1. The "wowphilosophized.com" domain name will expire on March 2nd and you will need to use "wowphilosophized.blogspot.com" to get to my blog, so if you have my blog or any of my posts bookmarked, please edit the bookmarks accordingly.
2. Thanks to the greater-than-anticipated number of requests by individual commenter to notify them if I start blogging again, if I do start blogging again, I will post a post here letting you know. I can't guarantee it will happen within the next few months or even years, or that it will happen at all, but if I do start blogging again, I will post a post here, on my humble beginnings, to let you know.
And now, I truly leave you for good. Goodbye, faithful readers; you were the ones who made it worth it.
Monday, January 31, 2011
The end of the blog
This is my last post. After today, I will be writing no more posts for WoW Philosophized, because I have canceled my subscription to World of Warcraft. I have written a farewell letter to my guildmaster, removed my authenticator, uninstalled WoW on my laptop, removed all WoW-related bookmarks from Firefox, and now, only this last goodbye remains: the farewell post. Oh god, this is going to be difficult.
I could have put this off. I spent a lot of time in the latter days of Wrath of the Lich King not playing at all, yet still blogging consistently, relying on other WoW websites for sources of inspiration when the game could give me none. Had I so desired, I could have done the same thing for a few months, possibly even longer, before anyone caught on that I wasn't basing my posts on any in-game experience. It's a tempting thing to do, too, because I really do enjoy blogging about WoW, possibly more than playing it. But I have decided to quit WoW cold turkey by dissociating myself with everything regarding the game, short of my faded druid t-shit I still have in my bureau. As part of doing that, I won't be reading any WoW blogs now that I have stopped playing, and I certainly can't write about it. So I am bringing this blog down with my account, as I think it will help prevent me from regretting this decision.
I could turn this post into an excuse to complain about everything I think is wrong with the game, but I'm not quitting because I believe WoW has become a subpar game. I may be a vanilla baby (though the fact that I really came of age as a player during Burning Crusade probably makes me more of Burning Crusade teenager than a vanilla baby), but I was never the type to claim the game had been "ruined forever" by any change that was made to it. I have stayed with WoW as it has evolved through its various phases, and though I enjoyed some more than others, the fact that I have stuck with this game for five and a half years is testament to how much I enjoyed it. WoW has been a major part of my gaming hobby ever since I began playing it, and I do not leave now because I have suddenly gone from liking the game to thinking it is awful.
No, my reason for quitting now is because, thanks in no small part to the introspection brought about by writing for this blog, I have realized that WoW is just no longer made for players like me: the loners, the soloists, the people who play WoW as a largely solo venture because its solo content is (or was) good enough to keep us entertained. You would think that I would have taken the hint from the fact that it is an MMORPG, but the gameplay was enough to draw me in and bait me into playing a game that I didn't fully realized when I started playing that I was expected to play with others. And I tried to like this game, I really did. I tried battlegrounds, heroics, raids, auction house PvP, but nothing other than the solo content could keep my interest. And now, though I enjoyed Cataclysm's 80-85 quests thoroughly, having finished those and moved back to the "daily grind", I've realized that I just can't bring myself to keep playing WoW's solo content anymore. I used to enjoy the daily quests. Outland had some of the best dailies WoW has ever seen, but they have become less and less inspired with each expansion pack. And I finally realized that I was only doing the Cataclysm dailies for the prospect of gear. Yep, I had fallen into the trap of playing for the objective rewards, but the fact that I had managed to switch out of that mode of play not long before made it easy to find my way out.
I'm reminded of what Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation said in his review of Cataclysm, when commenting about player's motivation for doing end-game content.
I asked someone who raids, "Why do you raid?" "To get the best items," they said. "What do you use the best items for?" I asked, to which they could only answer "To raid with." But it's not about items, is it? You don't honestly care if your new Crystal Nethersword is going to clash with your elite boss clogs. It's about the numbers. You want the items with the best numbers so you can use your numbers to decrease the enemy numbers until your numbers are the best in the land and all the other guilds flock to regard your numbers with jealous awe. And before you argue that lots of games are about numbers when you get down to it, no one ever ruined their lives to get 100% items in Super Metroid!
The whole review made me realize that there was less to my enjoyment of WoW than I had initially believed, but that particular passage made me really realize that it really was about the numbers. I was trying to get better gear (numbers) so that I could go into heroics with a bit of a buffer, but why was I trying to go into heroics in the first place? Yes, I enjoy taking, as doing the Crucible of Carnage reminded me, but if I only did heroics for their own sake, I would probably grow tired of them as quickly as I grew tired of daily quests (which means I would have grown tired of them after about two weeks, maybe a month because of the added group dynamic... no, the group dynamic would probably bring it down to a day). So what's left to sustain my interest in heroics after I have stopped enjoying running them? Why, the gear (numbers), of course! Yeah, sorry, I can't do it anymore.
But the biggest reason that I have given up on WoW (that's really a more accurate description than "quitting") is because I have realized that the only reason I continued playing was out of familiarity. The game was familiar to me, and having tried unsuccessfully to get into other RPGs (Fallout 3 and Fable 2, to be exact), I resigned myself to continue playing WoW to get my fantasy RPG fix. The fact that I had already accomplished so much also motivated me to stick with the game rather than trying something new, perhaps out of a hobby-related version of the sunk cost fallacy. But once I stopped valuing the objective rewards I had already obtained and started to value the process of obtaining those rewards more than the rewards themselves, I realized that I just didn't enjoy the game much anymore, in spite of all of the things I had earned (lesson learned: "things" will not make you happy). I have now realized that WoW and I are like a brontosaurus: recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.
Well, that affection just isn't enough to sustain my playing anymore. My enjoyment of the game isn't going through a burn-out phase, it's passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to motivate me to play other games. It is a late enjoyment. It's a stiff. Bereft of exuberance, it rests in peace. If I hadn't insisted on continuing to play, my WoW folder would have been in my computer's trash can. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-WoW-player.
And this is an ex-WoW-blogger, as well. But will the blogging itch strike me again? It very well might, and I very well might start blogging about something else on a different blog. But if I do, I will do it the same way I started this blog: I will start from nothing and earn my readership again. Whatever my new blog--if, indeed, I do start blogging again, which isn't a guarantee--is about, it will likely have nothing to do with WoW, so though I may be tempted to say, "Hey guys, come check out my new blog!", I won't do that unless someone likes my writing enough to ask me to keep them updated if I decide to write again. And as for this blog, I will leave it up as long as blogger decides its worth keeping up, and since I have it set to e-mail when I get a comment, I will still respond to any comments I get that I feel are worth as response. However, the "wowphilosophized.com" domain name will likely expire at some point, at which point you'll need to go back to typing in "wowphilosophized.blogspot.com" if you're still coming back for some reason.
So there it is. This is the end of my time as a WoW player, and there are no hard feelings on my part. This game has given me an amazing five and a half years, as well as an amazing year and a half of writing this blog. I never thought this blog would get as far as it has, and it's something that has made my time spent playing WoW better in many ways. I've had the opportunity to communicate with some truly wonderful individuals as a result of this blog, as well as be a part of the larger WoW community (the online part of which really isn't so bad), and without it, I might not have realized just how much I like writing. Thanks for reading; it has truly been a blast.
Adieu, adiue; parting is such sweet sorrow.
And yes, I'm still bitter over the removal of Tree of Life as a permanent form.
I could have put this off. I spent a lot of time in the latter days of Wrath of the Lich King not playing at all, yet still blogging consistently, relying on other WoW websites for sources of inspiration when the game could give me none. Had I so desired, I could have done the same thing for a few months, possibly even longer, before anyone caught on that I wasn't basing my posts on any in-game experience. It's a tempting thing to do, too, because I really do enjoy blogging about WoW, possibly more than playing it. But I have decided to quit WoW cold turkey by dissociating myself with everything regarding the game, short of my faded druid t-shit I still have in my bureau. As part of doing that, I won't be reading any WoW blogs now that I have stopped playing, and I certainly can't write about it. So I am bringing this blog down with my account, as I think it will help prevent me from regretting this decision.
I could turn this post into an excuse to complain about everything I think is wrong with the game, but I'm not quitting because I believe WoW has become a subpar game. I may be a vanilla baby (though the fact that I really came of age as a player during Burning Crusade probably makes me more of Burning Crusade teenager than a vanilla baby), but I was never the type to claim the game had been "ruined forever" by any change that was made to it. I have stayed with WoW as it has evolved through its various phases, and though I enjoyed some more than others, the fact that I have stuck with this game for five and a half years is testament to how much I enjoyed it. WoW has been a major part of my gaming hobby ever since I began playing it, and I do not leave now because I have suddenly gone from liking the game to thinking it is awful.
No, my reason for quitting now is because, thanks in no small part to the introspection brought about by writing for this blog, I have realized that WoW is just no longer made for players like me: the loners, the soloists, the people who play WoW as a largely solo venture because its solo content is (or was) good enough to keep us entertained. You would think that I would have taken the hint from the fact that it is an MMORPG, but the gameplay was enough to draw me in and bait me into playing a game that I didn't fully realized when I started playing that I was expected to play with others. And I tried to like this game, I really did. I tried battlegrounds, heroics, raids, auction house PvP, but nothing other than the solo content could keep my interest. And now, though I enjoyed Cataclysm's 80-85 quests thoroughly, having finished those and moved back to the "daily grind", I've realized that I just can't bring myself to keep playing WoW's solo content anymore. I used to enjoy the daily quests. Outland had some of the best dailies WoW has ever seen, but they have become less and less inspired with each expansion pack. And I finally realized that I was only doing the Cataclysm dailies for the prospect of gear. Yep, I had fallen into the trap of playing for the objective rewards, but the fact that I had managed to switch out of that mode of play not long before made it easy to find my way out.
I'm reminded of what Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation said in his review of Cataclysm, when commenting about player's motivation for doing end-game content.
I asked someone who raids, "Why do you raid?" "To get the best items," they said. "What do you use the best items for?" I asked, to which they could only answer "To raid with." But it's not about items, is it? You don't honestly care if your new Crystal Nethersword is going to clash with your elite boss clogs. It's about the numbers. You want the items with the best numbers so you can use your numbers to decrease the enemy numbers until your numbers are the best in the land and all the other guilds flock to regard your numbers with jealous awe. And before you argue that lots of games are about numbers when you get down to it, no one ever ruined their lives to get 100% items in Super Metroid!
The whole review made me realize that there was less to my enjoyment of WoW than I had initially believed, but that particular passage made me really realize that it really was about the numbers. I was trying to get better gear (numbers) so that I could go into heroics with a bit of a buffer, but why was I trying to go into heroics in the first place? Yes, I enjoy taking, as doing the Crucible of Carnage reminded me, but if I only did heroics for their own sake, I would probably grow tired of them as quickly as I grew tired of daily quests (which means I would have grown tired of them after about two weeks, maybe a month because of the added group dynamic... no, the group dynamic would probably bring it down to a day). So what's left to sustain my interest in heroics after I have stopped enjoying running them? Why, the gear (numbers), of course! Yeah, sorry, I can't do it anymore.
