Metzen talks user-created content at GDC panel
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 12th 2011 at 1:00PM
While I am a fan of this type of content, I don't believe it really has a place in WoW. Azeroth is a much more story-driven, linear experience than most people want to discuss, and Blizzard likes to hold our hands through it all to make sure we're doing things according to plan. I don't think that's a bad thing, just one approach to an MMO's leveling and group content. In games like City of Heroes, the player-created content that was available made sense in terms of logistics and volume. For WoW, I can't even fathom how hard it would be to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
The Dewd Oct 12th 2011 1:05PM
I'd like to see guild-driven content. GMs should be able to reward people for doing certain things (like helping toward guild achivements - directly or indirectly). Plus, being able to set up things like scavenger hunts, races, etc, using some sort of built-in interface would be nice, too.
I wouldn't have to write the underlying code, that's for sure, but it'd be nice to have. :)
Jyotai Oct 12th 2011 1:08PM
Actually the system City of Heroes uses to separate wheat from chaff is pretty much the one to go with.
- Player voting.
Wow has a lot of numbers statistics as well, and you could datamine any user content, find the numbers, and put that into how a given user-instance was rated.
You'd then apply a few basic checks, akin to what CoH has done - to push mobs to the nearest pathing viable spot, adjust facing if needed, etc.
Loot could be system assigned based on the datamining rather than user-assignable.
(mob level * x * level_bracket) = points given. Points redeemable at some faction vendor.
With the right logic going in, the system would be viable. With the wrong logic going in, it would be a mess of 'gold farmers'.
Now that City of heroes has seen both ends of that spectrum, lessons have been learned by a competitor and are ripe for the taking.
Jyotai Oct 12th 2011 1:13PM
At the least we could get the long awaited player or guild hall housing.
Look to Guild Wars for the model for this.
Guild GM picks from one of several templates, and assorted NPCs spawn in there as the guild unlocks bits of content.
Put a portal to the Guild Hall in all major cities, and a portal out of the hall into the world at each city and at 'locations' the guild unlocks with special achievs.
Then add the guild hall maps to the arena system for a new 10v10 invasion arena bracket. :)
Player housing if done would be nearly the same thing. A portal into it from a chosen city, portals out to each city. Let it be set as a hearth.
- Vendors sell things you can place in it, and achievs place things into it.
Everquest II probably has the model for this one. Though its been 2 years since I had an account there and could see.
ringthree Oct 13th 2011 10:52AM
After years of reading player comments on blogs and forums, I can 100% say that the worst possible thing for WoW would be the players voting on anything of relevance to gameplay.
Donhorn Oct 12th 2011 1:09PM
About the only way I can see any kind of user-created content is... a design a pet/mount/mob contest of some kind. Probably the pet one most likely if anything, then the winning design made available in the online store.
perderedeus Oct 12th 2011 1:15PM
Blizzard's quality control is what keeps their games great... but it may be another nail in the coffin, as well. User-generated content can keep a niche of gamers happy and occupied -- or at the very least distracted -- and paying, with very little oversight by Blizzard... but in the current game, given their level of imposed control, the only source of content is the devs themselves. That means even more pressure on their design teams to churn out high-quality content quickly.
I do think they could split the difference, however. With the new guild system, guild banks are often overflowing with money -- it would be nice if the officers in a guild could create intra-guild contents or 'quests' using actual game systems rather than homebrew mods or pen-and-paper record keeping. Imagine if a guild officer could place phased NPCs in the world, visible only to players partaking in the guild quest, with actual quest items, some custom dialogue, etc, etc, ultimately rewarding a cash prize that comes out of the guild's coffers?
It would require work, restrictions, disclaimers ("this is a player-generated quest and may not be canon"), etc, but the option is there, and it would be more or less removed from the overall WoW storyline while still able to be parallel to it.
godking Oct 12th 2011 1:17PM
Why not bring a bit of rts style into the game. Like for bg, faction gain points to build barracks which produce more troops, or do this on world server. And by people action as a whole would further press there presence into enemy territory.
Sarah Bee Oct 12th 2011 1:20PM
Not trying to be cynical or rude, but I think Blizzard are scared that some players would be able to create better content than they do.
Daedalus Oct 12th 2011 1:33PM
I think Blizzard is more afraid of the tens of thousands of quests involving Chuck Norris, Murloc puns, and crude references to the player's sexual orientation.
Not to mention the number of quests that would inevitably show up instructing the player to go find some lost scroll with detailed instructions on how you can gEt mor goldz now buy boe epic mount cheap.
Having gone through City of Heroes player content, I have to say: there's definitely something to be said for professional writers.
jfofla Oct 12th 2011 2:06PM
I have read the Forums, and I know damn well what should scare Blizzard.
Sarah Bee Oct 12th 2011 2:16PM
Why vote down? Look at some of the most popular moddable games (e.g. Fallout, Civ IV, NWN, Half Life etc.) and look at the content some very talented people have created for those games. The greatest ones are on the par and arguably exceed the experience of the original games. Some mods are just amazingly exceptional and creative.
I think it's a disservice to the user-created content community to imply that it's impossible able to create something that could be better than the "vanilla" World of Warcraft or that all the content would be just immature gags.
