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by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 14th 2011 at 8:00PM
Zeschuk said: "It [World of Warcraft] is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb."
What's interesting is how Zeschuk, sitting with Mike Morhaime at the keynote panel, gave WoW the reverence it deserves as the leading industry standard in MMO gaming. Instead of couching his remarks about the specific game he was in the process of making, he discussed how players expect a set of established standards that WoW has provided. Be it a sense of completion of polish, a game mechanic, core concepts, or even art direction and fluidity of art theme, World of Warcraft set the bar very high for other game developers and even Blizzard itself.
We know WoW is big, but I think we sometimes forget how important it is as well. Greg Zeschuk and the rest of the video game industry know this and acknowledge that breaking some clear-cut rules is a big mistake.
Filed under: Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Mr. Tastix Feb 14th 2011 9:26PM
People are looking at this wrong.
Admitting that WoW has set the standards, the boundaries, does not equate to TOR being exactly the same as WoW (it's in space and Star Wars-based, that alone will sell).
WoW has 6 years of polish behind it, mechanics that may seem like only small, quality-of-life changes, are huge when not included in a new game. Even something as small as a "Return to Graveyard" or even the "Unstuck" feature go unnoticed by the large players.
A good game (in my opinion) is a game in which you are immersed and see no huge, immediate problems (there'll always be problems but you don't want them too big like broken fights or talents). When you notice something out-of-place or something that could be improved on (aka: polished) then that immersion is broken for a time.
Here's an example:
The Blood Elf starting zones aren't too bad, in my opinion, but they're worse than the Draenei ones for one main reason: The trees are square. Same applies for the Isle of Quel'thelas. Sounds so pathetic, doesn't it? Because it's so simple, it's something that wasn't necessarily "mislooked" (it's just a graphics issue due to the date BC was released) but it's noticeable and it ruins that sense of immersion for me.
That's just one example and I could use more on other features, if I wanted to.
hillbillyrod Feb 14th 2011 9:38PM
There is nothing really big in other MMO i want to see in wow. Sure a few tweeks, but I've very happy overall with wow(except for hunter PVP. I need burst damage). If I wasn't I wouldn't be going on 5.6 years. And other MMo should copy alot of wow(not cloned). It works. and works well. Wow is the standard, and most of us expect a few basic things when any new MMO comes along. And because of wow we will have that.
Wow is the best today. Might be tomorrow, might not, but the influence of wow will be in it. Unless it's something mind blowing we are not even considering.
Bugface Feb 14th 2011 9:42PM
Here's what I think:
http://themmoreview.blogspot.com/
In addition to meeting those prerequisites set by Blizzard you still need choice in your MMOG. In my latest blog, titled "The Power Of Choice," I give you good reasons as to why your game should have many options.
Games these days that want to be competitors should at least meet the standards set by WoW.
Ant Feb 14th 2011 9:53PM
WoW... in... spaaaaccceeee.
/reference to Pigs in Space.
N-train Feb 14th 2011 10:45PM
Honestly, the whole "new WoW challenger MMO" game seems like a very "between a rock and a hard place" kind of gamble and I honestly can't blame a lot of good developers from feeling like they're in a tight spot.
Rock: being enough like WoW to be recognizable and stable, WoW has done a lot of things that attract and keep casual and hardcore gamers.
Hard Place: trying to be different enough to catch and keep people's interest, if you're too close you're quickly labeled as a WoWclone and forgotten.
Rock: Generating enough hype to reasonably promote your game and get the word out, after all its not really an MMO without the Massive and the Multiplayer.
Hard Place: Being labeled as the latest surefire "WoW-Killer" and likely being crushed under the weight of everyone's expectations (both good and bad).
On top of this, a designer has to choose whether to create his own world/story and therefore have the issue of attracting and engaging players into an unfamiliar world, or base their game off something already set, like Star Wars, and trade unfamiliarity for bias. Someone who already likes Star Wars will buy this game, even if its only decent, while someone who doesn't probably won't buy the game, even if its stellar.
Colin Feb 14th 2011 11:12PM
That's Dr. Greg Zeschuk to you, sir.
Aids Feb 15th 2011 12:15AM
RuneScape breaks ALL the WoW rules. And it's second only to WoW in terms of players.
