Things I'd like to add to the game...Visual Customization

After reading the latest Dev Q&A on weapons and armor, I was rather disappointed at their comments on the barbershop and visual customization. Personally, I would love more customization, even if it's just more hair colors and hair styles available in the barbershop. I was trying to think about how I would add this, and here's what I've come up with.

I wanted to include as many professions as possible, and allow players to create new looks or copy existing NPCs. I also wanted to give people a reason to go run old content and have players talk about what they're wearing.

Engineers would make a camera-like device. Using it would allow a player to take pictures of any npc. Then you would take the picture and find a tailor, leatherworker, or blacksmith (depending on whether you were wearing cloth, leather/mail, or plate). Give them the picture and they'd be able to change your armor to match it. Now, if you want to look like you're wearing a particular piece of armor, you need to go get that piece if you can't find an npc wearing it. Basically you need something for the crafter to work from, which is pretty reasonable. Photos could even be sold on the AH, so if you manage to get a shot of a rare npc, you could get some gold.

Now, this could cause some PVP problems, but the system could simply be set so that your armor reverts to its original appearance in arenas and bgs. Plus, inspecting you would show the original armor.

I'd also love to see the addition of dyes, made from milled pigments by alchemists.

And yes, this is because I totally want to wander around in a green and silver version of the blood elf guards armor. Plus, my paladin could run around in a dress, and my mage could look like she's wearing plate.

Identity, in game and out

You may be wondering why I haven't been blogging much (or answering comments or paying attention to twitter). Well, there's been some interesting RL stuff going on....
I was diagnosed with ADD at age 3. By a pediatric neurologist, and this was a bit before they started handing out Ritalin like candy. I spent most of my childhood on a low dosage of an ADD med (not Ritalin), which certainly screwed up my hunger impulse, but never seemed to make much difference to me (others said they could tell a difference between my being on or off the med). I've been off meds since college, for various reasons, and I cope pretty well.

It's always just been part of my identity. I have blue eyes, I'm extremely smart, I have ADD. And now that part of my identity may be in question. I went through some exhaustive testing, and we'll see what they come up with.

But having part of my own identity in doubt made me start thinking about how my WoW identity changes in RL.

If asked, I play WoW. In fact, I generally volunteer this information. It's a hobby to me, just like my knitting or reading. No biggie. I play CRPGs, who cares? I also play D&D, have a physics degree, love fiddling with computers, and worked in IT. Heck, in high school I did Science Olympiad and Academic Bowl. I am a nerd/geek, and I honestly see nothing either wrong or odd about that. I spent large portions of my childhood and adolescence buried in books, and believe me, if the internet hadn't been invented I'd still be doing that.

But I realized something while thinking about all this. I play WoW pretty much exclusively. The only other hobby I spend anywhere near as much time on is knitting, and I do that while watching tv or movies. I occasionally get together with friends for a D&D session, but that hasn't happened in a while. So, am I still a reader if I don't read books rabidly anymore, or do I still count because I still read rabidly, it's just mostly digital. And am I still a gamer if all I play is WoW or should I just call myself a wower?

And while I'm at it, am I Alliance? My Alliance toons get played way more, in fact I don't think I've logged on to one of my Horde toons since the Shattering. But I don't really have any strong feelings for one side or the other, so it seems somehow wrong to call myself Alliance.

I don't really put myself into my toons, they're characters, not me. Lyllea and Garetia and all the rest are digital avatars in a manner of speaking, but how much do they really reflect me?

I'm going to keep thinking about this, and maybe I'll come up with something. Right now I just have questions. Oh well, I think, therefore I am confused, right?