Recruit A Friend - I like the idea!
Posted by Jay | Filed under Game Industry, World of Warcraft
Many players out there are worried about the benefits conferred through the recruit a friend program. There are people that are pro this program, and there are those that are anti this program. Whether you agree or disagree, I’d like to point out a couple points. I’ve played 3 different MMOs at varying points in their life cycle. There’s been a distinct and predictable pattern in each instance.
- MMO feels new. Influx of players. Recruitment is high.
- Player Base matures. Raiding/PVP begins. Players create Alts. Recruitment and Retention are equal.
- Expansion is released. Veteran players leave old content for expansion. Retention is high, recruitment low.
This pattern is repeated everytime a new expansion is released. Each iteration of the game world results in older content becoming more devoid of life. This is a result of vertical growth in character development. In a vertical growth environment, old content is obsolete because the character can development beyond the relative power level required to beat the content. The loop continues as quickly as the developer can push content out the door. Check out EQ Kunark item rewards versus the current item rewards. You can do the same by looking at Upper Blackrock rewards in WoW versus heroic rewards in Outlands.
Now you may be asking, what this has to do with recruit a friend? Let’s examine WoW and the casual and hard core levelers time to level to 60. I’m going to throw out a statistic that a hard core player could level a character from 1-60 in 3 weeks, playing that toon at least 3 times a week. The casual player would be three times that. There is method to Blizzards 90 day leveling bonus.
Let’s now apply the math of 1/3 the required time or from another perspective: 300% faster. The hardcore player is able to bring a character VERY quickly to 60, likely taking only 3-7 days. The casual player can do it in a month.
Y IZ DIS RELEVANT? TELL ME MOAR!!!
- Death Knights are unlocked if an account has a 55+ character on the server of choice.
- Old content for veteran players is boring. We’ve done it, we just want the high level characters.
- If you build it they will come. Wut? If you provide an incentive (reletively free level 60, free extra 30 levels and a new epic mount) players will recruit their friends.
I WANTS TEH POINT!
In order for WoW to continue recruiting and retaining its customers, WoW needs to provide an incentive for veteran players to play through old content AND to play through that content with new players. In a verticle growth system, veteran players need an incentive to return to old content. Sidekick(City of Heroes/Villains) systems provide the best in game method of accomplishing this, but hurt the business. Recruit a friend with a quicker leveling curve provides the best business model for accomplishing a similar result.
I C! TEH COMBINASHUN OV NEW PLAYERS AN OLD PLAYERS IN VERTICLE GROWTH…AREA…CHARACTR… WUT?
Recruit a friend is a great program from the veterans point of view. From the newbie, is great too since that veteran needs to play with you to gain the 3x experience multiplier. It’s simply brilliant! Everything else is icing!
New Theme!
Posted by Jay | Filed under Uncategorized
Hello all!
As you can tell, I’ve updated the theme of this har blog. There are many a splendid thing on the internets and my eye was caught for better or for worse to this layout
THAZ TEH DEFAULT IMAGE ON UR HEADR! WUT R U GOIN 2 DO?
I love that you’re asking! Here is a call out there to folks with artistic talent! I’m looking for a priest WoW based image to load into the header. Some thing with… green text… and a black… hold on… yeah black background! That would really float my boat!
If you are artistically inclined and enjoy this blog, help a priest out! Click the contact me button above!
Gen Con - Saturday - Salvatore + Greenwood
Posted by Jay | Filed under Uncategorized
I was first introduced to the Elminster character while playing Baldur’s Gate. In the very first act, his character is one of the first encountered. After doing my best to kill this character as quickly as possible, eventually I decided that this toon must be the man!
WUT DOEZ BALDURS GATE HAS 2 DO WIF ED GREENWOOD?
Glad you asked! In 2004 while perusing the local library I happened across an old paperback named: Elminster: the making of a mage. I devoured the book, moving onto Elminster in Myth Drannor and Elminster in Hell. I’ve been a big fan of that character, his wisdom and mannerism alighting my imagination. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to meet and listen to Ed Greenwood speak at Gen Con.
I woke early and shambled over to an overview of the Forgotten Realms by WoTC team + Greenwood. What a ride! I’ll not spoil any information except to say that the world has drastically changed and many new and old enemies still lurk around every corner.
