I’ve been meaning to write a different perspective after reading these well written posts from Pike, Faeldray, and Nina. With the exception of Pike who has recently discovered endgame, the latter are happily taking their time getting to 70 and enjoying their experiences in the process.
I by no means agree nor disagree. The beautiful thing about WoW is that it can be enjoyed by a wide spectrum of players. They can be casual or hardcore. Male or female. Student or teacher. The waiter at that classy Italian restaurant or the bartender at that shady bar. Blizzard gave us a world. The game is how we interact with it and enjoy it.
One of my first characters was my Paladin. She’s the first healer I had to hit level 60. I never raided with her and it took me nearly 6 months to get her to 60 (not played timed, mind you). Like many of you players who went through WoW the first time, I was soaking the fun and experience. I’m a huge Blizzard fan. I played Warcraft 2 back in the day, tried Warcraft 1, and enjoyed Warcraft 3. I poured over game manuals repeatedly because I wanted to learn more about this world. When WoW was released, I now had the chance to experience Azeroth first hand instead of directing and commanding units from a top down interface.
When I rerolled Mallet and Saphfira later on, there were some things that made me want to max my level out.
Been there done that: Every peninsula, explored. Every crack, investigated. Every instance, run. Every battle, won.
I’ve gone to Silithus, to Darnassus, to EPL and back again. I felt like I had accomplished everything there was to do. I completed every quest.
When I created my new characters, I had no desire to do all of that again. I wanted to hit end game and hit Molten Core and see Blackwing Lair. It seemed pointless to me and a waste of my time. Especially when you have more than 1 character.
Social ability: I enjoy playing with friends and meeting new players. In fact, if my friends stopped playing WoW and switched to Age of Conan or something, I would most likely do the same. That being said, my friends would level at a super human pace. I didn’t want to be left behind. It’s no fun being level 45 while the rest of your friends are already level 70 and raiding Karazhan. They offer to help you if you’re under attack by opposite faction members, but rarely do they come out. Why?
Because they’re raiding.
I didn’t want to get left behind. So I rushed to catch up to them.
The Holy-Crap-He’s-70-Don’t-Mess-With-Him Factor: You’re in Hillsbrad foothills and you run into a level 21. You squish him. Then a Warrior comes out of nowhere who is level 33 and he stomps you.
And so the chain ganking continues, but there is a limit.
Level 70. While you can still step on lower levels with ease, there IS no bigger fish that can kill you while you’re doing your thing (questing, herbing, etc). There’s no level 75 to gank you in front of Karazhan. There’s no level 80 holding down the fort in front of Tempest Keep. When you get to 70, the playing field is declared even. Victory is decided by skill and gear instead of huge level differences.
Achievement: Perhaps the only instance I will never step foot inside and conquer is Ahn’Qiraj. I’ve been in there a few times and got a feel for the first boss. But I will never know what it’s like to beat the rest of the instance.
That cannot be said the same of the 25 man’s in Outlands. I joined a progression Guild for a reason: Because we all want to progress. We embrace the PvE challenges that Blizzard has thrown at us. Mountains are made to be climbed.
What irritates me a lot is the fact that casual players wave their whole “well u hv no lyfe bt prple epicz” (Don’t worry Nina, not aimed at you =)). I tend to get thrown into that category because people see the items I wear and somehow come to that conclusion that I don’t have a life. Just because I spend my time wiping and working on instances instead of doing 5 mans and daily quests doesn’t mean I’m that much worse of an individual.
I like to have fun and play WoW, too. But just because my idea of fun is different then your idea of fun doesn’t make me any worse. I relish killing bosses with 24 other players. I like figuring out the technical aspects of boss fights and beating them within the rules. I like to make up my own kind of challenges (like time trials on bosses). My Guild comprises of a lot of players from the west coast to the east coast. We can’t devote 5 hours an evening to work on bosses because it’s not possible with our players.
Take an example from GMW. A while ago she made a post writing about the individuals within her Guild. Carnage has some high school students, university students, masters students and so on. We also have adults who are working full time. I don’t know what kind of occupations they have (although that’s a good future blog post, so I’m going to write that one down) but I know someone who works at Amazon.com. Another works at a corporate IT firm.
I apologize for my mini rant, but I’m just tired of hearing it from players in greens and blues who call us with purple wearing players with having no life.
I put in the effort, I dedicated my time, and I play hard every raid. I work hard, I study hard, and I party hard. Why should WoW deserve any less? Our raiding atmosphere is light and relaxed. My one wish is for casual players to experience at least one raid in their entire WoW career to understand what it’s like. You may not enjoy it, you may even detest it. But at least you can say that you’ve tried it.
