Odd Kinda Feeling

Although I did not start playing the game at launch I was there early enough to remember the “Good Ole Days” of Vanilla WOW. I can still remember the seemingly endless time it took for The Burning Crusade to launch and I was there on day one for Wrath of the Lich King and was there a week after Cataclysm launched. I was a Beta tester for two expansions and have dumped hundreds of dollars into the coffers of Blizzard. I have read almost every WoW related novel ever released and count an original Azeroth Atlas among my book collection. So with the fourth expansion of World of Warcraft freshly released, one would expect me to already be playing it, if not making plans to purchase it, but the reality is I have no plans to purchase or play Pandaria at all.

           

            Admittedly this has left me feeling a little strange, kinda out of sorts or misplaced even, as I should be eagerly ready to dive into the new content and leveling up my beloved Paladin that was the origin of my online name. Instead I am completely without intrigue and have almost completely forgotten the expansion even exists. While I did stop playing WoW early on in the life time of Cataclysm, (I did have two characters at max level) I had previously had taken breaks from the game in the past, but always had found my way back, especially by the next expansion. Mists of Pandaria will be different for me and as an avid gamer and fan of all things Azeroth, I must say I am surprised the urge to play isn't stronger.

            I can not give an honest opinion on MoP as I have not played a single moment of game time in the expansion, so I will not even attempt to rate it or give commentary on it, but the desire to play the game is just not there nor do I believe it ever will be. For that matter, nothing about MoP has excited me in the least bit as previous expansions have. The first ever announcements of the first three expansions got me excited. Waiting for the release and then watching those great cinematic trailers always got me ready to go. MoP's release announcement, features list and trailer left me feeling a little meh to be honest. Nothing in the content information grabbed me and although well done as usual, the trailer did not evoke any urgency in me to get into the game.

           

            I guess Kung Fu Pandas, Pet battles, the Monk class and the like were not the ground breaking content updates I loved in the past. The one part of the game that I feel would be worth logging into for was the renewed war between the Horde and the Alliance, but from what I have seen this has been down played for other features. I desire and look for that feeling of impending doom that the Burning Legion, the Lich King and Death Wing gave me. Hellscream and Pandas just are not cutting for me. This post is not intended to be a knock on MoP or World of Warcraft for that matter as I am sure the game is still an excellent product and at times fun to play. The reality is, at least for this gamer its best days for WoW are gone and are never going to return and that makes me a sad Panda indeed.

The Battle for My Gaming Time

Never before in the history of gaming has the competition been so fierce among so many different games. Back in what many still call the golden age of MMOs, late 90’s to 2005 a player had a mere handful of titles to choose from. The clear winner of that era is World of Warcraft and it is still the industry leader today. However times are getting tough for the once unstoppable gorilla of gaming as Blizzard has recently seen their subscription numbers dive significantly for the first time. Many will blame the direction the game has taken for this, but I believe it has more to do with choices available than anything Blizzard is doing wrong. To prove it I submit to you my email inbox.

Over the past several months I have received no less than 40 emails from games I used to play. By far the biggest two contributors to this total are World of Warcraft and Star trek Online. A former player of both titles, I have received emails requesting my imminent return and many olive branches of goodies have been propped up to entice me back. STO flaunted their new Free-to-Play format and then sent subsequent emails describing all of the new and wonderful features they have added since I left. World of Warcraft has equally been throwing the deals my way as they have now offered me four separate free time periods for my return. When I heard about the buffs they enacted for the Scroll of Resurrection feature, that allows players to bring back former players, I was surprised at the steps Blizzard was taking to recover their player base. Things like free Cataclysm expansions, instant level 80 for one character and free character transfers are perks this game would never have given out in the past. 

Several other games have sent me emails in the hopes that I will return to their games and most curiously I also received an email from Battlestar Galactica Online that urged me to log back in and report for duty. The only problem here is I don’t ever remember playing this game or even signing up to play, but they seem to remember me from somewhere so maybe it’s just my faulty memory rearing its ugly head again. 

