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No More Big World Events?
24th Mar 2008 07:20 PM GMT | Maticus | 6 comments
Many of us who witnessed the opening of Ahn'Qiraj would love to see another world event like it, perhaps to kick off the next expansion. But Blizzard poster Bornakk has said that this is unlikely to happen - not just when Wrath of the Lich King opens, but maybe ever again:
World Events can be a double edged sword. I definitely took part in the opening of Ahn'Qiraj and had a great time, but it took a lot of development work and now that is lost to the winds. There is also the problem of forcing an entire server into one location and we prefer to avoid that.
I am not saying that they won't happen ever again, these epic one-time events are a lot of fun for the people who are there, but they are something we have to consider carefully before implementing.
I am not saying that they won't happen ever again, these epic one-time events are a lot of fun for the people who are there, but they are something we have to consider carefully before implementing.
Bornakk quoted an earlier post of his, explaining some of the logistics in pulling off something like a live server event, and it becomes clear why they might be keen to avoid something like that again:
Now, I'd like to state that it's a conscious design choice that we do not have live events in our game. There are a number of factors that brought us to this decision, and I'll do my best to clarify some of them for you. It's very easy to look at another game and say, "But X game did this," without fully realizing the mechanics of each individual situation.
Manpower is the first consideration. In order to execute these events, you need to have an adequate number of properly-trained employees to do what is required. In a small MMO environment with relatively few players, this can be easily done; it becomes more difficult with a larger population. We have over 150 realms in the North American service region alone -- our playerbase worldwide is quite significant. We'd want to keep these events up to the quality standards of Blizzard, which would require excellent typists and role players, able to think on their feet, with a working grasp of Warcraft lore (not to mention the language requirements). The numbers would be rather large to cover that many servers adequately. We choose not to use volunteers, as there are a number of other complications that come with such a program; as such, these individuals would have to be employees, and that's a weighty price indeed for something that, in the end, wouldn't garner much return.
This is assuming that one would have teams to cover groups of servers. Ideally, you want to execute live events fairly close to one another across all realms. This eliminates spoilers and also prevents overcrowding if the event is advertised or leaked ahead of time. (Those who were present for the very first opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj have an idea of how potentially problematic said overcrowding can be for a realm.) One could potentially operate with a very small, roaming team of actors doing occasional events -- but then the impact on the playerbase is lowered to practically nil.
There are technical considerations to be made, as well. Live actors playing NPCs tend to gather a large crowd in a small area, and that leads to latency and potential technical problems. It's difficult for a player to experience and enjoy a live event in such a situation. Now, crowds can be alleviated if more people are acting at the same time, thus spreading out the population... but this returns to the manpower issue.
If that was too longwinded, then here's the summary: live events, while certainly engaging, require high and constant maintenance to ensure high quality, and do not impact the playerbase enough for the large investment required.
Manpower is the first consideration. In order to execute these events, you need to have an adequate number of properly-trained employees to do what is required. In a small MMO environment with relatively few players, this can be easily done; it becomes more difficult with a larger population. We have over 150 realms in the North American service region alone -- our playerbase worldwide is quite significant. We'd want to keep these events up to the quality standards of Blizzard, which would require excellent typists and role players, able to think on their feet, with a working grasp of Warcraft lore (not to mention the language requirements). The numbers would be rather large to cover that many servers adequately. We choose not to use volunteers, as there are a number of other complications that come with such a program; as such, these individuals would have to be employees, and that's a weighty price indeed for something that, in the end, wouldn't garner much return.
This is assuming that one would have teams to cover groups of servers. Ideally, you want to execute live events fairly close to one another across all realms. This eliminates spoilers and also prevents overcrowding if the event is advertised or leaked ahead of time. (Those who were present for the very first opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj have an idea of how potentially problematic said overcrowding can be for a realm.) One could potentially operate with a very small, roaming team of actors doing occasional events -- but then the impact on the playerbase is lowered to practically nil.
There are technical considerations to be made, as well. Live actors playing NPCs tend to gather a large crowd in a small area, and that leads to latency and potential technical problems. It's difficult for a player to experience and enjoy a live event in such a situation. Now, crowds can be alleviated if more people are acting at the same time, thus spreading out the population... but this returns to the manpower issue.
If that was too longwinded, then here's the summary: live events, while certainly engaging, require high and constant maintenance to ensure high quality, and do not impact the playerbase enough for the large investment required.
On one hand, you can see why Blizzard aren't planning more of these types of events, but on the other - heck, with all that money they make, can't they think of something?? What are your views on this, would you like to see more world events, or is it a big deal over nothing that takes valuable time and resources away from developing new content, or maintaining the old?
Comments
46 days ago
I think after wotlk blizz should focus on adding or changing things to the three separate areas.
classic wow/tbc/wotlk
A lot could be accomplished within each without adding an entire new expansion.
For example, another 10 man raid on kara this time based upon stopping the castle from being taken over by the prince..etc etc, thus taking today's kara out of the game (people won't run it anyway, it'll be like brd once folks hit 80) but it gives more fun to what is there now.
Just a thought.
classic wow/tbc/wotlk
A lot could be accomplished within each without adding an entire new expansion.
For example, another 10 man raid on kara this time based upon stopping the castle from being taken over by the prince..etc etc, thus taking today's kara out of the game (people won't run it anyway, it'll be like brd once folks hit 80) but it gives more fun to what is there now.
Just a thought.
