Number 16: World of Warcraft, Blizzard 2004
Intro:
Blizzard's FMVs are incredible, as always, and the tour this one takes the player on is just as gorgeous. The menus are very similar to the Warcraft III design, minus the running chains and dropping frames at every exchange. There is atmospheric rumblings, and the huge portal gives me the feeling like logging in is more like crossing into the world. Every time the player starts a new character, a live-rendered flythrough introduces you to the state of the race with a narration.
Getting Going:
The tool tips are useful and thankfully breif. The basics of the game are simple enough: right click on a target when you're near it to interact. Each class gets help specific to their abilities, and deeper elements like talents are delayed to keep users from being overwhelmed. The newbie zones are protected by quite a few of the faction's best, so players don't fear being trampled by bored high-level players until they've progressed much further.
Fun:
Keeping things simple has worked out very well. Quests are a little vague at times, but the lively visuals and cartoony character design contribute a lot to the player's relaxed enjoyment. Zones are pretty well balanced, as each major county holds enough for a player to settle there for 10 levels before needing to move on without suprising the player with monsters out of their league next to areas they may be comfortable in. Forming groups is fairly painless, though the game allows for lots of solo play. Dying is much less frustrating than it is in other games, with no penalties unless you refuse to retrieve your own body. UI modifications add a lot of functionality as well, such as Cosmos giving the player piles of at times useless options to improve the interface.
Visuals:
Wonderful use of the glow effect! When the "sun" is up, everything shimmers, which makes texturally repetitive environments much more enjoyable. The "shade" is a nice touch, too. The cartoony style and warm feel of the design in all things makes the game very easy to look at, if not admirable. Other MMOs that promote their graphics look very dry and lifeless (as I fear will plague games more in the near future), while WoW is very enjoyable. I feel as if I can relate better to these stylized creatures more than I can with what I've seen of EQ2 and Guildwars.
Intelligence:
The behavior of enemies is very clearly mathematical, with "aggro" values, range of vision, and the highly polar aggression state (either they'll attack you if you get close or they'll leave you until you hit them, which makes me wonder why predators aren't actually hunting players). It works, but ultimately strategy is simplified by plain AI.
Immersion:
The music, ambient noise, consistent style and enjoyable visuals (motion, colors, and shapes) only add to the player's natural close attatchment to their avatar. The only things that can interrupt a player's session are lag (which varies depeding on the connection, the local population, and how recently a patch was released) and the occasional realization that you've killed the same monster over and over for the past four hours and made only a little progress. The latter usually leads to re-immersion as the player goes about finding a new hunting ground or a place to sell their loot, while the former is a crippling issue that either leads to a quit or a similar relocation. I had bug issues (that were entirely my fault) when I started playing that nearly ruined it for me, but that isn't an issue most players will see.
Cameras:
The camera is mostly user controlled, with a few preset positions and the option to make it follow behind whenever you begin moving. It's a little frustrating to find that the camera deals with obstructions by getting in front of them, since this makes forests and ruins frustrating to look around in. When the camera gets close to the player, the player turns transparent: why can't this be applied to objects in the surroundings? I've missed a lot of great screenshot oppurtunities thanks to this feature.
Control:
Controls are simple, since all interation can be started with a right click and any ensuing menu is either pages with options listed on them or similar tabs. Controlling the chat status (speaking, yelling, to team, to guild, to chat) is a little annoying, but I've never been huge on IRC so it may just be me. Getting around isn't an issue, unless the player is effected with lag. One major gripe I have is mail/auction/shop lag, since the simple processes are made very frustrating when they take 10-15 seconds to happen after clicking appropriately.
Ideas:
Where to start... The balance in this game makes it play very VERY differently than other MMOs. Each class is capable of soloing most of the game at one point or another, so finding a party isn't very important, which makes the players' attitudes very different. This comes out in PvP play, where lots of solo-ing players find themselves being teamed up on by only two or three players, but continuously refuse until later levels to travel in groups for protection, a problem further intensified by the Honor System which rewards players for killing players of the opposing faction. Rest state is a great addition: rewarding players for having lives outside of the game (or at least exploring other characters) gets my thumbs up.
Memory:
The player invests a lot of themselves in their avatar, and the depth of customization and wide variety of places to go and things to do fires the imagination with possibilities. As opposed to "Where will Carl Johnson have to go today?", the player is free to shirk all responsibilities and do almost anything they'd like, be it quest, role-play, farm, grind, or just explore. The persistent world also pressures the player to keep up with other players, since their friends may not want to play with them if they are five or more levels behind, so they may be preoccupied with their plans to optimize their efficiency in the next session.
