I was reading an interesting article on Keen & Graev's blog about a WAR fortress siege that was extremely laggy and ended up crashing the server when over 200 people turned up. MMORPGs in general get laggy and prone to crashes when there are too many players in the same zone. The WoW world event of opening of the Ahn'qiraij gates was a horrible lagfest, and even nowadays I have significantly more lag in overpopulated places like Dalaran. But generally WoW does a good job of dispersing people, by sending them off in various directions with quests. And especially if you consider the WoW endgame, people will be in groups of 10 or 25 people in a raid instance, a sufficiently small number to not cause big lag problems on half-decent computers. The endgame of WAR on the other hand is about capturing fortresses and cities, with no limit to participation. The more people reach the level cap in WAR (which appears to be a relatively slow process), the more likely it becomes that hundreds of them will turn up for a battle. These large-scale battles are the USP, the unique selling point of WAR. But are they actually technically possible?
The problem appears to be the amount of data your computer needs to process when there are hundreds of people around you. The problem is worse in a MMORPG than in other multiplayer games, because in a MMORPG every player looks different, with the avatar you are seeing on your screen representing his race, class, and equipment. So I was wondering whether to reduce the lag it would be possible to switch to a display mode where you see everyone with much simplified avatars. Like one avatar for every class/race combo, with no display of what color of armor he is wearing or whether he wields an axe or a sword. It's not as if you'd care whether you are being hit by a sword or axe. Yes, if you were fighting several Ironbreakers they'd all look like clones, the only difference between would be the name floating over their heads. But if that reduced lag considerably, and made crash-free fortress battles possible, wouldn't that be a price worth paying?
I remember Final Fantasy XI where the lag problem was solved by simply *not* displaying everyone immediately. You'd walk onto a crowded space in front of the auction house and at first see nobody, until they one after the other popped into view. Obviously that isn't a feasible solution for a PvP game. So if you need to see every other player, friend or foe, in your vicinity, the only technical solution I see is to reduce the amount of data necessary per player. I remember having seen a cartoon once, but can't find it any more, from somebody who buys a new first-person shooter game, swoons for 5 minutes about the spectacular graphics and effects, and then turns the resolution to minimum and all effects off to be able to actually be fast enough to win. Couldn't WAR introduce a simple toggle switch which you use when you start to experience lag and which reduces graphics to an ugly minimum, but allows you to continue playing without (or with less) lag? Pretty is good, playable is better.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Download Only Gamer
Just a quick link to an interesting new MMORPG blog: Download Only Gamer. The blog is relatively new, and mostly posts about Everquest 2 right now, but isn't really a blog specific to one game, EQ2 is just what the author is playing right now. There is also an interesting post about building your own MMO, where he could use some more participation. I didn't even know there was a MMO Tycoon game! So check it out, and give the new guy a chance!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tanking and healing ain't trivial
I dinged 78 yesterday with my priest in Gun'drak, while on the last quest of the Zul'drak zone. I was in my second pickup group at that point. The first group had a rogue and three plate-wearers: An arms warrior, and two Death Knights, blood and unholy. All of which thought they were tanking. So at the first boss the 4 melee guys all kept slashing at the boss, nobody took care of the adds he summoned, and I died lonely in the back. We still won, because dead holy priests still keep healing in angel form, but it still left me with the impression that none of the three "tanks" really knew what tanking was about. But then that group fell apart, and I had to look for another group to get my quest finished. It just happened that there was a group of 4 desperately looking for a healer. And it turned out that besides a warlock, the other 3 in the group were all healer classes: A druid, a shaman, and another priest. Oh great, first I get a group with three tanks that can't tank, then I get a group with three healers that can't heal. Fortunately the druid was okay as feral tank, the shaman, shadow priest, and warlock were good damage dealers, and with me healing we finished the dungeon with ease.
Nevertheless I couldn't help but wonder what all of these guys were planning to do at level 80. I hear that among the heroic dungeons there are some quite tough nuts. If the players who leveled to 80 with a dps spec stay dps, we'll probably have shortages in tanks and healers. But if the dps warriors, death knights, and paladins switch to tank spec, and the feral druids, enhancement shamans, shadow priests, and some other paladins switch to healing spec, I'm worried about the quality of their performance. If they think that a simple respec and switch of gear will turn them from a dps character into a tank or healer, they are sadly mistaken. Just having the right stats and the spells and abilities isn't enough. You need to *know* how to play a tank or healer to be any good in that role.
