by David Piner on Jun 13, 2011
Games like World of Warcraft can learn a lot from other games that have launched and pleased their subscriber base in one way or another. One such game is Warhammer Online, an oft forgotten piece of MMOG history that led a great charge against our venerable WoW and was summarily crushed by the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It wasn’t all that long ago, hilariously enough, way back in the great year of 2008.
There is much to be learned from WAR and its offerings, as it still remains a contender in the market, just a different market, and in a different form. Let’s take on a quick history lesson and then begin ranting about why public quests should have been included in Cataclysm, which an article like this must contain.
WAR released in 2008, right before Wrath of the Lich King. There were an estimated million box sales for the game in the first month and it was all of the rage, and then like most new games, almost immediately went back into the abyss. There were a lot of things that contributed to its rapid subscriber exodus, but for us World of Warcraft players the main thing was that WotLK launched shortly thereafter and all of the bored WoW players returned home to their beloved game. Meanwhile WAR went on a long and steady decline until the super successful unlimited free trail. By March of 2009, a short few months later, WAR had 300,000 subscribers.
WAR did a lot of things right, but a lot of things wrong too. But for the sake of this article we’re only going to look at things that apply to WoW.
First off, It had open world Realm vs. Realm but without three factions it wasn’t something that “clicked.” That is especially true in a game where building three factions wouldn’t necessarily be that difficult. You could take the Vampire Counts, Skaven, and Tomb Kings and called it a day, but alas, they didn’t. There was only two and for that reason you won’t hear much from me on why WoW needs open world RvR (it would never work).
That said, let’s talk about RvR for a second before we talk about things WoW should cannibalize from WAR. Why can’t RvR work in WoW? First, we have something similar, but in a very controlled manner like it has to be - in the form of Wintergrasp and Tol Barad. If anyone has seen the amount of updates and balance issues regarding these two open world PvP areas then you could understand why RvR could never be introduced into the game.
In a game like Dark Age of Camelot, RvR worked because there were three total factions. If there were population balance issues, the two smaller factions could converge and keep the bigger one in check. If a huge siege was happening in the world between two factions, a third could come in and tip the scales of the battle or, with their fresh army, take on the other two factions and claim victory themselves. Whenever there are only two factions, then all forms of PvP have no external balancing mechanism. So if one side is bigger, they win, most often instantly.
That is why Tol Barad had so many issues at launch and still is a bit unbalanced, even with all of the extensive balancing that Blizzard has jammed into it. Now, think if there was a third faction, say of Murlocs, roaming around trying to take objectives. It’d be hard for one side to dominate, wouldn’t it?
So, at the end of the day, RvR can’t work because there is no way to balance the population fairly and give the underdog a glimmer of hope. Let’s go on to something that could.
Oh, before we continue, if you subscribe to the EA Louse’s way of thinking, check out this quick blog entry that talks a little bit more sense.
Public Quests give everyone a fair shot at the quest rewards depending on how much they helped out.
Public Quests (PQ). There you go, I said it, and I’ll say it 1,000 times over. Games like Guild Wars 2 are embracing the concept and even making it part of its core gameplay. It’s one of the best ideas to ever hit the AAA MMO track and almost perfectly implemented. If you don’t know what a public quest is, then it’s pretty simple to explain. You show up to an area on the map and are automatically put into a “quest” that is scripted. An event starts and everyone begins the quest and those who show up later are automatically joined.
Instead of personal goals there is a global goal, kill x amount of enemies, obtain x amount of items, etc. Everyone works together to complete these goals and at the end everyone is given XP and loot depending on how much they contributed, how long they were there, and other balancing things (to make sure everyone is rewarded fairly and equally). You can even solo easier events, making it just the same as a quest that is open to the public.
So why don’t we have that in WoW? It’s a mechanic, put into an AAA game over three years ago, that actually brings the playerbase together. For the point and purpose of writing this article I logged into WAR, ran out to a public quest, and within seconds found myself in a group strategizing a way to take down some norseman that was terrorizing the coast. I can log into WoW and the only way I’m getting a group is the Dungeon Finder, and even then, there is no sense of camaraderie just people trying to walk from point A to B.
That is something that WoW needs, a mechanic like that to make us come together as a group instead of always fighting for enemies, objectives, or even starting quests. Imagine if all of the arena/amphitheater style quests (you know the ones, bosses spawn, kill em, start the next phase, etc. etc.) were public quests? That is one huge headache while leveling removed.
Of course, that isn’t the only thing WoW should cannibalize. “Action Points” or something like Rogue’s energy for everyone instead of mana/rage/etc. Honestly, how tired are you that you have to micromanage your mana while a Rogue can just spam his abilities day in and day out. How many times have you stood there with nothing to do while your teammates died because you weren’t watching your mana?
Influence rewards were a great idea as well, given you got something just for playing in a certain area, kind of like reputation, except without the grinding - at least at early levels.
It’d be great if we had something similar for more classes. Hunters recently received it and I think it improved the class drastically and it didn’t have much in the way of players whining, which is a great thing.
Oh, another thing, quest items that go into an unlimited quest bag! We’re about to lose the keyring so inventory space is always a prime concern. Why not let us not worry about quest items and just consider them done when we loot a mob versus trying to delete things always to make space.
Last, but not least, is of course armor customization. Many other games have had it and Guild Wars 2 will feature a very robust system for customizing your armor. So why can’t we customize our WoW swag? Who is with me on how boring and tired it is seeing everyone in the same armor all of the time. Heck, since we’re on a premium service blitzkrieg, charge me $2.95 for the privilege I’d gladly pay. That’s how desperate you have me Blizzard.
So there you have it. My thoughts on the lessons Blizzard could learn from WAR, a game that I think is still full of amazing ideas that other AAA MMOs are implementing. What are your thoughts? Do you think something like public quests would ruin WoW or make leveling so much easier? Share your comments below!