Painting myself into a corner

I logged onto WoW last night, since I've already plateaued in CoX.

My current state in CoX isn't a surprise or disappointment. I knew I'd only get so much out of it before having to look elsewhere again. There are several areas of play to keep you busy in CoX, but none of them will hold me much longer:

I leveled relatively fast due to AE. I wasn't expecting a long, drawn-out leveling experience. I knew what to expect as far as missions, although I have to say I enjoyed the newer missions better. When I title this post "painting myself into a corner" I really wasn't refering to this but it does apply. AE is a really fast way of leveling, so much so that I don't believe I'd enjoy leveling another CoX character the "old" way. After sailing to America by boat once, if you were given the option to take a sonic jet, which would you choose for your subsequent visits overseas?

Task forces are a series of missions that can only be completed by the 8 people you started with. I did the Croatoa task force, one I was really looking forward to, only to find I'm still not sure what everyone was ga-ga over. It took much longer than I expected or liked it to. I have zero interest in spending hours doing a task force, if I wanted to do that I'd be raiding in WoW. So after doing some of the fastest ones (Katie Hannon, Numina and Lady Grey) we did the latter in 30 minutes or something and I had never been there before, I knew I was done with task forces.

Speaking of raids, I participated in CoX's form of a raid. They used to have one called Hami raid (you fight a big jello mold called Hamidon). I didn't bother doing that one again. But the new one (to me) is called RWZ - Rikti War Zone raid. You speed around tearing down Pylons that keep up a shield that protects the Rikti war ship. (If I'm not explaining the details right, it doesn't really matter.) Once all the pylons are down, you fight through waves of Rikti (*the* enemy in Cox) until, from what I can tell, they build the shield back up and the raid is suddenly over. I cannot imagine doing that more than two times just because I'm bored.

Another thing new to me was Invention Origins (IOs) and sets. These are enhancements you gather materials for and create (CoX's version of crafting). You can get materials as drops, purchase a grab bag of them from AE tickets, or purchase them from Wentworth's (Auction House). It bugged me a little that in order to craft not only did you have to be at a workbench, that's expected, but you had to zone either to your Supergroup base or the "University" building. Imagine each time you wanted to make a copper bar you had to zone into an instance. For someone who used to run from anvil to AH and back several times, the CoX way is bloated. Also the idea of earning the influence (gold) to purchase necessary IOs, not only do you need the materials you need the recipe for the specific IOs. Imagine having to purchase a recipe for a Frostweave bag each time you wanted to make one. The grind I saw ahead of me wasn't appealing. Like I said about WoW, I guess I'm the one changing, not the games.

I had my most fun teaming (grouping) with players. Constant advice given on the CoX forums is to find a supergroup. I fell into and actively sought out several supergroups for my various alts, none of them had more than 4 players on at one time. One Supergroup I'm in I never saw anyone after they invited me. And its not like I'm playing at some weird time. I can't say for sure, but it felt like I was either waiting or searching or trying to build my own team, more than I played on one. And I chose one of the highest populated servers. Maybe you can blame this on AE, but that complaint only goes so far.

That leaves PvP (Nope) and badge hunting (achievements). I didn't want to fall into the trap of badge-hunting, so unless there is something I'm missing out of that list, re-visit of CoX is coming to a close.

So with that, I logged back on to WoW last night. I clicked on each of my characters and could not bring myself to choose one I wanted to play. The title of my post is the feeling that I couldn't create a new character because I feel like if I'm going to play I should be on my max level character doing achievements. And I didn't feel like doing achievements on my max level character. I've painted myself into a corner and it was all my doing. Since I didn't feel right creating or playing on an alt, and I didn't feel up to jumping back onto my main, I logged off again, without ever entering Azeroth. Sigh.

Opinion or review?

Over at Keen and Graev's Keen gave his opinions on why he won't be playing Champions Online. Since it was negative, several commenters have blasted him for it.

Some of the comments immediately reminded me of why Tobold took a 3-week long hiatus from blogging. Keen seems to be a bit more thick-skinned, unwilling to back down (and he shouldn't ). He's removed some of the troll comments. Let's just hope it doesn't wear him down, because I missed Tobold when he was gone and I'll miss Keen as well if he decides to take a break because of posters more interested in arguing and disrupting things than actually making valid or interesting points. It reminds me of our current town hall meetings but I won't go there.

Keen doesn't like CO. He gave his reasons. If you disagree, why not explain why instead of saying Keen doesn't know what he's talking about. How can you not know whether you individually enjoy something or not?

Some made points that he's made glowing reviews in beta in the past only to change his mind later. He's not the only one there. This leads back to my question why so much hype surrounds games in beta, only to fall so quickly a few months in. You can't fault Keen for being pretty much like the rest of us. And as one commenter said, given how fond Keen usually seems about betas, this should really let you know how bad CO is.

To be honest, the console aspect explained by Tobold is what really has me concerned whether I'll end up liking this game or not. I still want to try it out, if only because its something new. But according to Keen, and a sinking feeling in my gut, I'm just going to be throwing some money out the window. As one commenter said, in this economy no one wants to do that.

What changes?

With the discussion of lifetime memberships and how long we stick with a game, it got me wondering? How can a game have so much hype during beta, then kinda fall flat after the first few months of release?

WoW had the hype. I remember reading an article from someone in beta. In this case the hype was justified. I remember trying WoW beta then wanting to play so badly I subscribed to another game (EQ2) because I just couldn't wait. Had my computer at the time been able to play EQ2 smoother perhaps I would have stuck with it, but once WoW was released I jumped ship.

I don't remember much hype about LotRO, but it was there. I'm sure it was supposed to be a WoW killer, but it was quickly drug out of the arena with the rest.

Now Warhammer Online had hype. Guilds were disbanding in WoW to head to WAR. I really felt it would put at least a chink in WoW's armor because WoW PvPers *always* complain about WoW PvP. And I saw the videos, they made it look decent. But I was wary. Yet I gave into the hype as the time of release grew close. I'm sure I was in one of my "I'm bored with WoW" phases I seem to swing in and out of, so I gave it a shot. I always enjoy creating a character and then the inevitable struggle of finding a name I like. It's fun to run around with everyone else as we scramble to get our bearings but then MMORPG ennui sets in as you realize you're killing 10 more rats. Then the question becomes is this game doing it better than WoW does. Is it doing it at least as good as WoW is? And with WAR if killing ten rats isn't the point, then killing 10 orc players pretty damn well be. And for me it wasn't.

But how long was Warhammer beta? What did those players in beta do that was so much fun for months, that it wasn't fun for many of the rest of us?

I'm pretty sure I'm going to play Champions Online, because all of the stuff I enjoy doing will be there and last me at least a month. But to be honest, I haven't heard a lot of hype about CO. At least there isn't really much for me to get disappointed about later.

Update: The reason why I hadn't heard much is the NDA had not been lifted as of this post. Coincidentally it was lifted the next day. Turns out there isn't a lot of hype because apparently it doesn't deserve it.

Lifetime subscription - no thanks

Tobold commented about how players are scoffing at the Champions Online lifetime subscription offer.

I remember when Lord of the Rings Online offered a lifetime subscription. I don't remember why I didn't opt in. In the end, I didn't play long enough to cover a lifetime subscription cost.

Tobold says "Once bitten, twice shy" and I think he's correct. I think Warhammer Online had the biggest hype of all the games post WoW and I don't know if I even played longer than a month. Although I shrug it off, especially since I'm not much of a pvper, looking back on what I expected, Warhammer Online was a major let down for me. But since I didn't spend more than a month or so for it, the sting isn't lasting. Imagine if I'd paid a lifetime subscription? I'd probably try to force myself to play it just to get my money's worth. Ewwwwh.

You don't *have* to do anything

I decided to make a new post in response to a comment from my previous post.

Regarding "...then what is the point in playing at all? You shouldn't have to put time and effort..."

Well that was part of my point. I'll point out there is no mention of fun.I understand it is most likely implied. But in my case, I feel like I was getting to the point that WoW was a habit instead of an enjoyable activity.

Like I said WoW hasn't changed, but I think I am. The core idea of all MMORPGs is to put in time and effort to improve your character.

I logged on the other day to spend time getting a pet. I was able to do it within a 1/2 hour. I'm okay with that.

What I think I'm no longer okay with is making a goal to get 100 pets.

You're right, you don't have to spend a year getting a drake. WoW doesn't force anyone to make goals to get 100 pets. But it is an achievement (and if 100 pets isn't an achievement yet...it will be.)

Note: As I type I realize I'm unable to express exactly what I feel is wrong with the whole thing. Not wrong for everyone - wrong for me. I think when I am able to convey it, I'll finally get why I played for so long and why I will eventually cancel for good. I'm not there yet. ;)

Visiting the World of Warcraft

I logged back on the other night to do the Wolvar/Oracle orphan pet quests. I wouldn't have even known about it if I hadn't been told personally.

I don't think the orphan quest was part of any type of meta. But I'm reminded of the hubbub over allowing players who missed doing the brewfest (and get the monthly brew quest which was a requirement for Long, Strange Trip achievement) a chance to get the 310% violet proto-drake at the end of the year long meta achievement.

I remember being annoyed that because I decided to take a break from the game I had screwed myself out of the running for one. Basically have to play the game an additional year because you'd have to drink a brew every month for a year. I thought what sucked was if I knew about it I probably would have took care of meeting the requirement. The hubbub was several players felt everyone should have known, based on reading forums, WoW insider and the like.

