Blizzard’s World of Warcraft game has received high marks from all of the gaming publications for its ease of use and for its newbie-friendly game design, but there’s a fatal flaw in these reviews. They invariably focus on the early experience because it takes several months before players are able to reach the level at which they are ready for the so-called “end-game content.”
A quick primer on end-game content. In WoW (and most other large MMOs) players band together into groups so that they can access content that no single player could do on his own. Some of the content in WoW requires raids—40 top-level players all working together in a coordinated, organized fashion.
Large-scale raiding typically emerges months after the release of an MMO product, long after most reviews are written and published. As a result, reviews of MMOs are worthless at describing content that typically occupies 80% of the long-term player’s time. It’s like a car review that only writes about the experience of parking the car; a movie review that describes only the opening credits; or a restaurant review that only describes the appetizers.
This probably won’t change until intelligent games consumers (like you who read this blog!) start asking reviewers to give us the goods on end-game content in MMOs.
[
via Joystiq]
Reviews of MMO Games are Fundamentally Flawed
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