Author: uNity
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Blizzard, it seems, is a rarity among gaming companies. They genuinely care about their costumers, the gamers for which they already provide countless hours of entertainment. They want our opinions, they wish to please us and, I must admit, they do so in admirable fashion. I wonder, sometimes, if Blizzard has become such a staple for "quality" that other companies, their members surrounding a large, rectangular table on which sit countless papers and reports, propose that their games equal Blizzard's standards, that Blizzard is now, for lack of a better word, the Alpha male.
Regardless, and more to the point, Blizzard recently held, in their infinite wisdom, a Stress Test, which served multiple purposes, the most evident of which was, as the name suggested, to provide sufficient stress on the various servers to crash them, thereby determining the optimal amount and circumstances for each server. Needless to say, the stress testers succeeded in an examplary manner.
Yet, again, as if allowing 100,000 lucky people the chance to play their game freely for one entire week, they introduced the second purpose: a competition to allow more players into the Closed Beta. Simply another example of Blizzard's determination to better service and impress their costumer base.
And I, well, I was one of those testers, and I was one of the winners of the contest (which I'll detail further down). I spent quite a bit of time in the past 10 days on this game, and I'd like to relate to you, gentle readers, my experiences and thoughts on this most wonderous game. So, friends, take a seat and enjoy, I hope, this lovely little gem.
In an attempt to remain somewhat organized, the amount of information needing to be covered being somewhat ridiculous, I'll structure this in various chapters, if you will, which will hopefully make for easier reading.
Onward, then.
The Engine
In all my years of gaming, I've never seen a company do so much so well with so little. In essence, World of Warcraft's (WoW, from here on in) engine is not a visually impressive masterpiece, capable of outputting countless polygons and all sorts of fancy mumbo-jumbo that no one really understands, especially when compared to, say, the most recent DOOM 3 engine. Of course, these are completely different games, so the comparison doesn't entirely apply, but a better suited one might be Guild Wars or Everquest 2, who, again on a strictly "engine" level, both look better. All told, they have more bells, more whistles, and more air to blow into them.
Yet, and this is something that surprised me, the game itself (which is important to differentiate from the engine and it's capabilities) is resoundingly stronger. It simply looks gorgeous, and in a completely contradictory manner, seeing as how this is an entirely fictional realm, feels and behaves in a real and believable manner.
One must commend the artists over at Blizzard. These people more than deserve their position and status, as well as their pay. They've created a distinctly unique world that lives and breathes of it's own history, a world where diverse environments not only make sense but provide a welcome change. There arn't just "Snow", "Volcano" and "Forrest" levels, they truly belong. In essence, and this is a true testament to Blizzard's masterful art direction, WoW is, quite simply, the most visually breathtaking game I've ever had the pleasure to partake in. You'll notice I didn't say "play", and the reason is simple: the world is so (sur)real, so complex and well crafted, that it feels like an experience, not a game.
Perhaps, indeed, the biggest compliment I can give the team is that my first character upon loading the Beta was an Undead Rogue. After six levels, I gave him up, feeling completely disgusted with myself for being such a vile creature, and feeling drained at seeing all the death that surrounded me, not only in the once beautiful forrest that surrounded us, but in the tasks we were given as well as how the various Non-Player Characters (NPC, from here on end) behaved and spoke. Not an easy feat, I must say.
By comparison, I was not scared during DOOM 3's entire length, and the only memorable level was Hell.
In regards to sound and music, both are well done. However, I'm no audiophile, and for the most part, as long as I hear stuff that doesn't sound like farts, I'm really quite content. The music is not a constant factor, it mostly only plays when discovering a new area or entering an important one again (for the N'teeth time). I see this as a well-conceived way to avoid player annoyance at the repetition of the various tracks, though I often found missing wishing there was some type of soothing background music when travelling through Elwynn Forrest or some dreary, morose cello piece in the Undead lands. Regardless, the current setup ensures you'll notice, and the most striking example is coming near Stormguarde Keep for the first time. A most impressive orchestra bursts forth suddenly and, I admit, scared all Hell out of me. Well done, I say.
The Quest System
At their core, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGS, from here on in) are made up of three "basic" tasks:
- Fighting
- Exploring
- Socializing
All three remain self-explanatory, and for the most part, MMORPGs have adopted the most elementary setups. WoW, whether you view this as a bane or a boost, is no different.
The difference lies in the Quest system. Basically, WoW forces you to do all these things as well (it's not like there's really anything to do, though), except it evolves and creates an elaborate illusion, where you don't actually realise you're doing incredibly menial tasks and, for the most part, simply bashing various heads in.
The illusion, in short, comes from Quests.
