Monday, March 31, 2008

Polishing others' mechanics

I've seen a lot of posting about how blizzard stole this mechanic and just polished it or that mechanic and fixed it but I'm not really in agreement with the 'negative' argument of that side. If someone impliments a feature into their game and it sucks, then someone else impliments something similar but more polished and easy-flowing who wins but the players?

Now I, above all else, know that there will always be those players that have to nit-pick and pull everything apart just so they have something to complain about. I just ignore those guys, they're never happy. Here's what Activision-Blizzard needs to polish next:

Guild Housing - Instanced or not I think that guild housing is a damn good idea. Not only would it reduce traffic but it would give guildies a place to congregate and plan together. Giving your guild a better face than a list of letters thrown together to make a vaguely fantasy-esque name. This opens up the possiblity for adding rooms, decorating, guild banks, guild vendors, guild forges and crafting stations, etc.

Player Housing - This goes along with guild housing, who wouldn't like to have their own house complete with forges/vendors/bank space/etc. What about a room with your accomplishments listed? Several sets of equipment on dummies just waiting for you to pick it up?

Cosmetic Changes - This is actually coming (somewhat) in the next expansion via new hair cuts and dances but I want to see more. I want to see something similar to the everquest mechanic that allows you to use one set of equipment for your appearance and one set for stats. Tell me you wouldn't see more females running around in skimpy clothing and I would laugh. This would also open the possiblity of adding previously unsuable equipment to the character. I've seen several peices of mail that I wouldn't mind outfitting onto my mage. I'd also like to see you able to leave spots blank.

Mentoring - In City of Heroes (and I think in eq/eq2, it's been a while), which I played for a little while, you can mentor someone by bringing your level down to theirs and apparently vice-versa. Now unfortunately I didn't get far in those games because they just don't appeal to me. I like being able to solo mainly and jump into a group to get an instance done. That would be an interesting concept to add to wow. I think you'd see more low-level instances being done.

Overland PVP/Objectives - Also an upcoming feature in WoW via the next expansion. I'd like to see whole cities that are capturable. A guild, or series of guilds take over a city or a keep by defeating the inhabitants and the NPCs therein. After the long bloody battle they hire npc guards to keep their town safe from invasion. Maybe they set up overpriced vendors? Maybe a faction vs. faction goal? or a server vs server vs faction vs faction goal? I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

Oh well, that's some more things I'd like to see in wow!

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