Tag: MMO

  • World of Warcraft: Classic Will Outlive Retail & Its Clones

    World of Warcraft: Classic Will Outlive Retail & Its Clones

    World of Warcraft, the 800 lb gorilla of the MMORPG industry, has gained renewed popularity with the release of World of Warcraft: Classic, its subsequent expansions, and novelty servers. Even as the ashes of Activision Blizzard’s public reputation continue to smolder, Warcraft persists almost twenty years after its release. Despite having a new ‘retail’ expansion on the horizon, it feels that the longevity of WoW Vanilla will outlast not just its competition but its progeny as well whether Blizzard wants it to or not.

    Winter is Coming

    Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, like World of Warcraft, and Winter go together like blueberries and pie. For those living far enough from the equator for it to matter, the holiday season is cold, dark, and often lonely. Fantastic worlds of wonder and magic offer players an escape from their troubles and a “third place” to gather with other like-minded individuals. In search of a virtual world to make my home for the winter, I shuffled through my collection of MMORPGs to see what the space had to offer in 2023.

    Clearly, Final Fantasy is doing just fine. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m glad folks are enjoying it and I wish I liked it more. Retail WoW offers me none of the joy that brought me to the scene as a child. Several new IPs have come and gone since I last paid for a Warcraft subscription, Wildstar, Rift, and Star Wars the Old Republic to name a few. The ones that were lucky enough to be put into maintenance mode offer me even less than World of Warcraft: the War Within. Other survivors market themselves as drastically different experiences, some attempting to recreate the magic of Ultima Online and others adopting a more action-oriented approach to combat. None of these experiences capture the fantasy of a massively multiplayer role-playing game: they’re unabashedly selling a product, showering new players in meaningless trinkets, and offering plenty more at the cost of an active monthly subscription.

    More Money, More Problems

    Money makes the world go round, but that’s not an excuse for bad game design. In an attempt to capture the success of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, many competitors rushed out similar products without realizing what made the original worth its weight in gorilla. With employee turnover, the ravages of time, and some level of incompetence, Blizzard eventually began acting more like one of its own competitors rather than the company that launched the World of Warcraft back in 2004.

    Deathwing helped reshape Blizzard as well as Azeroth.

    Beginning with WoW: Cataclysm, it was clear that the world had changed, but not for the better. Blizzard stubbornly fought against private servers and their administrators for years, openly admitting that they thought they knew better than their fanbase. What they really knew is that, if players got what they really wanted, the stockholders would lose money. The original World of Warcraft was such a well-made carrot-on-a-stick that the players seem to prefer it over whatever gold-plated turd Activision Blizzard continues to serve their retail subscribers. Conceding to the inevitable, they eventually released their own vanilla servers called World of Warcraft: Classic.

    Exploring the World

    What is it about the original Azeroth that keeps players coming back? The “World.” Every other game, more modern expansions included, attempted to copy the success of WoW but forgot that the staying power of an MMO lies in its core fantasy. In World of Warcraft, the player starts off as a meager adventurer and must travel, go on quests, and meet other players and virtual characters. Reaching the max level in Vanilla was not the be-all-end-all goal popularized by later expansions. Role-playing, traversing the world, and chatting with other players are some of the most fulfilling experiences that MMORPGs uniquely offer, yet the industry quickly shifted to focus on end-game dungeoneering and selling premium fashion via microtransactions.

    Keeping the magic of an MMORPG can be a daunting task given they are intrinsically designed to keep the player playing as long as possible to soak up as many subscription fees as possible. Whatever Stockholm Syndrome that MMO fans suffer from comes with the urge to go back to the familiar and continue adventuring, but the illusion fades quickly once the player looks behind the metaphorical curtain. Despite the risk of scams, bots, and server admin drama, players flock to private servers to cut out the middleman and enjoy their favorite game however they want to.

    World of Warcraft is worth replaying over and over because there is enough going on across both continents to keep any sane person engaged for years. The game was designed to be explored. Even the most common form of fast travel, flight paths, zeppelins, and boats, force the player to stop and smell the roses. Open-world games are about setting one’s own goals, so results may vary, but as long as a player is comfortable making their own path, they’ll have plenty of adventuring to do.

    Retail World of Warcraft and plenty of other MMOs fail to fulfill their fantasies from the beginning; not only can players pay for max-level characters but they hardly start out as lowly adventurers. I have no interest in paying to become a renowned warlord of a virtual realm; A. because it saps the “accomplishment” of all its meaning and B. without meaning, there’s no point in spending my time chasing the proverbial carrot. Any game that offers a free max level boost on their in-game shop is conceding that a majority of the “game” is worth paying hard-earned cash to skip.

