Entry tags:

game dev, how i would do it, world of warcraft

Foundations, and why they are important
So once again, I am reading what looks like yet another hardcore/casual player debate and I had an idea for a MMO Project. Specifically, the rollout of content for MMO players. The biggest problem from the beginning of the Burning Crusade was that, despite his name being everywhere, and his voice being everywhere, and his likeness being plastered on every single advertisement for the Burning Crusade, the quintessential Burning Crusade character (Illidan Stormrage, naturally) very rarely actually showed up to deal with the player. You sort of dealt with him through a couple of quests here and there, but he almost never really made his presence known. At the end, he's just a long and involved boss battle in the black temple for 25 hard core raiders. Keep in mind that, according to the current data at wowjutsu, 6.41% of all ranked guilds (EU + North America) have killed Illidan Stormrage. That's an awfully small number of people compared to the total they have playing. They've already stated in interviews that they wish to make the NEXT big lore figure more accessible to the general player.

That got me thinking.... (a dangerous pasttime, I know)

In this case, I will present: Rawrasaur's version of Wrath of the Lich King.

The Problem: People consume more than can be made

The biggest problem with this is that rolling out content is hard. Players consume it too fast, designers/artists/programmers cannot create it fast enough, things get out of hand. To illustrate a point, less than 48 hours after the initial launch of the Burning Crusade, some player was already maximum level. When the expansion pack was rolled out in China, it took chinese guilds less than 7 weeks to finish every last bit of raid content available at the time. This includes actually leveling from 60 to 70 as well. People consume content way faster than people can make it.

So what can be done? Remember this is about foundations, not just a one-solution-fixes-all.

The First Pillar: Artificial Real Time Delays

This has been done a couple of times before. The 25-man raid instance introduced in patch 2.4 is initially only half-open. The first three bosses (of six) are available to be slain, but the fourth, fifth and sixth will only be released after a few weeks of real time have passed. Similarly, the deployment of content on Sunwell Isle is on a time-released basis... more specifically, it is tied to doing daily quests.

Here's how it works. Every day, players can go and do quests on Sunwell Isle to make progress toward certain goals. The server tallies the total number of quests completed, and when the tally passes a certain number, it moves to the next phase of the area, unlocking new quests, new areas, new vendors and the like. If players want to grind reputation with the faction faster, they can do so by killing monsters, or going through an instance or whatever. They can do it if they so desire. However, this will not necessarily make the new content come that much faster, since it is still on a per-day update at most. By spacing out the content this way, you artificially increase its longevity.

There is a key element to this though, since we had the same system in Silithus and it did not do as well as the Sunwell Isle rollout.

The Second Pillar: Delays should be discrete

The opening of the Ahn'Qiraj gates was similar. Everyone does quests, and eventually the gates would open. The problem with this was that there was no real sense of progress. There was no expansion, there was no feeling that you were anywhere near being closer to your goal at the start than at the end, except for an NPC that says "We have collected 97% of the resource we need".

By giving smaller rewards and spacing them out as smaller "milestones" of progress, you encourage players to keep going. Silithus did not do this. Sunwell Isle did. By giving a preview of the carrot, and saying "Hey Players, go do this and you can get the carrot", you give players a discrete goal to work towards. And guess what? They'll probably go do other quests while they are there to line their pocketbooks and further any other goals currently in the area, since it is convenient to do so. Players want feedback. They want to feel like they are making progress. By giving them intermediate advancements, rather than a binary off->on situation, you give them a sense that they aren't sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill. Give them small rewards and conveniences (this flightmaster needs help gathering wombat hairs to set up his shop. That innkeeper needs you to chase away the angry dwarf molemen in the area to set up her Inn. etc. etc.) to work toward, and they will do so.

Furthermore, to drive the point home, Arthas should appear during some of these milestones. Perhaps he is furious that the puny Alliance and Horde have taken another of his outposts. He shows up when this happens, leading a force of undead warriors and does battle with the defenders of the area for a while; the players should feel free to join in the battle and drive him back. When he is weakened sufficiently, he will retreat, and swear vengeance. You drive the point home that Arthas is a very real and very powerful enemy, and that he does not take kindly to the players encroaching on his territory.