Well the point of all this rambling is to convey to you, my readers, the urgency that gaming companies are feeling to grab as much of the gaming community as they can. New titles are being announced all the time and the number of games available to play is staggering. When even a gaming Goliath like blizzard enters an almost panicky mode of player retention, one has to wonder if things are getting a little TOO crowded. Many will contest that this is good for gamers and for the most part it is. More titles means more choices, but there comes a time when a market can reach an over saturation point, where supply outweighs demand. When this happens, many suppliers of our gaming needs will find it hard to stay open without enough paying customers.

Contraction of game makers is almost inevitable at this point, the only question left to be asked is which ones will stay and which ones will go. I just hope that it isn’t one of my preferred titles that gets the ax, but then again by that time I’ll probably be playing something else.

Really??? LOL

Ok I cant decide which one of these videos is more comical. I still cant believe what I am seeing.

Thanks Blizzard for providing me a moment of pure entertainment. I want desperately to write something much more profound, but my mind just can't do it at the moment. From the creative minds that brought you the Lich King and Deathwing, we now present to you, Po the Kung Fu Panda. 

The average age of WoW players just decreased by about 10 years.

Rohan Offers Insight into MMO Problems

I've been following Rohan at Blessing of Kings for some time and usually find his insight into MMO games to be well thought out and often accurate. His latest post on the inherent problems facing MMO games in relation to its player base (transient and extended players), and thier raiding habits is a good estimate into the problems when you try to merge two different types of players into one format.   

The single biggest problem with the endgame of WoW is that it persists in believing that if the incentives are just right, Transient players will transform into Extended players, and everything will work out properly. But this transformation never occurs.
I encourage everyone to read the whole post to fully understand his point of view and the subsequent debate occuring in the comments offers some good points on the subject. 

World of Warcraft - Tanking without Threat

            Tanking in World of Warcraft has always been about getting the bad guys attention, keeping it and then absorbing their rage filled blows until your team mates can kill him off. Now with the recent announcement and hot fix by Blizzard to in essence eliminate threat from the equation, this basically removes the biggest component of tanking in the worlds most popular game and leaves the role to become nothing more than armored meat shields.

           

            I have never been a fan of the threat tanking mechanism from an immersion stand point. It never made sense to me why a dangerous being with planet ruling ambitions would become so single focused that a trash talking, shield slamming gnat would garner all of their hated blows even while other gnats slowly killed them with fireballs, shadow bolts and arrows from behind. However I also understand its need as a game mechanic and therefore I didn’t mind its inclusion in tanking.

            Blizzard has finally thrown in the towel and has given up on the balance issues inherently derived with trying to maintain a game mechanic vs. the desires and demands of its player base to help them with aggro control.  Now without the need to watch aggro or worry about the incoming insults from over zealous DPS when a wipe occurs, a tank needs only to get the baddies attention and then proceed to take hits from them. So is this the end of tanking specs in WoW? If a DPS geared Paladin or Warrior garner enough health to survive the onslaught will they be all that is necessary to win a fight? I guess we will find out, but one thing is certain tanking guides have just become a lot easier and so has tanking.

Defining Cheating in A Game - Part 2

In my previous post I attempted to look at cheating in online gaming and focused mainly on the PVP aspect. In this post I want to address whether or not cheating can be classified when dealing with PVE content.

Most MMORPG’s maintain a large portion of game play referred to as PVE content (Player-vs.-Environment).  This can include solo or group play and focuses on players interacting with game controlled opponents. Raids, Dungeons, Rifts, and solo quests are all good examples of PVE content in gaming and for the most part ones own activities while performing these functions are of no concern to others. So why is it then that the use of add-ons and other aids while performing these gaming events can create controversy and discord among a games player base? Does anyone truly care if a player cheats when playing against game controlled opponents?

 Surprisingly many players do care if another player cheats while playing PVE content in a MMORPG game and the simple reason is the social labels created in the game. Words like “server first” and “achievement” are valued labels to many players and its when another player uses add-ons (cheats) that they don’t find appropriate for use, that  tension starts. However with a game like World of Warcraft add-ons are often considered necessary to beat the highest level of a game. So much so that no one completes the game without additions, but these are not included in the core game, instead Blizzard is content to allow other developers to make and distribute these additional tools.

