WIRED Interview with Ion Hazzikostas - How World of Warcraft Has Evolved

Live Posted 2020/05/11 at 8:44 AM by Archimtiros

WIRED interviewedWoW had become less socialGreg StreetJ. Allen BrackfantasticRead the full interview at WIRED
Accessibility and Sharing Information

Games are very rapidly solved these days. The internet as a whole, the world as a whole, has refined the process of accelerating and socializing information, figuring out problems.

You’d have a whole competitive hierarchy in a local arcade, a local video game store, where there was some character that was perceived as the best or the strongest because some person in the neighborhood was great with them. But in the next town over, arcade regulars battled with different tricks, different strategies, a different hierarchy of characters. Information was fragmented, localized.

The reality is that almost everybody was playing the game wrong. The internet as a whole, the world as a whole, has refined the process of accelerating and socializing information, figuring out problems.

Today, people are almost trained to min-max. The community pushes people in that direction, especially socially. Even if it’s not your preferred playstyle, the people who may want you in your group or may not, are holding you to some of those standards. Once it’s knowable, you’re expected to know.

Check the PinsEvolving Social Dynamics

Players were much more likely to be tolerant of each other’s faults. You probably weren’t going to kick your healer who made a mistake from the group, because then you’d be back to spamming chat for 30 more minutes.

class Discord

It’s amazing how some of the old tropes you never quite get away from. I actually have a coworker who was one of the original developers on a World of Warcraft, whose name you'd definitely recognize if I said it, whose own personal WoW Classic group split up at level 60 over loot drama in Blackrock. This is a group of developers who played the game 15 years ago, worked on the game 15 years ago.

War never changesCapturing the Mystery

One of the biggest things that’s exciting about the concept of an MMO is going into an unexplored, undiscovered world. It’s almost the promise of something that somehow breaks all the rules we were talking about when it comes to how players understand and deconstruct systems. We have an incredibly passionate community we couldn't be more grateful for, but we're still always chasing that mystery, that fantasy of the unexplored and undiscovered.

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Comment by Daniel2020I always enjoy hearing from Ion. I'm glad the 'mystification' of the world is being discussed. I think at the core of my fondness of WoW was the sense of wonder I had exploring the world at its inception and I really do miss that.Comment by ValcaiusMight want to double check the link, that brought me to an interview with Steve DanuserComment by JNB70He is not going to say anything different, is he? The social aspect took a body blow when they connected servers. You were lucky to encounter people from your server anywhere.
How he believes that social interaction is on the same level as it was in vanilla blows my mind.
The downfall is not down to the access of information that is the epitome of a strawman argument.
The downfall is getting into an instance and not a single word is spoken or typed.
The downfall is doing LFR (pointless I know) and being met with toxic trolling chat.
The downfall is the lack of action against players who play solely to spoil everyone else's fun.
The downfall is an MMORPG where you don't need a group for 95% of the content.
The downfall is Blizzard's lack of concern or cares about anything but the bottom line.Comment by zawyerCrossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.Comment by JackseltjeCrossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.Comment by UnowhatHe is not going to say anything different, is he? The social aspect took a body blow when they connected servers. You were lucky to encounter people from your server anywhere.
How he believes that social interaction is on the same level as it was in vanilla blows my mind.
The downfall is not down to the access of information that is the epitome of a strawman argument.
The downfall is getting into an instance and not a single word is spoken or typed.
The downfall is doing LFR (pointless I know) and being met with toxic trolling chat.
The downfall is the lack of action against players who play solely to spoil everyone else's fun.
The downfall is an MMORPG where you don't need a group for 95% of the content.
The downfall is Blizzard's lack of concern or cares about anything but the bottom line.Comment by PerothviusWIRED Interview with Ion Hazzikostas - How World of Warcraft Has DevolvedComment by bobbis91Crossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.Comment by AlakeiThancanHe is not going to say anything different, is he? The social aspect took a body blow when they connected servers. You were lucky to encounter people from your server anywhere.
How he believes that social interaction is on the same level as it was in vanilla blows my mind.
The downfall is not down to the access of information that is the epitome of a strawman argument.
The downfall is getting into an instance and not a single word is spoken or typed.
The downfall is doing LFR (pointless I know) and being met with toxic trolling chat.
The downfall is the lack of action against players who play solely to spoil everyone else's fun.
The downfall is an MMORPG where you don't need a group for 95% of the content.
The downfall is Blizzard's lack of concern or cares about anything but the bottom line.Comment by GortuskReally enjoyed this article. I found your points to what was said by Ion to match my experience in the game’s evolution, and our evolution of knowledge, during the past 13 years I’ve played WoW.Comment by Song2I think some people easily confuse, "people don't socialise in wow any more" with "people don't socialise with me in wow anymore"

