My wife has the bad habit of leaving her computer on with WoW being on the character selection screen or login screen. And World of Warcraft plays one particularly annoying piece of music on those two screens. Well, maybe it is only particularly annoying after you listened to it for hours. I can turn off her sound, but then she has to turn it back on again every time.
So I was wondering whether there was a way to play a different song on the login and character selection screen. Are the WoW music pieces stored somewhere as a file and can be replaced with another file cleverly renamed? Or is there some other trick to change the music in WoW? I know it is possible for example to change the sound of when you catch a fish, making it more audible or even replace it by something silly. Does something similar work for the music?
I'd be grateful for any advice or links to websites explaining how it works.
[EDIT: Copied the following method from the comments section. It works!
Took some research to relearn how to change the login/character screen music 'cause I'm on a WoW hiatus, but here's the no-MPQ-tampering method. Navigate to your World of Warcraft/Data/ directory and create this heirarchy of folders within: Sound\Music\GlueScreenMusic. Once that's done, drop in your desired login music (mp3 only I suppose, thought I haven't experimented with other formats) and rename the file to wow_main_theme.mp3 if you have vanilla WoW or BC_main_theme.mp3 for Burning Crusade installs.
It's actually a somewhat interesting story why this works, going back to the time when there was no Interface folder and the Data folder was your one-stop shop for customizing all sorts of WoW things. Tip: I believe you can also override other default music with this technique, with the correct folder heirarchies and file name in hand.
Enjoy!
-Svartalve]
Monday, February 4, 2008
Stating the obvious
Via pΘtshΘt I got the news that Activision Blizzard filed their preliminary proxy with the SEC. This is a document to inform shareholders of all the details of the Activision Blizzard merger. As you can get into serious trouble if you file misleading or incomplete information with the SEC, such documents tend to be truthful, but long, with a lot of statements of the obvious. As pΘtshΘt remarked, one interesting part is the Risk Factors, where Activision Blizzard states what could go wrong with their business in the future. I'd like to quote some of them here:
Nevertheless it is pretty clear that at least 2008 will be another record year for Blizzard if they manage to bring out the Wrath of the Lich King before christmas. And World of Warcraft will probably remain king of the hill for 2009 as well. But as the game ages, some erosion of the player base is inevitable, and I wonder what we will see in either added content or new Blizzard MMORPGs. And some serious competition from another company would probably do them good.
Vivendi Games is dependent on Blizzard's World of Warcraft franchise.85% of Vivendi Game's sales are from World of Warcraft, that's both impressive and scary. Note how the numbers are going up from 2005 to 2007. It is interesting that they see other MMO games as a threat, and see both "refreshing" WoW or a new MMOG as the solution to "World of Warcraft's potentially decreasing revenue".
The majority of Vivendi Games' total net sales are derived from Blizzard's World of Warcraft franchise. For the nine month period ended September 30, 2007, and the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, Blizzard's World of Warcraft titles accounted for approximately 85%, 62%, and 48%, respectively, of Vivendi Games' total net sales. Vivendi Games is the current leading global developer, publisher and distributor in terms of subscriber base and revenues in the subscription-based MMORPG category, due to the popularity of World of Warcraft and related expansion packs. To remain the leader in the MMORPG category, it is important that Vivendi Games continue to refresh World of Warcraft or develop new MMORPG products that are favorably received by its existing customer base and new customers. A number of software publishers have developed and commercialized or are currently developing online games for use by consumers over the Internet which pose a threat to the popularity of World of Warcraft, and Vivendi Games expects new competitors to continue to emerge in the MMOG category. If consumer demand for World of Warcraft games declines and Vivendi Games has not introduced new MMOG or other products that replace World of Warcraft's potentially decreasing revenue, or added other sources of revenue, Vivendi Games' financial condition could suffer. Additionally, if new technologies are developed that replace MMOG games, if consumer preferences trend away from MMOG games or if new business models emerge that offer online subscriptions for free or at a substantial discount to current MMOG subscription fees, Vivendi Games' revenue and profitability will decline.
