Friends list improved

The built-in friends list has its limitations, but luckily the WoW interface is very extendable by addons. And there are several that try to address the issues mentioned above. Unfortunately all of them are outdated and buggy.

I've played around with addons like Karma or NoteIt, but none of them was what I was looking for. And every single one of them was ancient and apparently unmaintained.

A real social interface would allow me to add private notes about any character I encounter. I do a PuG with someone - I add a note to that character. Someone says "thank you" when I do a drive-by buffing and even buffs me back - another note. Beggar in Orgrimmar - note it. Stealing my resource node from right under me while I fight a mob - note. Horrible tank that thinks two-handers and Deathwish are the way to go - note!

The notes have to be shared between all characters on the same account and server. An idiot I met on my main stays an idiot when I log on one of my alts. The note should be displayed on mouseover and when shift-clicking the player in a chat window.

And in times of server transfers and name changes a pure matching by name isn't enough. The race and class of the character should be recorded automatically, so I notice if I meet a completely different idiot just with the same name than the idiot I met a year ago. And the guild of the characters should be stored. While I don't judge a player by their guild tag, it does give a hint about the quality of the recruitment.

Since none of the existing addons fit my requirements I've started to tweak the simplest one, NoteIt, to my needs. NoteIt provides a simple notepad ability where you can assign notes to a player or item and have it displayed on mouseover.

So far I have extended it with an "info-stamp" that adds some extra info whenever I save a note, like the current time, the name of my logged on character, and the race, class, and guild of my current target.

So when I target someone and type /ni or /noteit then an edit window pops up that allows me to set a note, for example "repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper". When saving it some data about my character and the targeted player get added like this:

-- Kirana - 2008-03-17 - Thunder Bluff:
-- male level 17 orc warrior
repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper

Not perfect, but works well enough to be useful to me.

The next steps will be integration into the chat window so that the note appears when I shift-click a name in chat as well as handling /who queries when adding notes for players that I don't have targeted at the moment.

Friends list limitations

Why oh why can I only have 50 friends on my friends list? Is Blizzard trying to tell me something? Maybe something in the line of "These are not the friends you are looking for"?

In my opinion the social interface in WoW is too limited for an MMORPG. Limitations like 50 friends or 500 members in a guild? Are you kidding me? You call that Massive Multiplayer? There is no sharing of friends lists between your alts on the same server. And the default interface doesn't even allow you to add notes to your friends or ignored people. In short - the social interface of WoW stinks. These artificial limitations are plain and simple a disgrace for such a great game.

For me the friends list in the default interface is almost completely useless. With the amount of alts my friends have I can barely squeeze in more than a handful of "real people". And even then I have a hard time to remember which real player is linked to which alt.

Luckily the WoW interface is very extendable by addons, but more about that in my next post.

Player titles

One feature that I really liked in Lord of the Rings Online was collecting player titles. You can gain titles for things like finishing quests, killing mobs, mastering trade skills, or simply exploring the area. After a while you have a long list of titles that showed your accomplishments. You can select one of the titles and have it displayed together with your name.

The titles have no real gameplay effect and are just for show - a roleplayer gimmick. Collecting titles is another time sink for a completionist like me. It is fun to switch to "Kirana, Slug-squasher" while mindlessly grinding or to "Shire Brewmaster" when I am drunk.

WoW has player titles as well, but they are rather rare. There are two for PvE, "Champion of the Naaru" for finishing the Trial of the Naaru and the ultra-rare "Scarab Lord" only available to the openers of the AQ gates. From the arena you can reach one of Challenger, Duelist, Gladiator, or Rival. Reaching exalted reputation in all battlegrounds gives another. And if you PvP'ed before the 2.0 patch abandoned the old honor system then you kept your highest lifetime title.

Patch 2.4 will add two new titles. One for finishing the Black Temple attunement questline - a great accomplishment in my opinion and well worth a title. I am looking forward to getting it. And a second title that you can buy for 1000g at exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive. That one stumps me.

Buying a title - are you serious, Blizzard? Will you offer a degree from the unaccredited University of Warcrafting next? Having to buy the title after putting a lot of effort into getting to exalted is an insult in my opinion. Titles are something you earn. The price tag devalues the title and people who have it will probably be laughed at. Reaching Exalted will be a long and hard struggle, but the thing most people will be reminded of when seeing the title is that you paid 1000g to feed your vanity.

Memorabilia

Blizzard is devaluing the previous accomplishments of the players with each expansion. The gear reset pretty much wipes out everything you have achieved in the game before. You killed Onyxia, Ragnaros, Hakar, C'thun, and dozens of others? Too bad, nobody will know. Here is a new batch of bosses, kthxbye. The simple reason is that gear is almost always the only reward you get for killing a boss.

WoW is missing something like player-titles or housing with some kind of memorabilia display. I would love to have a collection of treasures from the various adventures I had over the years. A claw from Onyxia, some bubbling lava from Ragnaros, maybe the head of one of the bloody Sons of Arugal that run around near the Sepulcher - on a spike ...

I treasure some old things too much to throw them away, like my Benediction staff or my first mount for example. It would be great if I could store them somewhere other than in the small bank.

Give me a house where I can put old gear-sets on a dummy. Give me a cozy fireplace with Onyxia's head mounted on the wall above. Give me one of the dancing skeletons from Razorfen Downs as an anatomical exhibit in my library. Give me copies of the various books filled with the warcraft lore. Give me a kitchen where I can prepare a filet of the Lurker Below and some murloc sushi. Give me a stable for my old mounts and my various mini pets. I am tired of PETA members trying to free them from my cramped bags!