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World of Warcraft General Article: From Console Games to WoW
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Patrick Breeden writes this look at introducing the popular MMORPG to console-only gamers everywhere.
By Patrick Breeden on June 29, 2009
Console gaming has been a big part of my life as far back as I can remember. My heroes of the 1980s were characters such as Mario, Samus, and Link. But as I got older, I realized that I was into fantasy and role-playing games as well. Skip ahead a few years and eventually this led to my friends asking me to try World of Warcraft with them, and I quickly found myself lost in a fantasy world that I had never imagined could exist. I fancied myself a master of gaming, but I quickly found myself overwhelmed with so much to learn about just one game. My goal in my articles here at MMORPG.com is to help my fellow console gamers and even new players understand a little more about World of Warcraft so that their early hours are a little more focused and less tedious. In this article, I will explain the best ways to make the transition from console gamer to World of Warcraft/MMORPG gamer.
Player Interaction
It's easy to get sucked into a great console game and forget that anyone is in the same room as you, but what if things changed and you were suddenly surrounded by other players? We console gamers normally don't have to interact with others unless we're playing a multiplayer game with a friend or online. Interacting with these online gamers or our friends normally doesn't change the game's aspect, so we tend to skip the chat and simply shoot, swing, or run to our own tune.
;)
Guilds can provide plenty
of players to learn from.
However, MMORPGs are designed to be interactive social network that rewards players for working together. Anyone who is considering making the jump to MMORPG gaming has to keep in mind that socializing is a must in the end due to the large group quests (Instances), even larger group activities where everyone plays a specific role (Raids), and elite enemies (boss enemies more or less). While some characters may get lucky enough to take on the latter alone, instances and raids are normally certain death for any character that is alone.
Social interaction also makes getting certain items so much easier than in your average RPG. I'm sure we can all remember when we had to run everywhere to find a certain item in RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire. That tired, old issue is no more with player trading and a very impressive marketing system known as the Auction House (AH). The latter is probably the best way to look at items you want and items you will probably be wanting in the future. It's also a great way to become a wealthy vender.
Gameplay
Many console gamers may be put off by the noticeably slower pace of gameplay that MMORPGs have. While they are arguably slower than even average console RPGs, console gamers who thrive on titleslike Halo 3 and Unreal Tournament will certainly notice that there is no rapid fire and constant pandemonium. However, I urge the player to continue simply for the challenge and complexity. Battles in World of Warcraft are hardly the point and shoot type that we console gamers are used to, and it demands that we try harder than we have in the past. "What spell should I start out with? Should I use my stun spell near the beginning or in the middle of the fight? Should I focus on protecting myself or killing the enemy as quickly as possible?" These are just some of the strategies that will go through your head as you plan your actions.
;)
Warsong Gulch is a
Capture the Flag battleground.
The strategy and challenge hardly stops at fighting a single enemy. World of Warcraft and many other MMORPGs challenge the player to sharpen their skills and enter raids and battlegrounds .
A raid is when a group of several players team together in order to take on a certain quest that requires a raid or even a certain activity. Only so many players can fit into a group, so a raid is several groups tied together as one. Aside from quests that require raids, this type of grouping is useful to take on several high level elite characters in a single area.
On the other hand, battlegrounds are a completely different animal. Different battlegrounds can feature different goals such as the Arathi Basin playing as a King of the Mountain - which will be my focus on explanation. The style of combat in this game variant is player versus player - or PvP. PvP pits an Alliance character (the heroes of the Warcraft story) against the Horde characters (the villains). Battlegrounds will become a land littered with bodies as each team fights and struggles to keep their territories. Holding a territory earns points, and the first team to reach two thousand points is the winner. Honor points are rewarded for each battle, and players can save up enough honor points to buy special items and gear.
Character building is an important part of the strategy of this game, and you're given many different ways to approach this aspect: Players can learn two professions (such as mining, blacksmithing, leatherworking, and plenty more), they can buy or collect weapons and armor to increase their statistics, and they can learn new or improved spells every other level. But the most innovative part of WoW's character building is the talent trees. Originally used in Diablo II, this system is responsible for making every character a little more unique than before. There are three different trees to choose from for each class, and talent points can be spent to advance down the tree to improve spells, unlock new spells, and grant special abilities. The player earns a talent point for every level after he's reached level ten. These points can be stripped from the tree and spent again, but there is a cost to do so - and the cost increases with every "respec."