The development of MMOG products requires substantial up-front expenditures. Vivendi Games may not be able to recover development costs for its future MMOG products.In other words, while World of Warcraft is extremely successful, Blizzard does not have the recipe for the secret sauce of MMO design, which would guarantee their next game to be successful as well. The danger here is developers being scared from moving away from what worked in the past, with the next game being something too similar to World of Warcraft.
Consumer preferences for games are usually cyclical and difficult to predict, and even the most successful titles remain popular for only limited periods of time, unless refreshed with new content. In order to remain competitive in the MMOG market, Vivendi Games must continuously develop new products and enhancements to existing products. Because of the significant complexity of MMOG games, these products require a longer development time and are more expensive to create than traditional console game products. In addition, the long lead time involved in developing a MMOG product and the significant allocation of financial resources that each product requires means it is critical that Vivendi Games accurately predict consumer demand for new MMOG products. While World of Warcraft's popularity allowed it to recoup its production costs, if future MMOG products do not achieve expected market acceptance or generate sufficient sales and subscription revenues upon introduction, Vivendi Games may not be able to recover the development and marketing costs associated with new products, and its financial results could suffer.
A substantial portion of Vivendi Games' revenues are derived from subscriptions paid by World of Warcraft subscribers. If these customers cancel their subscriptions, Vivendi Games' financial condition could suffer.This one disappointed me a bit, because it just states the obvious, without offering a solution. What does Blizzard plan to do if "World of Warcraft subscribers become dissatisfied"? Later in the document the current development of the second expansion is mentioned, and "Additional content is expected to be provided in future years to bring new features and gaming experiences to the game's players, both through regular downloadable patches and through periodic larger expansion packs, such as the recently announced expansion pack World of Warcraft: The Wrath of Lich King." I would have loved to hear whether Blizzard is planning to invest more into such additional content, to get expansions out a bit faster than now.
A substantial portion of Vivendi Games' revenues are generated by subscription fees paid by consumers who play World of Warcraft. Typically, World of Warcraft subscribers purchase one (1) to three (3) month memberships that are cancellable, without penalty, at the end of the membership period. If World of Warcraft subscribers become dissatisfied, they may chose not to renew their memberships in order to engage in other forms of entertainment (including competing MMOG offerings) and Vivendi Games may not be able to replace lost subscribers. Additionally, if general economic conditions decline, consumers may decrease their discretionary spending on entertainment items such as MMOG games and users may choose not to renew their World of Warcraft subscriptions. A decrease in the overall subscription base of World of Warcraft could substantially harm Vivendi Games' operating results.
Nevertheless it is pretty clear that at least 2008 will be another record year for Blizzard if they manage to bring out the Wrath of the Lich King before christmas. And World of Warcraft will probably remain king of the hill for 2009 as well. But as the game ages, some erosion of the player base is inevitable, and I wonder what we will see in either added content or new Blizzard MMORPGs. And some serious competition from another company would probably do them good.
Running away in PotBS
Keen from Keen and Graev feels he is being griefed in Pirates of the Burning Sea. But there is an interesting twist to the story: Keen is the pirate wanting to attack other player's ships, and their method of griefing is to run away.
The whole problem here is that ship-to-ship combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea is instanced. Ships engage in combat on the open sea, but then are transported to an instance to fight it out, while on the open sea only two circling ship models indicate that there is a battle there. While you are in the instance, you can't see what is going on around you in the open sea. And you can only leave the instance after a certain time without combat action.
As a freetrader mostly avoiding PvP zones, my main problem are NPC pirates, who can attack you anywhere. They often are much higher in level than me, and come with multiple combat ships, against my transport ship which has lots of cargo space but very little combat abilities. So I run away. All my ships are equipped with speed outfittings, a freetrader gets additional speed abilities, and so I'm simply faster than the NPC combat ships. NPC pirates basically cost me 2 to 3 minutes of boring running away.
