Wow: Parasitic systems and how they make our MMORPGs worse

A computer game or computer system game is an electronic game that entails communication with a user interface or input tool-- such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or movement picking up tool-- to create aesthetic feedback. This comments is revealed on a video screen gadget, such as a TELEVISION set, monitor, touchscreen, or virtual reality headset. Video games are commonly increased with audio feedback delivered with speakers or earphones, and often with various other kinds of responses, consisting of haptic technology. Video clip video games are defined based upon their platform, that include gallery video games, console games, as well as desktop computer (PC) games. Extra just recently, the industry has increased onto mobile gaming via mobile phones and also tablet computer systems, digital as well as augmented reality systems, and also remote cloud video gaming. Computer game are categorized right into a wide variety of genres based upon their type of gameplay and purpose. The very first computer game models in the 1950s and 1960s are basic extensions of video games utilizing video-like output from large room-size computers. The initial consumer video game is the arcade video game Computer system Room in 1971. In 1972 came the famous hit gallery game Pong, and also the very first house console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The quickly-growing market suffered from the crash of the North American computer game market in 1983 because of loss of publishing control and saturation of the market. Following the crash, the market grew, dominated by Japanese firms such as Nintendo, Sega, and also Sony, and also well established methods and also methods around the development as well as circulation of computer game to stop a comparable crash in the future, numerous which remain to be adhered to. Today, video game advancement calls for many skills to bring a game to market, consisting of developers, authors, distributors, stores, console and also other third-party producers, and also various other functions. In the 2000s, the core industry focused on AAA games, leaving little area for riskier, speculative video games. Paired with the schedule of the Internet and digital circulation, this provided room for independent video game development (or indie video games) to gain prominence into the 2010s. Ever since, the commercial significance of the computer game industry has been raising. The emerging Eastern markets as well as mobile games on mobile phones particularly are altering player demographics in the direction of laid-back gaming and also enhancing money making by including video games as a solution. As of 2020, the international video game market has approximated yearly revenues of US$ 159 billion across equipment, software program, and also solutions. This is three times the size of the 2019 worldwide music industry and 4 times that of the 2019 film market.

World of Warcrafttist full of parasitic game systems. That makes the MMORPG in the long term worse - and it needs change, CORTYN from Meinmmo.

Live games and MMORPGs are quasi permanent in change. There are constantly new systems, while others are neglected or completely deleted. But only a few game systems make it really to be an enrichment in the long term. They have a short lifespan and were almost artificially called top on it without really enriching the game.

Often these systems only exist for a certain time and are then just forgotten or not continued. You do not give the game nothing long-term, you operate on other systems and only work because the developers compellantly build everything around it that they work.

These are parasitic systems. And they make our favorite games worse.

I can especially recommend a video from the Youtuber Josh Strife Hayes - I can do that to you anyway, because its MMORPG analyzes are often true and well with arguments:

Parasitic systems are new to stay, but remain isolated

What are parasitic systems? Parasitic systems in games can be recognized by several clues. Not all of them must be mandatory, but if there is a majority of it, the conclusion is suggested that it is a parasitic system. The indications are:

• The system has been added later to the game.
• The system is not backward compatible to old, existing systems.
• The system exists in its own, completed frame.
• The system requires the core systems of the game to exist, but has little interactions with the core systems.
• Nothing in the parasitic system is relevant outside the system or outside a very specific time frame.
• You can remove the system without changing a lot on the game as an entire.

Wow is full of parasitic systems

I want to be honest with you: until a few days ago, this concept of parasitic game design or parasitic systems in gaming was not known. But now, where I know him, it falls up in almost every major game and especially in World of Warcraft. Because World of Warcraft is full of parasitic systems.

It started right with the garrison in Warlords of Draenor. Here you had to invest a lot of time and resources to build the garrison, to hire new recruits or build buildings. Hardly was Wod finished, the garrison disappeared into oblivion.

It was similar in Legion with the artefact weapon. Almost all the extension turned to improve the weapon and invest time to refine them - before being easily abolished.