That is why personally I level my priest in holy spec, and will level my warrior in protection spec. I'm sure that slows me down somewhat whenever I'm soloing. But in every group I join on my way to 80 I not only do a much better job tanking or healing than somebody with the wrong spec and gear; I also get constant training on how to use my tanking and healing abilities to maximum effectiveness. Both roles take a lot of skill, and constant judgement calls, unless there is just one simple tank'n'spank boss. If you fight several mobs, keeping all the aggro on the tank isn't trivial, and keeping everybody alive when several people are getting hit at once isn't trivial either. Someone who is only familiar with the damage dealing capabilities of his class won't be able to do a good job of tanking or healing on his first try. And even if someone already did some tanking or healing at level 70, there are quite a number of abilities that have changed, and getting rusty on your skills while leveling as dps isn't a good idea.
Nevertheless I couldn't help but wonder what all of these guys were planning to do at level 80. I hear that among the heroic dungeons there are some quite tough nuts. If the players who leveled to 80 with a dps spec stay dps, we'll probably have shortages in tanks and healers. But if the dps warriors, death knights, and paladins switch to tank spec, and the feral druids, enhancement shamans, shadow priests, and some other paladins switch to healing spec, I'm worried about the quality of their performance. If they think that a simple respec and switch of gear will turn them from a dps character into a tank or healer, they are sadly mistaken. Just having the right stats and the spells and abilities isn't enough. You need to *know* how to play a tank or healer to be any good in that role.
That is why personally I level my priest in holy spec, and will level my warrior in protection spec. I'm sure that slows me down somewhat whenever I'm soloing. But in every group I join on my way to 80 I not only do a much better job tanking or healing than somebody with the wrong spec and gear; I also get constant training on how to use my tanking and healing abilities to maximum effectiveness. Both roles take a lot of skill, and constant judgement calls, unless there is just one simple tank'n'spank boss. If you fight several mobs, keeping all the aggro on the tank isn't trivial, and keeping everybody alive when several people are getting hit at once isn't trivial either. Someone who is only familiar with the damage dealing capabilities of his class won't be able to do a good job of tanking or healing on his first try. And even if someone already did some tanking or healing at level 70, there are quite a number of abilities that have changed, and getting rusty on your skills while leveling as dps isn't a good idea.
Flying mounts shrink the world
When I hit level 77 last weekend, I was in the middle of questing in Zul'Darak. So I went to train my spells and to learn "Cold weather flying", enabling me to use my flying mount in Northrend. And when I came back to Zul'Darak and continued questing, I found that the zone had shrunk. Where before getting from A to B was part of the adventure, it now went much faster, flying in a straight line and ignoring the mobs and terrain features. As I have previously argued in my post measuring the size of Azeroth, "distance" in virtual worlds is less a matter of meters and miles, but more a matter of how long it takes you to get somewhere. And flying thus shrinks the world. Are flying mounts a mistake, or should they at least have been postponed to level 80?
One problem with flying mounts is that it makes the traveling and exploring part of questing trivial. Exploring Zul'Darak on foot or horseback was fun, because it was dangerous. You couldn't just go anywhere in a straight line, because there were walls, cliffs, and large accumulations of monsters you had to circumvent. As soon as you have a flying mount, you just ignore those obstacles. The zone might as well be totally flat, you wouldn't notice the difference. Flying mounts take a part of the game away. That is great if you *want* to skip content, for example after having already explored everything on the ground. But it also leads to you missing a lot of the features in higher level zones. Of course some features of higher level zones are designed with flying mounts in mind, there are even flying ships with quest givers. But some ground parts you'll never see, because you don't have to.
I find flying mounts particularly annoying when it comes to gathering herbs and ores. If you don't have one, it is frustrating to run towards a resource node, only to see somebody else fly from above and grab the node before you. And once you have a flying mount yourself, it takes much of the adventure out of gathering resources. Gathering resources by flying is just a trivial grind, but you can't afford not to use your flying mount, because you are in competition with other players. I'm having more fun gathering resources in Wintergrasp, which is a no-fly zone, than in places where it is too easy because of flying.
