WoW 60

Last night my character on World of Warcraft (a Paladin called Kalevipoeg), reached level 60 -- the highest in the game.  So far, it's a "research" project gone awry, and something that explains why blogging dropped off over the last six months.  When you start the game you believe it ends at 60, but it turns out there is much more (large scale raids, epic gear).  The game, as designers intended, has become more interesting.  Coordinating 40 people to take down a big bad guy, when some are strangers and all with different skills and capabilities, is a very different experience.

But the most fascinating part of the game to me lately is what designers never intended.  In WoW, you have to cooperate to advance.  Most of the activity is in adhoc groups acheiving goals to receive loot, some of it very rare.  So when a rare drop happens, norms that transcend the loot rules encoded.  A manual dialog on who is a fit for the loot ensues, with ties broken by roll.  Large scale raids have a handful of drops to divy up, so whole systems are invented by groups.  With DKP points assigned by convention, a manual auction takes place that rewards participation over time.  Users that break these rules are labeled Ninjas and face banishment from the guild.

The gaming industry has realized the value of user generated features for some time now (AddOns, Level Editors, etc.), but I find fascinating the areas designers choose not to code.  For users, they are perhaps the most important, the Point of Reward, but they are left to their own devices.  A large scale raid loot distribution system is not supported by their Auction House platform, but instead is left to users to create their own market through conversations.

I still have issues with WoW's disconnection with real life, failure to augment it, let alone provide incentives to live it better.  I believe it provides good simulation-based training, have made connections there as happens with all social software, but it still comes at a cost great enough that I am unsure of it's return.

Ah, hell, it beats TV.

Comments

[vinnie mirchandani]

I would (my son would) love for you to see why WoW will not work at home - we have changed cable modems, graphic cards...he hates me for not fixing it I hate paying the monthly fee and not getting anything...

[Gen]

Congrats on hitting 60. I just hit 40 and got my black stallion. Very happy about that.

[Seyed]

WoW is the opiate of the digital class.

Its nice you're analysing it in some psuedo-intellectual framework. I've seen Tom Coates, Joi Ito and other respected figures do the same.

But lets face it: You're as addicted as any of the other players.

I've seen all kinds of justifications as people internalise the extraordinary time they spend in the virtual environment. I think it says more about your personality then it ever does about the game itself.

[mike dunn]

you pwned it ross ;)

[Ross Mayfield]

Seyed, I'm more than fessing up to the addiction.

[Lordpain]

grats for hitting 60. my guild just cleared MC and kill Rag and we are now heading to BWL and down Razorgore and now we are Vael :)

[Gerald Buckley]

Ross, there's a twelve step program in our future :) Congrats on the levelling!

BTW, what's the lowest level character in your guild? Just curious.

[Jon Collins]

We seem to be living parallel existences right now... I reached L60 Paladin last Tuesday. Spooky. I'd be interested to know whether your playing drops off as suddenly as mine did.

http://www.joncollins.net/wordpress/?p=190

[Jason Wood]

Ross,

Great post. I've been working on some thoughts vis-a-vis our collectively growing obsession with immersive media and virtual environments and the potential unbalancing that causes with basic social skills.

http://woodrow.typepad.com/the_ponderings_of_woodrow/2006/05/was_em_forster_.html

Looking forward to meeting you at Sapphire.

Jason