Idiot’s Guide to Armchair Design
As a player of a MMO, you have certain rights. These rights include, but are not limited to server up-time, decent class balance, a variety of game mechanics, and most of all, a comfy armchair in which to dictate your opinions to the developers. This is ever apparent in WAR. You can’t help but read almost any forum these days and come across someone who is voicing that latter right. On a plus note, it appears quite a few have read my guide. For those of you who haven’t, let me give you the cliff’s notes. These will be invaluable as you traverse the forums and even venture out to make your own Armchair Designs.
Post about your design often
As Mythic noted early last week, there’s been over a million posts on the official forums. If you were to just post your ideas in one section, odds are they’ll get missed. It’s quite helpful to take your post, copy it to your clipboard (if you know how) and then post it on another section of the forums. Try some of the less traveled forums such as Bug Reports and Player Support. Everyone knows Mythic reads those forums the most. Also, don’t be deterred by moderators. They may lock your post and tell you that it’s off-topic, but keep fighting the good fight. The more you post your idea word-for-word, the more it shows you care.
Do the Math
Do NOT succumb to the temptation to post in Suggestion Box. Looking at the above screen-shot, it’s quite apparent you’ll have four times the visibility in the Player Support forums. Do the math, scrub!
Rely on your experience
You’ve played at least ten MMOs in your lifetime. How many MMOs has Mythic made? When it really comes down to it, your experience in MMOs is what sets you apart from other players. You went through the open beta tests for TONS of games, too. Being a beta tester practically makes you a game designer anyway. Don’t let this sense of entitlement go unseen. Ensure you always preface your design posts with your credentials. It will add credibility to your design and really impress the devs.
Be brutally honest
Personal insults should be withheld…unless deserved. The meat of your post is your design. That said, how often do you just eat meat? You should season your post with copious amounts of personal insults, berating comments and disparaging remarks. I mean hell, if the game was perfect, they wouldn’t need your help, would they?
Compare other games
Every MMO on the market has the same basic components: Players, Mobs, NPCs, Servers and Mail. (ha, DAoC doesn’t have mail…*cough*) It’s pretty safe to assume that since these games have the same fundamentals, they share the same codebase. Based on that, it’s pretty apparent that what works in one game will work in another. Why didn’t the devs see this? Well, they can’t outright steal ideas from oh… Blizzard. However, if you reform that idea or mechanic and post it on their forums, then said game company will essentially be “listening to their players” and can implement your ideas. Note: it is extremely helpful to link directly to posts in the World of Warcraft forums. It will save the devs time and you’ll come across as a hero.
Summary
In conclusion, as an MMO player, you have an inalienable right to offer your opinion wherever you want, and with whatever verbiage you choose. It’s your game, as you pay to play it. Don’t let moderators and developers stand in your way. Besides, when you get banned from the Official Forums, there’s always VN.
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