I came across another phrase that caught my eye, this time in a post made by Ciderhelm (TankSpot's administrator).
It was in the context of hardcore raiding.
Surprisingly, the same things being said in this post about people no longer being able to raid (hardcore) apply to people who were never able to raid (casual).
The hardcore vs. casual thing has been done to death. So its interesting when you see they have common ground.
His solution was to make encounters with timers. If you aren't good enough to finish it in time that's your attempt for the week. But as someone mentioned it has to be on the person to limit themselves to the amount of time they spend in the game. As soon as timer-limited encounters are introduced would people play less? No they would spend the rest of the time farming to the hilt for extra resist, pvp gear, badge gear, the most beneficial consumables possible. In other words they would shift their time elsewhere but it still would be unreasonably spent in the game. Because raiders want to separate themselves somehow with their accomplishments and they are willing to spend that currency to do so.
Not just one Overton window
17 hours ago
9 comments:
There are plenty of timed encounters with enforcing mechanisms. We just call those trash respawns.
Anyway.. raiding doesn't need to take a lot of time. My guild clears Black Temple in two three-hour raids, and Hyjal in a single two-hour raid. I don't know about you, but I've been in longer instance runs than that. First you wait for 45 minutes in LFG, then you wait 30 minutes for everyone to show up, then you discuss tactics for 15 minutes, stop for 30 minutes while someone eats, clear trash for 15 minutes, spend 20 minutes wiping on a boss.. you get the point.
Time is money. How you spend it or allow it to be spent is entirely up to you.
Trash respawns should be used as "Hey you're done here for tonight, go do something else." But I know of guilds that have done re-clears just to get more attempts in.
And I think that's what he meant.
It only takes a few hours to farm a place you've already learned, I don't think that was his concern. There are extreme, but actual cases of guilds putting in 6-7 hours a night, 6 nights a week during progression.
And in order for other progression guilds (who care about that type of stuff) to compete that level of raiding is too much even for them.
(Published the comment before I was through, whoops!)
So, if you care about competing, the only way is to spend a huge amount of currency to do so. You don't have a choice.
Unless you pick not competing at all as a choice which is his complaint.
You do have a choice. If you're in a hole and want to get out, the first thing to do is to stop digging. 6-7 hours a night, 6 nights a week is a clear indication that you're doing it wrong.
Since there's been some talk about MMORPG addiction, let's use gambling as a metaphor. If you ask any gambler, the absolute worst thing to do when you're losing is to keep playing and try to win all of it back. You won't. You've already lost your cool, your concentration and temper are dwindling rapidly, and your tells are obvious. At that point, it doesn't matter how much more money you throw at the game, you're going to lose it all anyway. It's better to call it a day, rest, analyze your game and figure out what you did wrong. If you can't do that, then perhaps the culprit isn't in Irvine, California. It's in your mirror.
To recap: Time is money. How you spend it or allow it to be spent is entirely up to you.
I'm pretty sure we're in agreement.
How someone chooses to spend their time is not really the issue I was honing in on.
It's how Blizzard has set up encounters that allow hours spent to be a indicator of success.
Whether that is right or wrong, addicting or no is not the focus, at least not of this post.
For instance, the old honor system. While some pvpers were indeed skilled at what they did, many High Warlords and Grand Marshals attained the title through sheer dedication of time.
Why did Blizzard remove what several considered a harmful method of play?
Why didn't they leave it in there as it was?
I think the focus of this post was that perhaps Irvine, Ca can develop encounters that can be beaten competitively through skill and not hours spent.
What would the progression ranking look like if everyone were forced to a twelve hour shut out? How about a nine hour? What about six?
Blizzard is not forcing you to reclear the trash and starting your seventh consecutive hour of raiding. Blizzard is not yelling in your Ventrilo. Blizzard's not forcing you to check your guild's ranking in WoW Jutsu religiously. Blizzard cannot fix you.
Once again we are in agreement.
But that wasn't the gist of my original post. I'm not sure how to explain it...
I do understand, I'm just saying that Blizzard has already done their due diligence. They've provided ample tools for parents to police their children. But they cannot (and should not) police adults, who are entrusted in doing many other activities that are potentially much more hazardous than WoW. Like driving cars, handling guns, making contracts, founding families, drinking alcohol or voting.
And even if they did enforce harsher reset timers, you yourself said that it wouldn't help. Besides, isn't number-crunching and minmaxing a skill just like hand-eye coordination or team organization?
A sidenote: Even China, one of the most authoritarian countries in the world won't enforce play time limits on adults. The experience-gain-reduction and forced logout features in the Chinese version of WoW apply only to minors.
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