Noyou Oct 12th 2011 2:43PM
I would say for every "good" campaign created by a player you would have 8-10 horrible ones. And yeah, we only have to look to trade chat or some of the asshat names players chose to name their toons. They would need an entire department just to edit the content so it wouldn't offend 90% of the people who play it. So as good as it sounds I am not sure it could be pulled off without some major sacrifices. One thing, it probably would be a premium service. Would you be willing to pay another $5 a month for it?
raingod Oct 12th 2011 2:47PM
@Sarah, Guess I'll state the obvious, your examples are either single player or limited to a few people, there is no way it would work in a game played by millions at a time. And yes, there are some outstanding user created content available, most of it is no better than the fan fiction the pollutes the net.
Daedalus Oct 12th 2011 2:53PM
The problem with the examples you mentioned is that the modding communities for those games are relatively small and self-policed. Also, the tools require a level of effort and know-how that would tend to discourage people from doing something simply to irritate people.
However, any player content system in WoW would have to be accessible enough to allow a significant amount of the playerbase to participate. That means something simple enough that it can be learned quickly and rapidly produce something. If it's quick and easy to produce something, trolls will be all over it, flooding the system with crap.
Not to mention gold sellers, who've proven they can corrupt any game system available to get their ads in there. (Remember the web addresses made of dead gnomes?) Plus, either the system would have to offer no rewards at all, (which would discourage most players from trying it) or said rewards would be gamed somehow: wow players have shown again and again that they can exploit any opening to get quick experience, gold, or gear.
What I'm saying is, (as Chris Metzen mentioned) the system would require a HUGE amount of policing. Think about Blizz's track record being able to enforce naming rules. Or ban racist, homophobic, sexist idiots from trade chat. How about enforcing their rules for RP servers?
The point is: the amount of resources it would take to make something like this work would be better spent on a thousand other things.
Blayze Oct 12th 2011 3:19PM
The second the official Story forum gets a hold of whatever tool it might be, expect awesome.
Sarah Bee Oct 12th 2011 3:32PM
I think people are confused about what it is I'm trying to advocate, so I'll try to explain it here.
Blizzard releases a scenario editor (i.e. some user-friendly version of the WoW Edit program they use). It would allow players to create a customized instance. These would not necessarily the dungeon instances as we know them with bosses, trash and loot etc, merely a private map for a player to experience. These instances would be locked from one to twenty-five players maximum. So that means they could range from a 25-man recreation of the Second War with raid bosses to merely a single-player political intrigue questline in Gilneas. With the proper tools, I have full faith in some players' ability to create an amazing and engaging story experience.
The scenarios would have NO connection to the proper game, they would have to be purely insular and self-contained because player-created content in the real game would be far too unmanageable. They would also be clearly marked as OPTITIONAL, THIRD-PARTY and NON-OFFICIAL so that there's no confusion about who made them. Perhaps on the server list there could be a tab called "Player Scenarios" to organize the ones people have downloaded. As for policing, the scenarios can be voted up or down based on player feedback so that people can quickly assess the quality of what they're looking at. Perhaps a player-driven star system that rates each individual aspect of the scenario (i.e. 'Storytelling' 4-stars, 'Creativity' 2 stars, 'Gameplay' 3.5 stars etc.). Offensive and other rule-violating content would be reportable and dealt with appropriately, same as it is now.
As I imagine it, players would need an active subscription account to access and create these scenarios to prevent people from completely replacing the main game. Even if it was premium based and you had to pay an extra $5 each month to use the editor would be acceptable. That is the system I am advocating: Optional, non-game affecting player-created scenarios.
Jeff Oct 13th 2011 1:07AM
@raingod: That 'millions of players' thing is just a poor excuse. While WoW may have millions of players, there are only a couple hundred thousand on each server. Only 10s of thousands (or less) are online at any given time, and only half of those are of a particular faction. The player content would be instances anyways, and only 10-25 people would be playing it at a time.
So do you care to explain why it wouldn't work with 'millions' of players, other than just because it wouldn't? What about the other MMOs at had millions of players but somehow managed to make player created content work?
Infamado Oct 13th 2011 4:37PM
I imagine that if Blizzard think players are able to produce higher-quality work than them (and of course they know perfectly well that there are talented people around), they would probably actually quite like that work to go into WoW rather than any of its competitors. I certainly think it's pretty far-fetched to suppose that they see the idea of their game being flooded with quality content as some kind of embarrassing disaster.
In any case, great community contributors aren't some kind of opposing army. It's an excellent way to unearth talent. The opportunity to find someone with the proven ability to produce good work for your game outweighs... something. Some kind of downside, as far as I can gather. Not entirely clear what it might be. Are the developers squirming with humiliation at the prospect of their players noticing that some other people are also good at making games?
godking Oct 12th 2011 1:21PM
Wow
Bheema Oct 12th 2011 1:21PM
When i hear user generated content in wow context these kinda thing come to my mind:
Instead of every crafter in wow crafting the same item , may be crafters can make custom itemized gear , like they get to pick the item time sword, mace and then they r given 1000 pts for say 359 ilvl item , 1200 pts for 378 ilvl them and they can decide what they get to put on it , int , str, mastery, parry, exp etc.