Things that WOW didn't invent

[JoeNotCharles]

A lot of these things that people say are "just like WOW", I think, "You mean Diablo, right?" Item sets, animal companions and optimization guides (in the WOW form) I first encountered there.

But I'm sure a lot of those came about way earlier.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

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.)

 

[Sonny]

WoW didn't invent mechanically-minded gnomes. Those were prominent in the early Forgotten Realms.

Dragonlance's tinker gnomes are the one's that put that trope on the map.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Essence, Mana, etc...

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.)

You mean like a liquid, measurable way to quantify magic or similar powers?

I am sure we can find some examples...


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edit: I just remembered that I wanted to steal the whole "Orcs are shamanistic warriors" idea from WoW, but it turns out that, according to TVTropes, the concept wasn't invented by WoW either...

 

[Leatherhead]

I dare say WoW has become a synonym for "video game" around these parts.

 

[Rechan]

This is an interesting idea. When listing WOW things it would be nice if people could explain to us non WOWers what they actually are. I have no idea what "aggro" is for example.

"Aggro" is a term used to explain a mechanic that monsters in WoW use to determine who to attack next.

Every action in combat that a character does creates a degree of aggro. Everything from attacking a monster, to healing allies, to dealing lots of damage. The monster is programmed to attack the person with the highest degree of aggro. This means that if your priest just healed a lot of HP, his aggro could get bumped up higher than anyone else, thus the monster is now going to attack the priest.

Aggro is why Warriors are important. They have various powers that increase their aggro, so the monsters have to attack them instead.

And Now You Know.

(Be aware I don't play WoW, but where I frequent online the game is talked about so much, I understand its ins and outs)

 

[Theroc]

Funny thing. If I understand correctly, the lore of the Warcraft franchise arose when Games Workshop did not give Blizzard the license for Warhammer, and so Blizzard changed a bunch of things and turned it into a totally separate franchise.

If I'm mistaken, I'm willing to be corrected, but I did find it rather funny when people were saying things such as, "Mythic Entertainment totally stole from Blizzard's "Lich King" with their "Witch King", when, to my knowledge, the "Witch King" came long before Arthas.

 

[Orius]

"Aggro" is a term used to explain a mechanic that monsters in WoW use to determine who to attack next.

Every action in combat that a character does creates a degree of aggro. Everything from attacking a monster, to healing allies, to dealing lots of damage. The monster is programmed to attack the person with the highest degree of aggro. This means that if your priest just healed a lot of HP, his aggro could get bumped up higher than anyone else, thus the monster is now going to attack the priest.

And aggro routines are fairly common to MMOs from what I understand, WOW certainly didn't invent them. They probably came into being when western RPGs when real-time from turn-based and/or MUDs.

And really, any DM worth his salt knows how to "aggro" an enemy (I will not say mob here) according to PC actions.

If I'm mistaken, I'm willing to be corrected, but I did find it rather funny when people were saying things such as, "Mythic Entertainment totally stole from Blizzard's "Lich King" with their "Witch King", when, to my knowledge, the "Witch King" came long before Arthas.

Yup, it's right there way back in Tolkien's Middle-earth.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There was a high level of optimization in 3E, but it came about in later years. I agree that WoW and other PvP MMO's really crystallized the optimization mentality for many gamers. Squeezing out the last fraction of damage, AC or utility, no matter what the impact to the concept of the character appears to be more and more the "norm" these days.

There was a high level of optimization in Champions, published in 1981. The supplement, Champions II (1982), even has a section telling players how to do it, called the 'Goodman School of Cost Effectiveness'. For example it recommends that the best value for Dex is 23, because you round up when it's divided by both 5 and 3.

 

[Doug McCrae]

7. Item sets. It was gauntlets of ogre power, belt of giant strength and the hammer of thunderbolts if I remember correctly...

Good point.