Interesting... Very interesting...

Are you really serious about this?

Fantastic ideas! Also, I would like a spell that would show a floating TV, so I can catch the Simpsons as I trek along the landscape.
Maybe a boombox spell, so I can blast Bare Naked Ladies to all my fellow Tauren?

Ooh!  The TV is a good idea.  Personally though, I won't be happy until games slice, dice, perform circumcisions, do my taxes and my foreplay and can make me a really good milkshake regardless of what ingredients I have on hand.

Mmmmm.  Ramen milkshake.

Sorry for posting this a bit late.. but WoW TV has already been done, as a UI mod:

http://www.hachima.com/WoWTV.zip

I think this post is an indication of how hopelessly, relentlessly addicting WoW is.

At least somebody would get some enjoyment out of it.

It would be great for all those people who tend to have late night benders on addicting games like this.

Well, if we can already order pizza inside MMORPGs, other real-life compatiable activities won't be far off.

I know a lot of people who have one machine for their game and another for outside world contact anyway, there's no way of stopping people who don't want to be fully immersed in an MMO.

I do this all the time. This is why I have a notebook computer on a dinner tray table on my left while playing WoW on my desktop in front of me. Helps for email, pizza, and frequent thottbot lookups.
I'm not weird, am I?

They should allow you to order pizza at the touch of a button from your local Pizza Hut (R).

I would really like the email. It could even be integrated into the existing postal system as far as I'm concerned.

The RSS would be overwhelming for me. I have over 180 feeds in bloglines, so I would spend more time reading that stuff than actually playing the game. The email would be awesome though.

Kind of like how you could check your email and play your own music in Black and White.

IIRC, in Black&White townsfolk would notify of of incoming email and you could read in in-game (although not reply). But since this feature works only with MS Outlook I never tried it.

Maybe they should include special portals in MMOs that take you into an "inbetween dimension" with RSS, email and other stuff. It would be half in-game but wouldn't distract you from a deadly boss fight.

When coming near a town a messenger could run towards you and notify you of an "message for you".

On the other hand - do I really want that? I'm unavailable when I want to be unavailable - turning off the mobile phone and unplugging the other one when necessary.

Hmm, what if they integrated a spam filter and got the npc monsters to taunt with hot deals on... stuff?
Would give you a whole other motivation for slaying the monsters. :D

Heh, this is really totally different, but this reminds me of Black & White, when you could automatically grab your Outlook contact list and make those contacts the names of the people in the world...

I can't remember whether or not it would tell you about an email...

Anyway, I often wish there were ways to make the game more transparent... For the rare time that I have more than 1 hour to play WoW.

My feature suggestion for WoW would be this:
Mountain Climbing Equipment.

The other day, I went out exploring along the coast lines, to see if I could climb up to where I wasn't supposed to be. Earlier, by finding a small hill by Gnomeragan, I was able to get up on top of some of the highest mountains in the game and look down upon the majestic world below. The entire place up there was barren, but it wasn't boring because "I wasn't supposed to be there." Well, there's a huge expanse of land up there waiting to be explored by curious players like me. If they put some special things up there, like crashed planes, maybe special characters that you could talk to, etc, then that would be awesome. If you had mountain climbing equipment and a passive skill in climbing that you could level up, then that would be even cooler. It would have to involve a certain level of manual interaction and skill based gameplay, otherwise it wouldn't be very much fun. But, if it was a challenge to get to the highest peak, how cool would it be to climb up there, talk to some incredibly wise hermit for a bit, then setup a camp and take some screenshots of your success?

Of course, it would be cool until everyone else did it too...

Until then, I'll just keep trying to find hills that aren't quite as steep as they need to be, then run around on a bare boring mountain shouting "Whoo hooo!"

that sounds like any Ultima game before v8 lol

While you want to be able to interact with the real world from time to time when playing someone else want to be able to hear about what's happening in-game when one isn't playing.

http://www.corante.com/gotgame/archives/2004/09/27/where_is_my_news.php

Change to Eve Online (www.eve-online.com). it has an in-game web browser. ok, so it's a bit simple, but the only things I've noticed it fails on are Gmail and Flash sites.

World of Warcraft? Should of been World of Diablo.=P

Dak'kon's sword would "level up" with him in PS:T. A quick google suggests it'd also change depending on his morale (or how well your playing style would match his alignment maybe).

