Who is copying who again?

In an interesting turn of events, World of Warcraft may be incorporating a few gameplay mechanics from a certain competitor Warhammer Online. There is no way to avoid the quantity and quality of game improvements brought to MMOs by Blizzard. From the quest giver markers to mailboxes, there are about a thousand ways Blizzard has improved the genre and brought MMO gaming to the masses. It seems that all games launching incorporate a standard that has was originally implemented by WoW. In a interesting twist, WoW is actively seeking to incorporate some Warhammer specific game mechanics such as gaining experience for PvP and the idea of queuing for battleground scenarios from anywhere in the world. From the official WoW forums, Tigole (Jeff Kaplan) lays out what they are reviewing:

Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately. Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients (attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).

But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the game and we're definitely going to focus on improvements in the future. Now, it's very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think it's important for the community to know that it's on our minds.

Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time. The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we'd like to have more content and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be better directed. We're also exploring the concept of a complimentary "competitive" bg system as well. Over time, we'd like the focus of PvP to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus Alliance -- the core of our game.

We're also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We're also going to explore EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to support that.

Please don't take this post as a promise. This won't be an overnight process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it's important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to PvP.

Interesting indeed. Stay tuned, let's see if they incorporate a Volume of Knowledge or an Area-that's-not-private Quest scenario next. For more information and a load of official forum brain-numbing fun, head over to the WoW official forums. Or if you'd like we could discuss in a more civilized manner in our forums. I am a huge fan of borrowing and believe that all games should borrow what works. The team that can implement the system the best and more importantly make it fun will win. Is that fair? No, sometimes it means that only big companies can compete because they have the resources to implement these types of solutions. I'm ok with that, I just want to play fun games. Some said WAR was ripping of WoW, is the reverse happening now?