Players are always clamoring for faster transport: faster flight paths, teleports, flying mounts. But in the end we just make the world around us smaller by that, and eliminate a large part of the exploration gameplay. I'm happy we couldn't use flying mounts in Northrend already at level 70, and wonder if their use shouldn't have postponed to level 80. What do you think?
One problem with flying mounts is that it makes the traveling and exploring part of questing trivial. Exploring Zul'Darak on foot or horseback was fun, because it was dangerous. You couldn't just go anywhere in a straight line, because there were walls, cliffs, and large accumulations of monsters you had to circumvent. As soon as you have a flying mount, you just ignore those obstacles. The zone might as well be totally flat, you wouldn't notice the difference. Flying mounts take a part of the game away. That is great if you *want* to skip content, for example after having already explored everything on the ground. But it also leads to you missing a lot of the features in higher level zones. Of course some features of higher level zones are designed with flying mounts in mind, there are even flying ships with quest givers. But some ground parts you'll never see, because you don't have to.
I find flying mounts particularly annoying when it comes to gathering herbs and ores. If you don't have one, it is frustrating to run towards a resource node, only to see somebody else fly from above and grab the node before you. And once you have a flying mount yourself, it takes much of the adventure out of gathering resources. Gathering resources by flying is just a trivial grind, but you can't afford not to use your flying mount, because you are in competition with other players. I'm having more fun gathering resources in Wintergrasp, which is a no-fly zone, than in places where it is too easy because of flying.
Players are always clamoring for faster transport: faster flight paths, teleports, flying mounts. But in the end we just make the world around us smaller by that, and eliminate a large part of the exploration gameplay. I'm happy we couldn't use flying mounts in Northrend already at level 70, and wonder if their use shouldn't have postponed to level 80. What do you think?
Monday, December 1, 2008
Making readers uncomfortable
It has been made abundantly clear to me by a significant number of comment over the years that it makes a lot of my readers uncomfortable when I talk about myself. They much prefer me in "sage mode": Dispensing wisdom, writing analysis, giving advice, reviewing facts, reporting news, and telling funny stories. But when I show too much enthusiasm, write about what worries me, react with emotions to some negativity, or show interests outside the narrow world of MMORPGs, it is making people flinch and wince. Bad news is that I'm not going to stop to write at a more personal level. Because being totally impersonal is an impossible task, and because this blog wouldn't even exist if it weren't about my feelings.
I totally understand why it makes people uncomfortable. After all MMORPGs are basically fantasy worlds into which we escape to avoid having to deal with the real world and real emotions. Dealing with people online, in games or blogs, allows us to reduce them to specific roles: The tank, the healer, the blogger. There are less dimensions to "my guild's main tank", or "Tobold the blogger", than there are to real persons. If these characters suddenly start showing more depth, the tank skips raids because of personal problems, or Tobold whining about his angst that his warrior is becoming obsolete, it quickly becomes inconvenient to have to deal with that.
But as much as someone might prefer me as being impersonal, in reality that just isn't possible. Just like there is a real person with real feelings behind that tank avatar, there is a real person behind Tobold the blogger. Sometimes I just have a bad day, or I rant, or whine, or go off on a tangent, or worry, or am happy. And people telling me I shouldn't let my feelings show usually just cause me to rant or whine even more, because such comments touch me on a personal level, and thus provoke a personal response. This is a one-man operation, there is no editor who could edit out unseemly content that isn't perfectly neutral or politically correct. The only way you *do* have to "edit" me, is to simply not read the posts that make you uncomfortable.
And as I mentioned, the personal stuff is a necessary condition for the existence of this blog. Because I am not a robot, but a real person, there has to be something in it for me that causes me to write this blog, people don't do things without any motivation. And there is obviously no financial incentive. You might think that this blog is about MMORPGs, but in reality this blog is about me. I blog because I feel a need to express myself. This is my place, my retreat, my Cheers where everybody knows my name, the place I hang out, where I can talk about the stuff that interests me, or bitch about my problems. To get me to leave my personality at the door, I would need to be motivated otherwise, for example by being paid for my work. I guess you could get a magazine with a similar amount of game content for about $50 per year, so how about you all send me $50 per year? Thought not. I think that getting ample content for free in exchange for having to put up with the occasional personal post is the better deal.
