Here’s what we know:

• Blizzard has said Icecrown wont be until Patch 3.3. The content raid presented in 3.2 is a mystery.
• Azjol-Nerub was originally planned to be both a 5-man and a raid instance. This was scrapped and the remnants of the raid zone was turned into the Ahn’Kahet 5-man instance.
• Yogg-Saron was almost assuredly originally intended to be the boss of Azjol-Nerub. The storyline with the iron constructs, the Watchers, and Ulduar was originally separate and various changes to quest text and the overall storyline were made very late in development to fit him into Ulduar.
• This means that it is dangerously likely that we will not be seeing an Azjol-Nerub raid instance despite the fact that thousands of players are clamoring for it.

Blizzard: we need Azjol-Nerub. Not only would it be amazing content visually (Ahn’Kahet is the coolest looking instance in WotLK), there are various storyline developments and loose ends that could be tied up with the zone.

Azjol-Nerub - worthy of more than two mere 5-mans.

Patch 3.2 should be set up like the Sunwell patch. New quests and dailies with a new badge vendor, a new 5-man, and the new raid instance. Here’s how to do it:

Quests and Dailies

A new questhub will open up in a location called the Upper Kingdom, a part of Azjol-Nerub that is largely controlled by the Scourge. A small encampment called the Doorward is located here, led by Baelgun and his dwarves. This area will allow players to undertake a series of phasing quests, similar to those in Icecrown, where they aid the dwarves in reclaiming some of the tunnels from the grip of the Scourge.

Doing so earns the players the favor of a neutral faction of Nerubians (including Killix the Unraveler from earlier quests, perhaps?) who seek to drive out the scourge as well as the Faceless Ones even further in the depths. Players can perform daily quests for this Nerubian faction that involve further fortifying their new position in the city. Two new vendors will open up with various Nerubian artifacts available. One will have rewards purchasable via existing badges, while the other vendor will be specifically for badges and tokens found in the new raid instance.

Aside from the immediate Scourge threat in the Upper Kingdom, players will learn that an opposing faction of Nerubians exists deep in the Old Kingdom. These Nerubians revere the Faceless Ones and worship the Old God Yogg-Saron, who they believed would deliver them from the Scourge. Anguished at his defeat in Ulduar, they have allied themselves with the Twilight Cult and plot to ressurect Yogg-Saron from his remnants deep within Azjol-Nerub.

5-Man

The new 5-man would be a Scarlet Monastery-style winged instance, with 3 small wings representing various parts of the Inner Kingdom. The storyline started by the quests and dailies in Upper Kingdom will advance here.

Wing 1 – Scourge: The players have discovered that one of Arthas’ lieutenants, a powerful lich, makes its base in a nearby chamber. Any rebel nerubians that fall against the Scourge are being raised by this lich and added to their numbers. In effort to stop this, or at least slow it, the players delve deeper into Azjol-Nerub. Fighting through hordes of Scourge, they reach the lich and find him being confronted by uncorrupted Crypt Lord (whatever the living version of those would be called, that is), Anub’arahm! The lich is close to defeating Anub’arahm, intending to raise him to serve as he has the others. The players engage the lich and help Anub’arahm destroy him. Completing this instance phases Anub’arahm into the Upper Kingdom for the player, where he will offer a later quest.

Wing 2 – Twilight: In wing 2, a large gathering of Twilight’s Hammer cultists can be found making their way deeper into Azjol-Nerub. This would be an instance similar to CoT: Stratholme where you are moving alongside Anub’arahm fighting the cultists and their leaders. You will meet the head of this particular sect of the cult in this instance, but he will escape for now.

Wing 3 – Naz’anak, the Forgotten Depths: Wing 3 sees players venturing even deeper, discovering Naz’anak. Players have likely seen a portion of this before beneath Icecrown, but found themselves cut off from the main area of the city. Here players face off against Faceless Ones and Nerubian Viziers who want to see Yogg-Saron restored to power. Darkspeaker Rh’kem would make a reappearance as one of the bosses here, taunting the players that by freeing him they have sealed their fate. The final boss of this wing would be a faceless one general similar to General Vezax in Ulduar, revealing that there must be more of such creatures in Yogg-Saron’s service. Anub’arahm will once again show himself during this fight, burrowing up from beneath the ground to aid the players. Here he will declare himself as the new king of Azjol-Nerub, and claims he will defend it with his life.

Raid

The new raid entrance would lie behind the blood red door guarded by Baelgun, who holds the Blood Key that can unlock it. Completing the main storyline quest involing the 5-man dungeon will cause Baelgun to turn over the key to you.

The early portions of the raid would resemble the rest of the Inner Kingdom in architecture and design, but steadily become more organic as the players descend, as Naz’anak was. In these portions, a few more encounters with the Twilight Cultists, Nerubian Viziers, and Faceless Ones could be implemented where we learn how they plan to resurrect Yogg-Saron’s “mind” and more about their motives on Azeroth. Good lore stuff.

Continuing deeper, the depths would slowly start to change in appearance. As the players descend, they would wonder if they are indeed still inside Azjol-Nerub at all, as the walls themselves seem alive…pulsing, breathing? At this point, various fun plays on insanity could begin: strange apparitions, tilting of the screen, eerie sounds and whispers.

A Forgotten One, as seen in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne

The players will soon realize that even though they managed to destroy a part of Yogg-Saron in Ulduar, the creature had become so entrenched in the core of Northrend itself that it is still very much alive in some way. By this point, the zone should look horrifying, like the inside of a grotesque, living thing. Think Dead Space. The creatures here should also get really crazy. Mutated aberrations of creatures we’ve seen before, utterly warped by being in such close proximity to Yogg-Saron. REALLY play on the horror theme here.

Final Boss: The boss of this area MUST be a Forgotten One. Many players are confused as to whether or not the Forgotten One in Warcraft 3 was an Old God or not, considering its resemblance to C’thun. Now is the time to clear this up. Forgotten Ones should be immensely powerful servants of the Old Gods, but are not Old Gods themselves.

