Month: July 2006 (Page 2 of 2)

Once upon a time, I had a co-worker that had 6 Everquest accounts. He was a dedicated fan, in love with every facet of the experience – the raids, the epic loot, etc, and he was continually trying to get the design team of the game I was working on to add more EQ-like aspects to the game I was working on.

Let’s just say that this would have been a significant design shift.

One day, I snapped, and matter of factly asked him, “How many times have you recommended EQ to someone you know in real life?” Continue reading

Every now and then, in design circles, you come across someone who sees the modifiability of WoW’s UI to be the Robot Jesus of game design. Players can finally customize their own UIs! Instead of fearing players, Blizzard embraces them! Somewhere in here, it comes across that, indeed, information does in fact want to be free, yo.

Now, I love the power and flexibility that this provides to the players. What’s more, I’m gratified that the Blizzard team is smart enough to incorporate some of the most popular of those mod changes into the real game. A commitment to doing so is what turns the feature from a niche feature for hardcore users (which incidentally drives the live team nuts to support) into one that benefits all players – eventually. When that happens, its a real validation for the model. But it’s still not what WoW did right. Continue reading