If this was a single player game...

If WoW -or any other current AA rank MMO- was a single player game, I wouldn't most probably play it. At least not the gear min-maxing game, which is the most apparent one in the level cap.

In fact, I don't know a single single player game which would require the player such a dedication, information digging and preliminary preparation as playing at level cap requires at the moment. In a sense the 'fun' is lost for the most part due to the fact that every time I log in I'm faced with the obligatory requirement to have learned the fights off game, tweaked my gear beforehand and/or created a 'wish list' for the min-maxed gear setting.

If I do not do this, I will be shunned upon, my gear and performance will be evaluated before entering the dungeon, instance or group and even if deemed proper I will be held responsible for the poor performance of the whole team due to the fact that it's always either tank or healer who blunders.

The more I think of it, the more apparent it is that there is something else in the game that is keeping me logging in than the co-operative game (which feels more abuse than pleasure): I haven't yet grasped what it is in tangible terms, but when I find that out, I'll tell you. But it isn't the group playing except with guildies, as in parties the players are most of the time for themselves: either to top the damage meters, to ninja the next piece of gear or just pass time and whine about others. Especially newbies who are running the dungeon for the first time are pointed at as being "n00bs" and usually claimed to be the fault when something goes wrong.

I mean, how many times have you stated that someone was either a noob or just a loser in a group, causing a wipe after a wipe, and forgot to see your own part in the whole? How many times have you started the evaluation from the point of view that there might be something you could do otherwise or -God forbid!- wrong?

There must be a decent amount of masochist in me for letting this go on and making me log in voluntarily to the cesspool of disappointment time and again. But then again, there are millions of us who are chasing the digital holy grail day in, day out, just by logging in and moving some bits across the screen.

Still, if WoW was a single player game with the population and itemization it currently has, I wouldn't be playing it.

I would still be playing Oblivion.

Random thought: Loremaster after Cataclysm

Thought popped up in my small mind yesterday, as I had written my latest post: What will happen to the achievement Loremaster after Cataclysm has destroyed the Old Azeroth and most of the quests have been redone?

How about other Old Azeroth, vanilla-WoW based achievements? Will they be replaced with something as extravaganza, too?

Just a thought.

Challenges to overcome

(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

what is a bull without horns?

I started to play WoW on Horde side. Mainly because the group I belonged at that time played on horde, but also because the looks and feel of horde appealed to me more. I have never -even in my pen and paper roleplaying games- wanted to play human or some other 'classic' fantasy race: my most beloved RPG is still Skyrealms of Jorune, in which I would rather dip my feet in very alien races rather than the ever present human.

However, as times changed and I got my brothers to enter the game, I've switched to Alliance. Naturally I took human as my main: can't stand the small people in game (both mentally and graphically small) and male night elves don't appeal to my hetero palate. Besides, human warrior is such a cliché, much like dwarf wielding a huge axe or elf being a master marksman.

Now as Blizzard has made the faction changes possible, I have come up with an idea to transfer my nearly abandoned Tauren Druid, Copra, to Ally side. Sure, he would lose his horns and become a poofy little night elf, but he would be on the same side of the faction fence and would be benefitting from my AH grinding and lv80 support. He would get into a great guild as an alt and all would be spiffy!

This thought had haunted me for a while already, when I read RockHound's post in Hudson's Hideout. He writes a great post about how Cryptic's Champions Online has split the player base already in two conceptual groups: Conceptionists and Minmaxists.Conceptionists create their character from history up and do not care so much of the actual power level of their characters, while Minmaxists will not take anything less than over 9000 in their characters, caring less about the history, story or background of the character. In RockHound's words, Minmaxists are playing to win the game and overcome the obstacles as well as possible, while the Conceptionists are looking to play the character as 'real being', much like roleplaying them.

After reading the post I noticed something that I hadn't thought about. I cannot bring Copra to the Ally side, as I have a backstory for him. I just cannot take Bull out of Copra, even though I very seldom play that character. It's the same reason why Laiskajaakko rides a ram instead of a horse, or why Pupunen will never intentionally gain high reputation with Stormwind.

