Breakfast Topic: Have you spotted your own game design ideas in game?
by Scott Carson 
Mar 11th 2011 at 8:00AM
Back around the time Wrath of the Lich King launched, a fan site ran a "Design a Raid Encounter" contest. Since I had gotten through a good portion of the first tier of raid content by then, I figured that I had all kinds of wonderful ideas and took my pen to paper. I conjured up an encounter with the Titan's personal blacksmith as a one-off raid like Sartharion or Malygos. I scribbled room layouts on scraps of paper I had at my desk and thought up some particularly nasty mechanics that involved managing stacking buffs and debuffs based around molten slag. To top things off, I gave the boss a few construct adds that would be activated at certain health percentages in order to try to prevent straight burns.
A few months later, I was in Ulduar and saw Ignis with his golem adds, and I was hit with a wave of déjà vu. A similar situation arose when I first saw how Karsh Steelbender's fight went down. Did I channel some sort of developer mojo, or was this some sort of crazy coincidence?
I'd like to think that after playing the game as long as I have, as well as an additional 10 or so years of pen-and-paper RPGs, I'm bound to come to some of the same conclusions as the developers. I'm certain that I'm not the only one who's had his flights of fancy materialize in game content and that it will happen again.
What have you seen pulled from your imagination end up in game?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
MattKrotzer Mar 11th 2011 8:08AM
Not yet, sadly. But when they DO start using my ideas, it will be a happy day for gnomes.
Saku Mar 11th 2011 8:30AM
Gnomes need a happy day or so....
All we want is Gnomeragan...
Helston Mar 11th 2011 8:32AM
Whereas if they started using MY ideas, it'd be very bad for gnomes. VERY bad. Sort of like Gnomebliteration, but for 25 people as a raid boss. Actually exactly like Gnomebliteration, except with more people and epics at the end of it.
Kurtis Mar 11th 2011 8:33AM
(Envisions some sort of gnome-powered Tauren-punting machine. Not having a Tauren upon whom to test, they put an unsuspecting dwarf into low-earth geosynchronous orbit.)
MattKrotzer Mar 11th 2011 8:36AM
One of my ideas (for a gnome-centric content patch) included a Caverns of Time: Gnomeregan instance, which would flesh out the original Trogg invasion and show Thermaplugg's betrayal.
Naturally, as a COT instance, you'd have to make sure that history was maintained, which would involve killing a lot of gnomes. So gnomes get more fleshed out lore, and Horde (and everyone else) get to delight in killing lots of gnomes.
Seemed like a win/win situation.
RogueJedi86 Mar 11th 2011 8:57AM
But so that you don't wreck the timeline, you'll be disguised as a gnome, ala Old Hillsbrad/Stratholme's human disguises. You'll literally have to become an all-gnome raid to do it. Sounds like a win-win to me. You wanna kill gnomes, you gotta be a gnome first!
Lucidique Mar 11th 2011 10:04AM
I approve of this very much. Would be the sweetest thing ever!
vertigobliss86 Mar 11th 2011 8:16AM
Back in Vanilla, I was so proud of my PvP and hated the queue times so much that I greatly desired a PvP gametype where it was 1v1 and you had a ranking system. This way you actually earned something instead of just doing duels.
Unfortunately, it was a long while into BC until I realized Arena was what I've been waiting for...sadly I never got into it (mainly due to lack of people to play with) =C
GeekyGR Mar 11th 2011 8:15AM
A recent change in the PTR pertaining to ZA and the Zandalar tribe seems pretty strange considering I sent in a question to the WoW Insider show a week before the ZA/ZG revamp was announced asking about the Zandalar tribe and King Rastakhan. I asked about it in Ustream on the latest live show and got a big "maybe that could happen" from the guys.
A psychic am I. :)
Nawaf Mar 11th 2011 9:34AM
Rastakhan
Every time I see the name I'm like "WTF?"
The king of a Jamaican-accent race is called Rastakhan, as in Rasta Khan.
Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta
stolen from Africa, brought to America
Stolen from the homeland, to the heart of the Caribbean.
I wonder what Rastafaris feel about that.
Shre Mar 11th 2011 8:19AM
WoW is so diverse and big that you're bound to see an idea of yours come up in game.
Metalupis Mar 11th 2011 8:24AM
unfortunetly the one design idea i have will never be implemented, but am I the only person who really wishes that you could play on one 85 while another 85 sits in the dungoen queue
DirtyBear Mar 11th 2011 8:25AM
Gnome punting mini-game?
Josho Mar 11th 2011 8:31AM
Do playable worgen count? :D
Shial Mar 11th 2011 8:46AM
Yes, I kept talking about the reinforcement points since AV was released.
chaosdefined Mar 11th 2011 8:47AM
I'd still love to see new armour sets that are customizable be introduced. Being able to change the colours and patterns on shoulders etc like the tabard design system would be great, getting sick of everyone having practically the same armour.
Maraetha Mar 11th 2011 8:50AM
The first christmas in outlands I made a ticket to a GM asking him why the reindeers couldn't fly. He called me a retard and claimed they can't. To which I replied they can in the story. He tried to get rid of me by redirecting me to the suggestion forums.
I went to the suggestion forums and posted my idea.
Next christmas... Reindeers could fly! OMG!
MattKrotzer Mar 11th 2011 9:35AM
A GM called you a retard?
Drakkenfyre Mar 11th 2011 8:52AM
I doubt it was me, but a couple times on the Suggestions board I said we should have a /yw emote.
We had /ty for thank you, but didn't have /yw. We had to type out /welcome.
Then several months later, in one of the patch notes, it says there is now a /yw emote for you're welcome.
MattKrotzer Mar 11th 2011 8:58AM
That suggestion was ongoing for years before they finally put it in. Was rather apalling how long it took to implement, really.