PVP gear wow
- World of Warcraft senior game designer Brian Holinka
In a new blog post, World of Warcraft senior game designer Brian Holinka outlines a series of changes Blizzard is implementing in PvP gear for its next expansion pack, Legion.
It's a radical rethink of how the developer handles gear - something which is the backbone of the World of Warcraft experience, as Holinka writes: "One of the foundations of the game is being rewarded for your efforts with gear that makes you stronger."
The result is a grand simplification of a "needlessly complicated" system: "Going forward, we feel it would be better if the gear awarded in PvE and PvP was just the same. No special item levels. No PvP-specific stats. Playing any part of the game will allow you to get rewards that are meaningful everywhere, " Holinka writes.
For designers of games with gear or item systems, and particularly, of course, RPGs and MMOs, it's a fascinating look into what goes into making changes to make a design work better with how the game is actually played.
It's also a brief history of how the company has tackled the gear issue, and worth read for that reason, too.