Why Exclusivity Is Important.

[drakwon]

We as humans tend to want to feel special, its human nature and theres no denying it. You might ask what does this have to do with Warframe?? Well everything, here is why.

When playing World of Warcraft before any expansions it required 40 people working together to down bosses. Trying to organize 40 people in a online game is quite a task and for those who accomplished it was very rewarding. As a guild leader you could not successfully handle this with out recruiting people who had management skills and assign them as class leaders, or role leaders, ie Healing manager, Tank manager, DPS manager. People would think im gunna work my way up and hopefully get promoted and it gave people a feeling of accomplishment when they were able to achieve this.

In other words the exclusivity of a leadership position in their guild.

I was lucky enough to be a part of a top US guild, being able to down the hardest boss at the time, Ragnaros, before anyone in the US had. Being in this position I had access to items other people playing in the game did not. I would constantly be stopped by random players who would compliment me on my gear, ask for tips to be successful in their role or class and I was happy to help. This would never have been the case is the content was easy enough for everyone to accomplish.

In other words the exclusivity of completing content.

So how does this pertain to Warframe?

Well World of Warcraft started the same way Warframe has, a fun combat system, Leveling up of classes, weapons, and professions. Basically a shell of a game with no meat and potatoes. Which is exactly what Warframe currently is.

Now how do we recreate the results Blizzard did with World of Warcraft.....Well its rather simple, and here are a list of things to get it going in the right direction.

#1 A in game lobby area where people can interact with each other. A place where Veterans can show off(edit* by show off I do not mean flaunt I mean to display, giving newer players the, hey that guy looks really cool I wanna look that cool, I better start practicing my Class, frame, weapon whatever so I can look that cool) their items to other players, a place where new players can seek help. Basically a in game area where people can congregate.

#2 Large scale missions where the difficulty stems from the organization of players. In wow if you scaled the bosses down two 1-4 players, they would have been extremely easy, but when trying to manage 40 players it became a lot harder, and a lot more fulfilling.

#3 Better chat functionality. This is more important than many would think. Being able to easily communicate with others goes along way to the success of a game.

#4 (less important but still significant)Better dueling arenas. Even if you don't like dueling yourself, its entertaining to watch others duel, and chat about strategies for doing better in the game overall. I think an interesting feature would be fore DE to have an arena where players can watch team matches of their friends against other, these matches would need to offer some sort of importance to engage the viewers.

im going to stop here to prevent any further wall of text. These are my experiences from 15+ years of online gaming. If you would like me to add to this is anyway please post below. Thank you for your time, and good luck in the field Tenno.

EDIT* 

I'm going to simplify since clearly some people couldn't comprehend what the point I was trying to get across.

People want what they don't have, and the grass is always greener on the other side. This is what will hold peoples interests.

Also as someone posted the link about the Warcraft video, that is what Warcraft turned into. Originally it was about accomplishing things as a large team and was very fulfilling experience. The hopes of my post is that the same feeling of accomplishment and pride of the effort you and your friends put forth in accomplishing feats you could not accomplish individually could be experienced by all of you guys. Nothing more.

Edited August 22, 2013 by drakwon

[Depar]

neat thread +1

yea classic wow was great :3 naxxramas was the horror ._. and molten core befor it

Edited August 20, 2013 by Depar

[Lady_Khaos]

#1 and 4 are hopefully going to be answered in the coming update. In the last livestream they discussed a non-clan based dueling arena/common area. Hopefully it gets put in.

[drakwon]

#1 and 4 are hopefully going to be answered in the coming update. In the last livestream they discussed a non-clan based dueling arena/common area. Hopefully it gets put in.

#1 isn't as significant if there is no #2, and yea I did hear about the dueling arenas but with a lack of dedicated servers not that many people will be able to fit into one dueling room.

[Archistopheles]

Well World of Warcraft started the same way Warframe has, a fun combat system, Leveling up of classes, weapons, and professions. Basically a shell of a game with no meat and potatoes. Which is exactly what Warframe currently is.