Of course if for some reason I was entering a PvP zone and was attacked by player pirates in slow ships, I would try to run away as well. There is no way I could win such a combat, so running away would be my only chance to survive. Knowing that I wouldn't enter a PvP zone with a slow ship, but choose one of the fastest ships around in the game, the Mastercraft Bermuda Sloop, outfitted to the max with speed outfittings. With such a ship you could reasonable hope to "run blockades", that is get in and out of a contested port without losing your ship and cargo.
It is obvious that a pirate wouldn't like me being able to run away that way. But if it was the pirate who attacked, there is no way you could call the freetrader running away "griefing". It isn't quite clear from Keen's post, but I think the griefing he is referring to is some sort of an escort tactic: As I said, if you are in a ship-to-ship combat instance, you are trapped inside for at least 2 minutes. Now imagine a contested port with a pirate ship cruising up and down before it, trying to catch everyone trying to get in or out. Now take two players trying to get a huge load of goods into that port. Huge cargo ships are slow, and would be captured by the pirate. But if one of the players takes a very fast ship and *attacks the pirate*, the pirate is out of the game for a while, and the other player can sail past with his slow, huge cargo ship. Meanwhile his partner in the ship-to-ship combat instance can keep the pirate trapped in the instance by firing at him from maximum range, running away, approaching again and firing, and so on for a long time. If the pirate has a big, slow combat ship, there isn't much he can do against that tactics, he is trapped in the instance. Whether that is clever strategy or griefing depends on the circumstances, like whether the fast player is helping a friend to run a blockade, or whether he just does it to annoy the pirate. See the recent quote on griefing: "you win if the other guy gets so annoyed that he quits the game".
In the closed beta I was also playing a freetrader, but there was an infamous pirate around. He did *not* use big combat ships, he had the fastest ship with the fastest outfittings around. Nobody could run away from him. He won fights by outmaneuvering the enemy, shooting their sails until they couldn't move any more, then keeping behind them and firing at them from an angle where they couldn't fire back. That pirate had my respect, because he wasn't afraid to attack much bigger ships than his, and frequently still won. He even attacked me once when I was escorted by a naval officer, but I had understood his tactics, shot at *his* sails as well, and then he couldn't evade my escort's superior firepower. His bad luck that at the time I was in one of my combat ships, not a cargo ship.
I think if as a pirate in PotBS you want to keep people from running away from you, you need to have the fastest ship around. Or you need to team up with a mixed group, a fast ship disabling the enemies fast ship's sails, and slower ships coming after them with better firepower. As a player pirate, you can't rely on a slow, powerful ship for your pirating activity. You'd only catch even slower cargo ships with that, never blockade runners or players with speed-based counter strategies.
The whole problem here is that ship-to-ship combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea is instanced. Ships engage in combat on the open sea, but then are transported to an instance to fight it out, while on the open sea only two circling ship models indicate that there is a battle there. While you are in the instance, you can't see what is going on around you in the open sea. And you can only leave the instance after a certain time without combat action.
As a freetrader mostly avoiding PvP zones, my main problem are NPC pirates, who can attack you anywhere. They often are much higher in level than me, and come with multiple combat ships, against my transport ship which has lots of cargo space but very little combat abilities. So I run away. All my ships are equipped with speed outfittings, a freetrader gets additional speed abilities, and so I'm simply faster than the NPC combat ships. NPC pirates basically cost me 2 to 3 minutes of boring running away.
Of course if for some reason I was entering a PvP zone and was attacked by player pirates in slow ships, I would try to run away as well. There is no way I could win such a combat, so running away would be my only chance to survive. Knowing that I wouldn't enter a PvP zone with a slow ship, but choose one of the fastest ships around in the game, the Mastercraft Bermuda Sloop, outfitted to the max with speed outfittings. With such a ship you could reasonable hope to "run blockades", that is get in and out of a contested port without losing your ship and cargo.
