The WOW exodus

 "Do you hear the people sing-"

So full cards on the table; I haven't played an MMO for nigh on 3 years now and back when I did that MMO was not World of Warcraft. As it just so happens that was my days of playing the Elder Scrolls Onlin, which crucially is not a subscription based MMO and thus many out there wouldn't even consider that a real MMO background. So what I'm trying to say is that I am no great authority on the world of Massively Multiplayer Online games, nor the definition of what constitutes an online ecosystem to be 'massive'. (Always hated the MMO acronym) As such the comings and goings of WOW have been nothing but background noise to me throughout the years, I've peaked a few of their world grade cinematic trailers from time-to-time, but without any context it's pretty much just a fireworks show, and I find fireworks shows deathly boring. (Don't tell Yoimiya I said that.) But if you've been around this blog any length of time at all you'll be fully aware of my addict-like obsession with a 'story'; thus the tale of the WOW exodus has sparked my attention such to the point I want to talk about it today.

But firstly I feel it's important to say, this is the second Blizzard story this week that I've covered without going into their recent allegations, because honestly I don't even want to talk about all that stuff anyway. It's hardly related to gaming for one, and for two it just makes me feel icky to think about. Besides, it's not necessarily related to the exodus, although I think there's a case to be made that it certainly exacerbated the issue. Not to take the thunder out of the winds of the FF team, nor to exonerate the WOW team of any and all misdeeds, but this has been an absolutely awful few months for Blizzard and it's impossible to divorce any of their wrong-doings from one another at this point. Be that as it may, that's exactly what I'm going to do even if I have to purposefully and pointedly adopt a reductive view of the situation in order to do. We all understand? General agreement reached? Good. Now for the story.

What if I told you that WOW is not the last hope of the MMO world? What if I was to enigmatically turn my little green puppet head to the unknowable stars and mumble "No. There is another..." Because whilst all of these years the subscription MMO of the world was World of Warcraft, another game slowly stirred in the wings, born from a franchise even more beloved than Warcraft. I speak, of course, of the Final Fantasy MMO: Final Fantasy Ni- oh wait not that one. Final Fantasy XIV! (The one they bought out whilst the Kingdom Hearts guy was screwing around with his Versus Thirteen game for 8 years.) There was a MMO which started off as a disappointment to the series name, but then was treated to a total conversion treatment and came out the belle of the ball; like the protagonist of an early 2000's high school movie. In an alternate universe one might call this the 'Anthem 2.0 manoeuvre', but that universe it not this one... for obvious reasons.

In the proceeding years FFXIV has been getting more and more popular as an alternative to WOW, all the while the general lack of competition in the MMO space has slowly drained the player pool thus bringing the gap between these games closer and closer. In retrospect I hear that a lot of WOW players had been decently unsatisfied with the direction of their personality-defining hobby for a while now since the integrity of the game had given way to general team laziness, anaemic updates that seemed to take longer and longer to come out, and, surprise surprise, microtransactions. Oh the microtransactions. I never knew this at the time, but Blizzard have been slowly perfecting their craft as the 'time saver' kings, finding ways to turn literally every single possible thing one can achieve in the game into a service purchasable with real money. Collectibles, gear, levels, progress; give the horned man in the executive suit his blood money and Daddy Blizzard will pretty much play the game for you. So you can get back to... not playing the game, I guess.

Seriously though, when we're talking about MMO's the monetisation model is so important to get right it might as well be considered part of the gameplay balancing. (Well, in the case of WOW it should be, at least.) It's just like the problem approaching Star Citizen whenever that game is actually realised; if you turn everything that could be an achievement into a marketplace item then you rob the satisfaction of the player actually achieving something, and if there's nothing to achieve then why should you play the game? Yes, experiencing something new will get you through the door, but sticking around for months and staying to dropping those subscription bucks; that only happens when your community has viable goals to shoot for. Of course, that is by no means the only problem with WOW of today, (at least not how the haters tell it) but from what I hear it's a big one. But what about this Exodus I'm talking about?

Well, in the early days of July a popular WOW streamer called Asmongold unintentionally proved once again why influencer marketing is some of the most powerful in the entire entertainment industry, when he switched his MMO of choice to Final Fantasy XIV citing dissatisfaction with Blizzard and the direction of WOW. With his departure came a ludicrous amount of attention and coverage which, predictably, encouraged many to follow suit to the point where, for the first time in their careers, Final Fantasy XIV actually overtook WOW in online attention. Now we can't lay this all at the feet of Asmongold, (as much as supposed internal leak documents are trying to do) but it's clear that if so many people were willing to jump ships so expediently, they must have been pushed to the gangplank already. What followed was a Burning Crusade of sorts as fans burnt out of WOW, cancelled their subscriptions and spent the next half day trying to buy FFXIV because that's how long it takes and the FF team really need to rework that. (Oh, that half-hearted reference is about the extent of my WOW knowledge expended by-the-by; don't expect anything else)

