I am honestly glad that World of Warcraft’s developers no longer seem to remember Captain Placeholder. The thing about Captain Placeholder is that he was just an NPC added to the game when a particular boat ride was broken. He wasn’t interesting or a character, but players composed little songs about him and had fun with it. And it was good, but it would immediately cease being good if the developers took the character and tried to make it all part of the game. These bits of silly fun work only as long as they’re organic.
This doesn’t mean that every time a developer tries to do something silly it’s bad; it just means that sometimes silly fun in the community quickly turns into something tedious when it gets the veneer of Official Content plastered over it. There’s a fine line between recognizing something silly the community has latched on to and over-focusing on it until the whole thing dies. After all, when was the last time you heard anyone mention LOTRO’s wayward rock?
So when has an MMO developer ruined something silly and fun in the community? When can you think of a team taking what was once authentic and joyous, trying to make it official, and ultimately squeezing the life from it?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
