(EDIT: Forgot to name the post, so it was broadcast allover... with wrong topic. Sorry.)
Darren from The Common Sense Gamer posted a post with great video link, which reminds -at least me- very strongly about man's need to excel his own abilities and how rewarding something very, very hard is to complete, eventually. It requires, however, devotion and dedication to achieve something so rewarding that you are willing to try time and again and seek ways to improve yourself.
In WoW there has been discussion about the dumbing down the game and making the instances easier and easier for the cursed casual gamers to enjoy. The hardcore content is getting too easy for the hardcore players, and it certainly annoys them to see us casuals romping around on the same mounts they worked so hard to earn way back when the game was hard (read: before the latest update patch).
This brings out the question, why do you play? Enjoyment or to achieve something? Pass time or win the game?
The latest interesting discussion in Highland Warriors forum has been about the new Brood of Onyxia mount, which as 310% mount should be very special and rare. The discussion has been about the 310% mounts status, whether they should really be very, very rare or are certain of them too easy to obtain (like Violet Proto-Drake meta achievement mount), only requiring good sitting muscles and no real skill/work.
While I agree with the fact that there should be gear/items/mounts which should be very, very rare and unique even, the discussion over one mount or another is kind of pointless: the game itself is currently in a state that it doesn't require anything else than the ability to sit behind your computer as much as possible to achieve anything there is to achieve. Be it Loremaster or Insane in the membrane or downing Lich-King himself later in the game, it all requires just time to devote to the game. There are no 'unique', universally recognizable rewards for anything, let alone totally unique loot, so this as a way of reward for achieving something is pretty much voided by the game mechanics.
Sure, the proto-drake mount is a nice thing to look at and wonder if it's owner has a life at all, but would I like to own it? Not really. Perhaps only because of that 310% flight speed, but nothing else.
So the real question for me is what do I get from the game itself? The best I've come up with over the weekend without playing is the company, the enjoyment and passtime. Achievements are a nice add, but if I do not have to work for them, they are just fluff without any reward value what so ever. I have gotten more kicks out of my first tanked instances than from the loot I've received from there. I've gotten better boost to my spirits from downing that one elite which was hard than from the farmed to death repeatable dailies.
I don't want to have a game with bosses which really ask for your dedication to the game and all the theorycrafting: I get enough of that in the real life. What I would like to see is a game with mechanics that scale up or down according to your (or the groups') level, creating more or less hard encounters.
Or at least an illusion of a hard one. And a proper cliffhanger to the next one.
That shouldn't be too much to ask today.
Copra from Bullcopra
