It’s been a while since I posted anything on my website. I feel that I owe my loyal readers an explanation of why I haven’t been posting as much.
I have been blogging and championing the cause of virtual worlds and MMORPG’s since 2004. I’m not a big fan of the word “blogging” and its fellow partner in crime “blogger”. You might consider me a snob for saying this, but I would prefer to consider myself a writer and an essayist.
MMO Bloggers
I take some pride in my writings and contributions to the MMO genre. I do a lot of thought, research and preparation before I write an article. I have worked on articles that have taken me up to 6 hours to produce — it’s a lot of hard work and I like to hold myself to a higher standard of quality than the typical MMO blogger out there who fires off a few paragraphs. Tobold is one such prodigious blogger that feels it necessary to share whatever is in his head at any given time with his readers. People seem to like what he writes and that’s fine by me. That is just not my style as I prefer quality over quantity.
Other MMO bloggers such as Scott Jennings, routinely fire off one to two sentence clever quips with a link and presto — they have created a blog post where their loyal readers do all the work for them and discuss. I don’t have the need to convince you that I’m clever or that I have a pulse. Scott Jennings is a very intelligent man and I appreciate his delicious wit but that is not my style either.
During the course of a day I come up with at least one good idea for an article for this website. It’s not that I lack the imagination to create new articles; the problem is it takes work to research and craft them to the standard that I feel comfortable with. I love the old saying:
Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak out and leave no doubt
Another issue is that creating MMO articles is an unpaid vocation. You have to do it because you love it or are foolish enough to think you can change minds. Sure, I have a few advertisements for Amazon and over the years what I have earned barely compares with my hosting costs to keep this website going. I’m not complaining. I’m just stating a fact that what you read is essentially free content and somebody (me) has to take the time to create it.
The Insular World of MMOs
But the main reason that I don’t write that much anymore is that writing about the need for better MMOs seems to fall on deaf ears. The MMO industry is very insular and impervious to the intrusion of criticism and new ideas.
Even the new MMO academic establishment — in the form of Bartle, Castronova, Yee and academic wannabe Raph Koster — have created their own hegemonic clique where good ideas are not really welcomed or acknowledged from outsiders unless you have a published book or are a professor. (This may not be their intention but this is how I perceive them.)
Then you have the utterly worthless and shallow video game “press” that are paid sycophants and on retainer for the video game industry. Rest assured as long as this symbiotic relationship exists they will never hold companies like Blizzard and SOE accountable.
Sympathy for the Developer or Why Video Game Devs Live in Bunkers
When I was a video game designer I remember what it felt like: it was intoxicating. My blog postings all but vanished during those years. I felt that actually making video games was somehow noble and important — far more important than mere writing about making video games. At the time, I secretly felt smug, arrogant and dismissive of bloggers. It seemed to me that I didn’t need to read blogs on the theory of video game design because I was in the trenches doing battle creating “great” games.
During my time in the industry, I was also mentally exhausted from working like a madman. At the end of a day in the video game industry that last thing you feel like doing is reading about how the video game you just spent the last 8 months of your life on sucks by some teenage critic with no life.
So I can sympathize with the people at Blizzard. They are at currently at the top of the ladder and are successful. They too have fallen into the trap of thinking they are important; too important to look out the windows of their ivory towers at the reality that is approaching on the horizon.
Imagine an up and coming film critic trying to convince George Lucas or Steven Spielberg to make better movies. The chances of that happening are zero.
So what do we do?
Where Real Change Will Come From
When you see something you love get watered down and emasculated you get upset and angry. But you get even angrier when nothing changes and 11 million zombies continue to support a company that is cheating them out of true virtual world experience. A sense of disillusionment and pointlessness that sinks in that is hard to shake. Does anyone remember the slogan: Hope and Change? Enough said.
Real change will never come from Blizzard, SOE and the big companies. Just like change didn’t come from established corporations like IBM, it came from two long-haired dreamers who started a small company in their garage that changed the world: Apple. In the end, it’s up to new people to risk all they have and create their own MMORPGs and virtual worlds; people like Curt Schilling from 38 Studios, who has put everything on the line.
There are no easy answers. Complaining about how bad MMO’s are is easy; making great MMOs is hard. I get it. But there still has to be room left for thoughtful criticism. MMO companies should be held more accountable by everyone and that includes players too.
