I’m an avid World of Warcraft player, seven years and counting. Can this
game, with a 30 GB hard drive footprint, be installed and run on a tablet?
Looks like PCs may be on the dinosaur path. Thanks.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #11, I look at the software configuration and hardware needs
of World of Warcraft and discuss whether it will ever be available for tablet
and Android systems.
Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!
World of Warcraft on a tablet?
Well, let me start by saying, “Me too!” I’ve been playing World of Warcraft
probably for about as many years.
The short answer is, “No.” I don’t think you’re going to see a tablet
version of it. You certainly aren’t going to see a tablet version of it running
on anything other than a Windows tablet and there are a precious few of
those.
Necessary resources for WoW
The real problem with a game like World of Warcraft is the user interface.
There’s no way to effectively map all of the different keystrokes and mouse
actions to a ‘tablet’ kind of interface. Think about it; there are gaming mice
out there that go to the extent of adding upwards of ten additional mouse
buttons simply to make games more playable.
On a touch screen (a tablet), you simply don’t have those kind of options.
Knowing how the game is played, I simply don’t see how you could effectively
play that game without a true keyboard and mouse available.
So, you’re probably not going to see it on anything but a Windows platform
– simply because it is written for Windows. Tablets, such as Android and iPad
based tablets, are not Windows at all. Even then, you’re going to want the
hardware associated with a desktop PC in order to play the game more fully.
Is the computer on the way out?
Are PCs on the dinosaur path?
I really don’t think so; I think they’re going to be here for a long time to
come.
Tablets, and devices like them, are wonderful devices for various uses; but
the desktop PC is here to stay for a while longer – if for no other reason than
things like games, and business use.
Next – Does everything I do on the internet download, or just when I save a
file?
Could always do a VNC type client to a desktop.. but not sure how it would run.
Perhaps some day WoW will come to Onlive.
With the latest release of nVidia GTX 680, LGA 1155 Z77 motherboards and latest CPUs, PCs still have ther power that tablets doesn’t have. Extraordinary processing power we have at the moment at he mid-range and high-end range of PCs, tablets are no where near at that kind of level.