Support Issues Undercut Amazing MMO Game Experience

by Matt Eberle

When is too much success a bad thing? Blizzard seems to be walking the line with their new hit, World of Warcraft. While they are enjoying a huge fan base, surging server population, and general acclaim, is there a problem waiting for them?

When World of Warcraft was released I was more than a little interested. Thanks to the people at Blizzard I had a chance to enjoy the game during the final phases of their beta release. WoW was a wonderful game that I had a lot of fun playing. I was amazed at the huge success of the game. But there are problems with this level of success.

World of Warcraft has established a massive player base, surpassing anything I would have ever expected. Die-hard online gamers are joined by fans of the real-time-strategy series. Not only that, but WoW is also attracting casual gamers with its built-in systems to help players enjoy the game without suffering too much “grinding.” The system of rest that allows players to earn double experience for short times and the amazing number of quests available, along with their experience point rewards, make World of Warcraft easy for the casual gamers to dive into.

Unfortunately World of Warcraft is not without its problems. Problems that I hope the online gaming industry is taking notes on. When WoW first released it was a smash hit. The people at Blizzard were forced to add servers as fast as they could to try and keep up with the demand. As servers became over-crowded lag became a serious problem for them. The addition of new servers helped alleviate this quite a bit, but there are still some problem areas.

For an example of these problem areas look at the auction house system built into the Dwarven citadel of Ironforge for the Alliance. The auction house does a brisk business even during slow periods. During peak times players can end up having serious issues with lag and frame rate. The auction house is so over-loaded that sometimes simply requests to create an auction can take over a minute to complete. In comparison during off-peak times creating an auction is virtually instantaneous. Wandering near the auction house can cause players’ machines to freeze momentarily as they are suddenly forced to render the mass of avatars crowded around the NPC’s. This is just one problem area that the player base of World of Warcraft has been forced to deal with. Other problems that have plagued the players have been random disconnects from the servers, extreme lag spikes that can cause disconnects, and a horde of issues with DSL modems and network cards.

As a World of Warcraft player I have watched these problems raise their ugly heads. The technical support staff has been plagued far worse than the players, and for good reason. Their problem is that there are tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of players on a successful online game at any one time. The player base outnumbers the developers just out of sheer numbers. And while the developers work full-time jobs they cannot compete with the number of hours the fan base spends playing the game. With the technical support staff added in there is a measure of relief but in this case it might not be enough.

I’ve played World of Warcraft for several weeks and have enjoyed myself immensely. I have had the chance to play with a friendly, helpful guild of people. And I have watched as friends from older games and guild-mates have struggled with the technical bugs that cause so many problems for the players. Instead of going to the technical support provided by Blizzard the players are turning to each other to resolve their issues. This is both a good and a bad thing for Blizzard. The good side is that they have a fan base that is capable of helping one another solve their problems. As a result their support staff is spared some work. The down side is much more serious.

There is a growing sense among the fan base that the technical support staff is unable to solve specific issues. For example the random lag spikes and disconnects have been caused, in the past, by older DSL modems. The fans were instrumental in finding the source of the problem. They are also quick to help people newly afflicted by the bug resolve the issue. But there are players that are stricken with similar lag and disconnect issues that are not caused by a modem. For these players the technical support has given little relief.

The problems I have mentioned with World of Warcraft are not unique in the world of online gaming. Every game I have ever heard of or played personally has had similar problems. But today the competition in the online gaming world is increasing. The MMO industry developers need to realize that big success is no excuse for poor support, or the perception of poor support. They need to work harder at solving players’ problems. Perhaps they can solve these problems by increasing their support staff. Or perhaps they can solve these problems by giving players the chance to work as in-game support in exchange for lower prices on subscriptions. But something has to be done. In the end early success is important but it is the life of the game that matters. Players vote with their money. If the underlying sense that the technical support cannot solve our problems is not addressed online games will wither.

After all, who wants to play a buggy game?

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---