However Blizzard from time to time will ban an add-on they believe aids players too much. So in the context of WoW is Blizzard the ultimate judge of what is to be considered cheating and not? In one aspect yes as it is their intellectual property, but we are discussing cheating in general in relation to gaming and they are not the authority on the overall definition. So the question remains is using aids in a PVE environment cheating?

Per the definitions used in the previous article, I would say PVE changing add-ons are Acceptable Cheating where as the general gaming community has accepted this level of cheating as ok, but one thing I have learned is that all things are subject to change when applied to the world of gaming and what’s is acceptable today may not be tomorrow. The only way to insure that you are not actually cheating is to not augment the original game in any way.

Defining Cheating in Gaming

Classifying Cheating in Gaming

            Video games have always had cheat codes, add-ons and Third party Tools to make the games easier to play and beat. Using such tools in most cases has usually been accepted when being applied to single player games. Modern games have changed that equation because today most games we play center around online play with others and using special add-ons to help us beat games can cause some controversy among a games player base. Even in cases were a game has little to no player-vs.-player interaction, cheating tools can still enrage other gamers if they think someone has an unfair advantage.

 Before we delve too deeply into this lets take a look at a couple of definitions of the word “cheating” according to some online sources

 word.sc classifies cheating as:

Adjective

violating accepted standards or rules; "a dirty fighter"; "used foul means to gain power"; "a nasty unsporting serve"; "fined for unsportsmanlike behavior"

Or Noun

A deception for profit to yourself

Or from Miriam-Webster who describes it as such:

 

Act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, esp. in a game or examination: "she cheats at cards".

            These definitions basically state that cheating is using an unfair advantage to win. When playing on-line games, the word cheating is usually associated with some form of PVP play, whether the game is designed strictly as a PVP format (I.E. FPS like Battlefield.) or as a component of a bigger game (I.E. Arenas and Battlegrounds in WOW). Normally this is associated with an add-on (Program not originally included with the game and generally made by third party programmers.) that provides the player with a tool or advantage that they normally would not have. Some examples may include an AIM-Bot (that helps the player target opponents) or a wall hack (which allows them to hide from opponents) which are generally considered cheating and will cause a player to be banned from a game or server.

            However there are even more game modifiers that are either widely accepted by the player base or by the developers themselves and this brings us to the question at hand. If these other modifiers are tools that aid a player and improve their odds at winning, then shouldn’t they also be considered cheating tools? Is it because the players and developers consider them acceptable that removes this unsavory label? What if the Developers consider them taboo, but the players don’t is this still cheating? That is the question I hope to get to the bottom of and for that purpose I have established my own definitions when cheating relates to gaming.

Cheating – The act of altering an original game via third party additions that improves or enhances a player’s chances of winning by giving them an unusual or unfair advantage while playing and is not widely accepted by the gaming community and/or developers of the game.

Although this definition covers the subject pretty good for me, things are not this cut and dry and require a second slightly different definition.

Acceptable Cheating - The act of altering an original game via third party additions that improves or enhances a player’s chances of winning by giving them an unusual or unfair advantage while playing and is widely accepted as an important or necessary tool to play the game effectively by the gaming community and/or developers of the game.

             What ultimately brought this subject to mind was a recent discussion in World of Tanks on whether Skins were cheating or not. Basically a Skin in WOT is a file that changes the appearance of either your own tank or your opponents to something other than the original design. This new skin covers the tank model in whatever the designer wants it to look like, but it only affects the local environment of the game. In other words only you see the difference and no one else does. The argument in question was related to a particular skin that repaints opponents tank to include bull’s-eyes where the best locations were to hit them with your shots. To many this is an unfair advantage and since it is not a part of the original game should be considered cheating. Others contest that since it does not change the overall playing of the game and doesn’t inhibit the other players in any way that it is not cheating and other players can also get the same skin. Wargamming has yet to ban this or any other skin or mod that may aid a player to include mods that alter the UI and make the game easier to interact with.   