Ed was a ball of energy. Constantly making pop culture, pen and paper culture and in general being very charismatic, well spoken and cheerfully giggling while the audience laughed to his many jokes. I hadn’t kept up with the Forgotten Realms lore for quite some time and I can say that I will be picking up many a novel in the post Spell Plague Faerûn. I also attended his Spin a Yarn with Ed Greenwood talk. What a tale was weaved during those 2 hours. If you’re not familiar with this, the audience creates a story and Ed writes it at a later date. I look forward to reading this tale especially considering that I never knew Liches could have such active sex lives… DON’T ASK!
I would have to say the highlight of Saturday was listening to R.A. Salvatore speak about his writing and Forgotten Realms in general. Bob has a great world view when it comes to written communication and participatory media (ie Games!). He discussed his favorite characters, their development and his future writings. As mentioned above, Faerûn has changed quite a bit with 4th edition. Fans of his novels will be delighted!
I was mainly impressed with the discussion on writing style considering the communication styles of todays youth. Forums, instant messenger, social networking sites and MMOs have changed the way people communicate and interact. Historical forms of communication aren’t always the “best way” anymore. Traditional writing is evolving but in form and function. Having been an MMO player since the mid 90s (I include MUDs as MMOs), I’m not only an observer of this behavior, I’m also an active participant! Overall I was excited to hear what he had to say.
Bobs observations are spot on. It is evident by listening to him that he is excited and passionate about his work. He has quite a few projects on his slate, one being an MMO. New younger audience games like Toon Town and Wizard 101, have moved the communication paradigm to focus on static, canned statements. It will be interesting to see how many MMOs adopt a similar methidology when dealing with parental controls and young audiences.
This wraps up my Gen Con experience. Overall, I had a great time! The production value on many of the board game, card game and pen and paper products is pretty amazing. I look forward to watching how the periodicals business changes in the coming years in addition to seeing how 4th edition D&D is received in a years time.
MMOs played at Gen Con: Champions Online, Warhammer Online, D&D Online Stormreach and a SciFi rts mmo that I didn’t get to play!
Card Games Played: Too many to count!
Most exciting Board Games Played: Tannhäuser and Arkham Horror
WOTLK Priest PVP Set - First look and thoughs
Posted by Jay | Filed under Arena, PvP, World of Warcraft
I recently happened upon a Spooncraft article regarded the beta pvp armor sets. It was most interesting to view the way the equipment was and will change for the new expansion. I’d like to note that none of this is final, only conjecture. Here is the link to the images of the beta blue healing priest pvp set. What you’ll notice most is the addition of the Spirit stat!
OMG WUT DOEZ DAT MEEN GRNTXTONBLK?
Lemme tell you! The addition of a traditionally high pve stat to the pvp set means you likely will be able to keep less extra equipment sets on your person.
O RLY?
Yeah! Isn’t it neat!
BUT GRNTXTONBLK U CANT POSIBLY KNOE WUT URE TALKIN BOUT… U DOAN RAID!
That’s true I don’t raid anything beyond the occasional TK VR run. What I do know is that I wear my PVP set all the time and I have a PVE heal set with plenty more MP5 and spirit in my bags. With the addition of spirit to my pvp set, I can at least perform moderately well in guild heroic runs without having to store an extra set of armor on my person. In addition I’d like to point to the extra talent palette each character is likely to have post expansion.
Not only will I not have to switch gear, but likely I’ll be able to switch to holy spec and keep my pvp gear on for those pick up with little to no hassle!
OMG GRNTXTONBLK!!! THAZ AMAZIN!
I know!
Shared Topic - Rerollmuch’s Theme Song!
Posted by Jay | Filed under Uncategorized
So many choices! When thinking about Rerollmuch and my musical preference, its difficult to pin point one specific song for Rerollmuch. I do have great pandora stations setup given my activities for the evening.
For daily grinds: DJ Tiesto. Nothing like rhythmic, trance inducing music to truly help pass the time on a relatively boring task!
For BG grinding: Nothing like Chevelle. I am the red in BGs.
For PuG healing: Yes it happens. I listen to the Beatles. Yeppers, if I imagine myself as a yellow submarine I can ignore the fact that the tank can’t hold agro, the lock doesn’t banish and the mage is AEing with 7k life.
For Arena: Ventrillo. Hey! That’s not a theme song, damn skippy it isn’t! I HAS 2 PAI ATTENSHUN OR MAH TEAMMATEZ WILL DYE! KK THX LA~
