Ever played with interface hidden (Alt-Z)?

[OreoLover]

If you haven't, give it a shot!

I'm going with it in LFR to enjoy the setting and looks of bosses and spells.

Oh, and zoom in closer than usual!

[Yig]

Constantly, it's one of my main hot keys, I sometimes take 20-30 screenshots per minute if I am trigger happy, it's gotten so bad I have removed the key from my keyboard for print screen

But WOW to me is a visual experience above all and I am at all times using the brilliantly intuitive and ergonomically delightful camera mechanics to create a multitude of dramatic angles and compositions. I play in angles like this.










And the new models are a massive dream come true, especially in Pandaren fidelity with the animated sensibilities taken from the cartoon lexicon with faces this detailed.






For me it's all like a living painting or illustration my display is a window or doorway into.

[OreoLover]

I didn't even realize when I posted, but this is exactly the response I wanted!

Bravo on enjoying the game in a way I have somehow missed for a decade.

[TheWorkingTitle]

For me it's all like a living painting or illustration my display is a window or doorway into.

Those are some great pictures Yig. It's nice knowing others out there appreciate the view as much as I do. Here's some that I've taken, with Alt-Z, OP .










http://imgur.com/a/MESnc

[Vaelorian]

Is there any other way to make screenshots?

Jokes aside did you really just found out about alt-Z?

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I wish there was some way when you pressed Alt-Z that the names and stuff would disappear as well...

[Tydrane]

I wish there was some way when you pressed Alt-Z that the names and stuff would disappear as well...

You can turn off nameplates in the Interface settings.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

You can turn off nameplates in the Interface settings.

Yeah, but I don't want to keep doing that when I want to take multiple screenshots here and there =/.

[Yig]

Awesome shots guys. You can find a lot more in my gallery linked in my sig, btw. But it's got a lot of miscellaneous WOW images and stuff too I am prostituting .






- - - Updated - - -

Not to sound covert or passive aggressive but I genuinely feel sorry for the people who miss out on experiencing this as an actual world to explore and exist within rather than a zoomed out glorified slot machine or point and click fest. Not that those don't have their valid places in existence, but WOW was made above all to create the Warcraft universe in a way that looked like a whimsical stylized painting at any time you took a screenshot, with special lighting and shading effects created to mimic painterly rendering techniques. It was unlike anything I'd seen in 2004, and it was in many ways like a visual drug for me, I could literally sit and feel a massive dose of endorphins being stimulated just by looking around at things in the first 6 months or so, my brain vibrating with a sense of subtle satiated contentment and zen like calm approaching euphoria with a kind of drunken unblinking eye glazing stare. I remember wondering when it would end and how long could such pleasure possibly last?

Weird fucking psychological shit considering that we're only talking about a friggin' video game. This would sound ridiculous to an outside observer I imagine. But then it also makes sense when you look at the level of passion it's detractors are notoriously obsessed with as much as it's fans.

[Independent voter]

Yeah, don't use alt z much unless I'm taking a screen shot but sometimes I play in first person view which you get to by zooming your camera all the way forward. You don't realize how short a gnome is until you do this.

It really limits your situational awareness but as long as you aren't in pvp, who cares?

[Ciddy]

But I can't open my spellbook to click my abilities if I do that!

...but yeah, I never really thought of actually playing that way. I only hide my interface to take screenshots.

[Bigbazz]

I can't see me playing very well without a UI, I only use it to take screenshots but I'm too focussed on playing to do that during combat in raids/dungeons. I need to be able to see my abilities on my bars to see what has procced and how much resources I have (energy, rage, combo points etc) to know what abilities to hit. I had to play pretty blind to do Hexos in the Brawlers Guild and it was far from ideal, very difficult.

[Krommm]

Pretty poorly on any debuff or dot classes. I can memorize binds, but I don't always keep track of durations if I have a CD timer installed. Also you'll miss out on procs unless your sound is on. Can take interesting screenshots from time to time, but I haven't Alt + Z'd in awhile now.

[Birgwow]

If you can't see yourself playing without a UI, you could still get that immersion feeling by playing with a very minimal UI. It can still show you all the vital information when you need it, e.g. showing unitframes only in combat or when you mouseover them.

For me it almost feels the same as when playing with alt-z but I don't lose out on any gameplay efficiency.

