World of Warcraft Gamespot GOTY 2004

Gamespot's annual awards have drawn to a close, with the Reader's choice awards finishing up tomorrow. Announced on Wednesday, Gamespot's Game of the Year for 2004 is World of Warcraft. Relatedly, there is an interview with the WoW composer at World of Warcraft Guru, and a piece on Wired.com about Virtual Trade and Blizzard's efforts to combat the trend. Finally, Blizzard's annual holiday festivities have resulted in a hilarious holiday mp3 being made available on the official World of Warcraft site.

Comments

oh well.

[jokumuu]

I suppose that given the on average quite bland year of games (most being second, third or so on parts of precious games) WOW would have a change. I so hope we could get some orginal and good games on top at some point.

Re:oh well.

[Phosphor3k]

The public has been playing the beta for the better of the year. Granted, the open beta only started 6 or 8 months ago.

Trade is interesting

[useosx]

The Virtual Trading is one of the most interesting aspects of online gaming. I'm sure books have been written about it, but it sort of points to the economic cancer of modern industrial societies. Killing that could kill a large part of the interest people have in it.

Re:Trade is interesting

[Uhlek]

It's an interesting concept, but it's one that can get game developers in a hotbed of legal problems. Basically, it means that the in-game data constitues something of value to the players. If a game company encouraged virtual trading using real-world dollars, it is conceivable that the game company could be held liable to maintain that value for the customer.

Take that to the ultimate extension. You're a player with enough in-game assets to constitue hundreds of thousands of dollars were it to be liquidated, and potentially hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month in income from the regular sale of those items.

Then, the game developer cancels the game, or there is a massive data loss, or the developer makes an arbitrary change to the game which shifts the economy and results in a total loss to you. In essense, you've just lost your total net worth, your income, etc. Logical people would say "well, too bad, so sad, shouldn't have relied on a game" Lawyers, on the other hand, are not always logical people. When something becomes someone's job, it's no longer a game to them. It's their life. Sanctioning virtual trades builds the expectation that that is a valid use of the game environment, and puts additional responsibility on the game company.

No amount of warnings and EULA could insulate a company from that kind of litigation. It's far easier, and safer, for the game company to toe the line, cancel a few accounts here and there and send out a few cease-and-desist letters.

Time is Money

[ignipotentis]

In its announcement on the World of Warcraft community site, Blizzard stated its policy against the buying or selling of the game's objects for real-world money. Its goal, which many MMO developers share, is keeping the game pure from an inflated economy and from players who buy game attributes rather than earning them. And they often claim that such objects have no real-world economic value.

The old saying "Time is Money" works well here. These objects cary real-world economic value if they are required to get to the next level, and the individual playing the game doesn't have the time to find them, but would like to "level-up." In this case, the real world price he pays for said item would have to be worth less than the time it would take him to find said item. In some of these games, the time to level starts to expand exponetialy. This is what I think draws the secondary economy to the game.

Re:Time is Money

[Dachannien]

Well, that quote gives a horrible explanation of why selling items/accounts is bad. Why is it bad?

One, people who sell items or accounts tend to try to farm them incessantly. This leads to perpetually-camped spawns dominated by one person, along with unfair play tactics against others who want to come in and take their turn. Now, this is much reduced in WoW because of the way loot occurs in the game, but in many other games (EQ, for example) it can be a pretty severe problem.

Two, there is a great potential for fraud when items/accounts are sold, because there is no secure transaction between the exchange of money and the exchange of the account, and because the seller can usually keep themselves anonymous. Admittedly, this lends some support for these transactions taking place at large sites like eBay or IGE, where their reputation is at stake whenever a fraudulent transaction takes place, but "for-sale-by-owner" accounts are still not uncommon.

Three, inexperienced players driving experienced characters leads to grief and annoyance within the high-level community. The level and gear of a character are supposed to be a reflection on a person's experience at playing the game, not just some number which affects the character's abilities. Sometimes, eBayed characters stick out like sore thumbs as they ask stupid questions (e.g., 57th level night elf druid yells, 'omg how do i get 2 teh boat in darnasuss!!!'), but in other cases, it takes several bad play experiences for the eBayed character to build up a reputation as being played by an inexperienced player and thus get blacklisted.