But the biggest reason that I have given up on WoW (that's really a more accurate description than "quitting") is because I have realized that the only reason I continued playing was out of familiarity. The game was familiar to me, and having tried unsuccessfully to get into other RPGs (Fallout 3 and Fable 2, to be exact), I resigned myself to continue playing WoW to get my fantasy RPG fix. The fact that I had already accomplished so much also motivated me to stick with the game rather than trying something new, perhaps out of a hobby-related version of the sunk cost fallacy. But once I stopped valuing the objective rewards I had already obtained and started to value the process of obtaining those rewards more than the rewards themselves, I realized that I just didn't enjoy the game much anymore, in spite of all of the things I had earned (lesson learned: "things" will not make you happy). I have now realized that WoW and I are like a brontosaurus: recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.
Well, that affection just isn't enough to sustain my playing anymore. My enjoyment of the game isn't going through a burn-out phase, it's passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to motivate me to play other games. It is a late enjoyment. It's a stiff. Bereft of exuberance, it rests in peace. If I hadn't insisted on continuing to play, my WoW folder would have been in my computer's trash can. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-WoW-player.
And this is an ex-WoW-blogger, as well. But will the blogging itch strike me again? It very well might, and I very well might start blogging about something else on a different blog. But if I do, I will do it the same way I started this blog: I will start from nothing and earn my readership again. Whatever my new blog--if, indeed, I do start blogging again, which isn't a guarantee--is about, it will likely have nothing to do with WoW, so though I may be tempted to say, "Hey guys, come check out my new blog!", I won't do that unless someone likes my writing enough to ask me to keep them updated if I decide to write again. And as for this blog, I will leave it up as long as blogger decides its worth keeping up, and since I have it set to e-mail when I get a comment, I will still respond to any comments I get that I feel are worth as response. However, the "wowphilosophized.com" domain name will likely expire at some point, at which point you'll need to go back to typing in "wowphilosophized.blogspot.com" if you're still coming back for some reason.
So there it is. This is the end of my time as a WoW player, and there are no hard feelings on my part. This game has given me an amazing five and a half years, as well as an amazing year and a half of writing this blog. I never thought this blog would get as far as it has, and it's something that has made my time spent playing WoW better in many ways. I've had the opportunity to communicate with some truly wonderful individuals as a result of this blog, as well as be a part of the larger WoW community (the online part of which really isn't so bad), and without it, I might not have realized just how much I like writing. Thanks for reading; it has truly been a blast.
Adieu, adiue; parting is such sweet sorrow.And yes, I'm still bitter over the removal of Tree of Life as a permanent form.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Oh dear, Vashj'ir: Redux
I had a lot on my plate when I wrote Wednesday's post due to my claiming that Hyjal was a better zone than Vashj'ir and the fact that two of the currently three comments on that last post disagree with me. Fidjit claimed "Hyjal felt very 'been there, done that' to me," and Neverender agreed with Fidjit and added, "But all in all, I appreciate what Blizzard tried to do and applaud them for making Vash'jir such a beautiful zone to quest in." I appreciate their comments and can see where they are coming from, but one little blurb in Neverender's comment gave me insight into why I dislike Vashj'ir so much: "...I appreciate what Blizzard tried to do..." [emphasis is my own]. If you look at what Blizzard was trying to do with Vashj'ir, it is indeed a very praise-worthy zone, for their aspirations for this zone were clearly very high (why else would they make it so long?). This much I agree with.
The trouble in considering what Blizzard was trying to do with Vashj'ir is that when we quest in Vashj'ir, we are not playing in the zone that Blizzard tried to create; we are playing in the zone they did create. Considering that both Fidjit and Neverender agreed that my complaints about the zone were legitimate, I supposed that whether you think Vashj'ir is a praise-worthy zone ultimately comes down to whether you want to praise Blizzard for their efforts or their results. Which brings us to the question I ask today: in choosing to praise or criticizing Vashj'ir, should we choose to praise or criticize Blizzard for their ambition or for the end product? Should we praise the potential and innovation of a venture, or the actual quality of the venture when it ships?
To look at Vashj'ir again, the zone was most definitely a step away from familiar territory for Blizzard. It was innovative because the entire zone took place underwater, and Blizzard took quite a few risks is designing the zone that way. I find it telling that most of my complaints about Vashj'ir had little to do with the fact that the zone was underwater, because that means that Blizzard averted all of those risks. My complaints about Vashj'ir were that it was too large and its questline too lengthy,that it lacked a grounding location that allowed us to better comprehend our position within the zone, that creating the kind of tension that Vashj'ir was trying to create was simply impossible due to the game's mechanics, and that the ending was underwhelming and abrupt. Every single one of these flaws could just as easily have been made in the process of designing a land-based zone, though the underwater setting does make it more tempting to try to create the kind of mood Blizzard was trying to create with Vashj'ir. So really, Vashj'ir is a case where the innovation and potential of the zone do shine through, and it's its other flaws that bring it down. Thus it is perfectly reasonable to praise the zone for its innovation.
But that doesn't excuse the zone for having these flaws. In fact, it's all the more reason to criticize the zone, because the fact that these flaws could just as easily show up in any zone means that Blizzard should have known better. Blizzard has had years of practice designing zones, and these are flaws that those years of practice should have prevented. But no one is perfect, and the developers are going to make a few mistakes from time to time; they just so happened to make these mistakes while designing their most ambitious zone yet. It's almost a shame that they did manage to avoid the potential flaws that were directly related to that ambition (i.e. the typical pratfalls of most water levels), because those flaws would have been forgivable due to Blizzard's inexperience with designing entirely-underwater levels. But there's no reason that the kind of flaws that did show up in Vashj'ir should be any more excusable just because Vashj'ir was a water level.
So in the end, Vashj'ir deserves both praise for its successful innovation and criticism for its definite flaws. I guess whichever you prefer to focus on comes down to just how much the innovation amazed you (I was less than amazed once all the environments started to blend together) and was thus able to distract you from the zone's flaws, and how influential those flaws were in detracting from your enjoyment of the zone.
The trouble in considering what Blizzard was trying to do with Vashj'ir is that when we quest in Vashj'ir, we are not playing in the zone that Blizzard tried to create; we are playing in the zone they did create. Considering that both Fidjit and Neverender agreed that my complaints about the zone were legitimate, I supposed that whether you think Vashj'ir is a praise-worthy zone ultimately comes down to whether you want to praise Blizzard for their efforts or their results. Which brings us to the question I ask today: in choosing to praise or criticizing Vashj'ir, should we choose to praise or criticize Blizzard for their ambition or for the end product? Should we praise the potential and innovation of a venture, or the actual quality of the venture when it ships?
To look at Vashj'ir again, the zone was most definitely a step away from familiar territory for Blizzard. It was innovative because the entire zone took place underwater, and Blizzard took quite a few risks is designing the zone that way. I find it telling that most of my complaints about Vashj'ir had little to do with the fact that the zone was underwater, because that means that Blizzard averted all of those risks. My complaints about Vashj'ir were that it was too large and its questline too lengthy,that it lacked a grounding location that allowed us to better comprehend our position within the zone, that creating the kind of tension that Vashj'ir was trying to create was simply impossible due to the game's mechanics, and that the ending was underwhelming and abrupt. Every single one of these flaws could just as easily have been made in the process of designing a land-based zone, though the underwater setting does make it more tempting to try to create the kind of mood Blizzard was trying to create with Vashj'ir. So really, Vashj'ir is a case where the innovation and potential of the zone do shine through, and it's its other flaws that bring it down. Thus it is perfectly reasonable to praise the zone for its innovation.
But that doesn't excuse the zone for having these flaws. In fact, it's all the more reason to criticize the zone, because the fact that these flaws could just as easily show up in any zone means that Blizzard should have known better. Blizzard has had years of practice designing zones, and these are flaws that those years of practice should have prevented. But no one is perfect, and the developers are going to make a few mistakes from time to time; they just so happened to make these mistakes while designing their most ambitious zone yet. It's almost a shame that they did manage to avoid the potential flaws that were directly related to that ambition (i.e. the typical pratfalls of most water levels), because those flaws would have been forgivable due to Blizzard's inexperience with designing entirely-underwater levels. But there's no reason that the kind of flaws that did show up in Vashj'ir should be any more excusable just because Vashj'ir was a water level.
So in the end, Vashj'ir deserves both praise for its successful innovation and criticism for its definite flaws. I guess whichever you prefer to focus on comes down to just how much the innovation amazed you (I was less than amazed once all the environments started to blend together) and was thus able to distract you from the zone's flaws, and how influential those flaws were in detracting from your enjoyment of the zone.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Hyjal won't appall
Having already given my opinions on Vashj'ir as a questing zone, I feel it's time I turn my eye towards the other Cataclysm starting-zone: Mount Hyjal (the fact that I promised I would do so in my last post might also have something to do with why I'm looking at it now). Now, Mount Hyjal wasn't my favorite zone of the expansion, but if I were to rank the zones in order of how much I enjoyed them, Mount Hyjal would definitely be in the middle (Twilight Highlands > Deepholm > Mount Hyjal > Uldum > Vashj'ir, if you're interested). I agree with the commenters on my Vashj'ir post that Mount Hyjal wasn't exactly innovating or ground-breaking, but overall, I felt that the zone worked well, and that's where its strength was.
As I said in my last post, Mount Hyjal was similar to Vashj'ir in many ways, but overall, I felt that Mount Hyjal worked in many ways that Vashj'ir didn't. To wit, Hyjal has the enemy that we need to face right on our doorstep in plain view, a pattern done right from the beginning with the earth elementals attacking Nordrassil, and the sense of urgency created by the mountain being on fire could not be mitigated by leaving the zone, creating suspense that remained taut even if you left the zone and came back later (which could not be said for Vashj'ir). It was also not of unreasonable length, which certainly didn't hurt its overall quality.
So what do I have to say about Mount Hyjal that I didn't say in my last post? One thing I was appreciative of about the zone was its liberal use of phasing, allowing the player to have a very real sense of having an impact on the zone. This was another way that I felt Vashj'ir was lacking: it didn't feel like our actions changed the zone at all, even though they would occasionally cause NPCs to spawn where they hadn't been before. There was also a sense that Mount Hyjal was unfolding before our eyes, what with its almost spiral-ish structure and fairly linear physical progression path, giving a real sense of progress, something I feel is lacking in many of WoW's zones. What I mean by "progress" is that was had a sense of how far we were in completing the zone. Most zones send you running around the zone in a seemingly orderless fashion, making it difficult to tell how far you have to go before you have solved that zone's problems. Sure you could check how far you are in the quest achievements to figure that out, but where's the fun in that? With Hyjal, you traversed through the zone in a fairly linear fashion, making it easier to tell how close you were to the end.
As for flaws? One of the major things about Cataclysm that bugs me is how most of the new factions have little to no representation outside of their respective zones, and the Guardians of Hyjal are no exception. Sure, their name may preclude them from doing much outside of the zone, but they are still a very one-dimensional organization. Their tabard claims that, by wearing it, I am "championing their cause", but how can I do that when their sole purpose is to save Hyjal, and I'm running around in an instance that has nothing to do with the zone? I felt this was a problem with many of the factions, but it's especially bad for the Guardians of Hyjal, since their purpose is so obviously one-dimensional and they were my introduction to just how self-contained Cataclysm's factions are.
