Conventional Wisdom Pt2: Esports

   Blizzcon showed off many things, and one thing it did right (and I hope its here to stay) is the  showcase of its games through their esports world championships. All together Blizzard gave away 1.5 million dollars in its 4 world championship tournaments: Hearthstone, Starcraft 2, WoW Arena and Heroes of the Storm.
   

                                          Starcraft 2 world championships stage at Blizzcon

      The phenomenon and the growth of esports should really be no surprise. Computer gaming has been with us for at least 4 decades, and humans as natural as we are at creating new diversions to normal life, we are also, by our very nature, very competitive.  Coupled with the fact that the competitors in these games, (like athletes or competitors in most sports) are quite young makes it a recipe for an evolution of competitive sports.  Also, they grew up with these machines, they've never known a world without video games.  And in a world where not everyone can hit a ball, or throw a pass, these young adults show their prowess by out thinking their opponents.

                                          Cloud 9
     
       If esports is going to have any sustainability, the viewers at home are going to need to understand what's happening on the screen and be able to follow along.  That's why the education and transparency of the games themselves are imperative to this movement to gain traction.

         During the poker boom of the 2000's, the hole card cam and the short tutorial on how the game of Texas Hold em was played, was vital to its success. The viewers could follow along. Esports do this as well, when the maps are displayed for the viewers onscreen(Heroes of the storm), the fog of war is removed (hole cam). And in Hearthstone, both players cards are displayed for the audience. 

    


        Although I think the casters do a great job, I think they need to do an overview on the basic objectives of the game (for the novice viewer at home). and define terms that are used in games, like"Filling out the mana curve"in Hearthstone or "peeling" in Heroes of the Storm.  And do this while the games are in motion, teach the viewers what is happening in the games, what strategy teams or players are employing, and why each tactic is important. We want to be able to follow along, and get excited with the crowd!!

                                          Heroes of the storm shoutcasters


www.twitter.com/purplehydra

next up: pt 3: Blizzard devs, Overwatch, 


    

Conventional Wisdom Pt1

    Well I finally got to my first Blizzcon. After playing and loving Blizzard games for around 10 years, and trying desperately every year to get tickets, I finally procured one through a friend and got to experience it first hand.  I will admit that, this event would have had a lot bigger impact on me several years ago when I was deep down in the rabbit hole of World of Warcraft, but even now, as an ex player that loves and enjoys Blizzard games like Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Diablo3, I found it to be very enjoyable and is an experience that needs to be had by all, gamers and the general public alike.
 

     There's something about visiting a convention that reinvigorates everyone in our wonderful hobby.  The developers, the attendees, everyone feels like theve just plugged in their souls to a wall charger and powered up to 100%. In gaming, the fact that we feel so out of place from normal mainstream society, we can experience and meet like minded people and feel "normal" is so crucial.  I've seen comments on social media from convention goers saying things like "I never want to leave Blizzcon" or "I finally feel like I belong somewhere".--- It's truly a satisfying experience.

Another thing I noticed is how mature and caring the Blizzard developers are.  Every single panel I went to, they had large amounts of things to say about their game.  Statistics on who and how players play their game.  They talked about what was coming next.  They would play to the crowd by asking questions that would lead to cheers like Who here plays the Horde? What about the Alliance? Their passion was on display and it was obvious it was for the love of their craft.

These folks are passionate about what they do, and I think it shows in their work.  Blizzard games have the most interesting characters, the most finely tuned systems, the most interesting stories. They have a laser focus on what makes a game fun but also what needs to be removed from a game. The art design and detail are both gorgeous and sublime, and probably the greatest compliment I can give their games are---They are full of life.

www.twitter.com/Purplehydra

above pictured: Hearthstone Dev team after the finals
next time: the eSports phenomenom, Overwatch, and the Warcraft movie.

The Metaverse pt3

     Community is so crucial to these metaverses, After playing many years, my motivation was never to login time and time again to finish my quests or to pick up my in game mail, or peruse the auction house for deals.  I came back because my friends or guildmates had an event.  An event to raid a dungeon, to level some alts, or just to participate in seasonal events. I felt the addition of the calendar by WoW was brilliant.
    And as the months and years went by I noticed games like GW2, Lotro, and WoW and probably many other MMO's added events or content on a regular basis.  They were smart to realize that people came back to participate in an event.

*Note about the blog---these are a work in progress, better insights and information will be curated as I can dedicate more time and effort

Metaverse pt 2: World Building

IT is a world

      Only after playing for a few weeks did I realize that I needed to take 2 boats and run my character through multiple zones in order to unlock flight paths (flying taxis). It was such a grind, but as I ran,  I would see different creatures, the landscape would change, there would be landmarks, I would encounter other players, pick up new quests . If I would have fast traveled to these areas I would have missed all that.  It seemed as if the slower I went, the more the world felt like a place. Even when I'm taking a flight from Stormwind to Stranglethorn Vale, I'm able to see the world change around me.   This was a world---- with destinations that had a beginning and an end.
      In our world, if I want to travel to New York City from California, I would either have to walk, take a train, travel in a car, or an airplane.  For the same reason people say its better to travel by car or walk because you get to "see the country"that I feel developers need to force their players to see their world. 

A lot of these new games install fast travel (or instant travel) to appease the many that say "it takes too long to run through the Barrens".  They should take a note from WoW, or Bethesda games and force their players to run through it---even multiple times.

Experiences in a metaverse

My awakening in a metaverse was truly an amazing experience:

       My first time was when I played a very low level Night Elf character, in WoW. I would search out female players that were fishing in Darkshore (mostly in Auberdine) and near their fishing line I would wait for their bob to go up and down and I would jump out of the water and surprise them, as a buffed shirtless Night Elf, and say something like-----"Wow, look what you caught!!" and strike up a convo with them. Most of the time I would strike up a good conversation without the awkward roleplaying.

 Little pieces like this would occur all the time when I first started playing WoW and I started to realize that:

This is a world

Born

      To be born- again is the strangest feeling one can have.  To be extracted from a womb, after spending a large period of your life with a vague conciousness, then suffer great trauma and make a passage to the light and then to be able to breathe on your own, in a world so vast and so varied.  Except this time, you have full conciousness.  It's so mind-blowing that in can leave one rather immobile.