World of Warcraft: The Savior or Destroyer of the MMO?

It is hard to argue that World of Warcraft is one of the most popular games of all time, let alone the most popular MMORPG in history. It has reached past the typical playerbase and brought in more people than any MMO before it. Students, Doctors, Teachers, Parents, Celebrities and Geeks all play this record breaking game. It has taken a very diverse genre and boiled it down to a concentrated experience, all while making it accessible and fun. Though WoW might have broadened the MMO's audience, will it also hurt the market in the long run?

With the high profile MMO Star Trek Online going into open beta recently, it's been open season for everyone with an internet connection and a pre-order key. The message boards and blogs have been filled with professional, and sometimes less than professional, first impressions of the game. One thing that is a common point in a lot of these previews is a comparison to World of Warcraft. While not everyone does it, it's hard not to. Even though these two games have very different dynamics and subject content, there is always a giant WoW shaped shadow hanging over the game. For better or worse, WoW has become a standard by which all other MMO games are measured. But is this truly a fair practice?

The World of Warcraft that people play today is a far cry from the game that was launched back in November 2004. Beyond the technical problems that plagued the game early on, the game itself is different. This is to be expected from an online game that has been going strong for over five years and having released two expansion packs. The original WoW was a large concept game. It has introduced some ideas that have made the genre, as whole, better. Things such as smaller penalties for death and less downtime after combat are things that many games have adopted. What people fail to remember though is the title as it was launched, not as it is today.

Structured Player vs. Player was not introduced to Azeroth until nearly six months after the game's launched. Racial traits and certain class talents were not even enabled till the first patch of the game. WoW, like many other MMOs, was not something that many people would consider a complete game. Over the first few months after launch, content was slowly added or completed. There was much rejoicing and the game flourished.

One of the best examples of a Massively Multiplayer Online game fine tuning itself after launch is Dark Age of Camelot. One of the largest selling points for DAoC was it's large scale Realm vs. Realm, or RvR, combat system. In this system, all players were from one of three countries. These countries would all compete in a frontier area that had castles you could capture and defend. At launch, this system was heralded as being the most innovative way ever to do player vs. player, but many eventually lost interest in the RvR system.

Almost three years later, developers Mythic released a free expansion titled New Frontiers. This new expansion completely overhauled the Realm vs Realm system. Breathing new life to the series, creating what many MMO fans have described as one of the best and most rewarding player vs. player systems ever in a game. A gameplay system that shared very little from the original release of the game, but was a huge reward to those that saw the potential of the title and hung around for a few years.

Now let us return to 2010 and more specifically Star Trek Online. Many people are saying that it is an incomplete game or that the game may have less content than other games on the market. Server issues and other problems have arisen during the recent open beta testing. Problems that are very similar to those Blizzard had with overloaded servers during the launch of World of Warcraft. These issue are common place and are the very reason that companies use open beta as a stress test for their servers.

In the end, will Star Trek Online be a game that grows up into a "WoW killer" if it gets the support it needs? Not likely. Frankly there isn't any one that can "kill" WoW other than Blizzard at this point. Would a game like Tabula Rasa had done better if it wasn't in many player's nature to compare a launch game to a long established game? Maybe. The only thing that's clear is development of MMO games in general will eventually be forced into longer and longer cycles. Longer development cycles that many smaller companies just simply can't afford. Sure the future of the game will require less faith on the part of players, but the ability for game makers to take risks will be greatly reduced as well. Gone are the days that a game can come out with a solid gameplay engine, a few novel ideas and the promise of content down the road.

Maybe there will be something that changes it all. Maybe when Bioware's Old Republic comes out, there will be some strange shifting of the moon and planets, allowing people to have multiple MMOs to compare to with a variety of features and gameplay styles. Maybe there will be some way of billing or production that will allow for games to compete against World of Warcraft. But until that day, I think it's safe to say that WoW is the greatest and worst thing to happen to MMORPGs.

The Craft of War: BLIND

This just blew me away. Fan-made. See it to believe...


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Ask the Podians: What is MMO?

And as suggested, the new segment "Ask the Podians"

Part One;


and Part Two;

Star Wars: The Old Republic fan update and some thoughts about the Latest WoW Xpack

So... It's no secret that I plan MMOs from time to time and one that I have been really excited about is the new Bioware Star Wars game. Just the other day, this video was sent out to fans that signed up for email updates.



Not a whole lot of really new info here, but some videos of some early pre-production was shown. I have to say, for a pre-production stuff, it looks pretty good. The details aren't really there yet and the armor looks like plastic, but this isn't even close to being finished. There was some discussion about the companion characters and what they plan to do with those. Overall, an interesting watch.

