Breakfast Topic: Do you feel the life behind the game world of Azeroth?
by Brandon Cox 
Aug 13th 2011 at 8:00AM
One of the most powerful aspects of gaming is the prospect of visiting new, alien worlds. Even familiar worlds are a treat to visit, as long as they are fresh with life. The success of many games is based solely on how well the designers are able to create a credible, realistic world for players to explore. My personal favorite is Tamriel of Elder Scrolls fame. Especially in Oblivion, the game conveys a strong sense of a living world. NPCs have seemingly random behavioral patterns, walking into shops, talking with the shopkeep, returning to the streets. They meet in secret, they spread rumors, they get arrested, and they get killed. No action feels inconsequential, no character useless.
In this regard, World of Warcraft is often taken for granted. At endgame, most players will rarely leave Orgrimmar, instead using the Dungeon Finder and the in-city dailies to provide their sustenance. Even for the tasks such as materials gathering, rep grinding, and questing that most players perform, very little of the game world is actually seen. But Azeroth is a wonderfully lively place, especially in Cataclysm.
While the online aspect of WoW prevents it from becoming the masterwork that Tamriel is, Cataclysm has made great strides in making the world seem alive. NPCs fight each other along the battle lines. Phasing makes your actions impact the world. Patrol mobs in zones are more common. There are more voice-acted, scripted quests. The world seems far more important, far more worth saving than it ever has.
Do you feel the life behind WoW's game world?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
sunflowers4488 Aug 13th 2011 8:40AM
WoW has always felt alive to me, even before Cata. That's one of the reasons I was drawn in and became addicted in the first place!
I love the little touches that bring the world alive, especially in cities. A lot of people complained about the constant sparring in Shat, but I like to remember the comedy show, the fruit vendor, the bickering detectives. Yeah, lag in Dalaran got bad, but I prefer to enjoy the librarian that uses levitate to sort books, the details on the shelves of the jewelery and toy shops, the beer garden, or the crazy water elemental laundry service (yes, I know it's for a quest) instead. In one flower shop in Stormwind, a little girl will throw flower petals on you if you tell her you like flowers, and I am so jealous of the troll with the tiki minion in Org.
Little things like that keep me around. It shows a real love that the designers have for their brainchild. People say that 'Blizz' is lazy and on some points I absolutely agree with that, but I think that they also, sometimes, have shown a lot of passion for the world they created as well... and this is where I see it the most.
Noyou Aug 13th 2011 10:52AM
Totally agree with you on how alive WoW feels. Totally disagree on the robot like animations of places like Shatt and Dalaran. To see some NPC repeating the same action over and over just to give an illusion of a city being active is kind of a cop out in my opinion. Now there are some good examples of great NPC usage. Some that you have listed. The pie vendor in IF who you have to throw petals on for love is in the air and a handful of others. To me those do it. In Dalaran the little gnome who goes around sheeping you is another one. It would be so cool to have random NPC spawnings who have some interaction or perhaps sell a collectable rather then the random NPC's who are caught up in the same action 24/7.
And as far as the OP goes- yes Oblivion was great. That was the last game I played before I started playing WoW. I liked it so much I went out and bought the collectors edition after I had finished it. I cannot wait for the new elder scrolls game to come out. I hope it is still on target to come out in Nov. Until then I will be playing WoW.
Revnah Aug 13th 2011 12:21PM
Couldn't agree more. And like you, I got drawn in because of these things. I honestly don't think I've experienced anything quite as magical as my first few days levelling my first character in Teldrassil. It all seemed real and alive, I was fascinated - still am, in fact :-)
Cutler Aug 13th 2011 12:56PM
I agree with almost everything but, I'm afraid you're mistaking laziness with Blizzard doing their best with limited resources.
I-R-PALADIN? Aug 14th 2011 11:52AM
agreed this is probably the singe most important reason i keep coming back to wow.. other mmorpg's don't have that, and that's the biggest thing im worried about the next mmo im going to try 'the old republic' if the environments make me feel restricted and claustrophobic im not going to play it for very long i hate that instanced arena feel to a world they got to be big and expansive like wow.. you can go anywhere!
razion Aug 13th 2011 8:47AM
I have two words for this: Lakeshire Bridge.
nobbie Aug 13th 2011 8:50AM
Blizzard games in general feel much more alive than any other game out there.