The setup should be that the players finally reach the center of Yogg-Saron’s “body” under Northrend, where a giant, bulbous, pulsing core is suspended within a large chamber. Beneath it lies the guardian of the core, a great and terrible Forgotten One. This fight should be NUTS. Have the players fight the Forgotten One and deal with all the crazy tentacles, including some that come from the living walls themselves. Bring in Anub’arahm and some other key nerubians from the Upper Kingdom to aid. At various points in the fight, the “core” should become vulnerable to attack. Repeat until the Forgotten One dies and the core bursts. Yogg-Saron is now truly dead, and Northrend can begin to mend.

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So, beyond just being awesome and satisfying tons of player’s desire to see more of Azjol-Nerub, what does the instance accomplish?

• It cleans up the 70-80 Northrend questlines and ties everything together nicely. Let’s face it, it’s really obvious that more was intended to become of Azjol-Nerub and Yogg-Saron. Saronite Ore, the corruption of Vordrassil, and various other things indicate widespread corruption from Yogg-Saron. This is not something an imprisoned being should be able to do, even if it is an Old God. By adding this raid, it explains that even if Yogg-Saron was successfully imprisoned by the titans, he remained there for so long that he was able to literally spread through the ground and become part of the continent of Northrend itself, corrupting it from within.
• In the same vein, it can answer a lot of questions. What are the Twilight Cultists doing in Old Kingdom? What are Forgotten Ones? Why are some nerubians friendly, while others are hostile and seem allied with the Faceless Ones? How did Yogg-Saron’s corruption reach so far if he was imprisoned in Ulduar? Did we REALLY kill Yogg-Saron, or for that matter, C’thun (dun dun dun)? It would clear all of this up pretty well.
• Because of the Isle of Quel’danas style setup, it would give all types of players something new and fun to do. Even casual players get to see a huge part of Azjol-Nerub through the 5-man wings.
• Because the patch both perfectly resolves a huge part of Northrend’s story and also satisfies player’s desire to see Azjol, we’re more prepared to focus on Icecrown and the threat of the Scourge come 3.3. No distractions.

I can’t think of any reason NOT to do this!

The root of the problem, I have decided, is the cannibilization of content that occurs whenever a WoW expansion is released. The fact that all other previous raids and dungeons are completely meaningless after the release of a new expansion. The game world literally shrinks every time.

Back in the days of EverQuest, a new expansion never meant the death of an old one. The new additions might allow struggling guilds to progress further than they had before, but the content was still important and therefore still enjoyable to do. Planes of Power, one of the best expansions the game ever saw, was released in 2002 yet the content lasted guilds for years and expansions to come after that. The gear mattered, the progression mattered. One of the main reasons this remained possible was that not every EQ expansion offered a level cap increase. That, and, many encounters were gear checks, therefore you needed previous raid gear to progress into new content. Blizzard clearly seems to disagree with this design, but I think the game would benefit greatly overall if they gave it another look.

Consider the Sunwell instance, which Blizzard has  said a minuscule portion of the playerbase ever saw. Would it really have been a bad thing if the level cap had only been raised to, say, 75, and the completion of Sunwell was necessary before moving on to WotLK raids? I think not. If most of your playerbase hasn’t seen content yet, then there’s nothing wrong with giving them a chance to do so. You aren’t forcing them to hang back while others get to play with new toys because that content is still new to them if they didn’t finish it. Tone the content down if you want (as Blizzard did with Sunwell, but most people still never saw it) so the casuals can get through it, but USE the content and make it matter. I would much rather do the content as it was intended than see it rehashed a la the new Naxxramas.

Consider this, for example:

Let’s say the next WoW expansion is a mini-expansion that does not raise the level cap, but adds a new, small talent tree in which points are earned through Achievements, and adds only a small continent featuring some new dailies and tradeskill quests, a few 5-man dungeons, and two new raid dungeons – one unlocking the next. The 5-mans would be immediately accessible and contain loot on par with current heroics, but with better stat allocation, as well as various flavor items such as illusion items and mounts to make it fun for those who do not need the gear. The raids would be difficult enough to require a guild to have previously farmed Icecrown Citadel (assuming it is the last WotLK raid instance) to proceed.

What this would do is add new content without making the previous content completely obsolete.

• Casual Non-Raiders could get new loot from the 5-mans, enjoy the new quests, and would become more interested in Achievements they may not have considered doing previously because it would now earn them the special talent points. This extends to all players really, as there are a huge number of people who simply don’t care that much about earning achievements currently. The points would give them something more desirable than mounts or titles to strive for. This would breathe new life into ALL content in the game, for any Achievement deemed worthy of earning these new points.
• Casual Raiders would have a better shot at clearing previous raid content they had struggled with such as Ulduar or Icecrown Citadel thanks to loot from the 5-mans as well as the new talent points. The excitement of reaching the new raid content would give them a tangible goal to work towards and the old content doesn’t have to go to waste.
• Hardcores would feel rewarded for the Achievements they already worked hard to earn, and would enjoy the headstart with the new raids since they have already cleared the previous content. They would still enjoy the new 5-mans for the flavor items and the daily quests for gold. The first raid would be a race to see who could unlock the second one first, but that raid would be difficult enough that the first dungeon must be farmed for gear in order to truly succeed. This would bring us back to an era where we actually cared about who got world first or server first kills.

In other words, essentially what I’m saying is that I think the free content updates such as the Isle of Quel’danas and Sunwell have been better for the game than the actual expansions themselves. When the new badge vendor opened up on the Isle along with the nerfs to Kael’thas and Vashj, that was one of the greatest times to be playing TBC as a lower-end raider and the hardcores were pretty happy too.

My biggest complaint was how fast the raid content was completed in WotLK, but If I had had to gear up in Sunwell to do Naxx, gear up in Naxx to do Sartharion, and so on, I’d probably still be working my way up and enjoying myself. Maybe this is just my old EQ self resurfacing, but it sounds more fun that way to me.

So, I guess my question is, why does Blizzard feel each expansion has to hit such a hard reset button? The content updates are hugely popular with the playerbase, why not follow that model more closely?