It is obvious that a pirate wouldn't like me being able to run away that way. But if it was the pirate who attacked, there is no way you could call the freetrader running away "griefing". It isn't quite clear from Keen's post, but I think the griefing he is referring to is some sort of an escort tactic: As I said, if you are in a ship-to-ship combat instance, you are trapped inside for at least 2 minutes. Now imagine a contested port with a pirate ship cruising up and down before it, trying to catch everyone trying to get in or out. Now take two players trying to get a huge load of goods into that port. Huge cargo ships are slow, and would be captured by the pirate. But if one of the players takes a very fast ship and *attacks the pirate*, the pirate is out of the game for a while, and the other player can sail past with his slow, huge cargo ship. Meanwhile his partner in the ship-to-ship combat instance can keep the pirate trapped in the instance by firing at him from maximum range, running away, approaching again and firing, and so on for a long time. If the pirate has a big, slow combat ship, there isn't much he can do against that tactics, he is trapped in the instance. Whether that is clever strategy or griefing depends on the circumstances, like whether the fast player is helping a friend to run a blockade, or whether he just does it to annoy the pirate. See the recent quote on griefing: "you win if the other guy gets so annoyed that he quits the game".
In the closed beta I was also playing a freetrader, but there was an infamous pirate around. He did *not* use big combat ships, he had the fastest ship with the fastest outfittings around. Nobody could run away from him. He won fights by outmaneuvering the enemy, shooting their sails until they couldn't move any more, then keeping behind them and firing at them from an angle where they couldn't fire back. That pirate had my respect, because he wasn't afraid to attack much bigger ships than his, and frequently still won. He even attacked me once when I was escorted by a naval officer, but I had understood his tactics, shot at *his* sails as well, and then he couldn't evade my escort's superior firepower. His bad luck that at the time I was in one of my combat ships, not a cargo ship.
I think if as a pirate in PotBS you want to keep people from running away from you, you need to have the fastest ship around. Or you need to team up with a mixed group, a fast ship disabling the enemies fast ship's sails, and slower ships coming after them with better firepower. As a player pirate, you can't rely on a slow, powerful ship for your pirating activity. You'd only catch even slower cargo ships with that, never blockade runners or players with speed-based counter strategies.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Are you a hamster?
In World of Warcraft besides the two level 70 characters and the mage I'm leveling up, I have two bank alts. One for stuff I want to store for later, one for storage and trading on the auction house. I'm a hamster. I got so much stuff stored that I was considering turning one of my bank alts into a one-man guild and using the guild bank as additional storage. Yesterday I noticed I had several bags overflowing with cloth, from linen to netherweave. I ended up sending 180 each of wool, silk, mageweave, and runecloth to my mage and handing them in at the respective cloth quartermasters of Undercity, Orgrimmar, and Thunder Bluff for a quick 50k experience points (which got my mage up to level 55). And I *still* have lots of cloth stored.
I also have at least three 24-slot herb bags plus two normal 16-slot bags filled with herbs. I have 3 bags full of gems and metals. I store all sorts of hand-in items, like the stuff you hand in for Scryers or Aldor reputation, or unidentified plant parts for Cenarion. I try to keep my inventory of gear low, selling everything I don't wear, and I don't really have several "sets" of gear. But there are still a couple of items like trinkets gained from quests or the drakefire amulet that gives access to Onyxia that I wouldn't want to destroy, because you can't get them back. I destroyed most of the various holiday event items, like the winter veil disguise kit, but kept the most "fun" ones, even if they don't have any real effect. I have so much stuff stored, sometimes it's hard to keep an overview.
I would love if I had additional storage space for gear, in the form of several manequins to put gear sets on. One tanking gear, one dps gear, one fire resistance gear for example. Or for my mage where I have already bought "of the frozen wrath" gear for future levels.
How about you? Is your inventory squeaky clean or are you a hamster with several bank alts? What kind of stuff do you keep, and what do you destroy?
