Lessons to learn from Warcraft

C-Junkie · 2005-06-24T18:09:56

edit: note: this is a primarily NEGATIVE list, meant to point out shortcomings1. Balance the game around PVP, not PVE. Players do not pay 15 dollars a month to fight unintelligent monsters.2. Ensure while balancing that every class has a strength powerful enough to offset its weaknesses. "Rock-paper-scissors" is a failure, it only frustrates players to no end. (Rogues are the best class in the game in terms of this kind of balance. High DPS, Stuns, and stealth to compensate for no healing and poor armor.) 3. Remember that no matter WHAT you do, there are three roles: Tank, dps, and support/healing. Ensure that every class has a focus (or is capable of having a focus, in the hybrid case), and ensure that each classes is equally desirable for their abilities. 4. Hire Blizzard's artists. Time for a positive one. This game is beautiful. Bravo. Note also that it's not that "high tech" with its graphics. It's all about artists. 5. Be open. Hiding things that are important secrets is fine, but when doing the rebalancing that you should expect from months of content additions, ensure the players not only feel involved, but are responded to. Note: The WoW CMs are not at fault here; their job description is completely wrong. 6. Be responsive, but don't rush and don't clump. Balancing issues should take a higher patching priority than new content. Make frequent, small adjustments to achieve balance in between the months-long dungeon development efforts. 7. Advance in coolness. Mounts, Epic mounts, cool art for epic gear. Furbolg form, Noggenfogger elixer. Shadow form, walking on water. Ensure that advancing in level goes along with an advancement in the awesomeness of the player. Wow does this decently, but there's room for improvement. Especially with those funny looking McDonalds worker Paladins. This largely comes down to the artists. Remember: stats aren't cool. art is. 8. Create layers to the economy. Every level of a profession should produce quality items for appropriate prices for that level. How many of us have had to grind 200 levels of a profession because nobody wanted anything you could make yet? or at least, make at a profit (over selling the raw materials on the AH) As a corollary, make professions depend on each other. Engineers should need things smithed a lot more than they apparently do. Creating high quality items should involve the services of an enchanter. (example: Enchanted thorium) 9. Keep the Auction House Brilliant, and excellently done. The economy hums along with such mechanisms. 10. Do not punish experimentation. Why does a respec cost 50+g for a player that wants to try out many different things? Why does a player have to be punished for resing at the spirit healer? 11. Think about epic classes early. Hero classes are something that could be very, very cool. My vision of what this might be like always revolves around Hunters that could learn to tame dragons. Or mages that can become fire elementals. Hero classes should be different, not better. And different in an awe inspiring way. 12. Fun before lore. Many players expect to be the bad guy when playing horde. And as a corollary worthy of its own point: 13. Dynamic, player-driven worlds. This cannot be emphasized enough. I probably should have put it first. PERMIT BURNING TARREN MILL TO THE GROUND. Never to respawn unless players rebuild it. It doesn't have to be complicated. Perhaps just an expensive quest that causes peons to run out and begin building again, and require that you escort them. 14. Eliminate the grind. Wow is better about this than some games. My simple observation, however: the game is fun when played with nothing but rested XP. It starts to grind after that. 15. Infamy. Some random player on the forums chose this as a way of fixing ganking. Killing low level players doesn't give you dishonor, it gives you infamy, which increasing the honor gain by killing you (and slowly goes away with each death). The infamy reward can be gained regardless of the level of the killer. (60 on infamous 30? reward!) I have more somewhere, but I think I'll see if this prompts any interesting discussion first. [Edited by - C-Junkie on June 24, 2005 6:11:56 PM]

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by C-Junkie June 23, 2005 07:12 PM

10 comments, last by C-Junkie 19 years, 7 months ago

C-Junkie

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1,099

June 24, 2005 06:05 PM

Quote:
Original post by smr
Quote:

2. Ensure while balancing that every class has a strength powerful enough to offset its weaknesses. "Rock-paper-scissors" is a failure, it only frustrates players to no end. (Rogues are the best class in the game in terms of this kind of balance. High DPS, Stuns, and stealth to compensate for no healing and poor armor.)

Bleh. Try being a warrior. My level 51 warrior gets spanked on a regular basis, and never wins duels. I've considered the possibility that I just suck, but my rogue generally whips ass on any other class. Except maybe paladins and to a lesser extent druids. Sometimes they stun or root me then sneak in a heal.

And my statement is in support of your case. :)

I'll elaborate. There seems to be several important features that might be in a good PvP class.

High damage
Stuns/spell interruptions/immobilization/ability to control the other player
Healing
Misc support abilities

Warriors have: moderate damage (until arcanite reaper!), few stuns, no healing, and the support abilities are pvE only, for the most part. I've never won a duel with my warrior before either.

To rant a little bit, Shamans have: moderate (HIGH if they're using shocks and get any luck at all with windfury) damage, HUGE control over the other player (no casting (ES), no kiting(FS/EB), no stealthing (FlS), no running(FS/EB), oh yes, and no buffing yourself. at all. (Purge)), an AMAZING heal for PvP (1.5 sec heals or less are almost all that matters), and several slightly more minor support abilities (like the ability to run away really fast as a wolf). (and of course, they wonder why everyone wants them nerfed)

The only excuse for most of this is that using these abilities only has minimal effect when fighting PvE. It's not until you're in a PvP battle that the shaman shines. But I digress, I'm off topic in my own topic. Maybe I'll turn this into another point:

Make sure that your class designers don't develop wry smiles when people approve of their design. I'm convinced the Shaman is a result of a very, very smart designer that wanted to create something that looked fair and balanced for PvE that he could go home to and slaughter the helpless paladins by the thousands.

C-Junkie

Author

1,099

June 24, 2005 06:09 PM

Quote:
Original post by pinacolada
Quote:

Remember that no matter WHAT you do, there are three roles: Tank, dps, and support/healing.

This one has become more of a cliche I think. It would be nice to play a game that didn't have these cookie-cutter roles.

The problem is that it's impossible to avoid.

You need someone to keep monsters off of the cloth wearers.
You need someone to keep the above alive.
You need someone to kill the monsters.

I think that it's unavoidable.

Quote:
Also I got a little lost reading this list. When you got to number 10, it looks like you stopped praising WoW and instead started listing its shortcomings.

It was meant to be a mostly shortcoming list.

Lessons to learn from Warcraft

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