The Cesspit | F00lies | Ravings | Bloggie

Whiny kids

Submitted by Abalieno on January 18, 2005 - 04:39.

Blizzard's servers go nuts and the whole world whines in a concert. All over the mmorpg-communities and blogs everyone just talks about this. Nothing else. Obviously I'll follow here but at least I'll say something different.

It's fun because Penny Arcade (no permalinks for a change...) called for Lum in a quote that you'll find everywhere:

If this happened in Galaxies, or Dark Age, or AO, of course it'd be everybody everywhere piling on. But it's Blizzard, and since they made a few good games years ago now they can do whatever the fuck they want to. Great policy, and it totally serves consumers. Good job. Where's Lum The Mad when you need him.

I'm the only one considering this simply ridiculous? Cosmik comments:

My bet is on him being stored away behind the speech proof walls of a competitor. Rest assured though, there is a chance he is at least having a smile. Unless he plays World of Warcraft, that is.

Of course, not everyone believes Blizzard has been skipping down the garden path and giving everyone roses.

But hey, these people are no Lum. So why take any notice of them?

But Lum is alive and it's not a case that he agrees with me:

HRose:
Calling Lum the Mad because the server is down? Haha.

His point of view was actually here, by the way.

Lum:
And the article HRose linked to is still my view. For many of WoW's players, this is their first MMO. If they learn that MMOs are unstable beasts that aren't worth the effort thanks to technical difficulties, the ramifications of that will go beyond Blizzard. Believe me, no one in the MMO industry is dancing a jig over this.

And his direct opinion of what is happening today is exactly the main point that everyone is missing:

Believe me, if there was a knob they could turn, or even a giant vat they could throw money into to make things Better, I'm sure they would. Popularity can be a very sharp double-edged sword. Thus, the irony.

This is the answer, even if it's not the type of taste you'd expect. This is why what is written on Penny Arcade is understandable from the players' perspective but simply pointless to make things improve in some way. The truth is that Blizzard isn't laughing and swimming in the money because "they can do whatever the fuck they want to". The truth is that Blizzard is CLUELESS. That type of thing that YOU CANNOT BUY WITH MONEY.

It's something that I wrote on this site too many times to count: Blizzard is able to do wonderful games and WoW is exactly a wonderful game. But they are clueless about the specific genre of a mmorpg and all the problems it brings along.

There are 88 servers. The hardware of all these servers is identic. There isn't a server with a bigger capacity than another. Building an infrastructure like this one takes a lot of time and planning. They cannot "buy more powerful server". It's again NOT about the money. The only way to solve radically this problem is plan ahead. Not a case that I was anticipating all this when it was the time to underline this problem. Now? It's too late. Blizzard cannot take down the servers for six months to replan the whole server structure.

The heart of the issue isn't Blizzard or the servers now. It's the community. This is fluff. Yeah, everyone is pissed off right now. Once the problems will be solved, instead, everyone will forget completely what is happening now.

So the point is: WoW is a good game, once the technical problems will be solved we will have the good game. In other examples both these aspects were bad and when the technical problems went away we still had bad games. If you don't have patience you can jump to the other faction. SOE is the opposite of Blizzard, they know the genre but they don't have a clue about building good games. You choose.

The fact is that "memory" isn't a common quality. Aside a small group of jaded players noone remembers what happens. These topics are like some politics fluff, it is good to make peoples chat together for a day or a week but the actual effect is zero.

Nothing changes at all. We just need something for the chit chat, no matter what it is.

Filed in: The Cesspit | WoW

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I'm not going to speak for Lum

Cosmik (not verified) on January 18, 2005 - 09:48.

I'm not going to speak for Lum since, well, he does that himself quite well, but I see it as a double-edged sword. A double-edged sword that could swing either way.

Yes, WoW's screwy server problem is undoubtedly one of the worst ways to introduce legions of new MMO players to the genre and keep them strapped into WoW. The only way it could get worse would be if more servers suffer this ailment. Not even a huge nerf to experience, combat, or potions that turn you into a skeleton would have the same effect as a server choking on a player.

For many, being able to play > being able to play and not have fun.

However, I took the stance that this issue can also be seen as a blessing for other MMO companies as customers return to their "old and tired" yet dependable game. DAOC was one game in which players noticed a significant lack of players post-WoW release. No matter how much it sucks for fellow industry employees to suffer from a fate everyone fears, its gotta feel even the slightest, miniscule bit good that people once again pick up your banner and take up the space on your server.

It's also likely that a number of players, after having a taste of WoW and hearing about the MMOs that other players came from, will plonk their toes into the waters of another MMO at least once. As new MMO players either meet up with existing guilds or help create their own, there's a fantastic chance that the guild will move onto another MMO. Community (friends) uber alles, as I always say.

