Can 11.5 million people be playing a game that is badly designed? Can Blizzard be wrong about anything when they are raking in so much cash? I’m reminded of that several billion smokers can’t be wrong poster. Yes you can definitely get millions of people interested in something that is badly designed or lacking in entertainment, the cult of celebrity and the pop charts provide ample examples. You can also be shamelessly mainstream and cash obsessed like the vast majority of game publishers who will happily shovel any old rubbish as long as it sells. Just because something is popular does not mean it is good. Now before you fire up that hate mail give me a moment to explain.
World of Warcraft has sucked in many of my friends over the years. They used to enjoy online FPS sessions, games of Pro-Evolution accompanied by a few beers and even, dare I say, some real life interaction at one of the many taverns littering the fine city of Edinburgh. Then they caught the WoW bug and suddenly they were sitting in nights weaving primal mooncloth. It became necessary to find out just what all these people saw in a game which looked to me like a cheap rip off of Tolkien. I tried playing it and was amazed to find the experience dull and unsatisfying. World of Warcraft features some seriously convoluted design decisions and at core the problem with the game is that it is designed to suit the developers not the players. This makes it even stranger to me that of all the MMORPGs out there WoW is the one that struck it big.
The number one complaint I have about World of Warcraft is the fact that it rewards time over skill. In fact there is very little skill involved in playing the game. There is only the mind numbing tedium of the grind. Perhaps one of the secrets of its success is exactly that. People are encouraged to play because they don’t have to develop their skills they can just play for a really long time taking on challenges beneath them in order to progress. This focus on time over skill (accomplished largely by quest based advancement) also works for Blizzard because it ensures people will try and put in as many hours as they possibly can and the servers are always buzzing. You often see quotes from WoW players saying things like “the real game starts at level 60”. So you’re asking me to play for days in order to reach the “real game” and I’m paying for the privilege of working my way towards something that promises it will eventually be enjoyable?