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.'

Comments

Graphics

[Lobishomen]

The incredible thing about the World of Warcraft isn't how beautiful it looks, and it is beautiful. What I find amazing about the game is how fluid and eye catching it is with such low end hardware requirements. They really did an amazing job.

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.

Re:Graphics

[Chi Hsuan Men]

I did not pre-order this game as I had been completely put off by other MMORPG experiences, specifically DAoC, SWG, FFXI, and a free trial of AO. These games amounted (to me anyway) mindless grinds and felt more like work than anything else.

I was HEARING great things about WoW, but I was convincend that playing these other MMORPGs that I will feel the same way: suckered that I spent $50 on a game I hated after a week or two of playing.

So, I stayed away from WoW. I was hearing great things and was starting to cave in to the temptation of buying a copy. I was on the fence when I hear about the server issues due to player volume. When I finally decided I wanted to get the game, there were no copies to be found anywhere; however, a week later, a couple of copies appeared at Target, and I snapped them up.

For anyone who has played a MMORPG and liked the concept, but hated the gameplay, try WoW. You will love it. The only time I have felt like the game was a grind was because I actually was grinding my skills. The second I was tired of it, I just stopped, did a quest, and I was adventuring again.

This game is so good, it convinced two of my friends who are stalwart enemies of the pay-to-play MMORPG to start paying to play this game. If I was a movie producer, I would call the game a "MMORPG Morrowind", but even better than that.

I have experienced MINOR server outage problems; however, I do have a 9-5 job and have other hobbies besides gaming, so it's possible I don't experience the issues as much as "hardcore" players.

I cannot say enough good things about this game. It is the best RPG I have played since Baldur's Gate II. I never thought the MMORPG could be done this well.

Re:Graphics

[Sentry21]

And it should be pointed out that the server hardware problems were because they had planned for 600k users over the next year, and had fully expected to find bugs and bottlenecks in their code over the course of their increasing userbase.

Suddenly, they had all 600k users in a month, and they had a year of bugs and bottlenecks to fix immediately.

Honestly, I now see the reason for World Passes. FFXI was flawless (as much as one could expect) during it's NA PS2 launch.

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[Moby Cock]

What have they done that they are good again?

They released World of Warcraft.

Medivh's Tower!

[Godai]

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?

Re:WoW, EQ2, DAoC, et al vs. IGE.com -- when?

[sgant]

Actually, I see this as the "next big thing" in litigation.

First we had the RIAA going after Napster and Kaaza and others...can still get .mp3's but it's no where near as easy as it was with Napster.

Now we have the MPAA going after P2P bittorrent sites...fight not as easy as it was with Napster...but they're still throwing out lawsuits as fast as their little junior associates can print them off.

Next I belive the game companies are going to not only go after pirated games (already been doing this to mediocre success) but also going after IGE type companies and game cheaters and hackers like on Steam.

Will it work...probably as well as the others have done...meaning making a small dent yet not really doing much.

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[DarkBlack]

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.

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[bonzoesc]

"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:

Beauty is Truth, Truth; Beauty

[Dixie Flatliner]

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 =)

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[CrazyJim1]

"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.

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

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.