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The Daily Grind: Online character profiles?
Web-accessible online profiles for characters in MMOs have been around for a while. The first ones I remember were profiles available for EverQuest players. In the years that have passed, they've slowly popped up everywhere. Now you can generally find something about people's characters on the game's site, on commercial guild and player database sites, or even privately hosted guild sites. Some are very simple, offering a quick overview of gear and talents. Others are far more detailed, like the World of Warcraft armory, or the almost social-networking build of Lord of the Rings Online's player pages. With all that said - some people love them, and some people absolutely hate them. The reasons vary from player to player. On the negative side, some feel that others shouldn't be able to look at their gear if they're into PvP, or don't want others knowing how much money they have. As for positives, some like to be able to compare gear with others they know to see if they can find ways to improve their own, others think that listing your regular play-times so other folks looking for friends to adventure with can find you is a great idea. This morning we wanted to ask what you thought about online character profiles? Do you love them or hate them? What are some of the best - and worst - features you've seen on different MMO character profile sites? Anything you'd add to your favorite if you could?
WOWDB introduces Simplified Chinese language option, promises more upgrades
In more international WoW news, Curse's foray into the realm of WoW database sites, WOWDB, is now available in Simplified Chinese, joining Allakhazam among the major database sites that offer the language. In addition, Curse's announcement post also hints at additional features coming to WOWDB "soon," which seems like it may be a direct answer to Wowhead's recent extensive features upgrade. WOWDB has already been accused of copying Wowhead in the past (and, to be fair, opposite accusations have been made). Of course, Wowhead doesn't yet have a Simplified Chinese language option, so in this case, it seems WoWDB has come out ahead. We'll be eager to see if these new options coming to WOWDB make it stand out from the pack.
Wowhead to add character models
A couple of months back, we relayed that Wowhead gained 3D models. Now, they're set to become better. We mentioned in the previous post that player models were in the works, and I'm here to bring you an exclusive preview. Users will be able to see items on any race and gender character model, so if you're trying to figure out how those boots look on a female Tauren, you're in luck (although it's a good bet that they'll look odd). Wowhead sister site Thottbot will be receiving this improvement as well.Competitor WOWDB has had the ability to preview items on a character model since they launched a bit over a month ago, tying into their profile system. However, they seem to lack Wowhead's impressive high-quality mode.In fact, the quality of Wowhead's 3D renders will be increased in the upcoming update, especially in the high-quality Java version. See the gallery below for some examples and comparison shots; the image above is also a Wowhead render (not a screenshot). This has got to be the most accurate preview I've seen on any database site. %Gallery-19306%