Now of course this doesn't mean that World of Warcraft is going to explode overnight due to lack of users, the game can probably run perfectly fine with a fraction of the margins that it has, but this does represent something of a watershed moment for the 17 year old game. Because with Blizzard how it is now, the way they exist and the people they have working for them, they probably won't be coming back from this moment to retake the MMO crown. Now when you think about that, it's incredibly flattering to old school WOW to think that they were on top for over a decade, and a little bit sad to see the landscape of the genre change so much since. Like watching a venerated golden-scaled dragon loss it's last hit point and tumble from the skin, except nowhere near as dramatic as that; where did I even get that visual from? Which isn't to say FFXIV is the new top-dog now, New Worlds is on the way and despite the fact I think that game looks like flaming hot garbage there are a sizable number of MMO starved players out there and new comers to the genre entirely who are willing to give it a shot. Could this be a renaissance for the MMO genre we're looking at, maybe one with a crown shared amidst a handful of titles? Never say never, I'd say.

But what does this mean for Blizzard going forward? World of Warcraft was one of their biggest points of self pride for the company, being a game that every MMO fan in the universe was stuck with no matter how much they wanted out, and now the spell is broken and thus so is the '1# MMO' mug on the team's desk. Well with any luck this might be a moment of sell reflection for the company where they see the ways in which they changed from the 'player first' initiative they were founded on and try to rectify that wound, but that's not going to happen. Games companies have this point where they grow so big that the heart becomes clotted and diseased, or simply is cut out entirely. Passion falls to the wayside as those that actually 'play' games are discarded for those that only 'make' them. It's a big difference, and one that can be felt by anyone who plays these games only to feel that the soul behind decisions is not made by someone who wants the game to be better. Do you think an actual player of an MMO would want every single achievement they made to be invalidated with 'time saver purchases'? Do you think they would want to throw in timegates stopping you from playing more than 4 dungeons a day? (I used to have a friend who thought it would be a great idea to throw in a day-long cooldown after character death. We're not friends anymore.) The player-makers have moved on, some from the industry entirely and others to smaller ventures where they're in control, and that which remains are mere doppelgangers; wearing the skin of those that we respected, but sharing none of the inner substance. So WOW isn't coming back, Blizzard isn't getting better, Bioware aren't redeeming themselves, Bethesda has me distinctly worried, CDPR need to pull up their bootstraps and Ubisoft can talk considering the allegations they've been through recently. (That last point wasn't necessarily related, but if I'm not going to write a blog about it I need to vent my frustrations some way)

Hubs'n'Homes

Now I lay me down to sleep.

Yesterday I discussed how the inclusion of player building mechanics help to establish a personal bond between players and the game. I wanted to expand upon that today, there is another mechanic that video game developers sometimes utilize in order to establish a layer of immersion between the player and their avatar: Player hubs. Often times these appear as a very ancillary feature to the game that they're coupled to, offering very little in the way of tangible or tactical value. That makes it easy to shrug off the transformative effect that player hubs and homes can have on the cohesion and accessibility of the game world. An effect I intend to highlight.

Player hubs are an important element of world building and storytelling in open-world roleplaying environments. Whenever the player is told to suspend their disbelief and accept that a strange new world exists, there is a small list of qualifiers that typically needs to be met in order to establish that world as feasible. (Of course this is only 'typically' the case. There is no irrefutable guide to perfect world building or storytelling.) The storytellers need to provide a comprehensive society, a grounded perspective and a coherent world space. Player hubs help fulfill the last category and answer that most simple of questions: Where does the protagonist go when they aren't saving the world?

In most mediums this question doesn't need to be asked let alone answered, in fact is doesn't need to be asked in most video games either. But open world role-playing experiences are a different type of beast to any of those other types of stories. A lot of the time, open-world games have the player taking control of a character throughout their daily lives 24/7, allowing the player to feel as though they have become one and the same with their avatar. This is the reason why open-world RPG's tend not to be as perpetually action packed as one might expect from an FPS. Action is still usually guaranteed, but you need to experience the slow moments too in order heighten the disparity when everything goes to heck during the action moments. Player hubs are an expansion upon that philosophy, granting seconds of respite to juxtapose against the hours of strife. 

Just so that we are all on the same page, when I say 'Player Hub' I am referring to a space that the protagonist(s) can return to. A place that serves as some sort of home base. I have no more identifying criteria than that, although I believe what I do have is adequate enough grounds upon which to understand today's focus.  Although, this does mean that there are a lot more examples then I could ever hope to list in a single blog. Therefore, I will instead describe what type of player hub I am referring to and explain the effect it has on the wider game. With that in mind, Let's start with one of the more clever examples of player hubs that I have seen in recent years.

