Yesterday, Tobold made a post concerning the question of whether or not World of Warcraft can be, well, "out-WoWed" -- as he puts it. The game he proceeds to create via his list o' features is aimed at an even more casual audience than the one already playing in Azeroth. After reading through the list and considering its intent to draw in a much more casual market, we sort of feel confused.
The main reason we feel confused is because the list seems to contradict itself in a couple key places. Firstly, item number four on the list states that the elimination of class "roles" is essential -- but that classes have to stay. However, classes are themselves roles (a mage does ranged damage, that is its role) so what is actually being suggested is for everyone to play the same class with a different skin -- which seems casual, at first.
We also have to point out that having no endgame and instead giving players new skins to use for new characters might not work very well -- especially if the combat is too generic. Why keep going through all the combat content? Tobold's example is giving players a Ninja skin, but not everyone thinks Ninjas are really cool -- yes, hard to believe, but it's true. If this game were to actually have more than ten million players, how can the developer know what's compelling for all of the different people playing this game? Well, they can't.
With generic -- everybody heals themselves, everyone does lots of damage -- combat and no actual endgame, what's left for all these players to do is mini-games. Basically, players are supposed to flock towards a game that has generic classes/combat and is chock full of simple games they can already get from Popcap or any other of the various casual games makers. The farther you take a game into the casual space the less it's even competing with WoW in the first place.
Part of the reason World of Warcraft has been so successful is because it found its own audience -- a mix of casual, mid-core and hardcore gamers. The answer isn't going all-out casual, because as time goes on more casual gamers will become mid-core gamers.
Reader Comments (7)
Posted: Feb 21st 2008 8:36PM Scopique said
My gawd...for all the crap Tobold gets, I'd say he's right in this case. OK, maybe throwing all of those eggs in the same basket won't REALLY out-WoW WoW, but some of the points are pretty sound IMO.
Posted: Feb 21st 2008 11:12PM (Unverified) said
Hey don't get me wrong, if I didn't like Tobold I wouldn't read his blog. However when you over-simplify in a game it looses its appeal to the mid-core and hard-core -- which isn't bad if you just want casuals. However, as we all know, WoW isn't just casuals. Plenty of people are in-between mid-cores.
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Posted: Feb 22nd 2008 12:18PM (Unverified) said
WoW developers have stated before that their games are easy to learn, difficult to master. Guitar Hero is the same, it's not just about being 'casual', but being accessible and recognisable to everyone. If a 6 year old can pick up the game as easily as an 60 year old then to do otherwise risks alienating a big audience. Being casual is part of why Wow is successful, but it's the whole package which attracts players too.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:25AM (Unverified) said
Did you read the article?
"Now some of you are going to shout that they would never play such a game. Which is totally okay, because you are a gamer and aren't the target audience anyway. The game isn't supposed to be good from a game critic point of view."
Point proved?
"Now some of you are going to shout that they would never play such a game. Which is totally okay, because you are a gamer and aren't the target audience anyway. The game isn't supposed to be good from a game critic point of view."
Point proved?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 1:30PM (Unverified) said
Like I said, going all-casual isn't the answer to "Out-WoWing" WoW. Over-simplification can hurt a casual game just as much as complexity. You need Chess, not Go Fish.
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Posted: Feb 24th 2008 6:23AM (Unverified) said
http://www.playfuls.com/news_12072_Guiness_Book_of_World_Records_for_video_games_.html
Take a look down the list of popular games..best sellers? Tetris (in excess of 40m), Mario. Simple games who's mechanics are laid out the first minutes of gameplay... A player could complete the first level and warp straight to the last know exactly what to do....
Now fair enough, your average player didn't put as much time into Tetris as people put into WoW. As popular as Tetris was nobody would pay a tenner a month to keep playing.
The challange for the casual MMO described will be remaing simple at the core while adding new content that's original enough (and with production values high enough to give a sense of value for money) to keep people paying their subscriptions.
But there's no denying that the masses love simplicity, it's what's got my Mum playing Wii Tennis in place of Virtua Tennis 3.
Reply
Take a look down the list of popular games..best sellers? Tetris (in excess of 40m), Mario. Simple games who's mechanics are laid out the first minutes of gameplay... A player could complete the first level and warp straight to the last know exactly what to do....
Now fair enough, your average player didn't put as much time into Tetris as people put into WoW. As popular as Tetris was nobody would pay a tenner a month to keep playing.
The challange for the casual MMO described will be remaing simple at the core while adding new content that's original enough (and with production values high enough to give a sense of value for money) to keep people paying their subscriptions.
But there's no denying that the masses love simplicity, it's what's got my Mum playing Wii Tennis in place of Virtua Tennis 3.
Posted: Feb 24th 2008 10:32PM (Unverified) said
The problem? This game already exists, pretty much, in two forms. Runescape. A game with no real classes, where you can be anything just by levelling yourself, and has tons of minigames. Puzzle Pirates. A game which exists /just/ as a collection of puzzle games, of 'casual' games.
Isn't that pretty much what he's stating, mostly?
Isn't that pretty much what he's stating, mostly?







