View From E3: World of Warcraft
By Andrew "Tchrin" Knight

I've just spent the last thirty minutes getting a WoW demo and interview with WoW developer Matthew Sanders, and by the end of it I was almost drooling with anticipation. The game is looking better then ever and you should dispel any doubts you have that Blizzard do not have the skill or experience to cut it as a MMOG developer, they do. And as you read through this preview I hope you'll see why.

We started off by heading off to Stormwind; however we were a fair distance away so we simply headed to a local Gryphon trainer and paid for a ride. Once on the Gryphon we could choose a number of other Gryphon trainers across the map that our character had previously come across on foot. We soon launched into the air and flew on a set path (you can not freely control Gryphons) to Stormwind. Whilst on the back of a Gryphon you're currently invulnerable to attacks so you can not be knocked to the ground, neither can you attack others when flying. We flew over some other players and a few monsters, until we landed in Stormwind Keep. The massive city of Stormwind is divided into four or five districts, each defined by colour.

We did not stop in Stormwind for long though as we walked out of the gate to a local village. There were a lot of NPC's in the game with quests for players, to help stop needless clicking; NPC's with quests that match your level have a yellow exclamation mark above their head. Clicking on the NPC opened up a window which details the quest, its objectives and what your reward would be for completing it. A lot of the quest rewards will be unique to that quest. They plan on having different types of quests, for example level based quests and race/class based quests. Through the quest system and other NPC’s Blizzard will add to the back-story and help define your characters place and role in the world.
Each village or area will also have a Binder NPC, who has a purple exclamation mark above their head. Binders allow you to mark that location as your respawn point if you die. Obviously this will almost certainly change in Beta but currently dying causes a temporary loss of stats and skills (around 10%) which lasts around five minutes. When asked how large the world is I was told ‘More than enough.’ The developers intend balance the size of the world depending on the number of players they put in each server. As they want to ensure that on one side the world doesn’t feel devoid of life, but on the other when you get to the end of a dungeon there isn’t always another player ahead of you so you have to camp the end waiting for the boss to spawn.

Although the game is level based, and no, the level cap has not been decided yet, skills in the game will be usage based, with the skill cap being level based. For example, at level 5 an orc warrior may be able to have a maximum of seventy skill points with swords. And through fighting and using his sword he can work towards those seventy skill points. However when he goes up a level that maximum of seventy may increase to eighty. This stops players maxing out their characters. Theoretically however a character at maximum level may be able to max out their character, I was told if that happened though Blizzard would look into it and fix as needed.

One of the big questions when developing a MMOG of any type is how, if at all, the game will handle Player Vs Player (PvP) combat. World of Warcraft will have PvP, and as has been previously said it will be only allowed in PvP areas. These PvP areas will be reached through rifts and portals. And although it is not confirmed at the moment they currently intend to limit PvP to players of similar levels. For example you can only fight players which are 5 levels above or below you.

As has been mentioned before Blizzard is not forgetting those who want to use trade skills. Although I wasn’t shown trade skills in action players will be able to be a blacksmith, a tailor, a miner and more. Trade skills will work in the same way as combat skills, i.e. they are usage based however they have a skill cap which is level based. I was ensured that both player made items and quest items will always be useful. And some of the items you can make with trade skills will be as powerful as almost anything else in the game, just in a different way to the items you could get in a quest. Blizzard are not exactly sure how the player economy will work at the moment however, i.e. player vendors etc, and are still working on that.

Item slots are relatively limited at the moment; you have your main back pack which has sixteen slots, and then you can up to four other bags, which currently have a maximum of twelve item slots each. So currently a total of sixty-four items is possible. Although details have not been worked out yet they intend to have a way to store items other then on your character, for example at the bank or in a chest somewhere. You will not however be able to put an item in a bag and then put that bag in another one, so no bags in bags in bags! Items can not be dropped onto the ground, if you try to do that you get asked if you want to destroy the item. The environment itself is largely not interactive, but mainly just aesthetical.

Another favourite in some MMOGs is taming and the ability to have pets. Only certain classes will be able to tame the wild creatures around in WoW, for example the hunter class. As all creatures will have levels as well, which are relative to the players levels; how taming will work is players will only be able to tame a creature that is a set number of levels below them. For example a level twenty hunter could tame level ten pets and below. Once you have a pet you can use them in combat and increase their level up to their maximum. This system stops players who have hit their level cap from taming the biggest creatures in the game, like dragons, and having them as their pet, as no one will be able to tame creatures that powerful as the creatures levels will be too high.

When asked what specification system the game needs to run, I was told that although nothing has been confirmed, the game will run happily on a Pentium3 800 MHz with a Geforce3. So when the game is released very few players will have any problems running it. Regarding player housing, they are thinking about it, but are not sure at the moment whether it will make it in game. The game will be largely aimed at guilds and groups but I’m assured there will be plenty of solo content to keep players happy.

The magic system is fairly simple, but effective. Only certain classes have a spell book and a mana bar, i.e. Warlocks. That’s not to say non- magic classes like warriors can not cast spells, it just means that warriors and the like can only cast spells off scrolls (which only have one use) instead of from a spell book. Once a spell has been cast there is a delay until you can cast that spell again, a ‘cooling off period’. Rituals are the most exciting part of WoW’s magic system. Rituals allow multiple players to cast spells together. How they work currently, although this may be changed, is a ritual is made up of a number of scrolls, for this example three. Then three players take a scroll each and have to cast them in order. So player one casts part one, then using the visual stimulus, player two casts part two, and then player three does his part. As each player casts their part of the ritual the spell changes accordingly. Also players two and three can’t cast their part of the ritual until the previous part is cast.

Each race in the game will have their own specific mount, i.e. horses for Humans, Wolfs for Orcs. And unlike Gryphon riding which is on a set path you have full control of your mount and where it goes. At higher levels some classes will be able to create portals to teleport themselves and their groups across the world. There are definitely more races and classes to be announced, but none new at E3, except for the Night Elves which was leaked a couple of weeks ago.

Over all the game is coming along really nicely, they still have a way to go, but currently Blizzard are certainly on the right track with great features like taming, mounts, boats and an incredibly rich world to live in. Hopefully features like player housing will make it into the game as well, but only Blizzard or time will tell. Oh and the question that everyone wants to know, when will beta start? By the end of 2003.

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