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World of Warcraft: AGC Keynote: Rob Pardo
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Rob Pardo, the VP of Game Design for Blizzard, spoke to the assembled audience at AGC for the keynote. Carolyn Koh reports.
| Rob Pardo gave an interesting keynote speech, describing the Blizzard game design philosophy which seemed like a no-brainer to a business major like me. But thats just it, isnt it? Its hard to practice what you preach unless this philosophy is embraced by everyone in the company. The simplest plans always seem to be the hardest to pull through.
They set their core target. Not the hard core gamers with bleeding edge technology in their gaming machines, but a wider, more general audience. They then set the system specs and designed for those specs accordingly. Wonder why the art of WoW is so stylized? Thats why. They designed for a look which would look cool and yet would not date quickly. They designed the art for longevity rather than whats hot now. Art that wouldnt take a computer with cutting edge components to run. |
More can be found here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
SWG RIP
moctodumegws
Can't WAIT!
I don't have a problem per se with releasing content polished and bug free. But 2 years without an expansion is too long in my book, especially when the post 60 game is a complete different creature all together, and nowhere as good as the first 60 levels. Other than that I have no problem with Blizzard's quality over quantity, lets just speed up the expansion releases just a tad.
Currently I'm waiting to continue with WoW once the expansion hits, but I must warn Blizzard, that other games on the horizon are beginning to look better, i.e. Vanguard and Lord of the Rings online, Conan too.
My point is they wouldn't look so enticing if I wasn't currently bored with WoW.
I have played elitist games, and I have played WOW. Both have things that make them fun. But Blizzard's approach has done more to add new gamers to MMORPG's then anyone expected. The simplicity is brilliant.
And whats up with this: "We want our players have a surpose to kill onsters?"
The beginning is really funny. You learn abaout the world,quests tell you a story. Up to level 20 or 30. And after? "Kill 30 mobs" "Bring me 40 XYZ"
Funny...really.....
I think their success was so great, that they lost the ground.
With the new cap of 25 man raids set for the expansion things are looking up.I personally dont have the time anymore to be a part of a hardcore 40 man raiding guild and would like to see more content that can be pick up raided.Being a veteran mmo player i understand your leetness is fleeding at best since with each expansions comes another new 2-3 sets of armor to go thru.Just isnt worth my time anymore unless it s fun and dosent seems like a second job.
The very fact that he was talking about how they designed the game from the ground up to attract the most subscribers, tells me that they care the most about their bottom line, not the players.
I wish they'd capped the new raid dungeons at 20 instead of 25, just seems like a more manageable. 25 is kind of a strange number for a raid.
I agree that after level 30-40 the novelty of the questing has worn off for the most part, and the types of objectives on most quests have gotten predictable and repetitive. I wish they had more story-driven questlines in the 40+ level range, ones that actually tied together and told an evolving story about the gameworld.
Also, the endgame level 60 solo content is almost non-existant. If you don't raid or PvP, you don't have much other than faction rep grinds. And I would point at ridiculously long grinds as further evidence that Blizzard designed the game more to keep people playing (and paying) than to keep it fun for the players, per se.
He says the casual non hardcore players were the target for wow and then goes on to likenn a donut to the hardcore and the frosting the casual players, which says to me Blizzard regard hard code as the majority and casual/non raiders as just the icing on the cake i.e. nice to have but not essential to the business.
To me, they seem to be stubburnly holding to the horrible premises of "raid or die" and "gear over everything".
Both are NOT premises liked or embraced by casual players.Yet game DEVs seem sworn to them with their very lives.
Well, if you aren't into PvP, and you don't raid, then what else is there to do at 60? Endless farming? Standing around IF? Duelling outside the IF entrance? Starting over on alts?
PvP and Raiding are the two main things designed into the game for 'the endgame' -- stuff for level 60's to do. I've seen a good number of people quit the game because they didn't particularly care for either, and got tired of re-rolling alts.
Well this transcript and Raph Koster's transcript of this speach confirm for me what others suspected, that WoW is just a massive bait and switch. I wish I could have read this before I started playing WoW as that donut model was what I was specfiically under the impression that Blizzard was NOT doing. I would never have bought the game or played it if I had been under the impression that I would be frosting and raider fodder.
I consider this design fundamentally dishonest. I used to give them the benefit of the doubt. I can honestly say Blizzard has earned my contempt and disgust.