Running around Westfall, the not-quite-so-noob zone of World of Warcraft, killing some of this and a little of that, cursing my ineffective skills, watching the dumass paladins skid across the dirt after being schooled by the Defias Brotherhood, when all of a sudden I see that … I’ve Got Mail!!!
Hot damn, better stone back to the outpost and open that bad boy up … could be some noob piece of shit equipment from a guildmate: something (anything) to make my third assault on Westfall a bit more pleasant. How about some money? Money is always a welcome gift, in game or out. Health, mana, defense, agility potions, all welcome, too. Why, it could be anything!
Ya, I was dreaming.
Just another fucking stalker email from my druid trainer.
What is with that creep? All the time with the “encouragement” emails. “I’m so proud of you, FotonDruid”, “Good going on slaying that level 12 mutant owl!”, “I knew you could do it!” Jesus.
Next, I expect he’ll start offering candy and video games if I help him find his lost puppy.
His boss, the arch druid, is no prize either. That jagoff is so tightly wound he must have an alarm clock up his ass. The quest reward has to be damn incredible before I go talk to His Highness, The Arch Druid, and I don’t care if I’m never revered with Darnassus.
It’s the summer doldrums. Nothing new on the horizon and the old stuff is, well, getting old. The guild has been sliding down that slippery slope towards full-on End Game Raid Guild with mandatory attendance, complex DKP spreadsheets, and a whole lotta work for a whole lotta nothing.
Because this is the way of the MMOG End Game. I suspect this is a money decision (and aren’t they all?), because who in their right mind would think … hey, they’ve enjoyed small group raiding and soloing up to this point, I bet they’d just LOVE trying to spread 10 pieces of loot across 8 groups of players after a few hours of intense playtime!
I have to admit though, I do enjoy the after-raid drama when people log off in disgust over whatever system was used to distribute the uber. The only thing better is next-day drama but that’s much more rare, obviously. People have to be pretty worked up to keep the arguments going the next day.
Heh, I love the guild peacemakers that try to sooth everyone’s outrage over Billy Bob Warlock getting some dagger that Sally Mae Warlock has been waiting for, gosh!, FOREVER. They don’t really help and, I’m guessing, they just do this peacemaker shit to keep the drama alive and thriving … and may I say, it works very well.
Man. Nobody gives a fuck except Billy Bob and he needs to learn to stfu before he finds himself on the outside looking in. We’ve all been dicked out of loot, Billy ain’t the first or the last.
Although, if not for gossip, rumors and arguments, there wouldn’t be a whole lot going on at raids except: pull, kill, loot, wait for mana, move. Unless you’re a healer, then the raid is: buff, heal, heal, heal, heal, heal, oom, heal, oom, heal, oom, loot, wait for mana, move.
Awww dammit, forgot about that healer part. Now I’ll have to remake FotonDruid into FotonWarlock. Hell, I’d like a chance at the dagger myself.
trust me raiding is much more fun as a healer compared to a mage at the moment.
Hitting 1 (or 2 depending on your keybinds) for 5h straight with maybe the added challenge of a 2nd button for your decursive script is not fun.
At least with my priest i have to watch the screen, when raiding ragna on my mage i just read a book…
Raiding as a Priest for me is still pretty mindless. CT_Raid_Assist tells me when to do pretty much everything and I only really chain heal the MT/OT/BT (depending on who is alive). It’s all macro’d and scripted, I feel like, well a heal bot. Boring.
Raiding as a Warlock is, if anything, even LESS stimulating than being a healer. Target off the main assist, then hit the Shadowbolt key until the mob is dead.
Let’s face it, 40 person raids are remarkably dull. Maybe Zul’Gurub will have room for individual skill or effort to have effect.
You guys are silly.
You complain that the raiding is boring because you just hit your macro keys and read a book.
Get rid of the macro keys and the scripts!
Not so boring now when you have to figure out who is cursed, who to heal, which heal to use, what spell to cast. You made the game boring, not Blizzard. Duh!
Umm. I’d agree with you except … it’s same old, same old. We have a running argument in the Guild between the Macro people and the non-Macro people, they call it the Raid by Touch people.
Either way, both groups can agree on this much … something is fucked in Azeroth. Whether you have a macro running it or a human, it’s still the same flash heal.
Nice blog.I read some of you’re articles and they are really good.
Well, what’s the alternative then? EQ2? Dragon empi^H^H^H^H I mean RF Online? D&D Online? Auto Assault? We’re back to that age-old (old man! old as dirt!) discussion of innovation and doing something new in MMOGs, because it’s just the same thing over and over again.
With that said – what exactly do we want? What new and innovating feature do we want to see in future games? Don’t forget that “people fear change”, so someone has to take that first step, take a chance, and do something different and new.
I’ll just leave it at that, before I start sounding like Hrose. ;P
Well… I played WoW for four months, got my paladin into the mid-50’s (along with a number of 10-20 alts…) and checked out what I had to look forward to in the end-game.
I let my subscribtion lapse and went back to Runescape.
Ok… the games has primitive graphics (runs in a web browser under Java, for god’s sake…) but the game play is fun… almost everything is soloable, in fact there aren’t really groups. You can level every skill/class in one character, and the max level takes a looooong time and lots of effort to reach… a couple years, and I haven’t maxed anything, not even close.
Never go on an adventure without a hat!
Indy
For having played WoW ’till its out i bloody aggree with everything you said.
However, i play on a french server and trust me, you have nothing to envy about use and our european server. I mean they are all full of fucking pricks who only care about getting the fucking Ub3R 1337 items my ass and won’t give a shit about anybody else if they ninja.
It’s like beeing in Leeroy’s movie all the time and it really sucks. You can still try hard to get those fuckers banned, GM don’t give a fuck neither : )
Anyway good look to you buddy !
UO2. Nice graphics, same camera, UO:Rish gameplay, new map, new monsters.
That’s innovation.
All the games now are pointed at EQ. Why not base one off the most fun instead of the most successful?
I think the Nintendo DS has potential for MMO’s.
I just wanted to say that I love this site