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How Pro Gaming Will Change World of Warcraft
1up has a piece looking at the impact that commercial support of WoW Arena teams might have on the game. There are already two teams backed with corporate money, both pulled from prominent PvP guilds in the Bloodlust battlegroup. "It's a challenge to pick teams to sponsor in WoW's PvP: 'The same team that may be ranked #2 or #3 in one Battlegroup may be ranked #1 in another," said Stephen Schoder of Check Six. "this makes the proposition of scouting out the right team more difficult than most other competitive eSports. The arena system in World of Warcraft is much more complicated than the simplistic FPS and RTS games in terms of being able to immediately pick up on what is going on.'"
I want to see corporate logos on their gear if they're getting sponsored. Heh.
Or character names that reflect it: "MountainDewMage" and "RedBullRogue."
C'mon, if you're going to commercialize something, let's go the whole way, people.
On the other hand... I hesitate to think about what would happen with the characters sponsored by Bawls.....
Technological competence assures no more intelligence than any other form, just more elitism.
In an RTS or FPS...Counterstrike, for example, the playing field is always even (or close to). Teams start out with the same cash, same basic pistols, and the same list of equipment options. Any advantage that one individual gains over another is pure skill, or blind dumb luck. And you can't really get rid of blind luck.
WoW, on the other hand, is an RPG, where victory often means having the right 'spec' (character build) or gear to beat your opponent. And this is not chosen at the start of the match, this is built up over months (or years!) of playing the game. You can be a better player than Jonny549, but he has that [Crown of Destruction] and full Teir 2 set while you don't, so the odds are atrificially stacked in his favor. Not because he's better, not because he's done better in previous rounds...but because he got lucky on a few loot drops or has more free time.
WoW is still an RPG, where gear and character builds can overcome skill. It's a horrible choice for competative play, especially with sponsors promoting the 'skill' of the victor.
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
This would make sense if PvP in WoW was actually skill based but it's entirely gear dependent. He who has the best gear wins; it's as simple as that. With a coralary (sp) rule that states among teams with equal gear, those whose timered abilities are up wins.
as you zone the areas in the text you see display will be
WESTERN PLAGUELANDS "we bring good things to life!" - GE®
MOLTEN CORE "obey your thirst" - Sprite®
IRONFORGE AUCTION HOUSE "what's in your wallet?" - Capital One®
WARSONG GULCH (pvp area) "Is It In You?" - Gatorade®
DUROTAR ZEPPLIN TOWER "The ultimate driving machine" - BMW®
This is just a result of the fact that, for a significant portion of the population, it takes so little effort to generate necessities that some means of justification to give people who aren't producing the necessities those necessities must arise.
Wow, that was a mouthful. Basically, in many countries it is so easy to produce food that not everyone needs to produce food. However, everyone still needs to consume food. So what happens is people decide they're willing to give people food if they do certain things. In this instance, people are willing to give gamers food in exchange for saying that they are playing the game because of the guy giving them food.
It's slightly more complex than that because monetary systems remove many activities quite far from actual food production, but the basic concept holds.
If it were much more difficult to produce food, you couldn't have this type of society, because nobody would be able to have enough extra food to just give to people for playing games. I'd say this is just a natural consequence of sufficient advances in farming and services trade.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
I don't pvp, I'm not into that style of play. But every time I run through STV, I stop by Gurubashi Arena just to watch players beat each other up over that stupid chest.
I wish Blizzard would develop a facility by which one could simply be a spectator at in the new arenas or the battlegrounds. Maybe create a special portal into these zones so you can see the action but not affect it.
Video games are a "sport" in the same way billiards, darts, horseshoes or fishing (river/lake) are sports. It's kind of on the boundary. These "sports" almost entirely consist of minimal physical exertion and rely mainly on hand-eye coordination. However, like video games that can require the player to think ahead and consider strategy or adjusting to local conditions (esp. fishing). Very few people ever get exhausted doing these activities. On the other hand, simply classifying them as "games" puts them in the same category as chess, checkers and poker, which is also a poor fit.
I propose we create a new category: gorts.
Or possibly "spomes."
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6167808.html
Clearly, being a top 10 game two years after launch is indication that "it's population is dropping like flies".
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