Quests
The final and possibly most important aspect of the game I want to mention is the questing. Gaining levels in World of Warcraft and several MMORPGs differs greatly from console RPGs. You can choose to fight enemies to gain your levels, but you're also given the opportunity to perform quests for experience as well. Quests are given out by NPCs (non-player characters), and the requirements for completion are logged into your character's questbook for reference.
;)
The Instance dungeons can
be entered via a portal like you see here
Quests can range from something as simple as talking to another NPC to killing a certain number of specific mobs (monsters, enemies) to running all over the area to collect specific items. This might seem a little overwhelming at first, but questing is arguably the fastest and most rewarding way to gain levels in the game. Besides, you already know what to do if you're having trouble completing the quest on your own. We just talked about grouping!
Having briefly touched upon it earlier, I'd like to explain the importance of instances. You already know that it's a quest area for a large group of players, but it's also important to know that this type of dungeon is generated only for your group. No one can brush by your group and interrupt or rescue the group if something is going wrong. Also, keep in mind that the majority of instances have only elite mobs that have very high armor ratings and hit points.
Instances are important to run simply because of the loot (items) that the mobs drop when killed. This is where most players obtain their highly uncommon or rare weapons and equipment, and having these items will help the levels pour in even faster. Possibly the hardest thing about instances is finding the right group to perform them with, but I'll leave that topic for a future article.
World of Warcraft is nothing like console gaming; I can humbly admit this. But it's definitely another fun, great aspect in the gaming world that every gamer should at least try once before writing it off. Hopefully this article gets passed around to a few curious people who swear by the controller and convinces them to turn to the keyboard if only for a little while. Until next time, readers, I'll see you in Kargath.
Article starts out good with showing the differences between standard console games and WoW/MMOs but I think it trailed off in the end. I'd suggest that one of your followup articles take a more in-depth look at the Player interaction aspect since thats the defining factor of these types of games (The MMO part of the game). Guilds are the biggest thing that come to mind.
Oh.. And the Horde is not the Villains... Strictly speaking neither side is any more good or evil than the other, they just happen to not get along very well.
The PS3 can support keyboards and mice so I'll stick with console gaming and there are alot of MMO's hitting the consoles
Such as?
More like there is one, maybe two hitting the consoles. And none of them coming anytime soon. FF is the only one I know of currently on the console, I think EQ also has a console version but I'm not sure if that was succesful or even launched.
FFXI and EQ Online Adventures are the only 2 console-based MMOs that I know of. I don't know about the successfulness of EQOA, but it's been out since 2005, I believe, and as far as I know, is still online.
More like there is one, maybe two hitting the consoles. And none of them coming anytime soon. FF is the only one I know of currently on the console, I think EQ also has a console version but I'm not sure if that was succesful or even launched.
I can easily name a few.
The Agency, Champions Online, DC universe, Final Fantasy XIV, and Free Realms off the top of my head.
EQ had one for the PS2,
and Final Fantasy XI was released on PS2 and on the 360.
MMO games that run on consoles don't require a keyboard or mouse on the console to play as the vast majority of consoles do not have them. What this results in is a major dumbing down of the games UI so it is playable on the controller. With that in mind many of us will avoid such games as they are pretty much at the bottom end of MMO's because of this.
So sticking to your console will force you to miss most of the good games out there.
Oh and the console version of EQ was NOT the MMO.
MMO games that run on consoles don't require a keyboard or mouse on the console to play as the vast majority of consoles do not have them. What this results in is a major dumbing down of the games UI so it is playable on the controller. With that in mind many of us will avoid such games as they are pretty much at the bottom end of MMO's because of this.
So sticking to your console will force you to miss most of the good games out there.
Oh and the console version of EQ was NOT the MMO.
