Game Development Giant

Jester still has some unfinished ideas. After all, the game WOW has gone from its peak to decline so quickly. It makes people wonder whether the previous WOW was just a false prosperity?

Of course not, the ICC era is indeed the peak period of WOW, and there is no falsehood at all.

However, this game ushered in a Maginot Line and Dunkirk-style defeat in the next version.

There was a loss of PVE players before, and then there was an irreversible loss of PVP players.

It’s still the MOP version.

Even though the progress of the separation of the first two versions of the 5.1 national server has caused such serious consequences, Crab still patted his head and decided to launch this version.

From this moment on, the PVP system of World of Warcraft was wiped out. Instead, PVP players with the same profession and skills could no longer beat mixed PVE players. Advantageous professions could directly fill up the blood pressure and kill people. After the team diversity in the arena completely disappeared, The battlefield is also useless. In the past, if a healer did not want to die, he could protect himself from death. In this version, the combat fatigue has been increased to 45%, which directly means that if the DPS wants to kill the healer, the healer will undoubtedly die.

The era of being able to show off your power in a random battlefield with a magical outfit and ride on it to turn the tide is over. Even if your equipment level is 999, you will still have to be reduced to 496 when entering the battlefield. A good tiger cannot stand up to a pack of wolves, and high-end PVP players have no motivation to continue fighting.

The rare situation on Thunder God Island is another story. PVP players are fighting a rare, and a group of murderous PVE players appear next to them. The PVP players know that they can't beat them, so they can only hand over their control skills and escape skills and run away. When PVE players are playing rare games, PVP players can only watch from afar. Do they dare to get close?

This kind of design idea that goes from one extreme to another cannot be described as NC - it must be described as very stupid.

Why do you have to design this game to be so extreme?

After several attempts, in version 5.3, Crab still insisted on driving away all PVP players by building a tombstone for the PVP system of World of Warcraft. This has been verified by the lower limit of paying users around the world.

Then there is the last version that Crab is responsible for, 5.4.

Because after this version, Crab resigned and went to Riot Games. Maybe he felt that Riot games were more suitable for his performance.

Overall, 5.4 is a pretty good version. The most important thing is that this attempt on Timeless Island was liked by many players. The random group collapsed completely, causing casual players to discover that Timeless Island is a good place. But at this time, Crab made the same old mistake again when designing the game, and died. In the end, the unrepentant Crab failed to get rid of the habit of putting all his eggs in the same basket called gambling. Let’s talk about the mechanics of immortality, the Four Heavenly Gods and the Fire Ox first. Someone can graduate from Eternal Island Day Tour 535 and directly enter the flexible dungeon. But if someone is born with an ugly face, then he has nothing but the immortality in the box. Don't even think about getting any other immortality. You can only exchange 600,000 eternal coins for immortality. And the time required for this is measured in months.

The Four Heavenly Gods and the Fire Bull have continued their glorious tradition. Money is all about money. By the time the equipment is released, the players have already graduated to 582.

It is worth mentioning that elasticity is a very good idea. Although the drops do not separate, it can still play a role in training troops. However, the design team still has not discovered that the root cause of many problems is simply because the drops do not separate. The separation is caused if they can realize the mistake at the beginning. And if it is corrected, the current situation may be different again.

In short, 5.4 is a version for players to regain their enthusiasm, and it is also a PVE version for everyone.

Ordinary PVE players finally found the feeling of 10 people fighting dragons (playing H) and 25 people playing coin groups in the ICC era (the foreign server is flexible ~ playing dragons with 25 people playing H). The difficulty of the three H after SoO is designed for high-end PVE players. It is definitely worthy of praise, and top PVE players can strive for the first kill after separation.

In the end, Crab retired after successfully killing the Empire and WOW, leaving behind a devastated world waiting to be renovated. Players loved to see it and a large portion of their hearts loved it. Everyone is celebrating and telling each other, although the good old days can never go back.

Jester's thinking about WOW's design mistakes stopped here. The subsequent version 6.0 is a version with very obvious advantages and disadvantages. After Crab left and Flor returned, the design team still didn’t know how to design this version of the game. For this game that has become unfamiliar, even if The original creator of the world Flor was also a little confused, and. Because the design method of WOW is that the two expansion packs are designed in parallel.

In fact, when Crab left, the WOD shelf had already been built by him.

The next step is to make repairs within this framework.

Therefore, although there are many good designs in 6.0, the shortcomings are also very obvious, especially since the previous design team wanted to restore the all-terrestrial era of the 1960s, but they forgot to consider one issue, that is, after players have been used to it for several decades After a version of flying, if you don't let them fly, it will be difficult for them to accept it, or even intolerable at all.

I don’t know how many players left the game again because they couldn’t fly.

Although flying can later be unlocked through achievements, it is too difficult to obtain this achievement because the requirements for this achievement are too high.

Moreover, flying is for players to experience the game conveniently, but this time the design team seems to want to use flying as a reward after experiencing the game, but what is the meaning of this kind of flying? A flight that requires the current version of Loremaster, full exploration, almost half of the treasure exploration, and three new reputations to be revered to unlock. What meaning does it have after the player successfully unlocks it?