And yes, I'm perfectly aware that this post made you feel uncomfortable again. "Tobold's Blog: Making readers uncomfortable since 2003" :)
I totally understand why it makes people uncomfortable. After all MMORPGs are basically fantasy worlds into which we escape to avoid having to deal with the real world and real emotions. Dealing with people online, in games or blogs, allows us to reduce them to specific roles: The tank, the healer, the blogger. There are less dimensions to "my guild's main tank", or "Tobold the blogger", than there are to real persons. If these characters suddenly start showing more depth, the tank skips raids because of personal problems, or Tobold whining about his angst that his warrior is becoming obsolete, it quickly becomes inconvenient to have to deal with that.
But as much as someone might prefer me as being impersonal, in reality that just isn't possible. Just like there is a real person with real feelings behind that tank avatar, there is a real person behind Tobold the blogger. Sometimes I just have a bad day, or I rant, or whine, or go off on a tangent, or worry, or am happy. And people telling me I shouldn't let my feelings show usually just cause me to rant or whine even more, because such comments touch me on a personal level, and thus provoke a personal response. This is a one-man operation, there is no editor who could edit out unseemly content that isn't perfectly neutral or politically correct. The only way you *do* have to "edit" me, is to simply not read the posts that make you uncomfortable.
And as I mentioned, the personal stuff is a necessary condition for the existence of this blog. Because I am not a robot, but a real person, there has to be something in it for me that causes me to write this blog, people don't do things without any motivation. And there is obviously no financial incentive. You might think that this blog is about MMORPGs, but in reality this blog is about me. I blog because I feel a need to express myself. This is my place, my retreat, my Cheers where everybody knows my name, the place I hang out, where I can talk about the stuff that interests me, or bitch about my problems. To get me to leave my personality at the door, I would need to be motivated otherwise, for example by being paid for my work. I guess you could get a magazine with a similar amount of game content for about $50 per year, so how about you all send me $50 per year? Thought not. I think that getting ample content for free in exchange for having to put up with the occasional personal post is the better deal.
And yes, I'm perfectly aware that this post made you feel uncomfortable again. "Tobold's Blog: Making readers uncomfortable since 2003" :)
Not impressed by new holy priest spells
As mentioned before my priest is holy spec, and currently level 77. Which means that in comparison to pre-patch 3.0.2 I have a few more new spells from the trainer or talents: Hymn of Hope, Mind Sear, Guardian Spirit, but not yet Divine Hymn, which I'll only get at 80. And looking through the new spells, I must say I'm not impressed. Maybe they do get a bit more useful in a raid setting, but for a typical leveling activity with a mix of soloing and 5-man groups they are pretty much useless.
Hymn of Hope: In a long channeling process this spell restores 8% of mana over 8 seconds, to all group members. In a solo setting this is completely useless: You don't have the time to use it in combat, and outside of combat you'd get far more mana from sitting and drinking for 8 seconds. In a group this is still not much good, because if you as the healer are out of mana, channeling for 8 seconds to get enough mana for just one or two heals isn't going to save you. The tank is probably dead before the 8 seconds are over.
Mind Sear: Another channeling spell, this one dealing AoE damage every second for 5 seconds. Unfortunately in most circumstances Holy Nova is far superior to Mind Sear. Mind Sear deals damage in a 10 yard radius around an enemy target, but does not damage the targeted enemy. So even in the best possible case you can only kill every mob except the one you target. In addition the mana per damage ratio of Mind Sear is bad, it does not have a healing component like Holy Nova, and in a group situation you will not have the "doesn't cause aggro" advantage of Holy Nova. The only thing Mind Sear will cause is to have the frost mage snicker in the background. I couldn't find any good use for this spell while soloing.
Guardian Spirit: Neat idea for an emergency button, you protect somebody from dying for 10 seconds. Very situational, and pretty much useless for soloing. If I still have mana, I can cast other forms of instant self-heals to keep myself from dying. In a group this could be useful for tanks that haven't got enough defense and suddenly drop precipitously in health. In that situation Guardian Spirit prevents them from dying from a second crit, and makes it easier to heal them back up to full. But in a well-organized group this situation shouldn't happen all that often.
I haven't really looked all that much into the new spells of other classes. Shalkis found Mirror Image to be less useful than expected. What I've seen from Warrior new abilities looks a lot more useful. How are the new spells and abilities of your class? Did priests get the short end of the stick, or are most new spells of only limited use?
