There are numerous problems with WoW. There is the aging game engine, the fact that the servers don’t talk to one another, and the low populated or imbalanced servers. But there is another issue altogether. It is why WoW stopped being fun for so many people.
Above: Start the video at 8:29 to hear the inventor of the RPG reveal the fundamentals of the MMORPG.
Garriot makes a distinction between Role Play versus Statistics. What is he talking about?
He is saying that an RPG should not require you to look at numbers or calculate things. While that may sound mad, consider this for a moment. This guy invented the computer RPG, and he certainly has a unique perspective on this. Most game developers grew up with computer RPGs. Garriot did not. He had to invent them. So what did he use before?
Paper and pencil stuff. The difference between the computer game and a pen and pencil game is that the computer does the calculations. Who wants to add, subtract, and do math when the computer will do it for you?
So the birth of the very first RPG games were all about a shift from the ‘statistics’ and more to the ‘role play’. The computer was removing the statistics issues from the player and adding visuals and music to excite the player’s imagination… i.e. role play.
Garriot is not referring to role play as cosplay or role play as is done on a Role Play server in WoW. He is referring more of a living and breathing world the player is immersed in. In real life, you do not go up to people and interact in a mathematical context. You don’t assign statistical numbers to your friends. When you read glorious books or movies, you don’t go through statistical numbers. So why do you go through these numbers in a video game?
“But I thought you said math is fun.” It is fun. But it shouldn’t overshadow the Role Play aspect of the game. When you play Super Mario Brothers, you do not calculate the jumps in statistics. You think, “I’m Mario, and I’ve got to save the princess!”
If gamers are doing statistics, the game developers didn’t finish their jobs. It is like a diner who can taste the ingredients but not the dish. Game developers have to deal with statistics all the time. But gamers shouldn’t.
The early computer games were like spreadsheets and much of that melted away. People say, “Those early spreadsheet games weren’t accessible.” But they WERE accessible in those times because people were coming across from non-computer games which required MORE statistics and calculation. An early PC game is far more ‘accessible’ than the pen and paper of that era.
World of Warcraft, especially on the hardcore raiding side, relies entirely on the statistical side. Many people get burned out on the game because of this. (Notices many readers slowly nodding.) How much fun is it to constantly make sure you are hit capped or that you have a percentage of a number in another stat? And what about your mastery? What about your haste? Oh noes.
WoW never became popular because of the statistics. It became popular due to the role play.
“What do you mean by Role Play?”
I mean this:
Notice that they are talking TO YOU. The player is a presence in the game. This is a mission briefing from Red Alert 1. This game helped spark the RTS revolution. Warcraft 1 and 2 as well as Command and Conquer also had their briefings in this manner. You did not play a ‘character’. You played yourself.
“Give the officer something important to do.” The game is saying that the player is important.
What is really fun about Role Play is being the Bad Guy. I LOVED being the evil Soviets or the evil Orcs or the evil Zerg. But in WoW, you are always the Same Guy. You can’t be bad. And that sucks.
The reason why people like Alliance Versus Horde is more than Red Versus Blue. It is about the Role Play. Just like it is fun to be Good or Bad because of the role play, it should be fun to be Red or Blue because of the role play. They should have different roles. Constantly uniting and killing the Big Threat To The World is boring because it is the same role! Red vs Blue means different roles!
And this is also what animates complaints about class homogenization. Classes are not just statistical or ability differences. They are Role Play differences. A druid and a priest should FEEL different.
Take a look at the intro to WoW.
There is no bad villain presented. Just characters being cool. People would play WoW and try to renact the intro. How many Night Elf druids tried to be that panther? How many dwarf hunters tried to be like scene on top the snow capped mountain? Many.
Blizzard recently asked who players would like to replace Garrosh as Warchief of the Horde. The most natural answer came immediately with a “Me.” Why can’t the player be the Warchief?
