Remember about a month and a half ago when I made that flowchart on how to make money from the auction house? Turns out I still don't have a clue about what I'm doing.
I say this because since I made that flowchart I've made approximately 500 gold in game. That seems like a good chunk of change until I started comparing income with some other classmates. The amount of money they currently have is around 4,000 gold.
So much for my technique huh?
So our in-game assignment for the past week or so has been to manipulate the auction house and try and earn some money. I decided to take advantage of this project by experimenting with my selling style. I started out by buy some wool cloth from the auction house and selling it back at a higher price. Wool cloth was a safe investment because it's always in demand. This is because the cloth can be used to gain reputation with a faction, which allows players to buy and sell items at better prices as well as give them access to special faction specific items. So naturally, I made a decent earning from the cloth I sold. However, I was still unsatisfied with the profit I was making. So I tried something else.
My mage currently holds the professions of herbalism and alchemy. For those who don't know professions are skills characters can learn that allow them to make and sell special items using specific "ingredients." And sometimes these ingredients will sell for larges piles of money at the auction house. Since I had a surplus of herbs that I had yet to use, I tried selling some of those. Within a matter of minutes, a player had bought about 70 gold worth of herbs, which was about 3 times the amount I earned with buying and reselling wool. I immediately began farming some more herbs and made even more money. As for my alchemy profession, I tried selling the potions I had in my repertoire. Let's just say the results left something to be desired.
My experiments with the auction house have left me with a few questions. It was obvious to me that I should keep my herbalism profession because it seems to be making me a decent amount of money. But I'm not sure what to do about alchemy. The reason I picked it was because of how well it works with herbalism in terms of making potions, and supposedly the two professions become vital for mages once they start raiding full-time. But I'm nowhere near raiding level yet with this character, nor do I really plan on raiding for a while (that all really depends on how many people continue playing WoW on the ICAM server after this class is over). Therefore, taking on a more lucrative profession might be better for me.
But what about Lizezul, my main character? He has the same professions, and I plan on raiding a lot with him. And yet, he has less money right now than my ICAM character (although I did spend about 260 gold for Lizezul's flying mount). I'd like to at least say my main has more money than my alt, but leveling another profession at that level would take forever. Something tells me I still have a lot of experimenting to do in the auction house.
And yes, I still hate you Rachel. :p
Showing posts with label ICAM 120. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICAM 120. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
FOR THE HORDLIANNCE!
The latest assignment for ICAM 120 involved cross faction questing with classmates. This meant that we were supposed to complete quests with another person on our rival faction. And as with many sitcoms about two people who are polar opposites, hilarity ensued.The first player I grouped with was a classmate by the name of Tephillot. It was through this exercise that I learned how truly difficult Blizzard made it for players to help others in the other faction. The first obstacle was the fact that I could not actually form a group with Teph. In order to actually get any leveling done, we alternated on different quests we had. This often involved killing random creatures, and the first person to attack a mob gets the xp and the loot. As a result, Teph and I had to let the other attack first before we could even help defeat the creature.
And then there's the little fact that Tephillot wasn't protected from my spells. There were several instances where Teph or I were surrounded by creatures. When I'm in a situation like this I usually cast a spell that freezes enemies in place so I can back away and cast a large area of affect spell called blizzard. Unfortunately, when I first tried this method, poor Teph was also frozen and nearly died from my blizzard. I eventually adapted my play style to be more helpful after this incident. Other awkward moments included running away from NPCs who attacked us while the other play turned in a quest, random alliance people killing me before they knew what Teph and I were doing, or even an NPC I had to help on an escort mission chasing after Teph while I had to take down an elite creature by myself.
These are relatively small issues, but it makes me disappointed that Blizzard has put absolutely nothing in place to allow players to quest together across factions. I understand that the factions are designed to encourage PvP competition between players and it makes sense within the Warcraft lore. However, it also limits the possibilities of the virtual space, leaving players with less to do. Also, wouldn't one assume that even in Warcraft lore, there would be characters who could see past faction loyalty and work together towards the greater good for all (player characters, not the NPCs who actually do work together)? Just a thought.