Do people really like leveling up that much? I’m going to say no, and that an expansion that was just full of end-game content (of all kinds, not just raiding) would be hugely welcomed by the WoW community. Then again, I am a raider and maybe I’m just looking at it from my own perspective too much. I’d love to get other people’s thoughts on this.

I thought about other classes that I had the most fun DPSing on: they were the Rogue, Warrior, and Death Knight. What do all of these have in common? An indefinite resource pool.

With the Mage, the class is great fun in groups as long as I was able to keep up on mana, which thankfully isn’t overly difficult as a Frost Mage. But, if a boss fight carries over longer than normal or the group wants to move quickly, I found myself in situations where I could literally do nothing but fire my wand while I waited for mana. While soloing, this problem was even more troublesome compared to those other classes I had enjoyed, as I found myself needing to stop and drink every few kills. This wouldn’t bother me if there was some benefit I gained for having to do so, but in fact the Death Knight killed things more easily and with less downtime than my Mage.

In other words, once my mana was depleted, I was no longer having fun. This is, of course, a painfully obvious observation that everyone knows, but the point of the post is to suggest alternatives.

I think every class should be able to indefinitely sustain themselves. Games like Warhammer Online use the AP system, which is very good, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the same as that. Even traditional mana can be sustained in this way as long as the class has abilities that allow them to do so. Take the Warlock for example, who is capable of trading health for mana, and then draining health from enemies to repelenish. The old Retribution Paladin, before nerfs, also had nearly infinite mana thanks to Judgements of the Wise. This is good class design, yet Blizzard seems afraid to give it to all classes. They shouldn’t be.

Thinking of my ideal MMO, I think I would give every class two resource pools, both replenishable. The first would be mana/energy, constantly regenerating like the WoW Rogue or Warhammer’s AP. The 2nd would be class-specific, gained by doing certain class abilities similar to Rogue combo points or various class mechanics in Warhammer.

Mana as a resource just seems like an outdated mechanic that occasionally needlessly forces a player into a position where they are no longer having fun, and not always because they did something wrong. It’s time to do away with it!

Leveling up was fun. There’s no denying that. The quests were mostly the same things we’ve seen before, but the zones were interesting and there was the occasional innovative quest from time to time that kept things interesting. The issue for me is not with the leveling game, but the end game.

It may seem strange to say this, as from a game design perspective I am generally in favor of ensuring every player can experience content, but I think WotLK has indeed made things too accessible, too early. The result is players are burning through all the content Wrath has to offer in record time.

Take Heroics, for instance. In TBC, you actually had to gear up to be able to do them. I’m glad WotLK Heroics do not have a rep requirement, but they don’t have much of a gear requirement either. They’re an absolute joke, every one of them, for even semi-competent players. They feel about as difficult as normal level dungeons were in TBC.  This results in players consuming the content at a much faster pace and moving on to the next challenge: raids. Raids that, unfortunately, suffer from the same problem.

I’d like to keep from throwing “it’s just too easy” out there, but it’s hard not to. A lot of players have been complaining about it, so I’m sure people are tired of hearing it, but it’s simply the truth. The expansion hasn’t even been out 2 months yet, and even most casual raiders have finished the content (barring multi-drake Sartharion, which I don’t even count).

Part of the appeal of MMOs is the sense of progression. I think this is a core design element. You desire a certain level of gear so that you can move on to a more difficult zone to acquire that gear so you can continue on. Making this as fun as possible is important, but I think the overall chain needs to remain intact. It gives you something to work towards, something to chase.

I don’t feel this from WotLK. I didn’t need good dungeon gear to do heroics, I just went with mostly quest gear and blew through them without a hitch. Jumping into Naxx still wearing a smattering of blues and greens was no problem at all for anyone in the raid.

Now I come to the issue of not really caring about the loot in Naxxramas either, because it feels like a “gearing up” zone, but there’s nothing to gear up for. Ulduar is some months away, and who knows how difficult it will be. If the current content is any indication, I’m probably already overgeared for it in my Tier 7/Heroic gear.

The crazy thing is that Blizzard was really great at handling this in the past. Badge loot, removing attunements after awhile, etc. There’s nothing wrong with letting casuals see the content, but when even they are blazing through it at lightning speed, you have a problem. I’m baffled at why they went so far in the other direction as to make things almost meaningless.

Speaking of Ulduar, it should have been in for release. I’m just going to say that. Naxxramas was a recycled dungeon, and while I realize they needed to retune all of the encounters for 10/25 man raids, the fact remains that it was mostly completed as far as what would normally be involved in creating a new dungeon. Eye of Eternity and Obsidian Sanctum are smaller raids. With 2 years of development time, would it have been so much to ask for raid content at least on par with TBC at launch? Naxx, Sarth, and Malygos feel about like Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon from TBC, only there’s no TK or SSC waiting for me. I’m waiting 6 months for Ulduar and probably another 6+ for Icecrown Citadel. I don’t see why there wasn’t time for more raid content at launch. Probably because they spent most of it designing vehicle quests.
Last minor rant: Achievements are great Blizzard, but you can’t use them as an excuse for lack of content. Many players don’t care if they earn all of the Naxxramas achievements, it’s not going to keep them going back time and time again after they’ve gotten the loot they want out of the place. 3-Drake Sartharion is not the way to answer your player’s complaints that the game seems too easy, that’s just one optional encounter that doesn’t matter much in the end anyway. Stick a legendary on the loot table next time and maybe you’ll have something.  It needs to matter more than some cosmetic reward like a mount or a title.

To sum up what I’m trying to say: when you give everyone everything, it will very quickly mean nothing to anyone.

Short version: the expansion is absolutely amazing. The art, the music, the quests and dungeons, they’ve all improved a great deal.