I also have at least three 24-slot herb bags plus two normal 16-slot bags filled with herbs. I have 3 bags full of gems and metals. I store all sorts of hand-in items, like the stuff you hand in for Scryers or Aldor reputation, or unidentified plant parts for Cenarion. I try to keep my inventory of gear low, selling everything I don't wear, and I don't really have several "sets" of gear. But there are still a couple of items like trinkets gained from quests or the drakefire amulet that gives access to Onyxia that I wouldn't want to destroy, because you can't get them back. I destroyed most of the various holiday event items, like the winter veil disguise kit, but kept the most "fun" ones, even if they don't have any real effect. I have so much stuff stored, sometimes it's hard to keep an overview.
I would love if I had additional storage space for gear, in the form of several manequins to put gear sets on. One tanking gear, one dps gear, one fire resistance gear for example. Or for my mage where I have already bought "of the frozen wrath" gear for future levels.
How about you? Is your inventory squeaky clean or are you a hamster with several bank alts? What kind of stuff do you keep, and what do you destroy?
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The psychology of griefers
Via KillTenRats I found this great article explaining the psychology of griefers on Wired. Quote: “The way that you win in EVE is you basically make life so miserable for someone else that they actually quit the game and don’t come back.” Which goes a long way explaining why games in which you can grief somebody that hard never have been financially successful. In order for the griefer to win, the game company has to lose a customer.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Features of MMORPGs in 2020
It is the year 2020. Since World of Warcraft first passed the $1 billion annual revenue per year barrier in 2007 a lot of investment has been attracted to the business of MMORPGs. There are now several MMORPGs with several million players each and over $1 billion of annual revenues. MMOs have become big business. In view of the phantastic profits that are possible, development costs have gone up, and the production crew of a MMORPG now rivals a Hollywood film crew in size and budget. The latest release proudly markets their $500 million development cost, and is sure to become the next big thing. So what features will these games of 2020 have, and in which way will they be improved over the games from the start of the century?
1) Combat: Due to advances in technology both from graphics animations and data transfer, MMORPG combat has become more interactive. The old system of autoattack coupled with special attacks on hotkeys is gone. Players now need to watch what the computer controlled monster is doing and react accordingly. Earlier experiments to have this interactivity be based on split-second twitchy reactions have failed, as only a small audience of male teenagers were able to master that sort of gameplay. So now taking an intelligent decision and activating the right tactical response to what the mob is doing has become more important than being able to click in milliseconds. Combat hasn't become any faster than back in the days of WoW, but it has become more interactive and interesting. Most importantly scrolling combat texts have gone the way of the dodo, you need to react to whatever animation the mob is displaying, not to a text warning. As a positive side effect bot programmers have been unable to keep up with that technology, and bots performing combat are now a thing of the past.
2) Quests: Storytelling has much improved in the MMORPGs of 2020. Again text is a thing of the past, since developers realized that nobody wanted to read badly written two-paragraph stories as background for their quests. Quest backgrounds and objectives are now told in cutscenes, little films using game graphics, with a narrator telling you what to do. Game companies even hired film directors and huge artist teams to produce these quest intros. Instead of being told that orcs plundered a village and asked to kill 10 orcs and bring a stack of food back, you are now shown scenes of the plundering, with the cutscene giving visual hints in which direction the orcs went afterwards and where you now might find them. You *still* need to kill 10 orcs and bring back the stack of food though, it'll take another 20 years before somebody comes up with a better idea.
3) Character development: The level cap of the games of 2020 is relatively low, you'll just need about 200 hours to reach it. From then on it is horizontal development. Players still collect gear, but not things that makes them stronger overall, but specialized gear to fight specialized opponents. Expansions don't raise the level cap any more; modern game developers point at the strong decline in World of Warcraft players where after one expansion per year raised the level cap by 10 to now 200 there are huge and unbridgeable gaps between veterans and new players.
4) PvP: PvP is still very popular, but all forms of non-consentual PvP and negative consequences have been removed. The worst that can happen to you now is that you don't win. There are various forms of PvP: battlegrounds, arenas, duels, fighting over the control of keeps and other in-game objectives. But at their core games are mostly PvE, and PvP has become one of many possible activities at the now so low level cap. MMORPG historians point to Guild Wars as having invented this system.
