一星期前正式開放的在線視頻游戲《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》（World of Warcraft Classic）引發(fā)的興奮程度令許多觀察者感到驚訝。對游戲的需求很快超出了服務(wù)器的承載能力，很多希望體驗(yàn)的玩家都要等待數(shù)個小時才能夠進(jìn)入這個獸人與龍的多人游戲世界。

這樣的盛況對任何游戲而言都是了不起的成就，不過這次尤其令人驚訝，因?yàn)椤赌ЙF世界：經(jīng)典版》本質(zhì)上只是重新發(fā)布的一款擁有15年歷史的老游戲，角色模型粗糙，而游戲玩法也被很多人認(rèn)為已經(jīng)過時。

為什么有這么多的人想要體驗(yàn)這款游戲，目前尚不清楚。不過游戲界常用的評判尺度——在Twitch等流媒體服務(wù)平臺上觀看這款游戲直播的人數(shù)——表明它引發(fā)了巨大的興趣。

目前，《魔獸世界》（包括經(jīng)典版和現(xiàn)行版）在流媒體網(wǎng)站Twitch的所有游戲中排名第一，觀眾人數(shù)是最近人氣火爆的《堡壘之夜》（Fortnite）的大約三倍。在《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》上線的上周一，同時觀看《魔獸世界》的觀眾人數(shù)最高超過了110萬人，而該游戲近期的同時觀看人數(shù)大約只有5萬人。

《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》的開發(fā)商暴雪娛樂（Blizzard Entertainment）是動視暴雪（Activision Blizzard）的旗下公司之一。他們正在謹(jǐn)慎地開放更多服務(wù)器以滿足需求。不過公司的反應(yīng)表明他們認(rèn)為目前的狂熱只是暫時的。

由于《魔獸世界》是一個共享網(wǎng)絡(luò)世界，玩家必須登錄服務(wù)器才能夠開始游戲。上周三下午，即使許多玩家還在上班，幾組服務(wù)器的排隊(duì)等待時間已經(jīng)達(dá)到了兩個小時以上。

早在開發(fā)商暴雪于2017年宣布重新推出《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》之前很久，公司就已經(jīng)開始醞釀它的誕生了。

這款游戲最初于2004年面世，是當(dāng)時最大的多人在線角色扮演游戲。截至2017年，它已經(jīng)為動視暴雪帶來了超過90億美元的收入。

隨著時間的推移，游戲也在發(fā)展。例如，暴雪給這個虛擬世界擴(kuò)大了區(qū)域，增加了角色，改變了一些游戲玩法和其他機(jī)制。

對于這些調(diào)整的批評最終促使暴雪宣布推出《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》，它多少讓游戲回歸了最初的版本。目前的“零售版”《魔獸世界》將繼續(xù)運(yùn)營下去。

盡管暴雪可以增加新的服務(wù)器來緩解排隊(duì)時間過長的問題，但公司表示他們的動作會放慢一點(diǎn)。某位社區(qū)代表于上周二在游戲論壇中表示，暴雪正在穩(wěn)步增加新的服務(wù)器，但會等到每片“區(qū)域”都裝滿了再開辟新的。

按照代表的說法，這是“因?yàn)槲覀兿Ｍ_保每片區(qū)域都能長期維持健康的人數(shù)”。這表明暴雪預(yù)計(jì)大部分玩家會在短時間游戲后放棄它。

暴雪的擔(dān)憂很有道理。盡管有部分玩家長期抱怨暴雪的調(diào)整讓現(xiàn)行的《魔獸世界》變得太簡單，但相比之下《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》帶來的挑戰(zhàn)和需要的游戲時間恐怕會讓玩家驚訝。

比起現(xiàn)有的版本，《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》的挑戰(zhàn)包括提高角色能力的“升級”過程會漫長得多。與其他玩家組成團(tuán)隊(duì)攻克游戲中困難區(qū)域的難度也更高。

因此，盡管《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》的上線對動視暴雪而言明顯是一大利好，但也存在玩家迅速感到沮喪并拋棄它的風(fēng)險。Argus Research的喬·邦納表示：“（我）同意管理層的看法，《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》帶來了正利潤。但秋季需要一些游戲大作來填補(bǔ)空白?！?/p>

