Game Development Giant

The number of WOW players is growing at an astonishing rate.

Prior to this, the most popular MMORPG game in North America was EQ, with an average of more than 300,000 people online.

This is already a very remarkable achievement. In fact, when the industry predicted the number of WOW players, they only speculated that they would attract 500,000 to 600,000 players in half a year, and then there would be 500,000 to 600,000 players within a year. Maybe a million.

But beyond the expectations of everyone in the industry, to be precise, beyond the expectations of everyone in the industry except Jester, WOW only took three weeks to reach the standard of 500,000 active players, and three months of active players. The number of players reached one million, and at the end of 2005, almost one year after WOW was officially released, this number reached an astonishing 3.5 million!

Moreover, the growth in the number of people has not stopped yet.

While the industry was surprised, they also made some new predictions, saying that WOW is likely to have more than five million active players in the second year!

This number is similar to what Jester himself expected. Jester made a guess based on his own memory and actual data. He estimated that by the end of this year, that is, at the end of 2006, it would reach almost 5.5 million people. Before the expansion pack was released, this number should have been a peak.

If no expansion pack is released in the future, the number of active players of this game will probably drop by a certain amount.

However, after the expansion pack is released, the number of people will increase sharply again.

Now WOW has just announced the opening mission of Ahn'Qiraj, and all players around the world are constantly working hard to become the first hero to open the door.

Jester ended his day's work and held today's regular meeting for his colleagues. He did not work overtime. The WOW development team is now in a rest period. The previous tasks have basically been handled. From next month From the beginning, you can spare at least half of the manpower before encountering the follow-up development of "The Burning Crusade".

"The Burning Crusade" is the first expansion pack for WOW.

It is also the only expansion pack that Jester will be responsible for.

He had already mentioned this matter in an internal meeting, when "The Burning Crusade" was almost finished. He will officially retire, and he may not wait until the development of "The Burning Crusade" is completed.

Of course, he will not participate in the second expansion pack, but Jester still gave his own suggestions.

The third expansion pack can be made using the continuation of Alsace's story. The distant continent of Northrend and the end of the story of the Lich King are a very gimmicky combination.

If you add a little bit of stories about the Titan Guardians and the Ancient Gods, it would be great from the players' point of view.

Of course, Jester doesn't care whether Jester's suggestion will be adopted or not. Because he said that he was responsible for the first expansion pack, and what he could do was only on the first expansion pack.

In fact, there was a quarrel within the WOW development team regarding the withdrawal of the expansion pack from the environment. At the beginning, when the WOW development team first discussed the expansion pack, they were in favor of the EQ expansion pack. The way is to completely withdraw from the environment.

but. This plan was directly rejected by Jester.

The reason is simple.

The hard work spent on the map cannot be turned into useless work just because of an expansion pack. This kind of game design is not something he agrees with.

The game world of WOW envisioned by Jester should be an orderly game world. It should not be a game where only players with full level can experience the fun of the game. A successful game should allow players of all levels to enjoy the game. Experience the fun of this game, this is a successful design, if everything starts with max level.

So what qualifications does this game have to be called an RPG?

Does the so-called RPG mean that everyone must be the tyrannical and cool Long Aotian?

Apparently not.

The world needs legendary heroes who can defeat Ragnaros, King of Fire Demon, and Nanefarios, King of Blackstone. Other low-level players are also needed to fill in.

Only the class structure at the top of the pyramid will never be stable, because it is a castle in the air.

Why is it said that level 60 is fun? In addition to the various settings at level 60 being the most RPG style, the most important thing is. Because the game has just started, although you still need to be at full level to experience most of the content, due to the lengthened leveling time, it will take an ordinary player a long time to upgrade from level zero to level sixty. Play four hours a day. Without interruption, it takes about thirty days to reach full level.

Leveling up around the clock would take seven days at the fastest.

Such a long leveling time actually creates a pyramid structure for WOW.

The most important thing is that for low-level players, players above level 30, in the process of leveling up and fighting monsters, the materials they obtain, and even the equipment they obtain, are ten or even twenty levels higher than them. It is also useful for players.

The key to whether a game's level structure can be stable is whether the economy is stable enough.

Being able to obtain materials needed by high levels at low levels makes the low-level economy more stable, even if many players cannot reach level 60.

When you are at level 40 or 50, you will have a lot of fun playing.

Even at level 60, if you don't play RAID like it's work, there are still a lot of things to play with.

In this way, the structure of the entire RPG game is healthy.

Starting from the first expansion pack of the original WOW, due to the withdrawal of the environment, the price was no longer healthy for the first time. The useful level span of ten levels is completely different from the useful level span of sixty levels. different things.

This is something Jester wants to change.

If the world of an RPG game is healthy, then the design idea of ​​retreating from the environment cannot be fully adopted.

It’s not that we don’t need to withdraw from the environment, but we can’t completely withdraw from the environment.

For example, there are some things that really need to be retired from the environment, such as equipment. There is nothing to say about this environment. The equipment in the expansion pack should be better than the original version. Of course, you can't let the blue and green equipment in the expansion pack be better than those in the original environment. The original graduation purple package is good. This also makes no sense.

But there are some things that cannot be dealt with using the idea of ​​​​reducing the environment. The simplest one is materials.