Since I haven't been playing WoW much I haven't been reading about WoW much either. I don't frequent the forums, check MMO champion or WoW insider like I used to. And I guess my question is, if I'm no longer a rabid WoW player does that mean I shouldn't get certain rewards anymore? It certainly feels like it.

My friend and I looked down the list of achievements, and I noticed some new Pirate Day (?) achievements had been added. I don't remember if they are part of the meta or not. But it is a one day event, and if you didn't know it and miss it you miss out. We both agreed it seems like WoW expects you to play the game all the time every day. Not only that you should be reading about it if you aren't playing it.

What is the saying "you should live and breath it". Maybe I'm coming out of a fog, because I know I was that type of player.

But I'm getting more and more offended by it lately. I don't want the feeling I'm being punished for treating this as an occasional hobby. But I'm the one who is changing, WoW is the same as it has ever been. I'm the one who is learning to adjust. So if next time, my friend isn't able to keep me abreast of WoW-goings-on, and I miss out on a new pet, or a new hat, or a new mount, it won't be that big of a deal. And to be honest, although I can't say for sure, since I actually did get a pet, I think I'm learning its okay to miss out on something in the World of Warcraft for a change.

WoWtards

If you've been reading the past month or so, you know I've been playing CoX (City of Heroes/Villians) instead of WoW. As a result I've been reading CoX forums intead of WoW.

I just had to share a few of the comments/sentiments I've noticed.

One poster lamented about how WoW players were coming to CoX and ruining the "adult, mature" atmosphere of their game. A game, I feel the need to point out, involving dressing up in tights and a cape. When did games become the domain of just adults? I admit I also get tired of the occasional kid-mentality but when I do, I can easily choose to cocoon myself with other adults, by teaming with them, guilding with them, etc. with nary a "pwnz0r" in sight. But this poster seemed to think the entire game should be insulated against kids. I'm sorry but kids make things more unpredictable, and quite often, more fun. And if a kid, immaturity and all, can't play a hero game, why does it exist?

Another poster mentioned that WoWtards are infiltrating CoX. Gotta love stereotyping! I wasn't sure how he knew it was a WoW gamer, but if you can do an instance in WoW you sure as hell can manage in CoX.

Double XP weekend

This past weekend CoX had double XP. I had been looking forward to this, not simply because of the bonus, but because I thought I would find more players outside of AE doing missions.

It didn't work out that way, other zones were still as empty as usual. And AE was still the place to get the most XP, even with missions giving double!

Even if missions gave triple or quadruple, the problem is you can't beat AE's accessability. Depending on the mission any player can join. You don't have to worry about sidekicking someone (bringing them up to your level). You don't have to travel, the missions entry is always in the same spot. The rewards - in the form of tickets are better. You can use tickets to buy exactly what you need, versus missions dropping random stuff you may or may not (usually the latter) be able to use.

I didn't count how many levels I got over the weekend, but I doubt I got a single level due to double xp from missions. AE is simply better for leveling fast. So that's where I spent most of my time.

One group in particular was amusing to me. I think I mentioned before how CoX vets are calling players who level in ae "AE babies". And yes that's supposed to be derogatory. You level up through AE so you don't know anything about playing the game. Hence you're a baby. Yeah its dumb. Anyway, I joined one team that ending up being quite amusing to me. It was a team where a Fire/Kinetics Controller (a archetype combo able to clear a mission made for 8 players solo) had us all doorsit (you don't participate in the mission, you just "sit" at the door). The Fire/Kin let us go afk if we wanted. But some of us used it as a chat room. What was funny is at least 6 of our 8 team were vets. Well the funny part is many of them had excuses for why they were leveling in ae. Apparently having one character you leveled up "the hard way" gives you a get out of ae-guilt free card.

If leveling up outside of AE is so fun, why don't they continue doing so on their alts? And if leveling up outside of AE is hard, why do they think any new player in their right mind would want to do so? For some stupid badge of honor?

I've noticed some players have taken to advertising themselves for groups as "N month vet, etc." To be honest, if it takes you 30 months to be a decent player I'm not sure that's a good selling point. Because like I've said playing CoX isn't hard. I'm not sure of what is in the game you can't learn to do at 50 that you could learn at any other level. I leveled up the "hard" way and if I had a friend that wanted to come play with me, I'd rather they be able to level up fast so that we could do whatever the hay we wanted with basically no level restriction.


They should remove XP from AE, after I get all of my desired characters leveled up that way.

What's missing

Over at Keen and Graev's blog, Keen (or was it Graev) was reminiscing about playing MMORPG and what they are missing today. He mentioned enjoying leveling and not caring about endgame and how today it is all about the endgame.

Well I think its easy to understand how he feels since he's talking about Everquest. I'm not sure if EQ created endgame. But it is very easy not to care about an endgame if it doesn't even exist yet.

I know WoW was my first game I played that had an endgame, but at the time I was playing it I didn't know really what that meant. It was fun to spend a lot of time to level up your crafting and craft an item at level 20, or spend a ton of time doing a class quest that would give you a reward at level 40. But now, why bother when it will be so easily replaced? And the reason why it is easily replaced is because we're all in a hurry to level and the reason we're in a hurry to level is because the bulk of players aren't leveling any more. They are at endgame and we want to play with them. The most fun I had in recent memory was when at one point I decided not to participate in endgame. I wasn't in a rush to level, so everything I got was valued more because I knew it was going to last longer.

Over at CoX when new players hit max and ask "Now what?" forum vets say "well the game is the journey". Weird advice for someone who completed the journey. Are they saying go run the journey again?

What's missing can't be captured again for player who has been there and done that.

If a new game is created today would developers tell us in advance the game is in the journey? Would you play such a game?

AE has ruined CoX

AE (Architect Entertainment) is the ability for players to create their own missions in City of Heroes/Villains (CoX). As a result players have made relatively easy missions with great reward - i.e. easily grindable high level mobs.

And players are flocking to these missions. Well, veterans aren't or aren't admitting to it. Veterans are the players who have played a long time and accumulated a lot of badges. At least on the forums, they've taken to calling those who have leveled via AE as "AE babies".

Perhaps rightly so, they are saying AE has ruined the game because only AE is getting action now. I agree they should make the rest of the game as appealing as AE is. But they also say those who have leveled don't have a clue how to play.

I'm leveling mostly by AE myself. I leveled the old way when I played before and let me say I'm glad there is an option to level faster. So maybe I'm not the best example, because I did play the slower way before. But I have to admit there isn't much difference.

Veterans have said they will only team with other veterans. They are checking badges. I find it interesting that a game which is surviving but could benefit from new players, has old players so quick to shut others out. They are proud the game is surviving because of them, but it isn't thriving. That's the point they fail to see.

I agree leveling via AE doesn't expose you to the rest of the game. Also you don't learn things you should by normally leveling. But my argument is how stupid are these players that can't learn L2P after they've hit max level? I swear I've yet to see much difference in fighting level 2s vs level 50s as far as group mechanics. And they have something in the game now that allows you to go back and do old content anyway.

As I hinted to in my previous post, CoX isn't rocket science. You think WoW is easy? You haven't played CoX. There are complaints that players don't know how to reach X or Y. Is it that hard to tell them "go here, then here". When I join a team and there's been something new added do I really need to spend a year playing the game to understand I need to take this or that portal? Or can my teammate say, "you need to go through this way". Ta da! Now I know, and it didn't take me months of leveling to find out.

Strategy

For the first time that I can remember in City of Heroes (CoX) I participated in a fight that required some semblance of strategy. I've played CoX off and on since it was released.

Many players I started with quit early on because there really isn't much to the game when it boils down to it. But for some what it does provide is enough. I like creating characters and getting new powers and testing them out. Once I have all the powers I get bored of the missions (same ol' maps with same ol' mobs), players that quit sooner got bored easier, those who have played non-stop for 5 years haven't. Everyone has different tastes of what they find fun.

Anyway, to put in perspective with how "easy" missions are compared to WoW instances...

I finally did a new Task Force (a string of missions that lead to above average reward if you complete the whole thing) over the weekend. The fights were like they normally are in CoX. Tank tanks, dps dpses, healers heal. No brainer. But finally there was a fight where you had (at least we had to) have a mob off-tanked while we took care of the main mob. And in the same fight we had to peel off adds. What a shock!

Its funny because something like this wouldn't be considered much of a fight in WoW, but our group had trouble at first figuring this out. And this is the very first time I've experienced this in CoX. And I've played to max level at least once.

I could just feel the difference going from the Task Force back to WoW and going into Ulduar. Speaking of Ulduar and strategy, I headed back in and our guild is still stuck on the same stuff, actually its taken a step back with us being unable to kill the things we have before.

Since we haven't progressed my gear is holding up well. Why would I need upgrades for what is now old content? There was nothing about the raid itself that makes me want to keep raiding.

I feel our guild has reached its peak. It's not the core of the guild's fault. It is summer time and people take off for a variety of reasons (boredom being mine). But having to pull in new players and having to wipe again on the same stuff is demoralizing. I think the only way it will progress now is for the bosses left to be nerfed more. I don't think it will be nerfed until the new content comes out, and then of course I imagine we'll leave Ulduar behind. I admit I'd rather quit raiding now until Icecrown is released.

Raiding is losing its allure. I can play for hours but being committed to playing for hours is becoming anathema to me. If playing a game that requires little strategy is what I have to resort to, so be it.

