Why no GM Events?

Q u o t e:
You know just some random things like Hogger actually taking a raid force.
Some mob named Chuck Norris rampaging through the Barrens.
Naga and Murlocs swimming around the canals in Stormwind.

This game could use a little GM loving from time to time.

As much as we love the idea of of this, it's just not possible to do it on a large scale and give everyone the opportunity to participate. Live events take a lot of resources and with as many realms as we have, it would be near impossible to cover them all to any satisfaction of the players in them. Someone would always be left out and on top of that people can often react negatively to them by claiming there was bias involved in how the event plays out. There are as many negative effects of a live event as there are positive but for the most part it's about the scale of things that would need to be in order to be even close to successful.

This said though, the World Event team is constantly working to think up new events that people can take part in.

Q u o t e:



how about automate the live events?

Basically, events that happen once a day at a random time somewhere in Azeroth?

For example...

Mobs of Yeti attack Everlook for 10 minutes?

etc.... something unpredictable, short, random, and wouldn't create server performance problems.

We already have the treasure run and other small details that occur automatically. Anything automated wouldn't be a live event anymore. ;)

Also, we can't do live events for one realm and not do it for them all. There has to be some consistency between them all.

I think the best thing to do though is if you have ideas for things you'd like to see occur, is to post about them in the suggestions forums.

Hello, everyone! For those who were previously unaware of my existence, I'm one of the World Event Designers on the WoW team. My crew is responsible for the various holidays and other dynamic events in the game. We have a pretty solid notion of what past MMOGs have done in the realm of events. I personally have had a significant hand in the creation and execution of live events in previous MMOGs, so I'm very familiar with the ins and outs of the process.

Now, I'd like to state that it's a conscious design choice that we do not have live events in our game. There are a number of factors that brought us to this decision, and I'll do my best to clarify some of them for you. It's very easy to look at another game and say, "But X game did this," without fully realizing the mechanics of each individual situation.

Manpower is the first consideration. In order to execute these events, you need to have an adequate number of properly-trained employees to do what is required. In a small MMO environment with relatively few players, this can be easily done; it becomes more difficult with a larger population. We have over 150 realms in the North American service region alone -- our playerbase worldwide is quite significant. We'd want to keep these events up to the quality standards of Blizzard, which would require excellent typists and role players, able to think on their feet, with a working grasp of Warcraft lore (not to mention the language requirements). The numbers would be rather large to cover that many servers adequately. We choose not to use volunteers, as there are a number of other complications that come with such a program; as such, these individuals would have to be employees, and that's a weighty price indeed for something that, in the end, wouldn't garner much return.

This is assuming that one would have teams to cover groups of servers. Ideally, you want to execute live events fairly close to one another across all realms. This eliminates spoilers and also prevents overcrowding if the event is advertised or leaked ahead of time. (Those who were present for the very first opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj have an idea of how potentially problematic said overcrowding can be for a realm.) One could potentially operate with a very small, roaming team of actors doing occasional events -- but then the impact on the playerbase is lowered to practically nil.

There are technical considerations to be made, as well. Live actors playing NPCs tend to gather a large crowd in a small area, and that leads to latency and potential technical problems. It's difficult for a player to experience and enjoy a live event in such a situation. Now, crowds can be alleviated if more people are acting at the same time, thus spreading out the population... but this returns to the manpower issue.

If that was too longwinded, then here's the summary: live events, while certainly engaging, require high and constant maintenance to ensure high quality, and do not impact the playerbase enough for the large investment required.

We prefer to focus our energy on scripted dynamic events, such as the holidays and the Scourge Invasion. I understand that some of you would prefer to see more drastic occurrences, such as Stormwind levelled as a result of such an event, but for the time being we prefer said events be more of an "opt-in" experience -- you shouldn't be forced to defend Stormwind from assault. We prefer to reward the player for participating, rather than punishing the player for ignoring it. Thus it allows those who would rather not have anything to do with the events (and yes, those players do exist) to avoid them, while pointing those who want to participate in the right direction.

