David Bowers lightly ribbed me earlier about being too lazy to read quest text. Avid role-player that he is, he considered skipping quest text a capital offense. He went on to tell me about some folks that even made sure to read every readable book or object in the game, like A Steamy Romance Novel or those books lying around in Stratholme. Role-players pride themselves in immersing themselves in game lore and the environment. I don't think I could be so involved or keep in character so well for so long. I thought to myself just how hardcore that was. On the other hand, some people would probably consider my dropping 375 Mining to level up Enchanting just for the ring enchants for PvP to be hardcore. I certainly think what Nihilum did by having a majority of their raiding crew take up Leatherworking just for the Drums of Battle was incredibly hardcore.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that a lot of people are pretty hardcore in their own way. I mean, my wife continued to raid with us while she was pregnant, healing us through Serpentshrine Cavern while lying down on the bed. She would log on to fill our roster when we were short even though she was bedridden because of doctor's orders. One of her friends in-game who was also pregnant played a Druid and was actually tanking a Heroic 5-man when she felt contractions come on and had to excuse herself midway through the instance. It turned out to be a false alarm, but I think these women are pretty hardcore for playing in their condition.
The idea of being able to customize your character's look and feel beyond choosing one of 4 or 5 basic face and hairstyle choices at character creation or upgrading to a new piece of loot is one that's near and dear to me. I'm an RPer, so I like to think of each of my characters as a unique person with unique quirks, ideas, and fashion sense that I can't always express as I'd like to due to the limitations of WoW's mechanics. I've even had some very good friends quit WoW because their characters weren't customizable enough.
The idea came to the front of my mind a few weeks back when I was visiting my brother. We played EverQuest together, but when it came time to move on from that game, he (and most of our EQ guild) chose Everquest 2, and I chose WoW. So, of course, he ribs me about it quite often, and since I was visiting, he decided to load up EQ2 and show me what I was "missing."
Now to be honest, I'm still a bigger fan of WoW, but that's a subject for a different article. One thing I will say for EQ2 is that I was very impressed with the wider range of options to customize your character and show off your character's accomplishments. There's a few ideas related to character customization from EQ2 and other games that I'd really like Blizzard to continue emulating in future patches and in the WoTLK expansion that I believe would deepen the game experience for me and my friends, and for many other players as well.
We at WoW Insider like our titles. Mike once made a little rant about how he would've liked to see the return of the old PvP ranks. Having no Blood Elf High Warlords or Draenei Grand Marshals make me a little sad on the inside. Although Bornakk has already stated that they would like to keep titles "rare", it seems like we're getting a few more really cool titles with the juiciest patch to date. For example, even though attunement to the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal will be removed in Patch 2.4, players who have completed the quest line will be honored with the title "Hand of A'dal" just as players who completed the Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep attunement are called "Champion of the Naaru".
Some titles are cool, while some are mere remnants of the old world... who among you really wears their "Grunt" or "Private" ranks with pride? Patch 2.4 also promises an awesome title for those who achieve Exalted with the Shattered Sun offensive... and have money to burn. Perhaps the rarest title of all is the "Scarab Lord" which can only be obtained at one point in a server's lifetime, and it's no mean feat. Though there've been humorous suggestions as to what other titles should be made available in the game, what's your favorite title so far? Is it one of your in-game goals? Are you one of the few who managed to reach High Warlord or Grand Marshal? Or are you happy with Champion or Knight-Lieutenant? Personally, I'm trying to grind Conqueror with my Blood Elf although I've got 1,000 gold stashed away because "... of the Shattered Sun" sounds just so gosh-darned cool. What about you?
Once upon a time, titles were markers of PvP status. In the old PvP system (before patch 2.0), people who had attained a particular PvP rank had the option of showing it next to their name; I never got past "Captain," but it was fun all the same. With the new PvP system, though, the ability to gain these titles were removed from the game, though as I recall players retained the highest rank they had ever achieved as an optional title. Shortly following this development, Blizzard announced that they intended to expand the title system, giving them out to players for various achievements PvP and PvE alike.
Tigole has been busy on the forums today, and that always tends to bring out interesting tidbits about the future of our favorite game. While it is certainly not earth-shattering, the most interesting thing that he mentions has to do with the future of the PVPbattlemasters. In patch 2.4 these guys will be put on a pedestal, literally. Much like the auctioneers in many cities, the battlemasters will be placed on a raised platform that is inaccessible to players in order to keep people from blocking them with their character's model. He also hints that Wrath will see even better improvements. This is certainly a welcome change to remove a minor annoyance that is sometimes imposed upon us by our fellow players.
Other posts hint at the future of guild banks, the title system, and a possible reward for Wrath'sLake Wintergrasp. First of all, he mentions that they're "exploring" the option to allow guild masters to set prices for items in the guild bank. I know in my guild this would be great for the guild leader, since it would probably save him a lot of time in the auction house and also provide an easy solution to those situations where he gets a valuable item and is not sure how to distribute it to the rest of the guild. I imagine that this could be exploited, to an extent, by guild leaders who might suddenly slap a price on everything in the bank rather than allowing free withdrawals, but that would probably fix itself over time as people leave the guild and/or stop donating to the bank.