Many of the things I’ve talked about previously on my blog have been realized in WotLK at least somewhat, especially when it comes to making a player feel heroic and giving them the ability to seemingly change the world around them. If you’ve played through the Death Knight starting experience or zones like Dragonblight, you’ll know what I mean. There are some truly epic quests in WotLK that are unlike anything I’ve seen in previous games, and this is with me only at level 76 and thus having not yet experienced Storm Peaks or Icecrown, the final leveling zones of the expansion. I particularly love the new “phasing” technology which allows Blizzard to create content that changes for individual players based on certain factors, such as what stage of a quest they are on. This has limitless potential for making real, substantial changes to the world for a player and I hope they use it a great deal in the future. I’ve already been very pleased with the usage of it that I have seen.

Speaking of leveling, I’ve done quite a bit of it in the past week. You might recall my last post where I talked about my experience with different classes after the 3.0.2 patch, and how I was struggling with which to choose for my journey through Northrend once the expansion hit. It turns out I chose none of them, instead giving in to the allure of the Death Knight, something I wasn’t even considering before. Thus, I went 55-70 faster than I ever have before and fast enough that I considered going for server first 80 DK, as I was certainly in contention for it by the time I landed on the shores of Northrend. In the end, I decided this was not important enough to me to sacrifice my enjoyment of the new content. I wanted to be able to stop and breathe and enjoy the zones and quests, not to mention actually eat, sleep, and go to my classes. Still, you could say the new class along with the new zones have really revitalized WoW for me, it feels like a new game and one I enjoy much more than I did previously.

I’ll be giving more detailed impressions of the expansion and each zone I adventure in sometime soon, so for now I’ll focus on my opinion of the Death Knight.

First of all, I love the complexity of the class. You have multiple resources to manage: runes, runic power, and time, the last of which is more important than you may realize when first looking at the class. It can be incredibly important to grasp how much time is left on the cooldown of your runes or other abilities, and being mindful of it can actually make a huge difference in your DPS. it’s a class that I feel rewards skilled play and mastery of the class. For me, the complexity in turn makes the game more fun. I often find WoW to be somewhat dull when I’m playing a class that is very repetitive and relatively simple to play, as there isn’t much to keep my attention, especially if I’m doing content I’ve seen multiple times as was the case in TBC raiding. With the Death Knight however, there’s enough going on and I care enough about my performance that I’m always engaged in the fight and what I’m doing. I think it’s just the right fit for me and I’m really glad that Blizzard has crafted such an amazing class for us.

Secondly, I love the talent trees. People keep asking me, “Which tree is the Death Knight tanking tree? Which tree is the DPS tree?” And the answer is always, “All of them.” This is the kind of class design I really love. Give us a role or two that we can do, and make it so that we can do it regardless of our spec. A talent spec should simply enhance which abilities you like the most, or which playstyle you favor. The Death Knight trees do exactly that. I personally went with an Unholy spec because I liked the AE capability and thought it would be most adept at switching between tanking and dps roles. So far, it seems to shine in both areas. WotLK is very AE heavy anyway, so it’s nice to be able to keep up in that area, and absolutely invaluable to have while tanking since you need to be able to hold threat on any number of mobs. I’d like to try out the other specs some time, but as of right now I think my choice of Unholy will last for some time to come.

Then, of course, there was the Death Knight starting experience. What a ride. This is the thing I’m trying to push all the time on my blog! Making the player feel like they are a major character, an important character, involved in the storyline – the starting experience pulls this off flawlessly. I can see why so many people ended up sticking with their DK when they only intended to check out the starting experience. Being so entrenched in the story like that makes you feel an attachment to your character very early on that you might not normally have. It’s really quite powerful.

It makes me wish they’d do similar things for all the other classes. Maybe some kind of new starting experience that took each class to level 60, since right now anyone wanting to roll an alt is automatically going to be turned to DK just to skip some of those levels. If they had the option of any class at 60, we’d be a lot better off. I really don’t see a downside to it, especially with RAF making 1-60 nearly effortless anyway. Who would complain? Make it happen, Blizzard!

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick update on what I’ve been doing. Four more levels to go, hopefully Storm Peaks and Icecrown are even more epic than what came before them. Like I said, I’ll be giving more opinions based on each individual zone in my next few posts, and not all of it is praise. Check back soon for those, and see you at 80!

But anyway, this blog is about MMOs moreso than console games.

Warhammer: I broke down and bought WAR despite having earlier decided not to play it. I was mostly bored with WoW at the time and wanted to see if the game was more fun with a larger crowd than that which I played with on the beta realms. Ultimately, while it is a good game, it just isn’t for me. It’s obvious to me even moreso now that I’m a PVE guy through and through. I can PVP and enjoy it, but I’m mostly more interested in exploring, questing, and dungeon crawling. While WAR obviously has all of these things, I feel they are not as well implemented or fun as they are in WoW, thus I was pulled back in that direction. Speaking of which . . .

WoW: Patch 3.0.2 is amazing. Yes, there are server stability issues, instances are broken half the time, and the lag is atrocious, but I can forgive it considering the sheer magnitude of the patch and all of the good things it has done for the game.

It took a little time to get used to classes and specs changing so drastically for me (someone who is not in the WotLK beta), but once I did I found them all so much more fun than previous incarnations. The synergy between talents and abilities has increased, the simple “flow” of combat and how the classes handle themselves improving as a result. I found myself having so much fun on all of my characters that I couldn’t decide which one to take to 80 first once Wrath came out.

Thoughts on some of my classes:

Warrior: Absolutely amazing prot changes. Prot is actually “fun” now in all aspects of the game, not just tanking groups or raids. I find it just as easy to solo on my prot Warrior as it is on my DPS classes. AE tanking ability has increased, overall threat and damage increased greatly. Like I said before, the flow of combat feels much better now with a variety of tools to use and fun talents like Sword and Board creating links between your commonly used attacks. Awesome stuff all around.

Mage: I was slightly disappointed in my Mage at first. Sure, there was a gain in power and overall effectiveness, but it didn’t have that new and exciting feeling that some other classes had for me after the changes. After playing around for awhile though, I came to appreciate some of the new talents. Brain Freeze giving me free instant cast Fireballs, or when Fire-spec Hot Streak giving me the instant Pyros was always great fun. Overall mana efficiency seemed much better for my poorly geared mage, and the class felt more complete and combat was a little more varied than the previous FB-spam.