This isn't to say that we're not planning some interesting and epic things... but you probably won't see Azeroth become one giant smoking crater as a result of our efforts. ;)

Q u o t e:
Hi Kisirani,

I remember you posts regarding the Scourge Invasion a while back. Although I agree that there are players out there who would rather have nothing to do with such events (I vaguely remember a player complaining about not being able to farm herbs because of undead mobs spawning ...) but have you thought that the opt-in approach leaves much to be desired? The thought of having to defend something, be it an NPC, a town or city brings the gaming experience to another level and actually gives the player a deeper level of immersion.

The current events don't do this and frankly aren't too spectacular. You can start small and have mobs spawn and attack specific targets in force (not 2-3 mobs at a time), not actual level the area but at least do some damage where the player's interest are at risk so they feel obliged to do something about it. Now I use the phrase 'feel obliged' since they have the CHOICE of whether they wish to defend their interest or just ignore it. They are in no way forced to contend with the problem. If say an event prevented a player from using the Zepplins for hours on end then this would be clearly disrupting them from playing the game they want but I doubt there would be any event this extreme. And as always there are multiple things/methods to do and take to get X done. Can't farm in this spot, well move to another. Can't use the Zeps, ask for a portal or a summon or use the boats. Added danger and inconveniences makes the game more immerse and allows the players to spend time defending something of importance to them ...

I just hope that you take this into consideration. We don't all expect live events executed by actual people but something more then the current events which are very static IMO.

Keep up the good work though =)

Understand that I, personally, am an immersion seeker. I understand the drive behind wanting your actions to make a difference in these events, and I understand the notion that winning back something that was once lost helps you feel that way.

And there are things in the game right now that are based around that concept -- but they're specifically designed to be that way from the start.

Restricting or disabling access to content that was previously available before an event occurred is obviously no large problem for the individual who plays the game often. You know where to go if you need something, and you have the time to go there. But the person who only has half an hour to play may not have that knowledge, and they certainly don't have that time. Our design philosophies focus around both crowds, not simply those after immersion.

And that is why the events are set up the way they are -- lead-ins in populated areas that allow for the interested players to see and experience the breadth of the event without killing the playtime of the individual who doesn't have much time to dedicate to the game in general. I'm not saying that we'll never threaten a major city or hub with something big... but you probably won't see us shut down an area that is normally accessible when we drop in a world event.

Q u o t e:
What I'm gathering from this thread is that Blizzard doesn't want to do something to please the customer becuase it will require extra work.

I'm sorry that's what you're gathering from this thread. I'll break it down:

Live events do not reach a large number of players unless you have an unimaginable number of employees working on them constantly. The percentage will always be fairly small. Technical issues can and often do surface during these events.

The resources dedicated to doing said live events for said small number of people could instead be dedicated towards creating content guaranteed to hit a wider audience.

I've witnessed live events before I was involved in the game industry. I've performed live events for players. I understand the draw; nothing can quite replace that genuine human interaction. But the simple fact remains that the return we'd get for setting up such a program for the humungous project that World of Warcraft has become would not be worth the immense investment. I'm not just referring to funds, but also the percentage of people that would be affected by such an undertaking. Ultimately, while people who have witnessed live events want to see more of them, the vast majority of the playerbase would never see one -- and that's a lot of time and resources to dedicate to something the players would never witness.

(And to head you off at the pass -- raid dungeons, while initially only available to the bleeding edge of raiding groups, become more and more accessible over time, and remain there. This is different from a one-time live event which would affect maybe a few thousand people across the realms and never be seen again.)

Now then. Poxus, I am well aware it doesn't have to be a grand event. However, what you're looking for is not necessarily something at which the GMs may be skilled. A good customer service representative may not be a good role player. They may not have a good working knowledge of the lore. Thus it becomes extremely difficult to maintain the Blizzard standard of quality. And at the same time, the customer service response time might well suffer -- if someone needs a relatively fast GM response, would you delay that for a live event?

No, if you want to do it right, you generally want a dedicated staff for such things. I've seen the results of using customer service representatives in these roles in the past, and it isn't precisely what you're looking for. :)