MUDs and WoW
One of the first examples of online real-time virtual worlds were games called multi-user dungeons, or MUDs. These MUDs allowed users to play in a fantasy world in the same vein as games like Dungeons and Dragons, and are considered a precursor to MMORPGs. Despite the advent of games like World of Warcraft, some MUDs are still in operation today. One such MUD is the online game Dragonrealms, which is one of the oldest MUDs still hosting servers today. The biggest difference between a game like Dragonrealms and a game like WoW is the game’s interface. Dragonrealms, and MUDs in general, are entirely text-based. The game presents its world through descriptive text that forces the player to use their imagination. Likewise, every action the player can take must be correctly worded into specific command line arguments the game’s engine can decipher. While these design choices were understandable in times when computers were not powerful enough for color displays, the fact that Dragonrealms remains virtually untouched today is odd. The lack of a GUI gives the game a rather large learning curve as people learn the language and structure necessary to complete any task in the game. As a result the rate of failure in the game is much larger than in WoW. Also, the amount of detail used to describe a player’s location is often rather dense and confusing. Because the player has no visual aid to determine where he is, or where he needs to go, it’s easy to become lost amidst the text. These are all issues that do not exist in WoW thanks to the flow of the game, which is informed by its graphics.
The gameplay and social structure of both games is also incredibly different. World of Warcraft is a much more streamlined experience. The world is already defined through the game’s visuals, and NPCs only exist as merchants or quest givers. Players travel from one region to another, killing enemies, collecting items, and working with other players in order to level their characters. Because Dragonrealms does not have the advantage of pretty graphics, the NPCs play more of a narrative role, describing world elements and teaching the player how to play the game. Grinding in Dragonrealms is almost nonexistent. During my adventures I found no random monsters to fight and I was not forced to collect specific items. However, when I wasn’t grinding, I was struggling with how to squeeze important information from an NPC, so I was still spending ample amounts of time doing nothing.
Socially, WoW is a superior game. The game’s smart use of raids, and group quests encourages players to join together for a common goal. Even though Dragonrealms is a multi-user dungeon, there is little interaction with other players. Not once did I connect or chat with another player. The only clues I got that other players were online were occasional updates that a player entered a room, or was killed. To make matters worse, if I entered a room or town that was actually heavily populated, these updates would zoom past me in the game window, causing me to lose information about my location or what I was supposed to do next. And still nobody said a word to anyone else. It’s true Dragonrealms is WoW’s predecessor in many ways. But the problems found in the game are evident of a genre that desperately needed to evolve.
The gameplay and social structure of both games is also incredibly different. World of Warcraft is a much more streamlined experience. The world is already defined through the game’s visuals, and NPCs only exist as merchants or quest givers. Players travel from one region to another, killing enemies, collecting items, and working with other players in order to level their characters. Because Dragonrealms does not have the advantage of pretty graphics, the NPCs play more of a narrative role, describing world elements and teaching the player how to play the game. Grinding in Dragonrealms is almost nonexistent. During my adventures I found no random monsters to fight and I was not forced to collect specific items. However, when I wasn’t grinding, I was struggling with how to squeeze important information from an NPC, so I was still spending ample amounts of time doing nothing.
Socially, WoW is a superior game. The game’s smart use of raids, and group quests encourages players to join together for a common goal. Even though Dragonrealms is a multi-user dungeon, there is little interaction with other players. Not once did I connect or chat with another player. The only clues I got that other players were online were occasional updates that a player entered a room, or was killed. To make matters worse, if I entered a room or town that was actually heavily populated, these updates would zoom past me in the game window, causing me to lose information about my location or what I was supposed to do next. And still nobody said a word to anyone else. It’s true Dragonrealms is WoW’s predecessor in many ways. But the problems found in the game are evident of a genre that desperately needed to evolve.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Adventures in Azeroth #2: Traveling the World or Are We There Yet?
World of Warcraft's travel system sucks.
There's no way of getting around it; of all the critiques and praise I have for the game, traveling is one of the biggest complaints. It makes the game incredibly slow, in places where it really doesn't need to be slow. As a result, players become easily bored or fatigued because it takes forever to get anywhere. So why does Blizzard insist on keeping this system intact? I can think of a couple of reasons:
1. It adds to the game's atmosphere
There's a reason why the game is classified as a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Part of WoW's design philosophy is to simulate a living, breathing, massive world. When a player travels from place to place, they're not always traveling to the town down the road. Their journey takes them across three continents and another dimension. Making travel time between places long adds to the sense of scale the game is trying to build. Traveling from the top of a continent to the bottom shouldn't be instantaneous because it would make the player feel like each location is crammed next to each other.
