So, the World of Warcraft trailer for the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was released a few days ago. I promptly downloaded and began to feel worthless about my skills as a 3D artist in my puddle of awe and drool.
Currently in the middle of WoW and Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR), I’ve been leaning towards WAR lately after playing the open beta. But after watching the WOTLK trailer, it had me second-guessing my decision.

But wait. I always drool over Blizzard cinematics. But the feel of the game isn’t the same as these trailers; if I pick up WOTLK, it would NOT feel the same as this trailer, and neither did The Burning Crusade feel like the trailer (complete with Illidan screaming at me). Why the disconnect? For me, the Warcraft III game felt the same as the cinematics. WHY? The WAR cinematics FEEL like the Warhammer (beta). WHY? I’m just listing and brainstorming some possible reasons why there’s a disconnect between WoW trailers and game, but not Blizzard’s other games, such as WC3, and some comparisons to another high-fantasy MMO, Warhammer.

Graphics
Maybe the disconnect is with the difference in visual quality. We’ve all seen beautiful trailers that look nothing like the terrible game they’re portraying. Both WC3 and WoW have high-poly and extreme special effects, and while WoW cinematics are of “higher quality” the difference between the two for this purpose is neglible (imo), while the difference between actual in-game graphics are more significant. World of Warcraft is a much prettier game, while both using the new Blizzard style of milking the hell out of textures and particle effects for a system-cheap way of creating great in-game visuals.

So the difference between Warcraft 3’s gameplay and cinematics is greater than World of Warcraft’s gameplay and cinematics. Why is there less of a gap in how the game FEELS, though? This leads me to believe that even if the cinematics are beautiful, and significantly better than in-game visuals, it does not mean anything, really. Even having real-time gameplay that looked like a Blizzard cinematic would not promise a similar gaming experience.

Scratch off graphics.

Genre
I’ve been comparing WC3, a real-time strategy game, with World of Warcraft, the powerhouse MMO of the last four years. Maybe transfering the feelings of a cinematic into an MMO is just harder; it’s the ultimate dilemma for MMO game designers. How do you make a character feel important and allow them to change the world? How do you allow this ability for ALL players? Whereas, take WC3, and the player is in command of their entire army. The power of the entire Orcish force at your fingertips!

Above is a trailer from Warcraft III, when the fallen prince, Arthas, returns from being corrupted by the Lich King and takes the throne of Lordaeron from his father. Same guy from WOTLK trailer, actually. Both of these cinematics feature the same character, same feel, same style, and both freaking awesome. When I play WC3, I feel the same tingly, goosebumped feeling as watching this, and while goosebumped by the WOTLK trailer, playing WoW leaves me feeling something different. I WANT TO KNOW WHY.

Both of these cinematics are focusing on the player. The player feels like they’re important; I feel like I’m spying on Arthas going insane in the Northrend, or someone in the court watching the murder of King Tyrannus. I feel important and if this cinematic is made FOR me. As mentioned above, this importance can be conveyed in a RTS setting, but much harder in an MMO one. Maybe this is a reason for the disconnect?

But wait, take Mythic’s Warhammer MMO. They conveyed the same feeling, but how?

They did not take the “personal” approach that Blizzard does. While I do feel like I’m there, in the middle of this battlefield, observing and even participating in the carnage, I do not feel like this is “for” me. But this is okay; while it’s not a personal importance, it’s a team game, and I do feel like I’m rooting for my side (Chaos, obviously) in this cinematic. And, from what I gathered from my short time playing the beta, this feeling is conveyed in gameplay as well. And the whole focus of WAR is the guild. I do not feel individual importance, but I do want to wave my guild’s standard in both the cinematic and gameplay.

I conclude the genre of the game, while does need a cinematic tailored for that specific style of game, whether RTS, MMO, or team PVP oriented MMO, does not confirm a disconnect. You CAN make a cinematic for a game like World of Warcraft that conveys the gameplay, but you cannot “individualize” a cinematic while not doing it in game.

Storytelling
Storytelling in MMOs is much harder than in an RTS. Strategy games are most of the time linear, single-player narratives where the storyteller has full control over what the player experiences, and the gameplay in MMOs are most often disconnected from actual storytelling. When Illidan was screaming at me in The Burning Crusade cinematic, why do I care? I never raided enough to get to Black Temple to see him, as most players never saw him either. Sure, there’s an overarching storyline going on in WoW, but the things non-hardcore players do is neglible compared to the effect of the single-player experiencing all the story in a RTS.

I think this is the same conclusion as the genre; The cinematics have to be tailored for the gameplay.