Dragonrose Feb 15th 2011 7:47AM
Ah, but Runescape, bless it, is a browser game. And a pretty good one as well! I think, perosnal opinion statement here, that Runescape is to browser RPGs what WoW is to MMOs. Runescape also has lots of cool gimmicks with its many many skills that you can level. I once spent an entire afternoon, when Runescape was NEW, shearing sheep in the town after the tutorial. And I had fun! Hard to top making shearing fun, even though it was just because of the sillyness that ensued. (penguin sheep anyone?)
Deathgodryuk Feb 15th 2011 12:43AM
Really?
anbilow Feb 15th 2011 1:12AM
I think it won't be too similar.
Also I've tested it.
See what I did there.
Boobah Feb 15th 2011 1:48AM
You've got something of a point, I'll admit, but it's pretty clear to me that Wrath was just generally way too easy (especially if you take as your base point Wrath's launch heroics during 2010.)
I've got my issues with Cataclysm heroics; mostly that a number of my guildies find the time required onerous. We aren't wiping much, but we aren't getting the half-hour times some folks have been crowing about in the comments around here, either. We're more likely to be in the 90-120 minute range, and not everybody has the time, especially when it comes to matching playtimes.
Don't get me wrong, I love that I actually have to pay attention, even on trash. Mostly. That spamming AoEs is not only generally fatal, but slower than picking them apart in sequence? Hey, that's perfectly fine by me. I love that we get to use our CC abilities, and trying to deal with multiple mobs while not breaking it is a fun challenge. But when my guildies and I can't play because we can't get a dungeon done in an hour and small change? That's... irritating... to put it mildly.
The problem is that we got used to a certain level of time commitment for getting the non-raid things done, and now we have to budget considerably more. It's not like you can save an in-progress dungeon daily and come back later, either; you can presumably extend the lockout, I guess, but it won't get your dungeon daily done.
tigglet Feb 15th 2011 3:47AM
when people speak about Blizzard as a big man on campus one of the major reasons that WoW is so popular is simply because there isn't anything else. I've played it since right after hunters received pets in the game for the first time and i can say that if there were something better that ran on older and newer machines alike, that had innovative features and didn't fall short of content, community, and exciting features people would be leaving WoW in droves. Over the past couple of years ive witnessed countless WoW killers fall short simply because their Dev team was bullied by the company funding the project and because of bad business practices these games all failed. These producers and devs both have to come together to get the best results if they are ever to succeed as well as Blizzard has. Make no mistake, when a game that fits this large community hits the market and has those three magical things needed for success, WoW subs will be hit hard simply because they have stopped innovating and people are bored.
Dragonrose Feb 15th 2011 7:40AM
Considering that during Wrath the vocal complain was "It's too easy! Make it harder!", I think the Devs responded very well to costumer complaint.
Ominous Feb 15th 2011 9:01AM
It's good that some folks have the nerve to give kudos.
Jack Kelly Feb 15th 2011 10:28AM
I have two Aion and two Warhammer collectors editions sitting nearby to remind me not to buy into Rift just yet.
I would have had a LOTRO as well if they'd let me play as an Orc or Uruk Hai :P
I may get behind the curve on a née MMO by waiting a couple of months but I won't have to suffer the release day crush or a bad game again.
Joe Feb 15th 2011 11:20AM
Having Bioware compete with WOW is good for 2 reasons:
1- If you are WOW burnt out, you have something else to play.
2- It will force WOW devs to work even harder, all benefit to the still wow players.
Both cases, everyone wins (Except maybe if you are a WOW dev, but customers first right?)
Kz Feb 15th 2011 11:29AM
I plan to play RIFT later today. RIFT is supposedly similar to WOW. I hope so. I love playing WOW. Being a hardcore player (30+ hours per week)) my only complaint is WOW content is released too slowly. As such I look forward to any game which would provide me with more WOW-like play with new content. Let the competition for my time begin.
giorgi Feb 18th 2011 3:31AM
Bioware can't even come closer to blizzard...
Thoralf Feb 17th 2011 9:09AM
I think it's exactly the other way around: if you are going to do it exactly the way WoW does it - then you fail! Why should someone want to play a copy of WoW? I rather go play the original right away instead of just another copycat.
Look at Warhammer, Age of Conan and all the other near 1:1 rip offs. They failed because they tried to hard to be like WoW.
It's the other way around. You have to go your own way, build something different than WoW to be successfull.
Bioware burnt more than 300 mio. Dollars (insane!) so far on their mmo. There is no way they will be able to get that back (or even make any profit) just by presenting yawc (yet another Wow clone).