I believe virtual worlds and MMORPGs have vast amounts of unrealized potential as a genre and that they still worth fighting for. I have not hung up my sword and shield just yet. So I will do my best to post more often. I have also decided to put less pressure on myself and I may even take some tips from Tobold and Scott Jennings and post shorter articles that are more blog-like and less long-winded. To my readers, thank you for your unswerving loyalty and your continued patience.
-Wolfshead
On the subject of wanting MMOs to change and improve, I completely agree with you. I want to play the games that completely blow me away, instead of feeling like I’m shuffling from compromise MMO to compromise MMO. This won’t change with SWTOR and I don’t think it’ll change with any other games on the horizon.
Where’s my hope? That’d be in Trion’s Red Door platform. If they can put together an indie-friendly platform that allows for easy experimentation while being scalable to cope with legions of players then I’m hoping that more developers will take risks. Some people are afraid that this will lead to an explosion of MMOs. That’s nothing to be fearful of, that’s to be encouraged. It’s time to shake up the rules of the game, in more ways than one.
On the subject of insularity in the MMO genre, I pretty much agree with you. Even though I’m degree educated in a related subject and have a day job in a related field, it’s next to impossible to get my ideas noticed. I keep doing it because it’s an interesting thought exercise, plus it’s satisfying when 9 months after you suggest something you see it being implemented in-game. I sometimes think about trying to get into the games industry, but that’s a pipe-dream at the moment.
On the subject of blogging, I agree with you that it takes time to put together a good article. I don’t read blogs for news, I read them for insight and opinion. I read them because people like you challenge my perceptions of the genre, which is a great thing. I might not always agree with what you write, but having an alternate view is a great thing.
Write when you feel you have the time to create something you’re happy with. Don’t feel you have to march to someone else’s tune – we’ll still be here reading. RSS readers and so on are indispensable tools.
I, for one, appreciate the hard work and insight that shows through in your posts, even when I disagree with you. Looking forward to new posts as they come.
There’s worth in a fine wine vs. a cheap grape juice. Yours is the latter, and it’s worth highlighting that in a world of NOW NOW NOW, more of this is needed.
The pendulum will swing backwards. Everything in life operates in seasons. Weathering the storm that is the present MMORPG landscape and seeing the dawn of the next generations is an exercise in longevity. This is an encouragement to be there to see that change, and influence the minds that will make that change.
Besides, birds of feather… postings about the day’s random idea #41 will fall on short-attention span ears, as it took a short attention span to create. Can we believe that attention deficit minds will have the wherewithal, dedication and perseverance to shoulder change? No, those forms of postings are forgotten as fast as they are consumed: they will not be the postings that influence change in the people who will herald it.
I have never played a game in the MMO genre for more than a few months; I’ve never played one that hooked me. I never got into WoW, never had my own subscription even, and I’m not enough of a gaming veteran to have extensively played the earlier, deeper titles.
In essence I’m not much of an actual MMO player as of now; current games don’t really interest me, but I still blog about the potential of the genre. I’m interested in discussing ideas and theory, that’s why I started it and that’s also why I’m still here following your posts.
Looking at state of the current market can be disheartening, but design discussions on their own can be satisfying and they don’t need to market to exist. There is potential for a great design culture using the internet, blogs, comments, and forums without having to reflect the lack of inspiration and progression in the industry.
Even though I won’t see any change in today’s market due to my blogging, I’m still putting ideas out there, not for the market but for the people like me, fellow bloggers and design enthusiasts. And who knows? Maybe one day a fellow blogger, or even a bystander to our corner of the net, will get into a position to influence change; maybe a future designer is following along or stumbles by and is affected.
The important thing is that what you want is being put out there, the logic, the design; people can access it. It could create a discussion, a progression of thought among people, since it’s out there for anyone to potentially come across it.
The theoretical culture will leak out into the market eventually; the type of enthusiast to follow these blogs is the type of enthusiast to pursue a design position, it’s only a matter of time that the mentality here is reflected. If anything, during this time when the blogosphere is seemingly irrelevant to the market, there is more incentive than ever to keep posting, to progress and refine design ideas in expectation of the time when things will leak through.
This is going to start out slightly offtopic but… thinking about Diablo 3, I’d probably bet my life savings that it’ll be a massive financial success, just look at message boards or comments and the excited kids bragging about the amount of money they’re going to make. And because money is the ultimate motivator, I see every MMO copying the real money auction house model where the developer takes 10%(?) of every auction. Where does this leave the player? Well for starters you have to be the most efficient class, you have to run the most efficient dungeon, you have to take the most efficient route and you have to make sure you’re either on your own or able to take advantage of the situation to make sure you walk away with the loot.
