WoW UI Extensibility as a Required Feature

<o:p></o:p>This is probably an old and tired topic to many people. But I still think that WoW API for both the client and the web functions is a giant step forward. Think about the humility of Blizzard. Basically they said we are not sure if our UI is the best, or even the best for you. So we will ship to you our best efforts that we have created in house, but we will also ship to you an API so that you could customize your own.<o:p></o:p> The result of this of course is a great number of fantastic mods like Auctioneer that have dramatically changed how the game itself is played. Here is a typical review of a user of what UIs do they use and do not use:<o:p></o:p>

  <o:p> </o:p>The result of this UI mod activity is innumerable variations.  The WoW UI itself is a [long-tail marketing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail) phenomena: [](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail)

Various WoW screenshots:

http://konni.evil-geni.us/wow/UI.png<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>[http://tweakers.net/~kees/wow/ui.png](http://tweakers.net/~kees/wow/ui.png)<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>[http://hem.bredband.net/tetsubo/wow/wow-ui-1.jpg](http://hem.bredband.net/tetsubo/wow/wow-ui-1.jpg)<o:p></o:p>

[http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/gallery/wow_ui_02.jpg](http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/gallery/wow_ui_02.jpg)<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>[http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x143/Justanotherdruid/wowUI.jpg](http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x143/Justanotherdruid/wowUI.jpg)<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>So the question I ask myself now when thinking about online game design is what did Blizzard do in WoW?  I think about Burning Crusade vs. the original Azeroth.  I think about the upcoming Lich King.  When looking at Age of Conan, or Huxley why did they do X, and is it better than WoW?  

Being different from WoW is not very interesting to me. I think you should simply copy WoW or improve on it. Why? Because WoW itself simply copied from everyone else before or improved on it. In short WoW currently represents the best sum-total of humanity’s development of MMORPGs.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

So is the WoW UI API the best? Why not simply copy it? It has been used and extended by more game modders than for any other MMORPG, and probably second or third only behind the great FPS mod communities in overall development efforts by mods<o:p></o:p>

http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_API<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

When you are creating your own UI for your new game; why not just simply start with all of these functions as stubs for a LUA/XML system? Why not?<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

What game does not need some random numbers between low and high?<o:p></o:p>

RandomRoll(low, high) - Does a random roll between the two values.<o:p></o:p>

Determining if something is PvP or not always seems useful to me…<o:p></o:p>

UnitIsPVP("unit") - Returns true if the specified unit is flagged for PVP, false otherwise.<o:p></o:p>

WoW even has a separate API for just making the UI controls called its widget API:<o:p></o:p>

http://www.wowwiki.com/Widget_API<o:p></o:p>

1)  In Review:

1. You have to have a UI for your game.<o:p></o:p>

2.  You have to have some programmers code it for you<o:p></o:p>
   

3.  The first (100) iterations of the UI will suck, and your programmers will get tired of re-making UI for your design team<o:p></o:p>
   

4.  Why not make an API to start with so you can rapidly iterate until you have what seems shippable?<o:p></o:p>
   

5. Different people have different needs and tastes from their UI...<o:p></o:p>

6.  Why not expose it to the community to get even better mods?
   

7.  Why not think less and just copy the WoW API and just fine-tune to taste?<o:p></o:p>            -Erik<o:p></o:p>
   

   PS. and just as an afterthought with 10 million players used to these slash commands, why not implement them as-is?<o:p></o:p>

http://www.wowwiki.com/UI_beginner%27s_guide<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Originally posted on LiveJournal