            When speaking of modifications to a game and the impact they have, one needs only to look at World of Warcraft to see widely accepted alterations to a game environment. In fact it is so accepted in this game that having some standard types of add-ons is often required by certain groups of players, I.E. Guilds or PVP teams. Cheating can be brought into the discussion when you look at PVP content in WoW. Add-ons can improve a player’s chance at victory in several ways to include cool down timers, UI look alterations, stat counters and enhancements to the UI and Map interface. Also a player can create Macros (short program statements) that combine several actions together to allow the player to complete tasks faster or complete a series of connected moves.

            In some other PVP focused games this type of augmentation is often frowned upon or may get you banned as cheating or being labeled a hack, but in WoW they are so widely accepted by both players and Developers that they are considered a part of the game. This type of game changing is definitely cheating as it allows you an unfair advantage over those who may not have the same tools. It is also unrealistic to expect others to have these same tools since they were not included in the original game and requires them to visit a third party website. However because of their wide acceptance in the games community they fall into the category of acceptable cheating.

            When focused on a PVP environment, it is definitely cheating to have add-ons that give you an advantage over other players. E-Sports or arena type matches that have prizes are a perfect example of when add-ons can be cheating for a potential profit and when compared to other organized sporting events, would disqualify a player or team. Having a corked bat in baseball or sticky gloves in football are two examples of what an add-on or game modifier would look like in a RL sport. Players using these tools are often suspended and crucified in the media, but in video games were add-ons are widely accepted (I.E. World of Warcraft) a player will usually not feel any repercussions. Is it still cheating? Yes. Is it acceptable within the context of gaming? Yes again.

                     Therefore we can surmise that cheating in online gaming is often accepted as appropriate and in some cases necessary, while other times it is frowned upon or down right considered vile. Game developers play a major role in determining which type of cheating is allowed by their own stance on the subject and rightly so in many cases as it is their game after all. This post focused mainly on the PVP angle, but what about other forms of gaming like PVE, can the same rules for cheating apply? This is a question I think I’ll save for another post.  

             

Digital Ghost Towns

MMOPRG games for the most part follow a very traditional player progression system of leveling your character up via Experience points. Often a game will segregate or recommend certain areas of the game map for players of a certain level range. This design is intended to ensure that Mobs and NPCs are around the same level of any player in that area. For the most part this system works out just fine in directing a player where to go next, but it has one very huge side effect on the game world, dead Zones.

Virtual Ghost Towns

            When Wrath of the Lich King was the hot new expansion for World of Warcraft, Dalaran was one happening place to be. Every where you went people were milling about conducting their daily whatever and interacting, the city felt alive. Go pay a visit there today and see if you get the same reaction. Dalaran was a vibrant area to be in and visiting it now feels depressing. Come to think of it the whole Northrend area seems depressing nowadays. Outlands was the same way after Wrath and today is even more depressing than Northrend, imagine if you will that you’re a new player to the game and you have to go through these zones on your climb upward. Do you think it would feel the same as those players that went there when it was new and fresh and full of people?  

          There is nothing more depressing when starting a game that is intended to be a MMORPG to find yourself alone and wandering a land bereft of kinsman and filled with bored and lonely monsters. Perfect example is the difference in atmosphere while leveling in Outlands from when it was new content to when I was leveling an alt during Wrath. It is amazing how much a game can change when you remove other players. Shattrath city is a giant bloated joke when it’s filled with nothing more than forgotten NPCs milling about desperately and trying to get a little interaction with a handful of adventures rushing through their lands as fast as possible.

Segregated Lands

          When you add these ghost towns or lands to the concept of segregated territories things really start to lose their realism. Yes I know this is for game purposes and its fantasy after all, but I never could wrap my brain around the concept of level segregation in what is supposed to be an immersive experience. I mean what is stopping that higher level mob from traversing the 25 feet necessary to enter a new land. Some added game environments like rivers and mountain ranges can help in dispelling this division, but overall it just never felt right to me.  