Skyrim is a great example for this kind of UI:

[Radio]

I've never done it in a group/raid situation, but I do it every now and then when fucking around because the game actually looks really good if you strip away the UI. (evidence shown by screenies above)

[Vaelorian]

Not to sound covert or passive aggressive but I genuinely feel sorry for the people who miss out on experiencing this as an actual world to explore and exist within rather than a zoomed out glorified slot machine or point and click fest. Not that those don't have their valid places in existence, but WOW was made above all to create the Warcraft universe in a way that looked like a whimsical stylized painting at any time you took a screenshot, with special lighting and shading effects created to mimic painterly rendering techniques. It was unlike anything I'd seen in 2004, and it was in many ways like a visual drug for me, I could literally sit and feel a massive dose of endorphins being stimulated just by looking around at things in the first 6 months or so, my brain vibrating with a sense of subtle satiated contentment and zen like calm approaching euphoria with a kind of drunken unblinking eye glazing stare. I remember wondering when it would end and how long could such pleasure possibly last?

Weird fucking psychological shit considering that we're only talking about a friggin' video game. This would sound ridiculous to an outside observer I imagine. But then it also makes sense when you look at the level of passion it's detractors are notoriously obsessed with as much as it's fans.

So much this. I "suffered" from the same things you just said. I woke up around the end of TBC from that state of mind.... only to be pulled back in during WOTLK. After Arthas got killed I never got the same feeling again until I played Skyrim. And that feeling lasted as long as a month.

[Yig]

So much this. I "suffered" from the same things you just said. I woke up around the end of TBC from that state of mind.... only to be pulled back in during WOTLK. After Arthas got killed I never got the same feeling again until I played Skyrim. And that feeling lasted as long as a month.

I burned out about a year and half in after spending almost 24/7 when not sleeping in the game. I was 24 in 2004 and bought the game the day I got fired and had the means to live without working for a while. WOW was overall looking back the best game I've ever played by virtue of sheer captivation, I would never imagine I'd still be playing it a decade later if you told me that cold December night with multiple years of /played time rather than maybe 1000 hours or so (lol).

But I too lost that weird flow state, again around a year before TBC. I came back for TBC and found the nostalgia and new worlds and lore and atmosphere absolutely addictive for about 8 months, then simmered down. WOTLK blew me away too with it's novelty, Cata was the first kind of iffy thing as it lacked that "place" to go where the new world and "endgame" heroes lived. It turned the game into a feeling of instances and portals rather than a vast place I had to navigate, which is valuable for me to lose myself in atmosphere. The damaged sense of being in this arguably seamless new world had a negative impact on my personal traditional priorities in WOW, but it had it's moments, I am not a loather of the expansion by any means.

Nothing can last forever, and WOW really hammered that lesson home for me, but it still forever will fee like coming back home to me when I get back into things. MOP absolutely blew me away for it's sheer creativity and execution, and the rapid pace of new content and refreshing tone along with things like the Shieldwall Quest Chain lore made it a gem for me.

But oddly enough, that "flow" state where I feel like I'm on a drug and I lose 20 hours without being aware of time's passage I didn't really capture again the same way after my first burn out in Vanilla WOW in any video game until Skyrim.

Skyrim too had me captivated by a visual world and I loved watching the 3rd person animations and how my character could interact with the land, leaning into steep staircases and inclines, clouds wreathing the tops of spruce and fur trees,...yummy stuff. I got about 200 hours before burn out started setting in and the floaty wonky combat became too annoying.

Flow state is the grail of gaming for me. As a teenager and in my 20s I could burn days totally captivated in a perfect flow state, the sheer pleasure, I cannot begin to describe.

I've done a lot to try to recapture this, I've considered taking up programming or gambling, maybe poker . Exotic travel and special lady friends seem to have the best outcomes in this area.

But flow state fascinates me, especially after discovering it's power from something like WOW. Knowing that a simple pastime/hobby/artistic creation could offer an experience comparable to hallucinogens and opiates in it's ability to offer a kind of existential satiation has totally intrigued me.

It's a rare treat to rediscover, and I wonder if it was getting old or if it was my way of looking at the world that took it away from me compared to the way it once was in it's intensity. I am obsessed with analyzing and talking about this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)