I’m sorry… but Ragnaros from World of Warcraft… just looks like a fire elemental bunny rabbit! Not sure how things derailed in its design, but here we are… >)
"Rabbitnaros" via Wowhead
While I do think some of the character designs from wowcrafts can be a bit wonky, I think they cover just so many bases, it’s hard to not like them as a whole. But I guess that brings up this week’s discussion… Do you find it distracting from the game when the creature styles vary wildly? To be more specific, in wowland, you’ve got Egyptland, dragons, large viking things, satyrs, centaurs, dinosaurs, normal animals, undead bug creatures, and more… So it’s easy to say there’s quite a bit of biodiversity going on in the land of Azeroth. So do you all think it works? Or does it just work for them?
Personally, I think wowcraft is one of those games where it can get away with, well, just about anything. A lot has to do with the cartoonishness of the overall theme, where colors are saturated and whatnot… this helps to curb that “uncanny valley” when applied to just the normalness of the setting. If it was more realistic, have the hodgepodge might cause a bit too much of a brain overload for it to be overly enjoyable. But that’s just my theory.
The environment is a very important part of a game or even a story. Look at Avatar (air bender, not blue man group), they did a consistent “animal 1 + animal 2″ theme and it worked great for them! Or even other fantasy game/stories that have some mystical elements, but they are fairly consistent in their setting. I guess what I’m trying to get at is that it seems like the wildlife should seem legitimate to the ecology, otherwise the ol “valley” alarms start going off. But like I said, maybe going about it the other way works too… where making an ecosystem jambalaya done the right way can work as well.
I always just saw the top of his head as the tip of his flame.
As for the creatures themselves, mix, match, make up, it won’t get to me at all, but part of me gets irked when the ecosystem is illogical. Take original hillsbrad for example, stuffed full of bears and bobcats. No herbivores to be lower on the food chain (except rabbits and squirrels) until cata came along, now there are stags and horses as well.
Let alone the ratio of animals to the area they are in is way off for the territorial types like aforementioned bobcats and bears. Suspension of disbelief to accommodate a game where killing 10 bears is supposed to make sense.
and now it can’t be unseen! mwahahahhaha!
ah, very good observation! and you’re totally right! there are often large holes or problems in the food chain of such places… and yeah, you’d think there’d need to be at least 10 or 20 times more of the “feeder” animals around for every carnivore.
but I guess you’re right… you do have to give them a few liberties in a game that lets you play as extra terrestrial squid goats…
If compatible… why not? I could sure enjoy an interdimensional Orc in a hoodie with a bead necklace caught in one of the dungeons in Diablo..
Plus, sometimes the relities are so similar that it’s very easy to combine e.g. an Alien and a Predator. And if so.. why not?
true, the alien/predator is just a match made in heaven. and I suppose there are also matches that aren’t similar, but just jive well… like a peanut butter and jelly kinda thing.
vampires were started with greek myths :P, not sure about werewolves, but dragons were certaintly in greek myth’s, one i believe is the father of some tree people or something.
nice tidbit! lol, dragon fathers tree people? only in Greece!
though I meant it would look awkward if you had your generic medieval dragon with your count chocula modernish vampire.
This just in!!! Mist of Pandaria, the fourth expansion for wow has been announced!
I was right about the pandaren!!!!!! The world is going to explode!!!!!!!!!
I came here to comment about that too, specifically about the pandaren starting zone
SPOILER WARNING (minor one, not story related)
They start out out on a turtle island which first made me think about the turtle-lion from avatar.
Secondly it made me think of A’tuin the world turtle under Discworld; which I have also been thinking about a lot because of the creepy crate (and the new novel).
WOOT! and my repository of things to make fun of has expanded exponentially!
hmm… but what does the turtle island stand upon? another turtle island perhaps?
It’s a turtle, I imagine it swims in the water.
The pandas run about on it’s back where enough sediment has developed to allow for plant life and inside that shell are the turtle’s organs.
Considering that most of the zones/themes/etc (vikings, egyptstuff, dinos, animals, bugs, whatever, as you put it) are loosely based on our own world or history, and that we have that much variety on earth, I don’t think it is much of a stretch to take it up a notch or two for the fantasy world of Azeroth. Or, to put it better, if we have towns, forests, deserts, oceans, swamps, and all the different things that live in all of those places, shouldn’t the magical land of wow have all that and more?
As far as individual mob or boss models go, despite playing alot of classes myself, I am most familiar with the curse of the healer. “It looked like what? Oh thats cool… I was staring at health bars… forever.”
good point! though I think it might be difficult to have multiple incarnations of “wowlike diversity” across multiple games. maybe not, idk… but I think it just seems a bit repetitive… (look at Forsaken Worlds)
hahahha! I did a bit of healing on my pally in the day, and I remember that most of my time was either facing a wall with my screen filled up with healthbars or staring at my feet to make sure I wasn’t in fire. guess it’s kinda like the healers are driving the car… gotta pay attention to the road and never get to see any of the sights. tank would be the navigator I guess. and the dps would definitely be the kids in the back screaming and making you want to plunge the vehicle off a cliff.
Hah! I like your group/car analogy. I think I might use that in the future.
I always thought that Ragneros looked more like a demon Bozo the clown (check out web link for Bozo picture).
Big eyebrows/eyes - check
Mouth that goes to your ears - check
Giant Red pointy hairdoo - check
damnit! it can’t be unseen!!!
Bozo Show
Mix and match? Hell, we’ve got a lot of cultural diversity here on Earth, why wouldn’t there be such cultural diversity on other worlds populated by other sentient species?
And, I’d like to point out, there are a LOT more sentient species on Azeroth than there ever have been at any given time in Earth’s history (that we really can figure out, mind you, but the proof is in the tools, or lack thereof )
sentience is kinda hard to figure out and agree upon, but there are a few critters around that have some symptoms. one really cool study was about how languages are structured and it turns out that no matter what it is, the structure goes in a linear curve (something about verbs, nouns, etc). so every language has this same curve. you don’t need to understand it, but the use and repetition of certain words is what triggers this line. so when applied to things like dolphins, you can see the same curve! so it’s a sophisticated language that we don’t understand. cool stuff if it ends up being legit!