How Pro Gaming Will Change World of Warcraft 146
1up has a piece looking at the impact that commercial support of WoW Arena teams might have on the game. There are already two teams backed with corporate money, both pulled from prominent PvP guilds in the Bloodlust battlegroup. "It's a challenge to pick teams to sponsor in WoW's PvP: 'The same team that may be ranked #2 or #3 in one Battlegroup may be ranked #1 in another," said Stephen Schoder of Check Six. "this makes the proposition of scouting out the right team more difficult than most other competitive eSports. The arena system in World of Warcraft is much more complicated than the simplistic FPS and RTS games in terms of being able to immediately pick up on what is going on.'"
Re:This tunic brought to you by... (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, the 13 year olds don't LIKE non-pvp roleplaying servers, so they tend to stay away as well, making it even better for the rest of us.
Re:No sense at all... (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, it's an advantage to have the best gear. No, this is not the deciding factor.
Especially in Burning Crusade has this become a non-issue. The actual stat difference between quest-reward greens and Tier 5 armor set pieces is negligible. Furthermore, the gear awarded by Arena points is on par with any gear you can get in the game.
It's about knowing how your class' abilities compliment your friends and confound your foes, then implementing them in the proper order while getting the best field position. Gear only comes into play when there is a vast disparity between players (Like I said, unlikely at end-game) or when they are evenly matched in skill.
Re:Sponsored gaming... the end is coming (Score:3, Informative)
(Pity that was an AC post - it's pretty interesting!)
I didn't mean to imply that food is the only currency, I was just using that simple example to show that specialization and efficiencies give rise to otherwise "illogical" situations, like people who can survive while only providing services rather than directly producing wealth.
It's a fascinating thing to see how services do facilitate the creation of wealth. What it all boils down to, though, is that there has to be wealth to support services. The fact that modern economies are very complex doesn't change that fact.
WoW Cannot Support Pro Gaming (Score:3, Informative)
World of Warcraft cannot support pro gaming. The arenas may be more competitive than previous PvP in the game, but they will never be able to support meaningful competition. WoW will always be an MMORPG you play for fun, not as an e-sport.
The biggest obstacle comes from the requirement that all games must be played on Blizzard's servers. This means no sponsored competitions can be hosted other than by Blizzard. Currently, this also means the inability to play prearranged matches. You're stuck playing random opponents on Battlegroups that represent 1/10th of the playing population. Don't expect this to change either. Private servers and the ability to play teams from other Battlegroups aren't very likely, as Blizzard is out to make a profit.
The other problem facing WoW is the huge time requirements to reach the point to where you can participate in this PvP. For the average player this will take 200-300 hours. This causes most players to be able to play only this one character. When class changes happen, or when the playing field changes to where a different group composition would work better, teams are unable to adapt without either cutting a player or going through months of leveling. A game that places the class and gear of the character above a player's skill cannot ever be competitive. Arenas were a great addition to the game, but don't expect to earn anything other than new items from the competition.