Actually yes EQ or the proper name Everquest online Adventures was and still is an mmo played on the ps2. Not near the people play now that did a few years back but the game is still active . You can also use a keyboard with this game and it helps out quite a bit. The ps2 xbox 360 and ps3 all support the use of keyboards and ps3 supports a mouse.
Also FF, free realms and a Massivley multiplayer shooter MAG have been announced as coming to the ps3 not to mention sony has stated that all future mmos they work on will show up on console, I guess only time will tell.
Thanks for reading and big thanks for the suggestion. I think we're on the same wave of thought because guilds were definitely my next target of discussion.
Sorry if I threw everyone for a loop with that villain part. They're seen as the villains due to the Burning Legion's control over the Orcs in War2.
Default WoW UI makes my eyes bleed.
It makes my eyes bleed as well. I thought it best to get some default screens for the first article so any newer players that actually want to try aren't wondering what's up with everything being different on their end. I'm always looking for the best add-ons, so feel free to make any suggestions.
Good article.
I do think it should address MMORPGs in general, not only WoW. A console gamer's first MMO experience isn't necessarily going to be WoW and, so, the experiences as described in the article aren't necessarily going to represent what a first-time player encounters.
Other MMOs put more or less emphasis on different areas than WoW does and so the experience described for WoW won't resemble that of other MMOs. In FFXI, for example, you don't get xp for quests or missions (Fields of Valor notwithstanding; they're more "repeatable tasks" than quests anyway), so questing wouldn't be the fastest way to go.
That said.. I find the article also touches on something a bit ironic. It's ironic because when console gamers started hitting MMOs.. WoW in particular.. the very things that the article points out as being differences to get used to are the very thing many complain about.
For example:
- They don't like having to "grind quests" to level.. or "grind mobs". Many don't like the idea of having to level at all and claim you should start off able to do end-game content (completely missing one core element of a MMO in the process, IMO).
- Many abhore the idea of having to group with other players, ever, for any reason. It started out "innocent" enough... Keep group content in there, but also provide enough they can do so they can play the game without having to look for a group... and they got their wishes.
But that wasn't good enough...
Before long people started complaining that there shouldn't be any content that requires a group.. everything should be soloable. They were given more solo content; enough to solo clear to end-game on.
But they still weren't happy...
A little while later, they started demanding that raids be made faster/easier and requiring smaller groups to complete. They were granted their wish in the form of smaller raids.
But that still wasn't enough for a number of them...
I've been seeing people demand soloable raid bosses... They feel it's "unfair" to "force them" to group up to take down an epic boss like that.
In short... It seems to me (and has for a long time now) that a sizable portion of the new "console generation" of MMO players won't be happy until MMOS play just like single-player console games. They're still trying to "win the game", they're still trying to "get the best score" (figuratively speaking)... until they get bored and are ready to move on to the next one.
MMOs are not "disposable" games. They're not intended to be "beat it once... and move on to the next" type games. They're intended to be on-going, long-term experiences with a heavy social element that brings players together... either cooperatively or competitively. It might sound arrogant of me to say this... and I don't mean it that way... but I think the idea of a MMO is lost on many newer players. They're approaching them as they would a single-player game... and in that, they're only setting themself up for frustration from the start.
You bring up some great points, and I'm hoping to assist my console brothers and sisters in joining the MMORPG community with minimal pain. I too suffered from the symptoms that you listed, but a friend helped cure me of those. I chose World of Warcraft as my medium not only because it's my game of choice when it comes to MMOs but also because that's the game they're going to hear about. They're going to hear about WoW, they're going to see WoW when they go to other websites such as ScrewAttack.com(shameless plug - I'm a mod there), and they're viewing commercials of the revamp of Game Fuel. At this point it's safe to say that if any console game were to play a MMO, they'd choose WoW because of advertisements alone. Personally, my first MMORPG was Dark Age of Camelot.
A big thing I plan to preach when I talk about console gamers to WoW is comraddery because I know from experience that's the first thing they'll reject. So, as someone previously suggested, talking about the guilds would be the next best move.
Thank you for the feedback. With the help of readers like you, I hope to be able to create a mini-guide to stop the console conversion nonsense before it begins.