Garrison – Conclusion

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

The analysis of the Garrison has identified three main segments: buildings, followers and quests. Moreover, the analysis has identified all the game mechanics which are used in order to realize these segments.

Buildings: The player can construct several buildings in order to gain access to unique boni. Moreover, the player can upgrade the own buildings to increase their capacity and to gain access to more advanced boni. Finally, he can place work orders in order to transmute materials or resources. However, the player can not place an endless amount of buildings: the Garrison provides only a limited amount of building slots thus requiring the player to choose between all the different buildings. Utilizing these game mechanics challenges the decision-making and strategic-planning skills of the player.

Followers: A follower is a special NPCs who joined the player during his explorations of the WoD regions or who was hired by the player in one of the Garrison buildings. Each follower is characterized by his abilities, his traits and his equipment. The skills allow the follower to perform special tasks and the equipment determines the follower’s performance. A follower can be assigned to work in one of the Garrison buildings or to fight in one of the special follower missions. Planning such a follower mission challenges the player to analyze the requirements of the mission in order to assign the right followers to it. Utilizing the follower game mechanics challenges the player’s problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

Quests: The player can complete three different types of Garrison quests. At first, the player has to visualize the problem of the quest and need to decide what actions he has to take in order to complete the quest. Subsequently, the player has to execute his plan of attack. Mostly, this involves defeating enemies, collecting items or scoring points. In general, solving a quest demands the visualization, decision-making and problem-solving skills of the user. Executing the combat game mechanics of WoW demands the reaction time, the hand-eye-coordination, the decision-making and the spatial navigation abililties of the player.