I remember the developers talking about Legendary items in World of Warcraft: Legion in hushed tones, noting that they wanted to replicate the experience of getting one of the rare world purples with odd effects back in the base game. They may as well have promised to replicate the experience of playing Roy Batty in Blade Runner, as neither one was a familiar experience to me. In fact, my experience was having these drops never happen and feeling left out, which boded ill for the actual mechanic in play. (Lo and behold…)
Of course, this is far from the only instance of this happening. I’ve also been told by developers that I formed my longest-lasting and deepest friendships by having to group up with people to level (did not happen), that server reputations mattering made the game more fun (did not happen), and that seeing people in excellent gear inspired me to raid (did not happen). Sometimes I wonder how many of these experiences happened to people in general, but they were certainly not universal. So when have MMO devs brought up “universal” experiences that ring hollow to you? When have developers tried to appeal to familiar and cherished memories which you do not actually have?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