Mission architect a quick look back

I had what I think is a funny idea for a mission in CoX (City of Heroes/Villians). But I haven't even bothered trying to create it because I realize the odds of anyone playing it will be low.

I still may put time in to doing it, just cuz. But the number of missions players are running from AE is very low compared to the number that exist. This is my guess just based on my own experience.

The most run missions are the ones that came out right when the Architect edition did that were pegged to be "good" missions by the developers. They are the first ones to show up in the search. So those are the ones people play. Even more popular are the "farming" missions. Those are missions where you get a bunch of mobs that are very easy to wipe out with a group and you fight these mobs over and over again. The missions have no story other than "Hi. Go kill stuff".

So my reason for purchasing CoX to make missions has been fulfilled. Little did I know that I'd would care that players would actually play them. But I realize I do care and the fact that I might get 1 or 2 people max to play through them doesn't entice me to bother.

Badges

Badges are to City of Heroes as Achievements are to WoW.

You can get badges for killing a certain amount of mobs, exploring areas, completing strings of missions, participating in events, etc. The other evening I got 4 badges at one time, just by running a mission with a group. Even after reading the description I'm not sure what they were for.

I am not going out of my way to earn any badges in CoH. (Also apparently CoH is now called CoX to incorporate City of Heroes AND City of Villians into one entity. So I'll try to call it that.)

I've already heard Champion's Online is coming out in September and if it turns out to be enjoyable, I'll set CoX aside to play it for awhile.

Not sure if this is accurate but apparently there are 687 badges attainable and one player says they have 674. He's missing the most from ones involving spending a number of days logged out in certain locations and another from owning the game for a number of months. In other words, all he needs to do is pay to play longer.

And that's one of the reasons I'm not going to bother trying very hard to get more badges. I think even though I spent years playing WoW I'm not going to stick with any other game anymore for a long period of time. And it is commitment to a game that allows you to gain all of those badges and achievements points and deeds and whatever else an MMO decides to call them.

I was comparing my hero creation from City of Villains and the booster packs and it simply looks better than the original City of Heroes. And Champions Online (I'm not in beta) looks better than CoX. I haven't even played CO (?) and I feel like CoX may lose some customers. The players it won't lose are those who have spent years accumulating these badges. Then again I felt like I had a decent amount of achievements and I haven't looked back...yet.

(Speaking of achievements by the time I read about Zoltan reaching 10,000 achievement points in WoW he had already passed the threshold.)

By choosing not to chase after badges, I'm able to stick to doing what is fun and not into some time sink within a time sink within a time sink.

I have some ideas of what I want to do in CoX and once I'm done I hope CO or some other game out there will be a better alternative than obtaining 687 badges or 10,000 achievement points.

Another weekend

Another weekend has gone by where I haven't played WoW. I've promised a friend that I will play next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Imagine This Part 3 : The End

City of Heroes removed the mission I was referring to in a recent unscheduled patch. Well they removed what WoW would call mobs you could play in missions who could be killed but wouldn't fight back.

Overall I think it was a good move. We have to be herded into doing the right thing because given the path of least resistance guess which fork in the road we'll take?

For me personally it was a bad move but I'll get used to it I'm sure. Contrary to what a CoH veterans might tell ya, CoH is kinda dead outside of Architect Entertainment missions. Well dead compared to WoW I guess which is always an unfair comparison. Being able to find groups via AE was much easier than anywhere else in the game.

Imagine this Part 2

Yesterday I tried to describe the type of instance in WoW that would compare to AE farm missions in City of Heroes.

AE (Architect Entertainment) farm missions are basically player-made instances set up to be easily cleared out for lots of xp and influence (money in the CoH world).

As someone commented this would be boring. And it tends to get boring! However the payout is so good I find it hard to skip a farming group if I can get on one.

I admit to being part of the problem. It is harder to find groups (or "teams" in CoH) to do anything else when you can go into a farming mission on auto-pilot and get the same reward only quicker.

When I get bored, I go do a different mission by myself. But then I want a new level, thus access to new superpowers, and farming missions is the fastest way to get it.

But the specific type of farming mission I was trying to describe in WoW terms, is actually considered an exploit by many. And I see their point. What you have to kill for xp doesn't fight back. It doesn't do anything but let you wale on it until you kill it. You don't have to worry about having a healer or tank, the main complaint is usually there isn't enough damage to finish the missions faster!

It does make me think when they remove the "exploit" will I be satisfied with doing things the slower way again?

It would probably take another post to reach this conclusion, but I wonder if that's why people are complaining about stuff in WoW being too easy. If things get so easy to a point you start wondering about why you're doing it at all.

Imagine this

Imagine an instance you could access from Kharanos, Goldshire or Teldrassil.

The mobs have zero aggro range, no attacks and only the ability to heal themselves a little.

They are clothie and clustered together throughout the instance.

The mobs wouldn't drop any greens/blues/epics but they would drop money.

The XP would rival that of any quests you could do.

Would you run that instance over and over again? Or would you do quests and other instances?

Nail #2?

I totally forgot about raiding this week. It actually slipped my mind!

I was getting in the car and for some reason thought to myself "OMG I'm supposed to be raiding right now!"

Well I hadn't actually signed up, so it wasn't like they were expecting me to be there.

I drove off and forgot about it again until now.

I think totally forgetting about WoW and then not even caring once you do remember qualifies as another nail in the coffin for me.

Blogs, forums and Jerks : Oh My!

In a suprise announcement Tobold is taking a break from blogging for 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks is over he'll decide if he wants to continue blogging again.

Hopefully I'm paraphrasing correctly when I say he's taking a break because of the rude tangents some commenters take on his blog. His main reason for blogging is to have discussion about topics he's interested in, not spend time moderating, filtering through garbage of other commenters agendas.

I'm reminded of one of Tseric's (an ex-WoW forum Community Manager) last posts before he left to do other things:

"When you can understand how a group of belligerent and angry posters can drive away people from this game with an uncrafted and improvisational campaign of misery and spin-doctoring, then perhaps, you can understand the decisions I make. Until you face mobs of psychology, you will not see my side.

Until you see some bright-eyed player coming onto the forums wanting to know what they should spec as this class, and see them shat on and driven away by petty and selfish people who are simply leveraging for game buffs, you will not understand.

You will not understand until you have to see it daily, for years...

Until you understand that many people will trod over you to get where they're going, or to get what they want.

Until you understand that so many people will agree, completely, 100% with a loud, vulgar and assertive individual, not because he is right, but because he is making a stand against "the Man"; to take no critical thought in what they say, but simply to hop on board."

Now while I read Tobold's blog with some regularity, I don't usually keep up with all the comments to his posts. I can't say exactly if Tseric's experience is what Tobold is going through but it sure sounds like it.

I've posted genuine questions on WoW forums, hoping for advice, comments, suggestions or some form of discourse by the people who supposedly love the game and instead have been met with negativity. I take it in stride of course. The suggestion is usually to go to Elitist Jerks if you want better conversation, but even that forum has been invaded by garbage you have to sift through to get anything of real use.

Like a commenter said, this is a result of "e-fame". Tobold is popular and WoW is popular and Elitist Jerks is popular and with the larger audiences you risk being exposed to a larger amount of...jerks.

I made a post previously about how EJ seems to no longer be able to keep up with the amount of unhelpful posts that make it to their forums. It is expected on WoW forums, but EJ expounds it is a "site dedicated to intelligent discussion".

I think EJ should take a cue from Tobold. I realize shutting down may not be an option, but they should revoke everyone's access. Perhaps only allow certain people to post, everyone can search and read of course, but you should have some sort of credibility before you are allowed to post. Hmm that's starts veering into free speech and the like...

(I realize this post ends abruptly, sorry for now!)

Player-made content: City of Heroes

I purchased City of Heroes so I could try out the architect edition.

Pros:

* Easy to create a mission. It's easy to create a plain mission. This gets your feet wet. This kinda leads to a con, its also easy to create a crappy mission with mispellings, omissions and the like.

* Takes time to create unique mission. It takes a bit longer to create a mission using your own custom characters. But that has always been the fun of CoH.

Cons:

* The maps are limited. Unless I'm missing something you only a few basic choices - cave, warehouse, cargo hold, bank and a few more. It is really hard to get truly creative when you're stuck to the basic maps. I did come across unique maps, but they were just modifications of the basic ones. If they somehow allow more creativity to user made maps that would be a plus.

* I didn't think about it until I was ready to create my very first mission that since EVERYONE is creating missions the odds anyone will bother to play yours is low. Yes the fun is in creating the mission, but at least for me, satisfaction is from finding out whether anyone enjoyed your creation. Now do you see why Blizzard may have wanted more than 1% of their player base to experience the original Naxxramas?

* I doubt the most creative missions are the most used. You can farm levels in CoH and the missions that allow for that are popular.

* The most popular missions are...the most popular missions. Yes it is great that the missions rated well can be filtered to the top. But guess which missions you're most likely to choose. One from the first page vs one on the 101st page. I'm sure the most popular missions are that way for a reason. But I'm sure that leaves some nuggets unearthed. No I'm not saying *my* mission is a gold nugget!

* The quickest path is a straight line. I think they did the game a diservice by allowing all of the player made creations to have a common portal. And easily accessible one at that. It is great that I have access to all of the player made missions from one access point. It is great that I can reach this access point with a short trip. I won't bother explaining why these 2 great things are horrible for the game.


