Article by Marik
Let’s face it, Blizzard has little love for their roleplaying servers. They tell us they love us, but then all we tend to get is scraps, leftovers from the PvE and PvP community. We are told that the large open world, the miniscule amount of purely cosmetic items, and the world events should be more than enough and that we really don’t need anything else. Well, it isn’t.
If anything World of WarCraft is behind the eight ball for offering roleplayers decent content. No player housing, little appearance customization when out of combat (and virtually none when in combat), no ability to have last names or (heaven forbid) have an In Character marriage complete with said last names, and the list goes on.
Nearly every purely roleplay focused features that Blizzard had been working on have been scrapped, prime examples being Player/Guild Housing and, more recently, the Dance Studio which Blizzard is still saying is coming yet has been pushed back quite a lot now (was supposed to be released in Patch 3.2 or 3.3, going on Patch 3.4 now and still no sight of the Dance Studio).
I’m not the only roleplayer that feels this way either, there has been vast outcries by guilds in-game and by players on the forums that feel the exact same way. So Blizzard, I’ve made a list of things you could add to the game that would make us roleplayers extremely happen.
#1: Learn New Languages
Each race for each faction (apart from Humans and Orcs) has their own language in addition to the most common language of the faction. Unfortunately, no other race can learn to speak these languages. Something simple yet fun to give roleplayers would be to simply let them learn their own faction-specific languages once reaching Exalted status with that particular race/city, perhaps at the cost of 100 gold per language.
You could take this a step father and add cross-faction languages to the game, though these should be a bit more challenging for players to get just simply for those who want cross-faction speech to throw insults and harass. First you would need to get to Exalted with a certain neutral faction, then you would need to do a long quest chain to prove that you are fully committed to learning such a diverse language. Then, when its all said and done, pay a fee of 250 gold or more to learn the language.
For example, if you reached Exalted with Wyrmrest Accord you could perform a quest-chain to prove your loyalty to the cause as well as to prove your interest in learning such an old, diverse language. Once you’re done the quest chain, you would be able to learn Draconic for a standard fee of about 250 gold or more (they aren’t going to waste their time teaching you for free of course).
This also adds the benefit that, even though the language would work cross-faction, those who don’t know the language still wouldn’t be able to understand the player, so it saves the ears and eyes of those who could care less about what your opponent is saying.
#2: Roleplay Tab
Simply put, a new tab could be added to the Social menu in the game entitled Roleplay, a feature that could be unique to RP and RP-PvP servers (much like being always flagged is a feature of PvP servers). This tab would feature a few different options. Firstly, there could be an option for RP Status which would include Out Of Character (which would put OOC in your characters status area, much like where AFK and DND are placed) and In Character (no status abbreviation needed).
The next option in the window would be Roleplay Type, once again having several options including Non-RP, Casual, Normal, and Full-Time. These tags would appear in the Blizzard description frame that appears (usually in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen) when you hover over a player.
Lastly you would have the option of filling out a Description for the character. Once filled out, other players can view the description by selecting your character, right-clicking on their player/target frame, and selecting an option such as Look or perhaps Look (RP). This will bring up a quest-like window that will show the character’s Description on parchment along with a button to automatically report abusive descriptions (fowl language, insults, things of an adult nature, etc).
#3: Last Names
This is a rather simple one, but it would be great for the vast majority of roleplayers out there. This feature would allow you to go to a new type of NPC called a Heritage Master in any major. For 50 gold the Heritage Master would be willing to keep track of your family tree and would allow you to register a surname, much like one would register a guild except without the need for signatures. This would activate a new tab in the Social menu called Family, allowing the Family Head (the person who registered the name) to allocate certain attributes to family members, much like a guild.
For example, the Family Head can customize up to two or three attributes which replace things like Rank, Note, and Online Status/Location/Class/etc. These would be simplistic options such as (for example) “Character’s Sister”, “Character’s Uncle”, and “Character’s Mother”. Unlike a Guild, however, there is no new chat that opens up specifically for the family. The character’s last name can than be selected as a Title, meaning players can either have one of the titles they’ve earned active or their family name active.
Blizzard could take this a step further and add a Family Tree section to the Armoury, which would use the aforementioned options to calculate the positions of people on a family tree with any blank positions simply being filled up by question marks. Though Blizzard could do this much more simply, forgo the Armoury feature and the extended options and just have options for how each person other than the Family Head is related to the Family Head.
#4: Player Housing
Yes, I know Blizzard already said they weren’t going to be doing it, but the reasons they gave were fairly lame (especially after telling players for several years that it was coming then all of a sudden nonchalantly saying they had dropped it). I’ll address Blizzard’s concerns/excuses first. Their reasoning was that player housing would take away from the city populations. This would be easily solved by making it so players can’t purchase Banks, Guild Banks, Auction House NPCs, or Trainers for their house. This would force players to have to come out of their hole and populate the city, much like in any real town or city. Secondly, keep the housing within the cities.
The housing lots themselves would be available in each city, perhaps including a new District/Valley/Rise/etc for these houses while including some in the already-established areas of cities. When players purchase a lot they must pay “rent” each month, this is to keep lots open when players leave the game or simply lose interest. The larger the lot/house, the more the rent. Players can then customize their house with various items purchased or acquired from rewards or drops, which are stored in a specialized menu similar to how Pets and Mounts are stored. Guild’s who purchase a housing lot could potentially post flags outside of the house that showcase the guild colours and logo.
#5: Cosmetic/Appearance Tab
Two identical bloodelf hunters, by coincidence
Lets face it, when you hit the end-cap in World of WarCraft allcharacters of the same class just start to look exactly the same the more you progress in content until everyone looks like clones of one-another. An Appearance or Cosmetics tab in the Character menu would solve this. Where as the Character tab itself would represent items that actually give you stats, you could activate the (optional) Appearance/Cosmetics tab, which would allow you to customize your appearance with any gear you like (so long as its of an armour class you can use and so long as the weapons are of the same type). Perhaps add an option that, when any slot in the tab is right-clicked, it can be made transparent, just so players don’t have to refarm Tiered gear so they can have it show up on the character.
This feature would have a few merits to it, the most obvious being that characters will have the option to look completely unique from one another. The second is that such a feature would help keep old content alive, with players, friends, or even guilds doing runs in old Dungeons or Raids to procure old gear and items to customize their characters appearance. Lastly, it would make PvP more interesting. How so? Firstly, you wouldn’t be able to tell what gear an opponent is wearing, adding to the challenge. Secondly it would be even easier to call enemies out for organized PvP groups, not to mention if you’re awesome at PvP it would help you create your own image, one that people will fear when they see it.
Well, that about wraps it up. WarCraft is such a wonderful world to roleplay in, it would be a shame for Blizzard not to exploit this, especially considering that World of WarCraft is, after all, an MMO which at its very core is a mass social video game. Adding these features would only add to the social nature of the game, not to mention they would ensure that World of WarCraft continues to be the best MMO on the market well into the future.