Now that Lum readded the old archives I can save two comments I kept searching.

The first chunk is about the success of WoW and my personal crusade to find out the real reasons instead of just dismissing and trivializing it. The comment was written the 23 November, when the game was just released. It’s valid even more today with its 2 millions of subscribers. My “ultimatum” at the end of the first message was also correct even more than I expected.

The second is about another personal crusade about shifting the focus of the gameplay on other elements than just combat.

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(source)

So, the time has come where I point out you and Haemish discussing on the old WT.o that no mmorpg, not even WoW, will reach the 400k mark in the near future?

:)

My predictions seem to be correct. Now call me ‘fanboy’.
And keep minimizing what WoW does, blame the brand and the kids and repeat that it’s just EQ 1.5 with more ’shiney’. Keep trivializing, keep dismissing. (Oh, but it’s just a stable client with a polished interface, come on)

We’ll see in six month or a year if the subscriptions will fall or will keep raise. I’m sure I’ll found around a new bunch of “excuses” about why the game is indeed a long term contender.

The process of “Oh, but we all knew already about all this happening” is already started. Everyone! Jump on the bandwagon! QUICK! I wonder why any other company hasn’t tried to create a better WoW five years ago if it was that expected and easy to build.

Sure, there’s no innovation at all. This is why 600k supposed players are going to play *this* game. It’s just a miracle. Or “Blizzard”, or another excuse to dodge the *merit* of *why* this happens.

The “boring shit” is about to collapse. You’ll see that. Everyone that will keep with this type of blindness will be repaid with an even bigger failure. WoW is a (still weak) proof that sometimes something good happens. Even if 90% of the elitists will keep refusing to accept it.

Now go on with the sarcasm, it’s the only way to keep this defensive, jaded attitude. Go on to repeat the same old misunderstanding. You have to complain and whine, no matter of what happens or why it happens.

I feel a well hidden but consistent dose of hypocrisy. Quite spread around. About something I’m sure: WoW will be successful because of the “diet coke” marketing.

Diet coke marketing for the win!

P.S.
Or perhaps, if you want to be honest and have some modesty and humility, go read what even Lum directly wrote in the presentation about the ‘mass market’ and this genre that he posted around April. Then consider what WoW accomplished there and consider what any other mmorpg hasn’t. And why.

But going defensive is simpler and doesn’t requre any effort. Keep going.

I wonder if I’ll be ever able to see some professionalism in this genre. And for ‘professionalism’ I don’t mean being polite (aka known as: “(a) anything that can be construed as talking negatively about competitors is wildly unprofessional”). But being honest and unpretentious. Trying to accept the weakness and the mistakes, trying to learn from them with some humility.

To finish a last note: what I wrote has a value only if WoW is going to overwhelm EQ2. If it happens it means I was and am right. If it doesn’t happen and EQ2 subscribers will match WoW’s subscribers (low or high), it will mean that I’m an idiot.

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It wasn’t an ‘aimed’ accusation. I simply dislike when something successful is suddenly dismissed and trivialized. What I dislike is an attitude that I see raising everywhere (and not only in this genre), I accuse directly that. Even if it was just my own wrong impression in this case.

The advancements in the genre must be understood and anticipated with some honesty, not being dismissed and trivialized. Nor they need to become a banquet for elitists trying to jump on the bandwagon.

The ‘proven success’ doesn’t “happen”. It needs reasons. Now it’s extremely important that peoples understand those reasons without trivializing them. This is why I pointed to the presentation you prepared about the mass market in April. It’s where there are some *valuable* points to consider and learn. Once again. WoW is an occasion to learn that. But the general attitude doesn’t seem to accept this and will probably miss this occasion. Or will misunderstood it completely.

And I ‘lecture’ because I can. Because I don’t have to face the consequences. This allows me to be able to move and to learn quickly. To not fear to be wrong or disliked and try to improve on my own. Since this is my situation I’m going to use the related benefits.

And I criticize because I like to receive critics. For others they are annoying, for me they are useful.

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Making prediction isn’t useful as a practice in fortune telling. It is useful because there are reasons behind those predictions.

If a prediction is wrong it means that the considerations made as premises of that prediction were wrong.

That’s the point.

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(source)

I strongly disagree with what Lum says for once but I won’t go with a counter-essay this time. Instead I just say that the three-classes system is the direct consequence of a set gameplay.

It is obvious that if what the game has to offer is: “pushing a bar near zero so that the mob dies”, all the mechanics produced will be about moving that bar up and down. The goal, the target will limit directly the implementation.

The three-classes system is the direct consequence of games offering bags of improvement. If the game is only that, following the logic, it will be able to offer that. Unavoidable consequence.

Instead what happens if you offer something different? That the game gains depth. Just as an example: In DAoC the stealth classes can climb walls. This isn’t about math or energy bars. Is it irrelevant? No. It’s a strong gameplay part with a lot of potential to offer. It involves a completely different layer of interactions that are specific just to that class.

My conclusion is that we shouldn’t think “out of the box”, we should think within the box. Within a genre, with all its myths and suggestions that don’t just belong to a company or another. They belong to the cuture itself and for a reason. I believe that the fantasy genre has a lot more to offer and suggest than collecting bags of improvement.

And I want to link this story. Who is here thinking “outside the box”? The player or the designer?