Hello inhabitants of Azeroth!
I have had a strange idea that might work, so any review is well appreciated!
You know that Blizzard has recently added an in-game shop, from which you can easily purchase awesome mounts.
As a fan of World of Warcraft, I also love Blizzard and liked the idea that they added an harmless shop selling cosmetic things.
My idea is based on a permanent contest where Blizzard allows artists from all over the world to design mounts, pets, vanity items and other possible "unlimited" things that, if accepted by a rigid judgement will be stored into the shop. So an approval staff it is obviously required to examine external models sent to Blizzard and should logically be part of the art team. Please don't comment now and discover how this will work and will take benefits for the game.
Why should a modeler spend his time to make a model for Blizzard?
Models into the cash shop have a price, usually around € 10 - 20. The modeler would (for example) earn 10% of the price of his work, so basically 2€ for every purchase. Imagine his mount, that have been approved and put on the store is bought for € 20 and after a year has 1k purchases from all over the WoW servers. He would have earned 2.000 gold, errr... euros, in a year.
How will an artist send a model to Blizzard?
Having a great accessibility for it is important, but to prevent trash spam sent I think that the system should be part of the WoW website, like a page where you can upload the model and send it to Blizzy. Here an example about a mount going to be uploaded:
Select the kind of model you want to upload: Mount [X] | Vanity Gear [ ]| Pet [ ]
Mount type: Ground [X] | Flying [ ] | Acquatic [ ]
Mount seats: 1 [X] | 2 [ ] | specify [ ]
Captcha code: G2GDINNER
Mount name Frostfire Wolf Model file: Frostfire_Wolf.mdx Potrait file: Frostfire_Wolf_Potrait.mdx Icon file: Frostfire_Wolf.blp Lore reasons: I have been inspired by the map of Frostfire Ridge Screenshot: Your imagination Texture resolution: 512x512 Polygons: 5678
Upload model!: [Confirm] [Cancel]
Which benefits can this "contest" bring to the game?
I'll make a list:
1) lot of new models at null cost for Blizzard in terms of money and time.
2) game promoted into academies, universities and schools as this is a mainly a great opportunity for students.
3) A lot more into the cash shop, it offers a lot of cosmetic stuff with news frequently.
4) This project might grant lot of visibility for Blizzard, good reviews and interest from people all over the world.
5) More purchases and the variety allows players to love the idea of being unique/rare on their servers.
6) Unique project: it will attract eyes in the mmo market.
Risks about this project?
If in bad hands, there will be added senseless models that may ruin the lore/ambient. World of Warcraft is a delicate game, that's why I would like this project, but refereed by a very severe jury-team.
I'm now curious for your feelings about this idea
Thanks for having read till here! Have a nice day