Four, some eBayed characters already *have* a reputation as a bad apple. Somebody with no consideration for other people - but with some skill at the game mechanics - levels up a character, but then can't get a group in the high-level instances to save their life. So, they sell the account and start over, pocketing some money in the process. The problem is, the unsuspecting buyer logs in for the first time and is greeted by rude tells and harassment because the character has a reputation of being a complete ass. What's more, nobody will believe them when they say they bought the character (choosing instead to think it's the original owner trying to lie his way out of the situation), and the admission of being eBayed brings down one's reputation further.

By the way, there are other reasons related more to fairness that I'm not really going into detail on here (such as the concept that every player should put equivalent effort into the game, or that success should not be based on one's RL means, since this is a game).

Blizzard is known for it's festivity!

[ShallowThroat]

Blizzard's annual holiday festivities have resulted in a hilarious holiday mp3 being made available

Not only that, Blizzard has also made avaliable many in-game festivities, such as snowmen and snowballs. Perfect for whiping at the neighbouring horde villages. :)

"from the for-gnomeregon! dept."

[Phosphor3k]

It's spelled "Gnomeregan".

WoW is excellent

[grasshoppa]

I am not an avid gamer, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I was playing xcom2 right up and to the point I bought WoW.

It is truly an excellent game. The graphics are very consistent ( instead of blah here, WOW here, blah here ) and look great. On top of that, my old(ish) system can usually push 30-40 fps where ever I am. More than smooth enough for me.

Beyond the graphics ( which aren't all that important beyond the immersion factor ), the audio is excellent. Very well done score. But what really grabs you and holds you tight is the gameplay. Very addictive. Blizzard must have spent months working on the questing system, which is unbelievably detailed.

Re:WoW is excellent

[Tridus]

Well of course, because the entire quality of a game is measured by how expensive a video card it takes to play it.

Disagree, HL2 was way too disappointing.

[Viewsonic]

The enemy and team-mate AI was terrible, and the physics were completely annoying and gimmicky. You got stuck way too much, or were upside down in your vehicals. The graphics were also pretty sub-par compared to games like Doom3 and Far Cry. And the ending was the worst i'd ever experienced in any FPS to date. The level design was pretty lazily done as well .. Ravenholm? I mean, c'mon, it didn't even fit the theme of the game, it's like they went on some dumb horror tangent because they got bored with the Sci-Fi thing. It had its moments, but overall it was way more disppointing than any game out this year, Doom3 included.

WoW on the otherhand. Great humor, great graphics, more quests than both Everquests combined, and a lot of innovative additions to the MMORPG genre. There is nothing stagnant about it. Perhaps you should try playing it.

Re:Disagree, HL2 was way too disappointing.

[LiquidCoooled]

When I finished HL2 it was like when I watched the second Matrix film.

I'm going to see it as an expensive way to play half a game, with the real finale in half life 3.

There were many moments in the original HL where I felt I was at the end, and that I had finally made it - for instance, driving the little train outside, and the music starting, or getting past the big evil talen thing that came out of a hole in the ground (from memory however many years ago).
The ending of this second installment made me feel the same, like an end of level nasty, it definately doesn't feel over. We have removed the Earthly iconic leader, but not got rid of the actual alien invaders.

They are just milking it, and unfortunately, I've fallen into the trap, and will probably get any further installments.

IGN and Gamespy GOTY

[WizardRahl]

Gamespy GOTY 2004 was Halo2 and IGN PC GOTY was HalfLife2. You've got to thank slashdot for their impartiality... >:E Flame: Gaypot blows compared to ign and gamespy, and to think they make you pay to download compared to free fileplanet is laughable.

Re:IGN and Gamespy GOTY

[Pluvius]

Pfft. Gamespot is far less of a corporate whore than either IGN or Gamespy, though I'm still boggled as to how they gave WoW GOTY honors over all of the other great games that came out this holiday season.

