"Concentrated Coolness" is the an important part of Blizzard's game design philosophy as said by Rob Pardo in the Austin Game Conference. He continued by saying to not try to do everything at once and start small, start "cool" - address problems as the pop up, determine what gamers like, and build from there in logical steps. That way, unwieldy situations like having to fix major problems in a wide range of big areas can be avoided, reducing player frustration. Go for Depth first, then Accessibility - but don't forget that both are required.
As an example, he spoke of a dev team who kept a dungeon classified - then had
to redo it because they had forgotten about the accessibility when designing the
depth. Passages in the high level dungeon were too small for the large raid
that would have to pass and fight through them. The Scarlet Monastery content, on the other hand, is an example that clearly illustrates Pardo's "donut" metaphor. Hard-core
gamers could blitz every wing in one session, while
casual gamers can just to a single wing.
What connects Depth and Accessibility is Pacing, says Pardo. In WoW, Blizzard provides a well-paced leveling curve and re-playability. "In WoW you can Solo to Sixty if that’s what you want to.
Then most of our players play another to sixty and then another."
Finally, Pardo emphasized that Blizzard will "release no game before its time."
"What
we found in every review of WoW was the word polish. How well polished
the game is. That polish has to permeate every aspect of a game. You
may not notice the one polished aspect of the game, but you sure notice
it when 1,000 polished aspects come together," Pardo said. Like the dating game or a Broadway opening, you get one shot to impress your audience. "You publishers out there. Listen up. You don’t get a second chance."
While Blizzard's philosophy seems like a brilliant business plan, it is - like most great ideas - based on simple, common sense principles. Decide what it is you're doing, determine your market, create a philosophy - then start small and build from there.
As a Chinese philosopher said over two millenia years ago, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
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