Senior CM interviewed about eSports
by Eliah Hecht 
May 29th 2007 at 12:59PM
This story comes from the somewhat unusual source of Amped eSports. They have an interview up from Blizzard's Paul Della Bitta, whose title is Senior Community Manager. He says he "oversee[s] our community teams for all franchises as well as the eSports team," so that's who he is in case, like me, you hadn't heard of him before.The interview mostly talks about "how did WoW become an eSport" (with the introduction of the Arena system in BC) and "how do you feel about the tournaments this year" (very excited). If you're interested in WoW as a sporting event, you should definitely give the article a read. However, there is at least one juicy item of interest in there for all WoW players:
We know that pro players need to practice for hours a day; they can't practice and grind out levels and farm for items It is something we're aware of and we're going to hope to address in the future.
Is this a sign that there will in the future be a meaningful way to participate in PvP without leveling a character to 70? How would you feel about that? Personally, I think I'd welcome it, as it would give further distance between the PvE game and the PvP game, which BC already does pretty well and which I think is very needed. I see the argument for rewarding players who put in the effort to level (as does Paul Della Bitta: "we wanted to reward the players who had taken their characters from 1 to 70"), but on the other hand I don't see why it should take hundreds of hours spent in PvE in order to compete in PvP. Your thoughts?
Filed under: Blizzard, PvP, Leveling, Interviews
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rich May 29th 2007 1:11PM
If you're going to be able to immediately have level 70 characters for PvP then why have that be part of WoW at all? There would be no tangible link between that PvP and the rest of the game in any way as I see it.
Rich
Prester John May 29th 2007 1:18PM
Why do we need more distance between the PVP and PVE games? If anything I'd love to see more EPL or Halaa-style world PVP objectives that would give players who were interested an optional world PVP experience that ties in with the story in a more meaningful way than do BGs or the Arena.
Coherent May 29th 2007 1:24PM
Probably he's talking about some kind of permanent PTR type situation where certain players can simply log on and practice PVP all day in max gear and equipment. I presume that high-level instances would be blocked (to prevent guilds practicing them over and over) but all PVP instances would be available.
It seems to me that they might be biting off more than they can chew. WoW as an eSport is almost a third balance challenge: PVE, PVP, and eSport.
But maybe they're just going to do it as a sideline and not a major balance effort.
Addie May 29th 2007 1:49PM
Maybe an offshoot game like Unreal Tournament? Premades with some customization as to how they're specced. A budget for gear? No progression - just arenas - start fresh every game. An MMO-videogame. Balance in a vacuum.
(nb: I don't know much about FPSs besides looking over my husband's shoulder every once in a while.)
tuxthepenguin May 29th 2007 1:52PM
#3: Balancing needs to be PERFECT if they are ever going to take Arena as an esport for real. As my guild is currently debating (to the anger of some rogues), we are thinking of removing the rogues from our arena teams and replace them with mages.
Why? Rogues CC are non-combat. Try getting the rogue out far enough to sap someone before they start casting a spell or charge. Mages, on the other hand, can sheep just fine. Plus with their ranged high-splash damage, they can do the rogue-damage thing.
The main arugment against is no class can stunlock like a rogue. Which is very true! I just wish rogues had an ability to reduce the healing on a target that didn't involve a poison. That would go a long way to getting rogues onto our teams again.
Beaverius May 29th 2007 1:58PM
I think what he is getting at is that professional gamers who practice and compete with multiple games want to be able to do so with WoW but simply don't have the time to lvl a character for the purpose of particepating in the tournaments.
In other words, they are appealing to professional gamers to play WoW, rather than WoW players that want to be professionals.
From what I understand about the large amount of disqualifications is that professional gamers bought power levelled accounts so they could particpate in the tournament because.. it was a tournament and they want to make their living playing video games.
Another thign to consider is that for the 3v3 tournament, all the players were given stock characters for the purpose of the tournament so that one group didnt' have a gear advantage over another. That sort of defeats the purpose of lvling a character and the gear grind etc.
