Breakfast Topic: What features from other games would be fun in WoW?
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Let's face it: We all need an occasional break from WoW in our gaming rotation. My most recent slump sent me from the computer chair to the couch to play a little something called Super Mario Galaxy 2. Now, obviously World of Warcraft is not -- and will never be -- anything close to a platformer. Sure, there are some similarities, but if history is any guide, too much platforming in the land of Azeroth only leads to frustration. Having one of your party members miss "the jump" in Wailing Caverns is always a toe-tapping exercise in patience. Hell, if you need proof that your average MMO player isn't well versed in the art of platforming, just look at Naxxramas. If I had a nickel for every time I'd seen players eat slime during Frogger, fall off the Gluth pipe or trip over their two left feet in Heigan's dance studio ... Well, let's just say I'd have a pretty nice nickel collection.
But if I were to pretend for just a moment that World of Warcraft were designed solely for my own personal entertainment, I think I'd include a lot of odd mechanics in raids to greatly shake things up. Messed-up gravity. Interesting jumping puzzles over bottomless pits. Water levels! Just imagine how much the feel of a dungeon would change if only you had the right zone-wide buffs to include. Buff up the monsters, give all the players a 100 percent haste and run speed buff, and just watch things get chaotic. Oh, yeah -- and the floor behind you is slowly falling away ...
Obviously, if these things were implemented in the game, it would be the beginning of the end for Blizzard. These are simply terrible ideas; I'm aware of that. That's the point, though -- we've all had that one idea that we think would be ridiculously fun to try, even though it's incredibly impractical.
If you had your way, what bits and pieces would you steal from other genres for your own personal version of WoW? Do you have some brilliant way to turn everyone's favorite MMO into an awesome FPS or RTS?