The most common problem in MMORPGs comes from grinding, where a player, if he desires to progress, is forced to mindlessly slay beasts of various types in a defined area. Each kill results in some experience gained and, after quite a few hours, you'll have advanced to the next level. Repeat ad-nauseum or, at least, until the level cap. I've never played MMORPGs before WoW exactly for this reason. Grinding is, simply put, the most boring thing in the world. I think back to non-MMO RPGs, like the various Final Fantasies, and when it came to the point where I needed to grind to get more stuff, I always took breaks, sometimes lasting weeks. Heck, I still havn't touched Final Fantasy 8. Although that's more because it's a bad game. Regardless, the main point is that I, and others I'm sure, share the view that grinding is a bad thing and that it's time for games to evolve, to introduce new things to do.
WoW is no different, in that it also suffers from the dreadful grind. However, and as I said, it's the illusion that matters. Allow me to explain myself.
The Quest System is basically divided into the following categories, into which every quest fits, some in more than one:
- Delivery - A player is given a certain item by an NPC Quest giver, and most reach a designated location and deliver said item to another NPC.
- Gather - A player is given a task by an NPC Quest giver to collect a certain amount of items that drop from specific monsters (think fangs, fur, tusks, meat, etc), and then reporting back to said NPC (most often) or someone else nearby.
- Kill - A player is told by an NPC Quest giver to slay a certain amount of a specific kind of monsters (crocolisks, raptors, boars, etc), and then reporting back to said NPC (most often) or someone else nearby.
Simple enough, but things get a tad more complex. There are, of course, variations, but they can still all be simplified to the previous model.
And here, lads and lasses, is where WoW manages to separate itself from the heard of other MMORPGs; the illusion. WoW's Quest system, in essence, creates a superficial goal to reach that removes the impression of grinding. As you play, you won't think about, you'll be busy working towards that goal, gathering those skins or killing those pesky trolls, not about how far you are from the next level. Then, and this is the most ingenious part of it all, Quests give quality rewards, whether it be a generous amount of money or a valued piece of equipment.
Basically, you're not going out into the wilderness to gain 50,000 experience points (xp, from here on end), you're going out there to kill five dangerous tigers, raptors and panthers. When you're done with those, you report back and get some more quests. Before you know it, you've made 25,000 xp.
So, that takes care of the first item in our little list, the fighting, but what about the rest? Exploring is a tad more complex, as most often players will explore without the need for quests to tell them to, but there are still a few quests that involve finding a certain location, most often because that's where you'll be moving on to next, to further the game.
As for socializing, well, that one falls mixes with the first objective, in that there are quite a few quests that are (purposefully) difficult for only one player to complete, which forces players to party up (a ridiculously easy process, by the way, if it can even be called a process). It sounds odd, but in the actual game, it works out quite nicely. The major drawback is the divided xp, but I'll get into that later.
If that's not enough for you, Blizzard has made great effort to include believable and relevant backstories to every quest. They truly attempt to make the player feel more important than he actually is, and you really get to learn a whole lot about the world's history, what the various races have been up to, lots of cool stuff. Some Quests are part of a Line, where multiple quests are all related to one another, working toward a great goal, and these truly fool you into thinking you've accomplished something grand.
In essence, Blizzard hasn't revolutionised the genre. They've innovated, that's all. The thing is, that innovation is so well implemented that, even if on a theoretical level it seems meaningless, they've really upped the ante, so to speak. The genre is now better because of WoW, as has been the case with their RTS games.
The Competition
In an attempt to add incentive for gamers to keep playing as long and as much as possible, Blizzard set up a competition, where the 3 highest level characters of each class, on each faction, across the 12 servers, would be brought into the Closed Beta. Needless to say, quite a few people were intrigued, and when the contest was later expanded to a per server basis, interest grew exponentially.
On the whole, I'm agaisnt the competition itself, though I do like the idea of giving out more Closed Beta spots. My objection basically rests on the fact that, other than a character's level, there's no real way to determine who is "better". And again, a character's level isn't a clear indication of skill, moreso of an overabundance of time. This forced players who wanted to have any chance at all to give up considerable amounts of time in order to achieve said goal. On the flipside, however, I realize there was no better way, and that Blizzard did handle this in a very professional manner and, ultimately, the players who put so much time into it really did deserve it.
Yes, I'm one of those, and I'm happy to say that it's an experience I'll never, ever submit myself to. It is painful, it is tiring and mostly, it comletely drains the person. Four hours of sleep for 10 days, with a few being entirely sleepless, all for the sole purpose of staying ahead of the fold, is not a pleasant way to spend a week.
It also has the nastiest of all side-effects: excessive paranoia. I know I as well as others were always extremely careful of other players who were in contention for the top 3. In fact, since it's so easy to lead people astray, I'm sure many tried it, and many a player wasted considerable amounts of time trying to get back on track. This paranoia led to a lessened community spirit, with everyone being weary of everyone else of their class, unless they were considerably higher or lower.
