Free To Play, F2P MMORPG, F2P MMOs, Free 2 Play MMORPG, free MMORPGs » World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: GDC 2011 – Cataclysm Post Mortem

thanhlangtu — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:54:58 +0000

During the 2011 GDC last week, Blizzard ran a panel to take a look back at World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and what the team learned during the process of developing the latest expansion. Check out what the Blizzard team had to say about Cataclysm in MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller’s report and then let us know what you think.

It is a rare treat when Blizzard presents a panel at GDC. This year they had several, one of which was a look back at Cataclysm and what the team had learned in the process of making the expansion. Tom Chilton, Lead Producer on the game gave the talk which focused on three main areas that the team felt ran the scope of the changes. Desolace, WestFall and the Talent Tree changes were the highlight of the session, showing what the team got wrong, right, and how they felt the new changes really brought the game to a great place for players.

When building out Cataclysm there was a philosophy to improving WoW in several areas. The content from levels 1-60 was aging. The theory of appealing to hardcore players and then ranging out to casual players was also important. Tom called it the Donut theory. Also there needed to be a purging of the core game systems which were becoming too complex. Tom focused on the idea that they wanted to work with one part old, keeping the core values of the game, one part improved, building on everything they had learned with Lich King, and one part new, creating a great new experience for veteran players. These three pieces became the heart of Cataclysm and were at the center of all the changes that were made.

The actual world of Azeroth remains one of WoW’s strongest assets and they wanted the changes they were going to make to really improve on the zones. The original world content had gotten old with simple quest designs and bad flow. Tom sited the Barrens as an example and the crowd murmured in agreement of times spent in that early zone. With Lich King they had tried out some new quest ideas which worked very well. Implementing mini-games and cut scenes. They wanted to add more of this to the original world and re-build the experience for new and old players alike. Most importantly they wanted to keep the soul of each zone they redesigned. When they looked at the map there were a lot of zones to improve so they took a top down approach. Instead of building out ten new levels, they built five and put the extra energy into really improving older zones in the game.

A zone that Tom focused on was Desolace as an area that really needed a revamp. When Cataclysm was being built, the idea of Druids coming in and regrowing the landscape seemed appealing. The zone went from grey to green and when the expansion launched it was changed. It was only after Cataclysm had launched that they realized that the soul of the zone had been taken away. Desolace was no longer desolate. Tom explained that while this decision wasn’t necessarily wrong, it made them look back and ask the question that perhaps the zone should have been made more extreme, instead of regrowing it, make it much more harsh. In the end the vote is still out on Desolace and the choices made, however, as in any post mortem, hindsight is always clear.

Westfall was a zone that Tom said he felt the team had done very well with. The zone was improved and had a much better flow of story to it. The story behind the Defias Brotherhood was updated and flushed out culminating with the Dead Mines as the climax of the quest chains. The zone kept its look and feel with some Cataclysm changes added in and the quests were revamped to progress the story line. Also a much better flow into Elwynn Forest was added and players had a better transition. This zone was an example of where the team really made some great changes.

Lastly in the presentation Tom talked about the much needed revamp of the talent tree system. While both players and developers alike had many different opinions after showing the screen shot of the massive Lich King talent tree followed by the much simpler new tree it became clear as to why the changes were need. Talents had become too complex and players were speccing very specific builds anyway, therefore a lot of talents were being lost. Even with pulling in the talent system they wanted to retain a very strong system of choice for players. These choices really are how classes differentiate themselves in the game. At the end of Lich King, talents had just become too much and this was the best time to bring them, back to the original ideas for the tree.

At the end of the panel Tom stressed that a deep seeded understanding of the original game was essential for the team in building Cataclysm. Also WoW was so big and had so much content they really had to pick their battles on what changes they could make. They also really wanted to keep to their three part system of design and stay true to each aspect of the plan. The panel was great for developers looking to do expansions and also for players to get a deeper understanding of just how the Warcraft team works. As patches begin to come in for Cataclysm it will be interesting to see what design changes come about.

source from: mmorpg

World of Warcraft

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:19:43 +0000

World of Warcraft Online is an information database fan site dedicated to World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft features:

* Adventure together with thousands of other players online all together, hunting never needs to be done alone.
* Explore an breath taking world with miles of forests, deserts, snow-blown mountains, and other exotic places.
* Join the Horde or the Alliance as one of 8 playable races.
* Select from 9 different classes, including the holy Paladins, shape-shifting Druids, powerful Warriors and Mages, demon-summoning Warlocks, and more.
* Encounter many familiar and new Warcraft characters and monsters all throughout the lands. Discover the story hidden in the World of Warcraft.
* Enjoy hundreds of hours of gameplay with new quests, items, and adventures updated regularly.
* Journey through a world filled with huge dungeons of different styles.
* Explore 6 large capital cities and their surrounding towns.
* Learn and practice professions to gather raw materials, craft items and trade these to your fellow players and build an empire of gold.
* Take to the skies with air travel flown by creatures such as Gryphons and Wyverns. For global transportation, travel by Boat or Goblin Zeppelin. Once a certain level has been achieved, players can choose to purchase permanent personal mounts. All of these in real-time, no instant loading or zoning. Enjoy the scenery while you take your ride.

http://www.worldofwconline.com/

A View of The Latest Generation of MMORPG Gaming

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:55:18 +0000

Hello there, my online gaming fan. Though you most likely already know, many never seen before online games are ready to be released soon.

Even though most of gamers are MMORPG players, shooter and strategy players still are a major cut of the gaming world. It just so happens that most die hard gamers (the players missing work or class to play past 5am everyday) are captivated to MMORPGs; namely World of Warcraft. One may claim that playing RPGs are most worthwhile, since high levels and rare items are easier to acknowledge than FPS shooting and RTS talent. With that being said, there are still loads of first person shooter and strategy online game hardcore gamers out and about. For example, the devout Starcraft and old school Counter-Strike gamers. Both sets of gamers play a game that very likely older than their youngest cousin.

Why it is important to acknowledge these facts of PC gamers, is that this new period of computer games has quite a selection targeted at these hardcore gamers. Starcraft II will undeniably form the biggest impact, thanks to the privilege of being the sequel of the most successful real time strategy game made. Hell, a nation is eargerly awaiting Starcraft 2, as SC: Brood War is virtually the largest sport of Korea, which own the astonishingly big video game league, KeSPA. Diablo 3 is an additional upcoming hyped up Blizzard title, and is also the sequel to a widely successful game, Diablo 2. Diablo I was the initial game of the Diablo franchise, and paved the way for dungeon crawling games following. Copying Diablo’s innovative formula is a hard goal that the majority of replicas have failed to reproduce. Luckily, maybe regrettably for playeres, RPGs have changed their time away from perfecting the dungeon crawling and towards the much slower paced MMORPG style of WoW.

If someone was to devise a time spreadsheet (yes, time plays a major part in this analysis) of the most successful online games ever created, it would seem Blizzard has been the leading figure of the gaming industry, to the sense of almost being a monopoly. Within the first period of PC games, Starcraft I set the standard for real time strategy games, and basically all PC games in general. Then arrived Diablo 2, which mesmerized a completely different collection of gamers, making previous MMORPGs look severly outdated. Currently, no video game comes close the amount of income WoW’s over 3 million gamers generate. Up and coming online RPGs perceive WoW as the game to surpass. It is almost expected that every new online RPG director met is asked, “Tell us, in what way this online RPG improve over WoW?” Regardless, I think it is pretty much agreed that World of Warcraft needs to fall down soon, and leave some room for the next era of online RPGs. But if the tenacity of prior Blizzard games serve as any indicator, I wouldn’t hold your breath for the fall of WoW.

Yes, though D3 and SC 2 have a huge advantage over lesser recognized titles, there are still a number of new games that serve a visible threat. Hype and development by a absurdly strong company doesn’t always equal the guidelines for triumph, as shown by Age of Conan. Guild Wars II is the sequel to the MMORPG which was formerly hyped to be the WoW destroyer, which for a time actually seemed quite realistic. SWTOR (Star Wars: the Old Republic) is another anticipated game supported by an immense number of fans, but of different types. Earth Rise is yet another title that is hardly recognized but might become a winner. May we spectate another epic clash of gaming companies? May we observe a World of Warcraft-esque uprising in MMORG gaming? Only time will tell; but I have my money on SC 2.

Source: http://mediachannel.org