 

Now how do we recreate the results Blizzard did with World of Warcraft.....Well its rather simple, and here are a list of things to get it going in the right direction.

 

#1 A in game lobby area where people can interact with each other.  A place where Veterans can show off their items to other players, a place where new players can seek help.  Basically a in game area where people can congregate.

 

#2 Large scale missions where the difficulty stems from the organization of players. In wow if you scaled the bosses down two 1-4 players, they would have been extremely easy, but when trying to manage 40 players it became a lot harder, and a lot more fulfilling.

 

#3 Better chat functionality. This is more important than many would think. Being able to easily communicate with others goes along way to the success of a game.

 

#4 (less important but still significant)Better dueling arenas. Even if you don't like dueling yourself, its entertaining to watch others duel, and chat about strategies for doing better in the game overall. I think an interesting feature would be fore DE to have an arena where players can watch team matches of their friends against other, these matches would need to offer some sort of importance to engage the viewers.

 

im going to stop here to prevent any further wall of text. These are my experiences from 15+ years of online gaming. If you would like me to add to this is anyway please post below. Thank you for your time, and good luck in the field Tenno.

 

Well.... Where to begin?

 

1. World of Warcraft is absolutely nothing like Warframe. To compare the two is an attempt to "Play Warcraft" in a different game. Research the articles about such a psychological phenominon. It's going to take a generation to undo the damage WoW has done to people.

 

2. Skinner box, Power Creep, False Sense of Exclusivity.

Oh gee, you were the first one to kill Ragnaros? Woop De Doo. I'm sure you, and the other 39 people who abandoned real life to accomplish such a "feat" are quite proud of yourselves. However, once you got that "exlusive loot" what did you use it for? Oh right, killing another boss with bigger numbers. Then everyone else got their exclusive loot, then bigger numbers were released, and all the while you were being conditioned and brain washed to keep shelling out money every single month on the same game with different numbers.

 

3. Inability to move on from your WoW addiction: Ie. This thread

 

4. Duel "arenas" exist. Massive areas to show off your epeen exist. We call them Dojos.

 

 

Edit:

 

3:30 - All you need to know about WoW's "success."

Edited August 20, 2013 by Archistopheles

[Gestalt]

I thought about quoting Steve on his first dev blog with "1 to 4 players, coming this fall", but the game's changed beyond recognition since that point.

A GW-style lobby where people can actually stand around other players before getting together for a mission would be nice, but that's kind of what the devs kept saying they didn't want (part of what I called "DE's anti-mmo list" which includes not having a chat saturated with "WTS neural sensor", "LF2M Vor" etc, not having a lag-fest town, and not forcing players to have to be in a big guild to access content, etc).

Chat does have to be optimized, as I have enough trouble opening it up in-mission sometimes. But that's probably to come.

Now, making content accessible/optimal for large groups of players... I'm not sure about that. A TPS like this and an non-action MMO like WoW are very different mechanic-wise. In a TPS, however easy it is, there's still the mechanics of aiming and positioning -- in essence, manual dexterity is required. In a non-action MMO, you just pick a target and manage cooldowns. WoW combat is trivial because there is no manual dexterity involved, hence Blizz needed to up the difficulty in the form of group coordination -- the only form of challenge in the endgame. In Warframe, there's already aiming and running, on top of positioning and energy management, so adding artificial "difficulty" in terms of oh-you-have-to-get-39-buddies-together-to-do-this might not be the best idea, as it unnecessarily alienates solo and small-group players.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Gestalt

[Rottae]

I like the Idea of hard bosses where strategy and tactics is important and i love large groups of players taking down monsters

I think the first part of this is perfect for warframe, but adding more then 8 players to a game that is P2P will be laggish as hell, especially as it is already. The problem here is although classes, they want every frame to fill a new "class" or role, this leads to the "special snowflake" syndrome. once everyone is special, none is actually special, this becomes a problem because you as a player just feels like you are doing what anyone else could be doing (You don't feel like a cog in a well built machinery, as co-op should be and you feel just like every other cog)

There is no frames with weaknesses that big that they stumble against their weaknesses.