Not many players care about the equipment they get at low levels, but that doesn't mean they don't care about what they can get at low levels.

If so, it's because the expansion pack is open. Then the original version is treated as a retreat environment, which means that for these players, in their first sixty levels of leveling career, almost all the things they obtained are garbage, and there is no way to pass the normal level. transactions to earn income. What? You said someone practicing business skills would charge low-level materials?

How many talents practice business skills in this way?

Can it form a normal circulation of goods?

Keep low-level materials in a stable economic state?

This is of course impossible.

The most annoying thing about Jester is that the so-called max level is the beginning. Since max level is the beginning, why not let people play at max level from the beginning?

Since you are going to do all the de-environment, why not let players reach level 60 when they start playing the expansion pack?

Because this is an RPG.

RPGs cannot adopt this method of giving you level 60 at the beginning.

Of course, as the later levels are too high, after this method of retreating from the environment is used one expansion pack after another, even though Blizzard doesn't want to, it still uses it and directly gives you a character from the expansion pack for you to play. Give you a set of equipment, a certain amount of money and various skills.

As for why this is the case?

Very simple.

That's the low-level maps and versions that made Blizzard completely useless through this purely environmental development idea.

It's like trash, discarded like worn out shoes.

Jester didn't want this.

he thinks. As long as low-level materials are allowed to exist, which are also used for business skills in the expansion pack, then low-level maps will not become an existence with little profit. As long as the economic system is healthy, then there will naturally be players to play it. content at this level.

Jester convinced the development team that this is the biggest difference between "The Burning Crusade" and the original "The Burning Crusade".

As time goes by, the version of WOW has reached the Shadow of Naxxramas version. In this version, players can collect fragments of the Orange Staff. It is said that the mission of the Orange Staff will be completed in the next version.

This is also the third orange outfit that appears in WOW.

In the original history, in Blizzard's vision. The Orange Staff, also known as the Crow Staff, actually needs to be completed in Karazhan.

But when designing the version, the impact of attribute expansion was not considered.

After Shadow of Naxxramas is opened. I found that the attributes had expanded to the point where I could no longer open Karazhan, so I moved this team copy, which I knew at a glance was definitely a level 60 team copy, into a level 70 expansion pack. This has to be said. A kind of helplessness.

In fact, you can know it from the acquisition of orange weapons, such as Savras. The Hand of Ragnaros, the Firelord, is an orange two-handed hammer. It is a starting item dropped in Molten Core, but it requires forging materials in Blackwing Lair to create it. It spans two large Weapons that can only be made in team copies.

The Crow Staff is also obtained in this way.

However, it was ruined by the Blizzard team, which was a bit inexperienced in designing RPG games.

In desperation, I changed the method of obtaining the Crow Staff and moved Karazhan to the Burning Crusade.

Naturally, this world does not need to be like this.

Although the problem of attribute inflation is an inevitable problem in RPG games, under Jester's foresighted control, it is not too serious, at least not so serious that it will be impossible to open Karazhan after Naxxramas. .

In fact, Blizzard's designers at that time still had a bit of shame, knowing that the expansion of attributes would have a very serious impact on the game experience, so they did not launch Karazhan at level 60. Blizzard at that time Although the designers are still relatively green in terms of design, judging from their handling of the game.

They really want the best game.

If it were a Blizzard designer a few years later, they wouldn't care about this.

Isn't it just attribute expansion? There's nothing special about it.

In a WOW server in North America.

It's the server where Dak's night elf huntress named Kelly Dak is.

Dak said in the guild that he might not be able to continue with the guild activities during this period, and many people asked curiously.

Because Dake is a person who likes to participate in activities.

And Duck's answer made them sad.

"My condition has worsened again. The doctor said that I can no longer face the computer for such a long time, and I also have to go for treatment, which may not be enough time."

After Dak's explanation, people in the guild realized that Dak, who had been with them day and night for so long, was actually a seriously ill player, and his disease was actually leukemia, which is currently incurable. .

And from Dak's mouth, he knew that his condition was now very serious.

Dak is a very famous player in the server. He is famous not because of how good his PK skills are, not because he has planted the flag at the gate of Ironforge many times without losing, nor is he the MT who kills the first guild. , the popularity gained by pretending to be eye-catching on the Iron Bridge every day while carrying a sword on his back was gained by liking to make friends, helping people, and being happy to help others.

Whenever someone in the server mentions Kelly Dark, the night elf huntress, someone will say, I know him, he is a very nice person, he has done it for me...

Answers like this.

Therefore, when Dak told the guild about his illness, the news quickly spread in the server.

Many people sent letters to Dak, encouraging him to be strong.

Someone even proposed a fundraiser for Duck.

But Duck refused.

He said there was no need. He looked at the many emails in his inbox, all of which were words of comfort and care for him. He suddenly felt very warm in his heart. He was not alone or lonely. He still had something. So many people care about him.

In the days that followed, Dak's online time became less and less.

There are more and more intervals.

At the beginning, I would go there once every three to five days to say hello to my friends. Gradually, I would go there sometimes not even once a week.

And now it has been more than a month, almost two months, since he last went online.

Friends in the guild were all worried about Dake. Something had happened. Just when everyone was worried about this, a message appeared in the guild.

Kelly Dark is online. (~^~)