A few interesting things happened this past week that caused a lot of predictable outcry in the community.
For one, they're taking my keys. Count me among the people who went a little bit off-the-rails at the news, not that I would stoop low enough to write lengthy comments on WoW news sites or anything, but I was a little miffed. See, I'm a Keymaster. I loved collecting keys, I loved that stupid achievement they took away, and I really did think the keyring was a fantastic little helper. It bothers me that they're going to dump keys that may or may not still have some use into my already over-crowded inventory, making me have to make the decision between keeping them for sentimental value or throwing them out when they were, to my mind, just fine where they'd been. But I suppose Blizzard know their messed up database the best and if it helps them get those damn tabards out of my bank, bring on the key-pocalypse.
The other thing, of course, is the announcement of 4.2 nerfs for tier 11 raids. There's a lot of talk, but this one is a change I whole-heartedly embrace. Don't get me wrong, I have high hopes my guild, with new, enthusiastic members strengthening our ranks, will manage to get that Defender title before then, but this change is great not just for casual guilds but for people who may, despite their best efforts, have not been able to do it until now.
You see, accessibility is not just about "casuals" or "bads". I've seen those two words thrown around a lot by people who should know better. Hardcore progression raiding guilds can and do choose their players for min-max reasons and will bench someone if they can't perform to highest standards and that's fine for them. If you want to be World First you have to be ruthless and performance must come before personality, unless the personality affects the performance of that player or the whole raid detrimentally.
But most raiders are not in it for hardcore progression. They want to experience the content, even face and defeat a tough challenge, but they want to do so with a set group of people they happen to like. For most players, personality and guild atmosphere comes first, and that's fine, too. In that case, however, a raid encounter needs to be more forgiving of individual situations.
My personal reaction time in a go/no-go situation (basic psychological reaction time to a stimulus being present or not present and pushing a button accordingly) is pretty good. With little distraction and a bit of tunnel vision I can get to around 300ms on a good day and barely miss. Older people, people more easily distracted, people with a lot of unavoidable distractions in their environment, or people who simply have worse brain function in that regard can have reaction times up to 700ms and more and miss more often. Having a construction site under your window isn't something you can just train yourself out of either. There is a lot of variability just in the base ability to see a thing happening and telling your fingers to move you out of the way, half a second between your best player and your worst, if they're both concentrating as hard as they can.
Then there comes the variability of gaming machines and internet connections. Not everyone can afford dedicated broadband or a personalized high-end gaming rig. Some people have to steal their time for WoW after a hard day of work on an off-the shelf all-round system that plays the game only sluggishly with most of the effects turned off, but they play anyway because WoW provides them with some enjoyment and they like to spend some time with their friends. Don't be the raid-leader who sits out a raider for being working class, that's just crass. There are people playing on shoddy connections that can't change it if they wanted to, maybe because they're in countries or regions that are still mostly dial-up dependent, maybe because their service provider is the only one around and can afford to mess them around with little to no repercussions. Seriously, who wants to be the raid-leader sitting out a guy or gal serving in the military abroad?
Making the current content more accessible and less punishing for random disconnects, slower reaction times, high lag spikes or lower levels of concentration is, in my mind, an entirely necessary step to make WoW enjoyable for everyone. Raiding shouldn't be just for the elite, there's too much effort and content creation involved that otherwise most people would never see. It's only fair to give everyone a shot. The encounters still won't be free loot, but at least now a high latency day for one of our raiders isn't going to make for three hours of frustration.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
You want me to pay for WHAT now?
Every once in a while Blizzard, the minds behind the MMO behemoth World of Warcraft, make a public announcement that turns my insides into a tight ball of do not want. This is one of them. (Cross-realm grouping for dungeons is coming, but for a price.)
Don't get me wrong, I think the functionality, as limited as it appears to be, is long overdue. In fact, Blizzard's desperate clinging to the server and region models in the past has been a source of frustration for me. I played Guild Wars before I played World of Warcraft and the ability to hop between servers and later between regions at no extra charge was one of the things that still makes it my favorite online game. In World of Warcraft, I often feel boxed in and limited. I can't play with most of my online friends because they're all on US servers. I can't play with some of my old friends because they've long since changed servers.
True, I could pay a rather ridiculous amount of money for a server transfer and also maintain a second account on US realms, doubling my monthly costs and also adding a good chunk of one-time fees. I'd consider doing it for a fraction of the cost, but Blizzard's idea of premium service has always been over the top for me. 20€ for a vanity mount or 10€ for a vanity pet are one thing, but the transfer cost for characters that doesn't even include a race change is prohibitive, especially since there will never be a bulk option that allows me to take all my beloved alts with me without bankrupting me in the process.
