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Monday, February 11, 2008
A forgotten controversy
Blizzard is more famouse for excellence of execution than for revolutionary innovation. So sometimes we forget that World of Warcraft did in fact contain a couple of features that were revolutionary and new, and which caused quite some controversy when they were first reported on. Meanwhile we got so used to them that we don't even remember that these features haven't been around since the time of Everquest. One of these forgotten controversies is World of Warcraft's day/night cycle, which is based on a 24-hour real time clock, and not accelerated like nearly every other game.
When I first saw the 24-hour day/night cycle of World of Warcraft in beta in 2004, I didn't like it at all. But at that time the night was still a good bit darker than it is now, and I had to play with the gamma settings to see reasonably well at night. I don't know when exactly they changed that, must have been before release, but nowadays the night in WoW isn't really very dark. It is more a question of colors, the night being more blueish.
The main disadvantage of having a 24-hour day/night cycle is that it introduces real world time constraints into the virtual world. For example during the week I can only play from 6 pm to 10 pm, so all week long for me in World of Warcraft it is evening. There are few things in WoW that depend on the local time, but it isn't totally without effect. For example your chances of catching certain fish decrease or increase with time of day.
So while there are disadvantages of a 24-hour clock, Blizzard wisely chose to make the time of virtual day of very little importance, thus many people don't even notice the day/night cycle. Which in itself is a minor disadvantage, LotRO's Middle Earth world somehow seems more real by having a visible day/night cycle with much darker nights and monsters that only appear during certain times of day. But for such a day/night cycle to work, it has to be shorter than 24 hours, because you want people who only play a few hours still to experience it.
Do you think World of Warcraft would be better off with a lets say 4-hour day/night cycle, darker nights, and events and mob appearences related to the time of virtual day? Or do you prefer the way where server time is local time, and you can tell your real time by hovering your mouse over the little sun icon next to your mini map?
- posted by Tobold @ 8:45 AM Permanent Link
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I have to say i prefer the actual system. As long as the impact on gaming is not as big as in Pokémon (good introductory RPG for RPG newcomers...), I like the fact that the actual game time is similar to Real World(tm) time.
In Pokémon, some characters could only be caught at specific day times, thus forcing you to play at different hours to get all the critters. As there is no such hindrance (that I'm aware of ) in WoW, I prefer being able to tell what time it is by looking at the sun in the game.
In Pokémon, some characters could only be caught at specific day times, thus forcing you to play at different hours to get all the critters. As there is no such hindrance (that I'm aware of ) in WoW, I prefer being able to tell what time it is by looking at the sun in the game.
# posted by 
: 11/2/08 10:41
: 11/2/08 10:41
I have to agree with paladin_ct. A day-night cycle in sync with the real world is a subtle reminder of the passage of time. Ambient information, if you will. The effect should be less muted, though. That early beta screenshot of Lakeshire looked awesome. On the other hand, Silverpine does get pretty dark (and scary) at night..
i wish newer MMO take weather / time factor as a gameplay element modifier. for example
TIME OF DAY
- certain mob become weaker / stronger at night
- certain mob only spawn at night/day
WEATHER
- some class benefit when fighting on heavy rain
- some class benefit when fighting on snow
- some class benefit when fighting in / under water
- certain class can manipulate weather to give em benefit and to debuff enemies
- Heavy snow debuff metal armor wearer (less movement speed, brittle armor)
- Heavy rain soak the leather/cloth wearer armor and make their armor weaker
TERRAIN
- dry desert terrain give slower HP regen
- swamp terrain give disease debuff
- forest / jungle give debuff/buff
RACIAL
- Certain race can be more at home in desert/ice/jungle/temperate terrain.
TIME OF DAY
- certain mob become weaker / stronger at night
- certain mob only spawn at night/day
WEATHER
- some class benefit when fighting on heavy rain
- some class benefit when fighting on snow
- some class benefit when fighting in / under water
- certain class can manipulate weather to give em benefit and to debuff enemies
- Heavy snow debuff metal armor wearer (less movement speed, brittle armor)
- Heavy rain soak the leather/cloth wearer armor and make their armor weaker
TERRAIN
- dry desert terrain give slower HP regen
- swamp terrain give disease debuff
- forest / jungle give debuff/buff
RACIAL
- Certain race can be more at home in desert/ice/jungle/temperate terrain.
# posted by : 11/2/08 12:13
: 11/2/08 12:13
Some people don't like things being scripted around day/night cycles because it can hinder your game play. If you get a quest to kill Night Grommies but you just missed the night cycle, you might have to wait an hour to do your quest. Or if the quest giver only appears at night, you might finish the quest and have to wait an hour to do the turn in.
Personally, I love day/night cycles and content built around it. I don't like WoW because night looks almost exactly like day in many areas. I love EQ and EQ2 because you actually get a moon/sun rises and sets, stars at night, etc...