            Once again level based zones really hinder an environment that was established to support large amounts of visitors, but now barely seem alive when the turnstiles stop turning, admitting only the occasional wanderer. A solo adventurer can be both hindered and aided by a zone bereft of others and can find some quests easier to complete while others can become impossible since they were originally designed for groups.

           

A Desolate and Barren Tatooine

            From everything I’ve seen and read about the upcoming SW: TOR game, BioWare is following the traditional game design and segregating its zones (Planets) by level. I think it will be a great injustice if certain planets are left void of life. Player activity can make a world like Tatooine and Mos Eisley seem wondrous and exciting, while a lack of players will give the impression it’s nothing more than a barren wasteland…well I know it is but…well you get the point. I really hope they find away to keep these areas populated once everyone moves on.

            Ultimately leveling zone game design also helps to create another side effect I am not fond of, Linear Questing. When you design a game intended to be played from one place to the next it generates a linear gaming experience where previous content no longer holds any value to you. Having a World(s) based game designed with rails that direct a player along often defeats the purpose of having a World in the first place. Why not just generate maps for players to complete quests on and interject cut scenes in between to break up the concept of traveling. 

I intended to include in this post some possible alternatives to this game design philosophy, but it started to run a little long. So I will make a future post discussing ways to keep game zones relative for the length of play.  

Update - Here is part two        

I Have Become the Annoying Escort Quest Guy

If you have ever played a quest based MMORPG before than you know exactly what an “Escort Quest” is. If you are unable to conjure up an image of it in your mind when prompted to, then you can find yourself eternally grateful for never having to endure the mindless agro inducing meandering stupidity that many of these characters employ. These “Individuals” have been placed through out the various worlds of MMORPG games waiting for a hapless hero to come along and deliver them from point A to some other random point on the map. Along said path, you will assailed by a series of marauding villains whose sole purpose is to dismember and destroy you and your newly found traveling companion.

            In the annals of “Annoying Quest Guy” book of names, you will see such loving subjects as Robo Chicken, random Alliance/Horde prisoner dude, Joshua Riker and apparently now me. Although Mr. Riker (He apparently is some how related to the more famous Riker of ST lore, although the exact circumstances escapes me at the moment.) isn’t a prototypical escort guy as he doesn’t walk at an agonizingly slow pace or run up to every single mob in an agro grabbing rage. However what he does is proceed to run up to the engaged group of badies with nothing more than his bare knuckles and completely gets himself in the way of my phaser toting assault team. He will even do this when the only opponents to face are a collection of automated sentry turrets.

Slamming your knuckles and feet into hardened metal while getting in the way of blazing phaser fire, will earn you an entry into the dumb escort guy book. (Haven’t seen this for yourself? Well play out the “Badlands” mission in STO for some knee slapping good times then.) So what did I do to also gain entry into such a coveted book? I took a lesson from my heroes of the past and became the slow meandering pain the ass tag-a-long everyone despises.

Yesterday I decided that what I really wanted to get in World of Tanks was a Leopard tank. Why? I don’t know other than to me they are the coolest looking light tanks in the game and I didn’t have a light tank at that moment. Now in order to get the tank I want, I must first purchase and then use a Pzkpfw III Ausf. Light tank. Like most tanks in WOT, the Pzkpfw II Luchs comes equipped with the best in slot equipment…wait no sorry I am confused this is WOT after all, new tanks fresh out of the box come with the most craptastic gear available. That’s right only the best for our aspiring tank crews.

“Quickly now, over here lads…say why don’t you take this under gunned, underpowered and unnervingly hard to turn rolling box of death out for a foray with those much bigger and more powerful tanks over yonder…what’s that you say…you don’t think you stand a chance?...nonsense my good man just a few more matches and you can get that shinny new engine you’ve been wanting.”

This is what it is like in WOT every time you get a new tank. It basically comes with the worst possible gear you can imagine. Well in the case of the Pzk Luchs the engine is so underpowered you are forced to crawl along at a snails pace. Fortunately for me I had the benefit of being in a platoon with a friend who graciously agreed to escort my slow ass around the field of battle. This is when I started to feel like that escort guy as he zipped back and forth across the map, all the while having to return to me and aid me in escaping the roving bands of KV death squads that seem to come equipped with Pzkpfw tracking devices.

