Two years ago, my wife and I left World of Warcraft, never to return. Except for a couple of weeks ago, of course (they don’t make “never” like they used to). We joined back up with some old WoW friends from the dark ages (Hey Eley, Gawain and Eaj!), and have started learning just how far behind we are.

In the next few days, I’ll be writing a post about just how much has changed in the last two years, but for now I want to talk about how much hasn’t.

Boy, doesn’t this bring back the memories? Of course, what most people forget is that, when the world’s most successful MMO launched, downtimes were measured in days at times. And yet, “world’s most successful MMO” still applies four years later, depending on how you judge it.

Why?

Because of one simple thing that most developers seem to forget…good game play will make your players overlook inevitable technical glitches. Want proof? Look at that picture above, then keep in mind that part of this extended downtime is because the latest maintanence period caused everyone to lose every piece of mail that was in their in-game inbox.

Gold from the auction house. Items mailed to bank alts. Items mailed out by guild officers in preparation for the new WotLK content. Gone.

And yet, the subscriber numbers continue to climb year after year. In part, it’s because Blizzard understands that a screw-up must be fixed to the satisfaction of the customers if at all possible (as with today’s mail glitch), but mainly it’s because they made a game that makes its players love it.

And you always forgive your love a few blemishes, right?

However, if it’s just a weekend hook-up you picked up in a bar because she was topless (yes, I’m looking at you, Age of Conan), then the first few things that tick you off also propel you out the door and out of her life.

Too many MMOs are programmed like hookers; to truly succeed at an incredible level, they need to be programmed like the girl you’d take home to Mom.

And then take home and get topless. Over and over and ov-…what was I talking about again?

(Right after I finished typing this, Manacannon over on the Fortuitus forums reminded me of this video from the original EQ…guess what? Things haven’t changed as much as you may think. )

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Tags: deleted mail, mmorpg, World of Warcraft