During Blizzcon I somehow had the feeling as if the wrong questions were asked and the few good ones have been answered with some kind of this-is-a-party mentality.
Here are a few questions that I think should have been asked and should have been given an extensive answer, also in Blizzards own interest.
1) Why are old raid instances not tuned down (considerably) and used for leveling players? Shouldn't players who quest in Outland also experience the end of that story?
2) Why do you think that there is an optimal time to max level and not an optimal leveling speed?
3) Is the fact that low level enchantments are used only by PvP-twinks working as intended?
4) How important do you consider PvP before max level?
5) Have you ever considered introducing a tutorial to WoW instead of reducing the difficulty of the first few levels to take into account that
6) What are the three most important factors for WoWs success in your opinion? How important do you consider the raiding game for the success of the overall game from 2005 up to now?
7) How do you explain that Wow grew the fastest while only an insignificant minority of players raided?
8) Why are all dungeons in WoW designed to take 30min with appropiate gear and all BGs to take 20min? Why do almost all level 80 mobs have 12600 health? Do you think WoW could profit from more variety?
9) Does Blizzard employ psychologists to determine player reactions to things like, anonymous Dungeon Finders, the Tx => T(x+1) gear mechanism or items / mechanisms that increase leveling speed by increasing experience gain?
10) One of your 'mission statements' is "gameplay first". Do you consider gameplay and the feeling of a virtual world to be contradictory?
11) What is your target audience in terms of age?
12) Do you consider it worthwhile to investigate ways of reacting to external information sources (e.g. Elitist Jerks, WoWiki) in addition to including all possible information in the client (e.g. boss abilities)?
13) In your opinion, are there parts of classic or TBC WoW that are better than WotLK. Could you name a few?
14) How interesting do you consider WoW as an economics simulation? Do you consider it worthwhile to extend this part of the game?
15) Is your upcoming MMO meant to copy WoW or do you try to diversify your MMO portfolio?
16) Do you think that players' focus on dps is a result of the necessity for top-dps throughout the current content, or a result of the lack of other challenges for DDs? Do you have an alternative explanation?
17) From a game developers point of view: What are the advantages / disadvantages of a RNG-based loot distribution mechanic in comparison to a point-based scheme?
18) Are there plans to make the official forums more constructive? For example with points that are given to constructive posters, by blue only?
Here are a few questions that I think should have been asked and should have been given an extensive answer, also in Blizzards own interest.
1) Why are old raid instances not tuned down (considerably) and used for leveling players? Shouldn't players who quest in Outland also experience the end of that story?
2) Why do you think that there is an optimal time to max level and not an optimal leveling speed?
3) Is the fact that low level enchantments are used only by PvP-twinks working as intended?
4) How important do you consider PvP before max level?
5) Have you ever considered introducing a tutorial to WoW instead of reducing the difficulty of the first few levels to take into account that
- some new players misinterpret the 'this item will be soulbound' as 'I will never be able to unequipp it'
- some new players do not get that they can cast from range.
- ...
6) What are the three most important factors for WoWs success in your opinion? How important do you consider the raiding game for the success of the overall game from 2005 up to now?
7) How do you explain that Wow grew the fastest while only an insignificant minority of players raided?
8) Why are all dungeons in WoW designed to take 30min with appropiate gear and all BGs to take 20min? Why do almost all level 80 mobs have 12600 health? Do you think WoW could profit from more variety?
9) Does Blizzard employ psychologists to determine player reactions to things like, anonymous Dungeon Finders, the Tx => T(x+1) gear mechanism or items / mechanisms that increase leveling speed by increasing experience gain?
10) One of your 'mission statements' is "gameplay first". Do you consider gameplay and the feeling of a virtual world to be contradictory?
11) What is your target audience in terms of age?
12) Do you consider it worthwhile to investigate ways of reacting to external information sources (e.g. Elitist Jerks, WoWiki) in addition to including all possible information in the client (e.g. boss abilities)?
13) In your opinion, are there parts of classic or TBC WoW that are better than WotLK. Could you name a few?
14) How interesting do you consider WoW as an economics simulation? Do you consider it worthwhile to extend this part of the game?
15) Is your upcoming MMO meant to copy WoW or do you try to diversify your MMO portfolio?
16) Do you think that players' focus on dps is a result of the necessity for top-dps throughout the current content, or a result of the lack of other challenges for DDs? Do you have an alternative explanation?
17) From a game developers point of view: What are the advantages / disadvantages of a RNG-based loot distribution mechanic in comparison to a point-based scheme?
18) Are there plans to make the official forums more constructive? For example with points that are given to constructive posters, by blue only?
Some interesting questions there; I wish I knew the answers. Except for #16, because the developers would never admit to "copying" WoW, even if their new game were to be similar. :P
ReplyDeleteOh, and as for #5, WoW does have a tutorial these days, with lots of pop-up screens telling you how to move, interact with the world and so on. Not sure whether it covers everything you'd like to have in it, but it's definitely there.
all good questions, most of them i would consider a trade secret ;-)
ReplyDeleteso no wonder they're left unanswered.
Amai,
ReplyDeleteif everything that is considered related to the success of WoW is considered a 'trade secret' and something Blizzard does not want to talk about, I'd call them paranoid and acting against their own long term interest.