Tag Archives: Trial of Style

Trial of Style

When I first heard of the idea of Trial of Style, I brushed it off as just another micro holiday I wouldn’t need to participate in. About 30 minutes later, thinking about it again, I decided to add a note to my journal to remember to post all my transmog auctions at a discount that week.

When it finally rolled around, I looked at the rewards and shrugged it off. But then I had a slow night and decided to try it – just once – to see what it was like.

It was AMAZING. And terrible. But amazing.

Trial of Style works exceptionally well, if everyone plays along. When everyone tries to match the theme, and then votes for the outfits that best match or are the most creative. It doesn’t work when people go off left field or just go for the sexy plate mog.

More than just enjoying the event – I really enjoyed seeing all the crazy things people came up with. I saw a demon hunter in all white. I saw an AMAZING warlock in a purple corset I just HAD to look up and go farm.

Even funnier was the time a member of the group decided to call everyone idiots right off the bat, and I said “Hey now, there’s no need to be rude, it’s just transmog.” And I ended up winning despite not having the best outfit.

As always, I immediately started noodling over how I would improve the event. First off, I would have it happen more often than once a year. Have it happen over the two fashion weeks, then like the first week of school, etc. Times when people would be looking at fashion in their real life.

The second idea though, would require a great deal more work. I want players who refuse to play along and just wear their normal transmog that doesn’t fit the theme at all to be disqualified. It was a huge bummer when the worgen in an admiral outfit won the mismatched mayhem despite being in all blue and white. (Yes, his transmog was VERY good, but it didn’t fit the theme.) The only logical way I could see doing this would be to create a database and tag each and every item with what theme it could remotely apply to. And if a player chooses a transmog that has less than 3 items that have the correct tag, it disqualifies them.

But then, that might be too picky. The queue time is short and even if you lose, you get a consolation prize.

Lastly, I would up the rewards. Make it an alternate path for farming specific pieces. Still can’t get this BoP out of Blackwing to drop? Farm up 2k Trial of Style tokens and buy it outright. it gives players who WANT to participate a really good reason to, adds to the collection they are already clearly interested in, and it gives them an alternate path to earn things they want, without just hoping for RNGesus to bless them.