How long with architect edition keep me occupied? Not long. After playing around with it to figure out how to create something I'm already a bit bored with it. Now it is just a matter of doing it all over again for another mission. That won't stay fun for long.

Essentially the boredom with creating the missions is due to the boredom of playing City of Heroes to being with. There's just not much to it. But since I don't want to play any game much anyway right now it's actually perfect.

Short visit

I didn't keep count, but I think I logged about 6-7 hours in the past 2 weeks. And the majority of that was raiding. It still sounds like a lot for someone who is "quitting".

I logged on just in time to get Flame Warden. That leaves me with one seasonal event - Brewfest - to complete for "It's been a long, strange trip."

I don't *need* the mount, since I already have a 310% one. I want to get the "achievement" because I think it sums up my period of playing WoW. I've mentioned before I wish there was a way to complete a never-ending game. And I think this may be it. It will be a long, strange trip I'll be able to say I've finished.

The way I've felt lately I may not make it to Brewfest, will I be so over WoW by this fall I won't even log back on? Or will something new pull me back in and have me playing as much as I ever did? Time will tell...

I also raided recently. Even with all the nerfs our guild has ran into a wall. I read Blizzard is going to add the option to lengthen raid periods. This would work wonders for our raid if we are willing to give up a week of easy epics.

I'm all for it. I noticed at our last raid, several key members weren't even there, we had 3-4 who had never done some of the fights on 25 and some of the normal raiders were on their alts. In other words we're done with all we can accomplish in our current incarnation.

My favorite times raiding have always been when we're making progress. Even if it wasn't killing the boss, but just making improvements on how far we've gotten in the phases. My least favorite times are farming, and especially farming simply because its the best the raid can do. We don't have the people we need - let's go kill Razorscale - again. No thanks.

I don't have an alt to take, and even if I did, I don't enjoy raiding that much anymore to make an excuse to keep going back. If we don't take the extended raid to start making progress on some of the rest of the bosses in Ulduar it will be my next nail.

Another nail in the coffin

I realize I'll never be one of those players that just up and quit. It's going to be a gradual thing and I'll be able to blog about it. Just as I've blogged about whatever else I'm doing in WoW. I'm warning you up front it may sound depressing, because it does have me a little sad. But I'm going to quit apologizing for the tone of my blog, because it's just reflecting how I feel.

Most blogs you'll just notice someone isn't posting as much anymore. Some eventually post again to say they've quit the game and the blog. Or they've quit the game and their blog is going in a new direction. I imagine if (hopefully when!) I quit I'll quit the blog too. I won't be too sad about it though, because unlike Resto 4 Life I wasn't providing a community service about druid gear/skills/etc.

But back to the title of the post. I'm putting nails in the coffin that is WoW (don't think too deep about that metaphor). My recent nail was as I traveled extinguishing fires and honoring flames I thought to myself "I don't want to do this." I even was playing with a friend which is usually a lot of fun, and I was just going through the motions. I've logged of with a bit of it still left undone. This is coming from someone who in the past tried to get all of the seasonal events completed within the first few days.

I've actually logged on, found myself running around in circles a bit wondering what I want to do, realizing nothing in game, and logging off. It's not because there is nothing to do, its because all of a sudden nothing interests me.

I honestly am curious how this happened. How did I go from racing around the world doing quests for Loremaster to not being able to log on and stay logged in more than 5 minutes?

WoW has spoiled us

I want to mention one little thing that WoW players take for granted.

ZONING.

While on tour of the Architect Entertainment building the other day I think I zoned 4 times.

City of Heroes: AE

As I mentioned I'm playing on a trial version of City of Heroes (CoH). I played it awhile back so it isn't new, but there have been some changes.

The most recent change is the introduction of Mission Architect. It allows players to create their own missions. Sounds like a great idea until you realize what players want to create and what players want to do lack imagination.

At first I spent some time doing the old missions I'd done before as a new player solo. With limited powers this is ZzzZzz. I eventually was sent to the Architect Entertainment building. There you can join groups to play through the player made stuff. You get auto-leveled to match the level of the mission. That is the mission was for level 52 so we all became level 50 heroes. Then we just went around killing stuff.

Some missions had a description and story. But the ones I did were "Kill all monsters." "Find remains, kill all enemies". And this is what chat consists of "LF AE" "LF AE team" "LFAET". Oh and costume contests.

I was reminded what was in store when I joined a group that was apparently powerleveling some friends. I got 5 levels in about 20-30 minutes if that. The problem with powerleveling, at least in City of Heroes, is there is no endgame! At least there wasn't really one when I played it.

I'm going to try to find an "interesting" mission before my trial is up. But I honestly can't figure out what would be interesting about it. Because I haven't seen anything yet added to the mission sandbox to make it interesting.

10,000 brownie points

Jadyn commented a few posts back about how we are given so many rewards so easily its all becoming watered down and meaningless. Give it a quick read please. I've quoted the point here:

"In the end, you have to keep rewarding the person more and more, as the reward becomes more and more devalued in their eyes (even a real reward like candy follows this rule). You, myself, and a number of other people have been feeling burnout, right? But in some ways for some people, it feels different than normal. It's more like you've started to question the point of it all. And imho, a lot of it is coming from this cycle of behavior->reward."

I want to think my feelings on the matter are different maybe they aren't. Because I'm not burned out on the point of it all as I'm burned out on just being bored.

I really enjoy the rewards I receive from my "normal" amount of play. It's when I start to have to put an uncomfortable amount in my enjoyment wanes. I liked doing the Argent Tournament stuff at first, managing to make some easy gold and acquiring a few new pets, but eventually I got bored with it. There were rewards left to get and the effort hadn't increased in any way. But the difference is the effort would be MORE of the same.

Would I enjoy it more if there was only one pet that cost 400 Champion's Seals vs. 10 pets that cost 40 Champion's Seals each? Neither is appealing.

In other words making the reward rarer or harder to get doesn't make me want it more if the method of getting it isn't enjoyable. Also making the rewards plentiful doesn't make me want them more if the method of getting them isn't enjoyable.

Too soon?

Is it too soon for me to say I'm done with WoW?

The first time I "quit" WoW I had finally leveled to 60 which was max level at the time. I wasn't familiar with raiding, pvp wasn't really my thing, so I left easily.

There wasn't much thought to it. "I'm bored so I'm quitting". I had spent months in the game, but I didn't have this feeling of leaving behind something I had alot invested in. I didn't play for several months. And when I came back I didn't even come back to my original character. I started from scratch on a new realm.

The second time I "quit" I had spent much more time in WoW. I had more than one max level character, ran several dungeons to death and honestly I don't think I really wanted to quit. I can't remember if I called it a break, but it didn't take me long this time to start it up again.

Now I find myself in the middle. I'm bored but I really don't want to cancel my account.

It's too soon to say I'm done with WoW, but it looks like I'm headed that way.

An elusive item

I raided most of Naxxramas with a less than optimal weapon. I was lucky to get armor 3-4 times over, but I never managed to get a weapon off of KT before retiring that instance.

A guild mate said no worries, a better weapon drops from Razorscale, one of the first bosses in Ulduar. Yet although the weapon has dropped several times, I haven't been in the position to get it.

It makes me realize is I have still functioned well without having the best for what we're facing.

I think it is funny that I could go from really wanting an item, to finally giving up and saying oh well obviously I don't need it that bad.

It's given me the freedom to take a break from the game and raiding for a while and that's nice.

Not for you

I came across this description of an old Everquest expansion, The Shadows of Luclin:
"The expansion focuses on high-level content, providing a number of zones meant to be used by large groups of players and many extremely powerful monsters to fight."

This coupled with a post from Tree Bark Jacket blog: "I am going to go out on a limb and say that most hardcore raiders don't want hard modes of existing content - they want content that only they will get to see, being truly skilled and dedicated players - a la old Naxx and Sunwell."

That got me to thinking, did "casual" players in EQ get upset that an expansion was created for a different type of player than them? Or did EQ even have casual players?

I've never fully empathized with this desire to see content that no one else gets to see. Instead I enjoy comparing experiences. "Remember how hard X was?" leads to a more conversation, "You should have been there when it was Y" leads to a one-sided story.

Insane in the Membrane

I know of two players grinding toward the Insane title.

If you aren't familiar with certain reputations let me explain why you earn that title:

Honored with Bloodsail Buccaneers (Honored) - involves losing rep with some of the other factions you need to hit exalted with

Exalted with Everlook (Exalted) 1 of the 4 you lose rep with when grinding Bloodsail

Exalted with Ratchet (Exalted) 1 of the 4 you lose rep with when grinding Bloodsail

Exalted with Ravenholdt (Exalted) You must either be a rogue, have a rogue alt, employ a rogue or find an extremely helpful rogue to help you with this one

Exalted with Booty Bay (Exalted) 1 of the 4 you lose rep with when grinding Bloodsail

Exalted with Gadgetzan (Exalted) 1 of the 4 you lose rep with when grinding Bloodsail

Exalted with Darkmoon Faire (Exalted) rep via turn-ins that require either tons of patience or money to acquire

Exalted with Shen'dralar (Exalted) rep via turn-ins that require either tons of patience or money to acquire

I've already heard one person on my server has obtained the title, there may be more. But the two I know are hardly insane players. One has extra time to waste and the other simply takes his time focusing on this goal versus doing the myriad of other stuff the rest of us do.

Insane is relative. Some of us feel like the hours people spend raiding is insane. Did you hear about the group of players that stayed up using a shock toy to level? And what about the ones that grinding Grand Marshal back in the day? And then there are those non-gamers who can't believe we spend one minute of our time dressed up like an half-squid/half-goat man from outer space to begin with.

