I used to be an adventurer like you...

Today marks the end of Deedlitt's journeys through the world of Warcraft. Many friends were made, frostbolts fired, regions explored, and dungeons conquered. Deedlitt concluded her adventure with an assault on Scholomance, the Lich King's school for students of dark magics. But rather than entertain you with the details of it, I'll just let the screenshots do the talking while I instead take a moment to look back on my observances with Warcraft's social structure and economy.

First Boss of Scholomance

In week one, I took a look at what the overall social nature of Warcraft was. I did this by contrasting it with Second Life. In Warcraft, social interaction is primarily built around the game's main objective of improving your character. Cooperation with other players is essential to acquiring better gear. However, this isn't the sole driving force of interaction within the game. Other factors naturally draw players together as well, such as the usual desire for friendship. Gaming is always better with good company.

Rattlegore

In subsequent weeks, I noted how much to an extent that player interaction could affect the gameplay experience. It can mean the difference between continuing playing and unsubscribing from the game. Keeping players constantly interacting with each other keeps the experience feeling fresh and unpredictable when otherwise mundane quest objectives aren't enough. Social interaction can only carry an MMO so far though. What initially lures players to an MMO of Warcraft's flavor is the well-executed gameplay; the social interaction in combination with this is what keeps players hooked thereafter. Both elements are important factors in crafting a quality MMO experience.

Ras Frostwhisper

Keeping a steady economy is important to the game as well. If it's too easy to acquire high quality items, players will lose interest because they no longer have objectives to strive for. If it's too hard, they will equally lose interest because they feel like they'll never be able to reach their goals. Warcraft strikes a careful balance with this, which likely explains one major aspect to the game's wild success.

Illucia Barov

As an aspiring game developer, I should consider these lessons carefully with my own games. Much of game programming is like solving a puzzle; you need to find a way to make all the pieces fit. If any are missing or out of place, then the experience will feel wrong or incomplete, and players will notice.

Darkmaster Gandling

Even still, World of Warcraft is not without its own problems. The game world has gotten so big as a result of the game's expansions over the years that it has created a scarcity of players when traveling the continents. This results in middling segments of the game becoming fairly dull as there are too few players to interact with. The gameplay then picks up again when approaching the level cap as you can join in with all the seasoned players at the top, but many players may give up before then. Also, the game still lacks enough content to satisfy more competitive players. While Warcraft provides numerous dungeons scattered across the world for players to work cooperatively in raiding, PVP content is limited to only a handful of instanced battlegrounds and arenas. It would appeal more to competitive players to have more open world PVP-based objectives.

Regardless, World of Warcraft still remains at the top of the MMO food chain, and developers would do well to study and learn from it. Farewell and thank you for following the adventures of Deedlitt in World of Warcraft!