5) Crafting: MMORPG developers in 2020 have realized that many players want a wide selection of options to play games inside the game, not just combat. In a development pioneered near the beginning of the century by Puzzle Pirates, every different craft is now a different mini-game. The games are skill-based puzzles, easy enough to play but not trivial to master. The times where you could buy gold from a gold farmer, buy lots of stacks of raw materials from the auction house, and master a craft in an afternoon have gone. Many people just craft for fun, as developers realized that crafting as a money sink didn't make sense, and as long crafting an item took as much time as getting things from combat, it should be profitable to do so. Some dedicated players built up great reputations as master crafters, really mastering the puzzle games, and some even claim that being a master crafter is being more leet than people who only do combat well.
6) Business models: Business models are still being experimented with. Monthly fees are now considered to be a sign that a game is targeting a hardcore audience. Many games use game cards which effectively have users pay a few cents per hour actually played. This has turned out to attract a far broader player base, without significantly reducing the average income per user. As people now only pay when they play, casual players are less reluctant to open accounts, and hardcore players now often have game cards for several different games. Micro transactions are often used in combination with those hourly fees, offering a wide selection of options to improve the look of your character, as well as scrolls giving temporary buffs to stats. The existence of such scroll buffs that double gold earned in game has lead to third party RMT mostly dying out.
7) Social interactions: The broadening of the appeal of MMORPGs to a much wider audience was only possible by them becoming the new places to hang out. Social interaction between players has been much improved. Guild features have exploded, encouraging players to work together for the greater benefit of their team in a more permanent way than winning some encounter on some evening. Player-built cities are at the core of this system, with various crafters and adventurers all adding to the splendor of their guild's city. Finding groups has been much improved, and making new friends online is now much easier. And you don't need to lose contact with your friends when you log out, game chat is now accessible from both web-based and mobile platforms. The MMORPGs of 2020 are a mix of the old MMORPGs and the old social spaces like Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin.
I'm looking forward to the games of 2020 and hope to be around to compare these predictions to the reality then.
1) Combat: Due to advances in technology both from graphics animations and data transfer, MMORPG combat has become more interactive. The old system of autoattack coupled with special attacks on hotkeys is gone. Players now need to watch what the computer controlled monster is doing and react accordingly. Earlier experiments to have this interactivity be based on split-second twitchy reactions have failed, as only a small audience of male teenagers were able to master that sort of gameplay. So now taking an intelligent decision and activating the right tactical response to what the mob is doing has become more important than being able to click in milliseconds. Combat hasn't become any faster than back in the days of WoW, but it has become more interactive and interesting. Most importantly scrolling combat texts have gone the way of the dodo, you need to react to whatever animation the mob is displaying, not to a text warning. As a positive side effect bot programmers have been unable to keep up with that technology, and bots performing combat are now a thing of the past.
2) Quests: Storytelling has much improved in the MMORPGs of 2020. Again text is a thing of the past, since developers realized that nobody wanted to read badly written two-paragraph stories as background for their quests. Quest backgrounds and objectives are now told in cutscenes, little films using game graphics, with a narrator telling you what to do. Game companies even hired film directors and huge artist teams to produce these quest intros. Instead of being told that orcs plundered a village and asked to kill 10 orcs and bring a stack of food back, you are now shown scenes of the plundering, with the cutscene giving visual hints in which direction the orcs went afterwards and where you now might find them. You *still* need to kill 10 orcs and bring back the stack of food though, it'll take another 20 years before somebody comes up with a better idea.
3) Character development: The level cap of the games of 2020 is relatively low, you'll just need about 200 hours to reach it. From then on it is horizontal development. Players still collect gear, but not things that makes them stronger overall, but specialized gear to fight specialized opponents. Expansions don't raise the level cap any more; modern game developers point at the strong decline in World of Warcraft players where after one expansion per year raised the level cap by 10 to now 200 there are huge and unbridgeable gaps between veterans and new players.