Wear your Insane title proudly dear readers!

Back to the beginning

I fired up my very first mmo, City of Heroes, over the weekend because I wanted to play something else but not WoW.

I quickly picked a few elements of my superheroe's costume, choosing some new items that didn't exist back when I played and ran through the starter zone. I reached a common area, Atlas Park, and noticed familar comments in chat - costume contests, etc.

But you can't go back can you? If this had been my first time in City of Heroes I would have marveled, no pun intended, at the flames shooting from one players feet. Or been amazed at the 2 players hovering over a statue.

Just like when I saw the very first warrior in full matching armor back before tiers and dungeon sets.

"How do I get that?" "Where does that come from?" "Where can I get some of those?"

Once all of those questions are answered, once the mystery is gone you can't get that wonderment back. At least not by going back to old games you've left behind.

Sorry if this sounds depressing too, I'll address it when I get a chance.

Blog outlook

A recent comment on the quote about WoW becoming a job: "I don't get it; exactly none of that stuff is compulsory.

I don't think the fun/job distinction is enforced by the game mechanics. I'm certainly still having fun :>

I have enjoyed your blog but it's getting a little depressing recently!"

I have to agree with the last sentence. My posts have been a little depressing. Maybe even a lot. :)

The actual quote wasn't made by me, but someone else a few years ago. The mention of attunements was probably a clue.

I've blogged about that quote before and when I get bored with WoW and start to think about how much time I've played, I come back to it.

Look at the things he mentioned years ago, some still true: how to farm for more gold, which gears to get next, showing up on time for raid plans, helping other people get keys, finishing quests, farming PvP for higher rank, selling items on auction house, etc.

Perhaps we don't have to worry about attunements or PvP ranks, but everything else is the same.

I can exist on the gold I make without even trying, however to get 100 mounts, I need to visit Greedy Goblin's blog and spend a lot of time learning how to not spend a lot of time earning gold.

I can not worry about what gear I need to obtain to raid, and when something drops and I pass on something I shouldn't pass on, end up having to spend more hours raiding to get it.

Helping others get keys is the outdated part of the quote. No more attunements, halfway decent gear is your key into raids now.

Finishing quests is pretty much the only part of this I don't mind. Having reached Loremaster however has no removed my desire to complete quests just for the heck of it.

You don't PvP for old ranks, but you still can PvP for Gladiator ranks. (Although now, if anyone else is like me, I don't know a Merciless Gladiator from a Barbarous one. Unlike how I knew a Grunt from a High Warlord.)

And selling stuff on the auction house is an easier and quicker way to make money. But if you don't have fun doing so it can almost be as bad as grinding mobs.

Now someone else, who is having fun playing WoW. Could take every one of these points and list how they enjoy them. Heck, I'm sure I've done it myself in this very blog at some point in the past few years!

So yes, my blog is depressing because of my outlook of WoW. I need to take a break. And after I'm done with the Fire Festivities I'm going to take one.

After.

A quote

"There’s too much you have to think about in-game: how to farm for more gold, which gears to get next, showing up on time for raid plans, helping other people get keys, finishing quests, farming PvP for higher rank, selling items on auction house, etc.

In a nutshell, WoW is a giant blackhole. It attracted you with fun then turned it into a job."

The WoW blahs

Lack of posts should reveal something. I'm not really have much fun playing WoW at the moment.

Raiding is fine, but I'm getting bored with it.

Achievements are fine, but I'm getting bored with them.

I'm at that point again where I'm thinking about quitting for a while.

Summertime

Things have definitely slowed down for me in WoW. The biggest thing is work keeping me busy past normal hours and not feeling up to playing for very long.

Also this new guild just doesn't have a lot going on outside of raid time. I can't complain. I'm as much of the problem as anyone. When I log on to raid, I raid. Other times I log on to do things by myself not really desiring to take my Ulduar character to raids in Naxxramas and the like and that's what the few players in this guild do on non-raid days.

I was really excited about Ulduar and I think things would have been better if my guild hadn't melted down. This new guild fills my raid goals satisfyingly, but as I think about it I don't really have as much fun as I could have.

No I'm not looking for greener pastures, I'm tired of guild-hopping and this is coming from someone who has been in the same number of guilds as years I've been playing, that is I don't jump guilds hardly at all.

This new guild has me a little nervous. As far as I can tell the raid leaders aren't doing much of a job to find new recruits - we had to call a raid due to no-shows last week. And when you hear "everyone can recruit" without any semblance of organization about what exactly we need and how we should handle anyone interested makes me wonder how we'll get any "decent" players to fill the roster. Filling a raid is easy, filling it with competent players... yeah.

To be honest, if the raid starts to fall apart I won't really care. I sort of slipping back into raiding and I almost feel like I'll just slip back out again. No-shows don't help the situation. I use to say "I'll never be that type of raider, not showing up when people are depending on me. Now I feel like, that raider has the right idea! Show up when you feel like it, 24 other people be damned!" And that's where I am with the game again. That unnatural feeling to treat WoW like a game and not a job. Unnatural indeed. My desire to play is waning. Maybe its because its summertime and I know I shouldn't let it go to waste.

There is always one - is it you?

Not sure if I posted about this before, if I have then it just means it really bugs me.

I raid with this other healer who has yet to go a single raid without mentioning how good he is. I'll call him "Superhealo".

This could easily be ignored if Superhealo hadn't recently started straying into the "other healers suck" territory.

He raids *with* us. If one extra healer doesn't show up we might have a difficult time. And this is what Superhealo doesn't grasp. We are a team. All the time he mentions how great he is comes at the risk of camaraderie. The raid leaders don't seem to get it either, constantly patting him on the back.

I've played with better healers than him, ones with better situational awareness, that didn't need constant puffing up.

Life is short, so I'm working on letting this not bug me so much, but I will admit I sometimes think about skipping raids specifically because of Superhealo.

If any of the other healers feel like me, Superhealo will have to prove what he's said all along "I can heal this by myself."

What I've been up to

I've slowed down on my Argent Tournament grind. If I don't feel like doing it, I don't do it. I've gotten one pet so far and haven't really tried hard to get another.

I'm still raiding Ulduar 25. I haven't been disappointed with our progress yet. Yet I can tell we are heading to a bit of a quagmire. Our progress is relatively slow in the scheme of things. We still have several encounters we've yet to face. People hear of other guilds clearing it, so you start to hear "When are we going to fight X?" Our raid leaders have been mentioning skipping bosses to get to them. However as usual, killing bosses gives gear that helps kill the bosses further down the line. But since we only raid a few nights a week, we don't have the luxury of killing the bosses we can AND spending time on the bosses we can't.

Like I said, I'm happy with our progress. And if everyone is like me we'll be fine. But if we have a few eager beavers some dissent may arise. Let's hope not - I don't want to have to find another guild.

I'm actually leveling another character v e r y s l o w l y. It was an attempt to make extra money, but I imagine if I just spent the same time doing dailies I'd accomplish my goal quicker.

The new guild I'm in is relatively quiet outside of raid time. I've typed a few things only to get no response. It isn't my ideal guild situation, but I'm starting to wonder if this is my fate.

I don't want to play much. I try not to play much. I tend to migrate to those who don't play much either. As a result I'm in a guild where people simply aren't around much.

We don't raid several times a week and many people seem to only log on to specifically raid.

I actually could join another guild and continue raiding with this one. We communicate via a user created channel vs. guild chat. That might give me the social aspect outside of raiding that perhaps I'm craving. But if i'm questing solo or some other activity I'm not really able to chat that much anyway.

If you're trying to quit smoking, hanging outside while your smoking buddies take some puffs probably isn't the greatest idea. So maybe this lonesome feeling I get sometimes is good. It urges me to log rather than stay online.

Feel our pain

Today's post comes a little out of left field considering I mostly discuss raiding. But as I often do, I let what I've read on another blog prompt me to write here.

I was checking out WoW Insider and they had a post about The Pink Pigtail Inn who had a post about Critical QQ. I love how that happens. :)

Anyway, Critical QQ made a comment about how during Children's Week horde starting loses Alterac Valley, a bg they usually win.

Here's the quote that got me writing "It’s frustrating for those of us who actually want to be there, too. We have the gear. We have the spec. We have the skills.

And it’s goddamn frustrating when you lose, over and over again, because your teammates don’t give a crap.

The worst part is that they know they don’t give a crap."

A long time ago in a world...of warcraft far away, everyone who cared about pvp rolled horde. They had the best pvp racials. Those who cared less about PvP and more about the arguably better look of their characters played alliance. The weird thing about this division is the better players all went to one side. What if basketball let one team draft all the best players, every time? How do you think that would work out?

And that's what PvP was like for Alliance for a long time. I remember having discussion with Horde players who would say "You guys just need to L2P". But when you a few know how to play but the rest don't care, you end up with exactly what Critical QQ described.

Four years is a long time to wait to say I told you so. It was already happening when Blood Elves appeared on the scene and exacerbated with level 55 Blood elves could be created. Children's Week finally spotlighted the issue.

Feel our pain Horde.

Resto4Life » The World Tree

Resto4Life » The World Tree

Wasting other people's time

One thing I have to work on is to stop worrying about things that are out of my control.

So far raiding with a new guild has gone well. Considering the guild I left decided to keep raiding places like Naxxramas and Malygos, this new guild is quite more to my liking.

