Canon Game Report-World of War Craft

Cannon game, there are lots of games that has the qualification to be called as a cannon game, Doom, Mario, Mistress. They are unique and special but also old, in this report I would like to demonstrate one game that will be remarked in the future, one game that can be memories and enjoyed after 5 or 6 years by players from now. Seeing through the past 5 to 10 years, the game industry has already changed a lot. Solo games are losing its leading position in the field because of the pirate version and the monotonous game playing; instead, people are more willing to play some games that can interact with real players not only the NPC in the game but also doing one simple task with more than 5 players. So choose one online game as my topic, the most famous MMORPG- World of War Craft which has already dominated the online game industry for almost 5 years since its release, World of War Craft is unbeatable.

World of War craft often referred to as WoW is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy War craft universe, which was first introduced by War craft: Orcs and Humans. World of War craft take place within the War craft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard’s previous War craft release, War craft iii: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of War craft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10^th anniversary of the War craft franchise. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft)

Canon game is some games that can be remembered after a decade, this report will be divided into several parts to briefly introduce some special system and features in the game to better demonstrate the reason why World of War Craft is a cannon game.

The Story:

Game story is always considered as the root of a game. Some game companies even spend couple years to write a background story for a game that is not started making yet. The story of world of war craft is after the latest release version of war craft game--War craft iii: The Frozen Throne. After several years of development the whole background story has became completely and it is still continuously after new patch was released. In every patch, some new story and character will be added in and also some old characters will be eliminated in the history of world of war craft for ever. It refreshing people’s mind and always giving them some new experience in the new patch.

Leveling System:

In the first beta version of World of War Craft, players can only reach Level 45, after the game officially runs, the level limited raise to 60, and now in the latest patch, player can leveling to 80. Maybe people will ask why they are using this kind of system to limited player’s level, why not using the same methods of the other games that you have no limited in levels, players can keep leveling and satisfy themselves with their levels. This kind of question is being asked every time when the first beta version is released. However after playing through the game itself and enjoy the process while leveling, people will find out that making the level system is not simply for limited players level, actually it is because of the various playing element in the whole game. Blizzard add so many things into the game that player just can’t get full experience if they are just keep leveling. Another thing is to balance the game playing time and the barrier between player to player. Let’s make an example, if we are playing the traditional leveling game, one player spend two hours a day to leveling and the other player just used 30 minutes per day, the consequence will come at like this, the player who plays more always have the higher level and dominate the game. it’s good for the player who plays more, but the distance between these two players are far. The company obviously doesn’t want the player’s focus on their levels too much and understanding the game as a leveling game. There is always a saying in WOW players—the real game starts when you reach the highest level in the game. Blizzard wants to guide the player into a new type of game playing--To be the master of the game, not the slave of it. Furthermore, this kind of system also influences the whole MMORPG industry a lot, other companies begin to learn the way that Blizzard do and copy the same system which is used in the world of War Craft. They have already known that leveling style can’t be use for ever. People are always looking for more.

Talent system:

Talent system is not a new thing and has already been used in many games such as Diable II. However the talent system in WOW had been improved a lot, every character every profession have three individual different talent trees. You can say it is kind of your personalities showing your game playing style. With the talent system you can choose your own way to develop your character and the talent system only shows up after you reach 10 and every level from then you will have 1 talent point. Thus, those are not the point, what I want to emphasize is the game balance which is extremely important in the MMORPG. The talent needs to be test and every time when the company wants to modify something about the talent, they always need to spend more time to find out the bugs and the balance problem between profession and profession. Obviously, Blizzard did very well in this field. A good talent system is some that can make people powerful and also maintain the balance at the same time.

Mission system:

When you are playing MMORPG, the way you level up yourself is either killing the strange creatures or doing the mission however the mission part is always weak in the traditional online game. The mission doesn’t have many details and the mission itself is simple and stupid. When you are playing WOW, the ways you level up yourself is either doing the mission or ask some friend together to finish the dungeon. The mission in WOW is all well designed and special. The story of them connect to the whole background story, some of the main mission in the game will lead you to understand the game itself. The mission in the game is various it’s not all about killing, some of them will ask you to deliver some special message to another person far away from the town, and some mission will even ask you to protect a NPC to escape from the enemy’s camp. It makes a lot of fun for the players when they are in the process of doing the mission. And after several patches development, the company adds a special guide system into the game which can show the details in the map guiding the player to finish the task much easier. People won’t forget the exclamatory mark and the question mark shows on NPC’s mark. It has become a symbol, every time people are talking about the mission they will always remember the exclamatory and question mark in WOW and after WOW lots of game just using the same principle that putting same strange symbol on NPC head to show the player that there is a mission.

Dungeon System:

What is dungeon? Is there such a system before WOW? First of all, we need to understand a little bit about the dungeon, and how it works in the game. A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon) this is the definition we can found from the internet. However when we are talking about the dungeon in the game especially the dungeon system, it is really different. For my understanding, dungeon is a special place. It is isolated from the game. Once you enter a dungeon, you are in another little world and there is only one connection to the game world. In the dungeon there are some bosses, you and your party need to go through the whole dungeon and bit them all. Dungeon system can be seen in many games, it saves a lot of game resource for the game itself. Once you enter the dungeon it’s not part of the game world so the calculate process for the server will be reduce to minimum. In WOW the dungeon system have been brought to a new high level. It makes up 50% of the game playing. Every night the guild will make a raid group and go to the dungeon to fight with the boss. It’s pretty fun to cooperate and finish the whole dungeon. With the dungeon system players are gathered together, that’s the interaction in the game and also that will lead to the next topic the party and raid group.