The summary of the First and Second Pillars

The key to all this is to tie the steady roll-out of content in to the storyline. The perfect example would be that the Scourge armies are battling the Alliance forces, and you have to actively take back zones from them. Each zone you occupy and take back literally weakens the power of the Lich King, because the players are literally taking away his resources. By pushing forward like this, you give the players the feeling of advancing their cause through their own work, while still enjoying the game and not feeling forced to have to poopsock in order to get it done. This should, of course, extend to the 5-man dungeons with daily quests to take back these macguffins to weaken the lich king or strengthen the allied/horde forces.

This wouldn't need to be done for the leveling up areas, but would be good to sprinkle a couple of the advancement quests through these areas anyway. The majority of the sort of time-released advancement content would have to be in the zones designed for maximum level players.

The Third Pillar: The Hardcore should have something to do

One of the good ideas that came from the Gates of Ahn`Qiraj opening was the idea that the raiders had their own quest line to accomplish, which involved a lot of work on their part. It was pretty hardcore in its requirements, but that's ok because it was directly targeted at the hardcore, and certainly not required for everyone to do it... only a handful of people on each server. Better yet, the reward it granted is a perfect example -- bragging rights and something cool to look at, but not really anything that would affect gameplay.

So what does this have to do with Wrath of the Lich King?

Let's say there are four different raid instances that ship with Wrath of the Lich King. We'll call them A, B, C and D. Rather than making them all available initially, we'll go with the time-released method again. The leaders of A, B, C and D are all lieutenants to the Lich King himself... important and powerful figures, with strong minions and each guarding a specific item of power that Arthas obtains his powers from.

Initially, only perhaps A and B are available to raid, as the first tier of raiding. After A and B have been slain on a server, an internal timer begins. A number of weeks later, C becomes available to raid. C will be the next step up in raid progression (a higher tier), and when C is completed, another internal timer begins. A number of weeks after that, D becomes available to raid.

Arthas should definitely appear in these raids as well, as encounters where he is driven back (but not defeated). He should be more of a supporting role, helping a specific fight, summoning an enemy for the raiders to deal with, or perhaps even a short battle with him appearing to empower his lieutenant for a time, and then leaving. This should specifically focus on the macguffins of power that each of his lieutenants are guarding, because this is, indeed, the point. The raiders are taking out the special items of power and slaying Arthas' most powerful lieutenants.

I would also be encouraging raids E, F, G and H being 10-man encounters, with similar rules.

The Fourth Pillar: Tying it all together

A number of weeks after the final raid encounter is defeated and the final area claimed from the Scourge, there should be a server-wide event and the opening of a final instance. The Scourge has been beaten back, and the lands reclaimed. The Lich King has been weakened through losing his lieutenants, and it is down to a final battle between the players and the Lich King himself.

And now the players have a choice to enter the throne room... a large raid encounter, a small raid encounter, or a 5-man encounter. The raid encounters allows for a more esoteric and wacky fight, the small-raid encounter is a bit less esoteric and wacky, and the 5-man is definitely much more straight forward. However, you fight the Lich King in all three (depending on which way you want to go, and based on your playstyle preference). Perhaps you have some more legendary heroes showing up to assist you in the smaller groups. I don't know. Regardless, it is an opportunity for all players of all walks to test their mettle against the Lich King, and for each and every player to look back and say "Yeah, I really felt like I was a part of that, and I got to face the lich king and win."

The important thing is that the entire expansion be built with this model in mind. This isn't something one can shoehorn in after the fact with content patches. One has to plan out a reasonable time table for the entire expansion to be rolled out with this model from start to finish, including a rough schedule for how long it will take to finish, and when the next expansion should hit. Because, as we all know, players are voracious when it comes to consuming content...

That's how I'd build Wrath of the Lich King.

--Rawr