SubscribeWoW’s Evolving UI
July 30, 2008 3:47 pm
WoW’s original UI had a very distinct goal: do not display anything that every player would not absolutely need to know. If it’s class specific, it’s out. If it could be confusing in any possible way, it’s out. Let the players handle it. Said players have done a very fine job with this task over the years while the default UI remained largely unchanged.
At some point earlier this year, I’m guessing that new management forced a change in direction, or maybe everybody collectively realized that the game was mature enough that they didn’t have to worry so much — maybe it’s okay to have possibly confusing class-specific stuff, maybe it’s okay to show information that you don’t absolutely need to know. And that’s when we got the new local map tracking options and shaman totem timers and the ability to mail multiple items at a time and other stuff like that. And oh my god, a number on your backpack to show how many empty inventory slots you have! And an on-screen clock (and SWG’s alarm system)!
There’s more to come in the expansion. Here’s a nice comparison between the original UI and the Wrath UI. The most recent changes are largely convenience features for established players, with stuff like pretty much anything that ever took up space in inventory getting its own UI instead. The mount and vanity pet change, in particular, is convenient but highly unintuitive.
Imaginative types might take all this to mean that the team is now officially prioritizing retention over recruitment.
GreenArmadillo wrote:
“Imaginative types might take all this to mean that the team is now officially prioritizing retention over recruitment.”
Alternately, one might imagine that Blizzard’s primary target demographic at this point in WoW’s lifespan is FORMER WoW players. The patch cycle in the TBC era (four content patches, one of which contained no actual content, in an 18 month window) points in that direction. Small incremental patches (see any given patch in 2005) garner small amounts of press. Huge megapatches with double the feature list get the front page of all the major gaming news outlets. Meanwhile, with all but the kitchen sink thrown into each patch, there’s almost always something of interest to any given lapsed player who reads the coverage. One gets the impression that Blizzard has come to grips with the fact that players will drift away over time. Now they’re more concerned with how to lure customers back than with trying to keep current customers subscribed in the short term with more frequent updates.
Posted on 30-Jul-08 at 6:06 pm | Permalink
OPP: WoW’s Evolving UI | Mining For Fish wrote:
[…] the best posts I’ve read lately with regards to MMO design, and that is Sara’s post on WoW’s Evolving UI. I don’t think it’s possible to sum it up better, and it even has pictures, check it […]
Posted on 15-Aug-08 at 12:30 am | Permalink