Blizzard's FMVs are incredible, as always, and the tour this one takes the player on is just as gorgeous. The menus are very similar to the Warcraft III design, minus the running chains and dropping frames at every exchange. There is atmospheric rumblings, and the huge portal gives me the feeling like logging in is more like crossing into the world. Every time the player starts a new character, a live-rendered flythrough introduces you to the state of the race with a narration.
Getting Going:
The tool tips are useful and thankfully breif. The basics of the game are simple enough: right click on a target when you're near it to interact. Each class gets help specific to their abilities, and deeper elements like talents are delayed to keep users from being overwhelmed. The newbie zones are protected by quite a few of the faction's best, so players don't fear being trampled by bored high-level players until they've progressed much further.
Fun:
Keeping things simple has worked out very well. Quests are a little vague at times, but the lively visuals and cartoony character design contribute a lot to the player's relaxed enjoyment. Zones are pretty well balanced, as each major county holds enough for a player to settle there for 10 levels before needing to move on without suprising the player with monsters out of their league next to areas they may be comfortable in. Forming groups is fairly painless, though the game allows for lots of solo play. Dying is much less frustrating than it is in other games, with no penalties unless you refuse to retrieve your own body. UI modifications add a lot of functionality as well, such as Cosmos giving the player piles of at times useless options to improve the interface.
Visuals:
Wonderful use of the glow effect! When the "sun" is up, everything shimmers, which makes texturally repetitive environments much more enjoyable. The "shade" is a nice touch, too. The cartoony style and warm feel of the design in all things makes the game very easy to look at, if not admirable. Other MMOs that promote their graphics look very dry and lifeless (as I fear will plague games more in the near future), while WoW is very enjoyable. I feel as if I can relate better to these stylized creatures more than I can with what I've seen of EQ2 and Guildwars.
Intelligence:
The behavior of enemies is very clearly mathematical, with "aggro" values, range of vision, and the highly polar aggression state (either they'll attack you if you get close or they'll leave you until you hit them, which makes me wonder why predators aren't actually hunting players). It works, but ultimately strategy is simplified by plain AI.
Immersion:
The music, ambient noise, consistent style and enjoyable visuals (motion, colors, and shapes) only add to the player's natural close attatchment to their avatar. The only things that can interrupt a player's session are lag (which varies depeding on the connection, the local population, and how recently a patch was released) and the occasional realization that you've killed the same monster over and over for the past four hours and made only a little progress. The latter usually leads to re-immersion as the player goes about finding a new hunting ground or a place to sell their loot, while the former is a crippling issue that either leads to a quit or a similar relocation. I had bug issues (that were entirely my fault) when I started playing that nearly ruined it for me, but that isn't an issue most players will see.
Cameras:
The camera is mostly user controlled, with a few preset positions and the option to make it follow behind whenever you begin moving. It's a little frustrating to find that the camera deals with obstructions by getting in front of them, since this makes forests and ruins frustrating to look around in. When the camera gets close to the player, the player turns transparent: why can't this be applied to objects in the surroundings? I've missed a lot of great screenshot oppurtunities thanks to this feature.
Control:
Controls are simple, since all interation can be started with a right click and any ensuing menu is either pages with options listed on them or similar tabs. Controlling the chat status (speaking, yelling, to team, to guild, to chat) is a little annoying, but I've never been huge on IRC so it may just be me. Getting around isn't an issue, unless the player is effected with lag. One major gripe I have is mail/auction/shop lag, since the simple processes are made very frustrating when they take 10-15 seconds to happen after clicking appropriately.
Ideas:
Where to start... The balance in this game makes it play very VERY differently than other MMOs. Each class is capable of soloing most of the game at one point or another, so finding a party isn't very important, which makes the players' attitudes very different. This comes out in PvP play, where lots of solo-ing players find themselves being teamed up on by only two or three players, but continuously refuse until later levels to travel in groups for protection, a problem further intensified by the Honor System which rewards players for killing players of the opposing faction. Rest state is a great addition: rewarding players for having lives outside of the game (or at least exploring other characters) gets my thumbs up.
Memory:
The player invests a lot of themselves in their avatar, and the depth of customization and wide variety of places to go and things to do fires the imagination with possibilities. As opposed to "Where will Carl Johnson have to go today?", the player is free to shirk all responsibilities and do almost anything they'd like, be it quest, role-play, farm, grind, or just explore. The persistent world also pressures the player to keep up with other players, since their friends may not want to play with them if they are five or more levels behind, so they may be preoccupied with their plans to optimize their efficiency in the next session.