Tag Archives: addict

Play WoW without WoW?

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Its Tuesday and I was thinking that its odd sometimes to have a free night and actually have time to play a bit. Run a few dailies, maybe start some prospecting, or even just be silly in Stormwind. I know the downtime could be used for WoW downtime too, but I like the odd casual game experience; playing when you don’t have to can be fun after all.

It has me thinking that Blizzard could publish a side game which can be played without the entire game files which advances your toon in some way. A mini-game for the patch period.

Now this could:

  • Advance a skill, such as Archeology, Fishing, or other secondary profession, perhaps with the limitation that you keep the skill-ups, but don’t get the drops?
  • Would probably need to be restricted to an activity which does not generate or consume a game world asset like gold or ore.
  • Perhaps the activity does not interact with the WoW characters at all, but is a side game, a mini-game?
  • Could also grant another meta reward, such as an odd title or some achievement points relating to the degree of dedication the player has.
  • Would the offering of something trivial but entertaining be seen as a time waste, a good PR tool, an e-peen leaderboard?
  • Would the same little form of entertainment be viewed differently if it required an additional fee? Like Farmville for WoW… But then applying a fee almost declares that the assets or stuff gained should translate into the game.

I can see why it won’t happen – cost prohibitive, would need to be billable, etc; and the opportunity for a small dev to offer a mini-game to Blizzard is probably bantered around the web every month in some form or another.

To me though it still has merit, and the opportunity for a link up is there. Create a link between the Warcraft franchise in the WoW game with the other forms of Warcraft; the cards, books, etc. Use the otherwise captive attention span of the millions of subscribers to consolidate the brand and experience even further.

Overall as an alternative for tonight perhaps I’ll just go browse for a few good games that are silly and entertaining to muck about with, or go get one of my books and curl up in bed. Not like the housework was going to get finished anyway (wink).

Lastly for all those folks and partners of gamers who look forward to Tuesday as a special break from the everyday addiction, have you seen the WoW Widow t-shirts? Take a look..

Happy Gaming.

wow widow tshirt

A good shirt for all those wow widows out there. Tuesday is attention day?