This is just a quick observation I noted whilst engaging in a little navel gazing as I thought further on the implications of WoW as an offline RPG, and how that has intersected with my recent play of Final Fantasy XII and Blue Dragon.
I find that I spend a good third or so of my time in WoW just looking around and taking screenshots. Maybe it’s because it’s still pretty new to me (I’ve not played it much because of the subscription model), maybe it’s because I love photography, maybe it’s because I like making desktop images, maybe it’s because I like to show my family cool stuff they might have missed when I played as the kids sleep, maybe it’s because I take pictures to look at for later dissection as a game artist or inspiration for sketching. Maybe I’m just weird.
Whatever the case, I have a lot of control over the camera in WoW compared to the typical console RPG. And then there’s that magnificent little button in the upper right of the keyboard:
Print Screen
I love that button. I spend more time playing PC games rather than console RPGs simply because I can’t take screenshots on the console. In WoW (and DDO and Allods and LOTRO and W101 and Puzzle Pirates and RoM and…) I can take screenshots of the game to my heart’s content… and my hard drive’s limit. I have literally thousands of screenshots across a handful of games. I do still have more pictures of “real life”, thanks to my handy dandy digital camera, but still, I take a LOT of pictures of things around me. Observation runs deep in my artistic and scientific blood.
I can’t do that with console RPGs… and honestly, it makes me a bit sad. You can’t take it with you, but sometimes, memories can be cemented a bit better if you have a picture to look at for more than the fleeting second that the event is “live”. This can be especially important in something like WoW, and my most recent “thirty days free with the box purchase” that I played through as the dauntless Tauren Druid Padgi. I can’t go back into the game until I pay for it again (pfft), so I took a lot of screenshots while I had access. As cool as the mapviewer is, you just have to get some things from the real game client.
Since I don’t have perpetual access to that, screenshots help satisfy any curiosity I may have about how Blizzard crafted the game. I can’t just fire up the game and look around any more, but I can look at my screenshots. (And yes, it’s probably ironic that I don’t do much with graphics around here. I keep meaning to change that with some art tutorials, at least… and y’know, slide shows of “my vacation in Azeroth” never seem to be all that popular.)
I can live with the pictures when the game itself is off limits. After all, I’m getting about a third of my usual WoW alt experience that way for a tiny fraction of the price. Value is in the eye of the beholder after all.
I am so sad that I somehow lost my early WoW and GW screenshots. They are probably still on one of my old 2,5″ harddrives.
I use Google Picasa to organize and upload my game screenshots. As you are not a twitter user, you might have missed my fairly extensive collection of game screenshots. I should have put them on a second google account, but now they are on my main and I use a second account for private pics.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Longascimages
I dare to say I took screenshots of all areas in LOTRO except the Helegrod raid and Dol Guldur.
And nothing can crack me up as much as early screenshots from Ultima Online, older than 12 years by now: http://www.ods-vw.com/gemaeldegalerie/vielfeind.html <- guess who I am.
I guess I should set up a Picasa thing, hm? Just for kicks, if nothing else. Thanks for sharing, Longasc!
I’m a rabid screenshotter too. I always hate forgetting to take any during the most exciting moments. That’s why I have way more screenshots of MMO combat for instance than Single Player RPG’s (there’s a message somewhere in that).
I use Fraps and ‘numpad -’ to have a universal screenshot button as well as saveTo location.
Anyhoo, just the other day I was using a little program called Spacemonger to manage my harddrive contents. My screenshot folder had grown to 24 GB in size. That’s the third time this year.
It’s like Digital photography, rather than take your time for that perfect shot you take 10 in rapid succescion and hope one of them’s ok.
Using Picassa to upload the better ones is a good idea
I tend to find that rather than taking screenies of events I have spent time just taking landscape shots. There are some really nice locations in WoW and if you get the weather and time of the day right you can end up with some really nice looking shots. Some of my faves were of the sun rising over Thunderbluff.
It’s an interesting point about console games and the lack of a screenshot feature. I’m a screenshot fiend now! I love to document my history in MMOs and, more than anything else, I love to take snapshots of cool looking items and armor so I can look them up later.
Unfortunately I lost a lot of my very early EQ, AO and DAOC et al screengrabs which is a real shame.
Zombie, I tend to take far more environment shots, too. I’m a hardcore Explorer, and finding a sweet sunset makes my day. I do take some “event” shots (or cool art, eh, Gordon?), but most are just pictures of places.
It drives my family nuts in real life, too. I take a TON of pictures of things instead of people (a lot of texture pics for my job, no less), and I almost certainly look rather… odd. Not the typical tourist, by any count.
Oh, and Lani, agreed on the digital photography angle. I *really* like taking several shots and just sifting them later. That was prohibitively expensive with film cameras. I do occasionally use a film camera, but I’m much more careful with my shots… and sometimes I miss the good stuff that happens in those serendipitous interstitial moments.
[...] So naturally, I wandered around and took some pictures. One must make the most of situations, hm? [...]
[...] raiding treadmill. I make up minigames for myself, or just go wandering around looking for the perfect screenshot (I still need to set up a Picasa portfolio for sharing, come to think of it…). I even have [...]