Casually casual WoW

Blizzard surely caters to the group paying their bills. That's the thought I have from yesterday's questing around Valgarde. The thought hit me after I had fulfilled third questline in Howling Fjord (after fulfilling several in Borean Tundra): the questlines are all short enough to be completed in one session, with a nice shiny quest reward at the end of the rainbow.

I just don't remember who or when said that casual gaming is the growing disease in MMO's. In a way this is true, because being a casual means you cannot commit to the game fully: sure, you can commit to a raid schedule and leave everything else off. I'm speaking of my own experience, naturally, for I feel that my commitment to the game and my former guild was hindered due to the fact I didn't commit enough time to it.

But now Blizzard is catering more and more for the casual gamer, the guy next door who logins, kicks a few quests and logs off. Which is great for me, as I feel I can accomplish something within the short time I play. But the story-driven mind is crying: now I'm forced to read a set of mixed short stories instead of a good novel: I've yet to encounter the stories like The Missing Diplomat, Absentminded Prospector or the Darrowshire questline, which guide you through twists and turns and areas to a climatic conclusion (well, the Absentminded Prospector not so much...), and really make you feel the urge to uncover the next part of the plot.

Sure, us casuals are more abundant than the real hardcore raiders, who are catered with the latest content. So guess who is putting up the finances for the new development? And who should benefit more on this basis?

And of course, as a social gamer, this leaves me with only one question: what this means to the social aspect of the game or the guilds? There are already some posts in the blogosphere about this, and it doesn't look too good, IMO, if there is no connection with the people you're playing with.

Small steps

Yes. I went to a store and now I have full WotLK. But you can imagine my amazement when I logged in and found out that Förgelös had already activated his! With the devil hitting my mind -and as Bishopgeorge was online, too- I started to group Laiskajaakko and Förgelös... and Bishopgeorge upgraded his account!

The Three Stooges ride again, this time under the crisp boreal sky!

While I was travelling from Valiance Keep to Valgarde, where the two miscreants decided to land, I experienced my first Whoa! moment in Northrend. Or WoW moment, to be more precise.

The turtle ride from Unu'pe on was just a nice show of creating a scenic time sink. I rather enjoyed the scenery on the route, but what really bugged me was the waiting time at the dock: I'd rather be killing things -and naturally doing quests- than waiting for the transportation without any knowledge of the time it takes for the swimming/flying/teleporting thing to arrive!

That wasn't the WOW! moment. That moment came in the Howling Fjord: as I landed to Kamauga after two waiting times (longer than the rides themself, at least felt like it!), I noticed that the Valgarde was still a short trek on wards. The first interesting thing I noticed was that I was hunting the same creatures as the local wolves: to kill the prey or the predator, that's the question. Nice addition to the game dynamics, really.

The WOW! moment came when I stepped into the Ancient Lift. My gasp of amazement silenced our brotherly discussion completely. It was way more than anything in Outlands. I can remember my first time in Kalimdor with my newly created Tauren Druid -Bullcopra- when I had similar moments.

The trip was worth the boring quests and grind-like starting of the Howling Fjord quests.

I'm looking forward for more of the same, if the same is like the raid on the Ancient Lift.

The Three Stooges already made plans to enter Utgarde Keep. We will get beaten, but we'll have fun.

Oh, and the last small step: Förgelös applied to the same guild I have my application open. Now to get that lazy player of the priest to do the same, and we're rockin'.

Full speed against a brickwall

What I have already noticed in the Borean Tundra is the fact that the quests themself are very easy: Laiskajaakko flies past the 'kill 10 foozles' and 'collect 5 dingies' in such a breeze that it amazes me. The questlines which you can point out from the first two quests go quest by quest till the final part, which is a group quest.

Greatness!

Or then it isn't. Even though the expansion has been around for a half a year, the majority of the population is already capped, or speedlevelling an alt. This leaves the Northrend for the most part as void and empty as the Old World or Outlands is. Except of course the farming areas, which are another story completely.

