered together, bowed to me, and left on their horses.

When the reinforcements arrived, there was nothing left to fight.

All I can say is that it was one of the more enjoyable experiences I'd had in the game. From the combat ability of my character, to the validation of my build as a PvP character, to the honor of the Alliance who recognized that they weren't going to win that day. Very enjoyable.

And there's much more coming.

Posted by Glenn at March 1, 2005 10:27 AM