I have a Conceptionist mindset when I create my characters: they have basic idea of a background and I could easily drop them all into a RP server with their stories.

Enter level cap: the game in level cap doesn't work with a Conseptionist mindframe. It's hard and heavy min-maxing game and I think that for me this has caused the biggest difficulty to accept. It's not about questing, decisions or 'making the difference', it's all about tweaking the gear to be able to run the next tier of scripted bosses. And this clash of realities is even more hard to accept with all the kids who are really looking forward to win the game in which there is no end game screen.

I had a discussion with Förgelös about this and he brought up that this extreme achieving mentality in the end game I'm talking about is not what he expects to see when he logs in. He plays for the recreational and entertainmental value of the game, not competition or recognition. Those he has enough in his real life, in form of work, family and ... well, real life. I agree with him. Of course we like to have challenges, like doing a trio Shadow Labyrinth in inadequate gear. But we do not take that so seriously that we would kick the weakest link from the group, call him/her n00b and /ignore. The main issue would be to make fun out of the wiping, without a frown or scorn.

If the game gets too serious, then it's not fun. At least for me, so I cannot say that it's so with everyone. WoW is a game, after all, but like pen and paper RPG's, the designation 'game' doesn't serve it properly.

There are no winning conditions in either, except the feeling of being entertained, moment of escapism and -occasionally- satisfaction on doing something well.

Like downing that next boss. Or clearing the instance you failed to pull through earlier.

But it definitely is no Bull(copra) without horns.

First PUG without guildies

Ok. I have been in the dumps with my tanking performance ever since I hit 80 and started to gain experience on the 5 mans and the gear/stat requirements. Like I posted earlier, the brick wall of hitting 80 is can be devastating, and there surely doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

The other night I tanked for a guild 5 man heroic daily (what a monster of a sentence), of which I wrote something about earlier. I was very careful and I commented all the time how I am newbie, how my tps sucks and how the others should take care when I'm tanked: and I was silenced by the healer who said I should just tank and not worry.

The result was glaring success and thanks from the group. What a rush! Saved my next day at work, really, giving me that extra boost needed.

Yesterday was somewhat different. Guild people started forming guild run to VoA, and somehow I just slipped through the gaps and didn't find a spot in the dps team. In addition to that, a guild daily hc just formed right after that and despite being the first to ask for one I was somehow left out.

Crossed, short on time and more or less in a state of "do or die" I answered a call for PUG tank in daily hc, Gundark. The first comment after I joined came from the dps shaman: "Are you a tank with just 25k hp?"

I thought wtf and told her that yes, quite so. What was the clever question after that?

"Are you going to stay alive with that?"

Come again? 25k unbuffed and heroic? Never in my life, especially as I had tanked the same instance with guild run a couple of days earlier. I responded to her the following way.

"No."
"It depends so much on other issues, too. If the heals land on time, I can tank. If the rest of the group works fine, I can do it. Tanked the same instance yesterday, no wipes."

That was it. Simple "ok" and off we went.

This left a sour taste in my mouth anyhow: in heroics you should be able to cope with even less hp than that, provided your def and armor are at least decent. Those were not even questioned, even though I would be more interested in the def for obvious reasons.

Simple paladin and shaman buffs brought my hp to 31k, anyhow.

Fast, simple and solid run. Only that dps shaman died once due to the fact that I missed an add and she took the aggro. Otherwise it was a great and educating experience.

And the healer, paladin, was very much taken for the fact that even though I died on the end boss, I thanked him for the excellent healing. Naturally he couldn't heal me as I was tossed to the other side of the room with DoT ticking in.

Anyhow, I could imagine him blushing at his computer, that much awkward the response was. And the rest of the group got their share of the thanks, as they were more or less the guild-like people: sharp, quick and effective.

Just like me. /flex