Rob

Blizzard did it right

[Holdstrong]

For years I have been playing MMORPGs.... and I come away from every single one of them (Ultima Online, EQ, and SWG were the ones I played) saying to myself, "jeez, ya know this game would be sooo much better if they just did X, Y, Z." Well, Blizzard actually DID the X, Y, and Z. It is almost like they were eaves dropping on the conversations of all of us gamers over the past 5 years. Everything we have been saying about these massive online games over the years they have addressed in one way or another. They took the bad parts and either dropped them, or made them good. They then went ahead and added all of the obvious features we have all been asking for and wondering why they havent been around. Its a gamers game. One that if I had the ability to make my perfect game... it would have been this. It really is fantastic. Blizzard might not have put out a groundbreaking new genre game here... but they did somethng even better. They took an already existing genre and finally did it right.

I agree on the drop out part

[Mustang Matt]

I have no doubts this game will cause some people to fail school. (Probably any game can do that, but this one is so addicting.) Blizzard has really loaded it up with quests. I can't stop playing!

Re:I agree on the drop out part

[Gandalfar]

That's modern evolution for you :)

Re:I agree on the drop out part

[cowscows]

Amen to that. I thank Counter Strike for a lot of my time management skills. Fitting in 3 hours a day of CS while at the same time trying to earn an architecture degree really taught me how to get things done efficiently.

Doom 3 isn't in the FPS section...

[Dreadlord]

... WTF? I mean why is PainKiller there and Doom 3 is not?

I can understand having HL2, FarCry, and UT2K4, but PainKiller doesn't really offer the revolutionary gameplay to deserve being there, while Doom 3 doesn't.

Re:Doom 3 isn't in the FPS section...

[damiam]

Doom 3 was a tech demo, not a game. The only revolutionary thing about it was the lack of duct tape.

Half Life 2

[Castaa]

WoW over Half Life 2? I'm not so sure about that. HL2 is more ground breaking than WoW, IMO. WoW is a very polished MMO. But what is new about it?

HL2 is breaks new ground of because the environments are more than pretty window dressing. One is constantly challenged to look at the world and think about what is available to allow the objective to be accomplished more efficiently. This in addition to HL2 being a very polished FPS.

Re:Half Life 2

[cowscows]

I'm all for innovation, but really, "breaking new ground" is not the most important part of making a fun game. Not to take away from HL2, cause I know lots of people are having lots of fun playing with it, but even if you think it has more new ideas than WOW, that doesn't mean it has to be a better game.

I could design an new, innovative racing game that you control with your computer's microphone by yelling TURN LEFT when you want to go left, or BRAKES! BRAKES BRAKES! when you want to stop. I doubt anyone's done that before. Of course, no one's done it before because it's a stupid idea.

Innovation is vital to the game industry, but gameplay is even more important. And gameplay can sometimes take a lot of iterations to get right. WoW is an impressive example of learning from previous attempts and really getting a lot of it right. And that's what makes a fun game. The word "polish" I don't think helps, because gameplay is more fundamental then all the details.

Re:Half Life 2

[Minna Kirai]

One is constantly challenged to look at the world and think about what is available to allow the objective to be accomplished more efficiently.

And if you find an alternative solution, and go do it... the game magically prevents you from straying from the official path. For example, there are many situations where you can see the next area across a low fence between buildings. Stack up a few cans, and you can build a staircase to get over. But, AFTER you do all that work collecting physics objects, you are met atop the fence with an invisible force-field.

Anyway, as others have posted, the gameplay mechanism about stacking random objects to get over stuff has been done before in Deus Ex and JP Trespasser. Half-Life's physics is a lot better, but they'd almost have been wiser to make a $19.95 "family-friendly" game focused only on construction.

Re:Half Life 2

[Lord_Dweomer]

"I could design an new, innovative racing game that you control with your computer's microphone by yelling TURN LEFT when you want to go left, or BRAKES! BRAKES BRAKES! when you want to stop. I doubt anyone's done that before. Of course, no one's done it before because it's a stupid idea."

They could call it "Back Seat Driver". My Jewish mother would LOVE it!