Prolonging travel times also serves the purpose of showing off Blizzard's art design. Depending on one's mode of transportation, the game treats the player to some wonderfully done locales, each following a unique motif. This includes:
Dalaran's previous location in the Alterac Mountains complete with weird ethereal aura;
The alien and barren world of Outland with two moons (planets?) in the sky;
Or the Jurassic jungle of Un'Goro Crater where giant dinosaurs will try and eat you if you so much as look at them funny.
Of course Blizzard wants you to take your time and check out all the cool locations, so forcing a player to slowly explore each place allows them to really take in the scenery.
I understand that the game is pretty, and I get the fact that Azeroth is supposed to feel like an entire world. But here's the problem: the structure of the game undermines both of those design elements. Players must constantly backtrack to parts of the world in order to do quests, buy spells, run an instance, etc. If a player must travel to the same places over and over again, they will enjoy their scenic routes once, maybe twice. After that traveling becomes a chore. During long travel times, many players will surf the web, get a snack, or even play another game while they travel to their destination. I'm not trying to say WoW needs to do away with travel times altogether, but something needs to be done so this doesn't happen:
Yep. I'm guilty of that last one too.
2. Traveling as a reward system
Despite these complaints Blizzard does offer in-game items that expedite travel. Every player starts the game with an item called a hearthstone, which allows players to instantly travel to whatever town they've designated as their home. This can reduce travel times between places dramatically if used correctly. Likewise, mages can eventually learn to teleport themselves and others to their faction's capital cities which is especially useful when a player needs to run errands like buying spells or making posts to the auction house.
The mount system also allows players to buy transportation that lets players travel across the world at a much faster pace. As a player levels they can purchase faster mounts as well as ones that fly. Some players also have the opportunity to earn mounts specific to their class or profession. For example, engineers can build a motorcycle complete with a side car so friends can travel with you:
With options like summoning spells, flight points, and mounts, traveling through the game shouldn't be that much of a problem right? Then why does it still take forever for me to get anywhere?
One night some fellow ICAM students and I decided to run an instance with each other. The problem was that we were all spread out across the world. I was on another continent and my hearthstone was not set to the continent I needed to be on. Another person had to walk there because he already used his hearthstone, and hearthstones can only be used once every 30 minutes. To make matters worse, he didn't have the correct flight point for our meet-up. Finally, nobody in our group had mounts at that time and nobody had learned group summoning spells yet. We couldn't summon everyone together until one person made it to the summoning stone just outside of the instance we weren't at. We lost 20-30 minutes of our play time simply because getting everyone to the proper destination was a convoluted mess.
The issue is that these fast travel items are practically useless because of the limitations placed on them. Yes you can instantly transport yourself to a capital and yes your epic flying mount can travel 3.8 times your walking speed, but there's always a catch. These limitations are supposed to balance out travel times but when five players all have a limitation on their mobility and are separated by continents if not planets, then getting anywhere in the World of Warcraft is painstakingly slow.
I just think there is something very wrong with the fact that you can be riding a bear who's driving a motorcycle and it still takes forever to get to your destination:
Plus the damn murlocs are always trying to bum a free ride.
There's no way of getting around it; of all the critiques and praise I have for the game, traveling is one of the biggest complaints. It makes the game incredibly slow, in places where it really doesn't need to be slow. As a result, players become easily bored or fatigued because it takes forever to get anywhere. So why does Blizzard insist on keeping this system intact? I can think of a couple of reasons:
1. It adds to the game's atmosphere
There's a reason why the game is classified as a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Part of WoW's design philosophy is to simulate a living, breathing, massive world. When a player travels from place to place, they're not always traveling to the town down the road. Their journey takes them across three continents and another dimension. Making travel time between places long adds to the sense of scale the game is trying to build. Traveling from the top of a continent to the bottom shouldn't be instantaneous because it would make the player feel like each location is crammed next to each other.Prolonging travel times also serves the purpose of showing off Blizzard's art design. Depending on one's mode of transportation, the game treats the player to some wonderfully done locales, each following a unique motif. This includes:
Dalaran's previous location in the Alterac Mountains complete with weird ethereal aura;
The alien and barren world of Outland with two moons (planets?) in the sky;
Or the Jurassic jungle of Un'Goro Crater where giant dinosaurs will try and eat you if you so much as look at them funny.Of course Blizzard wants you to take your time and check out all the cool locations, so forcing a player to slowly explore each place allows them to really take in the scenery.