Drama is Not Role Play
Blizzard keeps giving us dramas instead of role play. A drama is hearing Thrall’s doubts and other emotions while his lover tries to save him. That’s drama but it has zero role play. Cataclysm revolves largely around Thrall and his decisions and his emotions. Cataclysm should, instead, revolve around the player’s decisions and the player’s emotions.
Blizzard promises more dramas in the future such as with Jaina and Varian. WHO CARES!? What is this, Stargate Universe? I want to be the hero. I don’t care about these other characters.
If Blizzard made Ultima, they would have the Avatar stand somewhere and watch LordBritish act and save the world. Instead, it is the other way around. The Avatar is YOU, and it is you who acts.
The purpose of a video game is not to make a story to show to players but for players to make their own stories to show to each other. Hello Civilization. Hello Sims. Hello Minecraft. Hello RTS multiplayer games. In early WoW, players made their own stories most of the time.
WoW has turned from “I can’t stop playing…” to “It can’t stop playing me…” We used to play the game. Now, the game plays us.
Why people dislike the multi-difficulties of WoW…
It is because it is all statistics. The Role Play is IDENTICAL between every difficulty. The only reason to play heroic is for the status which is part of the role play.
“Are you saying to remove the multiple difficulties?” I am saying it needs a role play addition. This is why people like the ‘hard modes’ of Uluar because they were framed in the context of role play. “Push the button” means your character is doing something in the game, acting out a role to do that.
Item Squish has little value to the player because it is entirely statistics driven
If the Item Squish was framed in the role play such as ‘Evil Monster cast a curse on Azeroth that weakened everything in the world,’ it would be more accepted. The Item Squish needs to be associated with a Role Play event.
“But wouldn’t that be as obnoxious as explaining why Samus Aran loses her gear at the start of every Metroid?”
I don’t think so because the Item Squish is occurring in the middle of the game, not at the start of the game. The reason why it was annoying for the explanations of Samus’s losing her gear was because she was only well geared in a previous game not connected to the current Metroid. It would be like explaining why Mario lost his raccoon tail in Super Mario World.
A gamer dealing with statistics in a video game is like sitting in a dentist’s chair. It sucks. The Item Squish could be a fun world event if Blizzard chose to make it so. Perhaps they could make it mysterious and have Azeroth unaware why there was an Item Squish and explain it in some detail in a future expansion… like a beam from an enemy Dranai fleet.
Why Talents Didn’t Work
Blizzard said talents were to differentiate players from one another. Blizzard also said they didn’t work because players would go to a website (like elitist jerks), find a template that works, just copy it and go.
Blizzard’s analysis of this is incorrect. Gamers didn’t copy a set template because the talents ‘failed to differentiate’. Gamers copied a template because THEY HATE DEALING WITH STATISTICS. They want to get it over with so they can get back to playing the game.
These new talent choices do not satisfy the role play requirement. What everyone will do is find out which talents are used for which bosses and be done with it.
Choice only comes with role play. With transmog, there is choice because transmog enables more role play.
Instead of focusing on the player trying to obtain a ‘playstyle’ (which means nothing but statistics in different combinations), they should opt for different role styles. In this raid instance, what if I saved the raid boss instead of killing him? That would be an interesting choice.
Has Blizzard ever wondered why people wanted more choice in the quest lines (instead of linear railroad quests that Cataclysm had)? It is all about the role play. The linear questing had the game playing you. But the non-linear questing has the player playing the game.
It is why the constant mantra from unsubscribing players is, “I want to play the game my way.”
A Big Problem For Blizzard Overall
People who complain that Starcraft 2 is not as fun as Starcraft 1 and specifically cite how poor of story Starcraft 2 has in comparison to 1 are talking about the role play. Starcraft 1 had much role play but little drama. Starcraft 2 has little role play but much drama.
Video game developers need to stop confusing drama for ‘story’ or ‘immersion’. Why would Mario games need drama? It is ridiculous. But there is a significant amount of role play. You are the Mario.
Minecraft has zero drama. Yet, there is incredible role play value in the game.
When will World of Warcraft be about the role you have in the world as opposed to the statistics you have in the game?