Okay now i wen't pretty off topic. I think WoW is a great comparison, but shouldn't be straight up applied, boss loot is great, but should be sidegrades to allow for more game-play variation.

If we add more upgrades into an already random time farm (some players farm 300+ hours for "essential" mods for late game, others get them before the damage mods) 

Upgrade to instanced pvp! Yes please! harder "end-game" with planned bosses and strategically fun enemies! Yes! More balanced numbers! Yes!

[RoboDoge]

Well.... Where to begin?

 

1. World of Warcraft is absolutely nothing like Warframe. To compare the two is an attempt to "Play Warcraft" in a different game. Research the articles about such a psychological phenominon. It's going to take a generation to undo the damage WoW has done to people.

 

2. Skinner box, Power Creep, False Sense of Exclusivity.

Oh gee, you were the first one to kill Ragnaros? Woop De Doo. I'm sure you, and the other 39 people who abandoned real life to accomplish such a "feat" are quite proud of yourselves. However, once you got that "exlusive loot" what did you use it for? Oh right, killing another boss with bigger numbers. Then everyone else got their exclusive loot, then bigger numbers were released, and all the while you were being conditioned and brain washed to keep shelling out money every single month on the same game with different numbers.

 

3. Inability to move on from your WoW addiction: Ie. This thread

 

4. Duel "arenas" exist. Massive areas to show off your epeen exist. We call them Dojos.

Agree.

 

It just feels like OP cannot "show off" his l33tness in WF. While some of his ideas sound nice OP should understand that this stuff for which he is asking requires dedicated servers. We all want bigger challenge in this game, but without dedicated servers who will host anything more than 4 man groups?

 

Think before posting, or just look for the same kind of threads on forums.

 

Bad ideas is bad, even if it sounds good.

[Tsukinoki]

All this sounds like is that the OP doesn't feel like he can whip out and show off his epeen enough in this game, so he wants sweeping changes (which actually AREN"T possible with Warframes current engine) so that he can show it off?

Thats just sad...

First:
40 man raids (or in fact any group above 4) wont be happening.  Why?  Warframes game engine cant support more than 4 players *and* the AI.  What happens when there is a bug that leads to missions with more than 4 players?  Well, spawns bug out, AI breaks, enemies can become invulnerable.  So this will *never* happen.  The only way for DE to 'fix' this is to change the game engine entirely....which would set this back to pre-alpha and make the game completely unrecognizable.

Second:
If you want to play WOW, go play WOW.  Dont try to make this game into WOW.  It wont be and it will never be.

Third:
If you want to show off your 'l33tness' and your huge epeen get a guild and show it off to the people there.  no one else needs to see it or fawn over you for your accomplishments.  So what if you're the first player to kill a boss?  No one really gives a damn.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Tsukinoki

[Xylia]

ITT: OP who wants to be a special snowflake.

 

That's all this is.

 

"I WANT TO FEEL SPECIAL!"

 

I dunno about anybody else in these forums, but when I play Warframe, I don't really care what anybody else thinks of me, as long as I do my part to contribute to the mission, and we succeed.

[drakwon]

Well.... Where to begin?

 

1. World of Warcraft is absolutely nothing like Warframe. To compare the two is an attempt to "Play Warcraft" in a different game. Research the articles about such a psychological phenominon. It's going to take a generation to undo the damage WoW has done to people.

 

2. Skinner box, Power Creep, False Sense of Exclusivity.

Oh gee, you were the first one to kill Ragnaros? Woop De Doo. I'm sure you, and the other 39 people who abandoned real life to accomplish such a "feat" are quite proud of yourselves. However, once you got that "exlusive loot" what did you use it for? Oh right, killing another boss with bigger numbers. Then everyone else got their exclusive loot, then bigger numbers were released, and all the while you were being conditioned and brain washed to keep shelling out money every single month on the same game with different numbers.

