Things that WOW didn't invent

[nsn123]

yea, i have my AD&D 1e phb out right now and i can see that WoW took a couple classic spells.

1. Burning Hands (Mage spell)

2. Feather Fall (Slow Fall mage spell)

3.Blink (Mage spell)

4. Mirror image (new WotLK mage spell)

5. Cone of Cold (Mage spell)

Theres a lot more but they are more general spells ie: fireball fire shield detect magic etc. im sure theres even more in other books. Blizzard is the one who is being influenced by D&D. They even dedicated one of the patches to Gary when he passed. Same goes with Dave Arneson (I think).

 

[Umbran]

That is an interesting one: the current culture of running the numbers and declaring option X superior to option Y because it does 1% more damage is something that came hand-in-hand with the rise of WOW. I don't recall such fine resolution on 3e optimizations.

I saw that first back playing Diablo and Diablo II. Not new in WoW.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I saw that first back playing Diablo and Diablo II. Not new in WoW.

not to be too much of an old foggie, but I still remember the second or third FF here in the states had people doing this in the late 80's and I can't imagin it was new then eaither...

as long as something had to be made with randomazation and static diffeculties with static bonues some egghead (not ment as an insult) somewhere is going to find the peak way to stack things up...and optimazation is born...

 

[Wayside]

3.Blink (Mage spell)

4. Mirror image (new WotLK mage spell)

Blizzard first used these in Warcraft 3 (on the Warden and Blademaster, respectively). In fact the pre-WoW Warcraft games are full of D&D stuff, from Ogre Magi to Dust of Appearance.

 

[Huw]

The only one I can think of are Native American minotaurs.
That would be the Tauren, for those that know nothing of WoW.

Some of the MtG expansions had shamanic, nomadic minotaurs. Don't know much about the background (I didn't read any of the tie-in novels), but they could easily be based off Native American cultures.

 

[Hussar]

I thought it was Blizzard trying to get the 40k license that led to Starcraft, not Warhammer -> Warcraft. It could be both certainly.

 

[MarkChevallier]

And yet, despite all these truths, many people compare 4E to WoW, and to video games generally.

I think this frequently made observation has a basis in reality. Namely, in both 4E and video games, FUN is KING.

For example, healing. Natural healing in previous editions was no fun. You could be laid out for a week or more recovering precious hit points if you didn't have access to magical healing, which only some classes had inherently. Now, no injury (except those decreed by the GM arbitrarily) lasts longer than a single day, and every class and character can heal more rapidly than that. This is a very similar approach to that most computer roleplaying games take. Because it's not fun to be waiting to heal.

Many of you, I daresay most of you, will be nodding your heads and saying "Why, of course! The whole point of gaming is fun. All hail King Fun! Long may he reign over us!"

But where this comparison is made disparagingly, it's because it harms people's sense of immersion in the game, their ability to believe in it as a functioning reality. This line is drawn in different ways for different people, but 4E, I'm sure even its fans can see, has crossed that line for a lot more people than many previous editions.

Sorry, I've just taken a lot of words to repeat an observation many people have made before. My basic point is: these comparisons to computer games are based on a valid observation, even if they're not always expressed very well and even if CRPGs took a lot of things from tabletop RPGs (and wouldn't it be a topsy-turvy world if they didn't?)

 

[FireLance]

Out of curiosity, what about "essence"? How far back does that idea go, in gaming history?

(By "essence", I mean "magickalness" that can be distilled from magic items, etc. Sorry, I don't recall the WoW term for it. And I know 4e uses the idea, as well, but again, I don't know the term offhand.)

I think White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening had the concept of "quintessence" which was basically distilled magic power. I don't know whether you could render down magic items to get it, though.

More recently, and in the D&D line of games, the 3e version of the Artificer had a "craft reserve" which he could spend to make magic items instead of XP. At higher levels, he could destroy a magic item, retain the XP used to create it, and add it to his craft reserve.

 

[Hussar]

And yet, despite all these truths, many people compare 4E to WoW, and to video games generally.

I think this frequently made observation has a basis in reality. Namely, in both 4E and video games, FUN is KING.

For example, healing. Natural healing in previous editions was no fun. You could be laid out for a week or more recovering precious hit points if you didn't have access to magical healing, which only some classes had inherently. Now, no injury (except those decreed by the GM arbitrarily) lasts longer than a single day, and every class and character can heal more rapidly than that. This is a very similar approach to that most computer roleplaying games take. Because it's not fun to be waiting to heal.

Many of you, I daresay most of you, will be nodding your heads and saying "Why, of course! The whole point of gaming is fun. All hail King Fun! Long may he reign over us!"

But where this comparison is made disparagingly, it's because it harms people's sense of immersion in the game, their ability to believe in it as a functioning reality. This line is drawn in different ways for different people, but 4E, I'm sure even its fans can see, has crossed that line for a lot more people than many previous editions.

Sorry, I've just taken a lot of words to repeat an observation many people have made before. My basic point is: these comparisons to computer games are based on a valid observation, even if they're not always expressed very well and even if CRPGs took a lot of things from tabletop RPGs (and wouldn't it be a topsy-turvy world if they didn't?)

Replace 4e with 3e and WOW to Diablo your post could be seen verbatim ten years ago.

That's what drives me around the twist with these comparisons. It's like it's a suddenly new thing that d20 games resemble video games. Good grief, the 3e=video games has been around for a DECADE now. It's the same post, just with funny glasses and a fake moustache.

 

[wedgeski]

I thought it was Blizzard trying to get the 40k license that led to Starcraft, not Warhammer -> Warcraft. It could be both certainly.

Nope, the Warhammer Fantasy link is certainly true, but Starcraft was purely an in-house spin-off. You could argue that the similarities suggest otherwise, but as far as I know there was no official link between 40K and Starcraft.