Slashdot Mirror
NYT on World of Warcraft
The New York Times (registration required) has a piece on Blizzard's World of Warcraft, discussing the game's popularity and high sales. The article also examines the design processes that go into the game, and the artistic outlook of the WoW live team. From the article: "From around a dark, windowless room, nine young men peered into the unfinished virtual interior of Karazhan, a haunted tower set in a forlorn mountain pass that will open later this year. 'As you can see, the architecture is a little ornate, a little Gothicky,' said Aaron Keller, a 29-year-old designer, gesturing to the 3-D model on the computer screen before him. 'We're thinking about turning these arches into horse heads.'
And to beat the inevitable rush of complaints, the Hardware issues are much improved over release. When speaking about the World of Warcraft everyone seems to have selective memory. There hasn't been a majorly anticipated MMORPG launch in the history of internet gaming that didn't have bottlenecks.
What have they done that they are good again?
They released World of Warcraft.
This is completely offtopic, but when will WoW and others sue the crap out of IGE.com? IGE is a company who sells virtual equipment and accounts for popular MMORPGS. Isn't that against TOS for most of these games? How long will they stand for it?
w00t! They must be talking about Medivh's Tower in Deadwind Pass! A lot of us old beta hands have been waiting to get in there. Given Medivh's prominence in the history of Azeroth, it promises to be an absolute bounty of Warcraftian lore!
Plus, Deadwind pass is just spooky. I mean, it just reeks with atmosphere =) How can the big instance in that not be cool?
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Bnetd are your friends? They publish a public server to bypass the copy protection on Blizzard games and they're your friends? Maybe some people like software pirates as friends, but I don't get it. Why was Slashdot moved by the plight of BnetD? I used BnetD when I couldn't get into beta, and I actually later bought a beta and with the knowledge I gained helped Blizzard directly with War3(if you saw war3 early beta, you laugh at the imbalances). So in a way BnetD was good there. But when Blizzard released War3, the only way the pirates could play would be to use BnetD. You can't log into BattleNet with a pirated CDkey, its pretty good copy protection.
God spoke to me.
Just because someone decided to use the software for that purpose doesn't mean that the sole intention of the developers of the software was to pirate games. Give me a break. I've used it to play StarCraft games with a legitimately purchsed copy, so don't try and say that it was soley for pirates. I guess nobody remembers the times when the chances of getting a decent game on the actual battlenet servers was crappy at best. That is why it was written and used.
I haven't purchased or played a Blizzard game since and I own all of their titles previous to the incident. They lost a lot of repect from me that day.
"Bnetd are your friends? They publish a public server to bypass the copy protection on Blizzard games and they're your friends?"
The Bnetd people are like your friends that always bail you out of attending your 6-year-old niece's terrible birthday party to instead film a car chase on the interstate and then all go to an action movie with Samuel L. Jackson followed by Steak n' Shake.
Here's a list of the online gaming communities that are stupider than battle.net:
While it would be unfair to say Blizzard's art department doesn't receive enough acclaim, I think they deserve every ounce of good press and more besides, Blizzard is one of the few developpers out there that uses the quality of their art to act as a central element of their game engines. While the game does sport some noteworthy techical specifcations (pixel shaded post-processing, dynamic distance polymorphic (no pun entended) LOD, and some very sharp specular lighting effects) it is far and beyond their unique art style that makes it such a beautiful game. And style needs no hardware requirements, only taste =)
Just because someone decided to use the software for that purpose doesn't mean that the sole intention of the developers of the software was to pirate games.
Even if it was.
And it was.
You directly helped Blizzard with balance issues in Warcraft 3? I thought you designed the game......
"You directly helped Blizzard with balance issues in Warcraft 3? I thought you designed the game......"
No way man, I had no hand in designing it. I just pointed out a ton of imbalances, and was rewarded with Blizzard friend status from my frequent feedback. It was barely a game at beginning of beta, just a bunch of units with semi-random statistics. Its fun for me when a game doesn't choose to balance their game because I can find imbalances like no other. I was winning close to 100% of my games at start and as things became more balanced and everyone started learning strats, my winning % dropped down to like 85%. I definately would like to design games though, or do more beta testing. I like to be in the development process because I think thats where all the fun is. Once a game's strategies are known by all, the game either becomes paper rock scissors, a twitch fest or a fun psychological battle of wits. I think a psychological game is the best, but they're hard to achieve.
God spoke to me.
Wow, that makes up for ... what... three games ?
Amazing how somebody brings this up on every WoW post. You've missed it several times obviously.
Most people don't care. An obviously large chunk of slashdot doesn't care.
As soon as you get off this idea that slashdot is one giant mob as opposed to a collection of people who MIGHT have their own opinions that differ from yours, you will be a lot better off.
Let's see.. The whole bnetd thing started in early 2002, so it should be at least 5 games and 3 Blizzard-produced expansions (assuming the poster uses a PC):
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (1994)
Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness
Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal
Starcraft
Starcraft: Broodwar
Diablo
Diablo II
Diablo II: Lords of Darkness (a mid-2001 release)
(and maybe some of the console games, like Lost Vikings)
The poster did not purchase:
Warcraft III (mid-2002)
Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
World of Warcraft
present day... present time... hahahaha...
