Gankers beware. There's a Bounty on Your Head!

Another interesting post from the World of Warcraft Suggestion forum, this time from Arkanon on the US Black Dragonflight realm.

Arkanon suggests that WoW implements a system for allowing layers to punish those evil tykes who take far too much pleasure in camping low level areas and ganking players who really don't have a hope in hell of defending themselves.

I think it's a great idea, and something which loosely entered my mind at various points during my level up through WoW. I remember in particular getting stuck for several hours (I logged out and back in agian BTW) at Nessingways in Stranglethorn Vale while a group of level 60's tore up the place. Presumably they had their reasons, but it ruined any chance I had of trying to complete or hand in quests I had.

In his post Arkanon goes so far as to suggest some game balancing ideas which I think is a great step as abuse of any new system is bound to be top of peoples gripes with a suggestion. I like the idea of having the player put up the bounty themselves, however going back to my own experience I'm not sure I could have offered any more than 50 silver or something for the head of the ganker giving me grief - which at 60 is not really worth spending time hunting for (unless you;re doing it for kicks and not cash).

I'd probably suggest that whichever NPC you register the bounty with should make up some of the bounty to make it more interesting to the level of player who might end up hunting the offending player down.

One thing missing from the forum post is that this bounty could not remain open forever. You'd have to put a limit on this of, say, a few days. After which you're a free agent again. Oh, and also it would be only fair that the player with the bounty on their head would be notified this was the case. Perhaps receiving a mail from an anonymous tipster.

A final thought. What if the player being hunted could turn the tables and defeat those hunting him? Would that be acceptable? Or just condoning ganking? :)

Griffin Riding 101

Have you ever jumped on a Griffin and selected some far off destination only to get a few moments from take off and realize that actually you should be heading somewhere else? Or perhaps a Guildie has popped up in chat pleading for you to help them in a dungeon, which as it happens you could do with visiting as well?

So what to do? You're stuck on this winged beast hurtling through the skies of Azeroth in the wrong direction! Time to ask your Guildie to please wait 15 minutes while you grab a cuppa and hop on a return ride ASAP.

Following on from Ashakeeras' thread on the offical WoW Europe forums, with suggestions Blizzard allow us to hurl ourselves from our feathery transport [ :) ] I had my own few thoughts on the matter.

As Ashakeera notes in her thread, allowing players to drop from the Griffin, although fun, would open up a potential can of exploitative worms with players ending up where they shouldn't be (one of the reasons flying mounts will be confined to Outland in the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion). That said this already happens in abundance and from what I can see does little to affect most peoples enjoyment of the game.

I would suggest slightly different approaches. For example why not have the option to turn the Griffin around and head back to your start location if that will be quicker for you? Might tax you some Gold for the priviledge - but that's reasonable for the service.

Or you could have a learnable Griffin "riding" skill of sorts, such that while in flight you could bring up the flightpath map and direct your Griffin to a new location. Perhaps a limit on the number of times per flight would be in order to keep people from being permanently airborn! You could also put a level limit on the places you could redirect to.

I guess the Griffin "riding" skill would have to be something you quest for as an extra as it's not essential to have it to play the game. Higher level players are more likely to make use of such a skill, but I can't see why it shouldn't be available at lower levels as well.

What do you think? Do you find yourself regularly cursing the Griffin masters, or simply admiring the beautiful scenery of Azeroth?

Farming and Buying WoW Gold @ Tobolds

There are a couple of interesting posts about farming and buying WoW Gold over a Tobolds Blog.

Both are worth a read and Tobold does well to keep a balanced and rational view on these topics - which is refreshing :)

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2006/11/can-gold-buying-be-outlawed.html
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2006/11/inside-gold-farm.html