Now... As I said on the previous episode, I finally broke down and bought the latest WoW expansion. I really, really thought that I had it beat and wasn't going to buy it. Unfortunately, when I am bored, all bets are off.

The two things I will take away from this expansion are a wider variety of gameplay and a more in depth storytelling. With the new class, you start off in a new area and there are lots of new things. Firstly, this starting area changes as you go through the story. So every time you teleport to the starter area, things will be a little different. So, you'll see towns in ruins after you helped destroy them and things of that nature. This is a great step towards what Ryan and I have talked about in previous episodes about cause and effect, and there being consequences for your actions in game. It's not very big and I have only seen it put into play in the new starting area, but it's cool to see them take this step. I am not shocked to see that it was Blizzard were the people to push this out there first.

You will also find yourself doing things that aren't just you playing your character and grinding out your level. You steal horses, you shoot cannons and you even fly a dragon into battle shooting fireballs at the armies below you. It's nice to see this variety starting to pop up in the game. I hope they continue to add stuff like this. The mini-game feel to it all really helps break up what can really be a boring and repetitive game.

So, overall, I have to say the Lich King is a great expansion. New Profession, New Class, New lands and a new experience. Good job Blizzard.

A little update.

So, I came down with some nasty thing. It's like a cold on angel dust. It's just rampaging through my head and chest. Needless to say, I have missed two days of work already. I think if I miss a third I will be required to bring in a Doctor's note. So I am trying to get all rested up so I can go back tomorrow and avoid an office visit.

Now, onto some stuff you might actually care about. I got my new computer this week. It's super nice and is so much better than my old one. Where as I used to lag in Capital cities in World of Warcraft with the most basic settings, I can now run through the busiest cities with ease on the high performance graphic settings. I have yet to try anything to taxing on the system, but so far I am really happy.

I have also received my T-Mobile G1 equipped with Google's Android cell phone OS. I don't think I have ever been this happy with a purchase. It is more than a phone. It's a planner, email device and then the apps that are available for no additional cost? Brilliant. A full review will be coming later, when I am feeling up to it.

Fuck You, Brewfest.

One thing that I love about World of Warcraft is the way they handle holidays. They may not have the exact same holidays that we in the real world do, but the citizens of Azeroth do celebrate a few very close corollaries. For example, instead of Octoberfest, which is our month-long salute to beer and the good things about Germany, they have Brewfest, which has nothing to do at all with Germany.

Azerothian holidays do offer players the chance to participate in special quests, with extra XP, non-combat pets, or some other prize as the reward. In lieu of Labor Day, players celebrated a Remembrance Day for their fallen heroes. We were invited to visit gravesites, and received a magical item which conjured food or drink once a day as a reward.

Since I returned to WoW, I have been excited about Brewfest, which started Saturday morning. Last year, a special ram mount was availabl e for purchase for those willing to complete the daily quests, and I wanted it dearly. Being a Blood Elf, I get saddled (pardon the pun) with a giant bird as my noble steed. My only options for replacing my ride with something less ghey were to up my reputation with the other Horde cities enough that they would sell me their race-specific mounts (a near impossible feat), waste countless hours in Battle Grounds, earning points towards a mount I couldn't use until I hit level 70, or participate in Brewfest and easily buy a ram. Obviously I was going to choose the latter of the three.

When I logged into my account Saturday morning, I saw tents and drunken revelers and ram-riders as far as my video settings would allow. Finally that ram would be mine. I ran to the nearest quest-giver and began the first of the dailies. Once completed, I searched for a vendor who dealt in Brewfest exclusives so that I could find out how long I would need to grind to get my mount. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my beloved ram was a loot drop from an instanced boss. No big deal. Even without a 100% drop rate, that mount would be mind eventually. I immediately started looking for a group.

My primary character is a level 50 Hunter, a Blood Elf, as I said. With an evenly leveled pet, I can be an asset to almost any group. It shouldn't be a problem to find one, do the dungeon, and ride out on my shiny new mount. Apparently all the groups were 70-snobs who wanted to rob me of my chance to get a lvl 30 mount, because I was denied at every turn.

After doing some digging and research, I discovered that this is an epic-level quest, for 70s only. People like me have no chance of completing it without having their virtual-hands held. Suffice to say that I am very pissed off. And I'm not the only one.

So, fuck you, Brewfest. I've got a pocketful of worthless tokens, a dumb looking pet, and an in-game-only hangover that will last until next year.