Gameplay?
World of Warcraft feels like too much of a game. When playing Warcraft III or other MMOs such as Everquest, I never really thought I was playing a game. I was too engrossed in the virtual world, becoming my character and just be completely enveloped by the experience. I was wizard, droppin’ Ice Comets on monsters threatening Neriak. WoW, with all the add-ons, and messages popping up, telling me, “FROST NOVA COMING IN 5 SECONDS, BACK OUT”, makes me realize I’m playing a game. Everquest, on the other hand, told me nothing. I didn’t even know what half the buffs did because they hid things from me. Now I’m starting to miss it.

Maybe immersion also has an affect on this disconnect.
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This has been something I’ve been thinking about for awhile, and this post is pretty disjointed, but I think there are some points in there somewhere. Maybe I’ll clean it up a bit sometime; I think this has potential to be a good paper, maybe, if I was a better writer.

My point is why does a company such as Blizzard create cinematics that are so removed from the actual game? Keep the cinematics, make World of Warcraft FEEL like those cinematics! While focusing on mainly World of Warcraft’s failure in this disconnect, this can be applied to other games. Game developers, when a player watches your cinematics and trailers, transfer that same emotional response INTO the game!

What’re your thoughts? Comment!

If you’ve been following Blizzard’s hype the last few days leading up to the Worldwide Invitational, you’ve seen their splash page slowly evolve:

Pretty cool. This stunt had pretty much the entire internet in an uproar about what Blizzard is announcing. Unfortunately for speculators, angled eyes with a furrowed brow is a common trait in several of their characters in all series. Is this Arthas, the Lich King, announcing the open beta for Wrath of the Lich King, WoW’s latest expansion, a Protoss revealing some new information of Starcraft II, or is it the face of the Lord of Terror, Diablo? Not only were all three camps fighting over what information it could possibly be, it didn’t help that the runes embedded into the ice were also from Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo.

So last night, I explain Blizzard’s stunt to my girlfriend and how everyone’s freaking out about it. She’s not familiar with Blizzard, but she’s heard of their games, so I gave her a quick background on them and their development philosophies, and told her that tomorrow they’re announcing something huge, and this splash screen will reach its conclusion and I’m really excited about it. So I close Firefox, boot up Everquest 2 for her (more on that later), and get some sleep.

I hop in the shower in the morning, preparing myself for the day of moving out of our place, meanwhile she checks her emails and Facebook and what have you. I come back into my room as she says, “Blizzard.com is doing something INSANE.” and I rush over, covered with only a towel, jaw-ajar, screaming, “WHAT?!?”

Hell yes. Oh, the sleepless nights I’ve had frost bolting my friends and learning the lessons of meleeing a lightning enchanted fiend. I look forward to you again. I sense a Diablo II night coming up.

Conor expressed dissatisfaction with their art direction, and how it’s more WoW-esque than the prequels, but after giving it a look over, I’m pretty happy with it. While it’s not as gloomy as the originals, it gives the production-flair seen in WoW and Starcraft 2 with insane particle effects and brings Diablo to life with the same techniques seen in WoW without lowering the urgency and dark matters at hand (like destroying the Lord of Terror and his brothers). This is just from the screens I’ve seen, and I’m sure Conor will disagree in a post of his own (who, to be fair, is more of a Diablo fanboy than I am. I just kinda drink the Blizz Kool-Aid).

After watching the ten-minute gameplay trailer, it reminded me of something I heard Rob Pardo, Executive VP of Game Design at Blizzard, say during a presentation at the GDC this year. This guy pretty much had a hand in designing everything that came out of Blizzard after Warcraft II, and he discussed some design challenges facing the MMO behemoth, World of Warcraft. I’m paraphrasing but, one point he brought up was:

You need to make every player feel overpowered, without actually being overpowered.

I took so many notes during that discussion, shit. But the point is, everyone wants to be a badass. After watching this trailer, the crushing sound of destruction combined with the luminous particle effects with each swing of the Barbarian’s axe just gave the illusion of complete annihilation. I’m sure this demo had weaker enemies than one will actually face in combat, but even if the player wasn’t mowing down zombies, the visual and audio feedback from each skill was enough to show the idea that this character is strong. And a badass.

Also, there was a little cutscene featuring an old friend.

Barbarian: Cain… You still live.

Deckard Cain: Ah, there you are! The writings in this place are incredible! Come.. stay awhile and–

Barbarian: It’s time for shedding our enemy’s blood. Not idle talk.

Deckard Cain: Gah… No one ever listens…

We will see what Blizzard has up their sleeve. I’m still waiting for their unannounced MMO.. which better be Universe of Starcraft.

Also announced at the WWI is that Starcraft II won’t be here this year. Sadface. :[

While we are currently in an odd era of BSC2 (or Before Starcraft II), characterized by perpetual anxiety and waiting and an insatiable fiending to zerg, this may be the cure for the itch until the second coming of Kerrigan occurs.

J!NX Shirts are selling Starcraft shirts that look pretty awesome. Now to decide which one I’m going to get.

I am such a Blizzard shill.