But that's clearly not a criticism of the quests themselves, and I really don't have many negative things to say about Mount Hyjal as a questing zone, because Blizzard just played it really safe with this zone. There wasn't much innovation, but because it's familiar territory, they were able to pull it off quite well. So overall, my thoughts on Mount Hyjal could be summed up as, very well executed, but not very ambitious. It's nothing new, but that's why it's not so bad; as I said in the title, it "won't appall" because we've seen much of it before. And perhaps my disagreements with the Vashj'ir camp in the Hyjal vs. Vashj'ir debate stem from my prioritizing execution over ambition; in other words, I judge a zone more by what it is than what it could have been. But more on that on Friday.
As I said in my last post, Mount Hyjal was similar to Vashj'ir in many ways, but overall, I felt that Mount Hyjal worked in many ways that Vashj'ir didn't. To wit, Hyjal has the enemy that we need to face right on our doorstep in plain view, a pattern done right from the beginning with the earth elementals attacking Nordrassil, and the sense of urgency created by the mountain being on fire could not be mitigated by leaving the zone, creating suspense that remained taut even if you left the zone and came back later (which could not be said for Vashj'ir). It was also not of unreasonable length, which certainly didn't hurt its overall quality.
So what do I have to say about Mount Hyjal that I didn't say in my last post? One thing I was appreciative of about the zone was its liberal use of phasing, allowing the player to have a very real sense of having an impact on the zone. This was another way that I felt Vashj'ir was lacking: it didn't feel like our actions changed the zone at all, even though they would occasionally cause NPCs to spawn where they hadn't been before. There was also a sense that Mount Hyjal was unfolding before our eyes, what with its almost spiral-ish structure and fairly linear physical progression path, giving a real sense of progress, something I feel is lacking in many of WoW's zones. What I mean by "progress" is that was had a sense of how far we were in completing the zone. Most zones send you running around the zone in a seemingly orderless fashion, making it difficult to tell how far you have to go before you have solved that zone's problems. Sure you could check how far you are in the quest achievements to figure that out, but where's the fun in that? With Hyjal, you traversed through the zone in a fairly linear fashion, making it easier to tell how close you were to the end.
As for flaws? One of the major things about Cataclysm that bugs me is how most of the new factions have little to no representation outside of their respective zones, and the Guardians of Hyjal are no exception. Sure, their name may preclude them from doing much outside of the zone, but they are still a very one-dimensional organization. Their tabard claims that, by wearing it, I am "championing their cause", but how can I do that when their sole purpose is to save Hyjal, and I'm running around in an instance that has nothing to do with the zone? I felt this was a problem with many of the factions, but it's especially bad for the Guardians of Hyjal, since their purpose is so obviously one-dimensional and they were my introduction to just how self-contained Cataclysm's factions are.
But that's clearly not a criticism of the quests themselves, and I really don't have many negative things to say about Mount Hyjal as a questing zone, because Blizzard just played it really safe with this zone. There wasn't much innovation, but because it's familiar territory, they were able to pull it off quite well. So overall, my thoughts on Mount Hyjal could be summed up as, very well executed, but not very ambitious. It's nothing new, but that's why it's not so bad; as I said in the title, it "won't appall" because we've seen much of it before. And perhaps my disagreements with the Vashj'ir camp in the Hyjal vs. Vashj'ir debate stem from my prioritizing execution over ambition; in other words, I judge a zone more by what it is than what it could have been. But more on that on Friday.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Oh dear, Vashj'ir
This post contains spoilers about the storyline of Vashj'ir, as well as a plethora of negative opinions. If you haven't finished Vashj'ir or you prefer to read optimistic and constructive posts, you have been warned.
Apparently, overly opinionated posts criticizing Cataclysm's content are all the rage in the blogosphere these days. Of course, I'm in no position to judge Cataclysm as a whole, which presents a bit of a problem when writing one of those total review posts. I have yet to experience the 5-man content and will probably never experience the raid content, and PvP hasn't interested me in years, so I haven't experienced fighting in Tol Barad, The Battle for Gilneas, or Twin Peaks. What I have experienced is every zone's one-time quests and all of the daily quests (Alliance side, anyway), as well as Archeology, but being that I have already given my thoughts on the latter (though I have taken a decidedly more neutral view on it since then), it is the former to which I shall turn my discerning eye this week. And by discerning, I mean incredibly subjective and opinionated, so get your grain of salt ready before you start reading today.
Got it? Good. Now, I was originally going to write a post about all of the zones, including the daily quests in their own section, but I had so much to say about Vashj'ir that I had to give the zone it's own post, so I plan to put the other zones under the lens on Wednesday. Without further ado, let's get to my very opinionated review of Cataclysm's underwater zone.
It's something of a tradition in video games that if a game contains a water-based level, it's going to be the least fun level in the game. There are many reasons for this: if swimming isn't an integral part of the game otherwise, a physics engine for swimming may need to be thrown together for just that level, which will likely lead to that engine being sub-par due the limited amount of use it will actually get. Breath gauges are also a nuisance, as is the often low visibility in water levels. Blizzard managed to avoid these common pratfalls when they designed Vashj'ir thanks to the fact that WoW has always had swimming, so we are used to navigating water, and thanks to the sea legs buff, which does away with the breath gauge, and the Abyssal Seahorse mount, which largely does away with the limited mobility typical of a virtual aquatic environment. Which is why it's such a shame that Vashj'ir was the zone I liked least out of all of Cataclysm's zones.
Maybe it's the zone's size. Vashj'ir is the only zone in Cataclysm's high level content that had to be split into multiple subzones--and three of them, at that--and moving around in these huge zones became tiresome at times (especially the latter quests in Darkbreak Cove). Maybe it was the lack of any grounding aspect of the zone's storyline. Moving from shelter to shelter without any constant base that could be considered the main outpost of the zone made the whole zone feel very disconnected. Vashj'ir is the only Cataclysm zone (to my knowledge) that will send you to a different part of the zone, depending on where you are in the quest lines, when you use its portal in the capital cities, and that becomes disorienting, especially since the caves all look the same, as do many of the environments, beautiful though they may be. This leads to the zone not having many landmarks that give us a definite sense of where we are, which doesn't help things.
But maybe, just maybe, what makes Vashj'ir so unenjoyable is the impossibility of creating the mood that Vashj'ir is trying to create. From the moment the boat sinks on the ride over, it's clear that Blizzard's intention with Vashj'ir was to create a zone where we are constantly on the run, ducking for cover in an environment where we are out of our element, while being constantly surrounded by foes who would love nothing more than to rip us to shreds. And yet, as they are trying to create that mood, there is nothing preventing me from swimming to the land in the zone, mounting up, and flying out of there, or better yet, hearthstoning back to Stormwind. Was I supposed to be in danger or something?
Now, Mount Hyjal is similar to Vashj'ir in a lot of ways, in that we are constantly moving throughout the zone and the zone tries to create a sense of urgency on the part of the player. I'll go over this zone more in another post, but the reason the creation of tension works in Mount Hyjal and not in Vashj'ir is that Mount Hyjal's tension is much more feasible to maintain. In both zones, the enemy is supposedly right on our doorstep, a threat we need to face immediately. In Mount Hyjal, there are earth elementals right in the front lawn of the zone's main hub, so this sense is created successfully. In Vashj'ir, these enemies are often far away, and though their numbers are supposedly imposing and dangerous, they rarely are if we actually go an have a look at them. In other words, in Mount Hyjal, Blizzard successfully followed the mantra of "show, don't tell", whereas in Vashj'ir, that was not the case.
And as for the sense of urgency, in Hyjal, that sense of urgency is created by the fact that the mountain is on fire. If we leave the zone, it will continue to burn, though we may now be safe. As such, though we can leave the zone and its problems with little difficulty, its conflict still remains. As for Vashj'ir, I get the distinct feeling that the zone is trying to create tension by implying that you yourself are in danger by being stranded in the zone, but if you hearth or fly out, oh look, problem solved! Sure, the soldiers of your faction and the Earthen Ring might still be in trouble, but again, the zone depends too heavily on telling us that our allies are in danger without ever showing us how they are in danger. Do these naga that we need to be afraid of ever storm the caves we get our quests from? Do they send out scouting parties to see if we have become a threat yet? Nope, they just leave us alone, and whatever tension that could be drawn from this situation is diffused by the fact that the zone just tries too hard to create it, breaking the tension by exceeding the capabilities of text-based tension creation.
Then there's the zone's length. It's bad enough that the zone doesn't create the kind of tension that can keep me interested in the storyline, but it then drags me through that tension-less chore for longer than any other zone in the game expects me to stay within its boarders. If Cataclysm's one-time quests werre like a novel with five chapters, the only one that wouldn't have any kind of suspense or tension would also happen to be the longest one. A lack of tension compared to other parts of the story can make anything seem to drag on, even if it isn't longer than the other parts of the work in question, but Vashj'ir has the double wammy of seeming to drag on due to its lack of tension and actually dragging on because it is so much longer than the other zones. For members of the Horde to get the quest achievement for Vashj'ir, they need to do 25 more quests than they need to to get the achievement for the next longest zone. The Alliance have it even worse, needing to do thirty five more quests to get their achievement, making Vashj'ir almost a third longer than any other zone in Cataclysm for the Alliance. Unbearably long, and boring, to boot. Oy vey.
And then there's the ending of the zone's storyline. I'm not even going to bother talking about that submarine ride that made Crime and Punishment feel like a haiku and forced you to watch the battle as your sub-mates narrated the fact that you were losing because the battle itself was so uninspired in its design that you really can't tell who's winning and who's losing (there's that "telling instead of showing" problem again). Or the inexplicable hole in the bottom of that submarine (or maybe it was a different one; I can't differentiate between the submarines when I remember them) that invites you by its very presence to go for a swim, only to deposit you in the ocean if you should swim too deep, with the submarine moving too quickly for you to catch up and get back in. No, let's just get right to the ending.
After losing the battle, Erunak is pulled into the breach by a mysterious tentacle and your commander follows. Without actually giving you a definite prompt to follow your commander into the Abyssal Maw, the quest simply leaves you outside of the rift, with no one around, abandoning you in the deepest, most desolate part of the most disconnected-from-the-rest-of-the-world zone in the game. It's about as lonely as WoW can possibly make you feel, and that's how this chore of a zone ends: an empty ending to a tension-less story. And if you do follow your commander into the Maw, you have to enter an instance to continue the story. So you are left with an exceptionally unsatisfying ending: you have been defeated in battle, your allies are nowhere to be found, and you have to do an instance to finish the story. If you wanted to move on to the next zone's quests after finishing Vashj'ir, too bad; go into that dungeon and find out what happens!
And speaking of moving on to the next zone, I think I should do that mentally, because all of this accentuating the negative isn't good for my psyche. So let me conclude by saying that if you are still working through Northrend, Outland, or even the remade vanilla content and you still have to make the "Hyjal vs. Vashj'ir" choice, choose Hyjal. The only reason to go to Vashj'ir is for the extra gold, Earthen Ring rep, and quest rewards to disenchant. On Wednesday, shall I move on to Mount Hyjal, and perhaps another zone or two if I don't have enough to say about Mount Hyjal alone.
