You can’t be so naïve to think Kaplan alone rescued World of Warcraft from becoming a boring pile of MMORPG similar to Everquest, that he alone had the single perspective that there were problems with Everquest’s game play.

The problem with Kaplan personally is that 10 years later he’s still that 20-year old, only now with a much lager ego. Setting aside his poor public relations, he’s also not that great of a designer. It’s nice to think that perhaps he’s getting better and that Ahn’Qiraj was simply a learning experience but with a couple of loose exceptions we’re still jumping into the same old dungeons fighting the same bosses with the same old tactics. The raiding game features tougher strategy but it still follows a fairly strict “this is how to beat the boss, you must do it this way” philosophy.

Of course, Kaplan is not alone in this as he simply makes an easy target for the fanatical to rage upon but to praise the man for making sure WoW didn’t turn into Everquest is like praising Kelloggs for not making Froot Loops taste like rocks and tree bark.

Reply