Tag: WoW

Why so Much Emphasis?

After reading a number of early morning blog posts left over in my RSS reader from yesterday, I found myself wondering: Why do gamers put so much emphasis in what we and others are playing. Especially others. Why do we even care? Every day I read a post from one or more authors that includes some sort of semi derogatory remark condoning a group of players simply because of how they choose to spend their time. Or, to be more precise, where they choose to spend their time.

There are those who have made up their minds that everyone who plays a free to play game must be a certain ‘class’ of gamer. How dare they actually enjoy ‘the grind’ that comes with a lot of these games. Don’t they know that in the long run they’ll pay more for their “free” game then some people will pay for their monthly subscription?! Then there are the WoW gamers. Don’t even get me started on these people. I have heard everything from how close minded they are to how stupid they must be, simply because of where they choose to spend their time. It’s as though we as gamers have moved into certain categories and stereotypes not based on who we are, but because of where we play.You ask a fellow blogger their game of choice and suddenly your opinion of them shifts slightly.

So I ask again – why does this aspect of a person even matter. Why are we so keen to judge someone based on a persons decision to spend their free time where they wish. I have even heard people go so far as to say they do not like a particular person because they play certain games that they are not fond of. Really? Are we so shallow that we are now making character judgements based on video games?

I simply don’t understand it.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter where you play, so long as you have fun. In fact voicing my opinion about any other ‘type’ of gamer is a moot point because when it comes to how others are spending their time – my opinion doesn’t matter! It’s their time, their money, and what I think of the matter is completely irrelevant. I refuse to classify a person based on whether they’re playing EQ2, EQ, VG, LotRo, WoW, WAR, DDO, Darkfall, Wizard101, Runes of Magic, EVE, Alganon, Fallen Earth, Lineage II, Allods, Champions, STO, Free Realms, Aion, FFXIV, SWG, Guild Wars, AoC, or any other game.

Go play, and enjoy. Don’t like it? Move on and find something you DO enjoy. It’s a game. They’re supposed to be fun. There are SO many games out there and despite what others would say about them all cloning one another there are always unique factors to each and every game – you may be surprised at what you end up playing and enjoying. I implore gamers to make their own decisions about what they like and don’t like, and refuse to be classified into a category of gamer simply because of where they spend their time.

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Once you’ve hit 80 in World of Warcraft, the options on ‘what to do’ seem to decrease significantly. Lets take my priest for example. The only gear upgrades she can obtain now come through raiding. As of yet, I’ve not found a raiding guild nor do I feel confident enough to want to PUG very often. This leaves me with few things to work on. Achievements (which I do enjoy), faction (less enjoyment), PvP, and other small ‘niche’ things. This weekend I decided to spend some time working on factions. I’m currently working on two in particular. One pictured above, the Kalu’ak (walrus like people) and the other would be collecting the seals I need for The Tournament, which is not exactly a faction per say so much as a requirement for me to do a lot of dailies.

Dailies. That’s how the majority of my time in game these days is spent. First there are the cooking and fishing dailies to complete, then the Tournament dailies (three of them so far), bringing my total to five out of 25. There are far too many dailies for me to keep track of so I try to focus on just a few at a time and then once those have been completed I’ll move on to the next ones. It makes obtaining my goals a little slower then I’d like, but it could be worse.

I’m trying to complete some goals before the world of Azeroth changes forever, but it’s a pretty slow process so far.

The rogue hit level 62 and has been leveling through BC quite nicely. While I do enjoy the ‘old world’ zones, it’s nice to be onto something new. Whether or not she’ll make it past level 70 I haven’t decided (that’s currently where I seem to be stuck, as both the DK and shaman have reached the 70’s and progress no further). I just dislike quest grinding an incredible amount.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Talk Community (Or Lack Of)

Tipa made a good point on a previous point. In most games if you come in as a new player you’re helped. You’re offered suggestions on how to play better, where to go, gear, and gain a general sense of the community. In World of Warcraft, this is not the case. Tipa mentioned that as a new player the community is never more harsh then it is in WoW and she’s exactly right. Why is this the case? What has hardened everyone to become ignorant of a new player? Why are we not acting the same in this game as every other game? Tolerance is at an all time low.

