After finishing with ET, I moved on to World of Warcraft in order to relax and take a break from competitive play. Me being who I am however, I did not stay non-competitive for long. Eventually I gave up PvE raids altogether (Player versus Enemy, when you get a group of 25 people and kill a boss) and I had started to play Warcraft competitively.
For those of you who have never played it before, WoW PvP (player versus player) is like a mix between a FPS and a RTS. You control your character much like a FPS, using WASD and the mouse to position yourself and move around the arena. It is also like a RTS because of the different abilities and cooldowns that you have to micromanage. When WoW introduced arena after the Burning Crusade expansion, it was an instant hit. When I first stepped into arena, it was fun.
Hyping its arena tournaments, Blizzard has hosted tournaments with thousands of dollars in prizes. The earlier brackets took place online, with the finals taking place on LAN. Not only Blizzard, but both ESL and MLG host brackets where players can compete. To any observer, this game would appear to be a healthy and viable e-sport, but the truth is that WoW can never be an E-Sport for one important reason:
World of Warcraft was never designed to be an E-Sport. In fact, it was not even designed for pvp. WoW was designed as a PvE game with a PvP aspect tagged on. The competitive arena format was not even introduced until over a year had passed from the original release. As a result of this, the nine different classes of warcraft (soon to be 10 classes) were nowhere near balanced. For the first 4 season of arena, entire classes were unable to compete in arena. In 2v2 it was not uncommon for the entire top 10 teams on some servers to be either Druid/Warrior or Druid/Rogue. As the Burning Crusade expansion drew to a close, people had high hopes that Blizzard Entertainment would remedy many of these problems in the new expansion: Wrath of the Lich King.
It was with the release of Wrath of the Lich King that I came to finally realize that WoW was going downhill. Statistically only a small percentage of players participate in competitive arena. In fact, the "Gladiator" title was only awarded to the top .5% of players. That's right, .5%, half a percent. The thing was, Gladiator was easily obtainable by a serious competitive player. This brings us back the the point above: WoW was designed as a PvE game, not a PvP game. With every expansion, Blizzard introduces new attacks, new abilities, and new skills. In fact, the new expansion even introduced an entirely new classes. The more things you throw together, the harder it is to balance the classes. With a new expansion coming out each year, the problem will only get worse and worse. While Blizzard did a commendable job of balancing Starcraft, it did not have to deal with the massive amount of change that WoW constantly goes through.
The second main problem is really just an offshoot of the first. Being a PvE based game, WoW is also an RPG. Because of this, it introduces two problems that kill competitive play: Gear Discrepancies and RNG.
The first big problem (on the live realms) is gear. While not a problem on the private servers of E-Sports, it is also impossible to get an E-Sports sponsorship without doing well on the live realms. PvP-centric gear is easy to obtain for any serious PvPer, but for most classes to operate at their maximum effectiveness they require PvE gear. This introduces the hated concept of PvEing to PvP. This means that if you want to get the best gear possible, you have to play the PvE game. Another brilliant move by Blizzard, another example of why WoW cannot be an E-sport. For those people who want to play the game on their own time, this means that they will be at a disadvantage to the nerds who spent hours every night doing PvE raids. If two equally skilled players face each other, the one with the better gear will win every time UNLESS they win because of the second bullshit aspect of WoW PvP which is known as RNG.
RNG stands for Random Number Generator. In a nutshell, it is used to refer to abilities and events that are triggered randomly, usually on a percentage-based chance. This means that if two players each have a 30% chance to critically hit, and they attack each other equally as hard, the one that gets LUCKIER will win. One might get three critical hits in a row, while the other person might get none. In a real E-sport luck should not play a part. Games should be decided by skill. One example of RNG that I constantly ran into as a Priest was RNG-based spell failures. The Paladin class had the ability to shield itself, and make itself invulnerable to all attacks. Priests, on the other hand, have an ability to remove this shield from the Paladin so he could be attacked. Some paladins have a 30% chance to stop their shield from being removed. Statistically, this should mean that the odds are in my favor to remove the shield every time, but reality is far from it. I once lost a match where I had to cast my spell to remove the shield FIVE TIMES before it came off. Because of RNG I lost the match.
