I was fortunate to get out of class early (I usually have a History of Jazz class from 11:30 to 12:30), so I was able to be on time for the “luncheon” with Dr. Greg Street (AKA Ghostcrawler).
But what I wasn’t expecting was… well, being able to sit next to him and chat about World of Warcraft.
However, some of the questions… went places that weren’t WoW.
Even worse, was that for a while I was the only student there to talk to GC about his vidja game designing. Unfortunately, some random chick came by (interested in game design) and started discussing non-video game things… that really had little to do with what the luncheon probably was supposed to involve.
That pissed me the fuck off. I mean, come on, why are you talking about Final Fantasy and SecondLife… geh.
ANYWAY. Here are the few things I did ask him about:
- Replenishment: Although he has said this on the World of Warcraft forums, I only wanted to confirm the need of an always present Replenishment buff. It’s too important to raid without it.
- Threats: I asked whether he has ever received credible threats to his self because of his almost ever constant presence on the WoW forums. He recounted a story of a staffer, who after only a month of doing his job, got a petition from 1000 players asking for his resignation.
- The Fun Factor: Another question was posed as whether having to work for fun: was it fun doing that work? While the questioner (the notorious SecondLife girl, I’m probably going to call her) thought it wasn’t okay to do hours and hours of work in order to get through story and to have fun, Ghostcrawler thought differently, stating that he felt like “[they] were spoon feeding players fun” and that originally (back in Vanilla WoW), the level of player was a lot higher. This is definitely true; those who have played in the original Naxxramas could probably argue we have it a lot better and easier in WotLK than they had.
- Arena: I asked whether he thought the arena system, after looking back through many seasons of the highly competitive and small PvP, it was very successful or not. He did say that he wished the player base didn’t consider it something to be almost of a “requirement” (implying that he felt that way). GC went on to state that it should be less emphasized in importance compared to the PvE content, where most of the time spent in terms of pure development.
- Fish: The reason why there are so many fish in the waters of this game is because Ghostcrawler wanted it. Seriously. He made sure they were all pretty accurate too… he does have a doctorate in marine science.
- Different Types of Players: We discussed the two major types of players… those who are more intuitive and those who min and max. He was happy knowing there were both kinds of folks who fall into those places, but it seemed like he wanted people to just play it as it is and not to read too hard into the game mechanics to the point where it’s just… well, overdone.
- The Servers Died: Ghostcrawler couldn’t go deep into the subject of some of the server instability (or random explosioning) when Ulduar released; something about how when some of the servers dropped, the others had to pick up the load. The server folks had to work non-stop to fix that… poor them!
- Expansions and Other Games: The expectation of an expansion “every 18 to 24 months” is something he said quite specifically, but also included that he wished the releases would be quicker. He also chuckled when he said that he was fortunate to be part of a company with high success and was interested in knowing how WoW would fair when Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 would be a factor.
- Ghostcrawler’s Day… starts at 8:00, according to him, although other employees will trickle in until around 10:30 AM. He’ll have meetings, squash some mechanic issues, answer forums… when he’s off, he’ll pick up his actual leveled character (thought he said nothing during the meeting, I didn’t really care for what or where, but you can go look for this if you want… personally, I was too “starstruck”) and do some playing and raiding. While he does test with imba GM powers, he always found it more fun to do it with the people he normally raids with, even though he understands the fights better than others.
Obviously, not too many World of Warcraft related topics popped up… if I had more time, I would have asked more. But please blame SecondLife girl for coming in, making it a huge deal she was an English major with a East Asian History minor. I’ll add more when I get back from the seminar tonight about the development of WoW.
(I wish I could have punched her in the face.)
Lowered Expectations 
Gak! #4 leaves me hanging… “how” what?
Hahaha! Sorry, I forgot to finish that off when I left for the evening session. :)
Its pretty interesting that he feels 18-24 months is too long for expansions. I understand that some players can reach endgame and tackle new expansions rather quickly, but there still needs to be a place for noobs to come in and catch up. I say make the expansions more involved or be patient.
I think, because the player base is so heavily skewed towards casual gamers (but some with hardcore interests at heart, there are people with time limitations), that two years is almost enough depending on the time you have.
Of course, you can always roll alts~ that’s the fun part of WoW (given the imba heirloom gear).
Wow, that was some pretty interesting stuff there.
Thanks for sharing!
I think #4 was cut off, but otherwise very enlightening!
Haha.. yeah, I fixed it… kind of? :(
Here’s a thought for GC: if you want to combat the perception that arenas are all that matter, maybe you should stop treating them like they are?
Call me crazy, but constantly nerfing professions and classes for the sake of arena balance to the point where they become utterly worthless in PvE sends a pretty clear message to anyone who’s not a delusional idiot.
Just a thought.
There was a budding game studies group in my English department for awhile. Interested in whether or not it could keep afloat, I did join it for a few meetings and even participated in a conference or two until I realized that, when it really got down to it, not one of them knew JACK about video games. In fact, one of them mentioned that she had not picked up a controller since she was 12.
There is valid discussion to be had about video games, no doubt, but not from a bunch of primadonna grad students more concerned with being on the bleeding edge than actually knowing anything about it.
Bring up anything but the most renowned games with them (usually Nintendo classics) and you’d get a “buuuh…” look on their faces.
Good on you for asking some actual questions and sorry that an English major (it pains me even more being one myself) ruined it for you.
It’s hard. It was really difficult to not bite my tongue. There’s a kind of line of “nerdiness” and “conservatism” I wanted to borderline with… you know, ask tactfully instead of “RABID WOW PLAYER ARRRRRR”.
It’s okay; I have a best friend who is an English major at our college and knows the chick… so he only really confirmed what I assumed. :)
I think Arena isn’t quite finished and maybe went in the wrong direction initially. Since most of the balance issues are because of 2v2. Drop 2v2 and have 1v1 as the bottom rung. The catch is that their are two tiers. First 1v1 tier is only against the same class, to eliminate any balance issues. Once you reach a respectable rating in that tier then you would compete against other classes. The other classes wouldn’t be all inclusive but only certain matches: Mages vs. Locks, warrior vs. rogue, druids vs. priests, DKs vs. Pally, and shammy vs. hunter. Compete for higher rating and specific gear for these fights. There could also be a title like “Slayer of Mages” or “Paladin Lord”.