So I'm questing on a lovely storyline, the suspense is growing and I'm killing the baddies/mosters/foozles left and right and speaking with different NPCs here and another there only to realize that the climax of the storyline is a fortified brickwall which won't budge.

Very rewarding. Especially as you can see the lovely, shiny reward for the quest when you are about to accept -or have just accepted- the quest, which states "Suggested players (3)". It doesn't matter if its 2 or 4, it's enough for a normal, green wearing toon to stop dead on spot.

The difference in difficulty leading to the climax compared to the climatical ending is huge.

No wonder the toons I've met in Borean Tundra have only done a couple of quests here and a couple there and then moved on...

Completely other issue is the war-aspect I mentioned in earlier posts. the aggro range for the Nerubians or the Kvaldirs is so large that you can easily go around them without being attacked. And you can still beat one up while another stands nearby, targetting you but doing nothing.

Come on. Blizzard, you have technology to make wonders like Phasing, but you still cannot make an AI which could live up to some logic in the game. How lame is that?

Then again, the quests beyond Valiance Keep and Warsong Hold start to show promise in both storytelling and visuals: the freeing of the kidnapped mages at Beryl Point for the Kirin Tor mages residing at Amber Point is just beautiful. Even though the quest itself was a bit of a disappointment due to the pushover nature of the 'evil' mages and dragonkind.

Laiskajaakko's journey continues.

Great thinking, Blizz!

Just a quick burst of frustration:

I have missed some information and in that case it's not been stated clearly enough. I got stuck just 1 point short of lv71 on my WotLK trial yesterday. Only because no-one has stated that the trial is valid only for that level.

Granted, you can cruise around the Northrend for the 10 days, twiddle with your DK (which I won't do) and have fun with the factions, but you won't gain lv71.

Granted, it makes sense in the way that people who don't purchase the expansion will stay at the level cap of TBC, but I'm furstrated and agitated and feel cheated.

Enough.Sorry, thank you and goodbye.

PS. I'm going home via store to purchase that expansion. Onwards to victory!

Oh, gee!

Another leaf has been turned in my WoW endeavours: for the first time since I joined the browser based game community years yonder (and when that group entered WoW in US server) I have filled a proper application for a guild. In the US server guild it was much more generic, this one was... intriguing to put it mildly. It must be a very effective way to keep the guildhoppers, epic hunters and lazy slackers away from even applying, as it goes through your gaming history pretty neatly.

Then again it serves dual purpose: weeds out the raid applicants very neatly and in a nice way if there is competition for a raid position in the guild, and it gives the casual applicant (aka moi) the sense of importance and seriousness of the application. And of course, it gives out the business card of the guild.

I made this decision only after having a lengthy and nice chat with the guildmaster: it only proved what the website and the guild description had given me to understand. The decision was easy after that convo, thanks to that!

For the time being I won't go into details of the guild, but it's sufficient to say that the guild has long history on the server, it's mentality is that of "humble superiority" which I have grown to appreciate over the years in games and it caters both casuals and raiders: one growing to another, the other making way to another.

I'm pretty excited about this. Really.

It's like the saying: "When the pupil is ready, a mentor will show." In my case it's that as I'm ready to change my way, everything just snapped to place. First my rant about how it's impossible to get into anything 'meaningfull' in the game anymore, Azariel's deep and wise (as always) comment and my visit to the realm forum where this particular guild had just posted it's announcement for more players for their raid team. It was way too easy and way too straightforward. Just like my life in general.

There are only two issues left: to get the Three Stooges in together (as my brothers haven't done their applications as of yet) and the fact that I'm going to be away for a couple of weeks at the end of this month/beginning of the next due to our dogs competing in European Masters Lure-Coursing...

But still, I just noticed I've been given green light by the recruiting officer.

Oh, Gee!!