Anyone that plays WoW can't argue the fact that the end-game characters tend to be clones with the armor sets. Even with various armor sets, you still don't see as much variety as some games have offered in the past.
As far back as Ultima Online, and even in some MUDs, you could dye your clothing, or craft colored armor. While Ultima Online had simple 2d graphics with nothing more than skin tone and hair style to pick from at character creation, you still saw more variety in players.
I believe that the key to abolishing clones is not "extra sliders" on the character creation screen, but rather more aesthetic options during the span of a character's life.
Take the complaint in WoW about non-matching gear making characters look like clowns; if gear could be dyed to match, it wouldn't matter if you were wearing an unmatched set, it would appear to match.
By offering players more variety in their appearance, you could also alleviate another growing problem, inflation.
Ultima Online had a serious problem with inflation, one thing they did to help this was to add a gold-sink in which players would drop more gold into the game, and not into another player's hands. This gold-sink was neon hair, and it cost 500k to dye your hair a neon color, and another 500k to dye your beard a separate color.
This was a substantial amount of currency at the time, but people still paid to have the ability to set them selves apart from the crowd, and show some social status at the same time.
Right now the biggest gold-sink in World of Warcraft is no doubt the epic flying mount, but it's still a one-time purchase, and doesn't set you apart from the crowd.
By adding armor dyes to the game, and having ONLY npc's sell them for a large sum of money would solve two problems WoW currently faces, Clones & Inflation.
If you had the gold just collecting dust, would you spend it on such fluff that gave your player no real statistical advantage over others, but just set you apart from the crowd?
As far back as Ultima Online, and even in some MUDs, you could dye your clothing, or craft colored armor. While Ultima Online had simple 2d graphics with nothing more than skin tone and hair style to pick from at character creation, you still saw more variety in players.
I believe that the key to abolishing clones is not "extra sliders" on the character creation screen, but rather more aesthetic options during the span of a character's life.
Take the complaint in WoW about non-matching gear making characters look like clowns; if gear could be dyed to match, it wouldn't matter if you were wearing an unmatched set, it would appear to match.
By offering players more variety in their appearance, you could also alleviate another growing problem, inflation.
Ultima Online had a serious problem with inflation, one thing they did to help this was to add a gold-sink in which players would drop more gold into the game, and not into another player's hands. This gold-sink was neon hair, and it cost 500k to dye your hair a neon color, and another 500k to dye your beard a separate color.
This was a substantial amount of currency at the time, but people still paid to have the ability to set them selves apart from the crowd, and show some social status at the same time.
Right now the biggest gold-sink in World of Warcraft is no doubt the epic flying mount, but it's still a one-time purchase, and doesn't set you apart from the crowd.
By adding armor dyes to the game, and having ONLY npc's sell them for a large sum of money would solve two problems WoW currently faces, Clones & Inflation.
If you had the gold just collecting dust, would you spend it on such fluff that gave your player no real statistical advantage over others, but just set you apart from the crowd?
4 comments:
Why make it cost anything? Or too much? I'm sure some guilds would love to deck themselves out in one color and call themselves "The Crimson Guard" or some such.
I'm sure Rogues would go all black, Priests all white. Druids green. Etc.
We do look like clowns in the stuff we get. Even the set pieces that Blizzard has created are incomplete. Wicked or Runic Leather Boots anyone?
It could be a cheap price, but it's the perfect way to install a gold-sink into the game.
They could keep the dyes cheap and just find other ways to stabilize the economy.
Either way, I think we definitely need more customization when it comes to our appearance, and selectable hues seems like an easy way to do this.
Interesting thought!
While I have never played Ultima Online, I do certainly like to differentiate myself from the crowd.
Also I agree with kinless, my guild do need a set of uniforms.
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