Dance studio

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This article is about the scrapped feature. For the garrison mission, see Training The Dance Studio.
"New dances" shown in the Wrath of the Lich King reveal trailer at BlizzCon 2007.

The dance studio was a scrapped feature from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King that would've allowed players to customize their character's dance animation. The feature gained infamy as it was advertised in the expansion's marketing but was never actually implemented due to the amount of animation work required, and it is often jokingly referenced in fan discussions about canceled features from other expansions.

History

Announcement

"New hairstyles and dances" listed as an expansion feature on the Wrath of the Lich King flash site.

The feature was originally announced at BlizzCon 2007 in the Wrath of the Lich King reveal trailer, which lists "New dances" as one of the expansion's features, alongside "Changeable hairstyles". Both of these were also included in the features list on the official Wrath of the Lich King flash site.[1] The earliest known reference to a "dance studio" where these new dances would be obtained comes from a forum post by Community Manager Bornakk on August 24, 2007, in which he wrote that "We are also providing players the opportunity to learn new/different dances with the dance studio."[2]

At a press event at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in July 2008, Lead Level Designer Cory Stockton stated that the dance studio was "a gigantic amount of work", as Blizzard would have to implement custom animations for each playable race so that they "look right". He continued that the developers hadn't decided how many animations they would do per race or how exactly players would acquire them, but that they had discussed the idea of a dance studio where players would go to learn new dances. He finished that they didn't know how much time it was going to take to implement, as this would be dictated by the amount of new animations required.[3]

Post-Wrath of the Lich King release

Although new character hairstyles and the option of changing hairstyles were implemented with the addition of the barbershop as had been advertised, the dance studio never appeared in the Wrath of the Lich King beta and wasn't mentioned by Blizzard again[4] until a community summit on October 9, 2008—two weeks prior to the expansion's release—during which Lead Designer Jeffrey Kaplan told Curse that the dance studio would be added "After Lich King releases for sure". He elaborated that adding even a single dance animation for a race takes "as much time as creating a new creature for the game", so the developers had to consider which of the two would see more use. The ultimate goal, according to Kaplan, was still to implement the studio and that one of the desired features was to allow players to not just choose a new dance, but string together multiple moves to create a unique dance.[5]

On January 30, 2009, Community Manager Zarhym wrote on the official forum that the studio had been a work in progress for the artists for "some time now" and that "It's something they hack away at here and there when things like Ulduar aren't imminent."[6] On April 22, Community Manager Nethaera wrote in another thread that: "It has not been dropped. Creating additional dances takes a significant amount of animation work and we want to make sure that when we do put them out, that they meet our standards. We still intend to put them in, but we have no current eta on their addition." She added that the specifics of the feature (such as if the possible dances would be restricted by character faction and gender) were still unknown.[7]

In a developer chat on Twitter on February 26, 2010, Cory Stockton and Greg Street stated that the dance studio was "still on the list", adding that "We always start an expansion with more than we can realistically do and then shuffle things up and down".[8][9] In an interview with DirecTV at BlizzCon 2010, Tom Chilton mentioned that Blizzard had been working on new dances and that they'd release the dance studio when it was ready.[10]

Later expansions

On August 25, 2013, Greg Street replied to a Twitter post about the then-in-progress player character revamp with: "The good news is this [new character models] is something actively being worked on, not a shelved project like dance studio or abyssal maw."[sic][11] In a follow-up tweet, he added: "Also, shelved does not mean cancelled. :)"[12] In an interview at BlizzCon 2013, J. Allen Brack stated regarding the dance studio that: "We talked about and developed a whole bunch of different animations and different technology that we could use. We didn't really come up with a really great game system behind it. It is something that we talked about. It is something that we wanna do at some point. But it's not something we're currently working on."[13] At the BlizzCon 2015 Q&A, Tom Chilton stated that Blizzard would still like to add the studio someday and that it was a matter of finding the animation time for it.[14]

Legacy

Over time, as Wrath of the Lich King was developed, released, and came to a close without any sign of the dance studio and players kept asking what happened to it, it took on the status of meme and running gag, often included as a punchline at the end of lists of advertised features that were still missing from the game.[15] In 2011, Mathew McCurley of WoW Insider wrote that the dance studio "has become a legend in its own right, being called everything from the second coming of the WoW messiah to a dumb waste of time for designers and developers who could be working on more 'important' projects". He concluded that the primary reason for its reputation was its inclusion in the original Wrath of the Lich King trailer, along with the fact that new dances—along with new hairstyles—would've served as a long-awaited addition of more character customization, an aspect at which World of Warcraft was considered to be subpar compared to other MMOs at the time.[16] The dance studio is sometimes called an example of vaporware[10][17] or (dubiously) false advertising.[16][18]

A slide shown at BlizzCon 2013, listing the Dance Studio as a garrison building.