I understand that the game is pretty, and I get the fact that Azeroth is supposed to feel like an entire world. But here's the problem: the structure of the game undermines both of those design elements. Players must constantly backtrack to parts of the world in order to do quests, buy spells, run an instance, etc. If a player must travel to the same places over and over again, they will enjoy their scenic routes once, maybe twice. After that traveling becomes a chore. During long travel times, many players will surf the web, get a snack, or even play another game while they travel to their destination. I'm not trying to say WoW needs to do away with travel times altogether, but something needs to be done so this doesn't happen:
Yep. I'm guilty of that last one too.2. Traveling as a reward system
Despite these complaints Blizzard does offer in-game items that expedite travel. Every player starts the game with an item called a hearthstone, which allows players to instantly travel to whatever town they've designated as their home. This can reduce travel times between places dramatically if used correctly. Likewise, mages can eventually learn to teleport themselves and others to their faction's capital cities which is especially useful when a player needs to run errands like buying spells or making posts to the auction house.The mount system also allows players to buy transportation that lets players travel across the world at a much faster pace. As a player levels they can purchase faster mounts as well as ones that fly. Some players also have the opportunity to earn mounts specific to their class or profession. For example, engineers can build a motorcycle complete with a side car so friends can travel with you:
With options like summoning spells, flight points, and mounts, traveling through the game shouldn't be that much of a problem right? Then why does it still take forever for me to get anywhere?One night some fellow ICAM students and I decided to run an instance with each other. The problem was that we were all spread out across the world. I was on another continent and my hearthstone was not set to the continent I needed to be on. Another person had to walk there because he already used his hearthstone, and hearthstones can only be used once every 30 minutes. To make matters worse, he didn't have the correct flight point for our meet-up. Finally, nobody in our group had mounts at that time and nobody had learned group summoning spells yet. We couldn't summon everyone together until one person made it to the summoning stone just outside of the instance we weren't at. We lost 20-30 minutes of our play time simply because getting everyone to the proper destination was a convoluted mess.
The issue is that these fast travel items are practically useless because of the limitations placed on them. Yes you can instantly transport yourself to a capital and yes your epic flying mount can travel 3.8 times your walking speed, but there's always a catch. These limitations are supposed to balance out travel times but when five players all have a limitation on their mobility and are separated by continents if not planets, then getting anywhere in the World of Warcraft is painstakingly slow.
I just think there is something very wrong with the fact that you can be riding a bear who's driving a motorcycle and it still takes forever to get to your destination:
Plus the damn murlocs are always trying to bum a free ride.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Adventures in Azeroth #1.5: Revisiting the Past or I Remember Doing the Time Warp
Because of this ICAM class I'm taking, I've been forced to start a new WoW character again at level 1. There is one big difference I've noticed this time around though: I actually know what I'm doing. Leveling has been much easier than it was the first time I played the game. Part of this is because Blizzard has made the first 10-20 levels easier to play, but the other half is thanks to the knowledge I've gained in leveling a character all the way to 61. I now understand important in-game concepts like aggro management, talent specialization, and how to work in team situations. As a result, I die substantially less than I did when I was just starting. Also, starting from scratch has taught me to appreciate the usefulness of later spells. I went 20 levels before I acquired my blink spell, and you have no idea how much I hated not being able to distance myself from enemies so quickly. I can definitely appreciate seeing how much my skill has improved over the course of 41 levels.
Of course, none of this is really surprising. One of leveling's purposes (aside from making you pay more money to play the game) is to teach you how to play the game. Once you understand the rules it's easy to start over again. That being said, despite the fact I'm 61, I still have 19 levels of learning left to do. However, I'm curious about what these observations say about the way the game encourages or discourages types of interaction. If a person is completely new to the game, is it better or worse if everyone around them knows what they're doing? Will they learn from their elders, or is there some important element they miss out on by not learning the system themselves?
I don't think this would matter so much if the ratio of new players to old players making alts wasn't so one-sided. Playing with a group of noobs would offer a rare chance at group exploration. Not only would they not know where to travel or what the best plan of attack is, but they could all learn this information together and have a stronger social connection with each other. Having a WoW veteran simply telling you where everything is or explaining the rules to you loses some of the magic of finding things out for yourself. Everyone makes a new character eventually, but it'd be nice if the players that were actually new had a chance to make their own WoW experiences instead of bumming someone else's.