Unfortunately I am not a purple-wearing player with no life, instead I am a greens-and-blues-wearing player with no life =P I’m hoping to get the purples at some point.
The beauty of WoW is that it can be played and enjoyed a multitude of ways. Really the only beef I have are the people who enjoy seriously belittling others for the way I play it (the ones I most hear are “You suck because you play Alliance”, “You suck because you play a BM hunter”, and “You suck because you play on a roleplaying server.”)
I myself hope to experience as much of the game as I can.
I also agree that there is more for me to do “socially” now that I am 70 than before. However on occasion I still like to get away and do things on my own; hence the solo’ing alts =)
Pike: We’re not that different 8P.
Except for the soloing part. I was stupid enough to roll all healers.
I like logic and logical arguments or things stated as such. What you so well explained in the reasons why you got or choose to get to 70 the way you did and with the reasons also is nothing I could disagree with. I never envy players that do what you have done that I may have yet to reach the level of. I’m a little later starting the game than players that played WC the early games or played the game since beta. But yet I made my own way all the same still starting later.
One day I will get futher in progression but in time as some thing are beyond my control when dealing with group effort. Afterall its not a solo act, for which I’m good at. Every player plus the game different and the game us designed to be enjoyed or explored many ways. Mine was the act of doing the game all solo on my own up to the level cap and all the way to the roadblock sign of entering Kara. Beyond that door is no longer a solo act but coordinated group effort. For me things will happen in time but I’ve done everything else icould do and put the effort in otherwise.
I agree with “Pike” on the pet peve also. Many players also seem to bash others at the things other players put in the time and effort to do when they themselves choose not to put in the same or similiar level of effort, commitment and dedication. I work full time job too. I work in Biotech doing Engineering @ 60 hours a week and I still put in the effort playing WoW doing things. The effort people put in or not put in Is a choice. I put in the effort to get gear on my own my choice. I choose to master making money so I’m not a broke tank. No one told me to, but it was important for me to decide to. At times I get flack for that. In WoW you play the game how you the player want to play it and that’s all a choice. Its unfortunate people get flak when they put in more effort at something that others choose not to do or do well.
I completely agree with you on this topic Matt. The thing for these “less advanced” players need to realize is that the full set of epics that we wear are collected from the way that we love to play this game. Just like the greens and blues that they wear are also collected from playing the game the way that they enjoy it. For them to ridicule the way that we choose to play this game is to invite criticism and closer critique of the way that they choose to “have fun.” We both payed the money to buy a game to have fun. Should we not all play it in a way that the community is strengthened and the individual players can choose their own path through the content without flak from others that choose a different route?
Good points all round — from your post, Matticus, to the comments. 😉
One point I’d like to make now that you brought it up: It’s mean and hurtful to tell anyone that they “have no life” because they like to play the game frequently. I never want anyone to feel belittled or hurt because another person made fun of them for having teh l33t epix. On the flip side, it’s just as wrong to say “HURR UR ARMR SUX WTF?” because a casual player does not play as much as you. That’s what pisses me off the most — players making fun of other players due to the anonymity of the game. Your purple armor might be your achievement, but your actions make your character.
(Oh — I took no offense, by-the-way. I was just making a statement while we were on the subject. ^_^)
Nina: “On the flip side, it’s just as wrong to say “HURR UR ARMR SUX WTF?†because a casual player does not play as much as you.”
That’s what pisses me off, too — maybe it’s just personal experiences, but the amount of people making fun of me because “UR GEAR SUX” is far greater than the amount of people making fun of me because I like playing a lot (I do! As much as I can, what with work and all.)
About your personal preferences, Matticus — I can’t help but think that the fact that you play on a PvP server influences your need to level quickly. You must admit that on a PvE server (what I’ve always played), the need isn’t so great.
Cappy: Yup, that’s an important point that I overlooked. I did roll on a PvP server after all. It literally is survival of the fittest out here. What’s the point of having the best weapons of the game if you can’t use it? =)
On a PvE server, the necessity to outlevel the opposing faction isn’t as great. But if my friends were raiding and I was still leveling, I would level as fast as possible to catch up to them. For me, WoW is no fun alone because I heal a lot.
Although it hasn’t been so bad when I’m on my ret paladin critting for 2k+.
if I rerolled on your server, could I get a guild invite lol? Because my current server SUCKS. I work my ass off every time I get and never get anything done… =(
Mark: Haha, you can try! I’m not the one that has the final decision on players that get in, but we ARE a progression guild first and foremost.