In a lot of ways I envy my friend as he was able to say to me several times over voice chat just how slow and pathetic I was. Anyone who has ever done an escort quest has so wanted to berate the subject with verbal attacks of their incompetence. Every time a new match would start I always felt like the sick Gazelle lagging in the back of the pack as it bounds for safety from the lioness hunting in the grass. Not every Gazelle has a rhino friend willing to help him out in his time of need. I hope I am never the Lame Escort guy again or the one escorting him.

             

Goodbye Letter to First Love

I can still remember it like it was yesterday. The sun was bright upon my face from the noon day sky as the gentle calling of an unseen bird filled my ears and the sweet smell of blossoming flowers washed over me with every breath. I was young and eager then, willing to take on anything I came across, but I was also naïve and ill-prepared for the journey ahead. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, thought I had a handle on things, but you taught me that I was wrong. It seems like a lifetime has passed between us although it has only been but a handful of years.

              Right from the beginning, you have been both my savior and my villainess. For every helping hand you have given me, you have denied me help just as much. The trials and Tribulations I have endured alone are equal to the ones I have conquered with you as my guide. The journey of my life is etched across your face, both the scars and the healing. I would not be the man I am today without you, could not have grown like I have without you or learned as much as I have without you.

            I have become wiser in so many things and learned much the hard way. I have been a leader of many and with their help completed incredible tasks and achieved great goals. However no matter how high I have climbed, you have always been there to humble me and remind me that I am just one man. The scars on my body are proof enough of the hard lessons I have had to learn along the way.

Through it all I have always marveled at your beauty and have done everything I can to protect you and keep those that would from destroying you. Although you have never asked for my help, I have tried my best to defend you in your times of need and you have in return blessed me with so much. But the one thing that neither of us can do is stop time and Even though you are much more scarred than I am, I believe that I have weathered the ordeals less than you.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am tired and I am struggling daily to continue this fight. I will always treasure you more than you’ll ever know and I long for the days of old, but I am afraid my time with you is drawing to a close. I am planning a new journey, one that will take me far from you and I don’t know at this time if I will ever be able to return. So in the event that we never meet again I just wanted you to know how much I have enjoyed our time together and hope that you do well in the future.

Man, I just can’t get over the fact that this is goodbye. There are so many fond memories that I have of my time with you, so many things that still bring a smile to my face... Hey you remember that time in Stormwind when my friends and I ran through the streets in our underwear making train sounds? Kind of embarrassing today, but we were plastered when we did it after having that big party. I can’t even remember all of the heroic battles that are in the past. Hyjal, Blackrock Mountain, Zul Gurub, Karazhan, and so many others I cant name them all.

Well I've rambled on quite long enough and I don't believe I have expressed just how much I owe you. I guess that's it then huh, words can never express what is in our hearts or the real gratitude we feel. I guess all that is left for me to do is wish you well Azeroth. I am moving on to other things and am hanging up my sword and shield. Who Knows maybe someday I may return, but I get the feeling this is it. If we don't see each other again it's been real.

Game Design Influences Optimization Needs

There is an ongoing discussion in the Blogging community over the world of optimizing oneself in order to be better at a game and Raiding. The discussion revolves around the value of optimizing your abilities with cookie cutter specs and such. Here are some of the blogs talking about this subject. Some have written multiple posts on the subject.

Tobold:

Nils MMO Blog:

Blessing of Kings:

I Like Bubbles: 

Now with all that being said I tend to look at the discussion from a different angle. While at its core, I don’t have a problem with a player wanting to be the best that they can be or using available tools to achieve that goal. My problem starts when game design requires a player in order to play even the most basic of raiding content.