動視暴雪可以推出一兩款轟動的新游戲。除《魔獸世界》外，公司的另外兩款重要游戲《爐石傳說》（Hearthstone）和《守望先鋒》（Overwatch）的訂閱數(shù)和其他指標(biāo)在最近幾個季度里都有所下滑。

疲軟的表現(xiàn)也讓動視暴雪的股價表現(xiàn)低迷。去年11月，公司的股價從83美元以上跌至40多美元，并一直維持至今。不過如果懷舊之情能夠持續(xù)，《魔獸世界：經(jīng)典版》成為黑馬，暴雪的未來可能會更加光明。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

Since its debut a week ago, online video game World of Warcraft Classic has generated a level of excitement that surprised many observers. Demand to play the game has far outpaced server capacity, leaving would-be players waiting hours to enter its multi-player world of orcs and dragons.

This would be remarkable for any game, but it’s particularly striking because WoW Classic is essentially the re-release of a 15-year-old title—complete with rough-edged character models and, arguably, outdated gameplay.

How many people are trying to play the game is unclear. But a commonly used yardstick in gaming — the number of people watching players broadcasting their experiences with a game on streaming services like Twitch—shows huge interest.

Currently, World of Warcraft (including both Classic and the current game) is the top overall game on streaming site Twitch, with around three times the viewers of more recent craze Fortnite. On last Monday, the launch day for WoW Classic, the number of simultaneous viewers of World of Warcraft peaked at over 1.1 million, compared to the game’s recent average simultaneous viewership of around 50,000.

WoW Classic’s developer, Blizzard Entertainment—a unit of Activision Blizzard–is cautiously deploying more servers to accommodate demand. But the company has signaled it believes the current buzz is temporary.

Because WoW is a shared online world, players must log in to a server to play. On last Wednesday afternoon, even with many players likely still at work, several servers showed wait times of two hours or more.

The dynamics behind the rollout of WoW Classic have been brewing since well before developer Blizzard announced the relaunch in 2017.

The original game, which premiered in 2004, was the biggest multiplayer online role-playing game of its time. By 2017, it had generated more than $9 billion in revenue for Activision Blizzard.

Over time, the game evolved. For example, Blizzard added regions and characters to the virtual world while changing some of the gameplay and other mechanics.

Criticism about the tweaks eventually pushed Blizzard to announce WoW Classic, which returns the game, more or less, to the original. The current “retail” version of World of Warcraft will continue uninterrupted.

Although it could add new servers to fix the long wait time, Blizzard has said that it would instead move slowly. A community representative wrote in the game’s forums on last Tuesday said that Blizzard is steadily adding new servers, but that it is waiting for each “realm” to fill up before opening a new one.

That, according to the representative, is “because we want to make sure that each and every realm has a healthy population in the long term.” The implication is that Blizzard anticipates significant numbers of players to abandon the game after playing it for a short while.

There’s good reason for the concern. Though a vocal segment of players has long complained that Blizzard’s changes to the current version of World of Warcraft made it too easy, the contrasting challenge and time demands of WoW Classic may surprise players.

That challenge in WoW Classic includes a much slower process of “l(fā)eveling” to make characters more powerful, compared to the current version of the game. It’s also more difficult to form groups with other players to tackle tougher areas in the game.

So while WoW Classic’s launch is clearly a positive for Activision Blizzard, the risk is that players quickly become frustrated with it and therefore ditch it for something else. “[I] probably agree with management that WoW Classic is a marginal positive,” said Joe Bonner of Argus Research. “Something to fill in the gap until the big titles hit later in the fall.”

Activision Blizzard could use a new hit game or two. Subscriptions and other metrics for Hearthstone and Overwatch, its main games other than World of Warcraft, have declined in recent quarters.

That weakness has depressed Activision Blizzard’s shares. In November, they slumped from above $83 to the upper $40s, where they remain today. But if nostalgia keeps its hold and WoW Classic becomes a sleeper hit, the future may be brighter.