Mike Morhaime, a Blizzard co-founder who resigned from the presidency in 2018 and left the company the following year, has shared his thoughts on the current state of MMOs – specifically, World of warcraft -, in a world dominated by games as a service, MOBAs or phenomena like Fortnite or Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. Maintains that issues like accessibility have sacrificed the social side of the game: "As World of warcraft has evolved over the years, it has actually become less social because, In an effort to achieve greater accessibility, we removed some of the reasons why you needed to play with the same group of people, among other things. "That is to say: in order to make the game easier for all players, looking for people to tackle the different missions of Azeroth was left behind.
World of warcraft: accessibility and social facet, a search for balance
In an interview with Seth Schiesel from New York Times during the Digital Summit of GamesBeatMorhaime has talked about the declining popularity of games like World of warcraft. Although its expansions still enjoy sales of around 3 million copies at launch, it seems that your golden days are behind you. Nonetheless, World of warcraft He managed to resist the wave of MOBA and, later, the titles Battle Royale.
"I'm not saying MMOs won't have a resurgence in the future but, maybe, there are other types of games that can capture the social experience much better", Morhaime maintains, referring to the fact that the question is based on accessibility and investment of time by the user. However, it is this same accessibility that would have ended the social facet of World of warcraft: "As World of warcraft has evolved over the years, it has actually become less social because, In an effort to achieve greater accessibility, we removed some of the reasons why you needed to play with the same group of people, among other things".
"Maybe there are other types of games that can capture the social experience much better."
In this sense, Morhaime maintains that perfection is achieved by finding a middle point between accessibility and the learning curve, which consequently will lead players to commit themselves more to the content of the game. "The holy grail consists of Capture that accessibility with a learning curve that's easy to assimilate but hard to master, which will lead people to maintain a greater commitment to content and the ability to share it with other people, "concludes Morhaime.
To understand Morhaime's point of view, we would have to look back: during expansion Wrath of the Lich King, the game enjoyed more than 12 million subscribers. It was content that knew how to find the perfect balance between accessibility and socialization: although many parts could be played alone, encouraged users to find groups to discuss content.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands It is the next expansion of this MMORPG, which will enjoy a debut throughout this 2020. This title will lead players to the Shadowlands, where the Horde and the Alliance must join forces to face a common enemy. Perhaps, with this proposal, Blizzard manages to revive the social facet that we all fondly remember World of warcraft. You can read our first impressions of this expansion around here.
