Slot Machine

While I was in Lag Vegas I saw a Star Wars Slot Machine. (Video) The film mini clips/moving icons embedded into it were awesome to say the least. I've never been so excited to get a losing payout... but look it's Han Solo! (It was "New Hope" centric - we won't get into the whole first trilogy whips the butt of the second trilogy deal - but I'll just say I was very happy.)

I of course immediately thought that there should be a WoW Slot Machine. Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever see one. Of the 7 million players I doubt half (a third?) of them would have legal access to a casino (age, proximity, laws, etc..). Plus I found these quotes in my research:

Article about Themed machines:

Generally, slot makers seek a theme that will cut them a wide slice of the market pie. "We use a recognized brand or mark or show ... that has some established familiarity, that can add an additional level of entertainment to a game," Rogich explains. "It brings instant recognizability and a fan base."

but...

"There is no dead-on template, such as 'only recognized stars' " make a viable slot theme, Bone says. He notes that his company's "target market is basically a 55-year-old woman with a certain level of disposable income." For that reason, he says, WMS has not done many games themed to male-oriented interests such as sports. Competitors have, however. One maker, Aristocrat, has a game based on Brazilian soccer superstar Pele.

/sigh. Darn. Ok, so absent a real one, here's my imagination of what the main panel might look like:

Aggro the White Tigers

This picture I did not alter at all (except to crop it). Strangely it is a tribute to Siegfried and Roy.



What is that there beside the heads? Is... is that supposed to be a mithril deposit? Were Siegfried and Roy miners (in addition to being hunters)? Perhaps one would hold aggro while the other did the mining. Hm. I had no idea their conservation efforts included minerals.

S & R were a big deal at the Mirage for many years until the whole "tiger bites Roy" incident. Now if you go to the Mirage, there's no show but there's still a Dolphin and white tiger habitat (20 second video).



By the way, I was sure to use a silver dragon border around the icon above which signifies a "rare spawn" for the white tiger rather than a gold dragon border which signifies "elite." (I only just learned that recently, I have to admit.)

Fountains

For a city in the middle of a desert, there were fountains EVERYWHERE in Las Vegas. My friend told me one night to "meet me by the fountain" but inside Caesar's alone there were about 8 fountains. This one was outside of Caesar's:


But strangely, it just didn't look right. Not until I made it feel more like home:



(For my Horde friends, roll an Alliance alt and put them in Stormwind for about 5 seconds, any time, any day. You'll quickly see what I mean.)

Vegas in Signs

Whenever I go on vacation and see a themepark I think of World of Warcraft. It's just destined to be turned into one. Vegas, however, just didn't have the right feel (imho).

For example, if you're walking along the streets of WoW Vegas might they advertise their big "show" like this?:



Or maybe in WoW Vegas instead of advertising Toni Braxton on the side of the Flamingo Casino, I imagined some Night Elf Magician show would be advertised (NE magician's on the left, Toni's on the right):



Too nutty, I think. More than likely the most WoWish thing would be a nice Pandaren Express. (First time I actually saw one.)

Viva Lag Vegas!

This photo is of the edge of the Mirage Volcano that erupts every hour at night. But let me tell you, the fun fun montage is in no way representative of my trip. It was more like 2,000 people sitting in front of speakers. (Didn't take any shots of that.) So now that I can upload photos again (I was making the files too large) here is the roster:

• Vegas in Signs
• Aggro the White Tiger
• Fountains
• Slot Machines!

His Kong-ness

WoW just warps my view of everything...


King Kong Photo Opportunity info at thestudiotour.com

LFG: Ogre

As you get in line for the Shrek 4D experience you see WANTED posters for many creatures from the forest in the queue area. They made me think of those quests you find from wanted posters within World of Warcraft. One of my favorites is featured here, Hogger. It's side by side with a wanted photo from the ride:
And here I've pasted it together with the wanted poster for Shrek himself:


Based on the size of the line he looked to be only a 100-person raid group (it was a light day at the park).

For more information on the attraction visit thestudiotour.com or the Universalstudios.com website.

Boatopia

The Sailing Ship Columbia is an attraction in Disneyland that is simply that. A big ol' boat that you take in a small circle around an area of the park (it's more of an "experience" than a "ride"). The collage of pictures below are some of those from the boat rides at both Disney and in Azeroth. The good news about the ride at Disney is that the boat doesn't disappear suddenly in the middle of the lake and leave everyone to suddenly drop into the waters like it does in WoW.



More information on this attraction can be found at the Disneyland website.

Rotating Tunnel

My favorite attraction at Universal was the Studio Tour. At one point on the tour the tram drives through a very disorienting tunnel which has been used in several films and it seems, has also been used as the entrance to the Deeprun Tram. Here's a shot from the Bionic Man episode when it was an "ice tunnel," side by side with the entrance to the Deeprun tram:

I couldn't resist putting Steve Austin into Azeroth, heheh.

More information about the Tunnel/Studio Tour at thestudiotour and universalstudios.

Booty Bay vs. Water World

While we were at Universal Studios we saw the Water World show (which I recommend by the way; it was fun). Here's my comparison of that set (as seen from the stands waiting for the show to begin) to Booty Bay:

They both even have that same tallest tower to the right of the center and extended area to the right of that. Find out more about the WaterWorld attraction at these websites: thestudiotour.com and UniversalStudios.com.

p.s. It was great fun to try out the "Photomerge" feature of Photoshop which is how I got so much in one picture.

WoW is a Theme Park

The week I was away, I was at a conference for my job but I also took a few days to visit some theme parks in California. Previously you may have seen the Universal Studios' Jaws or the Disney's Animal Kingdom comparisons I made in this blog. Well get set for a few more as in the next few days I will compare:

• Booty Bay to Water World (Universal)
• The Tram Entrance to the Spinning Tunnel (Universal)
• The boat ride to ... uh... the boat ride (Disney)
• Quest Info
• Plus whatever other nonsensical things I come up with.

Jaws!

And now back to shorter posts... /whew!

You might remember the post about Disney's Animal Kingdom's showing up in the Barrens Wallpaper.

Well... guess what I found now... a bit of Universal Studios (shown here). You can see Jaws hanging near the ride named after him in Orlando or this big fish just SE from Sen'Jin Village in Durotar.

I'm a big fan of the way the way Blizzard tributes pop culture. At least that's what I'm calling it today. It could still be subliminal marketing, but the Jaws thing is way too obvious for that. So for now it's "homage."

Disney's Animal Kingdom and The Barrens

In a very "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" making-mashed-potatoes-into-the-Devil's-Tower kind of moment I felt the need to create the photo at bottom to compare to the World of Warcraft wallpaper on the top.

And I still feel like it's not done yet.

Meanwhile somewhere at Blizzard someone is scrambling to shred memos between them and Disney because we're on to their secret subliminal advertising.