All in all, the problem is that Blizzard needs to appeal to their target audience. This target audience does not include PvPers. PvE is their main focus, with PvP as an afterthought. They just use the E-Sport title as a way to make more money with their franchise. I have to give them credit: it works. In my mind however, WoW will never be an E-Sport
For those of you who have never played it before, WoW PvP (player versus player) is like a mix between a FPS and a RTS. You control your character much like a FPS, using WASD and the mouse to position yourself and move around the arena. It is also like a RTS because of the different abilities and cooldowns that you have to micromanage. When WoW introduced arena after the Burning Crusade expansion, it was an instant hit. When I first stepped into arena, it was fun.
Hyping its arena tournaments, Blizzard has hosted tournaments with thousands of dollars in prizes. The earlier brackets took place online, with the finals taking place on LAN. Not only Blizzard, but both ESL and MLG host brackets where players can compete. To any observer, this game would appear to be a healthy and viable e-sport, but the truth is that WoW can never be an E-Sport for one important reason:
World of Warcraft was never designed to be an E-Sport. In fact, it was not even designed for pvp. WoW was designed as a PvE game with a PvP aspect tagged on. The competitive arena format was not even introduced until over a year had passed from the original release. As a result of this, the nine different classes of warcraft (soon to be 10 classes) were nowhere near balanced. For the first 4 season of arena, entire classes were unable to compete in arena. In 2v2 it was not uncommon for the entire top 10 teams on some servers to be either Druid/Warrior or Druid/Rogue. As the Burning Crusade expansion drew to a close, people had high hopes that Blizzard Entertainment would remedy many of these problems in the new expansion: Wrath of the Lich King.
It was with the release of Wrath of the Lich King that I came to finally realize that WoW was going downhill. Statistically only a small percentage of players participate in competitive arena. In fact, the "Gladiator" title was only awarded to the top .5% of players. That's right, .5%, half a percent. The thing was, Gladiator was easily obtainable by a serious competitive player. This brings us back the the point above: WoW was designed as a PvE game, not a PvP game. With every expansion, Blizzard introduces new attacks, new abilities, and new skills. In fact, the new expansion even introduced an entirely new classes. The more things you throw together, the harder it is to balance the classes. With a new expansion coming out each year, the problem will only get worse and worse. While Blizzard did a commendable job of balancing Starcraft, it did not have to deal with the massive amount of change that WoW constantly goes through.
The second main problem is really just an offshoot of the first. Being a PvE based game, WoW is also an RPG. Because of this, it introduces two problems that kill competitive play: Gear Discrepancies and RNG.
The first big problem (on the live realms) is gear. While not a problem on the private servers of E-Sports, it is also impossible to get an E-Sports sponsorship without doing well on the live realms. PvP-centric gear is easy to obtain for any serious PvPer, but for most classes to operate at their maximum effectiveness they require PvE gear. This introduces the hated concept of PvEing to PvP. This means that if you want to get the best gear possible, you have to play the PvE game. Another brilliant move by Blizzard, another example of why WoW cannot be an E-sport. For those people who want to play the game on their own time, this means that they will be at a disadvantage to the nerds who spent hours every night doing PvE raids. If two equally skilled players face each other, the one with the better gear will win every time UNLESS they win because of the second bullshit aspect of WoW PvP which is known as RNG.
RNG stands for Random Number Generator. In a nutshell, it is used to refer to abilities and events that are triggered randomly, usually on a percentage-based chance. This means that if two players each have a 30% chance to critically hit, and they attack each other equally as hard, the one that gets LUCKIER will win. One might get three critical hits in a row, while the other person might get none. In a real E-sport luck should not play a part. Games should be decided by skill. One example of RNG that I constantly ran into as a Priest was RNG-based spell failures. The Paladin class had the ability to shield itself, and make itself invulnerable to all attacks. Priests, on the other hand, have an ability to remove this shield from the Paladin so he could be attacked. Some paladins have a 30% chance to stop their shield from being removed. Statistically, this should mean that the odds are in my favor to remove the shield every time, but reality is far from it. I once lost a match where I had to cast my spell to remove the shield FIVE TIMES before it came off. Because of RNG I lost the match.