            Taking World of Warcraft as an example the devs decided to create content designed for those who want a challenge, heroic Difficulty or hard modes. The problem with a game like WoW is that most of the raiding requires a certain level of gear in order to actively participate. By instituting gear checks for your raiding content, you develop a community that uses this as a judging tool for acceptance into a raid. The game design of World of Warcraft encourages Elitist mentality among its player base because it requires those players to be the best simply to complete the content they made.

            There should be a noticeable difference between regular raiding and hard modes. Now in WoW there is a noticeable difference, the problem is the lower level raiding is hard as well, just not as hard and it also requires a certain level of gear (optimization) to even be able to play. The average player will never complete raiding content in World of Warcraft unless they institute an Optimization plan or they have friends willing to carry them. In Blizzards defense I do believe they have made some changes, like harder raiding and gear checks on behalf of their player’s requests, but the very design of their game has created a level of elitist thinking not seen in any other game.

As I have stated before, I have given up on raiding in WoW and this system is only one more reason why I have made that decision. I like playing to the best of my ability and don’t mind using tools to further that cause, however I don’t need it to feel like work. I am playing a game after all and I want to be able to decide how to enjoy the game without set requirements.

Lost Desire for Running Dungeons & Raids

            Since Cataclysms release I have not ran a single Raid instance, nope not one, nada, zero, zilch. If you were to go back in time and inform a past version of me during Vanilla, The Burning Crusade, or even Wrath, that they would not be running raids come a future expansion I would have either died of laughter or disbelief. Its not that I am a powerhouse raider or anything like that, in fact I am as casual at raiding as one can get.

I have been to Icecrown Crown Citadel, both 10 and 25 man versions, and garnered some nice loot. But to date I have failed to acquire the King Slayer moniker and don’t really care that I haven’t. It has occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to a dungeon for that matter. I still play the game (Although not as much as in the past.), so what exactly am I doing with all my time and why am I not raiding?

WOW without Raiding

            To some people the concept of playing World of Warcraft without an active dungeon or raiding aspect is some what pointless. For me it has always been just a portion of the game I have come to love and something I did when I wanted to.  I have never had the time or desire for the single minded focus a true hard core raider must have in order to successfully complete raiding in WOW. I applaud those that are able to conquer everything that Blizzard throws at them, but for me it’s just not that important.

           

With that being said I have never played this game before without some form of dungeon or raiding game play. There has always been some type of progressive gear building for PVE, but now I seem unwilling to climb that ladder. Although I am focusing a lot lately on PVP gear, this is also not the answer to the demise of PVE content for me. I have always balanced the two aspects during my time in game and maintained a desire to run both.

           

After some minor soul searching, I believe I have come up with the number one reason why I am not raiding anymore and it is rather simple, I just don’t want to. Dungeon running and raiding (Which for this topic I will now call PVE Progression) and the loot it provides, has lost its fun factor and luster for me.  PVE Progression in Cataclysm has had that “been there, done that” feel which I just can’t shake. I am actually at the point where running dungeon after dungeon and then repeating the same for raiding is actually distasteful for me.

           

Now I understand it is not the games overall fault for this drastic change in my gaming behavior, but it must hold some responsibility for my apparent burnout as each new dungeon and each new raid is basically the same thing as before with a few extra mechanics here and there. WoW has been plugging along with the same instance structure since the beginning of time and although some minor changes may have occurred, it is basically the same thing as it has always been which is an advanced game of sequence memorization with a gear check.

Simon Says

PVE Progression in WoW has for the most part been an advanced game of Simon says in which each player reacts to a preconfigured series of events. Before most players ever step into a Dungeon or Raid they can look up strategies and videos of the fight and gain a basic understanding of what to do next. Although I don’t begrudge Blizzards way of PVE design (They make a lot more money doing it than I do, because I make 0) There methods are not my personal ideal way of playing a game. With that in mind I just feel that the PVE Progession ladder climb is not for me anymore.

As long as a player can meet the following criteria – connection doesn’t lag (which was a killer in the safety dance), reads a strat guide, installs add-ons (Deadly Boss Mods and such), has sufficient gear, and can think and react on the fly, they can beat anything this game has to offer. Sadly for me the one thing missing from this is the unknown factor.