Re:Half Life 2

[lewp]

HL2 hasn't been touched since I started playing WoW. Neither have my copies of GTA:SA, Metroid Prime 2, Doom 3 (which doesn't even belong in the same breath as the rest of these, sorry id...), Halo 2 (ditto), or any of the other supposed blockbusters this year. "Ground breaking" doesn't mean anything to me when I'm choosing what game to play. WoW is a better game than any of them by a mile.

Now if only they could keep the servers up.

I wouldn't think anything short of the extinguishing of all life on earth could kill a game as good as WoW, but they seem to be making a go of it with their shoddy handling of technical issues (both in how they actually deal with them, and especially how they communicate with their customers about them).

Blizzard still has a lot of work to do on that front, and nobody should try to minimize how much it harms the experience, but the game itself? It's beyond reproach. The few really showstopping bugs (Orc Rouges, anyone?) have apparently been squashed in the latest patch, and there are virtually no class balance issues (Shamans and Paladins are fine, IMHO, as are Druids, Warriors, Priests, and Mages). There are a few annoyances left -- bugged quests, mainly -- but with so many quests available they're easily abandoned and forgotten quickly once you start the next one. Best of all, and blasphemy for a MMORPG, the game is fast-paced, ridiculously easy to get into, and completely lacks "grind".

Those of you who are silly enough to complain about the lack of bells and whistles in its graphics engine must be off the deep end. It may not tax my system at all -- even at 1600x1200 with all settings maxed -- but the signature Blizzard artwork makes the game as stunning as anything else I've seen this year.
I've just stopped and stared on a few occasions when cresting a hill and seeing the gorgeous landscape stretch out in front of me in all directions. The character, item, and monster artwork are all as polished and full of personality. What's more, it runs on my 12" Powerbook as well and still looks good.

And no, I'm not a Blizzard fanboy. Neither are the many non-gamer friends of mine who have been playing WoW with the fervor of EQ addicts. We've formed a guild, we play together constantly, and I think each of us finds something new to appreciate about the game we never noticed before on a daily basis. I can think of few, if any, games that can make a claim like that. Certainly nothing else published this year.

Re:I thought that would be HL2...

[CDRuzin]

Whenever I get a new game, the fun and excitement of the game usually lasts for a week or so. After that, the fun kind of wears off and I gradually lose all interest in the game, eventually uninstalling it. It's been that way for every single shooter game I've played (America's Army, Doom Series, Unreal Series, Wolfenstein, Tom Clancy games, etc.) The only shooter that was better than average was Halo. Oni is another classic.

With WoW though, I have yet to lose that inital level of excitement and new discovery. Every day I play it, I discover a new cool place, new people, new interesting and challenging quests and so on. It never gets old. The graphics aren't the best I've ever seen (HL2 holds that distinction), but you can't expect worlds as large as those in WoW to be rendered in as much detail as HL2 without having the mother of all graphics cards. That said, the graphics are still amazing. I find myself taking at least several screenshots every time I play it. I've even setup a picture gallery on my site with my screenshots.

The music and sound are superb. Even better is that you have control over them. Don't like the music? Disable it. Really love it? Set it on continuous loop versus every now and then. With a nice set of headphones, the sound effects are amazing.

I could go on and on about all the great features of the game, but I won't. Hey! No clapping back there! It's safe to say this is my favorite game of all time, so far. When they release the LoTR MMORPG in 2005 (I hope), I will give it a try. If it's anywhere near as good as WoW, it should be an excellent game.

Not bad, not good, just over-hyped

[canofbutter]

Games like HL2 and Doom 3 were not what I would call "bad" games (though, I was really disppointed in Doom 3 especially), the main problem is that they were all overhyped (and this is what I feel is the reason for the disappointment on many people's part). How many years had we been hearing about Doom3 and how revolutionary it would be only to get something that really lacked gameplay and had graphics that (although good) didn't live up to the hype? WoW on the other hand was IMO as good as advertised and deserves this.