There has been one group in my many many LFD PUG’s that was kind to new players. This was a regular version of Halls of Reflection. Two players (myself included) stated that they had never been there before. As it turned out the two players were the tank, and the healer. People were kind, explaining the encounters. Told me to watch my mana and try not to over extend myself so that I could heal through all of the waves. They told the tank about pulling the single mob (the one who creates replicas of group members) back to the main chamber to avoid his adds. This was the only group I can remember where players were kind to those of us who had not been there before.

However – I also feel that it works both ways. Very rarely do I know someone has never been before. No one speaks in groups any more. If you’ve never been to a dungeon and don’t SAY that you’ve never been and that you may be new, how am I supposed to know to explain the encounters, or to help out. There is such an aura of fear of being ‘new’ that no one is communicating.

The few times that my group does communicate, it’s someone stating that they have to go AFK to do drugs (I hear this so often now I wonder how many times it’s true) or some other nonsense. Do people who do drugs actually have to broadcast it to everyone around them or is this a popularity thing? I have no idea, seeing as I’ve never been involved in that sort of activity. I just find it odd that everyone has to announce to the rest of the world (game) what they’re doing.

The community (or lack of) in WoW is certainly unique to me. I’ve played many games, and if it were not for the handful of friends I have on the Firetree server, I wouldn’t be playing. There’s no way I’d be able to handle the community as it stands now.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

MOAR ALTS

I knew it was foolish when I vowed not to create any more alts. I even deleted a few that I had. Also foolish. Because before even a day had passed I had created not one, or two, but THREE more alts. Recruit-a-friend accounts are dangerous things. Detch has been leveling up his priest which happens to be tied to my account via RAF – not to mention I have my own second account, also RAF. That means until 60 so long as I’m grouped with one of the accounts and within a 5 level range, I get 300% bonus to kills and quests. This is a HUGE deal especially with quests.

In order to make sure Detch received some of this bonus, I created a new rogue. She’s now level 37, almost the same level as my druid. With the ‘free’ levels that the RAF accounts are able to grant to the veteran account, I created a paladin. Leveling through older content involves a lot of dungeon grinding, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Maybe it’s slightly boring, but that’s what I’ve been up to!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Be Nice Eh

It’s funny how over time, we as gamers will change to fit our surroundings. Let me elaborate. Yesterday I just about forgot that I am – when it comes right down to it – a very nice person. I decided to partake in my first ever World of Warcraft raid. It was a pick up for Illidan which means it was an older raid (Burning Crusade) but still worth an achievement that I didn’t have. The player organizing the raid was paying anyone with a gear score higher then 5k to join. Something should have clicked in my mind right away but it didn’t. As soon as everyone was in the raid instance, the raid leader calmly announced that he would be looting all gems since they were “BC gems and going towards his BC bank tab”. Someone joked that this was the method of being a polite ninja. The raid took far longer then anyone had thought, and chat was something I actually had to turn off. Perhaps my age was showing but when raid is filled with discussion of getting high it just completely turns me off. In fact the raid leader mentioned that he had to AFK to go partake in this activity. I’m all for people doing what they want, but why do they feel the need to tell everyone in the world around them?

There were no wipes, and eventually we DID finish the instance. Except the raid leader chose at that time to ninja log with the gems and not paying anyone who he had promised with the 5k+ gs. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of 23 very angry players. Then I took a deep breath. This wasn’t me. I don’t care about money in game, and stuff happens that I’m not going to like. So I left the raid group and went about my day. Yes, it was a horrible thing for that raid leader to do, and it probably tainted my look of WoW raids for the future, but it’s not the end of the world. I can continue to feel good about the fact that I am not like that. That I am a relatively good person, with a pretty kind disposition.

The problem is in games these days that seems to be an incredibly rare state of mind. It’s so easy to scream and yell and stomp our feet when something doesn’t go our way. A player once asked me for a little gold for a mount when I was afk. It wasn’t much, so I sent it to them once I had returned. I don’t know if they ever received it but I never heard from them again. It didn’t bother me because their reaction wasn’t the one I was looking for – the only thing that mattered was my action.

As a gamer some times I need to take a step back and remind myself of who I am. It may seem a little odd, but to me it makes perfect sense.We can become so absorbed in our surroundings.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!