Game needs these heartfelt and thoughtful touches.
I nearly teared when I read this response to my Racial Customisation in classes topic on MMO-champion.
I was so inspired by what the guy said, I titled this after his key phrase. The way the guy said it, made me my heart fill with passion and excitement in a way that fast shortcuts and just pure gameplay are never sufficient to capture the imagination and fantasy of your audience.
You need to capture the hearts of players, not just fast release. Here’s what he said
From Dunkl
Culture-specific visuals should be the norm for every race, because our beloved races are unique and deserving and fantastic
All spell and ability visuals, animations and sound effects should have cultural identity. Not just race specific forms for druids and cultural appropriate totems for shaman. We all cast the same looking stuff no matter the culture and it’s a missed opportunity. Next expansion feature is grand overhaul of race-specific, cultural-appropriate spells, abilities, animations and sound effects.
You might be conditioned to expect less from blizzard and therefore prompts you to come up with a system (excuses) that allows them to get away with less, but each of our beloved races develops and hones their culture’s version of an art (class) and it should be reflected, uniquely, in their spell and ability visuals, animations and sound effects. Not a cosmetic, not a glyph, not some outside system. It should come with the race.
As cultures have nurtured and developed their arts differently, personally, and in tune with their own histories, traditions, ideals, beliefs, heritages and unique locations, spells and abilities should visually respect and reflect the race who wields them.
Night Elf and Nightborne ability or spell animation could look more night-themed, dusky with bits of starry dust swirling within the spell or ability visual effect. Perhaps quills that scribble and tomes that flit through their pages accompany the highborne Nelf/Nightborn as part of a spell or ability animation. hands flow gracefully, portraying the wizardly nightborne’s perfected art, yet whimsically like a scholarly magician’s.
A nightborne’s melee animations should have flare akin to fencing maneuvers and their refined spell casting animations could move elegantly, inspired by olden day French dance and etiquette. While a NIght Elves mimics the cat like graceful fluidity of a seasoned highly agile warrior, full of acrobatic flips, twirls and spins
due to their hidden city and separate cultures, their magical history and traditions would have developed differently than others, and include their beliefs, ideals, understandings and masteries of their own version of the art. They’d wield their magic befitting to how they’ve honed their skills, separate from other races and cultures and as such, their spells may be visually distinct in the lost kaldorei arcane style mirrored only in the Highborne mages from Eldre’thalas who were also in a similar situation and the Night elf priesthood whose caster side while far more prevalent in the pre-sundering era (hence the share with Nightborne) have also returned to the Darnassians with their emergence from the long vigil.
At least with race-specific classes going forward, they can infuse class with signature iconic visuals, and enrich the race while doing so. Using tinkers as a quick example, Gnomes and dwarves can have gears and more tech-looking abilities, lasers, bots and glinting metals, while goblins (and maybe vulpera) can have a more explosive and make-shift, haphazard look to their arsenal; singed, painted plates, jittery contraptions, and screws, nuts and bolts springing about during combat. Or simply give each spec a unique look; one sleek, hi-tech, cybernetic appearance the other a more workshop and ramshackly feel, letting the player/race choose their preferred aesthetic.
all races need their unique culture identities reflected in their spells, abilities, animations an sound effects - which is the next thing they need to work on - spell and ability visuals for race / class combos, befitting the race who wields their culture’s nurtured art;
pandaren sorcerers (mages) having cloud serpents in their spells and craqckling with jade colored magic. through their culture’s understandings and through their teachings of yulon, their version of ‘mage’ spells has developed differently, separated form the rest of the world on their own island and turtle, where as an ancient culture they honed their skills, developed their wisdom, followed their own traditions, upheld their own ideals, and beliefs and whose teachings from the celestials infuses and enriches their lore and version of their arts. their magic should crackle with jade color and summon cloud serpents that whip around the caster before lunging toward the target, as a pandaren sorcerer’s skills would, being developed differently and in tune with yulon than other cultures, be more exotic and original to them. Imagine a sorcerer who conjures cloud serpents as their animations for mages spells. Think sorcerer from ancient Chinese folklore, a dragon summoner, or Shang Tsung!
Sunlight-themed visuals for sunwalker tauren because they revere the sun and worship An’she. Perhaps some abilities accompanied by chanting or gentle drum beats. tauren sunwalkers (paladins and sun priest) having warm sunlight visuals in their spells as they worship An’she. a tauren ‘paladin’ will then appear more sun-themed, with warm orange-yellow sunlight, reflecting their worship of An’she. sun-kissed feathers and glowing sunbeams in their spell visuals. more prayerful animations as well. kneeling, raising staff / sword toward the sun, closing eyes and being still. Calling forth radiant beams to energize, sparkling sun to blind foes, calming, tender warmth to heal friends. Golden fire birds.
game needs these heartfelt and thoughtful touches.
culture-specific visuals should be the norm for every race, because our beloved races are unique and deserving and fantastic.
while the spell and ability names can and probably should stay the same, each race should have their own unique visuals for their culture’s version of the art.
a tauren’s animation may be to kneel and plant seeds for their version of efflorescence, sprouting a visual of a small field of autumn grasses that grow upward into harvest wheat swaying in a breeze, set to the sounds of soothing wooden pipes, gentle drum beats in the background or turahe chanting (accompanied by drums), while a night elf’s version of efflorescence, having developed uniquely from within their culture, including their history, ideals, beliefs, traditions, teachings and having honed their skills differently as each race does develop and hone their own version of each art uniquely from within their culture, may be visually and aurally distinct and represented, by sprinkling seeds or calling forth growth that sprout into green, moonlit grasses and a few woodland flowers, set to the sound of a uplifting windchime or softly hooting owls.
