Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What if WoW were more interactively social and lifelike?
by David Bowers 
Jul 23rd 2007 at 8:00AM
Some of you hate The Sims with a passion, and I respect that. And to be clear, I'm not really talking about making WoW into a "people simulator" like The Sims is. You and I both would play The Sims if we wanted to simulate people -- we play WoW for adventure! No, I'm talking about adding some optional elements to WoW, similar to roleplaying, which would add a sense of life and actual living to the game and don't get the way of your killing things at the same time, so that it doesn't feel like killing computer-generated mobs is all there is.
If you do support adding more non-combative, socializing elements to the game, what sort of elements do you think would work? Mini-games such as WoW Chess, perhaps? Additional interactive animations, such as hugging, handshaking or even kissing? Perhaps even the ability to pick up objects and move them to a different location, such as moving chairs about or kicking a ball around? Would you even go to the extreme of including things like toilets, basic hunger and thirst needs, or other elements that we have in real life? Where would you draw the line where the similarity to real life should stop?
Filed under: Virtual selves, Breakfast Topics, RP
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Aler Jul 23rd 2007 10:06AM
This has been mentioned elsewhere, but a few small graphical changes can go a long way.
For example, let characters heads roughly track the direction the camera is pointing. Suddenly, you can make eye contact when talking to someone, or a friend can get immediate visual clues as to what you're interested in. And when people first go through the portal, they'll look like the flock of awed tourists they really are.
More idle animations have also been suggested. If the player is looking at the map, and doing nothing else, have the character pull out a map to look at. Same for looking at quests, or rummaging through inventory. Two characters standing next to another, ignoring each other is terribly unsocial. This way, we'd at least know they're busy.
ben1778 Jul 23rd 2007 10:07AM
Darkmoon card games would be the bomb. Also, i'd like to maybe see more done with the tonks and little "RC" type robots. Why not have Bind-on-Use engineering things like little steam cars that you can race or card games from Darkmoon that you can play in a little window. Something to do during raids while waiting for rezzes, something to play while on a long flight, or even while you're just waiting for a hearthstone to cooldown.
But stay away from the collecting of cards from rare mobs, quests, and games vs NPCs. This is WoW - not yugioh.
Everyone gets the same deck - it;s just for fun. Maybe have a tournament in the major cities once every few months... in between other events.
Kyle Jul 23rd 2007 10:32AM
Personally I would prefer simpler additions such as a larger variety of laugh tracks for each race. Currently if you have multiple characters of the same race and gender performing a /chuckle or /laugh or /giggle they all sound identical.
Krick Jul 23rd 2007 10:42AM
There is a Texas Hold'em UI mod for WoW, though I've never tried it. There are probably others. I imagine "Battleship" or "Connect 4" wouldn't be that hard to program since you don't need to implement any computer AI...
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/3757/
You can kill people in The Sims if you want.
My favorite way is to lock them in a doorless room filled with carpets and make them play with fireworks. Instant incinerator.
Sherp of Ahrotahntee Jul 23rd 2007 10:58AM
While I would LOVE to have a working /hug emote... given what I've seen on the WoW forums, someone would probably find a way to exploit it.
That makes me sad.
skvngrx Jul 23rd 2007 10:59AM
Ah, but there is a ball to kick throw around:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18662
rick gregory Jul 23rd 2007 11:37AM
No. Stupid idea. Not silly. Stupid. What makes WoW work is that it's mostly got an internal logic - it's a pretty consistent world. If you want to step outside of that world STEP OUTSIDE OF IT. Go launch Second LIfe, etc.
This is EXACTLY what Bartle was talking about in your earlier posts... the desire to make WoW the ONE game. Much of what is bandied about above simply doesn't belong in the world of Warcraft - it's either directly contradictory to the fictional world Blizz has created or its's fluff. Cooking a virtual dinner for virtual people? God, how sad would that be? Go cook real dinner for real friends.
Aladek Jul 23rd 2007 12:15PM
MINI-GAMES!
ok, 'nuff said
Rich Jul 23rd 2007 11:49AM
Don't forget there is this to kick around...
http://www.wowwiki.com/Gnome
Gogey Jul 23rd 2007 12:07PM
The sims is good and all, but thats not what I play WoW for. Sure I'll communicate with others, but I'm not about to go control them, its not second life after all.
Pingmeister Jul 23rd 2007 1:16PM
In reading all of the responses I think I may have a different interpretation of what the original question was.
I would love to see more "human" animations and movements included in the game.
