Just as Blizzard gave their Warcraft 3 RTS players the "Warcraft III World Editor", so too should Blizzard give their World of Warcraft players a "WoW Instance Editor"!
The Warcraft 3 World Editor essentially allows users to create and customize their own maps using the same technology Blizzard used to create Warcraft III's Campaign maps.
This Editor
literally gave rise to the
MOBA genre, or what many of you may know as DOTA (
Defense of the Ancients) and more popularly,
League of Legends.
Warcraft 3's Custom Games (using this very engine) were so immensely popular in its heyday. Thousands of different games sprang up, ranging from Mazes to MOBAs to Tower Defenses, all hosted by its very own players.
With that said,
What if players were given a version of the WoW engine to create their own content, inside their very own instances?
What would it be like?
A set instance that a player can load into, that leads to a 3rd-person user-friendly interface where players can build areas. A cross between Roller Coaster Tycoon and the Sims, as far as how the interface would interact when choosing what to put, and where. A vastly more modern, Blizzard-crafted WoW Custom-engine for its players to build WoW maps with. Smooth interactivity, that's easy to pick up but in depth where needed.
Who knows what new content or game could spawn from the ingenuity and creativity of WoW's very own player-base!
This could drastically extend WoW's life-span while simultaneously giving its players more available content than ever before! Unlimited possibilities for player-created custom games, on top of the normal content Blizzard churns out each patch/expansion!
Any part of the game could be drawn into your ideas when creating your own instance. Look at everything that spawned from Warcraft III's Custom Editor. I think the same would happen for WoW. Say 2 Million of WoW's population gets in to it when it goes live and
.1% of the games created really catch on and get played by that market. That's 2,000 different games!
I put some thought into possible custom games that might arise in the various genres. Some are straight out of Warcraft III's Custom Games that I know I among many would start building.
Things such as but not limited to:
PvP could have Games like:
"World PvP" Arena Maps - Players can copy a section of their favorite World PvP area and drop it into their own custom instance. You could play 50 straight Arena games from 50 different hosts and never play in an identical map. In the span of 20 minutes, you could have battled in Draenor, Northrend, and Outland. One game it's a section of Teldrassil, the next a section right out of Grizzly Hills, and after that it might be on a massive floating rock in Nagrand. This brings content from everywhere, front and center at the click of a button.
"Super Power" Battlegrounds - Players can build maps with power-ups all over the map, changing a once normal Capture the Flag or King of the Hill into something much more. Even easier would be being able to place the power-ups onto existing maps like Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin. Think buffs like Alysrazor and Ji'kun's "Winged-Flight", Sha of Pride's "Power of the Titan's", Garrosh's "Hellsream's Warsong", Vaelstrasz's "Burning Adrenaline", and even Ahri'ok Dugru's "Sanguine Sphere" from The Iron Docks scattered about a Battleground. The buffs could even be set to have a random rotation that changes like the Boxes in Mario Kart at their spawn points. There could be buffs hovering in the air that requires a Slowfall mechanic, or maybe its over top of death areas like off the side of the bridge in the middle Eye of Storm, that requires a Life-grip to obtain and not die. Spit-balling here, but you get the idea.
Sheep Tag Matches - It's a version of tag, except with the iconic Warcraft Sheep and Orc Wolf-riders. Cops and Robbers, Warcraft-style. The Sheeps were to run and hide, and build up their defenses to survive until the clock expired. Meanwhile, the Wolf-riders were to track the Sheep down, invade their fortresses and kill..er..."tag" the Sheep to capture them all before the clock expired. Sheep could break their captured brethren out by melee'ing their whisp forms that were confined to the middle area or "jail". These games were addicting, action packed, skillful, and great fun. Here's what it was like.
Sporting Games:
-Sports like Horde vs Alliance Football with the [Pig Skin].
-Punt the Gnome would have similar mechanics to the [Puntable Marmot] with zone lengths for what each kick would score.
-Murloc high-dive water-darts; you jump off a high ledge as a Murloc and aim for the bulls-eye on moving targets on the water below. Different Murlocs have different abilities to aid their descents.
