World Of Warcraft Alpha Explored, Blizzard Quizzed

Thanks to GameSpy for its two-part tour of World Of Warcraft, as they "got the chance to get our hands on... [an] early 'alpha' build" of the eagerly-awaited Blizzard PC MMORPG. The author praises the "incredible atmosphere and game speed... solid interface [and] fun quests", while expressing a few reservations about the "[lack of] character customization options" and the "racially restricted zones" in which "NPCs...would automatically attack any members of another race." The preview is closely followed by an interview with designer Jeff Kaplan, in which he addresses questions on design philosophy ("It's very important not to fall into that trap of trying to manipulate your community as if you're trying to run an ant farm") and in-game housing ("We do not anticipate that our player housing system will ship with the initial product.")

Comments

Restricted Zones are not a Issue

[Bruha]

Trust me in a few weeks SWG is going to have a Imperial Crackdown and us Rebels will be in a bit of a hurt... Do I care? Not really gives me more imps to kill. And there has been no uproar from the Rebel playerbase or neutrals about it as it's really a part of the game.

GameSpy needs to understand that irresponsible reviews like this really are not helpful to the players or the company. I would not expect a alpha build (I have played alphas and betas of many MMO's) to have much in the way of custom modifications of characters becuase alpha's are focused on gameplay which is far harder to debug than putting a beard on a dwarf.

Futhermore if anyone reads books about Dwarves and Elf's then they might understand that the two races that once were welcome as friends are much more wary of eachother in many of those books. Even Legolas and Gimli were not overly fond of eachother at their first meeting.

And Blizzard please keep up the hard work. If you want a proper review of your game there are a few dozen of us that are waiting over at Wow Warcry.

Lewt
Warcry News Network
http://www.warcry.com
http://wow.warcry. com

Re:Another new mmporg

[Liquidrage]

convoluted classes unable to compare to the uber classes

This is not true. Blizzard has put in a small number of classes compared to most similar games. There are no true hybrids that will always fall short of a warriors tanking for example. Instead, their Paladin, while having some ability to tank, is like a Diablo II palidan. They have auras. So in large group environments, the pali isn't some half assed tank that can't get an invite, it's an aura machine that chips in some melee damage.
There's no monk or compete with the rogue for less tanking + better meele damage king. Instead, there's just the rogue.
Casting classes are similar.

It's a great move by Blizzard because it solves the problem you mention where a subset of classes are better then the rest at the endgame situation.


poor to no PvP

This is not a problem unless you want PvP. It might not suit your tastes, but it seems that based upon past games, most people want nothing to do with full-time PvP. Sure, you can say "well just no games done PvP right". But I'm sick of hearing that. Just admit, no game will ever get it right. It just isn't natural in a MMORPG. How many times did Frodo die in the trilogy? Thats right, none. In PvP player death rates are always 50%, where as in PvM, they more fit the genre since the player dies probably on average less then 95% of the times.
Also just isn't a twitch game, so PvP outcomes are based on luck and pre-determined characteristics (level, items, class, etc) instead of skill.

You're more then entitles to want PvP of course, but I don't see their version of PvP as a problem, infact I see their system as a strength. I'd hate it to be another game that tried to shove the concept of PvP down our throats. PvM, thats where the the focus is and should be.

Multi Drops

[calebtucker]

I don't think I like this:

The best example of this smart looting system was what Kaplan called the "Melvin's head" system. One of the most awkward moments in any MMO is players waiting for a spawn because each of them are on the same quest ("Bring me Melvin's head!") Players in that situation can be reluctant to group because only one of them will be able to get Melvin's head. World of Warcraft, though, supports multi-drops. This basically means that every member of the group on the quest will be able to pick up one copy of Melvin's head once he's dead. This encourages social interaction and grouping since nobody's worried about having to fight over the rewards.

Competition is good for a MMOG. Sure, it got ridiculous in EQ, but there's got to be a balance somewhere.. it's not good to just give everyone in the group the drop.

Re:Another new mmporg

[Dachannien]

Just admit, no game will ever get it right.

DAoC got pretty damn close.