Hymn of Hope: In a long channeling process this spell restores 8% of mana over 8 seconds, to all group members. In a solo setting this is completely useless: You don't have the time to use it in combat, and outside of combat you'd get far more mana from sitting and drinking for 8 seconds. In a group this is still not much good, because if you as the healer are out of mana, channeling for 8 seconds to get enough mana for just one or two heals isn't going to save you. The tank is probably dead before the 8 seconds are over.
Mind Sear: Another channeling spell, this one dealing AoE damage every second for 5 seconds. Unfortunately in most circumstances Holy Nova is far superior to Mind Sear. Mind Sear deals damage in a 10 yard radius around an enemy target, but does not damage the targeted enemy. So even in the best possible case you can only kill every mob except the one you target. In addition the mana per damage ratio of Mind Sear is bad, it does not have a healing component like Holy Nova, and in a group situation you will not have the "doesn't cause aggro" advantage of Holy Nova. The only thing Mind Sear will cause is to have the frost mage snicker in the background. I couldn't find any good use for this spell while soloing.
Guardian Spirit: Neat idea for an emergency button, you protect somebody from dying for 10 seconds. Very situational, and pretty much useless for soloing. If I still have mana, I can cast other forms of instant self-heals to keep myself from dying. In a group this could be useful for tanks that haven't got enough defense and suddenly drop precipitously in health. In that situation Guardian Spirit prevents them from dying from a second crit, and makes it easier to heal them back up to full. But in a well-organized group this situation shouldn't happen all that often.
I haven't really looked all that much into the new spells of other classes. Shalkis found Mirror Image to be less useful than expected. What I've seen from Warrior new abilities looks a lot more useful. How are the new spells and abilities of your class? Did priests get the short end of the stick, or are most new spells of only limited use?
Blogs are irrelevant and subjective
One interesting subject from the open Sunday thread was why some people react so strongly when they read somebody praising a different game, or even start shouting "conspiracy!" when they read some less than raving report on their favorite game. And I think one anonymous commenter got a step closer to the answer by asking about the influence of blogs. It seems logical that if somebody believes that blogs wield a huge influence in the decision of people what to play, or even on the developers of those games, they would feel threatened if a blogger writes negatively about their favorite game, or positively about a different game. But I do think that would overestimate the influence of blogs. In reality blogs have no, or very, very little, influence on developers and players. They are just a reflection of the subjective opinions of one or few people.
The reason why I can state the lack of influence with some certainty is simple math. I'm proud to have a "popular" blog, but popular still means only 5,000 visitors a day, of which 55% come here from some search engine, 25% following some link, and only 20% by either typing the URL of my blog, or having me bookmarked. So I maybe have 1,000 regular readers. Most of them are of the "I read what Tobold has to say, but I sometimes disagree" type, which is how it should be. But even if I could influence all 1,000 of them to lets say switch from one game to another, the impact on the subscription numbers of a major MMORPG would be minimal. 99% of WoW players have never even heard of me.
Not only is there a lack of influence, but also there is no conspiracy or hidden agenda. I'm just a regular MMORPG player, with certain preferences. Just like everyone else, I get excited about new games, like some games more than others, and inside one game have features I like and others I dislike. I generally prefer PvE over PvP, and if I PvP I prefer the "carebear" sort. I like storytelling and variety of gameplay, and dislike grinds. I prefer content to be accessible to casual players, and don't like exclusive content for a small elite. Besides games, I have an interest in economics, so you'll often find me discussing game economics, both the real world economics of business models, and the virtual economics of tradeskills and auction houses. None of this is secret in any way, and since it is inevitable that I repeat myself in 5 years of blogging, you can find ample evidence of these preference all over this blog.