    World of Warcraft: Classic offers an experience that no other MMO can; everything matters (within reason). Delving into a modern MMORPG often involves dodging landmines and trying to avoid any gameplay that is outdated, underdeveloped, or otherwise obsolete. It’s a tedious process that WoW Vanilla avoids by being a time capsule of a better time rather than a half-baked hedonistic treadmill meant to milk players for every cent they’re worth. Cataclysm marked a clear delineation between the old Blizzard and the new; not only could you not go back to the old Azeroth anymore, but most of the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King (two popular expansions) became irrelevant. WoW Vanilla, TBC, and WoTLK give players a clear beginning and end with a static playing field to explore without fear of mistakenly playing a part of the game that no longer matters. Blizzard proved that plenty of players are willing to pay their developers to stop developing their games for the sake of endless growth and stockholder earnings.

    What do you think? Are there other MMORPGs that are doing something new and interesting? Let me know in the comments below.

  • When It’s Okay to Go Home Again… Or How to Learn to Love Maintenance Mode

    When It’s Okay to Go Home Again… Or How to Learn to Love Maintenance Mode

    With no end to the pandemic in sight, I’ve found myself delving into MMORPGs in my spare time. Whether it’s Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft Vanilla, I always compared them to my time spent in Telera. Eventually, I decided to play my favorite MMO rather than playing games that offer similar experiences with different dressing.

    The question inevitably becomes: “Is the game dead?”

    As much as I loathe the concept of games dying, it’s easy shorthand to describe a game being abandoned by it’s developer and either shutdown or, at best, put into maintenance mode. Rift still has a community of devoted players, making major cities less barren than I expected. Instant adventures are equally as populated, giving players easy access to grouped content. In all other ways, however, Rift can be considered being in maintenance mode.

    Although I wasn’t privy to the events as they occured, it looks like Trion Worlds went under recently and sold the rights of Rift to Gamigo. The new owners seem content in keeping the servers updated and using their limited resources to address community issues, such as recently patching their player report feature.

    If you believe the rumors, I also hear good news about world boss content being experimented with on the PTR. This, combined with the already existing seasonal content, is enough to keep me logging in and checking out the game every once in a while.

    Can an MMO designed to bring players together quickly and easily ever be truly dead? Sure, LFG queues don’t pop as quickly as they used to (or at all) but you can get folks to join you in chat if you’re patient. Instant adventure solves most murder hobo needs, while PVP, crafting, raids, slivers, and chronicles are all still accessible.

    It’s hard to recommend an MMO in maintenance mode without adding a million caveats, so I’ll try to keep this simple. Rift is easily one of my favorite MMOs, if not games, and has a lot of great story and fun gameplay to explore for those looking to find it. If you also want flexible and interesting class choices and build opportunities, plenty of group PVE content, and a unique story/aesthetic, Telera may still have something to offer.

  • Return of Reckoning – Warhammer Online Follow-up

    Return of Reckoning – Warhammer Online Follow-up

    With the United States not looking any closer to figuring out it’s response to the coronavirus than it has the past few months, it’s been a great time to get back into the Warhammer Online private server, Return of Reckoning.

    The rogue server just recently ran a Twitch Drops promotional event, which caught my attention and had me back in the world of Warhammer all over again. This time, however, I took a more PvP focused approach. During my first attempt at trying the game out, I spent a lot of time on group quests and open world PvP without touching organized PvP. Since objective oriented PvP is available from level 1 onward, it’s easier than any other MMO, except perhaps Guild Wars 1, to jump straight into player versus player.

    Warhammer Online suits this play style perfectly, allowing me to experiment with new classes in PvP while ranking up. I decided to take my engineer out for a spin and ended up at the top of the damage charts multiple times. My attempts with my Witch Elf did not go as well, however. Being able to immediately scale up to the rank of the PvP content you’re doing is handy when you want to be able to start ganking other players right from the get-go.

    Return to Reckoning suffers from the same issues that many PVP-centric MMORPG run into, namely that team coordination is a must. There will be some games where your team is just not matching up to your opponents. You can get completely locked out of a contested zone or get your base camped by enemy players through no fault of your own, which is a deal breaker for some folks. If you have an even modestly coordinated team, however, you should have a blast.

    My main focus during my last gaming session was scenarios, an instanced PVP variant that players can queue for. Many scenarios share similar mechanics: carrying a flag, capturing control points, or carrying flags while capturing control points. That being said, the straight forward nature of combat allows players to focus more on their individual positioning and role on the team rather than fulfilling some arbitrary gimmick.

