去年，魔兽世界最初的设计师约翰·斯塔特斯（John Staats）出版了《魔兽日记》，这是有关香草时代魔兽世界创作的幕后花絮。

随着魔兽世界经典怀旧服Classic WoW的推出，我们认为现在是再次查看当初游戏设计思路的时候了。

本周的文章是《未完成游戏的丑陋》，讨论了约翰·斯塔特斯第一次见到《魔兽世界》……这是非常粗糙的， 基本上是一个没装备的人在到处乱跑。

以下为魔兽世界最初的设计师约翰·斯塔特斯（John Staats）揭秘的魔兽世界香草时代创作过程：

我在工作的第一天就花了很多时间。

我学到的第一件事是，早期游戏的表现不佳。

有人指引我到我的办公桌后，我环顾四周，以了解第2小组正在制作哪种游戏。

游戏设计师埃里克·多德斯（Eric Dodds）走近我，问道：“有人告诉过你，我们正在做什么吗？”

我在墙上看到了一些魔兽世界的角色和幻想概念艺术，但这可能与其他项目有关，因为暴雪装饰着旧标题的痕迹。

“不，”我回答。 “但是我认为这可能是无尽的任务（EverQuest）的魔兽版本。”

如果不是我们正在研究的目标，我故意听起来并没有太大希望。

他毫不置疑地兴奋地笑着说：“跟我来。”

埃里克（Eric）领我到他的办公桌，坐下来，启动了一个应用程序。

几次解体之后，屏幕闪烁着一个金发碧眼的男人站在草地上。

他穿着缠腰布，背着短剑。

唯一的界面是生命值栏和包裹图标。

当我研究屏幕时，Eric期待地抬头看着我。

他说我不知道该如何操作，所以他展示了角色四处奔驰的情况。

角色跑过一些树木和一个小沟，上面有一座木桥。

埃里克（Eric）洋洋得意地再次抬头看着我，好像他拿着一张中奖彩票。

我很不知所措。

要感谢我的失望，您必须意识到我已经放弃了我在纽约市以前的职业，朋友和公寓，并且以前在关卡设计方面的所有经验都是在修改成品游戏。

我决定最好说些什么，“哇”是我所能说的全部词汇。

穿着内衣的金发家伙并不是特别有趣，但我试图给人留下深刻的印象。

埃里克（Eric）将我的惊叹声解释为，我已经弄清楚了游戏名称的字谜。

他振作起来。 “你明白了吗?!哇！是吗？”

我不知道他在说什么。

他指着屏幕。 “看看那有多酷！”内衣男子走近一个站立着的食人魔。

它没有动过肌肉。角色用剑击中了怪物，但没有反应。没有战斗声，只有鸟鸣的环境噪音。

然后，人类跪在食人魔的脚下。

“看！我正在抢劫它的尸体……虽然没有任何死亡动画，但这是真正的抢劫情况。”

我茫然地看着那个男人跪在仍然站立着的食人魔雕像脚下的屏幕。

埃里克解释说：“当然，战利品列表中什么也没有，因为战利品系统尚未建立。”

“你能穿过桥吗？”我问。

“没有。我的意思是，我可以，但是我将继续进行。"

这是我第一次听到“ doodad”一词，并假设（正确）他指的是装饰环境的艺术品（道具）。

埃里克继续，他指着沟渠说：“那将是一条河。但我们的水很可能不会进入很长时间了。”

以前我从来没有做过未完成的游戏，后来它开始破晓了。

我对未完成的游戏感到很沮丧。

埃里克（Eric）向我简要介绍了游戏引擎的历史，并且我了解到，当核心导航（穿越森林等）足够稳定时，设计人员将优先考虑战斗，物品，用户界面和游戏基础等内容。

那将是未来的几个月，因为该游戏只能在角色可以越过地形网格的意义上进行游戏。

他们不会跳跃或与树木或桥梁碰撞，当然也没有战斗之类的东西，但他们可以爬上山坡，看到地平线。

埃里克（Eric）向我展示了这些区域的概念草图，这些草图吸引了我的兴趣。

它们是大胆的概念（我尚未得知“史诗”一词是团队的目标形容词）。

我们翻阅了怪物和战争机器的图片，这是我第一次觉得这个游戏非常酷。

以下为英文原文：

I absorbed much the first day on the job. One of the first things I learned was how unimpressive games look in their early stages. After someone escorted me to my desk, I looked around the area to see hints of what kind of game Team 2 was making. Game designer Eric Dodds approached me and asked, “Has anyone told you what we’re working on yet?” I’d seen some Warcraft characters on the wall and fantasy concept art, but that could have been something to do with other projects, as Blizzard was decorated with remnants of old titles.

“Nope,” I answered. “But I think it might be a Warcraft version of EverQuest.” I purposely didn’t sound too hopeful in case that wasn’t what we were working on.

Noncommittally, and with an excited chuckle, he replied, “Come with me. This way!” Eric led me to his desk, sat down, and launched an application. After a couple of crashes the screen flickered to a blond man standing on grassy terrain; he was wearing a loincloth and carrying a short sword. The only interface was a health bar and a bag icon. Eric looked up at me expectantly as I studied the screen. He could tell I didn’t know how to react, so he showed the character running around. The character ran past some trees and a small ditch with a wooden bridge over it. Eric looked up at me again with a triumphant countenance, as if he were holding a winning lottery ticket. I was very underwhelmed. To appreciate my disappointment, you must realize I’d abandoned my career, friends, and apartment in NYC for this project, and all my previous experience in level design was modding finished games. I decided I better say something, and “Wow” was all I could muster. A blond dude in his underwear wasn’t particularly interesting, but I tried to look impressed.

Eric interpreted my exclamation as a sign that I’d already figured out the anagram for the game’s name. He perked up. “Did you get it?! It’s WoW! Right?” I had no idea what he was talking about. He gestured to the screen. “Look at how cool that is!” Underwear Man approached an ogre frozen in a standing posture. It didn’t move a muscle. The character hit the monster with his sword, but it didn’t react. There were no combat sounds, only ambient noises of birds chirping. Then the human knelt at the motionless ogre’s feet. “Look! I’m looting its corpse…although there aren’t any death animations, this is what looting will look like when looting is real.” I looked blankly at the screen of the man kneeling at the feet of the still-standing ogre statue. Eric explained, “There’s nothing in the loot table, of course, because the loot system isn’t in place yet.”

“Can you run across the bridge?” I asked.

“No. I mean, I can, but I’ll just run through it. There’s no collision on doodads yet.” It was the first time I’d heard the term “doodad” and assumed (correctly) he was referring to the art assets (props) that decorated the environment. Eric continued. “And that is going to be a river”—he pointed to the ditch—“but our water probably won’t be in for a long time.” I’d never worked on an unfinished game before, and it started to dawn on me how lackluster unfinished games were.

Eric gave me a brief history of the game engine, and I learned that when core navigation (running through forests, etc.) felt solid enough, the designers would prioritize things such as combat, items, user interface, and the basics of gameplay. That would be months in the future because the game was only playable in the sense that characters could cross the terrain mesh; they couldn’t jump or collide with trees or bridges, and there certainly wasn’t anything like combat, but they could climb hills and see the horizon. Eric showed me concept sketches for the zones, and those began to capture my interest. They were bold concepts (I had not yet learned that the word “epic” was the team’s target adjective). We paged through pictures of monsters and war machines, and for the first time I felt that this game could be very cool.

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