These should be convenient for players to do things after they can fly, rather than giving them flight after they have finished doing it. Then the players think, what's the point of having flying? Because I have done everything I can do.

Maybe the only useful thing is that you can fly directly when you practice the alt. After all, the achievements are shared with the pass.

Because WOW is the last game that Jester has decided to make, and it is almost 1997. Basically, after two thousand years, he will start the production of this game, so. He needs to recall everything about this game in his mind, especially the major mistakes, so that he will not make the same mistakes again.

In fact, many mistakes are not known to be wrong when designing. Maybe the designer just thinks it is cool to do so. It's cool to do that.

But after actually doing it, I realized that this was not a good idea.

These are experiences that are very worthy of my attention and reference, and they are also very helpful for me to make this landmark game in its original history better.

After writing down everything he remembered, Jester put the thick stack of paper into a new folder. But he is still asking himself a question now, if he were faced with the moment of choosing between "Wushuang" or "Ninja Dragon" after Ulduar, what would he choose?

He was still a little hesitant.

But after recalling the rise and fall of the entire development of WOW, Jester suddenly discovered that this problem was actually a very simple one.

Blizzard has made countless mistakes in this game. In fact, there is only one mistake in the final analysis, and that is too much compromise on players - they are too eager to please all players, but not all changes can satisfy all players. , if you please one part, the other part will be dissatisfied, and if they are not satisfied, they will become AFK.

Then if you think these people are AFK, I will change it again. Want to satisfy these people.

But after you changed it like this, those who were satisfied before are no longer dissatisfied. They also AFK, but those who were AFK before have not returned.

In game development, especially for such huge projects and games, players' opinions need to be listened to, but don't listen to everything. If everything is done according to the players' requirements, then God knows what will happen.

Just like Ulduar, a good copy is a good copy. Even if it is not popular at the time, it will definitely be loved in the future. Why give up the most correct idea at the beginning and choose the method of killing the chicken and taking advantage of the weak?

Players can see the designer’s hard work.

Classics will never be forgotten.

"I would choose "Ninja Dragon"."

Jester finally gave this question his own answer.

Because Jester’s standard is to make a product he likes. He thinks it is good, he thinks it is an excellent game. Regarding what a good game is and how it should be defined, each player has different standards. When an FPS player plays an ACT game, he might say this. Bad games are no fun. But it's not that this game isn't a good game.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether a game is great or not.

That is to see whether the gameplay of this game can be accepted by the target group of players. If the target group of players can accept it, then it depends on whether the number of this group is large enough.

This should be a standard concept of ‘good game’.

So, although the gameplay of "Wushuang" is accepted by the target group of players, and there are many people who are willing to accept it, it is a good game.

But again, your fairy grass, my poison. In Jester's eyes, he has never looked down upon "Wushuang". Although the "Wushuang" series has many merits in its design, it is accurate. To be honest, there are a lot of redeeming features. A game without any redeeming features will not survive to the point where the main story and side stories add up to almost ten versions.

Even though I can't beat Jester, I still don't like this way of playing the game.

Among the ACT games, he likes "Ninja Dragon" - it's not that he doesn't like the mindless grinding games like "Wushuang", but he doesn't like the mindless grinding games in ACT games. Brush, because these are two styles that cannot be blended together at all.

ARPG Jester feels that the refreshing feeling of mindless play is greater than anything else.

RPG is about game system and plot more than anything else. FPS games are about fast killing and feeling more than anything else. For example, people who are good at FPS games are more violent. For example, if you are killed by a sniper in the game, you must use Come back from sniping. Generally speaking, people who can play FPS to a high level have this kind of 'irritable' character.

However, the ACT game is a different style.

It is a kind of technical self-admiration, and it is a kind of solitary self-admiration. Such a game is inherently uncompromising in terms of difficulty. If you want to experience the fun and pleasure of this kind of game, you must Work hard on your skills, and the moment you are able to do it, you will feel an unparalleled sense of accomplishment. This is the core of the ACT game.

This is also the reason why ACT players are so die-hard, because this type of game is so unsociable.

Such uncompromising ease of use.

And if ACT games are made like "Wushuang", then what qualifications does ACT have to be called ACT? A game should have its own characteristics, and the same goes for ACT. Its gameplay, its core gameplay, is destined to be a niche game, and it can only be accepted by a few people. This is It’s determined by the nature of the game.

Jester finished a memo about some of the mistakes in WOW's development path.

Although it is still early, planning for WOW's MMORPG game must start now, because this will be his last game. As a work that completely leaves the game development industry, Jester wants to do his best. It's possible to make it perfect - WoW's Sixties was great, but it was far from perfect.

Although the subsequent versions have received mixed reviews, many of the changes are still outstanding and cannot be dismissed entirely.

Even though it has made many mistakes, it has also made many good improvements. Changes in the direction of making WOW more user-friendly, such as the opening of random dungeons, are a very good decision.

Of course, it will take at least three more years to start designing WOW. In addition to finishing "Monster Hunter", I also need to develop a game for the new console - but the new console will be a somatosensory game console. , this time the new game will be a game that is completely matched with the somatosensory game console. In Jester's vision, the prototype is "Super Horse Silver".

However, the specific method of making it still needs to be considered.

But in the final analysis, it is the easiest to make such a creative-first game. (~^~)