 

3. Inability to move on from your WoW addiction: Ie. This thread

 

4. Duel "arenas" exist. Massive areas to show off your epeen exist. We call them Dojos.

your post is extremely ignorant.

 

1 . Warframe is a mass multiplayer online game where you group up to complete player vs environment challenges. Just because one requires retical targeting and one has persistent targeting. Your gun attacks are your auto attacks and you have 4 abilities available to you.

 

You want to get into psychology, you need to understand physiology. What makes things fun or entertaining is a medium that is able to release endorphins in the brain. Games that are popular and are sustainable, are able to consistently release those endorphins giving you a pleasurable experience.

 

2. Each boss fight was different and it was fun to beat, which is what a video game should be. 

I actually kept my real life and my gaming life separate.  I still had things going on out side of the game and balanced it well.  What did getting the first NA kill on the boss do for us? well our website started generating money from advertisements, companies contacted us to endorse their equipment. What did I end up with for killing him? I started getting paid 200$ a month for playing, I received mice, mouse pads, computer parts, headphones keyboards, all for free from sponsors.

 

3.  I haven't played Warcraft for over a year.

[Althix]

funny thread.

 

you know outside warframe i am pvp officer for a very old, very large community. This community formed in Eve Online alpha build more than 10 years ago. And funny thing is that being an officer in this community means that i willing to do that majority of player base won't. And that is about it. There are no special channels in teamspeak, no special chat rooms. All we ask that if we lead rest will follow. Without question.

 

This show off of stuff, rare items and other crap is for little boys and girls. Your efficiency and skill makes you what you are as a player, not shiny bits.

[TheGlitchy]

Agree.

 

It just feels like OP cannot "show off" his l33tness in WF. While some of his ideas sound nice OP should understand that this stuff for which he is asking requires dedicated servers. We all want bigger challenge in this game, but without dedicated servers who will host anything more than 4 man groups?

 

Think before posting, or just look for the same kind of threads on forums.

 

Bad ideas is bad, even if it sounds good.

This.

 

1. We don't need lobbies filled with 100000 players and our computers loading all of them. In a clusterfuck of people, we won't be able to see one person's amazingly pimped out warframe, weapon painting scheme, stats, etc. It'd probably be more constructive if we could visit people's profile pages, and their arsenal, achievements, and stats were displayed. We also have an active forum to help out new players as well as a server chat for public forum.

 

2. As is, Warframe is fine with a 4 man team. I don't want to be fighting the new golem for forty minutes with sixty other people. It becomes a battle of attrition, where people are potting, dodging the same attack patterns, and betrays the quick-paced gameplay aspect of Warframe. Also, how many gamers would have the internet to host a 40 man raid? DE would need to set up a server, and that costs something.

 

3. The default bind for typing in chat is T and all you have do is read what your teammates are saying; The only thing they need for chat is the ability to make the chatbox persist or toggle, in case you missed something. They also have an in-game system that lets you use microphones and PTT. This would be for in-game communication. Outside of missions, reread point 1.

 

4. It might be nice, but the core of WF is PvE, so it's not exactly high priority on their to-do list, I'd assume. If you really want to showcase matches or show off your dojo, what you really want is probably a way for friends from other clans to enter your dojo.

 

Even if you haven't played WoW in over a year, you sure seem to want WF to mimic it.

 

This show off of stuff, rare items and other crap is for little boys and girls. Your efficiency and skill makes you what you are as a player, not shiny bits.

Not trying to step on your toes, but "little" boys and girls do play WF. What matters to others might not matter to you; there's no need to be disrespectful towards others opinions.