Unlike Starcraft, you can't just install wow and start in on the game to the fullest extent. The process of lvling and grinding for gear takes time and for a professional gamer, time that is prolly better off spent practicing another game.
Similarly those playing in the 5v5 blizz tournament are forced to use a completely unmodded version of wow, having only time to rebind their keys.
In the end, I'm not totally sure what I think about the idea of catering to professional gamers by allowing them special privileges for the purpose of professional gaming. Part of me wants to see WoW players turn from geek to chic and make money from wow rather than professionals who have dedicated their lives to video games in general, and wow being just another game they can practice and compete with.
On the other hand, the eSport is prolly a good way to make money and being able to appeal to the professional gamer population would certainly not only bring more attention to WoW but also give more credibility to professional gaming to have such a solid title become a staple.
There are definetly some setbacks. One being the whole server/character issue. How do you get teams from different servers together? Similarly how do you have a way to spectate on the match that lets you know what's going on without being overly complex or otherwise detracting from the game.
If you saw the video of the 3v3 tournament, it looked like they just made a 5v5, killed off two players and had them spectate to view the match. It was really hard to follow not only from a camera perspective but also from a commentary perspective.
That being the first "broadcast" of WoW arena, I'm sure there is a lot they are doing to improve that and blizzard seems like they might be facilitating.
I personally would be all about a special spectator mode that allowed you to see lots of player information, like a raid frame without actually participating. That way you wouldn't have to have an indepth knowledge of each little move of every class to follow. How often in game do you recognize an attack from the animation? Sometimes hard to follow when most of your experience is in the arena playing.
But yeah it would be interesting to see Blizzard do a little to help the appealability of watching an Arena match regardless of the possible breaks given to professional gamers.
Rich May 29th 2007 2:31PM
As long as they make it available to to the non-professional players too, I am game for it. The professional gamers will have a steep learning curve if they haven't played WoW at all and let alone from 1-70. We should be allowed to practice so those that are good can get picked up professionally.
Those of us who PvP and arena alot will have an advantage. 1) We know the classes better 2) We've been doing it longer.
Professional gamers will definitely up the ante. I am totally game for it. Especially after I showed my gf the article of the top Starcraft players making 339k a year. She wants me to play video games now! :D
michel May 29th 2007 2:47PM
my thought ? I against it.
players have to level a character. it is the way. and NO, pvp has NOT to be a total separate game. _no_.
Byron May 29th 2007 6:10PM
One interesting possibility would be to create a separate Arena league where everybody gets the exact same equipped, lvl 70 character. You can pick your race, class, look, and talent build, but all gear for each character of the same race and class is the same. This would be a separate league so that people could still play their Raid-geared toons in the other league if they wanted, but this would be the league where gear is normalized and skill is more emphasized. I don't know what the access barrier would be, though - have at least one lvl 70 toon, maybe? It's not that hard to get a toon to 70 anyway, the hard part is gearing it up through the rep grind.
Baal May 29th 2007 7:30PM
The thing is IMHO, to get to 70 you must obligatory do PvE, if you could 'simply' PvP to get to 70 (with almost the same time-effort I think) through PvP you would be better off when the arena games begin..
I liked when you turned-in badges from BGs you got some xp, I mean, that was a tough but possible way to level but the twink game just broke it up it think, you could do something like: a hidden xp bar that you get xp killing people on bgs so that its difficult to prevent from leveling and every twink would in some point become a normal lowbie for that bg.
Another idea: give everyone a 70 copy of his toon and when they play arena they use that toon and get xp from it but the real arena will be made not of copies but the actual ones that you leveled out as a 70 pvper...
Abdul May 29th 2007 9:40PM
I am very happy that Blizzard realises the entry barrier is an issue, and that they consider it one of their top priorities to make changes in this area. Hopefully they do it right, because I am sure all competitive gamers want playing PvE to be a choice, not a necessity.