Breakfast Topic: All's faire in love and war
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 1st 2009 at 8:00AM
Does anybody else feel like these guys deserve something a little more than being just a stopover for epic trinket turn-ins? I mean, there aren't even any Achievements for them. Shouldn't getting shot out of the cannon without dying be an Achievement? How about sampling all the crazy food and drink they offer? That should be an Achievement, too, right along with owning a frog or a Darkmoon Card. These guys have entertained us, stuck with us for years, and they don't get so much as a welcome or a thank you whenever they roll into town.
Considering it's a monthly event, what else do you think can be added to the Darkmoon Faire to make it more of a stop? I think Achievements are in order, at least. Professor Thaddeus Paleo receives more visitors than anyone in the faire, but nobody ever remembers him. Silas Darkmoon may be a gnome, but he's everybody's circus gnome. Who doesn't know Jubjub? Let's give these hard-working guys some love. What's your best memory about the Darkmoon Faire? What would you like to see? Would it be cool if they visited Northrend, too?
Filed under: Events, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tim Feb 1st 2009 8:11AM
The fact that there aren't any achievements yet shows that the faire is very likely due for an overhaul in the near future.
klink-o Feb 1st 2009 8:14AM
I thought there was talk of an achievement for owning a Darkmoon Faire card back during beta, but I don't know if it ever actually existed.
Also, I remember in the 3.0.8 patch notes there being something about new exotic goods from the trading routes of Northrend. Anyone know what they are?
Tumleren Feb 1st 2009 9:41AM
I'd imagine they were talking about the new Darkmoon cards
Duck Knight Feb 1st 2009 8:14AM
I'm downrating your comment for the "first" remark, and I'm giving you a blank stare because your comment didn't appear to be in any form of known English.
Scilk Feb 1st 2009 8:15AM
Some nice rep quests where you get to help out in less than a *I've supplied you some mats* would be nice.
Maybe doing shows (bit like the bombing runs in mechanics?) for them?
Also, to well... see some shows? You get your fortune told, and you can supply weights for the heavy lifters... but do you ever really see them perform? It would be nice to see some more circus activities go on to be honest.
But yes, we really should have some achievements with them, and more RPish items, instead of more epic turn-ins.
More love to the Faire!
kala Feb 1st 2009 8:16AM
Defenately need reputation achievement
kala Feb 1st 2009 8:21AM
And needs moar pets!
Dedicated petseller even, near those exotic animals cages.
Moonflower Feb 1st 2009 8:27AM
I think the Darkmoon needs to be revamped to prevent 'farmer's camping the professor and Orc. To have neat recipes on a 3 month rotation that are BOP would be nifty and keep it fresh.
Instead of all the different mats on 'spawn' make them rewards from the hand in quests (think side show ally prizes) this would stop the 'farmers' and actually useful.
Have target and try to obtain (using the cannon and character) 50 points = achievement. much more fun.
Have other faction mounts to ride for 30 secs would be good fun especially for new players, and help motivation to get your own mount. Pretty interactive too.
Have 'steam tonk' achievements
The rewards should be BOP though, knock out the farmers.
JBurg Feb 1st 2009 8:52AM
I've had an odd idea about the faire lately. There are a handful of recipes for things like leatherworking or cooking that are available only to one faction or another. If you are Horde you can't pick up stuff that sells only from Alliance vendors. There are some quest reward recipes that only Horde can get. So on and so on...
Have the Darkmoon Faire vendors pick those up and start selling them. Your night elf could learn how to cook dig rat stew or your troll could be making black whelp tunics after a quick visit to the faire.
I'ld like to also see some more reputation quests that use Northrend level goods and maybe something new to spend Darkmoon Faire tickets on.
RogueJedi86 Feb 1st 2009 8:55AM
When's Blizzard gonna add a Darkmoon Faire location to Crystalsong Forest? There's several places in the western areas below Dalaran that would be great for a Faire locale. Imagine being shot from the Blastenheimer 5000 at Krasus Landing and landing in the river/lake below. :D
Psy Feb 1st 2009 8:57AM
That and it wasn't even first. When will this stupid "first" idiocy stop?
elstor Feb 1st 2009 9:08AM
Best memory is when we had a huge steam-tonk war of about 15 people all fighting. It was great... but now the faire is just so desolate...
jeanericuser001 Feb 1st 2009 9:20AM
I think they should add specialty rides that go around through the continent. Here is a few I have thought of that seem possible these days. Use the dark fair tickets as the admission price.