I know I once got screwed by a contending warrior on my server, who apparently thought his plan was ingenious. Regardless, I made it, so I don't care.
A somewhat sad side-note, however, is that I was so worried Blizzard was monitoring accounts carefully that I didn't let my brother play more than 10 minutes, on my character, for fear of keystroke logging or something along those lines.
It also created a problem within the entire community, not just limited to same-class hate. Basically, most players refused to help other, lower level players for the simple reason that they just couldn't spare the time, if they wanted to progress and maintain a lead over the fourth place participant. I turned down many a player because of this, and if by some miracle you read this, I do sincerely apologize and, had there not been such a contest in place, I surely would've helped.
Lastly, it lead me away from trying out the tradeskills, simply because I was worried it would take time away from my leveling. It's something to look forward too, I suppose.
Regardless, I thank Blizzard for providing the possibility of earning a Closed Beta spot, and though I might disagree with the contest's rules, there really was no other way.
Socializing
Beyond the competition and ignoring it's side effects, the social aspect of WoW was quite interesting. Most Stress Testers were pleasant to talk to and play with. I met quite a few nice people and had quite a few enjoyable hours. For some reason, over half the people I remember partying with for more than an hour were warlocks. No relation, just an interesting note.
A problem, however, is that during group play, experience points are divided between however many members there are, up to 5. So, if a monster gives 200xp by default, agaisnt one player, it will give 100xp for two players, 67xp for 3, 50xp for four and finally 40xp for five.
In the earlier levels, this isn't so much of a problem. However, when you reach levels that require 50,000xp to move on, it becomes quite apparent that soloing is the best solution, in terms of time vs. reward.
This is particularly evident in Instanced Dungeons, where five players are basically required. I won't, however, delve deeply into this, as Blizzard has announced they're tweaking this, which is a welcome change.
Of course, this is basically a non-issue without the competition, so I'm not sure it has much impact for regular players.
Various Thoughts
The World is positively huge. Granted, I've no prior MMORPG experience, but good God, this is some big stuff. It takes a very, very lengthy amount of time to run from most big towns to the next, and it's generally not a run you'll want to do twice. Some areas, however, force it upon you. I'm referring here to Duskwood and Raven Hill, mostly. Those who've played will know what I mean, but basically, a five minute walk seperates the town of Darkshire from Raven Hill, which houses a cemetary where most Quests take place. It wouldn't be so bad, really, but the graveyard (where your corspe run begins) is in Darkshire, leading to very long corpse runs.
For the most part, however, the world is large enough to amaze, but made smaller by the various Gryphon flight paths, as well as the almost-implemented boats and Zeppelins.
Possibly one area in which WoW doesn't excel is monster diversity. Typically, you'll fight the same type of monsters for most of the game, where the main difference will be level. If you change area (from Human to Dwarf, for example), you'll notice some differences, but the typical wolves and such will remain.
Also, and this probably deserves it's own article later on, the PvP right now is a complete mess. On the whole, I enjoy the idea of PvP, I find it provides a nice change of pace, but there quite a few problems with the current system.
For one, killing enemy players nets you absolutely no experience points, so the work is pretty much all for naugth.
Second, you'll often find yourself caught up in a battle you have no desire to participate in and be forced to do multiple corpse runs, simply because you came into a town and didn't know it was under constant attack.
Third, players are typically quite stupid. This isn't really meant as an insult, just a "fact" I've noticed. Being a high level player is sure to attract much attention, especially from enemy players, but when said players are level 15 to your level 35, they really shouldn't try and take you down. I typically made it a rule to never attack anyone, as I know how corpse runs are sometimes a pain in the ass, unless attacked first. If a level 15 attacks me, I just feel bad for the obvious lack of thought put into it. I'll hit him twice, he'll die and have to run back, sometimes quite far.
On the flipside, it is somewhat hilarious to walk into enemy lands for certain quests and wind up with 15 or so level 10 players chasing in toe, all ganking up on you the moment you stop. It's funnier still to kill them all.
Regardless, PvP definitely needs much work. In it's current state, it's a distraction and a useless one at that.
This is a more personal comment, but I really feel the Barrens are needlessly vast and empty. It takes a considerably lengthy amount of time to get anywhere in there. I was forced to go there for a Warrior related quest, and needless to say, I did not enjoy my time there. Perhaps this is just my perspective, but in essence, the Alliance lands are much prettier and livelier, generally more interesting, than the Horde lands.
It had to End Somewhere
Though I still have much to say, I'll keep it for later articles. I hope I've provided you with some information, even if this came out more or less like an editorial.
I'll see you all in the Open Beta, I hope.
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