Currently I am very much excited and happy about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion of World of Warcraft, because it very much corresponds to my personal preferences: As always in WoW, it is mostly PvE, with some carebear PvP. It has better storytelling and more varied gameplay than the previous expansion. And it promises to be more accessible and less elite in the endgame. A near-perfect match. But I'm not vain or stupid enough to believe that the Blizzard developers read what I wrote on this blog and created the expansion to fit my personal preferences. What I do believe (and again I only have indirect evidence) is that The Burning Crusade was not quite as big a success as Blizzard had hoped. It sold a lot of copies early, but then relatively quickly lost players. I do believe that the reason for that decline was that the players reached level 70 and because raiding was relatively difficult never even got started in the raiding circuit. I think Blizzard got that message through various exit interviews from people canceling their accounts, and is trying to do better this time. My personal agenda just happens to coincide with what a large number of casual players prefers, it isn't as if they were in any way influenced by me. And Blizzard is influenced by profits and subscription numbers, not by what anyone says about their game on any blog or forum.
Another evidence for the lack of influence of bloggers on players and developers is that people who take the time to discuss games on the internet are already a minority among players in general. By definition they are less casual, because it takes an above average interest in a game to not only play it, but also to want to talk about it when not playing it. I believe, without having proof for it, that the people who discuss games on the internet on average have somewhat different, less casual, interests than players who don't. Thus aspects of gameplay which require more dedication, for example hardcore PvP or raiding, are more popular on blogs and game forums than they are in the games themselves. I think developers don't listen too closely to what people say on forums and blogs, because they know that doing so would risk to miss the interests of the silent majority.
While it is obviously hard to judge oneself correctly, I would say that overall I'm a rather rational type. I try to avoid posting obvious falsehoods, and I usually do see both the good and bad sides of any given game or feature. But that doesn't make the content of this blog completely fair and balanced. Blogs, by their very nature, aren't even supposed to be objective. The word "blog" comes from "weblog", and that is what this is: A log of my thoughts, a kind of public diary. Objectivity isn't even a stated goal of that, I write my subjective feelings on games, features, or sometimes even non-game issues. And, being personal and subjective, my attitude towards one game can, and frequently does, change over time. If you read my archives, you will find that I never liked The Burning Crusade very much, and during that time wrote a lot of negative stuff about World of Warcraft, including an "I quit" post, taking an extensive leave from the game. You will also find some very positive coverage of WAR from the late beta and early release days, until the preponderance of scenarios ruined that game for me. And then there are lots of games that get no or very little coverage from this blog at all, because they are simply not on my radar.
If somebody expects me to cover and praise every existing game equally, he simply is at the wrong spot. Being personal this blog reports on the games I play, with a subjective slant towards the games I like. I am certainly trying to be balanced and fair, but there simply aren't any game review sites that praise all games equally, because frankly that wouldn't be of much use to anyone. The very act of reviewing a game introduces subjectivity. Besides reviews and personal opinions this blog has some "MMO news coverage", but that very often consists of links to the totally subjective reviews and personal opinions of other bloggers, with my subjective comments thrown in. Game companies are private enterprises, and there is a lot of interesting data they have and don't publish. Thus subjects like subscription numbers or future strategy of a game are surrounded by a lot of speculation, some circumstantial evidence, and very few absolute truths. But the fun is in the speculation and discussion, nobody should expect the same level of proof from a blog post than what would be required in a criminal justice court.
So, in summary, I do think that some people overestimate the influence of blogs. And some people have trouble making the distinction between a blog and the Washington Post. It is obviously hard to convince these people that I'm neither out to influence the MMORPG world, nor am I likely to do that. So the best advice I can offer is that if you believe so strongly that a single person with a blog hosted for free can influence both developers and players, then you should go and make your own blog. If it's so easy to move millions of subscribers to one's preferred game, and change the way in which future games are designed, why don't you go out and do it?
The reason why I can state the lack of influence with some certainty is simple math. I'm proud to have a "popular" blog, but popular still means only 5,000 visitors a day, of which 55% come here from some search engine, 25% following some link, and only 20% by either typing the URL of my blog, or having me bookmarked. So I maybe have 1,000 regular readers. Most of them are of the "I read what Tobold has to say, but I sometimes disagree" type, which is how it should be. But even if I could influence all 1,000 of them to lets say switch from one game to another, the impact on the subscription numbers of a major MMORPG would be minimal. 99% of WoW players have never even heard of me.