Apparently, overly opinionated posts criticizing Cataclysm's content are all the rage in the blogosphere these days. Of course, I'm in no position to judge Cataclysm as a whole, which presents a bit of a problem when writing one of those total review posts. I have yet to experience the 5-man content and will probably never experience the raid content, and PvP hasn't interested me in years, so I haven't experienced fighting in Tol Barad, The Battle for Gilneas, or Twin Peaks. What I have experienced is every zone's one-time quests and all of the daily quests (Alliance side, anyway), as well as Archeology, but being that I have already given my thoughts on the latter (though I have taken a decidedly more neutral view on it since then), it is the former to which I shall turn my discerning eye this week. And by discerning, I mean incredibly subjective and opinionated, so get your grain of salt ready before you start reading today.
Got it? Good. Now, I was originally going to write a post about all of the zones, including the daily quests in their own section, but I had so much to say about Vashj'ir that I had to give the zone it's own post, so I plan to put the other zones under the lens on Wednesday. Without further ado, let's get to my very opinionated review of Cataclysm's underwater zone.
It's something of a tradition in video games that if a game contains a water-based level, it's going to be the least fun level in the game. There are many reasons for this: if swimming isn't an integral part of the game otherwise, a physics engine for swimming may need to be thrown together for just that level, which will likely lead to that engine being sub-par due the limited amount of use it will actually get. Breath gauges are also a nuisance, as is the often low visibility in water levels. Blizzard managed to avoid these common pratfalls when they designed Vashj'ir thanks to the fact that WoW has always had swimming, so we are used to navigating water, and thanks to the sea legs buff, which does away with the breath gauge, and the Abyssal Seahorse mount, which largely does away with the limited mobility typical of a virtual aquatic environment. Which is why it's such a shame that Vashj'ir was the zone I liked least out of all of Cataclysm's zones.
Maybe it's the zone's size. Vashj'ir is the only zone in Cataclysm's high level content that had to be split into multiple subzones--and three of them, at that--and moving around in these huge zones became tiresome at times (especially the latter quests in Darkbreak Cove). Maybe it was the lack of any grounding aspect of the zone's storyline. Moving from shelter to shelter without any constant base that could be considered the main outpost of the zone made the whole zone feel very disconnected. Vashj'ir is the only Cataclysm zone (to my knowledge) that will send you to a different part of the zone, depending on where you are in the quest lines, when you use its portal in the capital cities, and that becomes disorienting, especially since the caves all look the same, as do many of the environments, beautiful though they may be. This leads to the zone not having many landmarks that give us a definite sense of where we are, which doesn't help things.
But maybe, just maybe, what makes Vashj'ir so unenjoyable is the impossibility of creating the mood that Vashj'ir is trying to create. From the moment the boat sinks on the ride over, it's clear that Blizzard's intention with Vashj'ir was to create a zone where we are constantly on the run, ducking for cover in an environment where we are out of our element, while being constantly surrounded by foes who would love nothing more than to rip us to shreds. And yet, as they are trying to create that mood, there is nothing preventing me from swimming to the land in the zone, mounting up, and flying out of there, or better yet, hearthstoning back to Stormwind. Was I supposed to be in danger or something?
Now, Mount Hyjal is similar to Vashj'ir in a lot of ways, in that we are constantly moving throughout the zone and the zone tries to create a sense of urgency on the part of the player. I'll go over this zone more in another post, but the reason the creation of tension works in Mount Hyjal and not in Vashj'ir is that Mount Hyjal's tension is much more feasible to maintain. In both zones, the enemy is supposedly right on our doorstep, a threat we need to face immediately. In Mount Hyjal, there are earth elementals right in the front lawn of the zone's main hub, so this sense is created successfully. In Vashj'ir, these enemies are often far away, and though their numbers are supposedly imposing and dangerous, they rarely are if we actually go an have a look at them. In other words, in Mount Hyjal, Blizzard successfully followed the mantra of "show, don't tell", whereas in Vashj'ir, that was not the case.
And as for the sense of urgency, in Hyjal, that sense of urgency is created by the fact that the mountain is on fire. If we leave the zone, it will continue to burn, though we may now be safe. As such, though we can leave the zone and its problems with little difficulty, its conflict still remains. As for Vashj'ir, I get the distinct feeling that the zone is trying to create tension by implying that you yourself are in danger by being stranded in the zone, but if you hearth or fly out, oh look, problem solved! Sure, the soldiers of your faction and the Earthen Ring might still be in trouble, but again, the zone depends too heavily on telling us that our allies are in danger without ever showing us how they are in danger. Do these naga that we need to be afraid of ever storm the caves we get our quests from? Do they send out scouting parties to see if we have become a threat yet? Nope, they just leave us alone, and whatever tension that could be drawn from this situation is diffused by the fact that the zone just tries too hard to create it, breaking the tension by exceeding the capabilities of text-based tension creation.
Then there's the zone's length. It's bad enough that the zone doesn't create the kind of tension that can keep me interested in the storyline, but it then drags me through that tension-less chore for longer than any other zone in the game expects me to stay within its boarders. If Cataclysm's one-time quests werre like a novel with five chapters, the only one that wouldn't have any kind of suspense or tension would also happen to be the longest one. A lack of tension compared to other parts of the story can make anything seem to drag on, even if it isn't longer than the other parts of the work in question, but Vashj'ir has the double wammy of seeming to drag on due to its lack of tension and actually dragging on because it is so much longer than the other zones. For members of the Horde to get the quest achievement for Vashj'ir, they need to do 25 more quests than they need to to get the achievement for the next longest zone. The Alliance have it even worse, needing to do thirty five more quests to get their achievement, making Vashj'ir almost a third longer than any other zone in Cataclysm for the Alliance. Unbearably long, and boring, to boot. Oy vey.
And then there's the ending of the zone's storyline. I'm not even going to bother talking about that submarine ride that made Crime and Punishment feel like a haiku and forced you to watch the battle as your sub-mates narrated the fact that you were losing because the battle itself was so uninspired in its design that you really can't tell who's winning and who's losing (there's that "telling instead of showing" problem again). Or the inexplicable hole in the bottom of that submarine (or maybe it was a different one; I can't differentiate between the submarines when I remember them) that invites you by its very presence to go for a swim, only to deposit you in the ocean if you should swim too deep, with the submarine moving too quickly for you to catch up and get back in. No, let's just get right to the ending.
After losing the battle, Erunak is pulled into the breach by a mysterious tentacle and your commander follows. Without actually giving you a definite prompt to follow your commander into the Abyssal Maw, the quest simply leaves you outside of the rift, with no one around, abandoning you in the deepest, most desolate part of the most disconnected-from-the-rest-of-the-world zone in the game. It's about as lonely as WoW can possibly make you feel, and that's how this chore of a zone ends: an empty ending to a tension-less story. And if you do follow your commander into the Maw, you have to enter an instance to continue the story. So you are left with an exceptionally unsatisfying ending: you have been defeated in battle, your allies are nowhere to be found, and you have to do an instance to finish the story. If you wanted to move on to the next zone's quests after finishing Vashj'ir, too bad; go into that dungeon and find out what happens!
And speaking of moving on to the next zone, I think I should do that mentally, because all of this accentuating the negative isn't good for my psyche. So let me conclude by saying that if you are still working through Northrend, Outland, or even the remade vanilla content and you still have to make the "Hyjal vs. Vashj'ir" choice, choose Hyjal. The only reason to go to Vashj'ir is for the extra gold, Earthen Ring rep, and quest rewards to disenchant. On Wednesday, shall I move on to Mount Hyjal, and perhaps another zone or two if I don't have enough to say about Mount Hyjal alone.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Gnomebliteration as a daily? Not so fast.
Suffice it to say that Gnomebliteration has become one of the most popular one-time quests in Cataclysm's content, and due to other fun quests being made dailies or repeatable quests, many have asked that Gnomebliteration receive the same treatment and be made either a daily quest or a repeatable quest. I myself also had a lot of fun with this quest, (though I had even more fun with the game that probably inspired it, which I highly recommend you check out if you haven't done so) and would love to jump on the "Gnomebliteration for daily!" bandwagon, but I could never let myself do that without really looking at the issue first and deciding whether becoming a daily quest really is the best fate for Gnomebliteration.
Let's get the obvious concern out of the way immediately. Gnomebliteration is a fun quest because there are often large crowds of gnomes or mechanoids to pick up or obliterate. If you had to go around looking for enemies to obliterate, it would not be nearly as fun of a quest. And if the quest were a daily or repeatable quest, you can bet that many people would be doing it at the same time. With a lot of people doing this quest, the number of gnomes and mechanoids to pick up or obliterate would go down significantly, and there goes the fun you might have had otherwise. Now, there are two ways to remedy this issue. One is to make the respawn rate on the gnomes and mechanoids dynamic, making it go up as more people are doing the daily. Considering how many people would probably do this daily at any one time, that would likely result in groups of gnomes spawning ludicrously frequently, with you obliterating some groups more by accident than intentionally when they happened to spawn right in front of you. That would ruin some of the fun of the quest, since the intentional rolling destruction of numerous gnomes is what makes this quest so fun.
The only other option is to give players their own phased environment through which to roll their fusion core. That way, we wouldn't have to compete with anyone else for gnomes to obliterate. Of course, this option is not without its own issues. Part of the fun of Gnomebliteration is seeing other people rolling their fusion cores around and sharing that sense of, "Isn't this so fun?" as you roll past them. And considering how popular this daily would be, I could see it putting a real strain on the servers to maintain that many "instanced" versions of the zone. Perhaps a limit would need to be put on how many people can do the quest as once.
But the biggest risk to making Gnomebliteration a daily is that it would risk losing its appeal. I don't think I need to expend too many words to convince you that, if you do something over and over again, it begins to lose its appeal. The fact that we expect Blizzard to make new content for us, rather than being satisfied with what we had at launch, is proof enough of that fact. And though this quest is without a doubt a cut above the rest, it, too, will begin to lose its appeal if we play it enough times. That is the fate of anything we play too much, not matter how much it may be a cut above the rest of what we play; "Embedded" by Job for a Cowboy is, in my opinion, Rock Band's funnest songs on guitar, and yet I don't play it as often as I used to because, like everything else, familiarity makes it lose its appeal. And if this quest is made into a daily or a repeatable quest, it, too, will lose its appeal.
Of course, you might say, this is all well and good; if players want to replay a quest until they are sick of it, that should be their right. I am inclined to agree, but I don't think Blizzard is, and I can see why. As it stands, if we want to level a new character, we have to go through all of the quests we have already played on our previous character without much deviation. The path we take on our first character won't be much different from the path we take on our second character, and these fun quests provide the high points that make the leveling worth it. If we were able to play them repeatedly, the leveling process would lose those high points that make it bearable for those who don't enjoy leveling new characters all that much, and that would make leveling a new character that much less fun.
So in the end, I say make Gnomebliteration a repeatable quest a la Return to the Abyssal Shelf: one that can be repeated several times a day, but provides no reward of any kind. This way, players can get to replay what is clearly one of the quests they enjoy the most in the whole game, but they'll have no incentive to keep playing it once it stops being completely enjoyable, which means they'll still enjoy when they come to it on a new character. Will Blizzard do it? Probably not, but hope is a free resource.