So the next generation of MMO player is going to be playing one class, running one dungeon, taking the same path hundreds of thousands of times over and over, on his own and if he groups it will only be if he can manage to manipulate the situation to his own financial gain (steal the loot, bail and put the poor guy he screwed over on ignore).
Anyway what I was driving at was that I appreciate reading your articles but MMOs are fast becoming slot machines, I could also go into some psychology about why this is working better and better (children spending less time playing as the grow, developing less creativity, money/financial status defining one’s character) but I’m on holiday right now.
I’d love nothing more than for D3 to fall flat on it’s face, but it’s not going to, I’m glad I got to see the golden age of MMOs for myself, but the barbarians/shareholders are at the gate.
I always thought that the reason nobody listened to you was that you hate all existing games, and express that in no unclear terms. Why would that tired videogame developer want to listen to you, if your first words are how you much everything he ever did sucks? Try that once face-to-face with a work colleague, and see how much he’ll listen to you.
Every game has its good sides, even the existing ones.
All MMO bloggers — if they are honest — wonder if what they are saying is being taken seriously by the industry. We all want our opinions to matter and I think you would agree with that Tobold.
Your assessment of my opinions on MMOs is false. Of course I admit I’m very critical of companies like Blizzard, I have lots of good things to say about the various MMOs that I have written about over the years that you seem to have conveniently forgotten (read my last article). I suspect you feel this way because I have disagreed with you on various design decisions over the years. I for one am glad that we have the Internet where people are free to politely dissent and disagree.
Freedom of speech is all about being able to speak your mind and having an environment of tolerance where you are free to do so without fear. If I want to post something about a particular problem in a MMO then why shouldn’t I? How many newspapers would stay in business if they wrote stories about planes that landed safely? How many readers would bother coming to this blog if I praised Blizzard incessantly in every article?
If you knew more about the actual workings of the video game and MMO industry you would understand that most MMO developers want negative yet constructive feedback. That is the only way that MMOs get better and they know that full well. Sugar coated platitudes from glassy-eyed fanboys are inconsequential and actually a waste of time to them.
Regarding my tone and delivery of my opinions, there is a vast difference between my articles which are editorials and speaking directly to a colleague.
By the way, I do appreciate your blog and your opinions and your obvious passion for MMOs Tobold even though we have differing opinions on style and issues from time to time.
I always thought that the reason nobody listened to you was that you hate all existing games, and express that in no unclear terms. Why would that tired videogame developer want to listen to you, if your first words are how you much everything he ever did sucks? Try that once face-to-face with a work colleague, and see how much he’ll listen to you.
Every game has its good sides, even the existing ones.
Oh the irony. You have just talked to Wolf in a manner precisely akin to what you claim he does to designers. Internet gold.
“Why would that tired videogame developer want to listen to you, if your first words are how you much everything he ever did sucks?”
Well should we say something is amazing when it is clearly lacking and there are specific ways it could be better? Since when is criticism a game to make sure everyone leaves feeling good about themselves?
It is a developer’s problem if they don’t listen and work with criticism; it’s their choice and character. As long as it’s valid criticism and isn’t just an attack on the people themselves, then it’s type of perspective that is invaluable for growth (artists, designers, and pretty much anyone wanting to excel in a creative field).
Speaking specifically from my experience in sculpting and visual art, dwelling on the good things is only going to tell someone what they probably already know, they are good at x, y, and z. More often than not it’s unnecessary pandering, it doesn’t question things and doesn’t add valuable discussion.
If someone tears apart my artwork with clear reasoning and perspective(usually coming from being a great artist themselves), that is one of the best things for me, and as long as it’s not personal I never take it personally. The work comes first and it stands on its own; it isn’t there as an indulgence for my ego and that stands for design as well.
Thank you for this post. This is a well-reasoned insight into the value of criticism that everybody interested in art and design should read and heed. You won’t last long if you get offended or take things personally especially when your creations are out in the public eye and subject to scrutiny.
The end result of constructive criticism is better art and better MMOs/virtual worlds and better designers and artists.
I have let many good topics slip by in recent years because I couldn’t come up with a quality post about them. But I also blogged on some things purely because I wanted to have it said, like my latest post.
There’s enough space on the internet for all kinds of blogging styles, really. Thus, I respect your perspective, Wolfshead, but attacking another blogger isn’t a smart move. Tobold’s answer is, of course, consistent with his typical fight-fire-with-fire attitude.