All in all, the problem is that Blizzard needs to appeal to their target audience. This target audience does not include PvPers. PvE is their main focus, with PvP as an afterthought. They just use the E-Sport title as a way to make more money with their franchise. I have to give them credit: it works. In my mind however, WoW will never be an E-Sport
La dulce boca que a gustar convida
un humor entre perlas destilado,
y a no invidiar aquel licor sagrado
que a Júpiter ministra el garzón de Ida,
¡amantes! no toquéis si queréis vida:
porque entre un labio y otro colorado
Amor está de su veneno armado,
cual entre flor y flor sierpe escondida.
No os engañen las rosas que al Aurora
diréis que aljofaradas y olorosas
se le cayeron del purpúreo seno.
Manzanas son de Tántalo y no rosas,
que después huyen dél que incitan ahora
y sólo del Amor queda el veneno.
And I disagree, if you play 5vs5 arena luck might have something to do with the outcome but there are 5 people in a team and teamplay comes out the more, you cant blame the luck but just play better yourself.
From a ET player-view I personally didn't like the PVP so much, pretbc end game raiding was just so much fun, especially all the 40 man mans and starting from the beginning :)
and now gtfo with wow...
The only reason players think it's a bigger issue in WoW is that it takes a lot of time to level a character to 80 and gear him up just because that class happens to be the best at the moment. In ET or WC3 you can just change class/race whenever you want, in WoW it's not as simple. Players are going to hate this fact, but as far as making it a game suitable for eSports or not this fact is irrelevant. Besides, Blizzard have introduced the new Arena Tournament realms where you create level 80 characters straight away and can gear them in whatever gear you want. If you play WoW only to PvP then that's the way you should go. Finishing first on the Arena Realm Tournament gives your 3v3-team the hefty pricesum of $750'000, something most MgCs will have a hard time ignoring.
I'm not saying WoW does not have balance issues. In the Intel Extreme Masters all top 3 teams were RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest), but this fact alone does not make it a game unsuitable for eSports. There were other teams up there. Nihilum finished 4th with HPala/Afflock/Rogue.
And as far as RNG goes, pretty much every game has some element of randomness involved. ET has spray, knockback, Artillery. There's nothing wrong with some randomness involved, it adds spice. And besides, you rarely see RNG completely decide a game. It happens, sure, but I really don't think it has more of an impact on the outgame of games than any other game. A better team still beats a worse team 95% of the time.
If ET would be as random as WoW, dynamite countdown would last something between 15 secs to 5 hours to explode.
imho RPG game cannot be played competitively, maybe this column will convince my girlfriend too xd
LVL 2 med with helmet gear 45% revive
etc
not necessarily...
hahah rofl nerd.
never played wow i'd be to addicted to it.
CASTING MY SPELL
MASS DISPEL
MASS DISPEL
MASS DISPEL
MASS DISPEL
Bubble dispells.
Paladin is back to 90% mana and 100% hp.
oh please what did you expect? lets pm blizzard after installing the game for a full pve gear? so i can look e-cool and get sponsorships? you have the proof your worthy
really nice post after all..
i stopped playing when they introduced spellpower
it took me and my mate ages to get on 1800 and maintain that (finally 1850 and weapon yay)
Ragnaros Skobo/Skaba alliance
I played the shadowpriest and he playd the moonkin.. even though we knew this wasnt the best combination ever we knew that we could make it.. and we did
then when they introduced spellpower we felt screwed:/ now every druid that ever played with a rogue/warrior or priest that played with a rogue had a much easier job getting on a higher rating
out of nowhere the number of shadowpriests and moonkins increast by 435453545% on our server and they all would have the spelldmg/gear we had to work our ass off for.. seemed pretty unfair to us but w/e
BLEGH STILL MAKES ME WANNA HIT A TRAIN
using RNG to decide crits? BAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA laff laff
2. There is no such thing as "luck", only string endings.
3. Competetive WoW is not a mix between FPS and RTS, there's only tiny fragments from RTS.
4. Can't think of any rpg/mmorpg which is realy suiteable for a pvp based on skills.
5. What hellgoat said.
Loving it
also torrent do you have an armory link? (not making fun just curious what level you have played/what class etc)
You're completely wrong from the very beginning dude - WoW already is an e-sport. People play it and earn lots of cash, participate in tournaments - that's e-sport to me.