    Once again, I would whole heatedly recommend Warhammer Online: Return to Reckoning to anyone who has even a passing interest in PVP MMOs or the Warhammer franchise. For a rogue server, RTR offers some of the best player versus player content on the market with plenty of extra fluff for everyone else to enjoy as well.

  • Ode to the Barrens – Classic WoW Zone Design

    Ode to the Barrens – Classic WoW Zone Design

    When it comes to Vanilla World of Warcraft leveling zones, two stand out the most: Westfall and the Barrens. Each represent the 10-20 leveling experience for both Alliance and Horde respectively. While Westfall was one of the first leveling zones developed for WoW, it’s easy to see how much love and care went into the development of the area. There are long quest chains that tell the story of a gang of bandits and a global conspiracy, as well as smaller, more charming quests that litter the zone. The Barrens, on the other hand, stays relatively true to its name; it’s pretty barren when you get down to it.

    That being said, there is still a large population of the World of Warcraft community (especially those who frequent private servers to get their vanilla fix) that holds the Barrens close to their heart. Nostalgia is a helluva drug, but there might also be something beneath the rose colored glasses worth exploring to discover what made Barrens such a beloved leveling zone, despite it’s obvious short comings.

    5. Crossing the Plains

    One of the biggest complaints about The Barrens (both from the developers and from many players) was that there was far too much walking for a 10-20 zone. Without a mount, having to cross the entire zone on foot could be tedious, running from quest givers in the Crossroads, Ratchet, and Camp Taurajo to their requested destinations across the wild plains. Not only are these areas nearly flat and devoid of vegetation (except for a few oasis scattered around), but what they are heavily populated with is mobs that want to kill you dead.

    In this way, the Barrens is a great example of what made vanilla World of Warcraft so immersive. The wide, open plains reward exploration, provide a unique sense of scale to the world, and offer a wholly unique aesthetic to what we were used to seeing in traditional high fantasy fiction. Despite what modern game design might describe as “barriers to entry” that need to be improved by “quality of life” changes, vanilla World of Warcraft thrives when the player feels like part of a larger world. Sometimes these aspects of Azeroth can be annoying (.e.g Getting stuck on a continent with no idea where to go, etc), but they can often make the results of your labor feel all the more rewarding.

    4. Flight Paths

    On a similar note, thanks to the lack of mounts for players before level 40, the Barrens is a great opportunity to show off Kalimdor in all its glory from above. Flight paths (WoW’s version of taxi cabs or Uber) offer players a great view of the plains, the tops of mountains, and the luscious oasis that pop up throughout the Barrens. Once again, forced downtime (a mechanic that is often considered a sin among modern MMO designers) offers players time to reflect on their quests, plan for their future adventures, and take in all that the world has to offer. Flight paths offer this in spades, giving players a new perspective on the world around them and, perhaps, providing enough of an incentive to explore newfound opportunities while traveling by air.

    3. Wailing Caverns

    World of Warcraft’s instanced Dungeons are almost as much as a part of Azeroth as the open world is. This is especially true of early leveling dungeons, like Deadmines and Wailing Caverns, as they introduced newbies to group content and provided plenty of opportunities for player killers to wreck havoc on the PvE-focused populace. Wailing Caverns is a spectacular dungeon that represents a lot of firsts for fledgling Horde players; not only is it the first dungeon most Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and Undead come across where they’re in danger of being ganked by Alliance players but it also blurs the line between instanced and open-world dungeon content. Although the maze of caverns can often feel tedious after a few runs through, WC will forever be pillar for why the Barrens is such a memorable leveling zone.

    2. The Crossroads is Under Attack!

    Along a similar train of thought to the Wailing Caverns, the corresponding central quest hub, called the Crossroads, was a bastion for early-WoW world PvP. Low and high level characters alike would duke it out over control of the Horde leveling town. Having quick access by way of the neutral town of Ratchet, Alliance players were given a perfect opportunity to gank unsuspecting Horde lowbies. As is a common pattern for content that stands out in vanilla WoW as particularly memorable, the Crossroads was a hot bed for player interaction, both in group questing and group debauchery and it will forever be synonymous with the pleasures of leveling a Horde toon.

    1. Flavor of the Horde

    One of the most charming factors that brought me to World of Warcraft initially was how different the Horde felt as opposed to other, more traditional high fantasy stories. Most games didn’t revolve around the ugly monsters or the more mundane aspects of life as an orc. The Barrens provides a perfect example of the diverse background of the Horde, giving players a more calm, nature-focused lens through which to view the warriors clans from Orgrimmar. From the scattered outposts to the shimmering oasis, the Barrens will forever be a quintessential part of the leveling experience for Horde players, and as such, outlives whatever perceived flaws designers may have attributed to it over the years. Creating a flat, barren space doesn’t sound like a recipe for game environment success, but the Barrens achieved the nearly impossible.

