The developers of World of Warcraft talk about a curious bug. A toy caused massive problems.
In the history of World of Warcraft, there were not only many new features, but also a lot of errors and bugs. While some are just annoying, others lead to absurd tricks that made Rextroy famous. Some are simply curious and so strange that one wonders how a bug could even occur.
One of these bugs has to do with the selfie camera in World of Warcraft. For it completely ruined PvP battlegrounds for a few days.
Where does the information come from? At gamescom 2024, we had the opportunity to talk to George Velev and Michael Nuthals, who are responsible for the combat system, class design, and content like the hero talents. We also asked them some questions, including about the most curious bug they have encountered in their careers in World of Warcraft.
What is the selfie camera? The “S.E.L.F.I.E. camera” is a toy that was introduced during the “Warlords of Draenor” expansion. As the name suggests, the toy allows you to take a camera in hand and snap a selfie of yourself and other nearby characters. While some have scoffed at the feature, many now use it for unique or funny screenshots. However, the selfie camera had a serious bug that occurred in PvP.
What kind of bug was it? The bug with the selfie camera caused an amusing problem in PvP. Rogues and druids lost their stealth when they were in the camera’s view:
It didn’t ruin the game, but it was just laughable. Not many people knew about it, but how it worked: We have a toy in the game, the selfie camera. With it, you can take a selfie. Some players then found out: When they take a selfie, everyone around them who is invisible suddenly becomes visible.
Then they went into battlegrounds, stood at the flag, and just kept taking selfies in hopes of revealing rogues or druids in stealth.
The bug is, of course, quite some time ago and was quickly fixed – but it did lead to some curious scenarios. For rogues or druids, it must have been quite surprising the first time they saw heroes of the opposing faction standing in the flag room posing for photos. Let’s hope that we are spared from such curious bugs in the new expansion The War Within.