I've played WoW for a bit and yeah, PvP is fun, but I never blamed RNG for losing matches, come on! All I blamed RNG for were the wrong drops in the raids.
It requires you to become a nerd because of the PvE to PvP gear? That's not true either, 2-3 non-progress raids per week, and you can gear up, and it doesn't mean you're a nerd.
And, most importantly, PvE stands for Player versus Environment.
participating tournaments + able to earn money in them
= (e) - sport
ps. just being cocky nvm
ITS ALL ABOUT THE RAIDSSSSSSS
the stuff i read were bullshit anyway
In my mind however, WoW will never be an E-Sport
swhooosh, you erased my entire knowledge of logic
this is wrong, or at least worded wrongly.
luck is a major part of everything in life, let alone e-sport. the difference here is luck is put into this with something that is not controlled, name me an esport where luck is not a factor? To people who do not play WoW or any other mmorpg you do not dictate the accuracy of an attack you instead rely on the engine for its effectiveness (gear can boost the effectiveness though)
now if you aimed the mouse at the player, and a critical hit would be say a weak spot in the armour or some such this would be fine.. because luck like mentioned above is a part of everything and will always be in sport or esport.
this is true for any multiplayer game imho :) I personally love q3 / starcraft and older games cause most of the times you perfectly know what the game will do if you push this or that button.Also a reason why i just loved mirrors edge.
Once you make games like ETQW, at least its usefull as an example of how to fail as a game, you are just killing your core gamplay. ET is about shooting. Dont take 100 features and just try to mish mash them together, along with the shooting, leaving balancing to the beta testing which will happen by your customer who pays a fucking 50 € to play your game.
Go back to the basics. Games are like good fragmovies. Some moviemakers use lot of editing and effects which aren't adding to the overall movie. Some moviemakers only use effects where they are there for a reason, instead of 'look lol i did awesome effect!!!'.
simple rules can create amazing complex gameplay. after that a kind of natural selection takes off and games evolve and add features, which actually add to the overall gameplay.
etqw>all
In my own opinion, Blizzard has designed the game so you can find your class' best "build", either if it is pve what you are doing (dps tanking or healing), either pvp. But the whole idea that wow is not an esports game due to RNG and gear, well I would say look at ET, a genuine esports game, where skill is based on spam leaning and camping, not to mention that half of us suck because of ping or fps....
Concluding, I have a dk who was blood dps, was doing 2k, maybe 2.2 k dps at max at 5 mans, I respeced to the awesome 17/0/54 spec which was easy to play with not that awesome gear, and now this is the dps i do with crap heroix/2 t7 gear (most are epics though) I also had with blood, at 5 mans
click
i f.e. only have 1 addon: Gladius ;D think about it...
what makes wow awesome is the lore.
for example in when arena came out with bruning crusade it was the same as now with wrath of the lich king:
people with pve gear were favoured because of the new abilities and the lack of good pvp gear they are able to burst the shit out of you. (doing enough dmg to you without yourself being able to do something about it)
This was exactly the same thing with burning crusade because as a fact in season 1 you had paladins in the top rankings all over as well. the "bubble" allowing them to survive this burst makes them an "early game"-winner. as the game moved on in burning crusade however the abilities stayed the same whereas pvp(and yes of course also pve) gear got better and better:
this had the effect that the burst teams where not able to burst someone in 2 seconds anymore making them get less. instead people moved on to hourly long arena matches.
which then of course favoured other classes with more abilities then just a "bubble"
The druid f.e. only came out as a "overpowered" easy-to-win-with class at season 3!
due to his crowd controling abilities (cyclone roots feral charge etc) he was easily able to take 1 player out of the fight while his healing over time instant spells made it possible for his partner to kill the other opponent (speaking in 2vs2 terms now).
but fo example in 3vs3 the druids got less: more burst -> less burstable classes
and in 5vs5 you rarely saw druids except in the >mage warlock rogue druid priest< lineup with the uber might of Crowd controle and a whole bunch of damage.