Warlock: I only played Warlock a little bit, but I am glad to see affliction is making as comeback as a top DPS spec. I’ve always preferred playing my Lock as affliction. Haunt seems solid, and I really dig Everlasting Affliction refreshing my Corruption ticks. While I’m not destro, I think they’ve made some interesting changes there too, pushing them towards fire spells and the awesome Chaos Bolt.

Paladin: And of course, the Paladin. I picked up my Blood Elf Paladin I created for the Refer-A-Friend promotion (posted about him a few months ago) at level 60 and have been playing him the most out of all of my characters. I realize Ret is overpowered right now, but I think even after the tweaks I will still love the class and spec. The new Judgement system is great and works so much better than the previous one. Judgements of the Wise ensures my mana is almost more like energy in that I’m always regenerating huge chunks of it. It’s really night and day between the old ret Paladin where I was drinking constantly. Divine Storm is great, though I wish they could find a way to make it do physical damage in PVP and holy damage in PVE, I think that would be a fair enough trade-off rather than making it physical all the time. I really dig the aura talents as well, both the +healing from Devotion Aura talent and my own Swift Retribution talent which grants haste. This type of design where almost class-defining buffs are added on to pre-existing spells/abilities is fantastic, as I’ve said before on my blog, so it’s nice to see a lot of that in this patch. I’ll also mention Art of War, a talent similar to the Mage talents that grants an instant cast Flash of Light, as being a great boon. It encourages ret Paladins to heal their group-mates when in a party and otherwise simply eases soloing. Combined with the obviously great Sheath of Light, a ret Paladin can actually function as a viable off-healer while still maintaining his DPS. Great design overall, and I hope they don’t nerf the class so much that public opinion of them falls back down to what it once was.

Other than that, school has been fairly busy for me and I’ve unfortunately neglected my blog because of it, instead spending my free time actually playing games rather than blogging about them. I hope to restore some balance soon, and finish up my Ideal MMO posts as well as make a few more class design posts.

Also, once Wrath launches next month, expect to see constant updates on my adventures through Northrend!

Seeing as this concept something I just blogged about awhile back, I’m obviously very excited to see how this turns out.

Hopefully it works out well and inspires other development studios to follow suit!

This is completely unnecessary. It adds no challenge to the game, as it is easy enough to go and kill random gray mobs until your skill is satisfactory. It’s simply a meaningless time sink, and there’s nothing really fun about it. It adds a level of annoyance to the game if you fall behind in one of your weapon skills, but doesn’t really add any element of fun or satisfaction in return.

It’s actually very similar to the various spell skills in EverQuest. If there was a particular type of spell you didn’t cast often, but later got one of that category you’d like to use, you would find that your skill was so low that it constantly fizzled out. You then had to spend however much time it took to catch up in the skill just so you could use your new spell. Again, this added no real challenge or depth to the game, it was merely an inconvenience.

Regardless, the point of this post isn’t to complain, but to offer up a different way of doing things as always.

Weapon Proficiency

I think the best solution to the problem presented is to take a look at the ancestor of MMOs, Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D, there are no numerical weapon skills to gain, but your character can become proficient with a weapon. This would be easily implemented in MMOs, and much better than a numerical skill system.

Here’s how it would work:

• Every character starts with basic knowledge of how to wield a weapon. You can literally equip anything and hold it. However, whether or not you get any stats from it at all or are able to use abilities with it depends on other factors. This just makes sense, there’s nothing stopping even a frail wizard from picking up a huge battle-axe, but it doesn’t mean he’ll be able to use it properly.
• Based on class, each character would start with a “base” training in certain weapons. This allows you to actually use the weapon for real, as in you will actually get the damage range and stat bonuses attributed to the weapon and be able to use it with your abilities. An example of this would be a wizard with a staff, or a rogue with a dagger. A class like the warrior may start with more base weapon knowledge than that of other classes, given their martial training.
• Weapon Proficiency: At certain level intervals, say level 10 for the first one, the player could choose a specific weapon type to become proficient in, meaning they have further training in its use. This would manifest in things like increased damage, chance to hit, and chance to crit with the weapon of your specified type, and one would obviously prefer to only use weapons they are proficient with. “Proficient” would quickly be adopted as the minimum acceptable skill with a weapon due to the obvious benefits over base training. However, the key difference from normal weapon skill systems is that if you picked up a nice new weapon that you weren’t proficient in you could still at least use it, even if you weren’t using it to its maximum potential until you could go and retrain your weapon proficiencies. There would be no need to go skill up for 45 minutes in order to even be able to hit mobs. You may still feel slightly penalized, but not completely useless. The higher level a character is, the more weapon proficiencies they may be able to maintain at one time.
• Weapon Training: Alternatively, anytime the player would be able to choose a proficiency they can instead choose to train in a weapon they are unskilled with. For example, a cleric could train to use a two-handed axe, something they are obviously not skilled with upon character creation, or a wizard may choose to train in swords. This would only give them the base weapon skill, but would allow the option of later choosing proficiency in it. This lets players craft unique characters however they wish to play them. This also has the added bonus of giving casters or other classes who care less about their weapon skill a meaningful choice to make at these intervals. They can instead choose to increase the range of weapons they may wield for stat bonuses or other effects, rather than worrying about how proficient they are with them.
• Weapon Mastery: Players would be able to choose one category of weapon that they completely master, offering even more benefits than proficiency. This could add a new level of depth and customization to the game, such as offering new abilities that are only usable by a weapon master. For example, a rogue that chooses to specialize in dagger mastery may be able to use a more powerful type of backstab unavailable to any other type of rogue. More customization is always good. Both weapon proficiency and mastery could, of course, be retrained if a player changed their mind.

So, in a nutshell: weapon skill is meaningless to most players anyway. It’s just something you have to skill up to cap and then completely forget about, and (at least in WoW) what weapon type you can use is simply a matter of going to some random trainer in a city and paying him some silver. The player feels very detached from it, and the only time it was even a factor was in the few items that gave you bonuses to weapon skill over the cap, but even that is gone now in favor of a separate stat: weapon expertise.

