News
WoW as an e-Sport
14th May 2008 01:44 AM GMT | Leord | 3 comments
Big Download, a sister-site of WoWInsider, has had a discussion with the minds at Blizzard responsible for turning WoW into an e-Sport. In an interview with Tom Chilton (lead designer), Paul Della Bitta (Senior Manager, Global Community & e-Sports) and Joong Kim (e-Sports Manager) they explore Arena and the potential PvP content that is used for e-Sports in WoW. As usual we get almost liquified answers that avoid any straight facts but it's an interesting interview regardless. Besides, we're quite used to that rethoric strategy anyway. Here is a snip:
Tell us about the Arena Tournament and how World of Warcraft is taking steps towards becoming an eSport.
Tom: When we first created World or Warcraft, we always imagined that PvP would be very important in general. We didn't anticipate turning it into an eSport, so it's one of those things that's been evolving over time. In Burning Crusade, we developed the Arena system because we wanted a competitive element - we wanted something that felt like a sport within WoW itself. It so happens that it's a pretty good platform for eSports, since it's fun, fast-paced, action-oriented and well enough balanced. After running the arena seasons on the live servers, it seemed like a natural extension to move toward a more organized eSport tournament.
Tom: When we first created World or Warcraft, we always imagined that PvP would be very important in general. We didn't anticipate turning it into an eSport, so it's one of those things that's been evolving over time. In Burning Crusade, we developed the Arena system because we wanted a competitive element - we wanted something that felt like a sport within WoW itself. It so happens that it's a pretty good platform for eSports, since it's fun, fast-paced, action-oriented and well enough balanced. After running the arena seasons on the live servers, it seemed like a natural extension to move toward a more organized eSport tournament.
Grab it all here.
Tags: arena, arena tournament, burning crusade, e-sports, interviews, joong kim, ...
Comments
67 days ago
Stupid. Just plain stupid.
Blizz needs to stop wasting their time worrying about making piss-poor attempts at organized PvP with constantly unbalanced classes and get back to their boring old static raids. Even though the action never really changed once you got the hang of a raid boss, at least they did a good job on balance in that department. They need to accept the fact that there is a good possiblity they're going to lose a chunk of their PvP playerbase when other major MMOs come out (WAR, Aion, Conan) and concentrate on the only part of the game they've managed to get right.
Blizz needs to stop wasting their time worrying about making piss-poor attempts at organized PvP with constantly unbalanced classes and get back to their boring old static raids. Even though the action never really changed once you got the hang of a raid boss, at least they did a good job on balance in that department. They need to accept the fact that there is a good possiblity they're going to lose a chunk of their PvP playerbase when other major MMOs come out (WAR, Aion, Conan) and concentrate on the only part of the game they've managed to get right.
67 days ago
I disagree :)
True, they seem to be better at PvE-encounters than at PvP, but you make it sound horrible. Try enjoying a blend of both?
True, they seem to be better at PvE-encounters than at PvP, but you make it sound horrible. Try enjoying a blend of both?
67 days ago
Yeah, I agree on the blend. Still, I think ChaosInc meant more the whole e-sport debacle rather than PvP in general. It makes matters harder in the e-sport world as the classes are not balanced properly (Blizzard have even said they have no intentions of making it balanced 1v1, and while not crucial, it's an indication) and the fact that they change so significantly with every expansion.
It's not like CS or SC where the game always start the same way, and the only thing that matters is player skill. Even just adding 10 lvls of spells etc will make the balancing reset again (Warlocks, anyone?).
It's not like CS or SC where the game always start the same way, and the only thing that matters is player skill. Even just adding 10 lvls of spells etc will make the balancing reset again (Warlocks, anyone?).