Outland/Northrend Express:
A rollercoaster flying mount with no track that takes you on a wild plunging ride through outland or northrend. The ride itself is a 16 seater with 1 person per row. Ride will start outside of shat and zoom around the continent making visits in nearby sections to perform wild aerial stunts and drop several advertisement robots that give away 1 free ticket to the first customer to visit them.
Darkmoon Ad Powered Racers
How about a specialty controlled mount quest where you and go up against several others players with the objective of shooting at people or npcs with sticky coupons that offer a free ticket at the darkmoon fair. The only catch is you have to be the person to shoot the most players or npcs otherwise you have to do the quest again.
Azeroth Timemachine Dark Rides
Presented by a combination of dragonflight magic and gnomish/goblin innovation. Players get in four seater rides that take them on a magical ride through the history of various azeroth events. Your tour guides will be none other than a hologram of brann bronzebeard and chromie who will point out historical events as you arrive in them.
PVP Waste Disposal Rocket
The Darkmoon fair sure makes a lot of trash and not a lot of good places to clean it up so where do you get rid of rotten food, animal feces, or even the occasional failed mechanical project. Dump it on someone else to deal with. In this hillarious quest game your objective is to dispose of it as fast as possible by pelting opposite faction players and npcs with garbage as you go riding by. Sure the damage to them may seem minimal but what can be more humiliating than to get covered in tiger dung or be stuned by a fallen piece of junk. Be warned though that the rocket is very damageable and once your mount gets destroyed than sure the player or npc will gladly want to dish out some long overdue payback. So pelt away but be ready to dodge once they realize what you just did.
Hal Feb 1st 2009 10:08AM
New rewards for the faire might help as well. I started collecting DMF tickets, only to find out that pretty much everything I might get for turning in the tickets was next to worthless.
I realize Blizzard is trying to get new content out there, but a lot of the Old World stuff, designed when the level cap was 60, doesn't work anymore. Would it be so hard to upgrade the prizes and what not?
Eisengel Feb 1st 2009 2:27PM
I agree, the Faire could be the perfect place to do odd things. Like some said above, gain opposite faction recipes/patterns, do amusing and odd quests, but It would be easy to do something useful with the tickets... make badges of all types purchasable with them. Sure it can be expensive to grab a Badge of Valor, but the Darkmoon Faire should be this strange little scary dive where anything is possible. The Faire would also be an excellent place to give rewards for Achievements, or to offer special unlockables... or possibly even quests to gain certain achievements, rewardable with DMF tickets.
tearshed Feb 1st 2009 10:18AM
Little late there buddy..
Flamespawn Feb 1st 2009 11:36AM
I remember when i first started playing World of warcraft (3-4 years ago now) Leveling my first character around elwynn when the darkmoon faire was in town. "A faire comes once a month? Awesome!"
There was even a decked out level sixty..... druid (I think) sitting on the centre stage asking general knowledge wow questions with a bunch of people huddled around him. Little did I know they were all playing trivia-bot (which I still run occasionally, even though the questions are a bit fail nowadays). They were all having a great time.
The general ambiance of the faire back then was really good. these days I'll only pop over to it if I'm bored and want to camp the vendors for totally under-priced rare materials. Even that's only once in a blue moon.
It does need a bit of a revamp.
Eddy Feb 1st 2009 1:09PM
The last time I really enjoyed the Faire, it was just a big pvp brawl outside Shattrath. It was one of the last few days before Lich King came out and everyone was psyched, in their best gear. And we just had chaos.
I love the Faire though. My friend really wants a Darkmoon Tabard, and I think some other trappings would be pretty sweet.
I'd also like for some of the minigames that they sort of hint at to actually work. I've been handing in Thorium Widgets forever, they're not very useful. Because they haven't fixed the darn game.
Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabadoo Feb 1st 2009 1:12PM
The best thing that ever happened to me was the second time I ever did Sayges fortune I got the exact fortune I wanted, #21 "Divine Shields and Hearthstones do not make a hero heroic"
drak Feb 1st 2009 9:48PM
Kudos to OP and Jeaniericuser001 - good question and a great response.
Blizz devs deserve to see those suggestions. May take a while - but boy would they be worth it.
I've another ideas.. the Inside-out Mirror
Go in front of mirror that - instead of making you absurdly tall, makes you absurdly Horde/Alliance (your opposition faction ) - until you get back in front of same mirror ( assuming you choose 2).
Be a great way to effectively 'double' game content for most casuals who only ever run one faction. And would allow people to level across very different mix of content.
Just make sure the autoconversion is to a race that can do the same class.
Plus you could go gank that fellow-faction member who ninjad loot in Naxx during the next WG BG. :)