I have just noticed that I am playing WoW a little differently these days. Now that my Pally has reached lvl 85, she started looking at achievements and ways to help my other toons. She mines and sends copper bars and linen to my blacksmith. She just started cooking and has lots of levelling to do there. And she is big on exploration right now, and is trying to get all the exploration accomplishments. In the process, when she runs across mob's, she's typically the baddest kid on the block so no worries.
So, where's the challenge, you say? Where's the killing and getting loot? Where's the FUN? I'll let you in on something ... I really, really like The Sims. Looks like I'm playing WoW kind of like a feudal version of The Sims, doesn't it? Weird, but fun. Anybody else out there do the same or something sim-ilar (pun intended!)
Otherwise, I have both a Human Warlock and a Night Elf Priest I need to level up. So there will still be plenty of killing and looting available when I am in the mood.
What do you think of this method of play? Anybody else play in a "non-traditional" fashion?
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/04/10/wow-player-reaches-level-85-without-killing-a-single-mob/
ReplyDeleteThat's about the strangest way I've ever seen anyone play WoW. Some people still role-play--it's funny to treat role playing as a heterodox method of play in an MMORPG--to varying degrees. Some people are optimizers on many levels. They optimize their raid play with methods you've seen but they also optimize their total time spent in the game. These people are likely to create alts with very specific purposes: bank alts, mining alts, crafting alts and so on.
http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
Richard Bartle gave a formative breakdown of different player types in 1995. He has since updated it to 8 types (an easy step once you visualize the types geometrically) but since then the MMO has changed so radically that it isn't actually worth taking the "Bartle Test" or looking in detail at the 8 types. The 4 type essay is far enough in the past and simple enough that it might be cause for some interest.
I just spent quite some time with Bartle's work and his web site. It is fascinating. I knew that somewhere there was someone analyzing all this work on MMO's because the gaming companies would just be shooting in the dark without it. And some gaming companies are VERY successful!
ReplyDeleteI found his PPT slides for the 8 types here http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/Stuttgart.pdf
Thank you, Protonk, for pointing me to Bartlett's research. It is exactly what I have been looking for!
I don't actually know how many of these game companies started with research as a blueprint before designing their games. I know Raph Koster (first name isn't a typo), who worked on Star Wars Galaxies, was (and is) very interested in game design research. But I don't get a strong indication that other companies do the same. Of course these guys write books and attend game conferences but many of them tend to be well outside the game designer demographic (older, male, british) and some have very heterodox opinions about games. Bartle infamously proclaimed that if he had a magic wand he would shut down world of warcraft because he felt it was sucking the oxygen out of the MMO world.
ReplyDeleteIn a way the relationship is a bit like economists and business people. Economists imagine that businesses can't proceed without a system of the world but for the most part (though this changes a lot over time) businesses do fine without one.