Finding of the week #8

Social gameplay in WoW?

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 „finding of the week“ offers some thoughts and own experiences about the social gameplay in World of Warcraft (WoW).

Playing World of Warcraft is a great way of experiencing cooperative gameplay with lots of other players the same time. But is this still true?

The gameplay begins with the level-phase. After the creation of the own avatar, the player begins to discover Azeroth. Just after the arrival, non-playing characters (NPC) start to offer some quests to the player. Completing quests is one major source of experience points, which are needed to reach higher character levels. After the player has solved the first quests, the npcs offer new quests and the adventure continues – or better the long journey to level 90 (the current maximum level).

Almost every quest can be completed alone. The player has no need to form groups to be able to complete the level-phase content. Of course they might see other players around major quest-hubs, but due to the fact of easy content, they mostly won’t play together.

Another way of gaining experience is joining random instance groups. The „dungeon finder“ tool forms groups of random players and sends them into a random dungeon. This is the first time when playing in a cooperative way with other players can occur. On the other side, this is just a rush through the dungeon to gain as much experience points as possible in a short amount of time. There isn’t much time to experience the social aspect of WoW. As soon as the final boss is defeated, the group disbands and the players won’t meet again in most cases.

After the journey is over and the player has reached level 90, most of the social and cooperative experience remains the same. Now, the player can choose in the dungeon finder between the already known dungeon finder, the raid finder and scenarios. Each method has mostly the same result: The player is placed in a group with strangers who won’t meet again after the dungeon is completed.

The gameplay experience is depending on the other random players: If the player is put into a group of like-minded people, the gameplay can be a lot of fun. However, if this isn’t the case, a short instance can become quite annoying and the social gameplay becomes one of the worst aspects of the whole game.
Additionally, the dungeon finder needs some time to gather enough players to form a group. Sometimes players wait more than half an hour in the raid finder. Waiting in the game for the actual cooperative gameplay can be very boring.

Of course, there’re great aspects of the social gameplay as well: Players can join guilds which are formed by like-minded players. The guild can be used as a platform to form groups of players who can play together on a regular basis. Over the time, they start knowing each other and can become friends. However to make this happen, all the players need to agree to some basic rules and have to be online the same time.

One solution that comes to my mind would be scaleable content. Why do I need 4 other random players for a dungeon, if the difficulty level can be adjusted. At the bottom line it is all about the rewards: Joining a random group just means to clear the dungeon as fast as possible to collect the rewards. There is no desire for social gameplay, it’s just about gathering reputation, experience or items. Additionally, the dungeon finder content, especially the raid finder content, is very easy in comparison to the „real“ raid instance content, which can’t be accessed using the dungeon finder. Players actively need to form a group and travel to the particular instance. In return, they will be rewarded with better and more valueable items. Why do I need to accept the burden of random players, if I could do the easy-mode content alone?
If I’m playing with my friends, I really like to play in a group and enjoy the cooperative aspect of the game. The feeling of an epic-win after defeating a hard boss is awesome. But if I’m on my own, I just like to get things done. Waiting for other unknown players is just boring – especially because I won’t see them again.

To wrap things up, the social gameplay of WoW can be one of the greatest aspects of the game as long as the group is formed by like-minded players who play together on a regular basis. On the other hand, if the social gameplay is a barrier to finish content, it can become the worst part of the game. Waiting long in the raid finder queue for a bad group isn’t fun at all.

I like the concept of „ambient sociability“ [1], but more in a way of sharing the same virtual world with others. Seeing other players walking around the major cities is Azeroth is giving me the feeling of being part of a living world. Social gameplay should be more about socializing and working together towards a shared goal, but not about farming content.

[1] McGonigal, Jane (2011): Reality Is Broken, New York.