46 days ago
There is supposed to be "world events" at the launch of an expansion.... and I believe that it was Chris Metzen on the latest BlizzCast which stated that he'd personally like to see more of them, if they helped with the storytelling.
46 days ago
I thought the opening of AQ was awesome. The gathering of mats "for the war" built anticipation and then the epic battle at the opening was great! I would love to see another event similar to that. However if it is to be like the opening of Naxx, forget it! The opening to Naxx did not build anticipation, it was merely a series of reoccurring skirmishes world wide, and darkened skies that lasted so long it became boorish.
@rgity
There are many of us that run both Kara and BRD. You presume too much when you attempt to present your own opinions as if they were shared by everyone. I would like to see content added to all areas, but not at the expense of existing content.
@rgity
There are many of us that run both Kara and BRD. You presume too much when you attempt to present your own opinions as if they were shared by everyone. I would like to see content added to all areas, but not at the expense of existing content.
46 days ago
Actually, I liked the opening of Naxx far better than the one for Ahn'Quiraj. All Ahn'Quiraj did was cause massive server lag, and an 8-hour server queue for my server at one point (since we were the first server to open Ahn'Quiraj)
45 days ago
I haven't been around pre TBC. What the heck are you guys talking about? Whatever it is, it sounds really cool.
45 days ago
Before TBC, Silithus had been redesigned to what it is today. And, the 40-man (and 20-man) instances of Ahn'Quiraj was made available. This was done through a bunch of collection/turn-in quests which both Alliance and Horde on a server had to reach certain goals. Meanwhile, raid groups were putting together an item where once the goals were met (both horde and alliance), this item could be used to ring the gong to open Ahn'Quiraj's gates, unleashing a deluge of bugs out into Silithus to attack people (if memory serves).
There was a race of sorts between servers as to who would get it done first. As mine was the one (Medivh, barely beating out Mannoroth, both on the same battlegroup), we ended up having, well, basically everyone and their brother wanting to make a level 1 character and sit in Silithus to see it. This caused our server queue to skyrocket considerably, up to literally at one point, I tried to log in just to quest, and was told I had an estimated wait time of 8 hours before I could play. It required Blizzard locking our server and bumping all of th level 1's off the server and out of Silithus specifically, because it was crashing our server constantly as well.
There was a lot of screaming and gnashing of teeth, but eventually the gates were opened, not much could really be seen on my server, and eventually every server got them opened -- there were some where a guild had basically held their server hostage... they had the item to ring the gong (and only one per server was allowed), and then were charging ridiculous sums of gold for their server to pay them in order to ring the gong. Eventually, the whole thing became forgotten.
Each server can open the gates once. There are people who move their characters to a new server just to ring the gong and reap the rewards (there is a unique epic ground mount only available to the person who rings the gong).
For Naxxramus, when it was opened, there was another world event, where Necropoli were found attacking various locations across Azeroth, and people had to fight back the Scourge (basically, very specific locations in very specific zones). The necropolis for that zone shows up, and starts shooting these green bolts down to that location, summoning up Scourge undead there for people to fight. It was a lot of fun, far more fun than the super collection/grind quests that took place for the over-hyped Ahn'Quiraj in my opinion. These would show up, and it was something to do that was different than the usual drudgery. Eventually, the Necropoli were "defeated" (people doing quests for the Scarlet Crusade & Argent Dawn related to the event), and Naxx was opened, the last of the 40-man raid instances before TBC (which now has been/will be pulled back and is being reworked to a new instance for WotLK).
So far, the only other "world event" I can think of, was the launch of TBC, which was quite honestly pitiful.
There was a race of sorts between servers as to who would get it done first. As mine was the one (Medivh, barely beating out Mannoroth, both on the same battlegroup), we ended up having, well, basically everyone and their brother wanting to make a level 1 character and sit in Silithus to see it. This caused our server queue to skyrocket considerably, up to literally at one point, I tried to log in just to quest, and was told I had an estimated wait time of 8 hours before I could play. It required Blizzard locking our server and bumping all of th level 1's off the server and out of Silithus specifically, because it was crashing our server constantly as well.
There was a lot of screaming and gnashing of teeth, but eventually the gates were opened, not much could really be seen on my server, and eventually every server got them opened -- there were some where a guild had basically held their server hostage... they had the item to ring the gong (and only one per server was allowed), and then were charging ridiculous sums of gold for their server to pay them in order to ring the gong. Eventually, the whole thing became forgotten.
Each server can open the gates once. There are people who move their characters to a new server just to ring the gong and reap the rewards (there is a unique epic ground mount only available to the person who rings the gong).
For Naxxramus, when it was opened, there was another world event, where Necropoli were found attacking various locations across Azeroth, and people had to fight back the Scourge (basically, very specific locations in very specific zones). The necropolis for that zone shows up, and starts shooting these green bolts down to that location, summoning up Scourge undead there for people to fight. It was a lot of fun, far more fun than the super collection/grind quests that took place for the over-hyped Ahn'Quiraj in my opinion. These would show up, and it was something to do that was different than the usual drudgery. Eventually, the Necropoli were "defeated" (people doing quests for the Scarlet Crusade & Argent Dawn related to the event), and Naxx was opened, the last of the 40-man raid instances before TBC (which now has been/will be pulled back and is being reworked to a new instance for WotLK).
So far, the only other "world event" I can think of, was the launch of TBC, which was quite honestly pitiful.
