Yup, the jump key is pretty much useless, and yeah, it's a nod to the familiar spacebar jump of the game which shall not be named. But it is useless FUN!
I'm pro-useless fun myself. Example, at work I built a database for some people in my area so they can track documents. It's pretty much a boring Microsoft Access database. EXCEPT! I built them a meep button.
It looks a bit like this:
The purpose of the meep button is nothing more than to cue a .wav file of beaker from the muppets, which says "meep." But the real purpose of this button is stress relief. It was a small easter egg that my boss let slip through the cracks. And when you hear the meep button echo across the cubicle space, you know someone is finding joy, making a joke, and saying hello to me all at once. I love the meep button.
Our jump key in Wizard101 is pretty much a meep button. It really serves no purpose. Tesh does a great job talking about this feature as it is presented to us in MMO's, and it's definitely worth a read.
I would talk more about how I've read about how traveling the z-axis in games causes problems for developers and that's why it's unlikely you'll see your wizard flying loops on a broom any time soon, but you never know what Kingsisle will do in the future . . . and beyond making databases, I'm not much of a programmer. So I can't personally speak on the issue much. I do remember getting stuck on things back in the days of Everquest and having to employ Wizards to port me out of sticky situations, but those things are just a horric-ified memory I shouldn't recant.
haha, I wonder what it would have been like if Kingsisle would have made the space bar have your character cue a random emote instead of jump?
Maybe they'll take my meep suggestion for the spacebar. Nah, I think the meep button is just too esoteric for millions of players to appreciate and would probably be the bane of pretty much everyone's lives. It might make a good April Fool's joke for next year though! What do you think?
Happy Dueling!
4 comments:
Ha Ha meep key?
How about a Database Arena Duel? Peachtree vs. Microsoft, Round 1...FIGHT!
wow that is like a wake up call! Saying "MEEP" is a huge thing around me it's how people say good bye and hello and Go away I'm busy texting. Its odd but fun!!!
I'm all for useless fun, what bugs me about the W101 jumping is that jumping theoretically should confer some sort of navigational function, like getting around the dig sites in Krok (the narrow ramps where you have to walk around rather than go over the corners). In W101, it's purely cosmetic, so it doesn't feel right. (OK, I'm a professional animator, so it also doesn't *look* right, but that's really nitpicky, and very forgivable.)
A Meep button for random emotes would be awesome silly fun. :)
Thanks for the link!
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