Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Players are invested in the game because they can seek some kind of reward.
One raider observes that players largely play for recognition, which is meted
out by WoW in three primary forms: titles, levels, and gear. 50 Because lev-
els are relatively easy to attain, the reward system in the game must look
elsewhere to keep providing carrots for players in order to keep max-level
players paying for the game. As Blizzard is on record as being opposed to a
proliferation of titles, 51 gear is the most sensible treat to of er to players, as
it is well established as a desirable reward through the raiding PvE struc-
ture in the game. By widening the net of people able to get epics, Blizzard
maintained a reward structure that players accept and almost every player
is presented with an attainable carrot to keep them playing the game.
If epics remained something that the average WoW player, the person
who generally plays alone or in a group of two or three others, cannot
attain, the incentive system simply does not work—because the reward is
too far away to reach. In defense of their play style PvPers engaged in lengthy
discussions about how much time it would take them to get all of the epics
they wanted, but none of them said this was an impossible goal or that they
received nothing from the changes. Instead, excitement was sparked, even
from those who had not experienced success in the PvP system before, pre-
cisely because the expectations seemed reasonable; players could see the top
of the mountain and were ready to start climbing. Although the addition
of epics for solo players may be anathema to Tigole, it represents a move to
integrate and socialize solo players into the accepted reward system in the
game. Further, a primary benefi t of using gear as a carrot is that new PvP
seasons can promise newer, better options, thus granting a fresh reward to
chase without a fundamental change in the design of the game. Small group
and casual players were more fully integrated into the reward and carrot
seeking of WoW , chasing the newest purple epics and being paid for their
work in the game with the shiny new gear they earned.
WORDPLAY AND WELFARE EPICS
When Tigole fi rst referenced PvP and arena rewards as welfare epics at
Blizzcon it demonstrated a tension in the WoW player base between those
who earned their rewards in large group play and those who preferred
smaller group or solo play. This tension manifested in the public response
to the term, as both PvE and PvP players sought to demonstrate how they
earned their rewards through their in-game labor. The underlying assump-
tion that one should be sociable in MMOGs was present throughout the
discourse, which is underscored by the fact that, outside of game worlds,
welfare is often distributed to help more fully socialize people into capital-
ist systems. Applying wordplay to welfare epics indicates how more WoW
players were normalized into a design and play structure that considers
work and fi scal metaphors appropriate to describe ef orts in online gaming,
 
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