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Chaos Theory: How The Secret World has spoiled an MMO vet
Well ladies and gents, The Secret World has basically done the impossible: It's turned me into a one-game guy (for the moment, at least). I've been an unfaithful game-hopping MMO tourist for longer than I care to remember, and while F2P has made that gaming lifestyle more affordable than it used to be, it hasn't made it any more fun. Oh sure, I'll dabble in PlanetSide 2 and Guild Wars 2, but as far as my MMO home goes, it's The Secret World by a landslide (at least until ArcheAge heads west). Why is that? Well, plenty of reasons, more than I can relate in this week's column, in fact. I will say this, though: The Secret World's launch feature set has made me a bit pickier in terms of what I'll put up with in competing games.
Breakfast Topic: Design your own vanity gear
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Blizzard has introduced a ton of items designed for no other purpose than to look cool. Almost every holiday introduces a new set of themed clothes that make you look formal, Oriental, or on fire. There are top hats, pimp hats, and chain mail bikinis. (Alarmingly, some of those bikinis give more protection than full suits of mail). Tailors can make a variety of dresses equippable by characters of all races, factions, and genders. Most of the white or gray gear that looks good winds up on people's bank alts so they can look good while conducting business in Stormwind. But sometimes I don't want to look like I'm on my way to a wedding. Sometimes I want to look like the fearsome businessman my bank alt is named after. I want a Mad Men-style business suit, navy blue with infantry blue pinstripes and a red tie. I want my bank alt to dominate the Auction House and look like he's doing it in style. Maybe a crisp fedora to go with it, because nothing cuts a better silhouette than a man in a suit and fedora. What sort of vanity equipment would you make for your characters if you had the opportunity?
15 Minutes of Fame: I do my little turn on the catwalk
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous.If you want to hear a sad song about a lack of bag space, just talk to a hybrid or tank-capable class. Those guys are lugging around three or more sets of gear, plus variations – it's enough to bust a Foror's Crate of Endless Resist Gear Storage wide open. (Yeah, we know you wish you had one of those; we do, too.) We talked with a player who definitely has storage issues, but from a little different perspective: Rattleshirt of Uldaman, who displays her finery not in raid instances or battlegrounds but on the catwalk.Some players think vanity gear is a ridiculous waste of bank and bag space. Not Rattleshirt. When Rattleshirt decided to transfer realms not too long ago, she had to pare down to five full packs – yes, that's five full packs – from her existing 90-something ensembles. She had so many outfits that she began giving impromptu fashion shows in Orgrimmar every night before logging out, complete with audience requests for particular rare robes. We snagged a backstage visit with Rattleshirt to find out, well, what all the rattle is behind her many shirts.
Breakfast Topic: Should vanity gear be implemented in the game?
There's been some talk as of late on the topic of having vanity gear in WoW, or gear that is just for looks and separate from the gear you wear for stats. It's even come up in our very own WoW Insider Show. The idea is that you have one set of gear that affects your character, and another set that is what people see. A couple other games are doing it, and mixed thoughts aside, there are rumblings of this feature possibly coming to Azeroth.My personal take is that it's a horrible idea. I think having epic gear look good and not so epic gear look not good is all part of the motivation for me to get epic gear. But instead of just being a nay sayer, I've thought up a simple solution.A lot of players are already carrying a separate set in their bags for vanity purposes. There are all kinds of great add-ons (like Outfitter) that allow you to swap all your clothes at the click of your mouse. I like this. I think this suits game play better from a role playing perspective. When you're out in the middle of Netherstorm, you're gonna wear the best gear you got to protect yourself, but when you arrive in Stormwind, you wouldn't trudge around in your armor. You'd get some stylin' city clothes on before you hit the pub.Blizzard had mentioned plans of bringing Outfitter functionality to the game as a standard feature way back at Blizzcon for raiding purposes. Wouldn't it be great if they integrated vanity features as well? They could give us options to automate gear swapping based on what zone we're in or what day of the week it is!So what do you think? Should vanity gear come to WoW or does it kill gear progression?
