WoW's undercurrent at PAX East
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 11th 2011 at 8:00PM
Our game of choice has become a punctuation mark. When standing in line to see The Old Republic, WoW was on everybody's mind. While moving from booth to booth, learning about the MMO components of games like Firefall and Brink, images and fanciful thoughts of WoW's success danced in the minds of developers. When people ask developers questions, WoW is always there as an example, accompanying every "this game AND WoW..." And the accessibility features of such a widely accepted game is on every game maker's mind as to how to breach new markets and bring new players into the fold.
It is cliché to say that WoW is the elephant in the room, but I hate the connotation of said elephant. WoW represents a set of ideals and rules that a good number of gamers relate to. The number of WoW shirts and hoodies, guild names added to their badges, and cries of faction pride shocked me. Here at PAX, after one day, it is readily apparent that Blizzard doesn't have to have a formal presence to make its presence known. WoW exists, in some way, in almost every game we play. Whether for good or for bad, our vocabulary is one of the most mainstream undercurrents in the history of gaming.
What do you think about WoW's presence in gaming's vocabulary? Are you at PAX and talking to people about WoW, even though WoW is almost nowhere to be seen?
Filed under: Events, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
totemdeath Mar 11th 2011 8:20PM
Every industry has a flagship brand, a name that defines said industry. Restaraunts have McDonalds, soft drinks have Coke, and Online gaming has WoW. While you may love or hate the brand, it is still how its defined
Izzy Mar 11th 2011 8:39PM
Restaurants have McDonalds? Fast Food has McDonalds. Real restaurants don't have chains (holding up my nose as I strut away from the riff raff).
Deathknighty Mar 11th 2011 9:58PM
I recently learned that there are now more Subways in the world than McDonalds!
That's so awesome!
Kurash Mar 11th 2011 10:23PM
I think you're right, Totem, but I'd like to offer a couple more examples:
If you want something copied, you might ask for a Xerox of it.
Want a tissue? You may ask for a Kleenex.
Those are brands, but they've come to define their category of product. I think Totem's analogy is pretty solid. :)
Candina@WH Mar 12th 2011 12:15PM
And Smartphones have the IPhone, Tablet Devices have the iPad. A dominant player who through execution defined (re-defined?) a market.
Now, Blizz, please give me Warcraft, Orcs vs. Humans for iPad and we all can go home happy....
Skiddy Mar 11th 2011 8:24PM
In all honesty, it's hard to avoid 12,000,000 people. It's kind of like being in Texas and not expecting to see an aggies fan, or being in Oklahoma and trying to avoid a sooners fan.
The number of people who play wow, and not just the "hardcore", is more than live in my entire state. It's kind of like being in a club, if you will, and even if you don't play a lot, it's nice to be around people who share the same interests. I'm willing to bet that not every person there had leveled to 85 and cleared every bit of endgame content since vanilla, and not every person probably even had a max level character.
Like I said, it's like being in a club, and with it, comes with some sort of sense of pride.
P.S. GLORY TO THE ALLIANCE
MusedMoose Mar 11th 2011 8:46PM
*points to the logo sticker on the back of his car*
FOR THE ALLIANCE!
Daynthebold Mar 11th 2011 10:05PM
*ganks you both* FOR THE HORDE!!!
Wulfhound Mar 12th 2011 12:32AM
"Ganks the ganker, never tern your back on the Alliance."
Lucidique Mar 12th 2011 7:08AM
*** Ganks every-f**king-body, because I'm a rogue! ***
Oh yeah, for the Alliance!
Skeinchug Mar 12th 2011 6:04PM
Grab a sword and fight the horde!
ToyChristopher Mar 11th 2011 8:47PM
What a waste. If I was at PAX I wouldn't be talking about WoW, I would be talking about Guild Wars 2
ctishman Mar 11th 2011 9:11PM
...to yourself.
DC Mar 11th 2011 11:05PM
Don't be flippant.
I, too, would be talking about Guild Wars 2 were I at PAXEast. This game is exciting for the opposite reason this article is talking about: Arena.net is doing as much it can to be as unlike WoW as possible and still be a fun, profitable MMORPG. But that's a seperate topic.
To reply to Mat's point, I think WoW is taking up too much space in gaming culture. With it's success, of course other games are going to try to emulate it. And there are plenty of good lessons from WoW, (UI design, quest flow, boss design, visual style), but those are much harder to achieve than other, less compelling, things that games emulate, such as grinding for items or achievements or giving random rewards rather than chosen ones. You see a lot of the latter in the freeium games genre trying to emulate WoW's success. I think you'd see a lot less of those annoyances if they weren't present in WoW simply because everything is compared to WoW first, and WoW has 'em.
Airleagan Mar 11th 2011 9:02PM
What are you talking about "almost nowhere to be seen"? Near the entrance there is a giant TCG station in the expo hall, there is a full TCG station at the trading card area, many of the stores sell WoW products such as action figures and cards, and lastly (even if it isn't WoW but only Blizzard) there is a complete station for SC2 for playing commentators such as Day[9] commenting games against In_Control. WoW's influence is all over the Expo floor and in almost every game you can come across. For not showing up i think Blizzard did an excellent job making its presence known.
P.S.
Tips for people going to PAX for following days.
1) Darkness II has about a 2:30 min line (not an exaggeration) for 20min of game play, and about half of that is cut scene. Personally i did not find this enjoyable.
2) If you haven't discovered this, Red Faction is giving away an IPad for every day to the high scorer for the day (about 19Million points first day), very fast line. maybe 10min at max at all times. I waited maybe 2min for my time.
3) From what i saw on Day 1, the free T-Shirts were given away at
- Red Faction
- Portal 2
- Vindictus (Ran out near the end but expect more for Day 2)
Hope that was helpful
Airleagan Mar 11th 2011 9:05PM
Sorry to add on but i found this important
Darkness II Cards
Gears 3, Red Faction, and Duke Nukem do not
Trinn Mar 11th 2011 10:21PM
Great tips - thanks! This is my first PAX and I spent most of the day feeling like a convention noob...
RogueJedi86 Mar 12th 2011 3:25AM
From what I heard, the lines for TOR were 7 hours long. Sure the playable time for each person was 45 minutes, but 7 hours is still a long time. I'm already an admitted TOR fanboy, but TOR must be popular for the queues to be that long. I heard that within 3 minutes of PAX East opening, the TOR booth was full, and they had one of the biggest booths there.
If you have any "I was there" corroborations/contradictions, feel free to correct me Airleagan.
war101 Mar 12th 2011 2:26PM
@roguejedi
A 7 hour wait for a game with 45 min play time is only about 10 people, that's not that long of a line
Aris Mar 14th 2011 12:41PM
That's 10 people per station, war101. I think it'd be safe to assume that they had more than one station. Start multiplying stations by 10 and that line gets long fast.