Ever since Blizzard introduced the Warcraft series, I’ve been a huge fan. Even as I’ve gotten older and my gaming time declines exponentially, I continue to have fond memories of the game and have always wanted to try the massively multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) — World of Warcraft. Jokes aside — any game will suck up time, but add the mmorpg mix to it and you may drop everything else if you’re not careful! My friends already joke that I am now considered a “casual gamer” and should resign myself to playing on the Nintendo Wii and iPod Touch games, which are for people with the attention span of nil [i'm joking].
Screenshot of World of Warcraft by rangzen
Anyways, my point here isn’t to point out whether or not World of Warcraft (WOW) is a good game. What I want to bring attention to is the experience that Blizzard has created for WOW, which no other game I’ve been testing has been able to do for me so far — keeping it simple. Based on my experience over the past week of toying around with MMORPGs I wanted to highlight the experiences I’ve had trying out the free trials (or in some cases … totally free) that were offered.
There are plenty of massively multiplayer games out there (some role playing, some not) — and the steps involved to get signed up tend to vary from game to game but there is a general model:
- Go to game website.
- Go to registration page.
- Fill out form.
- Complete registration and wait for confirmation email.
- Download 1 gb installation file for game.
- Install 1 gb installation file
- Install file initiates update process. Waiting…
- Waiting…
- Finishes update and installs (finally).
- Installation complete (woohoo!)
- Run game.
- Updating…
- Waiting…
- Update complete.
- Game launched. Finally!
In some cases, it spent hours installing and updating (I’m looking at you Final Fantasy)! You don’t even want to know how long it takes to uninstall… and yes my computer is relatively new. The fact that I had to go through all of that just to try out many of the MMORPGs was a tad annoying — once I stepped into a game, there was barely any tutorial or guide. I tend to enjoy exploring and figuring my own way around so it wasn’t too big of a deal but I can see how anyone who was somewhat interested and just wanted to understand what they could do within this massive environment would be completely pissed off by that point and just walk away.
I’ve often wondered what made World of Warcraft different, and why it was so successful. We hear all the good things about the game and perhaps the community. We also hear a lot of jokes from South Park. What was most astounding for me was the ease of trying out the game.
- Go to website.
- Register. Confirm via email.
- Download game (only 1.7 MB!)
- Install game. A couple of minutes.
- Complete
- Launch game. Little or no update thanks to streaming technology.
I was able to access World of Warcraft almost instantly. The download file was astounding and the ease of transition from registration to actually playing the game. I can see why so many more people will play World of Warcraft, let alone try the game. The customer experience is everything and Blizzard definitely worked on elements beyond the game.
For many people, the challenge isn’t simply running the game — it’s installing the game, which is something many game developers and distributors seem to overlook.
Definitely a challenge for many businesses and organizations. A product isn’t everything. How people are interacting with or around a product is just as (or more) important today and into the future.