In the NWN add-on "Hordes of the Underdark" you can pay a smith/magician to add specific effects of your choice to any weapon. I like that approach also.

Hell, why not make "sentient weapon" a player character. Sure, you'd sacrifice the ability to explore and build wealth on your own, but on the upside, you'd have your hands free to post snide remarks about the actions of your "owner" ALL THE TIME!

"Ha-ha! You miss again!"
"Dude, a good banging and I've never been this gay to be straight." (after being repaired)
"My brother is a +12 Hackmaster."
etc.

"Don't scratch me !"

"Shove me in someone already"

"Stop looking at that girl , jackass"

"You'd better wash me after this"

"Use your finger , im not made for this."

"Haha, killed by a level one goblin .. ouch, that has got to hurt! Wait till I tell our friends about this.
Anyway, I'll just wait here until you get back.. um.. you're are coming back for me, right?
<silence>
Hello? You there?
<some time later>
Ah.. there you are, finally. Now pick m...
> Player cast Bind on Sentient Sword "Blacktongue" <
...e.. what are you doing? No.. you wouldn't...
> Player cast Shroud Of Silence on Sentient Sword "Blacktongue" <
> Player cast Grumpy's Crushed Retina on Sentient Sword "Blacktongue" <"

Whats the use of the in-Game email ? Without configurable font-sizes etc. it rather stinks anyhow. Play WoW in a maximized Window, Alt-Tab to your email-window, when a message comes up.
Where's the problem ?

We definitely need a web browser too. Why? So that, when this article pops up in the RSS feed, we might be able to go to http://www.answers.com/irony

Sheesh.

I want a pony at level 1.

I also want my character to level while I'm at work.

Erm... why not just play the game in a window and let the desktop peek through?

My suggestions for WoW would be an expansion disk which doesn't add a new continent, but only adds detail to the existing land! I'd like to see quest rotations, kind of like seasons. I think it is sad that no quests have permanent effects, so why not semi-permanent? If enough people exterminate monster nest A, have them really die, or migrate, and remove the nest for a while. The gap could be filled  by other quests (other strange things happening in the area while the monsters are gone). Or have the de-forested area grow back for a month, and have the horde trying to chop it down. Right now, though the story in the world is very good and detailed, no matter what you do in your missions, it has no visible effect.

I would like to be able to accept and read IM messages from inside WoW - tabbing out is such a pain.

Xfire
http://www.xfire.com

Instead of adding all of this little utilities within WoW, Blizzard should just license Windows XP Embedded to run within WoW. This would allow you to run IM, get your e-mail, browse, and get RSS feeds from within a version of XP running within WoW. When you click on the icons to launch programs in this WoXP, it'd say, "Quit poking me."

Mac users-both of them-could just run some sort of VMoW and have a BSD prompt, or you could add your favorite GUI.

I'd also like for WoW to organize and database my MP3s. I'd like specific playlists for combat, and for every region in the game. For example, I want "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" to play each time I sit down to eat.

Both of these should be possible to do through UI modifications, hack into thunderbird and ad some custom code to WoW and it should all be possible

Maybe there should be a online p0rn also!

Would it be hot naked night elves?

Just wanted to thank you for creating SCUMM. Great great contribution for the games industry :)

I second the previous post.

I just minimize WoW to check the internet for stuff.  Or play in windowed mode.

Long live GrumpyG.

i would love to see a gnomish widget that would let me integrate my itunes into wow. my toon could roll around with ear phones on and i would be able to skip or playback songs without having to leave the WoW window.

A friend of mine who's been involved in MMORPG development predicts a day when our everyday lives will be conducted largely via avatars in a shared virtual space.  Requests like this appear to be baby steps on the road to the day his prediction comes true.  Course, being heavily involved in MMORPG development, he would tend to see things through that kind of filter...

Hey,you should get an extra option just to be able to update your great blog while crafting the Warcraft world!Hi Ron,I'm an italian student growed up with monkey island games...you're surely one of the greatest creative minds of this (and the previous) century.My greetings to you.

Nice ideas. WoW is slowly becoming the "default" app for some, as they lose themselves in this fantasy land. It would be nice to integrate real world features into the game through creative means. Blizzard should be all over that kinda stuff. EA Games has recently integrated real-time sports scores into their Xbox live games like MVP Baseball. Yes, it's relative info, but stuff like that should find it's way into immersive games...so we don't lose touch with reality.

Stay grumpy...