Of course, none of this is really surprising. One of leveling's purposes (aside from making you pay more money to play the game) is to teach you how to play the game. Once you understand the rules it's easy to start over again. That being said, despite the fact I'm 61, I still have 19 levels of learning left to do. However, I'm curious about what these observations say about the way the game encourages or discourages types of interaction. If a person is completely new to the game, is it better or worse if everyone around them knows what they're doing? Will they learn from their elders, or is there some important element they miss out on by not learning the system themselves?
I don't think this would matter so much if the ratio of new players to old players making alts wasn't so one-sided. Playing with a group of noobs would offer a rare chance at group exploration. Not only would they not know where to travel or what the best plan of attack is, but they could all learn this information together and have a stronger social connection with each other. Having a WoW veteran simply telling you where everything is or explaining the rules to you loses some of the magic of finding things out for yourself. Everyone makes a new character eventually, but it'd be nice if the players that were actually new had a chance to make their own WoW experiences instead of bumming someone else's.
Auction House Flowchart
I've never fully understood how to earn my virtual fortune from WoW's auction house. I typically just put the item I want to sell through the auctioneer addon, and it does all the guess work for me. However, a quick look through the WoW wiki provided me with some basic tips on how to buy and sell efficiently at the auction house. I took the key points of these articles and created a simply flowchart to illustrate proper AH use.
If you'd like more advanced tips and tricks on how to make lots of WoW gold I strongly suggest you check out these links from the WoW wiki: Auction House; Auction Guide; Working the Auction House; Guide to making money.
Or you could always just ask Rachel for help because she's already made over 300g in the auction house.
I hate you Rachel. :p
If you'd like more advanced tips and tricks on how to make lots of WoW gold I strongly suggest you check out these links from the WoW wiki: Auction House; Auction Guide; Working the Auction House; Guide to making money.
Or you could always just ask Rachel for help because she's already made over 300g in the auction house.
I hate you Rachel. :p
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
On Simulacra and Simulations
The following is a response to this reading. If you're not in ICAM 120 none of this will make sense unless you read that article.
In general, Baudrillard discusses the way in which simulation has taken the place of reality. The idea is that a simulation either reflects reality, or masks it. If the purpose of a simulation is to mask reality then the simulation, as well as the values and rules it expresses, becomes the reality. Suddenly the real world is ignored or in some extreme cases wiped out completely. Baudrillard uses Disneyland as an example of a simulated reality in which it's influence on American culture and society has become part of the American value system. Likewise, he claims that Watergate is only a scandal because of the way society tacks on beliefs and value systems.
Naturally, these ideas translate to virtual worlds. Second Life and World of Warcraft act on some level as a reality for users. The avatar a player makes, regardless of the game, is a simulacra of the player. It does not represent who the player is, but is an effigy of what the player wishes to be. And given the anonymity granted to the player, a person can truly live in the simulation as a unique entity.
One of the most important aspects of World of Warcraft's design is its scale. The size of the world requires players to spend hours traversing it in multiple ways. It may be tedious, but traveling in this way adds to the "reality" of the simulation.
In general, Baudrillard discusses the way in which simulation has taken the place of reality. The idea is that a simulation either reflects reality, or masks it. If the purpose of a simulation is to mask reality then the simulation, as well as the values and rules it expresses, becomes the reality. Suddenly the real world is ignored or in some extreme cases wiped out completely. Baudrillard uses Disneyland as an example of a simulated reality in which it's influence on American culture and society has become part of the American value system. Likewise, he claims that Watergate is only a scandal because of the way society tacks on beliefs and value systems.
Naturally, these ideas translate to virtual worlds. Second Life and World of Warcraft act on some level as a reality for users. The avatar a player makes, regardless of the game, is a simulacra of the player. It does not represent who the player is, but is an effigy of what the player wishes to be. And given the anonymity granted to the player, a person can truly live in the simulation as a unique entity.
One of the most important aspects of World of Warcraft's design is its scale. The size of the world requires players to spend hours traversing it in multiple ways. It may be tedious, but traveling in this way adds to the "reality" of the simulation.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
THIS BLOG HAS BEEN HIJACKED!
Hey everyone.
Just a quick heads up: This quarter I'll be taking a class on Virtual Environments, and part of the required work is that I make blog posts about readings as well as my time spent in virtual environments like World of Warcraft and Second Life. So expect an influx on blog posts about that subject over the next 10 weeks. Any blog posts related to that class will be marked with the tag ICAM 120.