Party and raid group:

Can you image forty people in a big team fighting in the dungeon for the whole night? That is what it really was when the first patch of WOW released. In those crazy years, every guild would organize a big group to go to the famous dungeon at that time. Players need to cooperate very well to beat the boss. That is a cool experience just like working. Although it is very tired for people to spend 4, 5 hours after their work playing deeply into WOW, it is really fun and people just enjoy the experience a lot and fight for their own purpose. if you are the official member of the guild you need to sign in the game every night on time and get the position in the raid group, because if you don’t, there will be always 2 or 3 alternate waiting to take your place. Actually it’s hard but pretty fun and If you are the raid leader, you need to arrange the profession, the strategy and a lot of things. Some of the best guild in the world will always fight for the FD (first down) in any new dungeons. Again, after the dungeon system become a success in the game other game company follow the concept and copy the style.

Mount System:

5 or 10 years ago, player can only walk in the game until WOW released. The most fascinating thing in WOW must be the mounts. When the first version released player will be exciting but also tired. Because when player first playing in the game until LV40 player can only walk, it seems no problem if you are playing a common RPG but it is really hard for a player without a mount in WOW. The map is so huge that you may need 1 hour to go through the whole land. I personally got a experience about the map. There used to be a crazy mission about the delivery. The NPC will ask you to send his letter to another place which is the southern part of the land and the position you are right now is in the north. What player needs to do is go through the whole map to get to the position. It almost take me one hour to finished the mission and some of the area LV is much higher than the LV player are when they are doing the mission. However, once you reach LV45 everything become easy. Player got a chance to ride a tiger, an ostrich, a goat, and other crazy creatures. From then on, player can really enjoy the game. the mount is always 60% speed when player are LV5 and once player reach LV60 they can change it into a much faster one which is 100% speed mount. That actually accelerates the game speed. Player won’t fall asleep when they are riding. Those who’s LV are too low just need to level up and enjoy another level of game. Maybe player will think having a normal mount is really nice and enough for the game, but the design company made some more changes in the game. The flying mount is added into the game which changes the game again. Riding on those big flying creatures player will get a 320% full speed and the view above from the sky is amazing. Again, the mount system became a extremely success in the game field and some of the special mount can even be sold in WOW. After seeing the great success WOW made, other company follow the system again and player find out that all the game have mounts now.

Small games and special festival events:

WOW is not only about fighting with players in the dungeon or Leveling up your own character. Besides, there is some very interesting event such as beer festival, Valentine’s Day event, new years event. Player can get a lot of special little items when they finished the mission and it is really fun. Also, every 2 weeks the dark moon circus will come into a game, it is a special circus that provides a lot of small games in WOW and they also sell a special card that can increase player’s basic attribute. In the circus, player can play some small games that is really different to the main game. player can control some small tank to fight with each other and some of the game is collecting some special event from the game world and once you finished go back to the circus and player will get some reward. The most famous and latest event in WOW is the fishing day. Because of the super cool item that the fish man give to the player, almost all the player in the same realm will come together at a specific time and fishing. The fish man will ask player to catch a special fish who catch it first will get the ultimate reward. This kind of special setup will give player some different experience from one game. It is absolutely fun!

Battlefield and Arena System:

Before introducing the system, we need to know two types of players in the game. One is PVE (Player versus Environment) player and the other one is PVP (Player versus Player) player. So when game designer designing the game they need to think into two aspects. Some player will prefer to doing the mission with their friends or playing the dungeon with the raid group, but some of the player only want to get some killing experience they like to control their characters to kill others. In this case, game needs to separate the player group and estimate some special system for them to satisfy each of his two types of player. In WOW, there are two specific systems that can satisfy PVP players—the battlefield and Arena system. In the latest patch there are 7 battlefields and each of them has an individual map and special winning method. For example, in the War Song battlefield. Player in the two races should catch each other’s flags and then transfer it into their own place. Once they finished the whole process they will get 1 point and which race finished 3 time first win the whole game. In the real battlefield people need to use strategy to win and it is exactly the same in the game. player need to prepare a party or a raid group and also have a commander to ask player to do their own things, it is exciting and interesting. Arena System is an advance battlefield, in this field player will hold their own team and fight with each other. It is the ultimate place from the player who has the great playing skills in the game. There is a scoreboard for each season and when the season is finished which team got the highest score will be given a special reward. With these two fantastic systems, WOW successfully separated the player group and makes the game content more Varity.

Improvement and Upgrades:

For an online game, the most important thing is to keep the game fresh, new elements should be always added into the game to keep the players. In the past 5 years, WOW has already been updated third time and more and more special thing are being put into the game.

Conclusion:

WOW is absolutely a cannon game and will be remembered in the future. After introducing the main system in the game, people will find out the reason why it is a cannon game. Innovation is everywhere in the game. The special systems are followed by other game companies. Some of the technology will not be replaced for a long time and the game is always standing on the top of the player’s list.