One last point. Polished virtual worlds are like green energy: everybody knows they are coming. The question is simply, when.
But when they come they will change societies – just like expensive oil will, or like instant communication already does.
I didn’t attack Tobold at all. I clearly stated that I have a different style and different posting frequency than him. My article was about MMO blogging and bloggers hence the mention. Tobold has one of the most prolific MMO blogs out there and is fair game for analysis and comparison within the context of my piece.
There are good reasons my blog isn’t purely a WoW blog, a MMO blog or even a gaming blog. 😉
As for MMOs, I have my ideas for what would make a good one, and those ideas haven’t changed. I’m not in a position to leverage those ideas, though, so I’ll just work quietly on my other projects. Gotta wait for the opportune moment, savvy?
“Imagine an up and coming film critic trying to convince George Lucas or Steven Spielberg to make better movies. The chances of that happening are zero.”
That is true, but you’re missing a point here. While Lucas and Spielberg probably don’t read or care about the upcoming film critic, there will be up and coming film makers who do.
From the insightful discussion and criticism of the current state-of-the-art movie making they will draw conclusions, learn and get inspiration for the next generation of film making, which hopefully will be better.
You’re not primarily writing for Blizzard when you’re criticizing their games. You may very well, unknowlingly, be writing for and influencing an aspiring game creator, a person who maybe even doesn’t know that he/she is the one who is going to grab the torch and bring it forward.
The only hope for MMOs getting new and interesting again is if indies are finally able to break into the market.
Most gamers know this, but then they hear about interesting indie games and ignore them because “hey, they don’t have a $400 million budget.”
I have been the owner and lead developer at an indie studio for 15 years. We’ve done well, but whenever we come out with a new game it is absolutely brutal to get people to even try our game out. Getting people to write about it is nearly impossible.
You try to do something different and people reward you by ignoring you or even worse insulting you for being so stupid as to not do what everyone else has done.
It can be darn frustrating.
I don’t really see why anyone could dislike this “blog.” The only thing I don’t like–and that’s stretching it–is that I don’t have at least one new thing to read each week.
This is one of the few places where I’ll actually read every word that’s been written, and not just scroll straight to the small jokes and links before moving on.
I think one failing you commonly portray is that a majority of MMO gamers want what you want. That’s not to say what you want from a MMO is wrong, it just isn’t for everyone else.
You talk about people paying WoW or EQ2 as though they’re sheep that don’t know any better. You’re wrong in that regard. They know what they want and they’re happy with it.
In this essay you note the small guy making it big because they took a risk – rather than write about, why not do it yourself? Or is that the underlying point of this post?
“At the end of a day in the video game industry that last thing you feel like doing is reading about how the video game you just spent the last 8 months of your life on sucks by some teenage critic with no life.”
Your analysis post on Blizzcon, namechecking several Blizzard employees whom you project personalities onto, does not read it was written by someone with industry experience taking an objective stand on design decisions.
I have never claimed to be objective. I have always taken an editorial approach to what I write. This website all about what I think on various MMO design topics. I have strong beliefs about what I think makes a good MMO/virtual world.
Blizzard has the entire video game press cheering them on, so I don’t feel bad in the slightest that I present a counter point to that massive and disproportionate bias.
My BlizzCon 2011 post wasn’t all negative though and in fact I expressed admiration for various features of Mists of Pandaria.
I have always had great respect for the rank and file people that work at Blizzard. They have very little say about the direction of WoW and they have to do as their told by their superiors. My issue is with the leadership at Blizzard who are ultimately responsible for the direction of WoW and the MMO industry as a whole.
You don’t have to write 4 times a week in order for people to keep returning here. I appreciate your long-winded and well-crafted articles, especially for their “quality ranting”, and I second Nils that there’s a room for any type of writer/ blogger on the internet. some bloggers are like journalists, others are essayists, writers, poets. to me, “blogger” is a neutral term like that (although I know it’s widely perceived differently) and I personally count myself to the last crowd. I do like to read different bloggers though and very often it’s the very active blogs that help me process my own thoughts (I can overdo it and spend 2-3 days on a small article).
I can understand the tone of resignation that rings through your post besides this, but maybe you should allow yourself to shift focus a little sometime. do not attempt to change the world in every sentence you are writing, but “take a holiday” too and write about things you enjoy and inspire you about MMOs. sometimes such articles are just as insightful as well-presented critique. and they keep the mood balanced. 😉
Great advice Syl as are most of the posts in this thread. We all don’t have to agree 100% of the time either. I just wanted to share my honest and personal thoughts on MMO blogging. Thank you.