Well, I suggest Blizzard add fun first ^^ ... I been playing the beta and WoW sux as bad as any other MMO does - tedious treadmilling without end ... just my 2 cents

Perhaps remove the cash-cow element. The game costs £29.99, plus £8.99 per month for the cash cow. Thats a total approaching £140 for one year. With that £140, I could buy 4 brand-new games with significant online play elements (e.g. Battlefield 2) that will give me more total play time than 1 game costing that much, and would also leave me with £20 left over to spend on budget games. Its a no-brainer- its not like I can't afford an MMORPG, its just the principle of having money extorted from me for the privilege of playing something I have legally purchased.

Weapons should level up through usage?

All weapons I do know of wear DOWN from usage.
Hacking orks doesn't make your 2hander more powerfull -
quite the opposite: it renders it blunt!

Chopping&Slashing could however build you more muscle-power (+STR),
so, more usage can level up your attacks - but... NOT your weapons.

Only maintainance and/or conversion (pimpin') could upgrade a weapon.
(But - as a bonus trait in a -let's face it - magical alternative dimension, well yeah, what the heck.  You pay to play, so theyd better give you your moneys worth.)

It's not how much you use a weapon, but what you do with it.
THAT shoul make you the money/XP to gear up.

And this is exactly what our Good Lords of the Realm have cramped down:
XP & Money.  They've got you by your bums (or wherever you do wear your wallet), thus the only 2 ways of upgrading are playing more or paying more (go get yer' coppers on E-Bay: 100 Cred - only 1$ Bargain!)
Which both constitute into: you guessed it - paying more.

I always thought Gamers disliked being referred to as Players because of the sexist associations.  But now I know: It's too painfully close to being referred to as Payers...

most of these remarks are retarded.. if you want to check your email.. while going somewhere.. autofollow.. press alt and then tab.  Then print  out ur mail.. and read while your char is moving..if you want to watch simsons .. turn on the tv...  real world should not be combined with games.

Let me begin by saying I'm not really a WoW player.  I've probably played the game for all of 30 minutes, but I have observed others playing it and heard a bit about the game from friends who play much more religiously than I ever would.  

For years I've been playing non-RPG, non-computer, abstract strategy board games.  Abstract strategy board games are logical, intuitive and creative.  One universal feature of abstract games is that there seldom seems to be only one valid solution, because understanding the position is only half of what's needed to win, while the rest is planning for how that position may likely evolve despite the fact that the position's evolution can't fully be predetermined due to abstract factors/unpredictably changing variables.  However, though random variables are a part of the game, the player still has more control over his destiny than luck because he has certain tools, pieces, or in the case of WoW, weapons and characters, he/she can utilize to mitigate the random occurences.  He also has some control over them because they aren't completely random, but are influencedy by and are probable consequences of his decisions (i.e. we all run the risk of being in a fatal accident, but smarter people who avoid potential disasters are at less a risk overall, which is why cautious people, usually, but not always, live longer).    And of course, as much control as we have, there is always the possibility, however small, that we take huge, unforeseen losses no matter how much strategy and planning we use, because such is life and such is abstract strategy games.

Now my question about WoW is this:  There are undoubtedly random variables in the game.  Other human players are involved and there is no way of knowing what they're going to do and how what they do is going to change the structure of the game.  So you can have your good fortune and your bad fortune.  My girlfriend says the game isn't really competitive because there's no parallel objective all the players are competing to achieve first, but that doesn't necessarily make the game non-competitive to me.  There is obviously competition between characters in battles and in levelling up, and you can form alliances with others to elevate your standing in the game by fighting more effectively against enemies.  And even in quests on your own, you are essentially competing against yourself.   My question is, would the game, and the control you have over outcomes, be improved by allowing each user to have more than one character in play simulataneoulsy?  For example, you can go on quests with two characters but only "use" one character at a time.  You decide which one goes into battle, how to distribute experience points between them, swap items between them, and which one would most effectively be utilized in order to carry out your plans with maximum efficiency. Would that add the dimension of not only carrying out quests or fighting battles, but determining which character can execute your plan the best, which one has the greatest chance of yielding the most desirable outcome?  It seems to me like it would make calculation and strategy a more essential part of the game.  I can't name them, but I have seen RPG games where players have multiple characters and are free to choose which one they want to be in control of at any point in the game.  I'm really just curious to know what everyone thinks, and if this has already been a common suggestion.  Thanks, take care.

Now my question about WoW is this