But this guild has the same type of players my old guild did. Players who don't necessarily spec the best for raiding, use old flasks at half the potency of new flasks and sign up but then don't show up. I have to assume all "casual" guilds have these players and I need to quit letting it bug me because it comes with the territory.

Yet I can't help but wonder do these player realize they are wasting others' time? When dps is low on an Ulduar boss and someone is using a flask made for BWL boss? When someone keeps dying early and you find out they should be raiding Naxxramas instead of Ulduar.

But these are the types of players we have to put up with, because usually players like myself would move on to more serious raiding. But I don't want to raid every night so I need to learn to get used to it or stay annoyed by it.

Number of posts

This past April I posted 21 times. Its the first time since I started this blog that I've posted over 20 times. When I first started I was posting almost 30 times a month. It seems to stabilize to around 15 or so.

I'm probably reading more into it, but I think the amount I blog coincides with milestones in my WoW.

I blogged alot when I first started because I was breaking away from raiding (that worked well haha). And I blogged alot recently because of the guild drama. I know one other point I would have blogged more than usual if I'm right about this pattern but I'll have to check first...

Okay I just checked, the pattern didn't follow exactly but it was close. My third biggest post time was around the time I pretty much retired a main and started playing this druid.

Casual Raiding

I did a search of the term "Casual Raiding". I was suprised to find WoW Wiki had an entry on it with a note "Casual Raiding is relatively new to the MMORPG game genre."

The entry was short giving the obvious pros and cons of casual raiding while describing it as "a raiding organization that places focus on exploring raid content without a driving focus on raid progression".

I'm not sure how old this entry on WoW Wiki is, but from my own experience another description could be added. First off the usual disclaimer: casual and hardcore and what they mean to each individual can be as varied as each individual. With that said, I've been in guilds that raided "casually" and I didn't like it much at all.

Note: In making the following descriptions even I had trouble with how to name the various levels of raiding. It ended up being silly.

The Casual Lite Raiding of my past consisted of the following:
*A very laid back attitude (exasperating to me)
*Alts were welcomed no matter how badly geared
*Several raiders with bad specs or specs not raid friendly
*Extremely slow progression

The Hardcore Casual Raiding of my past consisted of the following:
*Serious attitude, but not necessarily backed up with skill
*Alts not welcomed
*Usually no bad specs, but not always necessarily raid friendly
*Decent progression, but looking back, not for the amount of time raiding

Hardcore Raiding (I have no personal experience with this but this is what I imagine it to be:
*Serious attitude with the skill to back it up
*Alts not welcome on progression night whatsoever
*Raid specs always
*Fast progression matching the time spent raiding


Recently I've been a part of what here I'll call Casual Raiding. It doesn't match the Wiki description.
It consists of:
*Serious attitude with some with the skill to back it up
*Alts are not welcomed but as last resort you try to accept the better geared alts
*Raid friendly specs highly encouraged
*Decent progression for the amount of time spent raiding

This is where I like to be. The difference is there *is* a focus on raid progression. I don't want to spend much time raiding but when I do I want to progress as much as possible.

10-man vs 25-man yawn

One bad thing about doing 10 AND 25 man is how quickly boring the raid instance can become.

Except for Sartharion 3 Drakes 10 man, nothing so far in all of the 10-mans seems harder than 25s. The fights are essentially the same. As a result raiding both places is really raiding the same stuff twice.

I haven't done a 10man Ulduar since the first week and to be honest I enjoy my 25-man raids more because of it.

Now I'll admit I liked having a leg up on the fights that I had already done in 10-man before 25. However as a healer our excitement is pretty darn limited.

Here are the challenges healers face that make raiding fun imo:
1) Learning the basics of the fight
2) Being undergeared causes you to have to improvise how you play
3) Everyone else learning the basics of the fight and being undergeared as well

1) you're learning to not stand here, not cast there, move here, not move there. All of that is fun.

2) You're having to be more careful with how you heal. You may not have enough mana because of gear. This is actually fun to because you have to think a little more.

3) Everyone else is also learning and undergeared, but as a result we, as healers, have to do extra. This is where we shine. How many healers do you take on progression? How many healers do you take on farmed content?

Those 3 things only happen at the beginning of new raid instances. Soon enough everyone knows where to stand. You don't have to heal 5 noobs standing in the fire. You only have to heal 1 (or just let him die and be better off).

You eventually have great gear and you can spam one spell if you want, it heals enough and you have a big mana pool.ZzzzzzzZZzzzzZz

And finally everyone else is better and, sadly for healers, no longer need you as much. "You want me to respec laser chicken?"

So if my glory days as a healer in the terms of a raid cycle are fleeting, why would I want to rush them? Why do I want to run 10-mans and get geared up faster and basically do my PTRing on 10-mans so the 25s are just tweaking a bit and mimicking what I did before?

I know this isn't going to happen but to be honest it is what should happen - They should make a 10-man instances totally different than 25. Of course that goes back to 10-man fans complaining they don't get to see the same content as what is in 25. But to be honest those who prefer 25s could make the same complaint.

They risk burning out everybody even faster with the 2 instances being exactly the same.

What would you have prefered? Zul'Aman or Black Temple Lite?

Golden Age

As a nice segue from my "Eras, chapters and phases" post, Part Time druid made a post about The Golden Age of WoW Blogging Ending.

I mentioned before about losing BRK and Resto4Life, and there have been others. To note, neither have quit blogging, they just quit blogging about WoW.

Part Time Druid chalks this up to some soul-searching, realizing maybe playing WoW and blogging about it too is extreme. He also mentioned that WoW simply isn't much to blog about any more. Why discuss how to go about getting the best gear, spec this way or that when it is all so easy now?

I've never had the following any of these bloggers have. I know some of you out there are reading and I appreciate it. I never blogged to educate or illuminate. As I uncomfortably realized I blog to vent mostly. Who would want to read that all the time? So when I get suggestions or agreement from some of you, it is satisfying.

But if a single person didn't read my blog, I'd keep doing it until I quit playing WoW. There is always something to wonder about, to irritate me, to observe. And I'll blog because of it.

Eras, chapters and phases

Tobold mentioned recently he's canceled his WoW subscription again. He plays the part he finds fun then takes a break.

I lean more to trying to find fun when there often isn't fun to be found. Riding out the lulls in the game until fun comes back around. I don't advise this to anyone.

If I were to describe my WoW life in eras, I plan on doing this in more detail someday (maybe when I finally quit for good) I'd say

The Leveling Era - the first time I leveled to 60 in WoW. I hadn't played a game like it before. It was so fun at the time. Many of us look for that experience again in new games only to be quickly disappointed.

The Raiding Era - the time I raided four to five times a week. I can't believe I actually did this. I really thought I was having fun and during first kills I truly did. If I had my choice I wouldn't do this again. I tried not raiding at all but I missed the social aspect that comes with it, now I'm trying to raid but just on a more limited basis.

Can eras overlap?

The RL vs WoW Era - I've been trying to do this back when I started getting tired of raiding so much. It was the same time I started my blog with the thoughts I'd quit playing WoW but still here I am. This era continues.

The Achievement Era - If I hadn't had the raiding era, I may have went a whole year before realizing I'm heading down the same road as I did with raiding. Overkill. I like getting virtual ribbons for doing what I like to do in game. However the past few months I stepped over the line, chasing achievements that weren't fun. I'm fighting the obssessive demon sitting on my shoulder. For instance, this week is Children's week and one of the achievements is to accomplish things in battlegrounds. To do so you have to compete with your fellow faction to get it done. I was irritated to no end trying to get these done over the weekend and I should have given up, but in the end I succeeded. I was more relieved than happy.

I have a feeling I have one more Era left in my Life in Azeroth, have no idea what it will be.

Change is good

When you make a change there is always a risk that you'll end up in a worse place than where you started. But if your current situation isn't all that great you either stay unhappy or pretend things aren't all that bad.

I accessed my current situation and went ahead and made a change. I'm playing with another guild now and while its too soon to say for sure, it seems as if it'll work out okay.

Keeping things light

No I'm not talking about cleaning out my bag space, although that is something I struggle with on a daily basis.

When I mention keeping things light, I mean I am making a concerted effort to leave drama, disappointment and difficulty out of my WoW.

In any other game genre this would be easy. People play together to have fun and go their separate ways afterwards.

But in MMORPGs, the land of guilds, clans, supergroups and kinships, you have to work at keeping the social problems minor obstacles to your success.

If Player X doesn't like playing with Player Y? In essence he doesn't have to. However if Player X and Player Y are in a raid guild, they many times put aside differences because they are working toward a common goal.

However the differences are still there, suppressed, and sometimes it doesn't take much for them to rear their ugly heads.

My drama, well not actually my drama, but drama in close proximity of me, is too fresh to go into detail about. But I'll just say I'm making a change to get away from it.

I'm keeping things light. If a move is what is required, I'm moving. If stepping away from raiding is what is required, I'll quit raiding for a while. I want to keep playing and *shock* have fun while I'm doing it.

This is my hobby, not a virtual soap opera.

Alts: A Look Back

Almost 6 months to the day ago I posted about how achievements mean the end of alts to me. This turned out to be pretty much true.

I have leveled a death knight some, but it was a new class, started at 55, with a brand new area created just for the class and decent gear obtained by just doing the quests. It was more fun than the usual leveling a character through the same ol' content. And now that I've reached Borean Tundra I haven't played it much at all either.