Raiding has no suspense or surprises anymore. I want to have to react to unexpected changes, to walk into a raid and marvel at it all, to enjoy that sensation of trepidation. I can’t do that with pre defined instances which can be viewed on YouTube. Now the expected response from others will be for me to not watch the videos, install add-ons or learn about the instance before entering, but is that really possible? How many raiders would put up with my uneducated and ill informed self before dropping in a fit of rage? For Cataclysm, Blizzard has made raiding harder, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to better or even different.

I Guess it’s Just Me

           Although I highly doubt I am the only one that feels this way about raiding, I imagine the majority of the raiding community is still having a good time. I am truly happy for  them and hope they get all they can out of the game, but for me I guess I am just missing that feeling you got when first entering Blackwing lair or Karazhan. With each release of an Expansion, raiding has lost its newness for me and I think I am just at the tipping point of not being entertained anymore.

           

          Secretly I am hoping that all I need is a break from raiding, that some day in the future I’ll be itching to jump back into the foray. Ultimately I feel that raiding for me is suffering from diminishing returns, becoming less and less enjoyable with each addition. I realize that for WoW it is too late to change the structure of raiding for me, but my hope is that future game I intend to play (looking at you SWTOR) can be different or original enough to relight that flame inside me.         

Arenas, Captain and Other Games

World Of Warcraft

PVP has still got me hooked to this game and now I have reentered the Arenas after a lengthy hiatus. Joined a wandering Warrior to create our team of DPS/Pally heals and I must say for a new group we did quite well winning 50 percent of our matches. I also discovered that I need much better gear, but all in all I am doing pretty good for myself. Also on the PVP front I I am still annoyed at the amount of interupts, snares and silences in this game. Once the other team realizes I am healing I am usually locked down in Battle Grounds. Sometimes I get tired of watching my GCD spin around and around without being able to do anything. I do understand that we need balance in this game, but it seems the only way Blizzard balances anymore is with interupts.

Star Trek Online

I made it to the rank of Captain and selected a cruiser for my next ship. Going from an escort to a cruiser is very dramatic. I coudln't beleive just how slow a cruiser seems next to an escort. I went ahead and purchased a escort as well in case I need some firepower. I didn't want an escort for this rank because I dont like the way the escorts look at this level, but I can tell I'll miss the fast kills if I level with the cruiser.
Also I played the mission set "Cold Case" and thought it was well done. Nice mix of lore, puzzle solving and fighting.

Other Games

Although most of my time has been taken up between WoW, STO and BF: BC2, I'm thinking of dipping my hand into a F2P game like Lord of the Rings Online (Again) or Champions Online (Never Played). I might also give Battlestar Galactica Online A try mainly to see how it works as a Browser based MMORPG.

Death of 25-man Raiding

Rohan over at Blessing of kings posted recently about the slow death of 25-man raiding Guilds in World of Warcraft. He points out, that most guilds would not bother to raid 25-mans if they are able to establish successful 10 mans. I think the difficulty in locating enough people to do 25-man raids as opposed to 10-mans is the main culprit for this decline. Pre-Cata there was an abundance of people willing to raid and nothing to stop them from joining a new raid guild. Today however there are less and less players to choose from and few of them willing to jump ship.

In a previous post, I wrote how I felt this is a direct cause of the new Guild Advancement system. Imagine for a moment that you are forming a new guild, raiding, casual or whatever. Now your options available to you would be to either collect a new group of players just starting out (which I question just how many actual NEW and not alts there are out there) and leveling together or form a new guild from existing level capped players. Most players today are reluctant to leave their present guild because they don’t want to lose the perks and guild rep they have established. This alone will drastically cut the amount of applicants you can talk to as compared to WoW before Cataclysm.

           

So with this information in tow, imagine now forming that raiding guild and trying to attract the necessary people to do it. Will you even bother to or even be able to attract enough members to form a 25-man team? I believe that not only will we see the demise of 25-man raiding but large guilds for that matter. As the old guard guilds begin to die out a few will reform into new ones, but they will most likely be centered on much smaller groups.