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.
Buried away in a Pirates of the Burning Sea status update:
Another one of our new hires runs a full time usability/playability lab, where we bring in players to see what they think of the game. We’re also conducting tests of our new marketing materials, the new web site, etc. As you might expect, this kind of data is extraordinarily useful in fine tuning the game, and it’s extremely cool to watch our test scores constantly improving.
Awesome, and to the best of my knowledge, an industry first for independent MMO developers. But will said new hire have a job after launch?
Conventions are good. Assuming you’re targeting your game at an audience with a few shared game experiences under their belts, conforming to systems, controls, and UIs they’ve seen before is generally not a terrible idea, as long as you’re aware that what’s best for your game experience comes first.
So, uh, good old Ultima Online is getting a new UI in its latest expansion pack.
The interesting part is that it looks like they finally compartmentalized the inventory. No more hiding stuff from thieves by putting a book on top of it. The fact that there’s only one bag icon makes me think that you can still nest containers, though.
As long as you can still trap nested containers, it’s all good.
Wait, you can’t steal anymore, right?
It’s been a long, long time.
(via Kotaku)
“2+ years of WoW and I never knew …”
Fascinating thread. People have trouble with wholly undocumented inventory and vendor controls! A smaller set of those people have trouble with the wholly undocumented talent system! (Really, if you don’t know to look for it, that new button in the button bar at level 10 is hard to notice.) And a much smaller set of people have had trouble finding flight paths, and an even smaller set had trouble finding some out-of-the-way quest givers. Some people share some not-entirely-obvious ability interactions.
Some of these things are in the (relatively new) loading screen tips; others aren’t. Hopefully, it’ll make a good resource for future loading screen tips. Every game should have loading screen tips. Arcane, totally unintuitive shift-alt-click commands are handy, sure, but you need to know about them in the first place. I’d vote for more intuitive commands in general, but these shortcuts have a place too.
As devs, we should do this ourselves during beta. Ask the testers what they had to figure out on their own, and document it.
Is iPhone as revolutionary as claimed? Is the multi-touch interface truly breakthrough as claimed? Yes and no. Let’s take a look.
Tog on the iPhone.
I love the way that he integrates reader comments and updates within the article itself.
The rest of the site is a worthwhile read, too. Check out this 2005 list of worst “design bugs,” detailing problems from fighter jet weapon interface to menu item conventions. Here’s a great article about a dishwasher.
In other news, I took this picture of my front yard about half an hour ago. It was actually snowing, though it’s hard to tell. See also the ICEPOCALYPSE.
I haven’t left the house since Sunday evening, when I rushed out to buy Everquest 2 after learning (the hard way) that the Play the Fae trial doesn’t allow you to level past 10. MUST LEVEL.
Also, we’re running out of food.
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