Tobold's Blog: My WoW wifeometer

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

My WoW wifeometer

Via Zen of Design and Wonderland I found Miyamato's talk on his “wifeometer”, where he observes the interest of his wife in games to see what games are interesting for the female half of the population. Me, I got my proper wifeometer installed, having my wife in the same room as me, playing World of Warcraft on our second computer. So what does my wifeometer say about WoW?

Well, the good news for Blizzard is that my wife is still playing, months after I have stopped to do so. This is mainly due to her playing a lot fewer hours per week. The slower you play, the longer will the content of WoW last you.

The bad news for Blizzard is that my wife was barely interested in the Burning Crusade, and isn’t at all interested in the Wrath of the Lich King. She gave up on TBC after playing one character to 68, all her other characters are below level 50. Then she played a blood elf alt, but she is already on her next alt now, a tauren, thus using practically no TBC content now. From the features announced for the next expansion there isn’t much in it for her, she’ll barely notice when I’ll install it for her. So assuming that one day the current content stops to keep her interested in World of Warcraft, there is little hope that the expansions get her back into the game.

But then, I have no idea what my wife will play next year. Me, and presumably many of my male readers, will be playing Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. But just like Damion doubts that the wifeometer will show much interest in Age of Conan, which like the literary source is extremely sexist, I have my doubts that women will be very interested in WAR. I've never seen my wife participate in any PvP in World of Warcraft, so the main attraction of WAR probably won't interest her. And whether the PvE content of WAR will peak the wifeometer will depend on how it is presented: Too harsh and violent will probably not give much of a pull. But if the dwarves and goblins are depicted in a more amusing and funny way, that might do the trick.
- posted by Tobold @ 12:01 AM Permanent Link

Comments:

From what I've heard, most women has huge interest in TBC, because they could finally play an attractive female character, instead of (1) a cow, (2) a bearded woman or (3) one with rotting flesh.

Sometimes it's things that seem unimportant to men that can make a huge difference to women.

Sammy

# posted by

Anonymous : 29/8/07 21:12

My gf-o-meter like LoTRO more than I do. She enjoys grouping with the Kin for quests, hates crafting. I'm curious how she accepts the WAR beta (fingers crossed)

# posted by

Anonymous : 29/8/07 22:47

My wife is still playing WoW, her first real computer game to be honest. I quit a few months ago, but she has not. She does not have any interest in alts, or any other games for that matter. She is willing to play other games along side of me, but shows no interest really. She is now level 56. She is not likely to start over, or participate in any sort of "end game" so I guess her time left in WoW will be coming around sooner or later. She will not be buying the expansion, is not even aware of it as far as I know.

# posted by

Anonymous : 29/8/07 23:33

My Wife is as interested, if not more so interested in WAR then myself.

but then, my adorable little wifey has a bloodlust streak - she's pretty mean in WoW PvP and I wouldn't have anyone else for my 2v2.

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 00:01

2008 will prove to be a grim year for mmorpg players who prefer pve to pvp or raiding. The new WoW expansion is clearly a raiding expansion (even more so than Burning Crusade) and Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are both pvp centric. That only leaves Rome Rising and Tabula Rasa, and neither of those games shows much promise, in my opinion.

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 00:36

More doom and gloom from =##=. He might as well hang up his MMO spurs. WoW sucks. All future WoW expansions suck (even ones that are way in the future).

While the rest of us have fun, he can continue to bemoan the state of the industry and note the dimsal prospects all future MMO's.

Too bad we can't go back in time to when MMO's were "perfect".

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 04:47

WoW does not suck if you enjoy raiding, and I'm sure that Warhammer Online will be a blast for gamers who enjoy PVP.

However, for those of us who prefer PVE, the pickings are pretty slim, so I think doom and gloom is dependent of what parts of mmorpgs that you enjoy the most.

As to "perfect" - well Kunark era EQ and the first and second time I leveled up in WoW were pretty damn close.

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 05:09

Is the original source material for Conan extremely sexist?
I remember reading Robert E Howard's Conan a long time ago, and while my memory may be somewhat clouded by time, I would hardly say it is on a par with Gor (and I don't include all the other Conan books/comics/films; as far as I'm concerned only Howard's stories are the true Conan).

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 11:32

Hmm, women may enjoy Pirates, not very familar with that. But yea, cannot see too many wives that just like the pve portion of WoW jumping into WAR AND AOC. Perhaps WAR but not really sure. I see WAR doing well but we'll have to wait and see how well.

I DL the TR beta but have not gotten myself to actually log on yet. Most things I've heard are not too promosing involving combat but I'll try to make myself jump in this weekend and see what its like.

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 12:18

Actually they're doing the opposite: everything they can to discourage players like your wife. If you read the notes for Northrend, instead of improving the 20-50 experience with new material or quests, they are simply increasing the rate of XP, so you level out of them faster.

It's like they sat around and decided "this sucks, let's not make it better, let's just make it shorter"

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 15:04

Well I got devorced partly because of WOW - so I guess my wife-o-meter is FUBAR :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 15:49

Is there a shop I can buy one of these rare computer game loving women? :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 30/8/07 18:06

I was interested in Age of Conan, until I heard about how the women were being portrayed at the beginning.

Now I'm not interested at all. And changing that probably won't change my mind because I'm sure that approach extends throughout the game.

Having said that, I'm male.

Btw, my wife has played EQ, EQ2, WoW, AC, AC2, Horizons, DAoC, Guildwars with me.

# posted by

Anonymous : 31/8/07 13:29

I agree with you - I am a woman and PVP has zero interest for me. The only reason I slog through the Arena in WoW is for the epic gear. I have zero interest in Age of Conan and none in WAR - what's the point in paying for a rehashed version of WoW? If I'm going to play an MMO, I am going to spend my $15/month on the best game on the market.

I have tried just about every MMO out there. The only two which has stuck are WoW and Guild Wars - both due to their PVE content. I suppose I am simply posting to back up your musings.

Also Paul - women playing games isn't as rare as you'd think. My husband and I are in a WoW guild of over 70 accounts, and most are couples.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2/9/07 03:16