That is all.
Just a quick heads up: This quarter I'll be taking a class on Virtual Environments, and part of the required work is that I make blog posts about readings as well as my time spent in virtual environments like World of Warcraft and Second Life. So expect an influx on blog posts about that subject over the next 10 weeks. Any blog posts related to that class will be marked with the tag ICAM 120.
That is all.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Adventures in Azeroth #1: The Metagames of Warcraft or YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE GAMES!
How does one play an MMORPG? For World of Warcraft (and most MMOs), the answer seems simple enough. Starting at level 1, players are immediately told that if they wish to grow in power they must complete quests and kill things. Once you reach the level cap, a player has some options. They can choose to join with groups of about 20 players to go kill end world bosses together, play games like Capture the Flag and King of the Hill against rival factions, or hone their professional craft skills in order to make their virtual fortune by selling their goods to other players.
But what about the times when a player doesn't want to do any of that? How do they play the game when they're not actually playing the game? Being in a guild like The Knights of Arcadia (KoA), I found that the social nature of players inevitably leads to the creation of random games and events specific to that guild.
Some of those activities take advantage of what's already programmed into the game. For example, guild members will occasionally head towards a major in-game town for an impromptu dance party. As you may (or may not) have guessed, pants are optional at these dances. Naturally, I decided to follow tradition.
And yes I also dance with my pet turtle between my legs. That's just how I roll.
This was one of the first events I participated in after joining the guild, and it gave me a chance to meet some of the guild members I was not previously familiar with from the real world.
In general dancing in WoW seems to be quite popular for some reason. When guild members hold a "Pants Off Dance Off," many players passing through the town will stop and join in the festivities for a while before returning to their previous tasks. Even when I'm questing, I'll occasionally find a group of players dancing. Sometimes they'll be wearing pants, and sometimes they'll be dancing on the top of a light post. Oh, and the players will also be transformed into bears.
I'm not quite sure how three bears even get up to the top of a lamp post in the first place.
Another aspect of play built into the world mechanics is the various novelty items found within the game. At this year's Comic-Con, my friend Mathne won a free in-game item that was essentially an ethereal tiger designed to look like one of those sandbox animal rides you see in playgrounds at public parks. He brought it out for the entire guild and we all took turns riding it.
Needless to say, I think we had more fun with it than we should have.
There are also a number of items players can toss to each other. While the first thought that comes to mind is players can play catch with these items, my friend Karami came up with a better idea.
She and a few guild members would take turns holding a snowball, while the players without snowballs went to hide. The ball holder would look for the other players and throw the ball to the first person they found. The person tagged with the ball would then hunt for everyone else in the next round. It's basically hide-and-seek with magic, but the game would occasionally be structured in a way so that there was a point system. I should also note that Karami is a rouge and has the ability to turn pseudo-invisible.
Of course players who aren't rogues see this as an unfair advantage and will pelt poor Karami with snowballs whenever they get a chance.
So what does this all say about World of Warcraft as a game? Is the fact that players tend to create their own form of fun within the game a sign of poor game design? After all, why even bother playing the game if you're just going to sit and make your avatar dance all the time. I think that opinion of the game is a bit shallow in its analysis. It forgets how social WoW and many other so called "virtual worlds" are. One of the reasons many people play WoW is for the social aspect of the game. People enjoy doing things with other people, whether it be doing a dungeon raid on the latest boss, or dancing in Ironforge. The difference between those two events is that dancing is less structured than a raid and allows players to just relax and socialize with other players.
Another way to look at WoW is from a virtual world point of view. If a virtual world is supposed to simulate a real world lifestyle in a fantastical setting, then why shouldn't its inhabitants have some downtime in between epic journeys and fights against the forces of evil? Even in a fictional world like Middle Earth, Theoden and party still had time to have a couple pints before they journeyed to Gondor's aid. The point is, even in a virtual world that's centered around conflict, people will still (and should) find time to relax and play with friends.
However, there are some games that might actually suggest parts of the game are poorly designed. These games come in the form of third party add-ons that players can install in their game's GUI. One of the biggest ones? A WoW themed version of Popcap Games's casual hit Peggle:
The idea behind the Peggle add-on is that it gives players something to do on long flying mount rides across a continent or while they're waiting for their raid to start. Raid leaders can even use the game as a way of deciding who earns loot at the end of a boss fight.