Yesterday a player on the official WoW forums asked if they'd still be able to attain the title "Champion of the Naaru" once patch 2.3 goes live. Eyonixanswered that, yes, the title will be rewarded to any players that complete the necessary quest line, whether or not those quests are finished before or after the patch's release. He did warn that the title will probably not be given to characters that complete the quests after level 70. If you've been waiting for the next expansion to breeze through the requirements and easily pick up your title, you'll likely need to rethink your strategy.
If you're unfamiliar with this epic quest line which was once required to enter the Tempest Keepraid instance, it all begins in Shadowmoon Valley. The very first quest is called "The Hand of Gul'dan" and can be picked up in your faction's main town of the zone (Shadowmoon Village for Horde and Wildhammer Stronghold for Alliance). About 25 steps into the chain (I told you it was epic) you'll unlock new quests from A'dal in the center of Shattrath. For many players this is where the challenge truly begins as you must venture into four of the more difficult heroic instances to complete these quests. The final step involves killing Magtheridon in a 25-player raid, after which you'll finally be deemed a "Champion of the Naaru". Good luck!
With the bonanza of upcoming changes coming out, there are a few categories that don't have enough changes to merit posts of their own. These are their stories.
We're adding new relics to support all talent trees in patch 2.3 for Shaman, Paladins and Druids. In addition, (not that this will sweep you off your feet), most of the arena-system relics have been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention. (Eyonix)
Those who completed the [Tempest Keep] attunement process will have access to the title "Champion of the Naaru". Also, the plan is to hard-cap it at 70, meaning you can't go back at 80 and "cheese" the title. (Eyonix)
We're looking into potential improvements for earth shield, and even lightning shield (Eyonix)
Fear Ward will be available to all priests at level 20, but there are some changes in addition. Current plans are to reduce duration to 3 minutes, and increase the cooldown to 3 minutes. To give the dwarves and draenei something else to even it out, they'll see a new ability called Chastise (also given at level 20) which will cause holy damage and incapacitate the target for 2 seconds. (Drysc)
Yay! Fear Ward for all! Racials are still a stupid idea, in my opinion, but this takes some of the sting out of them. A new title, and some new relics are both very welcome; the current relics are in many ways a bit silly.
Well, after my little rant on the extreme lack of titles for players the other day, Blizzard has... not changed their mind at all. Zer asks, wisely I thought, for titles for PvE players, but Bornakk shuts him down, and then stomps all over the idea completely. Titles are rare, he says, and that's the way they like it.
That boggles the mind. Titles are a form of achievement, and isn't that what this game is all about? As was mentioned in the comments on the last post, titles could be exactly like Xbox Live Achievements-- relatively meaningless badges of honor (or dishonor) that players would wear with pride. This is a super simple, super easy way to extend the game for players who have been playing for a long time. And Blizzard wants to keep these rare?
It's their game, I guess, and obviously if they feel titles should be rare (though I can't for the life of me see why-- keeping content unattainable hasn't been working real well for them lately), then titles will stay rare. But especially at a time when new content is scarce and players are wondering why they should revisit the old content at all, new titles for achievements of any kind seem like an easy (and easily implemented) draw.
Franco on Aman'thul has a request that I wholeheartedly agree with: Bring back a way to earn the old PvP ranks and titles.
In fact, I think Blizzard has dropped the ball on titles completely. While they promised us lots of new mounts and tabards and have more or less delivered on those, where are the titles? That seems like the easiest thing to implement, and yet the only new titles I can think of are from PvP (doesn't the Skyguard confer a title as well, or am I imaging that?).
So why doesn't Blizzard get creative with titles? Every faction should have a title that goes with it, and conquering raid instances should grant titles as well ("Gruul the Dragonkiller Killer"). I'd even like to see titles for less than heroic events-- falling to your death a certain number of times should grant you a title ("Heir of Icarus"?), or even deserting a battleground a certain number of times. There are tons and tons of fun titles that Blizzard could give out, and it would add a whole new and easily implemented element to the game. There's no reason to force titles on anyone, but the way things are implemented now, people can choose to carry around any title they want (or none at all). Why didn't Blizzard go crazy with putting a ton of creative titles into the game?
As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard just plain dropped the ball here. Sure, maybe they're a little leery about bringing the old PvP ranks back so soon, but they put that title system into the game for a reason, Drysc-- use it!
Player Narci of Nordrassil thinks the game needs a little more flavor. More cool looking tabards with clickable particle effects and titles earned through means other than PvP. CM Vaneras agrees.
Vaneras confirmed that more titles will be introduced into the game, though he didn't say what titles, when or how they will be earned. He also said that older PvP titles will be reintroduced into the game, but couldn't give us a timeline on when that will happen.
