Thursday, March 31, 2011

Because I ain't a total FanBoi - Stuff I wish WoW Had but it's ok.

First and foremost, I enjoy playing WoW. I love exploring the new places. I love beatin the hell out of someone on a battle field. When I kick ass in an instance, I am totally stoked. Some of the chain quests are really seriously fun to read and watch. But folks, I'm not a blind fanboi. I decided to hop on down to the MMO Melting Pot and found the said posting. It made me think, and of course I dropped a wall o' text for a reply. But then I got to thinking, What do I miss about other MMO's that I wish WoW would employ in their game to make the ultra mmo. Graphics were secondary concern, especially since I noticed that the world at large has improved.

But here are some things I really wish would change to make the game more...interesting. I want you to understand that these are mostly cosmetic in nature and primarily vanity items, though in some cases they are still actually usable:

Guild Cities and or player housing: Age of Conan did a totally kick ass job of creating sub instanced areas where up to 4 Player Cities could be developed. It was one helluva resource sink by the way...grind hell. But for me it was worth it.  Your city advanced, wandering NPC's would walk about saying random chatter. All your crafting needs could be met within the cities to include an Auction house. Further more, dueling arenas with a guild hall could be obtained over time as guild rank was increased. Pets and mounts could be bought as well. Player Housing as they had in Star Wars Galaxies would be a huge bonus too. Certain trophies or items could "hung" on the walls for display as well as furniture items etc which created a whole new economy unto itself. This would be most useful on RP servers and perhaps PvP servers. I doubt so much on standard PvE servers it would be of much use since there is no reason to have a guild meeting toon to toon. Vent works well enough for that purpose.

Re coloration of Gear: Neverwinter Nights and Dark Age of Camelot had the ability to dye your clothing and armors. Look, I guess I'm a fashion nazi in this aspect but I HATE non color coordinated armor. It really pisses me off. If our Alchemists or Tailors could create dyes that we could add to change our armor colors I think that would kick ass. Yes, I'm vain, get over it. Why not fight in style? We already have Uber shoulders and weapons, gimme some coordination ability.

Character Customization:  Wizards that are Conan...really? Every Human male, every Draeni, every Night Elf, every Orc. They are all shaped like Conan. Lemme make em skinny or fat. Let me change the way their faces are built. We got different haircuts which was awesome, but how bout more facial or body styles. It couldn't be that hard to set skinny, muscular, or fat. Faces need more variety as well. I'm not asking for the slide bar ability for each feature, but lets add a few more for variety. this would go a long way in Aesthetics.

Languages Learned:  SWG had a thing when it first came out, to talk to different races, you needed to learn their language. this was done by progressing through talking to a native speaker and bits and pieces were learned over time. Now that would be interesting. There have been many times in the Lore portion of WoW that Orcs and Humans spoke to one another. I haven't figured out why it hasn't happened in game. Make it difficult enough that it takes lengthy or several conversations (ie several hours played in game) to really get to know the conversations. This would bring a new dynamic in RP, PVE, PVP.

Now friends, I am aware none of these things are ever going to happen. It takes the Devs time and money invested to create new compatible coding. It is far easier to throw new instances and new gear which is largely static in nature than to stretch out what might be new ground. This is ok, I understand this as the laws of geometric game development are able to do. But if I had a wish list to add into the game, these would be the areas I would want to see put into action. Will this stop me from playing WoW? HELL NO! Will it allow me to explore and dream up new ideas? YES. Ok, nuff said for now, I'll be back later.

6 comments:

  1. Nice timing. Just found on the 4.1 PTR is "Apply Dyes"!

    There was a time languages were a skill, but it was never fixed. You do know you can talk in your "native" racial language so only others of your race understand? But it'd be more fun if there was a chance to learn another race's language.

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  2. Hmm...Dyes would Be AWESOME!!!!!!
    No I didn't know the language issues from the past. Yes I know I can speak one language or another, but wouldn't it be cool to be human and learn Orcish? I think it would be awesome heh heh heh. Anyways, have a good one Kallixta.

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  3. Oh, boy, do I hear you on player housing - and even more on character customization. And then I remember the "skinny-Belf" fiasko. See, a big part of the community thought the skinnier Belfs were "too girly," and so Blizz went and buffed them up. Obviously, a big part of the WoW-playerbase wants their characters to be muscled overproportionally. *sigh*

    Language learning would be very, very sweet, too. At last, I could play my ambassador to the Night-Elves without having to have a parallel Skype session running in the background for translations - and it would also ease spontaneous inter-faction roleplay with other players you just met and where you don't have the ability to use Skype or Voicechat in the backgrund.

    The possibillities would be so marvelous. *sigh*

    I am hoping for Blizzard's next MMO. Who knows, maybe they will implement all this awesomeness there?

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  4. It would be nice heh heh heh. And thank you for your input. I value commentary regardless of opinion on my blog as long as it's tasteful of which you are lol.

    As to the muscled syndrome, I am wondering if that doesnt have something to do with idealization from the player base. Is it something they wish they were or were not? An interesting concept of self development and social attitudes.

    While I am far more into the melee scene, if I were to play a priest, I'd love to do one as rotund as Friar Tuck or a stopped over old man mage. That would be so cool in my opinion.

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  5. I would love to have all of these options. As Kallixta stated already, it does appear that we may be getting the dye function finally, so here's to hoping that will work out well!

    I always wondered why we couldn't study foreign languages in WoW. I mean, if I'm sporting the Ambassador title (which I did for many, many months) shouldn't I be fluent in languages other than those of Draenei and Common?

    Player housing: my Druid may fancy stalking along the ferns in the wilds, but my Shaman would rather like a nice little hut somewhere to light a fire, tend to her mini hobby farm, and hang up her cloak. I'll keep dreaming for now ; )

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  6. @ Saz ~ Dreaming is good! You know, while the graphics weren't that great, the Persistant Servers that were run well by thier administrators in Never Winter Nights was spectacular. I mean you could design all kinds of sub instances and rooms etc to make anything from a small hut to a sprawling Castle. Simple ideas, just not sure if the majority could be held up with coding or if it hinders Blizzard's profit margin for only a niche crowd who would like it. It's all good, I dream too!!!

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