Re:Not bad, not good, just over-hyped

[LurkerXXX]

The graphics did live up to the hype. Your flashlight just wasn't powerful enough to see them.

Re:WoW

[Teckla]

As someone who's played WoW religiously (2 lvl16 characters on Shattered Hand), I think it's a truly awesome game. It's gigantic, first off, and it's extendable. I like most of the stuff Blizzard comes out with so that may be a bit of a bias. MMORPG's are fun, some of them...I'm really excited about Matrix Online but this is the same thing that happened when SWG came out...Can we have *one* good Sci-Fi MMORPG please?!?

You might want to check out Anarchy Online. It's a sci-fi based MMORPG, and they're currently offering a free client download and free year worth of online play. You don't even have to give them a credit card number.

Best multiplayer game?

[Ice_Balrog]

What really boggles my mind is how Halo 2 won the "Best Multiplayer Game" catagory over Unreal Tournament 2004. Yes, Halo 2 does have good multiplayer, but I have yet to see a game that can touch UT2K4 - especially when you factor mods in. UT2K4 simply has better weapons, better vehicles, and better gameplay modes (Onslaught owns all!).

Re:First person to level 60

[Neoncow]

Not all people equate MAX_LEVEL to "I beat the game".

There are other things to do.

How can a MMORPG be GOTY?

[__aailob1448]

MMORPGs are a seemingly great concept on paper but then again, so is communism. Neither works well in the harsh, unforgiving real world we live in.

"How could this be?" You ask. A massive virtual world where a player can live out a fantasy. Be a Tolkien Wizard or Camelot knight or a Marvel superhero. A world where every character is intelligent , A world where you can form parties, fight epic battles and duels, explore and interact with beautiful and surreal locales. A world constantly changing and evolving where you can make friends and enemies, A world where you can ride Dragons, fly or teleport to distant places. It's like a dream come true.

Two reasons:

1- These games are made by companies who want to make money.

2- These games are populated by humans.

A few major issues with each:

I- Company side

Because the companies want to make money, they have to ensure that a majority of players will play their game as long as possible. This inevitably leads to "THE GRIND".

No matter what mmorpg you are playing, you will end up spending more and more time performing repetitive, unrewarding tasks to accumulate "points". Points can be Exp, Gold, Traits, Armor, Abilities, Completing certain quests,etc. Whether it's fishing moat carps in FFXI or making potions in WoW or defeating 10 Thugs in City of Heroes.

The Grind is usually not very apparent at first, But as the months go by, You will end up spending the HUGE majority of your time performing these menial tasks (or if you figure out how, scripting them). Out of 8 hours of play, you might spend an hour doing something new, exciting and fun. This is a fact.

II- Player side

Because the world is populated by humans, your fantasy world will be a dump. I'm not just talking about beggars, griefers, cheaters and assholes. Those are but the tip of the iceberg.

I'm talking about people who talk and shout Out Of Character AOLspeak/leetspeak, about people who think there is fun in the race to get to Lvl 99, people who inadvertently start WORKING in the game instead of having fun. I'm also talking about the idiots. The huge number of idiots populating the world. Allakhazam forums are ripe with complaints about this or that class of idiots. Many of those who complain are idiots themselves.

The same way communism ideals did not survive to greedy politians, powerhungry generals, lazy coworkers and overall human selfishness, MMORPGs ideals do not survive to companies and players.

Gozu, former MMORPG player of FFXI, CoH and WoW fame.

NOTE: None of what I said necessarily applies to text mmorpgs (MUDs).

What does it say about the game...

[bob670]

"industry" when a title that will cost me $200 a year to play is GOTY? It's truly a big business now, which explains why so much marginal content fills the shelves and innovative games get ignored.

WoW Christmas Carol

[AntonVoyl]

You know a game's good when people are inspired to adapt Dickens to it.

My Pick

[wobedraggled]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Great atmosphere, good tough game, and a visual feast to top it off. Too bad hating Nintendo is "cool" right now, and everyone was playing the overhyped peice of junk that is Halo2. Happy holidays anyway, and if your smart you'll pick up this game and a cube if you dont have one. to see what your missing