I haven't leveled a single other character past 70 and don't really have a desire too. Each time I log on I have something I want to do on my main character. And most importantly I don't have this desire to play my alts for a change of pace like I normally have in the past.

I keep expecting to get to a point where I'm pretty much at a stopping point with achievements, but with the release Ulduar, Noblegarden and Argent Tournament I find myself still wanting to stay on my main for a while.

I'd really like to get at least one alt to 80 so that when the next expansion is released I won't have to level it all the way from 70 to 90. But I can't even think what character I want to have at 80. I imagine one with helpful professions like enchanting, or maybe one with an extra gathering profession. Of course leveling the one with epic riding skill already purchased makes the most sense.

Keeping up with the Khaz'goroths

Matticus made a "Well duh!" post many of us should read.

He explained the frustrations some guilds are experiencing as they compare their progress with others. If it isn't obvious to you why your guild hasn't cleared most of hardmode Ulduar like Ensidia read his post. Even if it is obvious it bears discussion.

As I look forward to getting inside and learning boss fights, I wonder why people are so eager to get on the PTR to learn it there and just repeat it later on live. The only thing I can figure is most of the instance means nothing to them the final boss, Algalon is the goal. All the other bosses on hardmode are a form of attunement. The real fun for them is being first to the final kill.

For someone like me, the entire instance is fun. I like thinking I have something to look forward to for a while. Not just a week or two. But just like I have a limit to what I find fun, I guess they do too. I don't enjoy wiping for a month on one boss just like I'm sure they don't like wiping for a week on one boss.

Anyway, I think you should determine your guild's level of skill and set a goal of yourselves. Constantly comparing yourself to another guild who raids more, is quite possibly more skilled (whether you want to admit it or not) has more chance to set you up for disappointment than motivation.

Elitist Jerks

Elitist Jerks is a "site dedicated to intelligent discussion of the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft". Or should I say was.

It is heavily moderated and requests that its participants use complete sentences. The latter alone helped it not turn in another of the myrid cess pools that make up the Internet.

However, and I think this happened around the time attunements were first lifted, it has been infiltrated by the masses. Players like me, who used to only lurk, now post. And its a bad thing.

It's hard to find useful information. You are often directed to search the forum and read the thread. Threads that go on for 30 pages.

I think the simple problem is they have too many people. They have a benefactors forum where you pay for access to restricted areas. Maybe that's the plan all along, let the general free area become a bog of muck,so that you're willing to pay to get out of it. :D

Documenting history

As guild member after guild member quits, I feel like I'm watching another guild.

I've heard other guilds on our server fall apart. Larger guilds. Many move on to make better guilds. Some move off the server. Some quit.

I'm actually still having some fun playing the game. There are parts that don't involve being part of a guild, like the Noblegarden event. However, it is a huge downer to see "X has left the guild" usually followed by several more as they remove their alts.

I don't have any idea what lies in store for this guild. I've been a part of it less than any other guild I've ever been in. My loyalties don't lie with it. I'm not going to look back on it as the greatest time I've ever had in WoW, because this era hasn't consisted of any milestones for me. So far I've leveled a character some more levels, I've helped clear an instance (albeit easy) from start to finish, and I've got some achievement points. None of this was new, except the points put a value on things I was already doing. But I didn't join the guild to reach some kind of higher height. I joined because my friend was playing and that hasn't changed so I'm staying for now.

I wouldn't mind a new view. This guild is small and has gotten smaller. I do like the idea of larger guilds where someone is always on doing something. What I don't want is to feel like I'm playing a single-player game.

And just like that another blow...

No, not to a raid boss. But to our guild.

Just read on our forums we're losing another raider. While grumblings usually precede /gquits, this guy was a guild cheerleader. A true Mr. Positivity. I had no inkling he was even thinking about leaving. It's a surprise, I'm floored, but yet then again not much of a surprise considering he was also an officer.

Leading a guild, being an administrator for a guild is work. Extra work that many times doesn't even involve getting to play. You don't get paid, you often get grief.

I've turned down a few "opportunities" to be a guild officer, class lead because I don't want added responsibilities in my game.

Call me lazy, but I just want to log on, have some fun and log off. I imagine many people who have left WoW haven't wanted to necessarily quit the game but quit their gamejob. Quitting for good is just a cleaner way of doing it.

Still progressin'

Despite losing players our guild marches on. I've had fun in our recent forays into Ulduar. And what we've accomplished so far I really couldn't ask for more.

We've managed to defeat a boss or two each time we've been there. The feeling of progressing is what matters most to me. I don't need to progress fast, but I do need to progress to be satisfied.

It would help if we could manage to recruit more players, but recruiting is tough right now with everyone clamoring for players. Too bad the US job market couldn't mimic raiding needs.

Biggest threat to guilds

New releases. Whether it be something as big as expansions or something small as patches.

Something about the milestone, mile marker, what have you, of a release that makes players examine where they are and where they want to be.

Our guild lost some players and I have a sinking feeling risks being disbanded like this blogger's guild Saga.

Instead of being excited about the new instances, I find myself enveloped in a state of unrest.

gj Dual specs

I never have much gold, but I wanted to make sure I had at least enough to get dual specs when patch 3.1 came out.

There were complaints that 1,000g was too much, but it is one of the best purchases you can make outside of mounts you buy to speed up traveling.

I was so excited I bought my second spec that very day. I didn't even get around to messing with it until later. There's not much to it. Instead of one talent spec you can have two and you can switch between them without any sort of spec swap cooldown. It retains the glyphs associated with each spec and beyond the first purchase of glyphs it doesn't cost anything to swap between them.

What I really like is that the spec stores your action bar settings.

Nice job Blizzard!!!

*scratches head*

I like/dislike new releases. I like having new things to do, I dislike feeling I have too much to do!

I've had the chance to see a little of the inside of Ulduar and I've taken part in some of the Argent Tournament dailies. Dailies. Yeah. At least they added a quest line as part of it and I've done some of it as well.

Some things are happening in the guild I'm not happy about. I hope I have it in me to make a change if I end up really unhappy and not let it drag out.

"Whatever the guild wants"

I have never in my history of raiding witnessed someone say this and remain true to it.

You would think raid recruiters would see through this. Actually it should raise a red flag. When you realize the term arose, pardon the pun, as a sign of defiance more than simply being a problem area.

Someone who applies stating their willingness to do whatever the guild wants, you'd think they'd be snapped up in an instant. The problem is, in my experience, these free agents have never stuck with what the guild wanted and in the end usually /gquit disgruntled. What's worse is when they place or at very least widen a crack in the guild's cohesiveness. Misery loves company and someone who publicly vents at the guild in their exit interview usually prompts some other "Yeah I never liked this or that either!" responses from otherwise happy players.

What looks like a godsend, is either someone wishy-washy about what they want to do, a people-pleaser who will not get their neediness reciprocated, a manipulator who plans to switch to what they really want to do the first chance they get.

I'm not saying there aren't those out there really willing to do whatever the guild wants for any long period of time. I've just never seen it.

Categories

Raiders can be described by three things:

1) Skill
2) Commitment
3) Attitude

If you have skill and commitment, guilds trying to get ahead overlook your lack of ability to mesh with them. But people are talking behind their back about you and if you ever said you were going to quit probably wouldn't try to get you to stop. There might even be party after you leave. You're most likely dps.

If you have commitment and attitude but no skill, you're the player who gets pulled in when no one can be found. You may eventually get a permanent raid slot that you'll never give up, officers appreciate your loyalty, but would swap you out if they could. Chances are you are a healer.

If you have skill and attitude, you're the player who raids are happy to see when you show up, but quickly grow to resent your lack of dependability. You have a sense of entitlement. You're probably a tank.

The first part of Wrath Expansion: A Look Back

From a raiding standpoint, by the most competitive guilds, Naxxramas/Malygos/Sartharion were way too easy. The achievements gave them a bit of a challenge (see Immortal) but most had still won the game by January.

For the rest of us raiders, like myself, achievements stretched out the raiding experience right up to Patch 3.1 released today. Like many scrambling to get done, I got one of the elusive drakes just this week, but the other will forever be out of my reach.

Achievements gave me a new reason to keep raiding, but it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Just like fake goals I've set up in the past. For instance accumulating offspec gear, piling up badges or deciding to reach max exalted with the instance's reputation. I found myself raiding but not for the raid experience. I personally raided a month or so longer than I should have. But achievements prodded me to keep showing up. I was one of a few in my guild pushing to do the achievements so I only have myself to blame.

Trying to obtain more achievement points also caused me to fall back into the habit of playing more than I should, but the shorter raid schedule and limiting my alt(s) time actually caused me to play less than I have in the past.

Most of my gripes stem from how I play the game, not the game itself. The two complaints I have Blizzard has actually committed to not repeating.

1) "Yeah, but can you do *this*?" If 25-man is supposed to be the more difficult raid, make it so. Don't have a 10-mannable dragon be the apex. Or tell us in advance that's the case. Blizzard has admitted that making the 10-man Sartharion + 3 Drakes harder than the 25 was a mistake.

2) "Limited time only" I understand the developers wanting to keep accomplishments special by not allowing raiders to get some achievements after a certain time, but once again can we get more advanced notice? A Blue made a small post advising anyone wanting the new proto-drakes that they will have a restricted time to get them.