Edited August 20, 2013 by TheGlitchy

[drakwon]

All this sounds like is that the OP doesn't feel like he can whip out and show off his epeen enough in this game, so he wants sweeping changes (which actually AREN"T possible with Warframes current engine) so that he can show it off?

Thats just sad...

First:

40 man raids (or in fact any group above 4) wont be happening.  Why?  Warframes game engine cant support more than 4 players *and* the AI.  What happens when there is a bug that leads to missions with more than 4 players?  Well, spawns bug out, AI breaks, enemies can become invulnerable.  So this will *never* happen.  The only way for DE to 'fix' this is to change the game engine entirely....which would set this back to pre-alpha and make the game completely unrecognizable.

Second:

If you want to play WOW, go play WOW.  Dont try to make this game into WOW.  It wont be and it will never be.

Third:

If you want to show off your 'l33tness' and your huge epeen get a guild and show it off to the people there.  no one else needs to see it or fawn over you for your accomplishments.  So what if you're the first player to kill a boss?  No one really gives a damn.

 

 

For the changes to happen we would need dedicated servers. Its not the engine that cant handle more than 4 players its users computer processing power and their internet connection that restricts more than 4 people.

 

This has nothing to do playing Warcraft. Warframe is in its beta phase. I posted my experience from 15 years of playing online games and used Warcraft as examples for ways of dealing with their current burnout issues.

[Frost.Umbra]

your post is extremely ignorant.

 

1 . Warframe is a mass multiplayer online game where you group up to complete player vs environment challenges. Just because one requires retical targeting and one has persistent targeting. Your gun attacks are your auto attacks and you have 4 abilities available to you.

 

You want to get into psychology, you need to understand physiology. What makes things fun or entertaining is a medium that is able to release endorphins in the brain. Games that are popular and are sustainable, are able to consistently release those endorphins giving you a pleasurable experience.

 

2. Each boss fight was different and it was fun to beat, which is what a video game should be. 

I actually kept my real life and my gaming life separate.  I still had things going on out side of the game and balanced it well.  What did getting the first NA kill on the boss do for us? well our website started generating money from advertisements, companies contacted us to endorse their equipment. What did I end up with for killing him? I started getting paid 200$ a month for playing, I received mice, mouse pads, computer parts, headphones keyboards, all for free from sponsors.

 

3.  I haven't played Warcraft for over a year.

 

 

Cool story bro.

[drakwon]

This.

 

1. We don't need lobbies filled with 100000 players and our computers loading all of them. In a clusterfuck of people, we won't be able to see one person's amazingly pimped out warframe, weapon painting scheme, stats, etc. It'd probably be more constructive if we could visit people's profile pages, and their arsenal, achievements, and stats were displayed. We also have an active forum to help out new players as well as a server chat for public forum.

 

2. As is, Warframe is fine with a 4 man team. I don't want to be fighting the new golem for forty minutes with sixty other people. It becomes a battle of attrition, where people are potting, dodging the same attack patterns, and betrays the quick-paced gameplay aspect of Warframe. Also, how many gamers would have the internet to host a 40 man raid? DE would need to set up a server, and that costs something.

 

3. The default bind for typing in chat is T and all you have do is read what your teammates are saying; The only thing they need for chat is the ability to make the chatbox persist or toggle, in case you missed something. They also have an in-game system that lets you use microphones and PTT. This would be for in-game communication. Outside of missions, reread point 1.

 

4. It might be nice, but the core of WF is PvE, so it's not exactly high priority on their to-do list, I'd assume. If you really want to showcase matches or show off your dojo, what you really want is probably a way for friends from other clans to enter your dojo.

 

Even if you haven't played WoW in over a year, you sure seem to want WF to mimic it.

 

Not trying to step on your toes, but "little" boys and girls do play WF. What matters to others might not matter to you; there's no need to be disrespectful towards others opinions.

What logic gave you the conclusion that they would put all of their players in one server?

 

The chat is extremely clunky.

 

The point of the post is give perspective from a gamer on the current problem they are facing. Which is burnout.