And let's face it. Bob down at the water cooler is going to keep recommending WoW as a game to MMO virgins. It's fun. Only after this shamozzle, he's going to recommend playing on the less populated servers.

Yet on the other side of the coin, how likely is it that Mr. Richards, the father with 2 kids, the much touted "casual player", and who is experiencing a great WoW launch, will turn away from his Undead and Night Elf to play another MMO? Even in another 3 years when a slew of new MMOs have left the stable? With the quality of WoW as a game, pretty unfrickinlikely. In fact, it's equally as likely that a player who stays with WoW for a while, becomes bored and moves onto the next MMO will instead stay with WoW for a while, become bored, and go back to single-player games.

People are an unpredictable lot. That's what makes us so cool and yet so stupid at the same time. Personally, I feel WoW has already given a boost to the MMO industry and there's only so much more it could have given with a 100% successful launch. It's a case of diminishing returns.

I guess the only way we'll know for sure is to try and notice if subscriptions in general pick up or not. But for my liking, it's going to take a case of more than one polished game with a good launch for people and the media to really get hyped up about the genre and give a boost to MMO companies across the board.

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Again on fluff

Innsmouth on January 19, 2005 - 01:10.

I agree with what Ubiq wrote here.

And also this other bit:
Someone said that now is a bad time to be in the space - and to be fair, thereâ€™s a few games out there taking lumps for this. But now is the time not to panic, but to plan - plan for players to eventually get bored with World of Warcraftâ€™s gameplay and want to go elsewhere. You just need to be sure you have the most compelling gameplay to invite them to when that happens.

It's true that new players are entering the genre and they may become new blood for the other games, it's also true that some of the old players will flow back at their origin. Ubiq in particular is suggesting how you can maximize this result, in the long run. I agree.

Right now noone sees things in the long run. What I keep reading everywhere are daily reactions that will have no history.

My point of view is that (again in the long run) World of Warcraft may loose players because of its gameplay and lack of long term hooks, not because the servers had problem in January. The gameplay problems will be there, the technical problems instead will be solved eventually. It's obvious that they cannot continue like this for too long but for now I see no alarms. I'm confident that Blizzard will be able to address them I expected this problems along with many others.

So, I believe that all that is happening now is fluff because it will be solved and after it will be solved it will be forgotten. Everyone speaks of this fluff *now*. I believe that the problem is the OPPOSITE. In a few months the low population servers will be *unplayable*. And that will be a DESIGN problem and it will be HARDER to fix at that point.

The same with the lack of hooks that the game has. I posted a comment about the battlegrounds, here above, and they have already announced that we won't see an honor system, ranks and rewards for "several weeks".

These are the problems. The game in its core and not the game with its temporary problems.

It's because of the second part that the players may leave to never return (like I did with DAoC).

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Lum's comment

Ethic (not verified) on January 18, 2005 - 23:42.

Lum's point of view is interesting and one I had not even considered. Since I am a veteran of many MMOG launches, issues like these in WoW do not concern me in the least. I signed up with the expectation that there would be problems. There always are problems.

But the new MMOG gamer... Will problems like this chase them away for ever? I'm not so sure. Yeah, some may be scared off. But many will not. Most any vet of any MMOG launch experienced the same issues in their first MMOG and are still back for more. Often times they even look back on that first game with hearts-a-flutter.

How this situation is handled, and how fast it is fixed will set a tone for what to expect in the future from Blizzard.

Problems in the past are easily forgotten, witness by the numerous posts of how much worse this launch is compared to other games that were disasters (in my opinion).

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Memory

Innsmouth on January 19, 2005 - 00:51.

> Problems in the past are easily forgotten, witness by the numerous posts of how much worse this launch is compared to other games that were disasters (in my opinion).

Agreed.

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I disagree.

Noel (not verified) on January 26, 2005 - 23:03.

> Problems in the past are easily forgotten, witness by the numerous posts of how much worse this launch is compared to other games that were disasters (in my opinion).

I disagree. Games which have had bad launches have suffered from significant subscriber churn in every case I can think of, save for EverQuest itself. AO, SB, SWG, etc. are all great examples of this. People may not consciously harp on it, but in the back of their mind, the memory of their terrible experience lingers and festers.

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Recovering players

Innsmouth on January 27, 2005 - 02:56.

This is what Jessica Mulligan wrote recently on Terra Nova:

Recovering players: Actually, Ola, Dave is right; experience has shown us that once a player unsubs and leaves the game completely, it is tough to get them back. 10% recovery is considered stellar; less than 5% is more likely.

I believe that the behaviour of the players is complex and it isn't possible to understand it with a simple analysis. What Ethic said was about the industry itself, though, not the players.

I'm also confident that Blizzard will solve those issues and behind they'll still have a good game. What I cannot accept is not those technical aspects. But the broken design that played a role in this situation.

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