The difference between classic wow and modern wow is simply that you don't need meet some socially starved pug half way to get some easy content done, but that dosn't mean people don't socialise alot and regularly within guilds and community's to talk the hard stuff.

If you think you can do 95% of the game without socialising, your only doing 10% of it to begin with.Comment by Artek88I still wonder why they don't do anything with sites like Removed and soo on that makes grand black market from this game... people selling LITERALLY everything for gold and for gold buying everything that is even halfly blizzard which automatically process to less income because of virtual currency... maybe its not a good topic/place to put it here but i think its a good opportunity.Comment by BlackTiger1974Words... I hate words...Comment by zawyerCrossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.Comment by DoomRevenantCrossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.exactlyComment by ShaggypawThey tried to add mysteries then the secret finding discord came alive. They figure it out with a few thousand other players and then cuckhead.com publishes a how to then the mad rush is on for the rest of us to do it.

I think the failing atm is WoW still has horrible ingame tools to find new groups to join. The guild finder is absolute garbage and is more or less useless. The forums are ok (found a few guilds that way) but feels not very personal and you feel disconnected from the game finding a guild that way. I want to be able to promote cross guild functions IE alliances. Small guilds for like minded. Alliances for finding active players in slow times. Community channels were supposed to do this but a sported alliance feature would be more helpful.

They could slow the pace down. Allow time for alts and other things. It's one of the things I'm looking forward to in Shadowlands.Comment by SamaranerCrossrealm and sharding makes the world less social automatically. Both from how I behave towards others and vice versa. When I see others doing world content, I honestly cant tell the difference from those players joining me for a world quest or the island expedition NPCs I beat up every week. There are never any words written, from myself or anyone in the group. General chat is 99% coords to an occational rare and thats it. Even if the game rewards me for interracting with others, I never feel like doing it, because it doesnt give me anything in return in the long run. I do like the LFG tool for dungeons, PvP and raids. But for world quests and rare killing it feels like a solo experience with bots.Comment by 1412075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by AngerftwPeople don't talk. That's how it's gonna be. People used to talk to each other back in the day because in '04 a 3D game with a massive world where you could do stuff with other players in an accessible game was this brilliant once in a decade novelty where people just started talking or whispering whenever they saw a rando questing in Stranglethorn just like themselves, just because.

It is never going to be social as much as it was back in the day. One way they could achieve that is by tuning everything on the skill and time effort of Mythic raiders. Only then, people will have something to talk about. Mostly about how "THEY SUCK AND SHOULD UNINSTALL WOW AND GET A %^&*ING LIFE COZ THEY'RE FAILURES IN REAL LIFE AND SHOULD KILL THEMSELVES"

Everyone rants about "woW iS NoT sOciAL anyMoRe" like if people start typing, everything about the game is gonna be infinitely better. No one removed the ability to talk. People just stopped using it because it's not necessary anymore. It's not because of the LFR or LFG either. People are more knowledgable about the game compared to 04. Everyone knows what a boss does or drops before it hits live. Everyone knows how to kill a boss before they ever kill it for themselves. What is there to talk about? The weather?Comment by sildani.. at the core of my fondness of WoW was the sense of wonder I had exploring the world at its inception.

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