Even with the heart of Azeroth that was the case. The necklace was introduced at the beginning of the enlargement and pretty much everything turned to make this chain more and more. Visits to Dungeons, RAIDS - even booty was coupled to the necklace with azerite capabilities before the chain has lost all benefits with the start of Shadowlands.

With these three systems you can ask the question would have changed the complete deletion of this feature something to the basic experience of World of Warcraft? Quite clearly answered with a no. The game still played identical. So there were parasitic systems.

In contrast to these parasitic systems, the core systems are. One of them is, for example, the hunt for ever better prey. It is based on World of Warcraft and that is a driving factor in the game. Therefore, it is not parasitic when equipment is losing value as such over time, such as a new extension or a new patch. The search for ever better items to improve the character is a fundamental principle of the game.

Less unique is the assignment with another category of systems that can be described most likely to describe as mini-games. A good example here are the Pet Battles in WoW. You could also classify them as a parasitary at first glance, but I would classify as a mini-game. Because PET battle are so detached from the whole rest of the game experience and only need attention from players who really like this content that this system can exist alone.

Of course, there is a small point of intersections, since PETS dropps about Raidbossen or are available as a call reward, but that alone does not make the system parasitically.

Parasitic systems provide confusion, because their effect is influenced

Nevertheless, however, that not every parasitic system does not have to be bad, even if this is in many cases.

One of the most important negative aspects is the confusion for new players or those who do not care outside the game with information.

Anyone who starts today with World of Warcraft and fully expanded its garrison in Draenor, which has absolutely no idea that this will not have any relevance in almost 10 hours of playing.

Anyone who gets the Heart of Azeroth in Battle for Azeroth and loves full of fountain, so that it becomes more and stronger, has no idea that that in Shadowlands no more benefit is fulfilled and even losing all the earned forces there.

The same thing will probably be the case in Shadowlands, because already now is to be foreseen that Blizzard probably will not take over the pact in 10.0 and the pact skills are simply canceled.

An even younger example are the rule sockets from patch 9.1. These are special sockets that can only be on certain objects and fit into the very special rule base stones. The stones can be upgraded and granted set bonuses, which are only active in special places. That explains the game but nowhere and is not intuitive.

Worse: By that existing rule base, other established systems become worse, as the weekly reward box for mythical + can contain objects that overlap with a slot for the rump socket. This is then a parasitic system that hardly fulfills a benefit and other mechanics even worse.

More News around World of Warcraft are here:

• Patch 9.1.5: Wow listens to his players, gives you what you have asked
• Youtuber explains: Wow has just less than 2 million players
• The new boss of Blizzard plays WOW - probably better than her

There are also positive examples

But not all newer time systems are parasitically in World of Warcraft. Even if not every player likes it, the mythical + system is a good example of something that became more and more to an integral part of the game. What just started as Hardmode at the beginning is now through scalability, achievements, possibility of Item appreciation and the weekly reward box, a core-end game feature, which survives extensions. A system that has integrated well into the Loot structure of World of Warcraft.

Until that was so good and firmly integrated, but many years were pulled into the country and the mythical + dungeons were often revised. It requires a lot of time and stamina to create a new core system, because it is:

• To develop parasitic systems that are forgets at the end of an addong is easy.
• To develop core systems later is difficult.

I want to complete again with a quote from the video shown above:

_DAS is as if you make a pizza. You start with the dough as the base, then the sauce comes and then the cheese and then the rest of the lining. You take a bit distance, look at the whole thing and say, That's complete. _

_Wenn now someone comes to you and says, Hey, I ate all the pizza. Make them different. Then you could go back and do the basic new, make the sauce or re-make the cheese again. But that would be complicated. It's easier to add more flooring without inheriting and thinking: Does this coating make the pizza actually better? Or do I add them only because people demand that I add anything? _

This is a question that not only developers, but also we should ask as a player and answer honestly. I am sure that it would lead to better games for everyone.