While I like the idea of using Peggle as a loot divvying tool, playing the game because of waiting times inherently placed in the game definitely suggests there is a problem with some of WoW's mechanics. The game already provides players with items and animations for making their own fun, so why is a game that comes from outside of the world necessary to make the game fun? If a player is so bored that they have to play a different type of game inside of a game, then Blizzard might want to look at how to keep such a situation from happening.
Next Time on Adventures in Azeroth: Traveling the World(s)!
But what about the times when a player doesn't want to do any of that? How do they play the game when they're not actually playing the game? Being in a guild like The Knights of Arcadia (KoA), I found that the social nature of players inevitably leads to the creation of random games and events specific to that guild.
Some of those activities take advantage of what's already programmed into the game. For example, guild members will occasionally head towards a major in-game town for an impromptu dance party. As you may (or may not) have guessed, pants are optional at these dances. Naturally, I decided to follow tradition.
And yes I also dance with my pet turtle between my legs. That's just how I roll.
This was one of the first events I participated in after joining the guild, and it gave me a chance to meet some of the guild members I was not previously familiar with from the real world.
In general dancing in WoW seems to be quite popular for some reason. When guild members hold a "Pants Off Dance Off," many players passing through the town will stop and join in the festivities for a while before returning to their previous tasks. Even when I'm questing, I'll occasionally find a group of players dancing. Sometimes they'll be wearing pants, and sometimes they'll be dancing on the top of a light post. Oh, and the players will also be transformed into bears.
I'm not quite sure how three bears even get up to the top of a lamp post in the first place.
Another aspect of play built into the world mechanics is the various novelty items found within the game. At this year's Comic-Con, my friend Mathne won a free in-game item that was essentially an ethereal tiger designed to look like one of those sandbox animal rides you see in playgrounds at public parks. He brought it out for the entire guild and we all took turns riding it.
Needless to say, I think we had more fun with it than we should have.
There are also a number of items players can toss to each other. While the first thought that comes to mind is players can play catch with these items, my friend Karami came up with a better idea.
She and a few guild members would take turns holding a snowball, while the players without snowballs went to hide. The ball holder would look for the other players and throw the ball to the first person they found. The person tagged with the ball would then hunt for everyone else in the next round. It's basically hide-and-seek with magic, but the game would occasionally be structured in a way so that there was a point system. I should also note that Karami is a rouge and has the ability to turn pseudo-invisible.
Of course players who aren't rogues see this as an unfair advantage and will pelt poor Karami with snowballs whenever they get a chance.
So what does this all say about World of Warcraft as a game? Is the fact that players tend to create their own form of fun within the game a sign of poor game design? After all, why even bother playing the game if you're just going to sit and make your avatar dance all the time. I think that opinion of the game is a bit shallow in its analysis. It forgets how social WoW and many other so called "virtual worlds" are. One of the reasons many people play WoW is for the social aspect of the game. People enjoy doing things with other people, whether it be doing a dungeon raid on the latest boss, or dancing in Ironforge. The difference between those two events is that dancing is less structured than a raid and allows players to just relax and socialize with other players.
Another way to look at WoW is from a virtual world point of view. If a virtual world is supposed to simulate a real world lifestyle in a fantastical setting, then why shouldn't its inhabitants have some downtime in between epic journeys and fights against the forces of evil? Even in a fictional world like Middle Earth, Theoden and party still had time to have a couple pints before they journeyed to Gondor's aid. The point is, even in a virtual world that's centered around conflict, people will still (and should) find time to relax and play with friends.
However, there are some games that might actually suggest parts of the game are poorly designed. These games come in the form of third party add-ons that players can install in their game's GUI. One of the biggest ones? A WoW themed version of Popcap Games's casual hit Peggle:
The idea behind the Peggle add-on is that it gives players something to do on long flying mount rides across a continent or while they're waiting for their raid to start. Raid leaders can even use the game as a way of deciding who earns loot at the end of a boss fight.
While I like the idea of using Peggle as a loot divvying tool, playing the game because of waiting times inherently placed in the game definitely suggests there is a problem with some of WoW's mechanics. The game already provides players with items and animations for making their own fun, so why is a game that comes from outside of the world necessary to make the game fun? If a player is so bored that they have to play a different type of game inside of a game, then Blizzard might want to look at how to keep such a situation from happening.
Next Time on Adventures in Azeroth: Traveling the World(s)!
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