Let's get the obvious concern out of the way immediately. Gnomebliteration is a fun quest because there are often large crowds of gnomes or mechanoids to pick up or obliterate. If you had to go around looking for enemies to obliterate, it would not be nearly as fun of a quest. And if the quest were a daily or repeatable quest, you can bet that many people would be doing it at the same time. With a lot of people doing this quest, the number of gnomes and mechanoids to pick up or obliterate would go down significantly, and there goes the fun you might have had otherwise. Now, there are two ways to remedy this issue. One is to make the respawn rate on the gnomes and mechanoids dynamic, making it go up as more people are doing the daily. Considering how many people would probably do this daily at any one time, that would likely result in groups of gnomes spawning ludicrously frequently, with you obliterating some groups more by accident than intentionally when they happened to spawn right in front of you. That would ruin some of the fun of the quest, since the intentional rolling destruction of numerous gnomes is what makes this quest so fun.
The only other option is to give players their own phased environment through which to roll their fusion core. That way, we wouldn't have to compete with anyone else for gnomes to obliterate. Of course, this option is not without its own issues. Part of the fun of Gnomebliteration is seeing other people rolling their fusion cores around and sharing that sense of, "Isn't this so fun?" as you roll past them. And considering how popular this daily would be, I could see it putting a real strain on the servers to maintain that many "instanced" versions of the zone. Perhaps a limit would need to be put on how many people can do the quest as once.
But the biggest risk to making Gnomebliteration a daily is that it would risk losing its appeal. I don't think I need to expend too many words to convince you that, if you do something over and over again, it begins to lose its appeal. The fact that we expect Blizzard to make new content for us, rather than being satisfied with what we had at launch, is proof enough of that fact. And though this quest is without a doubt a cut above the rest, it, too, will begin to lose its appeal if we play it enough times. That is the fate of anything we play too much, not matter how much it may be a cut above the rest of what we play; "Embedded" by Job for a Cowboy is, in my opinion, Rock Band's funnest songs on guitar, and yet I don't play it as often as I used to because, like everything else, familiarity makes it lose its appeal. And if this quest is made into a daily or a repeatable quest, it, too, will lose its appeal.
Of course, you might say, this is all well and good; if players want to replay a quest until they are sick of it, that should be their right. I am inclined to agree, but I don't think Blizzard is, and I can see why. As it stands, if we want to level a new character, we have to go through all of the quests we have already played on our previous character without much deviation. The path we take on our first character won't be much different from the path we take on our second character, and these fun quests provide the high points that make the leveling worth it. If we were able to play them repeatedly, the leveling process would lose those high points that make it bearable for those who don't enjoy leveling new characters all that much, and that would make leveling a new character that much less fun.
So in the end, I say make Gnomebliteration a repeatable quest a la Return to the Abyssal Shelf: one that can be repeated several times a day, but provides no reward of any kind. This way, players can get to replay what is clearly one of the quests they enjoy the most in the whole game, but they'll have no incentive to keep playing it once it stops being completely enjoyable, which means they'll still enjoy when they come to it on a new character. Will Blizzard do it? Probably not, but hope is a free resource.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Zone replay in WoW?
I was hit by a sudden realization today regarding WoW's solo content. In contemplating the "daily grind" I have returned to (a term I coined a bit over a year ago to describe the repetitive ritual of doing the same daily quests every day), I thought about methods that other games have used to remain interesting after being completed out of hopes that the lessons learned from these other games could be applied to WoW. Thinking about this took some time, for my stingy-ness regarding buying new games and my recent penchant for open-ended games (the last four games that have held my attention for any extended period of time were WoW, Rock Band 3, Minecraft, and Rock Band 2) means it has been some time since I played a typical game that could be "beaten" in any conventional sense. But when I looked back upon the games I have played which I was able to "beat" and continued playing, I realized that most of the time, I was simply playing these games multiple times all the way through, occasionally with some sort of "New Game Plus" bonus.
Thinking back, I realized that this was how I milked most of my old games for more play time once I had finished them; I simply played them again. Yet when I looked at WoW, I realized that there is no such simple "play the game again" feature. There is no way to replay entire zones that you enjoyed, unless you level an alt and do the whole level grind over again, a daunting thought for such a huge game (especially when some zones are horribly behind others in terms of their design philosophy). Outside of rolling a new alt, there is simply no way to experience WoW's solo content more than once.
And the truth is, I see the option to roll and alt and experience the whole game again as a less-than-optimal way to give players the option to replay the game. Why? An argument for this method would say that it is equivalent to starting a new save file in a console game, but that analogy doesn't really work, because WoW is no longer equivalent to one game. It is now equivalent to several, and forcing players to start from the beginning if they wish to re-experience a part of the game is equivalent to making them play multiple games in order to replay the one they like. Let me elaborate. In the beginning, there was vanilla WoW, which was equivalent to one game (we'll call that game WoW 1). Then Burning Crusade was released. Because we had to pay extra money for Burning Crusade, it was equivalent to another game (WoW 2), and ditto for Wrath of the Lich King (WoW 3). Cataclysm is an interesting case, because we got all of the new 80-85 content (WoW 4), as well as the remake of old-world Azeroth (a remake of WoW 1).
To provide an analogy, look at the side-scrolling Metroid Games. You had Metroid, released in 1986 on the NES; Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, released in 1991 on the Game Boy; Super Metroid, released in 1994 on the SNES, and Metroid Fusion, released in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance, all of which were chronologically related to each other in terms of story and all of which were great technological improvements over their predecessors, much like WoW and its expansion packs. But after Metroid Fusion was released, a game called Metroid: Zero Mission was released, which was a remake of the original Metroid that brought it up to speed with the technological advancements made after the original Metroid was released. Cataclysm is the equivalent of a game that packages Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission together, in that we have an advances fourth entry in the series, as well as an advanced remake of the first entry, while the second and third are still behind the other two in terms of how technologically advanced they are.
Why do I make this analogy? I make it because I think forcing WoW players to play through the updated Vanilla content, Burning Crusade's content, and Wrath of the Lich King's content before they can replay Cataclysm's content is equivalent to forcing a Metroid fan to play through Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, and Super Metroid before being able to replay Metroid Fusion, which just wouldn't be fair. Now, when you apply this analogy practically, it makes it seem like I am suggesting that people should be able to skip entire expansion packs when they roll a new character, which is not what I mean to suggest at all (although Death Knights can already do that, but they start out right in the least-advanced content, which is hardly an ideal skip). What I am saying is that the precedent set by other games makes it seem unfair that we should have to play through all of that old content just to replay the new content we enjoy.
It was at this part in my thought that I was hit with an idea: what if we could replay entire zones? What if we could go through a zone again and play through it's one-time quests a second, third, maybe even fourth time, and the longevity of the solo content could be extended that way? The precedent for it exists with the Caverns of Time; major villains could be replaced with members of the Infinite Dragonflight with similar abilities, and occasionally, a quest giver could be replaced by a member of the Keepers of Time. Or perhaps there could be one quest-giver from the Keepers of Time who gives a bread-crumb quest that starts you off in each zone. These quest-givers could be set up near the portals in Stormwind and Ogrimmar, and they could get their own portals that would lead to past versions of each zone. Thus these "replay zones" would be their own separate zones, allowing Blizzard to put in quests that wouldn't award items (to avoid flooding the dust/essence/shard market) or reputation (to avoid making faction rep too easy to farm), both of which would make sense due to the fact that you aren't actually doing anything to help any of the zones you play through again. To keep the sense of shared questing, the game could also show other players replaying the zones alongside you, preventing it from becoming a lonely experience.
What purpose would these replay zones fulfill? Aside from allowing players to play through a zone again without needing to level a character through old content, the quests in these zones could also award money, making them an alternative to the "daily grind" we have now. Because there are countless more one-time quests than there are dailies, this would probably be a more interesting experience than the dailies we have now, and would make it take longer for players to get bored with Cataclysm's high-level solo content (of course, the dailies would stay around to help players earn reputation). Perhaps they could also award reputation with a new faction comprised of members of the Keepers of Time, giving solo players something else to work towards. They would also allow players to re-experience key moments in the evolving storyline of WoW (in case they missed them the first time around), as well as give Blizzard an idea of what works in questing and what doesn't by allowing them to see which zones players replay the most.
But really, the important point is that these replay zones would allow players to experience the best of currently available content without needing to replay the old content. Raiders who roll a new character don't need to run Molten Core, Black Temple, Ulduar, etc. with that character before they can run Cataclysm's raid content, so it seems a bit silly to force us to experience old solo content more than once when we just want to re-experience the relevant, not-behind-the-times-in-design-philosophy content.
Thinking back, I realized that this was how I milked most of my old games for more play time once I had finished them; I simply played them again. Yet when I looked at WoW, I realized that there is no such simple "play the game again" feature. There is no way to replay entire zones that you enjoyed, unless you level an alt and do the whole level grind over again, a daunting thought for such a huge game (especially when some zones are horribly behind others in terms of their design philosophy). Outside of rolling a new alt, there is simply no way to experience WoW's solo content more than once.
And the truth is, I see the option to roll and alt and experience the whole game again as a less-than-optimal way to give players the option to replay the game. Why? An argument for this method would say that it is equivalent to starting a new save file in a console game, but that analogy doesn't really work, because WoW is no longer equivalent to one game. It is now equivalent to several, and forcing players to start from the beginning if they wish to re-experience a part of the game is equivalent to making them play multiple games in order to replay the one they like. Let me elaborate. In the beginning, there was vanilla WoW, which was equivalent to one game (we'll call that game WoW 1). Then Burning Crusade was released. Because we had to pay extra money for Burning Crusade, it was equivalent to another game (WoW 2), and ditto for Wrath of the Lich King (WoW 3). Cataclysm is an interesting case, because we got all of the new 80-85 content (WoW 4), as well as the remake of old-world Azeroth (a remake of WoW 1).
To provide an analogy, look at the side-scrolling Metroid Games. You had Metroid, released in 1986 on the NES; Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, released in 1991 on the Game Boy; Super Metroid, released in 1994 on the SNES, and Metroid Fusion, released in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance, all of which were chronologically related to each other in terms of story and all of which were great technological improvements over their predecessors, much like WoW and its expansion packs. But after Metroid Fusion was released, a game called Metroid: Zero Mission was released, which was a remake of the original Metroid that brought it up to speed with the technological advancements made after the original Metroid was released. Cataclysm is the equivalent of a game that packages Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission together, in that we have an advances fourth entry in the series, as well as an advanced remake of the first entry, while the second and third are still behind the other two in terms of how technologically advanced they are.
Why do I make this analogy? I make it because I think forcing WoW players to play through the updated Vanilla content, Burning Crusade's content, and Wrath of the Lich King's content before they can replay Cataclysm's content is equivalent to forcing a Metroid fan to play through Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, and Super Metroid before being able to replay Metroid Fusion, which just wouldn't be fair. Now, when you apply this analogy practically, it makes it seem like I am suggesting that people should be able to skip entire expansion packs when they roll a new character, which is not what I mean to suggest at all (although Death Knights can already do that, but they start out right in the least-advanced content, which is hardly an ideal skip). What I am saying is that the precedent set by other games makes it seem unfair that we should have to play through all of that old content just to replay the new content we enjoy.