Tranquility could see the tauren druid raise their staff or weapon or hand (or holding magical leaf) high into the air, calling forth a whirlwind of autumn leaves to refresh their friends and comrades and the wounded, accompanied by the sound of inspiriting wood flute, tender drum beats and/or tribal chanting, while a night elve’s tranquility may call forth calming night to the dreamy plucks of harp strings or to a soothing symphony of cricket or encouraging growls, chirps and rattles of nocturnal forest fauna.
each spell, animation, and ability, where and whenever possible, should have culture identity.
I would love autumn / harvest / tribal tauren culture-themed spells, visuals, animations and sound effects, for restoration druid, please, blizzard.
right now we all cast the same looking spells and use the same looking abilities no matter the culture. most of the animations are the same as well. even different colors would differentiate and represent cultures a little more appropriately than now; dark, starry magic for nightborne mages, cloud serpents whipping around for pandaren sorcerers, etc. I would like thoughtful, creative, meaningful visuals, not just recolorings and excuses to do less. We have glyphs to alter appearances and they do not capture the magic or breadth of a fully realized race’s version of a class! our cultures are rich and varied and our classes could perform them as they’ve been nurtured in their rich and varied ways.
right now we only have culture-appropriate totems for shaman and race-specific forms for druids, which are fantastic and befitting of each race, but that’s about it for representing our many colorful and interesting peoples’ version of their art. wouldn’t it be beyond awesome, perhaps in the next expansion since shadowlands has the customization / cosmetics feature, if our beloved races received a grand overhaul of spell and ability visuals, animations and sound effects? could be one of the next great features in a wow expansion!
so in keeping with the druidic exmples above, with Highmountain in mind, one of my favorite places and people…
I’m thinking their druidic ways, influenced from living high atop the highest mountains, might develop uniquely from other druids as they have a strong connection to the tougher natural locations; earthy, rocky, snowy environments. their version of spells and abilities would be nurtured by their tribal traditions, their cultures’ beliefs, ideals, teachings, histories, and shaped by their lovely landscape and of course the earthmother’s beautiful but heartier spots, similar to mulgore tauren’s plains and autumy / harvest aesthetic (above) but with the highmountain’s wintry, stony, forested environmental kit.
druidic spells, abilities, animations, sound effects could pull from their homeland’s nature, include a mountainous, pine, and snowy look and feel. efflorescence could sprout a tender pine tree that emanates a healthy air around it, refreshing the falling with brisk breaths, maybe called from the breezy sound of a wood flute (made out of pine from highmountain), or a blessed stone from highmountain tossed into the area, whose leaf or feather-shaped rune alights, whipping up a cool wind encircling the rock, uplifting friends, maybe called from the breezy sound of a wood flute (made out of pine from highmountain), and perhaps their tranquility calls down earthmother’s invigorating mountain winds by blowing through a mighty horn and/or channeled to the sounds of a gourd rattle, a snowy wind carrying the refreshing scent of needled trees. Perhaps some inspiriting eagles screeches!
A tauren druid casting restoration spells may be calmer, less hurried, and may keel to sprinkle seeds on the ground for efflorescence, or channel tranquility to the sound of chanting and gentle drum beating, leaves and spells perhaps appearing with earthier / autumny harvest colors, while a night elf’s casting may be more swift and willed, growing a patch of moonlit grass accompanied by the soft hooting of owls or gentle wind chimes. Sound effects could be a first and immersifying step in portraying culture to our races and enriching race-specific spells and abilities. Right now, we all cast the same looking stuff no matter the culture.
Would have thought that would have come with an expansion full of customization but perhaps it will be for another expansion where spells, abilities, animations, sound effects, etc are revisited and designed with the heart of the race and their culture in mind.Also, we need different ways to hold our weapons such as choosing between on our sides, waist, back, sheathed and unsheathed, etc. hunters could have smaller flying animals such as birds perch on their forearm, polearm wielders can crouch behind their upward pointing weapon, and my personal favorite would be to be able to walk with the bottom tip of my staff touching the ground, like a traveling forest lord or a wandering monk. Allowing ww to use a walking stick / staff is a good step in the right direction, pardon the pun
I was like yeh! yeh! - This is exactly the sort of touch and loving detail the devs seemed to have lost, but actually need now moreso than ever.