I haven't, care to share? Have some links?
Google seems to think you're full of it.
I've heard that Microsoft is the most secure OS. I've heard that Iraq has WMD. I've heard that there's nothing wrong with Diebold voting machines. I've heard that IBM ripped off code from SCO.
I've heard that in Soviet Russia, other people think for YOU.
Or, he may be trying to get the word out to remind people that Blizzard is an evil entity and is not our friend. Everyone here should be boycotting Blizzard for abusing copyright law.
Unfortunately, not everyone is and some people seem to have completely forgotten about it.
He's trying to raise awareness on an issue that people on Slashdot should be made aware of. There's nothing wrong with that.
There is something incredibly wrong with people who should know better forking over massive amounts of cash to Blizzard. There's absolutely no reason why any Blizzard game should ever be mentioned on Slashdot. Slashdot was supposed to be boycotting Blizzard, but, as always, the editors could care less.
Just look at the forums. What few complaint/leaving letters there are, you will see blizzard people replying and trying to help the situation. This is opposite other games where they just delete the posts (EQ and AO to name a few). The support for this game is incredible. Major notices at login, good forums, etc. Not only that, the game runs great so support is barely needed.
From reading /., you get the sense that a majority of people here
The question is other than whining about it, what do these people do about it? I'm sure there are some true purist, like the dirty hippy parent here who got unfairly moded down to flamebait. But most of you guys whine and moan on here before logging off to go play WoW on an MS Machine that you paid for with W's tax cut.
The dirty hippy parent here is bringing this up and rubbing it in your faces - and he gets modded down for it. Where's the justice?
As an aside, I now metamoderate every day. I don't even read the posts, I just rate all negative mods as unfair and all positive mods as fair. It all takes about 30 seconds. This is based on my belief that there is too much modding down here and not enough modding up.
So one way or another, I will avenge the dirty hippy parent.
has a piece on Blizzard's World of Warcraft, discussing the game's popularity and high sales.
:)
A few of the things I like about World of Warcraft.
1. It's not a real 'grind'. You get an experence bonus for being offline, so you don't have to feel like you need to play all the time to 'keep up' if you are the keep up type.
2. There is a good questing system, that offers rewards that are at least as good as the rewards (ie drops) you would get from just farming mobs.
3. Decent PvP system. Those who want PvP join PvP servers, and PvP combat is limited enough to not scare off newbies, but prevalent enough to be enjoyed at higher levels.
4. Things aren't too hard. Most of the professions (ie crafting) aren't too comlicated which is nice for a casual player like myself who has a full time job.
I think WoW is the first MMORPG to really reach out to and reward casual players, and it's succeeding.
People tend to get confused and think that what IGE is doing is illegal, when it is not. What IGE does is against the Terms that you agree to when you play the game. From the terms I have read from a few MMORPGs that I have played, the only way they will/can do to you is cancel your account. And it is rare that they will even do this.
It is rather hard to prove that any single player is involved in the sale of in-game money. The only for sure way I've ever heard of would be to have the company (Like Blizzard), buying money from a site like IGE, then when the money is delivered, they cancel the account of the person who sent them the money. I don't see many game developers doing this.
Plus, IGE is only the middleman in the deal. IGE doesn't have anyone directly work for them that farms money to be able to sell to other players. IGE pays people as those people sell the money to IGE, then IGE sells that money to some other person. This makes it even harder for them to get caught.
Its not what it is, its something else.
But most of you guys whine and moan on here before logging off to go play WoW on an MS Machine that you paid for with W's tax cut.
Hey Hey Hey...
I play WoW on a Mac.
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
I've heard that Microsoft is the most secure OS.
Hey, it is!
I mean, Windows source code has only been stolen once, right? Whereas Linux security is so lax that ANYONE can break into the "secret" server (HINT!!! it's at www.kernel.org, don't tell anyone!) and steal all the source code, just like that!
Here's a list of the online gaming communities that are stupider than battle.net:
--
Obviously sarcasm but battle net still is better then the other match making systems because theres still enough people to find a game even in starcraft (7 years old). Warcraft 3 has a much improved match makign scheme and finding griefers is much rarer. Battle nets match makign for war 3 is better then any other I've used.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
Starcraft
Starcraft: Brood War
Diablo
Diablo II
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition (This includes beyond the dark portal)
Warcraft III
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
World of Warcraft
It makes perfect sense he could own every Blizzard game before 2002. Blizzard fans are addicts.
You forgot 2:
/fixed.
Counterstrike,
You.
...but it doesn't really go into the massive problems that people have been having with server stability, join queues (apparently queues on Blackrock are still quite long in peak times).
If I was a casual gamer I would have read that article and run out and bought a copy and then probably been frustrated to the bejebus if my server kept crashing, or whatnot.
Slashdot was supposed to be boycotting Blizzard
According to what crackpot?