 

 

[Llyssa]

The part that amuses me most is that the original post is primarily a giant brag about how awesome his whatever from WoW that nobody actually cares about is, and how we should all think he's awesome for it.

 

In that mindset: Can't we just settle for those dudes on the leaderboards? OOO, AH! You managed to organize a guild of 10k people to get 5k average points on an event where you only needed 30 to get the item! GO YOU!

 

I mean, surely, being the sole guy with 12,000 pts is quite an accomplishment that took tons of organizing of friends and family to get virtually solid point-gathering time, right? He beat out the shadowclan top guild by 8k points, so he must be proud! You know who I mean! It doesn't matter which event, it happens in every event so far! I don't know their names, but dammit, they feel special, and they have statues in their guilds to show off.

 

...so why do we need all these weird changes again?

[TheGlitchy]

This has nothing to do playing Warcraft. Warframe is in its beta phase. I posted my experience from 15 years of playing online games and used Warcraft as examples for ways of dealing with their current burnout issues.

Except Warcraft is not exempt from burnout and you're suggesting that DE take aspects from Warcraft and other MMOs that are just as likely to burnout.

[-Kittens-]

WoW is a terrible model to emulate.

 

WF despite the horrendous grind model, is fun, for a time until grind fatigue sets in.

 

WoW is a gigantic skinner box totally devoid of fun.

 

There is no fun in wow, I cannot count the number of times I've read a thread across so many forums and sites about how people allowed the skinner box to literally rule their lives and how even when they realized they were no longer enjoying the game they continued to play and pay for years.

 

Only point i can agree with is that wf's chat and comms is terribad without teamspeak or vent.

[Tsukinoki]

For the changes to happen we would need dedicated servers. Its not the engine that cant handle more than 4 players its users computer processing power and their internet connection that restricts more than 4 people.

Actually DE_Steve and DE_Rebecca (I am talking about DE official staff who would know) have said that the game *engine* cant support more than 4 players + enemies.  That is why the dojo has no AI.  So that there is nothing to break there.  In normal missions the AI will break because the game engine cant handle it.

That is directly from DE, so please take your prattling elsewhere where you *might* know what you are talking about.

The engine itself cant support fully working spawns or AI.  Even on a maxed out gaming rig if you have 6 to 8 people you see the AI breaking, even if there is no lag for anyone involved.

So yes, it is the game engine not being able to support more people.  it has *nothing* to do with needing dedicated servers.

Please think or, god forbid, learn about what you're going to say before you say it.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Tsukinoki

[Xylia]

WoW is a terrible model to emulate.

 

WF despite the horrendous grind model, is fun, for a time until grind fatigue sets in.

 

WoW is a gigantic skinner box totally devoid of fun.

 

There is no fun in wow, I cannot count the number of times I've read a thread across so many forums and sites about how people allowed the skinner box to literally rule their lives and how even when they realized they were no longer enjoying the game they continued to play and pay for years.

 

Only point i can agree with is that wf's chat and comms is terribad without teamspeak or vent.

 

That's complete opinion.

 

A lot of people forget that a game like WoW (it is hardly the only game) is supposed to be about the journey and progression. Your character becomes stronger over time and overcomes each obstacle placed before him/her in due time. Now, a lot of players fall into that "gotta have the best I can have!" trap, but a lot of the more casual players play WoW because it is actually fun to play.

 

Same reason we play Warframe. Oddly enough, as it turns out, that whole "run and gun" thing is actually a bit fun. Unless you overdo it, then you burn out. But then any game has that.

 

One thing that WoW does awesome, though, is story. Especially lately. You probably haven't played it in a long while, but they've gotten really good at story-telling in-game lately. I'm awaiting 5.4 to see how exactly the whole thing comes down. And of course a few new items are always pleasant to obtain (though I won't be slaving away for it).

Edited August 21, 2013 by Xylia

[-Kittens-]

That's complete opinion.