It was at this part in my thought that I was hit with an idea: what if we could replay entire zones? What if we could go through a zone again and play through it's one-time quests a second, third, maybe even fourth time, and the longevity of the solo content could be extended that way? The precedent for it exists with the Caverns of Time; major villains could be replaced with members of the Infinite Dragonflight with similar abilities, and occasionally, a quest giver could be replaced by a member of the Keepers of Time. Or perhaps there could be one quest-giver from the Keepers of Time who gives a bread-crumb quest that starts you off in each zone. These quest-givers could be set up near the portals in Stormwind and Ogrimmar, and they could get their own portals that would lead to past versions of each zone. Thus these "replay zones" would be their own separate zones, allowing Blizzard to put in quests that wouldn't award items (to avoid flooding the dust/essence/shard market) or reputation (to avoid making faction rep too easy to farm), both of which would make sense due to the fact that you aren't actually doing anything to help any of the zones you play through again. To keep the sense of shared questing, the game could also show other players replaying the zones alongside you, preventing it from becoming a lonely experience.
What purpose would these replay zones fulfill? Aside from allowing players to play through a zone again without needing to level a character through old content, the quests in these zones could also award money, making them an alternative to the "daily grind" we have now. Because there are countless more one-time quests than there are dailies, this would probably be a more interesting experience than the dailies we have now, and would make it take longer for players to get bored with Cataclysm's high-level solo content (of course, the dailies would stay around to help players earn reputation). Perhaps they could also award reputation with a new faction comprised of members of the Keepers of Time, giving solo players something else to work towards. They would also allow players to re-experience key moments in the evolving storyline of WoW (in case they missed them the first time around), as well as give Blizzard an idea of what works in questing and what doesn't by allowing them to see which zones players replay the most.
But really, the important point is that these replay zones would allow players to experience the best of currently available content without needing to replay the old content. Raiders who roll a new character don't need to run Molten Core, Black Temple, Ulduar, etc. with that character before they can run Cataclysm's raid content, so it seems a bit silly to force us to experience old solo content more than once when we just want to re-experience the relevant, not-behind-the-times-in-design-philosophy content.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Reader census, redux
Back when my blog was just starting to become noticed, I did a poll asking my readers what they spent most of their time doing in-game, what their main focus was. Did they spend most of their time raiding, for example? Or did they prefer battlegrounds, or perhaps leveling alts. I did this to get a better idea of what kind of advice posts I should write, back when I wrote those regularly. I later realized something which caused me to post a second poll of a similar nature, and that something I realized was that some players might have resigned themselves to certain activities because the activity they enjoy hasn't been fleshed out by the developers. I, for example, spent much time leveling alts in the days of Wrath of the Lich King because I enjoyed questing and solo-ing, but the solo content at the level cap grew pretty stale over time due to the fact that no good solo content (in my opinion) was added after Wrath came out (I didn't care much for the Argent Tournament). So I added a second poll asking people what they would spend most of their time doing if all parts of the game were given equal development effort and were equally fleshed out, interesting, and rewarding.
The problem was that I added this poll well after the first poll had gone up, so the population (to use the statistical term) surveyed by each poll was not consistent. This meant that disparities between the two polls could have been explained by a different subset of players voting once the second poll went up, rather than by legitimate disparities between what players spent their time doing and what they enjoyed most. There were also flaws with the way I picked the choices for the poll, such as the fact that I included "leveling alts" as one choice, a choice which I later realized told us nothing about how people chose to level their alts, which they could do with quests, dungeons, or battlegrounds. With Cataclysm changing the face of WoW so extensively, that could also have changed people's choices.
It is with all that in mind that I post these new polls now. The first poll is simply asking, what do you spend most of your time doing when you are playing WoW? Pretty simple, I think. The second poll might be a bit more confusing, so let me give it a bit more exposition. If all parts of WoW received equal development time and were equally fleshed out, interesting, and rewarding, what would you spend most of your time doing? Would you stop leveling alts and focus on your main now that the level cap actually had interesting solo content? Would you leave the raiding scene for the less stressful scene of heroics? Or would you remain where you are because the part of the game you currently play either does receive this kind of attention or because you just enjoy it that much?
If you would like to say why your answers on the two polls are the same or are different, I encourage you to do so in the comments section of this post.
The problem was that I added this poll well after the first poll had gone up, so the population (to use the statistical term) surveyed by each poll was not consistent. This meant that disparities between the two polls could have been explained by a different subset of players voting once the second poll went up, rather than by legitimate disparities between what players spent their time doing and what they enjoyed most. There were also flaws with the way I picked the choices for the poll, such as the fact that I included "leveling alts" as one choice, a choice which I later realized told us nothing about how people chose to level their alts, which they could do with quests, dungeons, or battlegrounds. With Cataclysm changing the face of WoW so extensively, that could also have changed people's choices.
It is with all that in mind that I post these new polls now. The first poll is simply asking, what do you spend most of your time doing when you are playing WoW? Pretty simple, I think. The second poll might be a bit more confusing, so let me give it a bit more exposition. If all parts of WoW received equal development time and were equally fleshed out, interesting, and rewarding, what would you spend most of your time doing? Would you stop leveling alts and focus on your main now that the level cap actually had interesting solo content? Would you leave the raiding scene for the less stressful scene of heroics? Or would you remain where you are because the part of the game you currently play either does receive this kind of attention or because you just enjoy it that much?
If you would like to say why your answers on the two polls are the same or are different, I encourage you to do so in the comments section of this post.
Friday, January 14, 2011
The lonely journey to the top
About five days ago, I earned Loremaster of Cataclysm, thus, for all intents and purposes, beating Cataclysm's solo content. I have done every quest I could find in Mount Hyjal, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Uldum, and the Twilight Highlands, and in doing those quests, I noticed a particular absence, something missing that was once an integral part of the questing landscape. I noticed it in the way that I progress swiftly and almost effortlessly (comparatively, at least) through Cataclysm's zones. I noticed it in the way that I didn't need much help as I went through doing the quests. I noticed it in the way that I said nothing in general chat other than occasionally answering other players' questions about the new quests. That absence was the absence of group quests.
You remember group quests, I'm sure--those quests that recommended you bring an ally or two along with you to take down the baddie in question. They peppered the landscape throughout WoW's history, especially in Icecrown, and we had to group up with other players to do them. Yet it seems, if memory serves me correctly, that outside of the first few months of any given content's lifespan, there weren't many groups to do these quests with. In any given zone, I might have gotten lucky and found someone else willing to do them with me, but for the most part, I remember either trying to do those quests on my own (and learning ways to push each class to its limit as a result), or just skipping over them entirely. Thus these quests weren't, for me at least, group quests, so much as they were really challenging solo quests.
Now, this wasn't really a tragedy, because some of my proudest moments while leveling have been taking down the elites required for these group quests without the help of a group. Those were the true epic moments of my solo play, the moments that rivaled my memories of raiding in terms of satisfaction and challenge. Those battles were long and difficult, like raid fights, and required me to use all of the tricks that I could to take down these elite opponents. In the way that raids require raiders to maximize their awareness, their damage, their efficiency, these group quests required me to maximize my survivability, and I quite enjoyed them for that.
But while Cataclysm may lack group quests, it is not lacking in elite quests--quests where you take down an elite opponent--but these elite quests are a little different. Unlike the elite quests of yore, which were synonymous with group quests, these quests are fully designed to be accomplished on one's own. Yes, you do fight an elite opponent with a ridiculously large health pool, and these battles often go on for a good deal longer than most other battles, but unlike most elite enemies, these enemies will not kill you before you've taken away even a chunk of their health. Some of them are designed to have avoidable attacks, while others are fought while an NPC ally acts as the tank, thus you yourself take little damage. These kinds of quests peppered the Cataclysm questing landscape, and I'm pretty sure they were designed with the specific intention of taking the place of group quests.
Do they succeed in this regard? The answer to that question depends on whether they can accomplish the same thing group quests were originally designed to accomplish. Group quests, when I could actually get a group together for them, had an epic feel to them because I was taking down an enemy who was many times bigger or more powerful than me, and they also gave a bit of experience with the dynamics of grouping (tanking, healing, threat, etc.). Do Cataclysm's elite quests hold up to those parameters? They certainly feel epic, and they provide a very satisfying conclusion to whatever quests they end. But what about teaching group dynamics? You may not learn tanking or healing from these quests, but they do have some pretty sneaky ways of teaching you other important aspects of group content. In killing Skullcrusher the Mountain, you are encouraged to run around activating various relics which give you and your allies buffs to help you fight Skullcrusher, and you also have to right-click your fallen allies to revive them. This teaches you that you do need to do things other than attacking your target in order to succeed in a group environment. The fight against the Obsidian Colossus in Uldum teaches you how to not stand in the fire, as does the fight against Barron Geddon in Hyjal. These are things the old group quests didn't often teach, so I'd say that Cataclysm's elite quests teaching them to new players is an improvement.
But where these two kinds of quests differ most, and where Cataclysm's elite quests are much stronger than the previous expansion's group quests, in my opinion, is that two or three years from now, when most of the players are off questing in whatever new zones we find ourselves in in the next expansion pack, if you decide to level an alt and you find yourself in one of Cataclysm's zones, you will be able to complete these elite quests in spite of the fact that you will be one of three of four people in the zone (and probably the only person in the phase you are currently in). As it stood in the days of group quests, if you couldn't complete a group quest on your own (which, if you were the appropriate level for a zone, theoretically, you shouldn't have been able to), you would simply be unable to complete that quest, and if that quest should happen to advance the story of the zone, too bad; you'd just have to make up the rest. With Cataclysm's group quests, though, since they never required a group in the first place, players will be able to complete them well after Cataclysm's zones have been abandoned.
When you consider Cataclysm's linear quest-design structure (a structure which I don't mind and actually support), it really is a necessity for the elite quests to not require groups. If these quests did require groups and you couldn't complete one due to being unable to form a group, you would either be stuck in a zone's progression and be unable to continue, or you would have to leave the quest undone as you enter a new phase. The former possibility makes the solo content unplayable, and the latter makes certain quests become unavailable to players, something which they wouldn't be very appreciative of. So instead, we are left with group quests becoming something seen very rarely in Cataclysm. The only group quests we have now are dailies, which people will probably continue to do for a very long time (due to their being level-cap dailies), but can still be solo'ed pretty easily, and the Crucible of Carnage chain, which was probably added more out of tradition than anything else. Thus we are left with the conclusions that there really are no proper group quests in Cataclysm other than the Crucible of Carnage, which is it's own stand-alone quest-line and thus doesn't pose the potential issues brought up above, and for the reasons I have mentioned in this post, I don't mind that fact.
You remember group quests, I'm sure--those quests that recommended you bring an ally or two along with you to take down the baddie in question. They peppered the landscape throughout WoW's history, especially in Icecrown, and we had to group up with other players to do them. Yet it seems, if memory serves me correctly, that outside of the first few months of any given content's lifespan, there weren't many groups to do these quests with. In any given zone, I might have gotten lucky and found someone else willing to do them with me, but for the most part, I remember either trying to do those quests on my own (and learning ways to push each class to its limit as a result), or just skipping over them entirely. Thus these quests weren't, for me at least, group quests, so much as they were really challenging solo quests.