I can definitely relate to the tone of this article. I think I lost my zealotry within a year trying to convince people that the status quo is not necessarily worth defending, as the potential for this genre is so much higher.
I guess we, as a community, aren’t there yet. This weird hobby of playing MMORPGs is still occasionally sneered at in more mainstream social circles and so, most of the time, when it comes up in a casual conversation, criticism seems to be irrationally feared as we engage in that discussion from a defensive standpoint, trying to justify our time investment to the genre we love.
I can definitely see the same thing happening here in these blogs too, to some extent, in the form of “12 mil subscribers can’t be wrong”, or “majority like WoW, even if you don’t” type arguments that serve no purpose in any otherwise constructive discussion.
But as someone pointed out here earlier, the change won’t come from the industry leaders. They are too busy on treating their MMOs as business platforms to care. They are not as concerned about the quality of the genre as they are concerned about the accessibility of their game, and game design is dictated and prioritized by that.
Skyrim’s success is a very good indicator that there’s room and audience for exactly this type of MMORPG that takes it’s world and immersion fact0r seriously. But as long as animation, cinematics, story telling and voice acting is this expensive, I’m not very optimistic that we’ll see one any time soon.
I’m not a WOW player – I came here from the bunny-ears event post – but I read through about a half-dozen of your posts, and you have many good points. As someone who does almost entirely console gaming (and nowadays, almost entirely handheld gaming), I’ve noticed the same trend in those games, too – play-with-your-eyes-shut difficulty, minimal immersion, cheap gimmicks to appeal to the flash-over-quality types, removal of the aspects that actually presented a challenge/aided in immersion, etc.
(And, as an example in strategy-gaming, I also have not really played the Civilization series of games, but I occasionally drop in on the major fansite CivFanatics – and for about half a year after the release of Civilization 5, the Civ 5 forum was filled with enraged fans detailing at great length every single problem they had with the game. The main issues that repeatedly came up in these threads? Diplomacy system trashed by AIs making war without rhyme or reason, an overhaul of the combat system that the AI was unable to handle well (One Unit Per Tile, aka 1UPT), and oversimplification that made it trivial for experienced players to utterly dominate the game even on the highest difficulties. Does this sound familiar?
One thing loathers and defenders of Civ 5 seem to agree upon is that Civ 5 is more targeted towards the casual market, rather than the core fanbase. It remains to be seen whether this was a good or suicidal move… My apologies for the tangent – I mention this as a specific example that this trend is not just an MMORPG problem.)
On the bright side, I have noticed the pendulum beginning to slowly swing backwards in handheld gaming over the last several years – difficulty levels are rising, complexity is increasing, and the cult of ‘retro’ gaming is gaining a stronger influence over the industry. This may be because the casual market has moved to iPhone/iPod apps (pure speculation on my part – I don’t know if it actually has) – I don’t know. If that’s true, the rise of severely-simplified casual games might be a *good* thing, in that they’ll dominate that market niche and force big MMORPGs to back down from their current trend. Or it could be because the developers who grew up with the older, harder games are finally ascending to places of power and using their influence to go on nostalgia trips… Console gaming doesn’t seem to have hit that point yet, if indeed this reversal is real and not just my desperate wistful thinking, but it has hit the point of raw disgust in some franchises. (Resident Evil in particular comes to mind.)
In short – I think MMORPGs will experience a shift back in the direction you desire – and, in retrospect, people will see this time as the beginning of that shift – but it will take several years. Best of luck to you in lasting out those years, and keep up the blogging! Your posts are both accessible to the casual reader and apparently interesting to the experienced player [I can’t speak for them, of course, but they seem to like the posts], so you’re doing a better job than Blizzard. 😉
Hey Wolf,
I don’t play MMO’s like I use to so I don’t keep up on reading various blogs but the reason I always check in on yours every few weeks is because of your well thought out posts. Would I like to read more on your blog? Maybe but will always enjoy your long posts because unlike some other MMO bloggers you actually make me think.:) Have a great 2012.
I know this is an old article, but it was a spot on read. However, I think it is time you ended your silence and comment on the recent report of WoW losing yet more subscribers.
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/world-warcraft-loses-1-3-million-players-three-233637952.html
I’m sick of Blizz’s spin.
We’re waiting for someone to lead the charge.