Poster: Rivenwolf at 10/17/2005 4:10:10 PM PDT
Subject: If you aint seen it go to it. |
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http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/screenshots/imageviewer.aspx?imageindex=1&Set=14
If you aint seen the end of beta battle you should. It looks like tons of Fun.
Blizzard What happened looks like you used to have fun. Why not anymore?
I don't have a drinking problem, I drink, I fall down
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5344145&p=#post5344145 |
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Poster: Caydiem at 10/17/2005 4:12:23 PM PDT
Subject: Re: If you aint seen it go to it. |
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That's the end of beta event.
I organized it. And yes, it was fun.
However.
It also required the majority of our GM staff to pull off in the multiple locations we used at the time -- and that was on two realms.
We have well over 100 in North America alone, now.
That's why it's no longer feasible, among a variety of other things.
Carpe Caydiem.
Seize the CM.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5344145&p=#post5344170 |
Poster: Caydiem at 10/17/2005 6:06:39 PM PDT
Subject: Re: You hardcore players are dumb. I'm Lvl 60 |
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Here comes the ol' Caydiem's Can Of Worms bit, folks. Sorry, someone opened it. :P
I've created and run events for two prior MMOs, and I'll guarantee you know of at least one if not both of them. :P I know well the trials of implementing "GM events", "dynamic events", or whatever the particular group wishes to call them.
Therefore, I know how it's worked in previous games and why our particular model and philosophy isn't well-suited to that sort of thing.
Let's discuss manpower. We don't use volunteers for many managerial and legal reasons -- if you're curious about the stance, I would suggest researching legal cases regarding MMO volunteers in the past. As such, any personnel we used for this particular event scheme would have to be employed by Blizzard.
GMs can't field this sort of thing -- already there are players complaining about ticket wait times or customer service, and it would not be smart to further dilute the pool by giving the GMs additional responsibilities.
So with that cleared up, you have two basic options. You can have enough employees to cover all realms in all regions at once -- that's 109 employees in the US alone if we wanted to cover each realm with one person. Let's say one person can field three realms with regularity -- that's still 36 people, which is a lot to employ when you consider what you'd be looking for in an employee. See, the type of person you'd want for this job is someone who can type not only fast but very, very accurately. They must also have an encyclopedic knowledge of the lore so as not to make any slip ups, and be able to handle large amounts of information being thrown at them at any given time. So, 36 of these people is still fairly cost-inefficient when you take into account the amount of impact such a one-person show would have on the playerbase -- almost nil. Cut back the employees even further and you have even less of an impact -- with the gaps between events, many people would forget this sort of event even existed at all.
Our team is currently focusing on bigger and better World Events. Shifting, scripted content like Darkmoon Faire is what we're focusing on, and we plan on using this sort of event -- only bigger and better -- to continue to make the world more dynamic and vibrant. That's where the team is taking it. "Live" events are currently not feasible with our game model and philosophy. I hope you stay with us and watch how the world develops -- I'm curious and excited myself. :)
Carpe Caydiem.
Seize the CM.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5344145&p=#post5345593 |
Poster: Caydiem at 10/17/2005 6:14:32 PM PDT
Subject: Re: You hardcore players are dumb. I'm Lvl 60 |
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Q u o t e:
How about hiring more GMs?
We are, all the time. But what makes a good GM does not necessarily make a good Dynamic Event Actor.
Carpe Caydiem.
Seize the CM.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5344145&p=#post5345701 |
