Today’s article is a guest post from Bordy.
Patch 4.3 in WoW will introduce the long-heralded art of Transmogrification; the ability (at a cost)to convert the look (but not the stats) of your current kit to match that of other kit that you own.
Why though is this welcomed by so many?
Is it because of some hankering for the ‘good old days’ ™? Do we long for the days of Vanilla WoW, 40-man Molten Core raiding, Onyxia victory parades into Stormwind, Necropolii hanging in the air above our capitals and a truly barren Barrens?
If so, do we gloss over the lack of well-thought out quest hubs, running the length of zones repeatedly to do and hand in quests, no achievements, no battlegrounds,no arenas and no flying mounts?
Is it maybe due to a reaction to the look of kit sets nowadays? Vanilla dungeon/raidsets were distinctive (whether you liked it or not). This was followed by the Burning Crusade when we were obliged to change that kit to the most garish kitstyle/colour combinations that were truly out of this world. The outcry maybe led us to kit and sets that are arguably (in some cases) more dull, but more homogenised and easier on the eye when combined. Do we long for the old days of distinctive kit in a bold, but tasteful fashion?
Maybe it is that kit nowadays does not make your class stand out as much as it would previously? Early warlock and mage kit was as distinctively different as Chalk and John Cleese. If someone stood in Arcanist regalia, there was no doubt they were a mage. Can the same be said for say Bloodmage’s Regalia OR the Tier11 set? Looks rather warlocky to me. Warlocky? Is that a word? It is now.
Counterwise, is it individuality that people are after? Do they not want to all stand around in the same kit, looking like all other mages (or warlocks ..see above)? Do you want to have a ‘look’ for your own character that is(hopefully) not the same ‘look’ that others will go for? Maybe people want to mix and match to get just that right style for their character. Maybe one of the old complete sets (or look-alikes .. see Wowpedia for pieces that look the same) is the style you want for your character.
Maybe people simply feel that the current sets just are not of the quality (in looks) as those of previous sets. Are the designs nowadays not as good as they used to be? Are we looking through rose-tinted glasses (go for it .. embrace the ’80s look) at past designs. Was there not objections to those designs at the time? Were the objectors in a minority?
Why do you look forward to Transmogrification?
Today’s post is an article from Bordy, a veteran of all manner of games both online and off. If you want to hear more from him, you can find his unique brand of wit on Twitter. If you’re interested in writing a guest post yourself then please get in contact.
So my Paladin can look sexy! That is pretty much it. I haven’t even looked at any of the cooler older sets from other classes. Which is ridiculous, now that I think about it.
It’s simply about letting me make my own choices about the look of my character instead of being beholden to the stats on gear. Players like ownership, and the look of your character is pretty fundamental to that ownership. It also makes for a stickier game when you have that control.