-Of course there'd be Underwater Naga Home Run Derby.
-WoW Quidditch with the Flying Brooms of Hallow's End
Artistry:
-Artists of all skill levels could finally craft a slice of their idealistic zone or re-make parts of their old favorite zones. I'd definitely try and re-create the well of the Vale of the Eternal Blossoms.
Aerial Combat:
-A re-made Wintergrasp with the Aerial Combat like what was intended for WoTLK.
-Maybe a King-of-the-Hill-styled Battleground with a finite Flight-Buff Ability each player has, and it's situated over top of an Asteroid-belt-like rock formation floating above Nagrand.
Role-playing and Lore fun:
-RP re-creations and enactments. Surely some guild out there wants to re-create Thrall's wedding and attend personally.
-Re-enacting Lore that never happened in game? Sign me up!
Mazes:
Mazes were a huge staple of Warcraft III's Custom Games, and I think it's a game that could be equally as successful in this medium. This is what I'm talking about if you've never seen it.
NPCs patrol at various intervals and rhythms that the Player has to avoid. One moment of contact to the NPCs, leaving the path, or other mechanics, and it's insta-death. There were also various gimmicks at play that a Player had to avoid as well, like Mortar Bombs, Fire, Poison, etc. They were intense, replay-able, and with loads of suspense and laughter. A game could last 30 seconds before everyone loses, or go on for a half hour or more as the team worked through it together, by reviving the ones who'd died by reaching check points throughout the map.
There was mounted Mazes as well, called "Run Kitty Run". Basically a team of Night Elves riding Nightsabers whose objective was to reach the middle of the map by traveling through many stretches of maze while dodging NPC-patrolled pathing. As you leveled up, you could train a few abilities to aid your attempts at making it further into the map. If you or your teammates were touched by any of the patrolling NPCs, insta-death. You had to run over their power circle their death left behind, to revive them on the spot. The randomness of the NPC pathing was what made it challenging. Check it out.
Outside of these 2 types, players could just create the stereotypical 'maze' using the hedge or plant-life assets to create a giant labyrinth of Zangar Mushrooms or something of the like. There could be elite centaur that spawn at points throughout, that the 5 man group has to battle, all while they're being chased by a fire that starts in their wake as they start the maze. There could be incredible mazes built in this way, especially with how creative WoW's player-base is. A Maze like from the book, The Maze Runner.
Tower Defense Games:
From Wikipedia - "Tower defense is a sub-genre of real-time strategy video games, where the goal is to stop the enemies from reaching a specific point on the map by building a variety of different towers which shoot at them as they pass. Enemies and towers usually have varied abilities, costs, and upgrade prices. When an enemy is defeated, the player earns money or points, which are used to buy or upgrade towers, or upgrade the number of money or points that are earned, or even upgrade the rate at which they upgrade."
They were a hit in Warcraft III's custom games as well.
Racing:
Drawing from the Darkmoon Faire racing assets would make this a seamless transition. Add in the Alysrazor game mechanics, as well as any other gimmick you want and you've got some awesome Racing tracks to be built. Run only, Ground Mount only, Flying Mount only, etc.
-Races and Marathons: The Great Gnome Triathlon, just imagine that game hahaha.
-Warcraft-Kart, using all the heroes of WoW and various mounts or vehicles.
Platform-Jumping Puzzles:
This one probably sports the highest creative ceiling. Scale this object, reach that height, make it from one side to the other, etc, etc.
Nearly all objects in WoW can be climbed upon and when stacked or grouped or put near each other, can create some incredible climbing adventures. Throw in the new Timeless Isle and Isle of Thunder techniques (vines etc), with the various architecture assets you could draw from, and you could create jumping puzzle maps of all difficulties.
So essentially you'd run the editor, create whatever you wanted like the above suggestions, and then host it in some type of "Custom Game" area for players all over to join, play, and compete in your very own maps/games!
You could be silly with it, make art with it, compete against others with it, or even role-play with it. It's all just for fun. I think if it's engaging enough, the players would use it for just that. The possibilities are endless.
What do you think, could this be in the future for WoW?
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Originally Posted by TheWorkingTitle
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