This new development might actually make things a little bit easier for people like me. I'll still be stuck on the 4:1 outnumbered faction side of a PvP server that gives me an ulcer every time I try to just play the game where other players might be around (like quest hubs after the release of a patch or expansion or Tol Barad Peninsula), there's still the lifeless economy, but it is fairly quiet and getting the raw materials for my professions is only a matter of time, not competition. Re-Connecting with my old friends from other servers without the giant hurdle of a server transfer would be fantastic.
Unfortunately, the feature as it is suggested seems a lackluster effort and my experience with Blizzard pricing schemes doesn't give me much hope. There won't be any cross-faction grouping, so that already cuts down half of its utility for me. I also still won't have access to friends from other regions and that's another big drawback that makes the features less attractive. If those things were included, I'd seriously consider paying an additional fee - not a full monthly subscription on top but maybe as much as 3-5€ if it also included the current premium features like mobile auction house and guild chat.
I have long since wondered why Blizzard is so adamant about sticking to the realm system. Sure, with their high pricing there's money to be made in unbalanced realms because people will at some point feel like abandoning the sinking ship is the only way not to drown. They talk about realm community, sense of community, a homey feel to the world, but that holds true for only a small percentage of servers and players. Most will find that community starts with friends they already have and ends in guilds and out-of-game communities. And they've begun to enable that with the dungeon finder tool, RealID, and the intention to make heirloom items, for example, capable of being mailed cross-server. They've responded to the clear need of the community for a more fluid system, they know that's what the future holds, but they're dragging it out and claiming developmental or procedural difficulties.
Let's get real here, is the code for WoW that much of a hot mess? I honestly doubt it. They are a business that wants to make a lot of money, and I suppose that's fine. More power to them. But as a customer I have the right to be disgruntled, too, and this is just one more thing that rankles.
Don't get me wrong, I think the functionality, as limited as it appears to be, is long overdue. In fact, Blizzard's desperate clinging to the server and region models in the past has been a source of frustration for me. I played Guild Wars before I played World of Warcraft and the ability to hop between servers and later between regions at no extra charge was one of the things that still makes it my favorite online game. In World of Warcraft, I often feel boxed in and limited. I can't play with most of my online friends because they're all on US servers. I can't play with some of my old friends because they've long since changed servers.
True, I could pay a rather ridiculous amount of money for a server transfer and also maintain a second account on US realms, doubling my monthly costs and also adding a good chunk of one-time fees. I'd consider doing it for a fraction of the cost, but Blizzard's idea of premium service has always been over the top for me. 20€ for a vanity mount or 10€ for a vanity pet are one thing, but the transfer cost for characters that doesn't even include a race change is prohibitive, especially since there will never be a bulk option that allows me to take all my beloved alts with me without bankrupting me in the process.
This new development might actually make things a little bit easier for people like me. I'll still be stuck on the 4:1 outnumbered faction side of a PvP server that gives me an ulcer every time I try to just play the game where other players might be around (like quest hubs after the release of a patch or expansion or Tol Barad Peninsula), there's still the lifeless economy, but it is fairly quiet and getting the raw materials for my professions is only a matter of time, not competition. Re-Connecting with my old friends from other servers without the giant hurdle of a server transfer would be fantastic.
Unfortunately, the feature as it is suggested seems a lackluster effort and my experience with Blizzard pricing schemes doesn't give me much hope. There won't be any cross-faction grouping, so that already cuts down half of its utility for me. I also still won't have access to friends from other regions and that's another big drawback that makes the features less attractive. If those things were included, I'd seriously consider paying an additional fee - not a full monthly subscription on top but maybe as much as 3-5€ if it also included the current premium features like mobile auction house and guild chat.
I have long since wondered why Blizzard is so adamant about sticking to the realm system. Sure, with their high pricing there's money to be made in unbalanced realms because people will at some point feel like abandoning the sinking ship is the only way not to drown. They talk about realm community, sense of community, a homey feel to the world, but that holds true for only a small percentage of servers and players. Most will find that community starts with friends they already have and ends in guilds and out-of-game communities. And they've begun to enable that with the dungeon finder tool, RealID, and the intention to make heirloom items, for example, capable of being mailed cross-server. They've responded to the clear need of the community for a more fluid system, they know that's what the future holds, but they're dragging it out and claiming developmental or procedural difficulties.
Let's get real here, is the code for WoW that much of a hot mess? I honestly doubt it. They are a business that wants to make a lot of money, and I suppose that's fine. More power to them. But as a customer I have the right to be disgruntled, too, and this is just one more thing that rankles.
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