Why World of Warcraft: Forever is Not for Me
What has become clear to me over the years, is that fans love for World of Warcraft is not solely based upon the game itself. Often those who enjoy the game qualify their feelings within a wider context. What made WoW so great for them was the time, the place and the people. Where people where at in their lives. The group dynamic is a major aspect of this as Raids are a key part of WoW and not an optional extra. Often fans cut their teeth with WoW at a time when it was “the” MMO and there wasn’t as much competition. Gaming was also a far more niche pastime in the early 2000s and as such fostered a somewhat unique sense of camaraderie. Hence WoW is more than just a multiplayer game but a pop culture archetype. I suspect that this is what Blizzard wants to tap into with WoW Forever. Older players may well rediscover the old magic. However, I don’t know if a comparable experience is available to new players.
Combat in Video Games: How Long is Too Long?
Many video games involve some sort of combat. It is a quintessential mechanic. The moral and ethical rectitude of this is a subject for another blog post and is not something I wish to discuss here. This post is about combat itself and specifically the amount of time that you have to spend to defeat an enemy. It may sound a somewhat trivial point but it becomes quite an important issue once you start playing a game for any length of time. Like many game mechanics, it often comes down to a matter of personal taste? Which then makes it a difficult matter to find the right balance from a game development point of view. If you make combat too brief, players will say it trivialises the game and diminishes the sense of challenge. Make combat too long and you’ll run the risk of boring your playerbase and driving them away. This is very much a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.