Future MMOs should just do away with weapon skill as a numerical value altogether, and adopt a system like proficiency or something similar. It gives the player choices, allows them to customize their character further, and most importantly it never truly punishes them – it never makes them feel weaker, only stronger in their chosen weapon types.

The article mentions specific styles of learning that are important to keep in mind: visual, learning through reading or seeing; aural, learning through hearing, such as voice overs; and kinesthetic, or learning through movement and action. It then goes on the explain that there are also two distinct “learning acquisition styles” that are equally important: explorative and imitative. Explorative learners don’t mind experimenting and making mistakes in order to learn, they’ll just jump into a game and play around with the UI until they understand it. Imitative learners, on the other hand, want a demonstration and explanation of everything before they try it themselves. They want to get in the game and not feel completely overwhelmed.

Taking this information into account, we can sort of gauge the effort various MMOs have put into helping the player learn the game. World of Warcraft, as the article specifically mentions, practically has no tutorial whatsoever. Small exclamation points simply pop up on the screen, often in rapid succession, which offer small text explanations when clicked that the player may or may not understand. For someone who is an “explorative learner”, this method is perfectly fine and they will most likely quickly catch on. An imitative learner, though, may be completely confused and terrified.

Thinking back on the various MMO’s I’ve played, I would have to say EverQuest 2 probably had the best tutorial in my eyes. Starting out on the ship (back when that still happened, I believe they removed it) where you were taught the basics of speaking to NPCs, completing quests, buying/selling, and basic combat. It had both visual and audio clues, thanks to the voice overs from NPCs that was read alongside the text chat bubbles, and subtle things such as the NPC that you needed to speak to waving you over to them. It still contained probably too many text-only windows that were very wordy in the way they explained simple things, so that could’ve been better possibly. The main thing I liked about it was, while very simple, it tried to involve the player while teaching them and make them feel like they were in the world and in a situation. When the drake attacks, for example, it’s a very unique sort of “holy s#&t!” moment and makes a normally dull tutorial a little more exciting. The only problem is, nothing ever really comes of the events that happen on the ship. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and is only tied together later when you book passage on the same ship to your chosen city. I’d like to see a tutorial that immediately sinks the player into some of the lore while also teaching game mechanics, something that would stick with them and actually feel like part of their character advancement.

A Better Tutorial

Looking back on my Ideal MMO post “Heroes“, you’ll find that I’ve already talked about how I think the player should feel like the main character of a story right from the start of the game. The scenario I described in that post is actually a sort of tutorial, but I think more could be done to aid the player in understanding how to play than what I went over in that post, so that will be my focus here instead. Similarly, we want to immerse the player in the world and have them feel like they are special and heroic, even if they are just learning.

Since I used a Rogue in my previous example scenario in the post mentioned above, I’ll use my other favorite class for this: the Wizard!

The Young Apprentice

Let’s say you’ve rolled up your character, a human wizard, and are entering the game for the first time. You are given a very brief voice over detailing the background of your race and class of choice before explaining that today you will presented with a very important task: the creation of your wizard’s staff.

You then find yourself seated amongst five other anxious wizards in a long, narrow candle-lit chamber. At the head of the room stands a tall, grey-bearded man in scarlet robes whom you recognize as Archmage Miar Adelnor, the head wizard of the city and master of the academy. He speaks with a kindly and comforting voice:

“You all know why you are here. You have been selected because of your exceptional aptitude in the magical arts. You have all shown considerable talent and, perhaps even more importantly, the proper restraint needed when dealing with the volatile nature of magic. You are now ready to undertake a very important task, the creation of an item which you will come to know and bond with, to rely on more than any other tool or implement. I speak, of course, of your staff. You have all studied about the importance of the staff, how it is an extension of the Wizard, empowering and bolstering in times of need; it will heighten your focus and allow you to perform spells far beyond anything you are capable of now. But, such power must be earned. Today you will each face challenges that will require you to prove yourself worthy of wielding a wizard’s staff. At the end of each challenge, you will find a component necessary for the crafting of your staff. If you succeed, you will not only be awarded the staff, but you will have proven yourself ready to move to higher studies under the masters of the school. Know also, that I will be choosing one of you here as my personal apprentice. Good luck!”

So, that’s the setup. Now, how would each major element be communicated to the player?

At first, there will be absolutely no UI display. As each portion of the UI is dealt with, it will be revealed. This way, the player only has to take on so much at one time and will better understand each part individually.

Movement: The most obvious thing to teach the player first is character movement. Miar waves his hand towards a large set of doors, which swing open wide. The other students begin to file out of the room. This gives the player a visual clue where they need to be heading, and a small display would show the WASD keys and mouse on screen, with brief, simple diagrams indicating what each key or mouse button will do. I don’t feel there’s any need to actually make the player move each direction and so forth like some games require. Movement is generally pretty straightforward, even for new gamers.

Quests: As common as quests are in MMOs, it’s probably important to help the player understand them early. Each of the students is assigned a different door that will lead them through various rooms where they will undergo their challenges. Upon entering the first task chamber an on-screen cue will appear indicating that the player has received their first quest. A voice over from Miar will provide an aural explanation, stating that he has written instructions in your journal for you. The screen would then show the player their Quest Journal, briefly explaining how to read it.

Interacting with Objects: The first task would be a small puzzle requiring the player to interact with rotating mirrors in order to project a beam of sunlight onto the door ahead. An audio clue from Miar could be something simple like, “Sometimes objects in your environment will be crucial to your success.” The on screen cues could then instruct the player that right clicking on the mirrors would rotate them, and that the same action is used to interact with all environmental objects, such as chest or switches. When the puzzle is completed, a small chest appears containing a “branch of gnarled ash“. The player would use the same interaction to open this chest, so it should be simple. After opening the chest, the door ahead opens up.