Now, this wasn't really a tragedy, because some of my proudest moments while leveling have been taking down the elites required for these group quests without the help of a group. Those were the true epic moments of my solo play, the moments that rivaled my memories of raiding in terms of satisfaction and challenge. Those battles were long and difficult, like raid fights, and required me to use all of the tricks that I could to take down these elite opponents. In the way that raids require raiders to maximize their awareness, their damage, their efficiency, these group quests required me to maximize my survivability, and I quite enjoyed them for that.
But while Cataclysm may lack group quests, it is not lacking in elite quests--quests where you take down an elite opponent--but these elite quests are a little different. Unlike the elite quests of yore, which were synonymous with group quests, these quests are fully designed to be accomplished on one's own. Yes, you do fight an elite opponent with a ridiculously large health pool, and these battles often go on for a good deal longer than most other battles, but unlike most elite enemies, these enemies will not kill you before you've taken away even a chunk of their health. Some of them are designed to have avoidable attacks, while others are fought while an NPC ally acts as the tank, thus you yourself take little damage. These kinds of quests peppered the Cataclysm questing landscape, and I'm pretty sure they were designed with the specific intention of taking the place of group quests.
Do they succeed in this regard? The answer to that question depends on whether they can accomplish the same thing group quests were originally designed to accomplish. Group quests, when I could actually get a group together for them, had an epic feel to them because I was taking down an enemy who was many times bigger or more powerful than me, and they also gave a bit of experience with the dynamics of grouping (tanking, healing, threat, etc.). Do Cataclysm's elite quests hold up to those parameters? They certainly feel epic, and they provide a very satisfying conclusion to whatever quests they end. But what about teaching group dynamics? You may not learn tanking or healing from these quests, but they do have some pretty sneaky ways of teaching you other important aspects of group content. In killing Skullcrusher the Mountain, you are encouraged to run around activating various relics which give you and your allies buffs to help you fight Skullcrusher, and you also have to right-click your fallen allies to revive them. This teaches you that you do need to do things other than attacking your target in order to succeed in a group environment. The fight against the Obsidian Colossus in Uldum teaches you how to not stand in the fire, as does the fight against Barron Geddon in Hyjal. These are things the old group quests didn't often teach, so I'd say that Cataclysm's elite quests teaching them to new players is an improvement.
But where these two kinds of quests differ most, and where Cataclysm's elite quests are much stronger than the previous expansion's group quests, in my opinion, is that two or three years from now, when most of the players are off questing in whatever new zones we find ourselves in in the next expansion pack, if you decide to level an alt and you find yourself in one of Cataclysm's zones, you will be able to complete these elite quests in spite of the fact that you will be one of three of four people in the zone (and probably the only person in the phase you are currently in). As it stood in the days of group quests, if you couldn't complete a group quest on your own (which, if you were the appropriate level for a zone, theoretically, you shouldn't have been able to), you would simply be unable to complete that quest, and if that quest should happen to advance the story of the zone, too bad; you'd just have to make up the rest. With Cataclysm's group quests, though, since they never required a group in the first place, players will be able to complete them well after Cataclysm's zones have been abandoned.
When you consider Cataclysm's linear quest-design structure (a structure which I don't mind and actually support), it really is a necessity for the elite quests to not require groups. If these quests did require groups and you couldn't complete one due to being unable to form a group, you would either be stuck in a zone's progression and be unable to continue, or you would have to leave the quest undone as you enter a new phase. The former possibility makes the solo content unplayable, and the latter makes certain quests become unavailable to players, something which they wouldn't be very appreciative of. So instead, we are left with group quests becoming something seen very rarely in Cataclysm. The only group quests we have now are dailies, which people will probably continue to do for a very long time (due to their being level-cap dailies), but can still be solo'ed pretty easily, and the Crucible of Carnage chain, which was probably added more out of tradition than anything else. Thus we are left with the conclusions that there really are no proper group quests in Cataclysm other than the Crucible of Carnage, which is it's own stand-alone quest-line and thus doesn't pose the potential issues brought up above, and for the reasons I have mentioned in this post, I don't mind that fact.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
How to gear up a druid at level 85 without entering an instance
Way back in the days of Wrath of the Lich King, I wrote a post about how to gear up a druid without entering an instance due to my own aversion to dungeons and my hesitance to rely on random drops to gear up. Well, now that Cataclysm has gotten underway, I thought I'd write a similar post for this expansion pack. This post is a collection your options for gearing up a Druid before you set foot in any 5-mans. Keep in mind that some slots don't have very good options, and you are probably better served getting gear for those slots from 5-mans themselves, but I included your options for those slots here just for completion's sake. Like last time, I will give you multiple options for each slot so you can pick the one that best suits you. Since balance druids can dip into resto's sections'for spirit pieces with the talent Balance of Power and the two feral druids share many pieces, I tried to avoid redundancy when there are actually different options for each one. In those cases, if you don't like any of the suggestions for your spec, check your corresponding partner spec's section for other options.
Weapon(s):
Balance: Beak of Julak-Doom (drop from a specific rare mob, most likely to be found on the AH), Insidious Staff (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Elementium Spellblade (blacksmithing), Very Manly Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands) Staff of Solemn Secrecy (world drop)
Feral (tank): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop, most likely to be found on the AH), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Elementium Hammer (blacksmithing), Shimmering Morningstar (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Gurgthock's Garish Gorebat (quest in Twilight Highlands), Mace of Apotheosis (world drop)
Off-hand:
Balance: Dungeoneering Guide (inscription), Skyflight Beacon/Air Raid Beacon (quest in Twilight Highlands) Book of Origination (dungeon drop, look on AH)
Resto: Heartbound Tome (world drop), Divine Companion (inscription) Bone-Inlaid Sarcophagus Key (world drop)
Idol:
Balance: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)
Feral (tank): Halted Clock (world drop), Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Feral (DPS): Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Resto: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)
Head:
Balance: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Hood of Lost Solitude (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Wax-Filled Hood/Mechano-Assembler Headguard (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Neck:
Balance: Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Charm of the Muse (dungeon drop), Eye of Many Deaths (jewelcrafting)
Feral (tank): Elementium Guardian (jewelcrafting), Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (DPS): Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered), Barnacle Pendant (dungeon drop), Brazen Elementium Medallion or Entwined Elementium Choker (jewelcrafting), Nightrend Choker (world drop), Pendant of Victorious Fury (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Acanthia's Lost Pendant (dungeon drop), Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Pendant of Elemental Balance (Earthen Ring, honored)
Shoulders:
Balance: Spaulders of Rolling Incineration (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Mantle of Wild Feathers/Spaulders of the Endless Plains (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored)
Back:
Balance: Ritssyn's Ruminous Drape (world drop), Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (tank): Zom's Electrostatic Cloak (world drop), Twilight Dragonscale Cloak (leatherworking), Shroud of Dark Memories (dungeon drop)
Feral (DPS): Razor-Edged Cloak (leatherworking)
Resto: Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Chest:
Balance: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking)
Feral (tank): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (DPS): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Resto: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking), Robes of the Loving Ursine (world drop), Wrap of the Fallen City (quest in Uldum)
Wrist:
Balance: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Flarefire Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Whirlpool Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Flarefire Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Hands:
Balance: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (tank): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Waist:
Balance: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)
Feral (tank): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)
Legs:
Balance: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (tank): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feet:
Balance: Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)
Feral (tank): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots (drop from a specific rare mob), Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)
Rings:
Balance: Band of Singing Grass/Band of Lamentation (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, revered), Diamant's Ring of Temperance (Therazane, revered), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting), Abandoned Dark Iron Ring (dungeon drop)
Feral (tank): Felsen's Ring of Resolve (Therazane, revered), Red Rock Band (Ramkahen, revered), Elementium Moebius Band (jewelcrafting)
Feral (DPS): Terrath's Signet of Balance (Therazane, revered), Band of Blades and/or Elementium Destroyer's Ring (jewelcrafting)
Resto: Ring of the Great Whale (dungeon drop), Ammunae's Blessing (Ramkahen, honored), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting)
Trinkets:
Balance: Stump of Time (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Volcano (completing the Volcanic Deck), Talisman of Sinister Order (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Mirror of Broken Images (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Earthquake (completing the Earthquake Deck)
Feral (DPS): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Impatience of Youth (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Hurricane (completing the Hurricane Deck) Schnotzz's Medallion of Command (quest in Uldum)
Resto: Mandala of Stirring Patterns (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Tsunami (completing the Tsunami Deck), Rainsong (dungeon drop)
Weapon(s):
Balance: Beak of Julak-Doom (drop from a specific rare mob, most likely to be found on the AH), Insidious Staff (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Elementium Spellblade (blacksmithing), Very Manly Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands) Staff of Solemn Secrecy (world drop)
Feral (tank): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop, most likely to be found on the AH), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Elementium Hammer (blacksmithing), Shimmering Morningstar (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Gurgthock's Garish Gorebat (quest in Twilight Highlands), Mace of Apotheosis (world drop)
Off-hand:
Balance: Dungeoneering Guide (inscription), Skyflight Beacon/Air Raid Beacon (quest in Twilight Highlands) Book of Origination (dungeon drop, look on AH)
Resto: Heartbound Tome (world drop), Divine Companion (inscription) Bone-Inlaid Sarcophagus Key (world drop)
Idol:
Balance: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)
Feral (tank): Halted Clock (world drop), Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Feral (DPS): Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Resto: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)
Head:
Balance: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Hood of Lost Solitude (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Wax-Filled Hood/Mechano-Assembler Headguard (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Neck:
Balance: Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Charm of the Muse (dungeon drop), Eye of Many Deaths (jewelcrafting)
Feral (tank): Elementium Guardian (jewelcrafting), Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (DPS): Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered), Barnacle Pendant (dungeon drop), Brazen Elementium Medallion or Entwined Elementium Choker (jewelcrafting), Nightrend Choker (world drop), Pendant of Victorious Fury (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Acanthia's Lost Pendant (dungeon drop), Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Pendant of Elemental Balance (Earthen Ring, honored)
Shoulders:
Balance: Spaulders of Rolling Incineration (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Mantle of Wild Feathers/Spaulders of the Endless Plains (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored)
Back:
Balance: Ritssyn's Ruminous Drape (world drop), Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (tank): Zom's Electrostatic Cloak (world drop), Twilight Dragonscale Cloak (leatherworking), Shroud of Dark Memories (dungeon drop)
Feral (DPS): Razor-Edged Cloak (leatherworking)
Resto: Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Chest:
Balance: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking)
Feral (tank): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (DPS): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Resto: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking), Robes of the Loving Ursine (world drop), Wrap of the Fallen City (quest in Uldum)
Wrist:
Balance: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Flarefire Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Whirlpool Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Flarefire Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Hands:
Balance: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (tank): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Waist:
Balance: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)
Feral (tank): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)
Legs:
Balance: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (tank): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feet:
Balance: Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)
Feral (tank): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots (drop from a specific rare mob), Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)
Rings:
Balance: Band of Singing Grass/Band of Lamentation (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, revered), Diamant's Ring of Temperance (Therazane, revered), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting), Abandoned Dark Iron Ring (dungeon drop)
Feral (tank): Felsen's Ring of Resolve (Therazane, revered), Red Rock Band (Ramkahen, revered), Elementium Moebius Band (jewelcrafting)
Feral (DPS): Terrath's Signet of Balance (Therazane, revered), Band of Blades and/or Elementium Destroyer's Ring (jewelcrafting)
Resto: Ring of the Great Whale (dungeon drop), Ammunae's Blessing (Ramkahen, honored), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting)
Trinkets:
Balance: Stump of Time (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Volcano (completing the Volcanic Deck), Talisman of Sinister Order (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Mirror of Broken Images (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Earthquake (completing the Earthquake Deck)
Feral (DPS): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Impatience of Youth (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Hurricane (completing the Hurricane Deck) Schnotzz's Medallion of Command (quest in Uldum)
Resto: Mandala of Stirring Patterns (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Tsunami (completing the Tsunami Deck), Rainsong (dungeon drop)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Speak up, Ramkahen!