Due to its infamy, Blizzard have made several joking references to the dance studio over the years.

In a 2014 article examining the meme and the reason for its longevity, Nathan Grayson of Kotaku wrote that: "The legacy of [the dance studio] is something that can only happen in a game like World of Warcraft, one that's been around for ages, one whose players have grown and changed over time with it. It seems like such an inconsequential feature, but it's another facet of players feeling a personal connection to their characters. It's a desire for greater freedom of self-expression. More than that, though, the dance studio has been kept in the public conscious by its own lack of existence longer than many real, frequently updated features can boast. It's practically immortal at this point. The heart of the dance studio is not a dance studio at all. It's the conversation it's inspired, the back-and-forth between Blizzard and slavering, dance-hungry fans. Maybe Blizzard is being a gigantic jerk, or maybe they're just trying to connect with their longtime fans like an old pal bringing up a years-dead injoke. Either way, fans keep talking, and the legend grows."[15]

See also

References

 
  1. ^ World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King official site. Archived from the original on 2007-11-11.
  2. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Bornakk 2007-08-24. WoW Forums -> Facial Reconstruction?. Archived from the original on 2007-10-26.
  3. ^ Jeff Woleslagle 2008-07-09. Press Q&A with WoW Lead Level Designer Cory Stockton - Page 2 of 3. Ten Ton Hammer. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  4. ^ Daniel Whitcomb 2008-08-26. Blizzard announces Pre-Wrath content patch. WoW Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  5. ^ Kody 2008-10-09. Blizzard Community Summit Details. Curse. Archived from the original on 2008-11-04.
  6. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Zarhym 2009-01-30. World of Warcraft Forums -> New Dances. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03.
  7. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Nethaera 2009-04-22. World of Warcraft Forums -> Custom dances idea dropped?. Archived from the original on 2009-04-27.
  8. ^ Medievaldragon 2010-02-26. WoW Dev Twitter Chat. Blizzplanet. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  9. ^ Adam Holisky 2010-02-27. WoW developer Twitter chat transcript, sorted by category. WoW Insider.
  10. ^ a b Adam Holisky 2010-10-23. BlizzCon 2010: Tom Chilton interview transcript -- Dance studio still in the works. WoW Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  11. ^ Greg Street on Twitter (2013-08-25). Archived from the original on 2021-03-03.​ “The good news is this is something actively being worked on, not a shelved project like dance studio or abyssal maw.”
  12. ^ Greg Street on Twitter (2013-08-25). Archived from the original on 2021-03-03.​ “Also, shelved does not mean cancelled. :)”
  13. ^ a b Robin Torres 2013-11-08. BlizzCon 2013: Dance Studio in the new Garrisons?. WoW Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  14. ^ World of Warcraft Legion Q&A (blizzcon 2015). YouTube (2015-11-08). Retrieved on 2022-04-17.
  15. ^ a b Nathan Grayson 2014-11-20. The Missing Feature World of Warcraft Fans Won't Forget. Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  16. ^ a b Mathew McCurley 2011-05-27. The Lawbringer: No, you can't sue Blizzard over the Dance Studio. WoW Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  17. ^ Daniel Whitcomb 2010-02-28. Dance Studio still "on the list," say developers. WoW Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.
  18. ^ Andy McAdams 2019-07-12. Lawful Neutral: Dance studios, canvas bags, and ‘false advertising’ in the MMO industry. Massively Overpowered. Archived from the original on 2019-07-13.
  19. ^ Muffinus on Twitter (2014-03-26). Retrieved on 2022-04-17.​ “Just the UI guys having a little fun :) Not to say that there won't be dancing with your troops...”
  20. ^ After 17 years, World of Warcraft finally has something like a dance studio. Esports Extras. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17.

External links

  • WowInsider WowInsider The Lawbringer: No, you can't sue Blizzard over the Dance Studio
  • External link Kotaku The Missing Feature World of Warcraft Fans Won't Forget
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