As for tabards, he couldn't confirm any plans to add more to game. But he did express the personal opinion that he would like to see more. More designs, more ways to quest, craft and loot them. And, let's face it, more tabards is good thing to cover up our mismatched visible armor.
What do you think of more titles and tabards? What titles would you like to see? What tabard designs would be cool? Should you get a tabard for killing Illidan or some other large accomplishment in game?
I have to give my aging eyeballs credit for this story. I was reading news feeds this morning and didn't have my glasses on and completely misred a word from this post from Windychan121 on the Livejournal WoW Chicks community. I thought she began her blog entry with "Ninjas need to get a title". Yeah, I really need to start using "Large Fonts".
It got me thinking though, even after I figured out what Windy really meant to say. For a great part of the history of World of Warcraft, the game used player titles to reflect PvP rank. Although this was a dearly beloved part of the game for some people, it got removed (even though people got to keep their existing titles) when the first expansion was released when the PvP system was totally changed.
Fast forward to present-day Azeroth and we're seeing a lot of people in the capital cities with new titles which reflect their status in the Arena ladder, with titles like Gladiator, Duelist, Rival, and Challenger.
Going back to the ninja topic, why don't we give ninjas titles? Before you start throwing overripe produce at me, sit back and think about this for a second. Think of a system where you would have an option at the end of an instance, when you zone out, to rate the conduct of players in your instance or raid. It could be as simple as a good or bad rating, perhaps with a drop-down menu to specify the type of activity the player engaged in. People who consistantly got bad ratings from a high percentage of the members of their groups would start to accrue points towards various less-than-desirable titles. Of course positive player reviews would have the reverse effect. While I think this is a tremendous idea, I don't think it will ever be implemented for the simple reason that it could have a negative impact on the subscriber base. But do we really care if we lose those people? It's something to think about.
What other uses can you foresee for player titles?
[Special thanks to 'Aello' from Gnomeregan for lending a hand in the screenshot!]
I've just got a small news update today, while the 2.1 background downloader chugs away. When last we spoke of Arenas, Drysc didn't know what exactly the Arena titles would be, nor what percentages of people would get them. Wonder no more, for here they are:
Q: What ranks can we earn? A: There will be 4 titles total for players to earn. The ranking needed for each Arena title is as follows: (Rankings are based by Battlegroup): % - .5%: Gladiator (and Armored Nether Drake sent in mail) .5% - 3%: Duelist 3% - 10%: Rival 10% - 35%: Challenger
Sadly, I'm fairly sure my PvP skills are not elite enough to even make me a Challenger. Oh, and by the way, the Armored Nether Drake requires 375 300 riding skill, the same as the regular epic flyers, so get your farm on if you don't have the skill or 5000 gold already (and are in the top half-percent of Arena fighters on your battlegroup).
These titles are nice and all, but seeing as PvE is my main focus, I'd like to see some more PvE-oriented titles, along the lines of "Scarab Lord." Maybe special titles for raiders who are at the forefront of a realm's progression, or for killing a bazillion of a certain type of mob, or completing every quest in a zone. In general, I'd like to see WoW take some inspiration from LoTRO's excellent titling system. What titles would you like to see?
As you may or may not know, the people who rang the gong to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj now have the option of displaying a "Scarab Lord" title before their name. This goes nicely with their shiny black bug mounts. In the Scarab Lord thread, Nethaera says that Blizzard intends to implement new titles for Arena winners and other extraordiniary Azerothians.
Phunbaba of Perenolde makes some serious suggestions for new titles, including Sir/Lady (if you've killed every PVE boss in the game), Cruel (if you've killed 5,000 critters) and Fortunate (has looted 20 world epic drops.) Later on, the suggestions get sillier, with Sushi Lord (murloc killing) and Iron Chef (cooking skill) mentioned. I have a few less-than-serious suggestions of my own:
Bondbreaker, for anyone who's been cited as the cause of breakup for five or more raiding guilds.
Time Traveler, for anyone who still tells Chuck Norris jokes while leveling in the Barrens.
Trendbuster, for female dwarf rogues.
Mutineer, for anyone who's killed their guild leader more than 10 times in a raid by blowing him up on Baron Geddon, healing him on Nefarian's priest call, etc.
War Profiteer, for anyone who actually sells a stack of Runecloth for a 99g buyout.
Can you think of some titles (serious or not so) that you'd like to see added in WoW?
The idea of being able to customize your character's look and feel beyond choosing one of 4 or 5 basic face and hairstyle choices at character creation or upgrading to a new piece of loot is one that's near and dear to me. I'm an 
We at WoW Insider like our titles. 
Yesterday a player on the official WoW forums 
Well, after 
Franco on Aman'thul has a request that I wholeheartedly agree with: Bring back a way to earn .jpg)
I have to give my aging eyeballs credit for this story. I was reading news feeds this morning and didn't have my glasses on and completely
I've just got a small news update today, while the 2.1 background downloader 
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