I myself witnesses all this (i stopped playing at the end of Burning crusade and started around 2 weeks ago again). You are however totally right about the PvE gear part. Your/any class can only live up to its full potential when they gain the best PvE gear and mix it with their pvp gear. I was a raider since WoW classic i saw all the instances i had seen all the epics drop... and i liked the battlegrounds :) when the arena was introduced you gained to little honor for pvp and everybody was doing arena instead of battleground pvp i came to the conclusion for myself that i dont like the arena.. i tried a few times got bursted and said noway.
but as time moved on in burning crusade and i was wearing T5+random epics a friend of mine asked me to play arena with him. he was not raiding and wanted the season2 daggers cause they were better then his 5 man instance ones. so i played a bit with him cause it was fun we didnt care if we lost or won we just simply played the 10 games you need to be rewarded points and stopped till next week. but even though he wasnt playing that good we reached 1800 and seeing that i was actually "new" to arena i had no idea how far up you can go... but i tasted blood ;> in season 3 i sold myself ... playing people to weapon rating for 1000 gold (and i made a bunch of money with that :>) and afterwards played with a warrior (0815 team inc!) but still shaman/warrior priest/rogue priest/hunter paladin/warrior feral/rogue rogue/mage druid/warlock where all combos you had to win against and yes you dont see all the classes there and not all of the people have it that easy winning in 2on2 brackets for paladins it would go much easier taking a 5vs5 gladiator as there they could still bubble (seeing that 5 players do way more burst then 1/2 :P)
however i got my gladiator mount in s3 and was happy ... so i started playing in s4 again as already mentioned i stopped playing but when i logged in two weeks ago i saw i was gladiator again :DDD quite funny we made it up high enough in just 3 weeks to stay in gladiator range for the rest of the season...
well bottomline i think that wotlk will be nearly the same. with gear getting better in the onmoving game i doubt the burst teams and pala teams will survive the 2on2 bracket. but making them stronger in the 5vs5 again and more valuable there... as to 2on2 the classes druid and shaman will most likely be the ones this time. but i wouldnt exclude priests or double damage combos.
there is a wide range yo can play. gladiator is only awarded as you said to half a percentage per realmpool but that doesnt mean its not fair. ;) with 5000 teams competing in a 2on2 bracket you get 50 gladiator spots and those first 50 spots are rarely not reachable... i also played with enhancement shaman in 2on2 and we almost made it ;>
i just wished they would ban pve gear from arena. because that would be a big step towards a competitive E-Sport game. but yeah the RNG's would stay and you are right those can still loose you a match. stun resist meta gems, mace stun (in burning crusade), other resists, spell misses the list is nearly endless... and you cant cut out half the game...
but well this is a more complex game, as you correctly said it gets harder to balance with every new thing they introduce. and since that is the case and WoW is always ongoingly patched and cared about cant compare it to classic E-Sport games which have nearly stayed the same since release
ohh mean i just started writing and didn't realise how chaotic it would look or how bad this would be to read well im too lazy to edit... :P
but youre right it can give you the cribs loosing to idiots just because they have TX or play an anticombo :)))))
e: yea the game is somewhat not balanced but i think theyre giving it a great effort to try to do that... it just looks like they forget something everytime :DDDD
patch x -> y becomes overpowered -> patch y -> z becomes ubermaster -> patch z -> ...............
who ever played for more then 1 major patch knows what i mean :P
Scondly, what about 2009 World of Warcraft arena tourament? Haven't you heard about it?
Finlly, ULDUAR with patch 3.1. And let the PvE begin.