The WoW Effect

by David "Xerin" Piner

World of Warcraft (WoW) has been the center of attention in the online gaming industry for years. It has successfully expanded the market of players interested in MMORPGs by leaps and bounds. It currently has somewhere around seven million subscribers world-wide and is the undisputed #1 MMORPG on the market. Why is it so popular though?

Simple, it is a game that takes what works and makes it better. All of your core MMORPG mechanics are here. Epic quests, long dungeons, experience, gold, and well the list can go on and on. WoW takes all of these mechanics and ensures they are both accessible to anyone who plays and balanced.

Since WoW takes what works, it’s based off of several previous games. You can see a little Everquest here and a little Dark Age of Camelot there and a little Ultima Online here… well you can go on and on. These games were all success in their own right, but WoW expanded on what was a success and dropped what wasn’t.

Over the years since its launch, several MMORPGs have taken a page from WoW’s book and began emulating “what works”. In this case, many MMORPGs emulate core features (like the ability to solo on all classes) and add them to their own games to make them better. I could go on for weeks on the various examples, but when something works and it works well, why try to reinvent the wheel?

In that same respect, let’s play mad scientist. What if WoW could emulate features from other popular games? This of course won’t happen as the upcoming expansion “The Burning Crusade” proves we are in for all new content. It’s still fun to think about.

For instance, what if WoW took after EVE Online’s player ran virtual world? For instance, what if guilds could take over cities such as Auberdine and control the many facilities at that location. Maybe the guards are aggressive to those who aren’t friendly with that guild or maybe the guild can apply taxes to sells and even install their own vendors/defense equipment? That would be something I would find quite amazing, but not very realistic.

What if WoW emulated DDO’s dungeon loot system? Say you were in a five man instance and you come up to a treasure chest. Your Rogue makes sure it isn’t trapped and you open it. Everyone (or almost everyone) in your party gets a piece of gear that is both useful and for their class. Its bind on pickup, of course, so they can’t share but everyone comes out satisfied. This would make five man instances way more interesting then they currently are.

I left out raiding as a note that the expansion will be changing how raids take place. You’ll obtain tokens to turn in for the various rewards, which will be something like AQ/Naxx but much simpler. You’ll also be able to choose your reward out of a vendor (assuming the beta doesn’t change it)!

Another big “what if” feature would be player housing. Many MMORPGs have already implemented player housing! For instance, both Ultima Online and Dark Ages of Camelot have already capitalized on this idea. If WoW were to incorporate it (which it will, or at least is currently planning to in the distant future) then it would be a major step forward in customization and immersion. Nothing like decorating your own virtual home and inviting friends over to admire (or laugh) at your designs. Not only that, but housing could be used for convenient home locations with crafting supplies and maybe even Auction House attendants!

An often overlooked feature of smaller MMORPGs is teleportation. Travel hubs litter the land and players are allowed to teleport to their destination for either free or a minor charge. This nearly eliminates a lot of travel “downtime” when head between quests.

While we are talking about features from other online games that could positively help the game, what about features that can do more harm then good? For instance, what if the ArchLord’s concept of one player ruling the virtual world were adapted into WoW? Imagine where that would lead. What if players were allowed to freely move about servers? How about the blanket feature – complexity.

WoW is a great game for a lot of reasons. One of those major reasons is just how accessible it is. You can pick up the game with no knowledge of MMORPGs and once you’re past the installation you’re golden. Combat is simple, enter attack mode and slay the enemy. It isn’t until end-game raiding that any form of major complexity shows up in playing.

If complex features were added to the game then you would have a lot of confused players. Sure, they would catch on real quick, but if you had to jump through hoops to get something done then well.. something is wrong.

All in all, WoW is near perfect the way it is. If it wasn’t then it wouldn’t have the massive amount of subscribers it currently has. With that in mind, remember that improvement can be both good and bad. Luckily with WoW we have a team of level headed developers who can create their own stunning ideas for great new content!

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