A GUI (Or Graphical user interface) in the context of gaming, is most commonly an overlay on the screen that gives the player useful information about the character and their world; such as how many hitpoints remain and how much ammo they have. This specific use is called a HUD. However, GUI can be also be used to refer to inventory menus and options screens. Obviously, this is an essential part of almost any modern video game; afterall, interactive coherence is a core pillar of game design. However, for years now they have been almost universally identical to one another. Developers usually value functionality over presentation when it comes to these elements and we rarely see something truly unique done with the idea. But Sometimes, there are those developers who go above and beyond and marry essential GUI elements into their player hub in a seamless environment.

One of the best examples I can think of for this would be Fable 3. Early on in that game you are introduced to the world space known as 'Sactuary' that you can enter at any time. Whenever you go into 'Sanctuary', you have a 3d world space that is essentially a traditional RPG menu bought into an interactive setting. You have the room where your outfits are stored, the room your money is displayed along with a transaction log and a map you can use to fast travel. Divinity: Dragon Commander does something similar with 'The Raven'. Whenever you are between tactical turns the player is thrown back to their ship 'The Raven' where they can interact with ambassadors, unlock research, and go learn about crew members. 'The Raven' is essentially another set of menus that you have to click through only these are 3d animated. Then there is the Clocktower in 2014's Thief. Here Garrett can look at all the impressive loot he's stolen, essentially acting as an interactive 'collections' menu.

These 3D spaces all transform traditionally bare bone menus into canonical spaces to explore. This way, when the player is doing what is usually busywork (tidying inventory, planning tech trees and viewing treasures) they are never taken out of the immersion of the world they are meant to be inhabiting. It is a clever way of allowing players the respite of home without having to worry too much about the effect on pacing it might have. The more immersed the audience, the easier it is for the storytellers to build trust with that audience and invest in rapport.

The most traditional use of player hubs in RPG's is in the common player home. Places that the avatar can call their own that they can return to time and time again when the mood takes them. Oftentimes in open-world RPG's, player homes aren't even essential destinations but rather optional undertakings that the player can pursue if they so choose. RPG's like Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls and Fallout,  make great use of player homes as immersion vehicles. Those are both games where the avatar spends all their time in the presence of their player, therefore the player home fills a gap in the world's logic that tugs at the back of your mind. Narratively, the locations are inconsequential and left entirely up to the player to acquire, much like a lot of elements in Bethesda games.

Home spaces like the Highwind from Final Fantasy VII, The SSV Normandy from Mass Effect and the camp from 'Dragon Age: Origins', are essential narrative locations that playable characters all meet at. In party-based RPG's like these, the home hub is a gathering place for all the party to interact. Oftentimes in these games it is rare for the player to have their entire roster in action, so having the chance to interact with them on peaceful ground is a good rapport building mechanism. Players have the chance to unwind in a relatively peaceful area and assume the role of team leader like the game implies that you are.

Finally, there the types of hubs the players visit in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying games. MMORPG's have player hubs that fulfill vastly different roles than other games, for no other reason then the fact that they are online experiences. It is harder to find a quiet spot for yourself in an MMO and that's not what these kinds of hubs are designed for. In MMO's, these spaces are used for a variety of different purposes both designed and adopted. Sometimes they exist for ease of access between different activities or world spaces and they sometimes they are utilized as meet spots between players. MMO hubs are supposed to serve as a sort of communal lounge, or a clubhouse, where a variety of people meet and interact with each other in a casual space without the stress of min-maxing, monster fighting or mob grinding to interrupt.

Due to their communal nature, MMO Hubs generally take the form of communal areas like the city in Neverwinter or the fleet in The Old Republic. In Neverwinter, the hub space allows for players to meet vendors, quest givers, craftsmen and all manner of useful functions. All of these could potentially be replaced by menu's but, similar to the GUI replacement hubs, the 3d environment is more fun and immersive .The Old Republic's fleet has a more practical role, it serves as the nexus point between all of your adventures. Whilst, yes, the bulk of your travels will be conducted from the player's ship; the fleet is the location from which players will connect with a vast majority of the community events and endgame content. Raids, events and boss-slaying parties are all conducted or built from the decks of the fleet.

Player hubs and homes are one of the small, but appreciated touches that we find in games. They are one of the individual elements that add up to create a believable world for the audience to interact with. That is why we see them represented so often in modern games, especially in RPG's. Video game's are a much more involved venture then movies or books meaning that the creators often have to go that extra mile in order to keep the player attached. Anyone who has given up on a hundred hour RPG knows the struggle to stay interested all too well. Immersion and context are the lynch pin that, when executed well, gives the player the reason to stick around for the long haul. Some may think the presentation of something as universal as a hub seems insignificant to that equation, but you'll often find that small details are all the more meaningful than the large set-pieces when it comes to keeping players happy. Keep your end-of-the-world threats and your eardrum shattering explosions, I just want a place to lay my head.