Interestingly enough, my plans for 3.1 will make my gripes moot even if Blizzard hadn't corrected things for future raids:

1) I'm sticking to doing only one raid type, either 10 or 25. Probably 25. 25-man raids allow for more flexibility. A 10-man group will inevitably be unable to raid if 2 people don't show up. A 25-man doesn't have that problem. If I'm one of the two absentees (not that I ever have bad attendance), I'd feel worse about it in the 10-man group.

2) I'm not going to break my neck trying to get achievements any more. At least not the ones that require you to depend on others. Yes, this is an MMO, and playing with others is the whole point. However unless everyone is working toward the same goal you are in for a World...of Warcraft disappointment. Growing jealous of the players who didn't seem to care made me question why I was going above and beyond what was fun to get them for myself.

So there's my look back.

I have gripes about 3.1 as a resto druid, but since I haven't played on the PTR they could very well be unfounded. And why start a patch with a bunch of gripes when I just ended one with so few.

See you in Ulduar!

Impression.

When your goal is X and the guild's goal is Y: Secession.

When your and the guild's goal is X, but they do Y: Depression.

When everyone's goal is the same: Progression.

Deciding on a main

I imagine many of our first mains happened to be whatever class we had fun leveling the most. If you were in beta perhaps you had a better idea which class you wanted to play. I remember hearing Warrior was the overall easiest to play for a beginner so that was my first choice and subsequently first main.

Playing a warrior unwillingly corralled me into being a leader and as a follower by nature this didn't sit well for me or the groups I tanked for. My next choice was priest, the premier healer at the time if anyone remembers those days. I stuck with it for quite a bit. It became my main and for a while I couldn't fathom playing anything else, other than piddling around on alts. Raid healing lead to burnout and in came my druid which I dpsed and even tanked some before coming back around to healing.

Now usually players who have several alts all around the same level have this decision to make. And with each expansion some of us have taken the opportunity to swap main, most importantly to get a spot in the new raids released.

With the introduction of achievements you can become pigeon-holed into a main. I know I don't even want to consider getting an achievement on any alts. I can't imagine retiring my druid to start playing a new character and start trying to get the same achievements on it.

I remember reading a couple's blog where the tank had the legendary thunderfury. They both got tired of playing and needed the cash, so they sold both of their characters on ebay. It seemed surprising at the time. (Maybe only an addict would think so!) I would think a thunderfury would carry with it some emotional attachment and achievements are the same way.

The majority of players can agree there is very little focus on the RPG in an MMORPG. But achievements help to flesh out our characters. Like the Deed Log in Lord of the Rings Online and the Tome of Knowledge in Warhammer Online, your achievements tell a story of what you've done and in many cases what you've found are most interested in.

An interest in alts, unless you have a load of free time, is the only thing achievements won't capture.

Feeling left out in your own guild

In a game with 11 million (is it even more than that now?) players you will be hard pressed to find yourself in a situation where at least someone else in the WoWverse hasn't experienced something somewhat similar. The rarity comes from finding someone who has actually blogged about it.

So it is with PTD (Part Time Druid) I find that something back at the beginning of March.

I didn’t see anything in guild chat about a Naxx run starting, and I was frankly a bit shocked...I tried to schedule something for this exact time...I was completely ignored. From what I could tell, it was a run set up through PM, with someone picking and choosing who to invite.

The fact they chose alts over PTD lead a gquit.

Now, unlike some of my guild has done or mentioned doing, I don't want to quit. But watching groups get formed after several pleas to be a part of things is disheartening. Recently someone returned after taking a break, a few of our guild bent over backwards to help them do all of the things I had asked about. I do get a feeling of being left out of my own guild.

But since these things are more or less side projects it doesn't bother me so much. If I start getting left out of the 25-man raids, then I'll have cause to really wonder why I'm in the guild at all.

M & S

You have to do a minor hunt to find out what M&S stands for on the Greedy Goblin's blog. I'll save you the trouble, M&S stands for Morons and Slackers.

Another coincidence. Not too long I mentioned our guild was going to lose members for reasons similar to what this blogger mentioned. You can read it in full here, but I've copy-n-pasted the part I want to focus on here:

The...reason for gquit is "guild does not progress fast enough", meaning "M&S is pulling me back". This case I suggest you to fight for your progress. You will mostly lose and have to leave. However I suggest that if the M&S make you leave, give them hell before you do! The reasons:

* I assume the guild is not an M&S ghetto (the fact that you are still there suggest that). I guess Tobold's guild is good example: can clear Naxx, can't clear Maly. There must be some good players, several average guys pulling their own weight and some M&S. You are not the only one who want progress here! However they are social, meaning "won't speak up if it can cause confrontation". But if you speak up, they will join. So if you start openly speak about X or Y underperforming in the raid, several will support you. (Always target certain M&S, blurry comments offend those who are not targeted and ignored by the targets.) Result: most probably several gquits on the M&S part or you being kicked.
* People overvalue their groupmembers and the group. There are masses of scientific research proving it. So if you quit quietly, you'll be the "bad one" while the group will be the "victim of treachery". They will most probably think that you were a loot whore or a lazy prick who did not want to work for the group. No one can claim that if you are kicked after attacking an M&S named X or forced to leave by everyone supporting him (he does 700DPS because he is just ilvl200, needs more gear). Everyone will know that you wanted progress and blamed not the whole group just one-two bad eggs.
* The grass is not always greener on the other side. The other guild you join may be just as bad as the old one. Or worse. You will have thoughts that "after all they were not all that bad". And you crawl back, keep on boosting M&S and lose all right to speak up. After all you knew exactly what kind of guild it was and came back. If you burn every bridges leading back to such guilds you will have to move forward and finally will reach a proper place.
* Even if you lose, you made an example that speaking up against the M&S is possible. Most social people believe that criticizing others is simply evil and the whole world will hate them. They will see that you are not hated by the whole world, just by the M&S themselves and by their close buddies. Maybe they will not follow you instantly. But when they see you as Twilight Vanquisher while they are still wiping at Thaddeus, they will remember that it all started when you told: "I won't suffer these M&S anymore!"

PS: Don't bother to go to the officers. They are there, they could see the obvious with their own eyes if they wanted to. The pure existence of M&S in the guild is an unquestionable sign of their failure. They are either M&S themselves or socials who rather boost M&S than risk confrontation.They will most probably claim that the M&S is just ungeared.

Now what GG said is a bit harsh, but the PS is what I'm faced with currently. I realized our guild leadership is okay with status quo and no matter how much they say they care about progression and beating the best of the content, their actions prove it is not a priority.

Our guild has very few or zero raid members who are undergeared now. Kel'Thuzad continue to stash some of the best items in the game currently under his billowing robe, so we have that crumb of cheese propelling us through the Naxx maze. But we could also burrow right now and not emerge until Ulduar is released and perform almost exactly as we would with a few more axes and maces.

So instead of attempting speed runs our guild goes through the motions and some of us die inside.

On a good note, I'm coming to terms with my guilds lack of determination. I've decided to become an S, but how much of an M does that make me?

5 months in

I mentioned wrath has been out almost 6 months. WoW must make you lose track of time, it hasn't even been 5 months yet.

Balancing Bloggers?

By coincidence, in the past month or so I've come across 3 blogs that were shutting down or cutting back due to RL. One was a druid blog that I had started frequenting due to playing my druid more "seriously" in Wrath, one was Big Red Kitty, which I didn't read much but enjoyed and another was just a random blog that I found via another random blog I found via another random blog I found...

It made me wonder is it impossible to balance RL, gaming and heavy blogging about gaming?

It is easy to have a blog like mine, where it mostly consists of me ranting about what's bugging me - mostly about people and less about the game (I'll need to dwell on that later!) But it is more time consuming to have a blog helpful to other gamers like Resto4Life or Big Red Kitty.

It is easier to just have a RL, but without gaming its no fun. And of course you wouldn't have a gaming blog without a game.

I have less of a RL, more game and a blog with no content. Easy Peasy!

But having a full RL, gaming and a blog with depth seems highly improbable.

No, nyet, non, nein.

I went with my gut and declined another request over the weekend.

Maybe eventually I won't feel bad about saying no. Especially since I'm not the only able-bodied person in our guild, there is plenty of opportunity for others to jump in when someone asks for help.

Saying no theme

As a part of my Saying No campaign for April I'd like to share a friend's experience.

One of my friends is a tank. The expansion is going into its sixth month and people continue to level alts with ease. But when they hit 80 they ask him to take his Ulduar-ready tank through instances with them. He's gotten to the point he says No. Some might think this is selfish, but isn't it selfish to ask someone to continue to play their original character while you cycle through getting various alts epics?

I'm one of those players who hates saying No. So I have alts that stay unguilded that I can hide on and play in peace. Maybe some day I'll be like my friend. Able to stay in guild and just say "No. No I don't want to run your new alt that just dinged 5 minutes ago through Halls of Lightning".

Day one

Well lucky for me April starts today, because if it started yesterday I would have already failed at my exercise in saying no.

Yesterday evening I sat down at my computer. It was a scheduled raid night and I didn't feel like raiding. We can choose to skip raids. Of course you always have the choice to skip as many as you want but it affects whether you get slotted or permanently replaced. But I think you can miss one or two raids a month before anyone blinks an eye. Now I haven't missed a raid in all of the months I've been raiding again. So if I logged on and asked to sit one out I think they would have obliged. Instead I realized I didn't want to miss a chance at another Immortal attempt. We managed to clear one wing before someone died. At that point I wanted to find an excuse to log.

I didn't bail on the raid, but once again I did something for the (chance at a) achievement and not because I was having fun doing it.