Vinnie Aug 13th 2011 9:04AM
Ive been back at WoW for about 2-3 Weeks now. When i got back i was amazed at how the world had changed...i kept getting PMs "why u in silverpine" "why you in desolace" "ashenvale?????!?!?!" my response to all those questions was dude this world looks so amazing now. You are absolutely right the world feels more alive, events seem more important quests w/ phasing actually shows you the fruit of your labors gathering swords embers seeds cloths bandage etx etx.
Im very impressed (once again) w/ Blizzards Dev Teams. The High from wow wore off last year and i got hook on SC2 once that high started to fade and i came down a bit i thought id try something different...but Blizzard is like my perverbial crack dealer always their with the latest greatest junk (in a good way). I started wow back up (with a new video card and new xpac) and was AMAZED and how awesome everything looked felt and well was.
People ask me at work and in life oh have you played "add generic xbox title here" my simple response to them is. "Blizzard has owned my life since 2002"
TLDR: Yes I feel like the world is alive and its changed for the better.
nonentity Aug 13th 2011 9:02AM
Somewhat. Not so much the game world, more the novels, the few ingame story events etc.
That's also the one problem I have with Christie Golden - she orients her novels far too much on what the game world is like and how it works. Orgrimmar being half an afternoon's walking distance from Thunder Bluff, spells looking exactly like in the game etc.
The ingame Azeroth we see is more like a distilled version of the "real" Azeroth, e.g. in the Sundering novel the number of dead and lost Alliance soldiers alone is described as being in the tens of thousands, that's way way more than there are NPCs in the game.
The ingame version just wouldn't work as a real world with "real" people living there, thousands, hundred thousands, millions of people, the Alliance and Horde being real "empires".
Many hours flight between Hillsbrad and the Wetlands as in Day of the Dragon.
And so on.
Outland of course is the same, travels of many days as in the Rise of the Horde novels.
The ingame version and the supposed "real" version just don't match, the ingame version isn't in any way realistic, even respawning mobs etc. aside.
But usually that's fine because the novels play in the "real" Azeroth, a "real" world that captures the feel and "magic" of this world far more than the ingame world. And this helps enjoy the ingame world more.
And that's the thing I dislike about Christie Golden's writing, which otherwise is far better than Knaak's. Whenever she does this, spells working just like the spell animations ingame, the travel distance between Orgrimmar and Thunderbluff being a few miles at most, ..... it just breaks immersion, it stretches the suspension of disbelief necessary for any game etc. just way too far.
Knaak doesn't make this mistake but he breaks immersion in other ways, e.g. making his favorite characters pretty much all-powerful and invincible Mary Sues. To this day I can't believe Med'an isn't one of his creations cause he fits the bill perfectly.
So ... do I feel the life behind the game world? Yes, but not because of the game world itself necessarily but because of the surrounding media.
Ominous Aug 13th 2011 9:02AM
I've been making a point of doing the area quest achievements.
Wow.
Areas you thought you knew have LOTS of new npcs and quests and you will find yourself wondering where A or B is and "Wasn't that over there?"
It's often subtle, but points to a tremendous depth.
I hope more people "GET OUT MORE!" and see it all.
fudge Aug 13th 2011 9:11AM
I didn't like Oblivion as much as I liked Morrowind. Everytime I walked through the gates of Balmora, I felt like coming home.
I felt similarly about the Hillsbrad Foothills in WoW, but now that they're a Horde zone (shame on you Blizzard for not even letting me fight for my home!), there's no place left I feel particularly attached to.
Puntable Aug 13th 2011 9:20AM
I hope they will try to make more NPCs act like the ones in the Twilight Highlands daily quest area. They are much more dynamic than the NPCs in most other areas that "just stand there".
Dave N. Aug 13th 2011 9:22AM
I am actually the opposite of most of the posters. I feel the general decline in actually having to participate in general world activities. I get out and do things, but that brings it into even more stark contrast since there is no one around in the world. People do their dailies, dungeons and raids. The world is empty and alone and the quests I feel, by and large, and dry and just the same old same old. I miss epic world spanning questlines. All this crap daily questing centered in one small area helps to make the world feel that much smaller. Quests like the scepter of the shifting sands really opened up the game world and how it felt. I loved that feeling. Too bad we won't ever get that again. Just more daily questing hubs and more instances.
Dragoniel Aug 16th 2011 5:19AM
Pretty much this.
World PvP is dead for years, but nowadays world as a whole is dying.
I mean, come on, I recently rolled a rogue on opposite side just for the kicks of it. In 3 days I managed to do ~5 quests and I'm level 60 already (battlegrounds and instances). So much for all the new content - I can barely keep up my mining and herbalism, let alone have any time for questing or, heavens forbid, just exploring altered zones.
