World Of Warcraft on the 360?

Could it be done? I think, given the right curcumstances, yes it definately can be. I dont play World of Warcraft a lot, but every time I do, I look at my Xbox controller and think "How can this control World of Warcraft?"

Please note, before telling me that WoW will never come to the Xbox or Playstation platforms, that WoW is only used as a basis for the control mechanism. A developer can still develop a console specific MMO with these controls.

I must admit, lately I have become very accustomed to the controller method of playing games. Keyboard/Mouse still rules for FPS, but action/adventure and RPG's could be done with the controller, for a better and more engaging experience. Controllers today (aside from the Wii controller) have a lot of flexibility when it comes to buttons. On both the Sixaxis and on the 360 Controller, there are 8 buttons that are useable, 2 analog triggers, 2 analog sticks, and a d-pad input. The flexibility is now a lot greater than what it once was.

The basic theory is this. A Pie. That's right I said a pie! Why a pie? Well... Ill start with the biggest challenge. Selecting an action. When you hold down the Right Trigger on the controller, a radial dial selection will appear on screen giving you 8 options to select from. All you have to do is move the right analog stick to the icon you wish to select, and the marker will confirm. Then as soon as you let go of the trigger, your character will peform the specified action. You can cycle sets of 8 spells by hitting the L and R Bumpers.

An issue that popped up during this, was the fact that WoW and many other games has multiple bag slots in its inventory. So in order to select your "Working bag", hold the Right Trigger and the dial will come up once again. Select your bag and the inventory wil come up. Using the D-Pad, select the item, and press A to use. To get back to the same bag quickly, press X and the same bag will open.

Interacting with NPC's

Another tricky task with a simple resolution. Pressing A will target the closest character to you, wether that be an enemy, an NPC or another character. Pressing A on an enemy after it is targeted will attack it. Pressing A on an NPC will allow you to interact with it.

Targeting

Following the auto-target system by a simple press of A. you can use the D-Pad to manually select your target. Just like what happens when you hover your mouse over an enemy in WoW, a Pre-Targer cursor will select your target, if you confirm this action by pressing A, you will target it. To drop a target selection, simply press B.

Character Options

This can be done one of two ways, one is quick and simple and allows quick changing of attire, the other gives more options.

Quick and Simple: Go into your Inventory (X) and select a garment. Pressing Y on the garment will equip it to the player. If anything is assigned in the slot you're assigning it to, you will see the garment swap.

More Options: In a ready state (out of any options menu or Inventory), Press Y and your character menu will appear. In this state, you can use the controller to assign different enchants or accessories to garments.

Text chatting: Now this is something that posed a few problems, If a game was being designed with consoles in mind, I'd HOPE it to have some sort of Voice utility, but for those without headsets, if you press the right analog stick in, a keyboard will appear. Of course the Chatpad accessory on the 360, or a USB Keyboard will allow you to just type, without a controller button press.

Of course pressing Start will bring up a systems options panel (Similar to Esc in WoW).

I think that covers the basis of my control mechanism. To me, this seems the most logical way of playing an MMO on a controller. Sorry for the long post, but I hope if a developer reads this, that it makes them think how their controller mechanism could work, because, frankly, Final Fantasy XI's was absolutely TERRIBLE.

If you have any thoughts on how it could be improved, please leave a comment. Thanks!