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Reviewers Pile On World Of Warcraft Beta
Thanks to GameSpy for its 'Pile On!' feature discussing Beta impressions so far on Blizzard's long-awaited MMO title, World Of Warcraft. Reactions range from the effusive ("I'm more convinced than ever that this game may finally be the first truly mass-market MMO") through the delighted ("I'm... completely in love with World of Warcraft"), to the ecstatic ("World of Warcraft delivers just what people are expecting: a tight, fun MMOG from a trusted developer.") Elsewhere, a WorldOfWarcraft.com forum discussion has a Blizzard representative mentioning release estimates of early this summer are likely wrong: "Definitely not July. As you know, we never set release dates, but you can expect the beta to run for another 5+ months." But, more importantly, does anyone _not_ like World Of Warcraft?
Well, given that the alliance classes are the only ones available at the moment, 6 alliance classes are also available to the Horde, and the game is still in _beta_, I'm ok with there being balance issues.
Unfortunately, that is very correct. Blizzard is not writing an MMO for a niche market - they are writing one for the masses, and if that means they focus on the not-so-hardcore MMO population, so be it.
Well I've been playing this for months. (Yes, I was lucky enough to be an Alpha tester too).
And I've played no other game since I started.
This game is really good. There are still balance issues (but they are not too bad), a couple of classes need buffing up a bit (mage especially).
Hours of my life have been sucked into this game. It's so much fun, I would recomend it to anyone.
Tradeskills are fun, I feel they need expanding a little, but we still are in beta, and changes are happening all the time.
The economy seems to work (unlike SWG), there are money sinks as well as money generators. There has been no inflation (yet). Of course I haven't hit lvl 30 (max) with any of my chars yet, so these guys may have a different take on it.
Two thumbs up. Recommended. Be prepared to lose all your spare time, and half your night to this game - every day.
Most high-level content isn't created until near the end of the development cycle. Until you're relatively certain the graphics format, sound format, gameplay ideas, and every thing else are panning out, why fill out content that you may have to redo? Better to focus on your engine and gameplay early on, while filling out the world with Blizzard production level art and design once the technical side is stable. They probably have a few of the God monsters artwork and quests complete (though not balanced), but it is doubtful they are just holding back on the universe. It's Beta because it is not done, and except for bug fixes Art and Level Designs are the last to go in.
You can be pretty sure that the level 65 monster with the big fangs and the ability to throw things will pan out correctly if the level 16 monster with the hunchback and the ability to throw things is working well.
Besides, what do you think they will be doing during the next six months? Strictly playbalance?
The ______ Agenda
I think you rather mean that blizzard has a history for developing the hardest to balance games on the market and then managing the impossible.
I don't know if you were in the War3 beta test but it was just stunning to read those patch notes. Every patch someone found a overpowering strategy and "cheesed" it to death, in the next patch there would be a seemingly unrelated change to a random different unit and people would bitch that blizzard didn't address the issue xyz. Yet people noticed that they now have an effective counter vs the cheesed strategy.
Another great example were the NightElf ancients ( their buildings can uproot and and become units) the top players in the community said that Night elfs needed something else becuase this is not really an advantage. Yet a year after the release of the game Night elf players started to use these ancients as their main units so much that blizzard had to actually make them a wee bit weaker in a later patch.
I've never seen a company which is a year ahead of its customers best strategys.
Today the games Starcraf ( 3 races ) and Warcraft ( 4 races ) are amazingly balanced. Apart from C&C generals they are also the only RTS gamaes which offer fundamentally different races.
I suggest you do a little reading on what a Skinner Box is. Here is a great essay which explains how MMORPGs are essentially giant skinner boxes.
The trap you fell into is called psychological addiction, and it is quite vicious indeed. But what better way is there to ensure a continuous revenue stream from your customers.
As with all things in life, these games are fine in moderation, but always be careful that you aren't getting TOO into it.
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