Over the years Blizzard has created a vast world filled with many a wonder and many more still a story. However, it took less than a year to shrink that world to a mere zone of dailies, battleground or an instance.
Personally, I don't like dungeon finder, I don't like dailies and I don't even like battlegrounds. I would really like the open world, if it wasn't...
Devoid of life.
Irrelevant.
HappyTreeDance Aug 13th 2011 10:07AM
Azeroth feels very alive to me, which I think is a combination of the game world itself and my imagination.
WoW captured me in the first day with how big it felt and with the sweeping landscapes and NPCs everywhere. Granted, I don't feel the world is nearly as big now, but I also don't feel like it's just Orgrimmar or the Firelands or Molten Front. Perhaps its because I'm an RPer, but I imagine the world feeling much more alive than that.
I do a lot of writing about my characters, and because of this, I need to expand on the environments given in game. One of the main characters I write is my blood elf paladin. Even though the toon's hearth is set in Org and I do daily grinds with her in Molten front, in character, she lives in Silvermoon, working with the blood knights. I've developed a loose idea of how the blood knights work as a military unit, and have created different generals and commanders to make the organization feel more alive. Even the Silvermoon in my head isn't the same one as in the game, and I imagine more residential areas of the city and more taverns and parks. There are a lot of other places where I do the same thing. I imagine the world of Azeroth in general being much larger than what we see in game, because it doesn't exactly make sense to me that you would be able to walk across a continent in a day. ;)
But even beyond my overactive imagination, Azeroth feels alive to me. I have lately been grinding for some of the rare pet drops on my way to the 150 pet achievement, and I'm constantly stopping to say "Wow, I've never seen that before!" Events like the faerie dragons singing in Tirisfal are amazing little pieces that add flavor to the world and set me off on a whole new idea of what could possibly be happening there. My druid loved being there to witness it, and I couldn't resist throwing a Tranquility while it was happening to join in.
I think the world is what you make of it. If you only stand around in Org or Stormwind and never leave or allow yourself to imagine what's going on with it, than yeah, it'll feel like the world is flat and boring. But if you want to see more and let yourself imagine more, then you can make it as alive as you want it to be.
Noyou Aug 13th 2011 10:51AM
I think WoW does a great job at filling the world and making it feel alive. Probably the first time I felt it was when I was a wee dwarf and made my way from Ironforge to SW via the tram. Any game I play I travel to all edges of the map just to check things out. I probably do less exploring as I make my way towards filling my log in screen with max level toons but I still enjoy the exploration. Interacting with other people and NPC's is good too. I am not that big a fan of mindless NPC action just to make the world seem busy. I think every NPC should have a reason. Either a line or two of dialogue or a quest. Just passing thru my world is kind of vacant I guess to me. I know this might not be a realistic request but those are my thoughts on that topic.
Deathknighty Aug 13th 2011 10:47AM
Skyrim wunt. :P
snarkygoldfish Aug 13th 2011 10:52AM
There are moments when I do truly get sucked into the life of the game, and it just affirms why I love this game so much in the first place. Last night, that came in the form of finishing the overarching EPL questline with Fiona's caravan. The two paladins and their friendship, aging Argus, even Rimblat and little Pamela....gave life to a place that so desperately needed it.
It wasn't treated as a big pop culture reference, it was just a story of a band of people trying to make their way through a harsh landscape and find their place in it, as well as their love for a friend...and it sucked me completely. Yes, I giggled at the banter...but I was also touched by the characterization.
My hope is that they will move away from the model of Uldum for storytelling...and move toward something like that in the future. There was heart that went into the writing and execution of that storyline.
As I am on a roleplaying server - I tend to like to keep a greater connection to the world around my character. I know my shaman is fidgety and impatient with the complacency of most around her to mill around Stormwind while the rest of the world seems to be falling apart.
I'll go exploring around again and again for no reason other than enjoying the scenery around me. Hell, my friends even suffered with me a few weeks ago because they knew how delighted I was by the fae dragon music show.
Brock Aug 13th 2011 11:43AM
I used to and then dungeon finder and flying mounts everywhere came along. I would gladly ride a ground mount and spam for dungeons in town in order to bring it back.
Noyou Aug 13th 2011 11:50AM
I still use my ground mounts a lot in cities. As for dungeon finder, I do agree it's making the game less personal/social. It started way back when they made wintergrasp auto queue. Of course there is both good and bad. I made some good friends doing WG though. /tear. Ah well. It sounds like you have a good idea. I think I will make a new macro to spam for social dungeon runs sometime soon. Ty for reminding me of that.