  • 5 Ways that Rift Lives on in Guild Wars 2

    5 Ways that Rift Lives on in Guild Wars 2

    (Guild Wars 2: Icebrood Saga – ArenaNet)

    As I’ve mentioned repeatedly before, Rift is one of my favorite MMORPGs. Sadly, I don’t expect to revisit Telara anytime soon, given that the game has long since transitioned to being free-to-play and entered what is effectively a maintenance mode. Another MMORPG has caught my eye, however; I just can’t seem to keep my hands off of Guild Wars 2, especially given ArenaNet recently launched their latest Living World event, the Icebrood Saga. After spending hours reliving my adventures in Tyria, I realized that many of the reasons that I had originally fallen in love with Rift were clearly apparent in Guild Wars’ sequel. Had my favorite MMO been living under my nose all this time? Did my frustration with the changes to the class and skill system in Guild Wars 2 keep me from realizing its brilliance? Either way, let’s jump straight into the top 5 ways that Rift lives on in Guild Wars 2.

    5. Group Quests

    Let’s get the obvious items out of the way, shall we? Rift’s namesake mechanic involved temporal rifts opening up in the wilderness, each requiring a group of adventurers to overcome and fight back the oncoming horde of baddies. Players didn’t need to join a group or invite strangers into their own party to participate as a community to overcome a common goal. Guild Wars 2 picked up where Rift and other MMOs (Warhammer Online comes to mind) left off, allowing players to jump in and out of quests simply by completing their objectives while sharing rewards with nearby players along the way. Not only does this create a more welcoming and accessible world to play in but it creates a more streamlined experience than the more traditional fetch quests of old.

    4. Exploration

    Although Guild Wars made a name for itself just fine without a persistent open-world environment, ArenaNet shifted their focus drastically with the sequel to emphasize exploring Tyria. Similarly, Rift implemented plenty of features to keep players from AFKing in their faction’s major city waiting for dungeon queues to pop. Whether it was open world puzzles, group events, or artifact hunting, the ascended of Telara always had some reason to explore the world. This seems like an essential part of any MMORPG, but what Rift and Guild Wars 2 accomplish that many other MMOs fail to do is provide a reason to explore outside of the main leveling experience. It’s an open world out there, so it makes sense to have plenty of things to do in it.

    3. Armies of Invaders

    In addition to the portals opening up all around Telara, Rift shook things up by having armies of enemies attack nearby towns and cities to disrupt the leveling experience. The idea of world events isn’t new, but when a giant world boss and their army of minions march on your home for the first time, it shows just how cinematic group experiences in MMOs can be. Guild Wars also embraced this as a part of their group questing mechanics. While most quests involve helping out a local farmer or harvesting resources, some involve nearby enemies laying siege to quest hubs or a zone boss killing low-level players en masse. These kinds of moments are what MMORPGs are all about, and the sense of scale and purpose just can’t be matched in other games.

    2. Mentoring

    MMORPGs, more often than most other genres, carry a lot of baggage from bygone eras. Some games embrace the silliness of endlessly slaying monsters on the hedonistic treadmill we call “grinding,” while others prefer not to shy away from the fact that levels as a concept are outdated. Rift and Guild Wars 2 are definitely the latter, despite the fact that both include level caps that come close to triple digits and leveling experiences that could take a few months to complete. Rift’s answer to the question of leveling was to implement a mentoring system to allow players of different levels to scale their stats to something closer in power level to make adventuring together more fun and engaging. Guild Wars does something similar, except that it is done automatically upon entering a zone, creating a seamless world that most other MMOs fail to achieve.

    1. Back to the Action

    When you think quick, simple fun, you probably don’t think of MMOs. Some developers have put significant work towards ensuring that isn’t the case, however. Rift, especially later in its lifespan, developed many features under the philosophy of getting players into the action as fast as possible. Their answer, among other things, was to include an Instant Adventure button that quite literally instantly teleports the player to another place and gives them a specific objective to complete with another group of adventurers. Tired of instant adventure? Try some of the singleplayer story content or instanced PVP. Crafting, costumes and other sideshows fill out the usual suite of features for a theme park MMO, but providing content is clearly not the same as guiding the player through it, which both Rift and Guild Wars 2 do spectacularly.

    I hope you enjoyed this short romp through memory lane. If you’d like to read more posts like this one or if you remember a specific MMO memory that has stuck with you, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

    Happy hunting!