Here's the deal: Blizzard is a good company. Period. They treat their employees well. They produce high quailty titles. They allow their designers a lot of artistic freedom.
Vivendi Universal (You remember, the guys that actually sent the lawyers after BNetd?), is a steaming pile of shit. Blizzard has survived under the VU umbrella so long precisely because Blizzard is such a good company.
And, even if that weren't the case: I can think of several justifications for sending C&D letters to BNetd off the top of my head that are perfectly reasonable -- but the Slashdot hive drones like you see that someone is trying to take away their free cookie, and all reason is thrown out the window. So we get to hear the IP argument-equivalent of a 2 year old's temper tantrum.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
What reason? The only thing I can remember is Blizzard making vague motions about "copy protection being circumvented" but if you think about it for more than three seconds you'll realize that in order to use BnetD, you'd already need a copy of the game.
BnetD didn't help piracy at all. All it did was allow people to play with each other across the Internet without Blizzard listening in. That's why people hate Blizzard for what they did to BnetD - BnetD was never a threat to Blizzard, but they destroyed it anyway.
They should never be forgiven, even if they did create another "cool toy".
I can't think of any IP law a duplicate match-making service would violate. It should be legal in any sane society. The only thing I might think of is that the name "BnetD" might be tool similar. Other than that, there should be no IP reason to go after it.
The "piracy" crap is a red-herring.
Yes, you need a copy of the game to play on a BnetD server. Do you need a copy of the game that was purchased by you? Not at all. The BnetD server does not make ANY checks on the serial number that is supposed to validate the game as unique and legitimate. "The "piracy" crap"" is not a "red-herring" when you stop and actually THINK about the situation.
I had just set up a BnetD server for me and some co-workers, that did not make it in the Warcraft 3 beta, when VU sent the BnetD guys the cease and desist letter. I was using BnetD to play the game illegally. When the beta stopped working with the BnetD server I quit playing the game (I suck at RTS games any way). Did I buy a copy of Warcraft 3? No.
Seriously, why wouldn't you want to use Blizzard's servers if you bought the game? Possibly because some of your friends didn't and you still want to play with them? I think that is ever more likely than "allow people to play with each other across the Internet without Blizzard listening in." And hell, why wouldn't you want Blizzard "listening in"? You did buy the game right? What is the big deal?
That being said, World of Warcraft is an excellent game. I enjoy it greatly when I have the time to play.
/me goes back to doing calculus homework.
You've obviously never played on Battle.net. You've said as much yourself. Battle.net is known for random outages, lag, and overall poor connections. That's why people wanted to use it.
Plus, Warcraft III doesn't allow you to simply set up an internet game between two friends without using Battle.net. You have to create an "open game" and set a password and tell them your game id.
BnetD doesn't help people pirate the game. That's a lie. You've said as much yourself. Hell, BnetD even offered to allow Blizzard to send them a closed-source binary module that would enforce key checks and Blizzard refused. BnetD is not the bad guy, and you know it.
On a related note, the european version of wow opened today, see http://wow-europe.com/en/.
Everything went smoothly when i registered in the morning, but i hear the servers are totally bogged down now, especially the registration-server.
Wow, what a groundbreaking story. Where was the NYT when Everquest was becoming a juggernaut? Where were the NYT stories on Meridian 59 or Shadows of Yserbius? Where is the NYT interview with Richard Bartle? Where was the NYT when Habitat was around? (Compute! knew it was a big deal, so it couldn't have been out of ignorance)
Hopping on an obvious bandwagon which everyone is already aware of is not "reporting" the "news". But then again, the NYT also just did a big story on Britney Spears' makeover -- so maybe it's just that they have no common sense or standards of what content, out of the constant turmoil going on in the world, should be included in their tabloid rag.
>Bnetd are your friends? They publish a public
>server to bypass the copy protection on Blizzard
>games and they're your friends?
and
> You can't log into BattleNet with a pirated
>CDkey, its pretty good copy protection.
How is that related to copying? It doesn't in ANY way make it easier to copy the game. What you could argue is that it (the protection system) prevents ACCESS to bnet. That is not a copy protection. You could for example not only copy the games, but also install and play them, just not the bnet mode.
What they did was basically to create a competing game server. Can't see the problem with that. Or perhaps you are the same type of guy who would argue that if I buy a VHS player from Sony, I should only be allowed to use it with tapes also from Sony. Or?
Wow, CrazyJim....You had quite the popularity back in those days. I don't recall the details, but somehow Agent911 springs to mind. Did you guys used to partner?
Do you play WoW? If so, which server?
And hell, why wouldn't you want Blizzard "listening in"?
Why wouldn't you want someone to search your house if you're not doing anything illegal? What have you got to hide crimi^H^H^H^H^Hcitizen?
Not to mention the fact someone might like to hack their version and play on a highly modded server... Oh, but I'm sorry, only rich guys in suits and ties have the right to create, and then only if it's for a profit.
Good. Fuck you and your lost respect.
Allowing people to play without a cd-key is a major 'oops' no matter what their intent was.