Not only is there a lack of influence, but also there is no conspiracy or hidden agenda. I'm just a regular MMORPG player, with certain preferences. Just like everyone else, I get excited about new games, like some games more than others, and inside one game have features I like and others I dislike. I generally prefer PvE over PvP, and if I PvP I prefer the "carebear" sort. I like storytelling and variety of gameplay, and dislike grinds. I prefer content to be accessible to casual players, and don't like exclusive content for a small elite. Besides games, I have an interest in economics, so you'll often find me discussing game economics, both the real world economics of business models, and the virtual economics of tradeskills and auction houses. None of this is secret in any way, and since it is inevitable that I repeat myself in 5 years of blogging, you can find ample evidence of these preference all over this blog.
Currently I am very much excited and happy about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion of World of Warcraft, because it very much corresponds to my personal preferences: As always in WoW, it is mostly PvE, with some carebear PvP. It has better storytelling and more varied gameplay than the previous expansion. And it promises to be more accessible and less elite in the endgame. A near-perfect match. But I'm not vain or stupid enough to believe that the Blizzard developers read what I wrote on this blog and created the expansion to fit my personal preferences. What I do believe (and again I only have indirect evidence) is that The Burning Crusade was not quite as big a success as Blizzard had hoped. It sold a lot of copies early, but then relatively quickly lost players. I do believe that the reason for that decline was that the players reached level 70 and because raiding was relatively difficult never even got started in the raiding circuit. I think Blizzard got that message through various exit interviews from people canceling their accounts, and is trying to do better this time. My personal agenda just happens to coincide with what a large number of casual players prefers, it isn't as if they were in any way influenced by me. And Blizzard is influenced by profits and subscription numbers, not by what anyone says about their game on any blog or forum.
Another evidence for the lack of influence of bloggers on players and developers is that people who take the time to discuss games on the internet are already a minority among players in general. By definition they are less casual, because it takes an above average interest in a game to not only play it, but also to want to talk about it when not playing it. I believe, without having proof for it, that the people who discuss games on the internet on average have somewhat different, less casual, interests than players who don't. Thus aspects of gameplay which require more dedication, for example hardcore PvP or raiding, are more popular on blogs and game forums than they are in the games themselves. I think developers don't listen too closely to what people say on forums and blogs, because they know that doing so would risk to miss the interests of the silent majority.
While it is obviously hard to judge oneself correctly, I would say that overall I'm a rather rational type. I try to avoid posting obvious falsehoods, and I usually do see both the good and bad sides of any given game or feature. But that doesn't make the content of this blog completely fair and balanced. Blogs, by their very nature, aren't even supposed to be objective. The word "blog" comes from "weblog", and that is what this is: A log of my thoughts, a kind of public diary. Objectivity isn't even a stated goal of that, I write my subjective feelings on games, features, or sometimes even non-game issues. And, being personal and subjective, my attitude towards one game can, and frequently does, change over time. If you read my archives, you will find that I never liked The Burning Crusade very much, and during that time wrote a lot of negative stuff about World of Warcraft, including an "I quit" post, taking an extensive leave from the game. You will also find some very positive coverage of WAR from the late beta and early release days, until the preponderance of scenarios ruined that game for me. And then there are lots of games that get no or very little coverage from this blog at all, because they are simply not on my radar.
If somebody expects me to cover and praise every existing game equally, he simply is at the wrong spot. Being personal this blog reports on the games I play, with a subjective slant towards the games I like. I am certainly trying to be balanced and fair, but there simply aren't any game review sites that praise all games equally, because frankly that wouldn't be of much use to anyone. The very act of reviewing a game introduces subjectivity. Besides reviews and personal opinions this blog has some "MMO news coverage", but that very often consists of links to the totally subjective reviews and personal opinions of other bloggers, with my subjective comments thrown in. Game companies are private enterprises, and there is a lot of interesting data they have and don't publish. Thus subjects like subscription numbers or future strategy of a game are surrounded by a lot of speculation, some circumstantial evidence, and very few absolute truths. But the fun is in the speculation and discussion, nobody should expect the same level of proof from a blog post than what would be required in a criminal justice court.
So, in summary, I do think that some people overestimate the influence of blogs. And some people have trouble making the distinction between a blog and the Washington Post. It is obviously hard to convince these people that I'm neither out to influence the MMORPG world, nor am I likely to do that. So the best advice I can offer is that if you believe so strongly that a single person with a blog hosted for free can influence both developers and players, then you should go and make your own blog. If it's so easy to move millions of subscribers to one's preferred game, and change the way in which future games are designed, why don't you go out and do it?
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