Personally, I love day/night cycles and content built around it. I don't like WoW because night looks almost exactly like day in many areas. I love EQ and EQ2 because you actually get a moon/sun rises and sets, stars at night, etc...
I much prefer having shorter day/night cycles with different monsters spawning at night, etc. Some of my best memories of any MMO are from EverQuest doing a run from Freeport to Quenos and being scared to death of going through Kithicor Forest at night.
One should fear the night ;)
One should fear the night ;)
# posted by : 11/2/08 14:23
: 11/2/08 14:23
I've been thinking about this one on and off for months and still don't have a definite opinion. On the one hand, in my WoW days I could appreciate the obvious relation to time of day. On the other hand, it has been great to experience both day and night in other games regardless of my actual play time.
Blizzard never really did anything in terms of game mechanics or quests that took advantage of day vs. night. The final version of "night" wasn't very dark and honestly had little difference on the overall quality of lighting; the primary difference was the color of the sky or ambient lighting effects.
On the other hand, night in Vanguard is way too dark. It could stand to be tweaked just slightly.
LOTRO was my first experience with shorter day/night cycles and it took a few days to get used to it (after 2 years in WoW) but they also had quests that could only be completed at night. There were times I had to wait awhile for night to fall but honestly I wouldn't mind if they added one extra hour onto each time frame. The days just seem to pass too quickly.
Vanguard... even though I'm certain the days and nights are of equal duration, it seems the day lasts 30-60 minutes while night is 3 hours. I'm always so happy when I actually manage to play during daylight, because so much time in the game is dark and rainy, it gets old (half of Telon should be underwater by now as much as it rains).
Blizzard never really did anything in terms of game mechanics or quests that took advantage of day vs. night. The final version of "night" wasn't very dark and honestly had little difference on the overall quality of lighting; the primary difference was the color of the sky or ambient lighting effects.
On the other hand, night in Vanguard is way too dark. It could stand to be tweaked just slightly.
LOTRO was my first experience with shorter day/night cycles and it took a few days to get used to it (after 2 years in WoW) but they also had quests that could only be completed at night. There were times I had to wait awhile for night to fall but honestly I wouldn't mind if they added one extra hour onto each time frame. The days just seem to pass too quickly.
Vanguard... even though I'm certain the days and nights are of equal duration, it seems the day lasts 30-60 minutes while night is 3 hours. I'm always so happy when I actually manage to play during daylight, because so much time in the game is dark and rainy, it gets old (half of Telon should be underwater by now as much as it rains).
I'd prefer to have a more involved day/night cycle to make it actually meaningful. Until you brought it up, I'd completely forgotten WoW even HAD a day/night cycle, because the difference between the two is so mild.
Night should be dark, and spawn different mobs. The cycle should be short, but not too short, with night being shorter than day. A 7 hour cycle (4 day, 3 night) might work.
Blizzard's environmental effects in general are anemic at best. I can still remember barely being able to see past my virtual nose in the drenching rain of the Karanas in EQ. Sure it was a pita, but it was MEMORABLE. I haven't had a single memorable environmental experience in WoW, despite playing for over 2 years.
Night should be dark, and spawn different mobs. The cycle should be short, but not too short, with night being shorter than day. A 7 hour cycle (4 day, 3 night) might work.
Blizzard's environmental effects in general are anemic at best. I can still remember barely being able to see past my virtual nose in the drenching rain of the Karanas in EQ. Sure it was a pita, but it was MEMORABLE. I haven't had a single memorable environmental experience in WoW, despite playing for over 2 years.
# posted by : 11/2/08 17:37
: 11/2/08 17:37
I really hate the short timers, not because of the cycle but because designers like to put mobs and quests in that depend on the time. All this does is impede me from getting things accomplished that I wanted.
In LOTRO this drives me crazy. I'll just miss a questgiver, and then have to wait 4 hours? Sorry I work for a living and instead will probably just log. The same is true for undead, in certain zones there are way more undead at night than during the day, but they are part of quests that many people need, so their short availability makes them overcamped.
Even in the Witcher, a single player RPG, there are many quests that take place at specific times and unlike LOTRO it's so linear there's nothing to do but go to the inn and click on meditate for the 6 hours until you can do the quest.
These things add flavor, but often just add annoyance, keeping you from working on things you planned on.
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In LOTRO this drives me crazy. I'll just miss a questgiver, and then have to wait 4 hours? Sorry I work for a living and instead will probably just log. The same is true for undead, in certain zones there are way more undead at night than during the day, but they are part of quests that many people need, so their short availability makes them overcamped.
Even in the Witcher, a single player RPG, there are many quests that take place at specific times and unlike LOTRO it's so linear there's nothing to do but go to the inn and click on meditate for the 6 hours until you can do the quest.
These things add flavor, but often just add annoyance, keeping you from working on things you planned on.
# posted by : 11/2/08 19:35
: 11/2/08 19:35<< Home