 

An opinion shared by several recently departed production leads.

[Xylia]

An opinion shared by several recently departed production leads.

 

*shrugs* Doesn't matter who shares it, and who doesn't. An opinion is still an opinion. 10 people or 10 million people doesn't make it a fact.

 

There's still 9mil+ subscribers last I checked and they obviously think it is worth playing.

[Archistopheles]

your post is extremely ignorant.

 

1 . Warframe is a mass multiplayer online game where you group up to complete player vs environment challenges. Just because one requires retical targeting and one has persistent targeting. Your gun attacks are your auto attacks and you have 4 abilities available to you.

 

1A) You want to get into psychology, you need to understand physiology. What makes things fun or entertaining is a medium that is able to release endorphins in the brain. Games that are popular and are sustainable, are able to consistently release those endorphins giving you a pleasurable experience.

 

2. Each boss fight was different and it was fun to beat, which is what a video game should be. 

I actually kept my real life and my gaming life separate.  I still had things going on out side of the game and balanced it well.  What did getting the first NA kill on the boss do for us? well our website started generating money from advertisements, companies contacted us to endorse their equipment. What did I end up with for killing him? I started getting paid 200$ a month for playing, I received mice, mouse pads, computer parts, headphones keyboards, all for free from sponsors.

 

3.  I haven't played Warcraft for over a year.

 

1. Heh. Buddy, if you want to define them both as "online computer games where you fight stuff" then by-golly, you're 100% correct. However, that's not the case.

 

1A) Or they trick you into sitting inside a skinner box. Have you ever been to a casino? People there are hooked for life, but that doesn't mean it's a good model to copy. Exploiting our psychology and physiology is exactly what World of Warcraft did. You're right, that's why it was successful, however, it was harmful as well, if not to you, then to countless others.

 

2. It's true. The end game bosses were each unique and different. Each had skills like "stay out of the different colored goo" or "oh, time to check your dps scores" or "time to check your gear level" or "everyone has to jump at the right time, or you die."

 

I'm going to ignore the part about you being so awesome for a few reasons, but the main one is that nobody cares. Nobody cares how cool you were. Nobody cares about how many mice you have in your room, or how many sponsors you had. It has absolutely nothing to do with Warframe.

[Xylia]

1A) Or they trick you into sitting inside a skinner box. Have you ever been to a casino? People there are hooked for life, but that doesn't mean it's a good model to copy. Exploiting our psychology and physiology is exactly what World of Warcraft did. You're right, that's why it was successful, however, it was harmful as well, if not to you, then to countless others.

 

Tinfoil Hat, much?

 

Oi.

 

Blizzard is making a game they know has ~9mil subscribers around the world.

 

They listen to player feedback and they see what works in the game, and what doesn't.

 

They give the majority players what they want as best as possible, while maintaining their visions for the game. They obviously want you to keep playing (just like DE wants us to keep playing Warframe!), but to go so far to accuse them of trying to get people so hooked on it that they ruin their lives is laughable.

 

1). If a player plays 5 hours a month or 100 hours a month, Blizz still gets the monthly sub. So it doesn't really matter to Blizz whether or not players are hardcore, or softcore, as long as they keep playing. They cater to both despite what you might hear to the contrary.

 

2). It is in their best interests if WoW DOESN'T ruin lives -- it generates bad press and if someone's life gets so ruined by WoW that they lose their job, their home, etc, then Blizzard loses a customer. Why would they want people to destroy themselves, when a healthy amount of play works instead?

 

3). The last few patches have introduced ways for you to obtain rewards by playing LESS. They want you to feel good about playing the game, but yet NOT devoting 40 hours a week into it. They introduce things like gating (only allowing you X amount per week) and encouraging you to do things once or twice a day instead of 50 times a day (the first dungeon per day gives 2x what every subsequent one does, etc).

 

With the 3 points above combined, how can you honestly believe that they are trying to get people to ruin their lives with the game?