Specifically ones that would help people to convey what they are trying to /say.
As someone from an RP server (but not a hardcore RPer) it would be nice to walk into an inn and see the folks who are RPing actually animated rather than /em ' ing everything.
I don't want to replace my real-world drudgery with virtual drudgery but if I could help be part of a story rather than a dude playing WoW that would be great.
Perhaps they could have /emote sliders pop up if you want during a conversation so you could set things like overall mood, attention level, etc.
braydn Jul 23rd 2007 8:01PM
i think they should add a gambling rooms in the inns and other places, you could get get people to put say any amount up to 10 gold in the pot, and there is a random roll and the highest number takes it all. there could be little card games to play with bets to try to win a lockbox, they would contain any green, blue or purple drop from the entire world drops,
there could also be a beauty parlor where players could change some minor things about their appearance.
there could be a real racing contest with mounts and vehicle and such, or even a jousting contest where people place bets on who wins, etc...
there are so many possibilites to add cool little things like this, i mean, fishing is in the game and a total waste of time, they could add more cool stuff to do....
lolwtfstfu Jul 23rd 2007 1:43PM
heres a great idea WoW TCG in WOW
oh wait no revenue
Saidar Jul 23rd 2007 2:10PM
The way to make WoW TCG work in WoW is to release sets of cards with a short, unique code on each specific card that would be entered into WoW which would then enter that card into your virtual deck. That way Blizz still makes money on selling cards, and the people who play get to play online with tons of other people who play.
Then again I don't play WoW TCG and wouldn't even if that was implemented...so maybe my point is moot.
Androdar Jul 23rd 2007 9:32PM
This is where the two sides of WoW clash: Those who RP and those who don't. For roleplayers, all improvements to social animations and actions would be welcome. But imagine a fulltime raider/pvp'er : "Hold on 2 sec, my toon has too pee!" During their Gruul fight.
More animated emotes would be fun, but anything that limits gameplay efficiency in raid/pvp will not help the game in any way.
Dwomt Jul 24th 2007 12:58AM
There's a 2D MMORPG called Dark Ages that has these features. Players not only level grind, but they can participate in town politics, players can get married and have a wedding, priests in the game can run a church and hold mass for the religions based on the lore of the game, players can become scribes and hold contests. There's so much involvement in the game. WoW has so much lore this could work. WoW could keep what it has now with all the grinding, then add these other social aspects and become a very interesting MMORPG to play. It would give us something else to do besides grind and grind like robots.
Az Jul 24th 2007 4:19AM
More chairs. That's all I want to see now. Maybe some new animations/emotes and some sort of liveliness in the inns from npc's.
Frank Jul 24th 2007 5:35AM
You know, the whole toilet thing would be kind of awkward in a raid. One second you tanking Vashj, then next you're hearthing to Shattrath because you can't hold it any more...
Eliste Jul 24th 2007 11:14AM
I think that the best thing to add would to have the Guild Housing that each guild could use for their meetings and you could set your hearth stone to. They could be in instances in the different cities, so a Blood Elf guild could be in Silvermoon or an Ork guild could be in Ogrimmar, etc. They could charge 'rent' via in game currency so vanity guilds wouldn't keep up server space from people that are actually playing the game. I don't know about setting things up specific to each guild like movable furniture, but maybe different layouts that could have 'trophy cases' that would light up or fill up when the guild completed an instance officially. Larger, more active guilds could afford a bigger area or special rooms, like maybe a sparring area where they could duel or have a private forge. Trophies would give the 'welcome centers' in each city a thing to do besides just sell tabards and set up guilds. Maybe they could put arena tournament rankings for guild members in a certain room? It would also get people off the streets and lagging the main cities.
Another thing that would be helpful is to have in-game events on Roleplay servers that could be supervised by a Blizzard employee or someone that would be a proxy. They could summon a bunch of orks to lay siege to Theramore for example. They wouldn't drop much loot and wouldn't be worth XP, but would be there just for an event. People participating in the event might get a small trinket like a medal that they could wear, like a badge from City of Heroes just to say, "I was there."
Anyway, those are just odd ideas or a person on an RP server.
bleakraven Aug 24th 2007 3:25PM
I'd appreciate the social content of the game but make it purely optional so other players won't get pissed off by people who prefer to socialize sometimes instead of grinding endless waves of monsters.
WOW card game, chess, checkers, poker (betting gold :o )seems great. Also moving furniture arround would be imba (like in Anarchy Online).
It would be great on roleplaying realms... they lack those things.