World of Warcraft (WoW) is the best and most successful MMORPG of all time in my opinion. I enjoyed it and have spent thousands of hours in the game. Therefore, when Blizzard announced that they would release the WoW Classic, I was excited and joined it immediately after its release. The most recent update of the game was the dungeon of Naxxramas. It was the peak of the period that had a limit of 60 levels in the game. It required 40 skillful players who had hundreds of hours of training, armor accumulation, and preparation to beat it. The majority of the players were not able to conquer the dungeon until it had disappeared in the game, leaving many frustrated. The dungeon was remastered and added in a later update. However, the remastered version was much easier than the original one. It received a mediocre response. The WoW Classic gives players a second chance to make up for their regrets from more than a decade ago. Given the same difficulty, mechanics, and resources in both the WoW Classic and the original version, there is a much higher percentage of players who are able to beat the dungeon this time. Aside from a better understanding of the game, the interface plays a key role in helping players succeed in the game.
Dovey and Kennedy stated that “The computer game both creates symbolic worlds and generates consumer technology demand.” These technology demands are often accomplished by game developers. However, in a long-lasting core player community like WoW’s, they could also be done by players as well. WoW has an open UI system for players to customize their interface to a certain degree. Blizzard’s developing team adopted many player-made add-ons in later updates of the game, such as a server-wide chatting channel and the meeting horn plugin to assemble teams. The addons also provide players much more information to help them beat the dungeon, such as a boss skill timer, status monitor, damage meters, and detailed battle logs, which were not included in the original game. Therefore, even though the Naxxramas is the same, the game is easier because of the new interface that has been developed and is progressing in the whole life cycle of WoW. To make the impact of interface change easier to understand, I found two Let’s Play videos of the same boss, Sapphiron, in Naxxramas. Both videos were filmed from a warrior’s perspective. The first one is from a professional German team in 2007 (Link: https://youtu.be/UUuj5Klr_l4. 2:35:00–2:46:00.) The second one is from one of the popular WoW Youtubers, Asmongold, from two months ago (Link: https://youtu.be/uaF7Sw-THMs. 1:30–6:30 ). It is obvious that the information flows while battling the boss are drastically different from each other. The one in 2007 had nearly no additional information of the battle details other than damage. The team frame is basic and not very easy to read. In Armongold’s video, the information flow is intense and easier to follow. The team frame is intuitive. There are weapon attack timers, damage meters, and rage meters, which are pretty standard for average players today.
In summary, the interface change in WoW has influenced the difficulty of the same game content. It was primarily initiated by players rather than the developers. Offering an open environment for players to be a part of the game development could be a great strategy to consider while developing a game.