Using abilities/spells: The second task undertaken by the player would serve to teach them how to cast a spells. Let’s pay homage to The Legend of Zelda series and say the second task asks the player to find a way to open the door at the end of the hallway by keeping four torches lit at the same time. Miar would chime in, “Remember your training! A wizard can produce flame with a mere snap of the fingers!” Indicators would then appear on screen instructing the player how to target objects and cast a spell on them, in this case “Ignite”. Lighting all four torches causes another chest to appear, this one containing a “dull manathyst crystal“. The door opens.

NPC Interaction: The third chamber reveals a large stone slab catching the light from the first room. Two torches similar to those from the previous room are set on either side. At the far end of the room is a stone statue of a large humanoid figure. Miar speaks encouragingly, “Only Syron’s light can awake the sleeping giant.” The player should recognize the torches and light them, if not, there could be another cue from Miar. When the torches are lit, the stone slab recedes into the ground allowing the light to bathe the stone statue. It creaks and groans, coming to life before the player’s eyes. Miar says, “Listen carefully to the golem’s words, for it holds the key to your passage.” The on screen cues would then explain that interacting with NPCs is the same as interacting with objects, and when the player opens the dialogue window it will explain how choosing what your character says can change the outcome of a conversation. This would be a very simple way of conveying what would later be an important part of the game (alignment and reputation) because treating NPCs poorly can influence your standing with them. Since this is a tutorial, the choices obviously wouldn’t matter too much, but they should at least understand the concept of choice in a conversation. The player will be able to listen intently and encourage the golem to continue, or voice their impatience and request that the door simply be opened so they can continue. Either method will result in the door opening, and a third chest being presented containing “a vial of astral essence“. The way the player interacted with the golem will come into play later, although not to the point that anyone would regret acting either way.

Tradeskills, Inventory and Equipping Items: The next chamber contains a large silver chalice emblazoned with glowing runes and housing a flickering blue flame. Miar’s voice leads the player on again, “You have done well and now hold the three components required to craft your staff. Approach the chalice! Its unique blue fire will allow you to imbue your manathyst crystal with the magic of the astral essence. Next, set the crystal atop your staff. Fusing the two together will create an item of considerable magical potency!” However the game chose to handle tradeskills, that would be covered here by the tutorial. Eventually, the player would produce their wizard’s staff – “<Name>’s Gleaming Manathyst Staff”. This would lead into the inventory section of the UI being revealed, and Miar would instruct the player to equip the staff, which the on screen cues would also explain.

We’ve covered the basics in a way that is at least somewhat engaging and fun, at least compared to other tutorials. The only major thing left is, of course, one of the most important: Combat! Let’s see if we can’t ramp up the excitement.

Combat: After congratulating the player on the creation of their staff, Miar’s suddenly breaks off into a sharp, alarmed tone, “What? He has at last dared to send his minions here? I know what you seek, fiends! You shall never find it! Leave this place, and tell your master I shall hunt him down for endangering my school! Marda! Engir! Malia’nirnon!” The ground shakes and the sound of an explosion coming from elsewhere in the tower is heard. The on screen quest tracker updates, instructing the player to escape the tower. Moving ahead and rounding the corner, the player finds one of his fellow students trapped by small, winged demons wielding small pikes. The student calls out, “You there, <Name>! Help me! Use a spell to drive them away!” The game would then communicate that attacking an enemy is essentially the same as lighting the torches before, but it will then reveal the Player Status window, explaining HP and Mana and the importance of each. In this particular fight, the imps remain focused on the other student and allow the player to take his or her time in attacking them so that they can comfortably grasp combat. After the imps are defeated, the student explains that he merely needs to rest awhile, instructing the player to move on ahead. In the subsequent halls, the player will encounter a few more imps and have to deal with being attacked and losing HP. If, for whatever reason, the player is reduced to low HP, one of two things happen: if the player was kind to the golem in the previous task, it bursts through a nearby wall and crushes the imps, remaining at the player’s side for the rest of the scenario. If they were impatient with the golem, the other student shows up instead and offers his aid.

Map and Spellbook: Eventually the player reaches the library wing which was clearly the focus of the attack, and there is evidence that creatures far larger and more powerful than imps were previously here. They seem to have been driven away, but the library is nearly destroyed, and Miar lies gasping and clutching his chest in the center of the room. With that familiar kind glint in his eye, he speaks in a low whisper, “You… <name>… I would have liked to have taken you as my apprentice. You show greater promise than any student I have ever seen, and I would have liked to help you learn to control your power. It seems the Gods have other plans for us both… but perhaps I can still help you in some way. Take these.” He gives the player a map and his own spellbook. “You won’t understand many of the spells contained in that book right now, but as you grow and learn, you will come to master them. The map will help you should you choose to travel the world, it is magically enchanted to always show the region in which you currently are, and will fill itself in as you travel.” He reaches into his robes and produces a tiny purple orb that, when examined closely, appears to contain what looks almost like a star in the sky. “I’m afraid I must also give you this, for I have no other choice. Please, and it is of the utmost importance, see that it is delivered to the cleric Lieldon Kanden. He is an old adventuring friend of mine, and the only one I trust with the orb now.  It will bring danger upon you, I fear, until you are able to deliver it. The minions of Dralzir are always seeking it, and they must never find it. Forgive me, <name>, but I feel now, in my last moments, that perhaps you were meant to carry out this task. The Flame of Syron burns strong in your eyes, you remind me of…” And then he is gone. The spellbook explains how the player learns new spells as they level up, and the UI for that can be revealed as this time. The portion of the UI for the minimap and the fullsize map are also revealed now, and I’ve even given us a lore explanation of why it works the way it does in game.

Final Thoughts

We’ve taught the player everything they need to know to understand the basics of the game, enough so that they will likely be able to learn anything further on their own. We’ve even ensured that they feel like the hero, someone entrusted with a very important task, a task that also serves to give them some indication of where they need to go once they get out in the wide world. If it were me, I would turn this quest into what I call “Life Quests” which span the entire lifetime of the character and are finally resolved at max level, a true epic quest.

The only thing not covered is chatting, but that could be explained briefly when the player gets out into the non-instanced world after the tutorial for the first time.