4) PvP: PvP is still very popular, but all forms of non-consentual PvP and negative consequences have been removed. The worst that can happen to you now is that you don't win. There are various forms of PvP: battlegrounds, arenas, duels, fighting over the control of keeps and other in-game objectives. But at their core games are mostly PvE, and PvP has become one of many possible activities at the now so low level cap. MMORPG historians point to Guild Wars as having invented this system.
5) Crafting: MMORPG developers in 2020 have realized that many players want a wide selection of options to play games inside the game, not just combat. In a development pioneered near the beginning of the century by Puzzle Pirates, every different craft is now a different mini-game. The games are skill-based puzzles, easy enough to play but not trivial to master. The times where you could buy gold from a gold farmer, buy lots of stacks of raw materials from the auction house, and master a craft in an afternoon have gone. Many people just craft for fun, as developers realized that crafting as a money sink didn't make sense, and as long crafting an item took as much time as getting things from combat, it should be profitable to do so. Some dedicated players built up great reputations as master crafters, really mastering the puzzle games, and some even claim that being a master crafter is being more leet than people who only do combat well.
6) Business models: Business models are still being experimented with. Monthly fees are now considered to be a sign that a game is targeting a hardcore audience. Many games use game cards which effectively have users pay a few cents per hour actually played. This has turned out to attract a far broader player base, without significantly reducing the average income per user. As people now only pay when they play, casual players are less reluctant to open accounts, and hardcore players now often have game cards for several different games. Micro transactions are often used in combination with those hourly fees, offering a wide selection of options to improve the look of your character, as well as scrolls giving temporary buffs to stats. The existence of such scroll buffs that double gold earned in game has lead to third party RMT mostly dying out.
7) Social interactions: The broadening of the appeal of MMORPGs to a much wider audience was only possible by them becoming the new places to hang out. Social interaction between players has been much improved. Guild features have exploded, encouraging players to work together for the greater benefit of their team in a more permanent way than winning some encounter on some evening. Player-built cities are at the core of this system, with various crafters and adventurers all adding to the splendor of their guild's city. Finding groups has been much improved, and making new friends online is now much easier. And you don't need to lose contact with your friends when you log out, game chat is now accessible from both web-based and mobile platforms. The MMORPGs of 2020 are a mix of the old MMORPGs and the old social spaces like Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin.
I'm looking forward to the games of 2020 and hope to be around to compare these predictions to the reality then.
Why are the WoW forums such a horrible place?
I had an interesting mail exchange with a reader who suggested that I post my proposals on how to improve grouping on the official WoW suggestion forums. I replied that I'd never do that, because the official WoW forums are such a horrible place, where no intelligent discussion takes place. No reasonable person even visits them without wearing an asbestos suit. Any suggestion to change anything in World of Warcraft is shouted down by whatever small vocal minority is currently profiting from the existing imbalances, or by the religious types who think that any change to the sacrosanct entity that is WoW is a blasphemy. And the other forum posters are just trying to derail any thread to become a discussion of their pet peeve instead, or just plain post without wanting to say anything, just to increase their post count.
So that reader wrote me back and asked me *why* the WoW forums where that way, and how they had become such a horrible place. And I don't really know. I assume it has to do with the small chance to get attention from developers or an official "blue name" response. As these are rare, forum posters fight for attention the way a pack of hungry wolves would fight if they were given just a single rabbit. They verbally kick other posters to hold them down, so they can get to the top themselves.
What is your opinion about the official World of Warcraft forums? Are they a good place to discuss ideas, and if not, why, and how did they become that way?
So that reader wrote me back and asked me *why* the WoW forums where that way, and how they had become such a horrible place. And I don't really know. I assume it has to do with the small chance to get attention from developers or an official "blue name" response. As these are rare, forum posters fight for attention the way a pack of hungry wolves would fight if they were given just a single rabbit. They verbally kick other posters to hold them down, so they can get to the top themselves.
What is your opinion about the official World of Warcraft forums? Are they a good place to discuss ideas, and if not, why, and how did they become that way?
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