Overall, this is the type of tutorial that players would actually pay attention to, and care about. Even more advanced MMO players likely wouldn’t mind going through it, because it’s actually important to their character rather than completely meaningless handholding for newbies.

The only problems I see with it is that it’s obviously tailored for one specific race/class combo, in this case probably a human wizard, though you could stretch it to be any good-aligned Wizard. It would be difficult to make unique starting experiences and tutorials for every race/class combo, I’m realistic enough to understand that. Perhaps there would be some way to take the same map and tutorial and alter it slightly based on race and alignment so that only the NPC models and some dialogue needs changing. Whatever it took, I think it would be worth it. As the article on Gamasutra said, tutorials are usually something that is just tacked on near the end of development. I don’t see why it should be this way, especially if you incorporate it into the starting experience of a character. The starting experience should be completely engrossing and really make the player want to see more of the game, and if possible it should make them feel attached to their character as soon as possible, because then rewards for that character are that much more meaningful.

Why not just use one of the many gamer specific social networking sites? The key difference between the idea I’m presenting and normal social networking websites is that it would actually sync with the game itself. Much like World of Warcraft’s Armory automatically syncs your characters gear, the social networking site would be tied to your account and characters. If you join a new guild on a particular character it would reflect that, earning a new achievement would show up on the profile, etc. There would be no creating “fake” profiles and messing with people, because you would only be able to display information related to your account. In other words, when you create your profile you would be able to designate a “main character” to show, as well as any alts you wish to show or hide, and then you could enter whatever information you wished to about yourself, upload images, and so on. Imagine instead of simply having an armory profile you actually have a “player profile” that you are able to customize to show not only your character information, but a little bit about yourself as well. You could upload screenshots of you and your friends questing and raiding, display your achievements proudly on the page, and help people keep track of the different alts you may be playing. It would be very cool. (Admittedly, players would still be able to designate a random low level alt as their main, much like they do on the WoW forums, and attempt to harass others anonymously this way. Hopefully, the ignore feature and report abuse option would be enough to curb this.)

Who could use it? Only those with a registered game account would be able to utilize the website, and since their credit card and other information is on file, it would be unlikely that excess harassment or other problems would occur because they aren’t as anonymous as they might be on other social networking sites. It would be relatively easy to report offenders and keep the network safe for all users. Players with canceled accounts would still be able to access their profile and use the website, because it would encourage them to come back to the game if they are still chatting with their friends and seeing all the fun they are having in-game. (Potential problem: People who enter fake information when registering for the game and only use game cards to pay for it could retain anonymity. You would need to rely on player reports to track down abusive users and ban them.)

Privacy and Friends: The profile would have a few different levels of privacy, such as the ability to make your character profile public, but any personal information private. This way, only friends you have designated would be able to see your entire profile, but other players could still check out your character’s gear and achievements. The network could automatically track your guild members and friends list from in game, making it easier for you to request to add these people as friends to your profile. You would also be able to search by character name or server, offering a way to potentially meet new friends both in and out of the game. You would never be forced to request or accept a friend that you didn’t want to, and you could even block certain users from messaging you or viewing your profile.

Messages: Players in-game would be able to contact other people by sending a message to their profile without ever leaving the game. Your guild leader may need to push a raid back an hour, so he sends a broadcast message that not only informs everyone online at the time, but also sends a mail messages to everyone’s social networking profile. Anyone not in game could easily get this message at work or wherever they happen to be. Imagine you’re sitting in traffic and decide to pull out your iPhone or Blackberry to log on to your character profile and see if you have any messages. You open up your inbox and see a message from your friend telling you he can’t play tonight, but he’ll catch you tomorrow. Another message is from your guild leader letting everyone know that the raid is starting 30 minutes later tonight. Looks like you have time to stop and pick up some dinner after all. This would be better than e-mail or any other means people could use to contact you, because it can be done from directly in-game. With hand-held wifi devices becoming very much a mainstream thing, it would be very likely that this would get a lot of use and be very convenient for players. Messaging also makes it easier to meet new friends from your server, arrange dungeon parties, or find potential recruits for your guild.

Guild Profiles: In addition to player profiles, the website would provide profiles for established guilds as well where members could go to check the guild calendar, review their DKP, and post on a guild-only message board. The guild master would be able to tweak the privacy settings of this profile as well, ensuring that non-members could read about the guild and check out the screenshots, but perhaps not read the message board. This would also serve as a way for guilds to recruit, as it would be easy to review a potential applicants player profile to check out their gear as well as how they conduct and display themselves. Sure, these are all features that most guilds provide their members via their own personal website, but how cool would it be to see it provided for the players and have it directly connected to their own player profile? It would be incredibly popular.

Public Bulletins: Lastly, players would be able to designate their main server(s) and opt-in to receive bulletins from people on that server. Bulletins, if you have never used Myspace, are essentially a public message that is sent out to everyone on your friends list, or in this case, everyone on the server. This would be great for announcing guild recruitment, letting the world know that your guild just cleared the toughest raid dungeon, advertising a particularly rare item for sale, or anything else you want to say publicly. Of course, moderation would be needed and players would have to be able to toggle certain users as ignored in case they don’t want to receive bulletins from them. Of course, the same thing can be achieved by simply posting on the server message board, but there may be people who don’t often check the forums but do enjoy checking their profile. You might be able to reach more people by using a Bulletin.

So, while it may not seem like it at first, I think something like this would actually have a tremendously positive effect on building a strong community within individual servers and the game as a whole, if given the chance. It would, of course, require additional time and manpower to manage it, but the resulting benefits would be worth it. We’ve seen SOE provide guild websites and player profiles with their “Players” sites, but those do not even begin to touch on the potential that a true social networking site could have. Taken to the next level, this would be an incredible boon that would attract new players, enhance the gameplay experience, and boost player retention.

Despite how anti-social some players may seem, simply put, other people are the reason they play MMOs. They want the community, and any company that takes the time and effort to build a stronger community and facilitate communication between players will be rewarded. Trust me on that. This is a great way to do it.