It seems Uldum has become the new acceptable target for the blogosphere. From my own post on the motivation dissonance of the place to Spinksville's post on the zone to Murloc Parliament's post about keeping Nazi's out of WoW, there are plenty of negative opinions going on about poor ol' Uldum. Now, I for one found the zone to be pretty enjoyable (though it did have two bad cases of "incomplete storyline" syndrome due to questlines continuing into dungeons); though some people would prefer that WoW take itself more seriously and not reference pop culture as much as it does, I, for one, enjoyed the Harrison Jones quest line. But as for the Ramkahen questline, I found myself decidedly unopinionated. There was nothing wrong with the quests themselves, as far as I'm concerned, but they all felt a little bit empty. And upon reflection, I think they felt empty because I really didn't care all that much about the Ramkahen themselves.
From the beginning of Uldum, the Ramkahen aren't really given much of an introduction. Here is this new race of beings that we have never encountered before, entrenched in a war we have no context for, and upon helping one of them escape the same prison we find ourselves in (one I was able to fly in and out of with no difficulty), we immediately side with them and help them fight their conflict. Yet several questions are left unanswered before we start helping them. Who are these cat people? Where did they come from? Why are they fighting who they are fighting? The exposition on the Ramkahen is decidedly sparse, and though we get some idea of who they are as we fight for them, they never really struck me as sentient beings. Oh sure, they give us quests, buy and sell things to us, and even speak in cutscenes, but something about the Ramkahen prevented me from conceptualizing them as people (by the loosest definition of the term; in fact, let's just go with "humanoids". Something that had made me able to empathize with Sporeggar, with the Sons of Hodir, and with other clearly non-human factions was missing in the case of the Ramkahen.
Maybe it was their models; the Ramkahen's bodies just don't look at all natural to me. I find them to be too top heavy; whenever I look at one, he looks like there should be no way for him to support himself, especially with all their support centered behind their torso due to their centaur-like structure. Their animations don't seem all that natural, either; when they move, a whole lot of their body stays still, and they seem to glide rather than walk or run. But even greater than these issues I have with the models is how difficult it is to see their faces. The face is where we look when we are trying to connect with another human, and something about the Ramkahen's models make finding that face and connecting with it difficult. Maybe it's the absence of any perceivable neck, or even a distinct head. Whatever it is, whenever I looked at the Ramkahen with my camera zoomed out to a normal distance, I just saw a body, with no real face or head to speak of. Sure, they're creations of the titans who probably fell victim to the curse of the flesh, and if they were created by the titans rather than natural selection, it might be permissible for them to have body structure that isn't exactly natural. But Dwarves and Gnomes are in the same boat in terms of being titan creations that fell victim to the curse of the flesh, and they look natural enough.
But even worse than their models, even worse than the fact that they come right out of nowhere and we are expected to accept them and ally with them, is the fact that they are completely silent. I don't mean that they never communicate with us; they certainly do, with their quests and all. What I mean is that they never make any audible sounds. I just have no idea what a member of the Ramkahen sounds like. Even in battle, they make no sounds other than the clang of their weapons. No grunts, no utterations of any kind, just their silent existence. Most other friendly NPCs make some sort of noise when you click on them, but the Ramkahen do not, and I never realized how important those simple sounds were until I clicked on the members of Ramkahen and got nothing. When the game featured that cutscene of the three advisers talking to the king, I had no idea what kind of voice to put to those words because I had no idea what the Ramkahen sounded like. And with no voice to put to their words, they seemed much less human...oid to me. If anything, they seem more like Beasts, and I just can't conceptualize a faction of beasts.
From the beginning of Uldum, the Ramkahen aren't really given much of an introduction. Here is this new race of beings that we have never encountered before, entrenched in a war we have no context for, and upon helping one of them escape the same prison we find ourselves in (one I was able to fly in and out of with no difficulty), we immediately side with them and help them fight their conflict. Yet several questions are left unanswered before we start helping them. Who are these cat people? Where did they come from? Why are they fighting who they are fighting? The exposition on the Ramkahen is decidedly sparse, and though we get some idea of who they are as we fight for them, they never really struck me as sentient beings. Oh sure, they give us quests, buy and sell things to us, and even speak in cutscenes, but something about the Ramkahen prevented me from conceptualizing them as people (by the loosest definition of the term; in fact, let's just go with "humanoids". Something that had made me able to empathize with Sporeggar, with the Sons of Hodir, and with other clearly non-human factions was missing in the case of the Ramkahen.
Maybe it was their models; the Ramkahen's bodies just don't look at all natural to me. I find them to be too top heavy; whenever I look at one, he looks like there should be no way for him to support himself, especially with all their support centered behind their torso due to their centaur-like structure. Their animations don't seem all that natural, either; when they move, a whole lot of their body stays still, and they seem to glide rather than walk or run. But even greater than these issues I have with the models is how difficult it is to see their faces. The face is where we look when we are trying to connect with another human, and something about the Ramkahen's models make finding that face and connecting with it difficult. Maybe it's the absence of any perceivable neck, or even a distinct head. Whatever it is, whenever I looked at the Ramkahen with my camera zoomed out to a normal distance, I just saw a body, with no real face or head to speak of. Sure, they're creations of the titans who probably fell victim to the curse of the flesh, and if they were created by the titans rather than natural selection, it might be permissible for them to have body structure that isn't exactly natural. But Dwarves and Gnomes are in the same boat in terms of being titan creations that fell victim to the curse of the flesh, and they look natural enough.
But even worse than their models, even worse than the fact that they come right out of nowhere and we are expected to accept them and ally with them, is the fact that they are completely silent. I don't mean that they never communicate with us; they certainly do, with their quests and all. What I mean is that they never make any audible sounds. I just have no idea what a member of the Ramkahen sounds like. Even in battle, they make no sounds other than the clang of their weapons. No grunts, no utterations of any kind, just their silent existence. Most other friendly NPCs make some sort of noise when you click on them, but the Ramkahen do not, and I never realized how important those simple sounds were until I clicked on the members of Ramkahen and got nothing. When the game featured that cutscene of the three advisers talking to the king, I had no idea what kind of voice to put to those words because I had no idea what the Ramkahen sounded like. And with no voice to put to their words, they seemed much less human...oid to me. If anything, they seem more like Beasts, and I just can't conceptualize a faction of beasts.
Friday, January 7, 2011
The problem of subjectivity in dungeon finder policing
Heroics haven't been a completely pleasant experience as of late, since not all players have been willing to adjust to the demands of the new design of heroics. As discontented people are wont to do, many people have been trying to think of ways to improve the heroic experience. Some of the ideas for ways to make the dungeon finder "suck less" have included systems for rating players; systems where you can "friend" players, i.e. mark them as good players and be more likely to be grouped with them in the future; and other ideas, most of which are based on the idea of players policing themselves.
The intentions behind these ideas are good, and in theory, they could work, but they all share the problem of having the potential to be abused by players. Some people will always look for a way to game the system if they can, and some people are just jerks, so no matter what Blizzard might do to try to prevent the system from being used as it wasn't intended to be used, someone will either benefit unfairly or be unfairly penalized. It's tempting to think the system could be designed to avoid that, but no design is foolproof. As an example, someone in the comments section of the WoW Insider post above had the idea to make it so that you can only mark players as bad players, which will increase their queue time. There would be no consequences for new players under this system because they would not be locked out of fast queues by a lack of up-ratings, which would be one of the worst consequences if players could be rated as good players, in addition to bad players. After all, up-rated players would be given shorter queue times (or else why up-rate players?), and if the up-rated players are being grouped together, that would give the newer players no one to group with.
But as another commenter pointed out, some players would just down-vote everyone they group with just because they can. Even worse, since down-votes would move the down-voted player farther down the queue, any down-rate you give another player would theoretically move you up the queue, assuming the down-rate isn't reciprocated. This would give players real, tangible motivation to down-rate people who don't deserve it; in other words, it wouldn't be just the jerkass players who down-rate everyone. In an attempt to moderate this kind of abuse, I had the idea of changing the system so you can still mark players as bad players based on their performance, but the more negative votes you give players, the less your negative votes will count against other players. This would discourage players from trying to game the system because the more they try to do so, the less of an effect they will have. Of course, players could abuse this system as well by just abstaining from down-rating players, which would give their votes more weight, and then using that weight to grief players they personally don't like by voting them down. Did another player win the roll for an item you wanted? If they're the only person you've ever down-rated, that could really increase their queue times. Isn't vengeance sweet?
Now, sure, Blizzard could tweak the formulas to prevent this kind of abuse, too, but the issues of players always looking for a way to game the system aside, this kind of system would still suffer from the issue of being a subjective system. A down-ranking system like the one described above depends on players down-ranking other players based on criteria shared by every other player, but people are subjective, and this might not be the case. Some players would down-rank players based on lack of skill, others would down-rank players for their attitudes, and some would probably only down-rank good players just to be ironic. Rather than a unified system for judging players, we would get players using their own standards to rate other players, standards which are not universal, and thus won't improve the dungeon finder for everyone.
What is needed is an objective system to help weed out the bad players (or at least increase their queue times). Some players have suggested that certain statistics be used to rank players, rather than a rating system. These statistics could include whether or not they use crowd control, whether they were healing efficiently, average healer mana when the tank pulled, etc. These are nice ideas, but they also have their own issues. What stats will we choose to use to judge a player? What if the player runs with a guild that chooses to run heroics in an unconventional way, a way that is successful but won't reflect well on their statistics? Or what if they consistently run with bad players and thus can't use crowd control, because their crowd control ends up being broken anyways? The fact is that it's very difficult to objectively measure player skill, no matter what statistics you use.
Another possibility is an idea I had a while ago, inspired by the achievement Ready for Raiding. What if a series of quests was set up to help players learn the skills they need to run heroics? These quests would be phased quests in which players would have simulated party members, and they would run through various typical heroic situations and train players in the skills they need to be successful in heroics. Tanks could learn to wait for the healer to regain his mana, how to hold threat against multiple targets, how to position targets, etc. DPS could learn how to crowd control, how to move out of the fire, how to prioritize kill order, etc. Healers could learn how to heal efficiently, how to best use their cooldowns, etc. All this could be done in a phased environment where the player would really be tested on whether or not they had the skills needed to run heroics. Now, players would probably feel uncomfortably forced if these quests were mandatory to run heroics, so perhaps they could be option and could reward some valor points to sweeten the deal, as well as an achievement--perhaps called "Ready for Heroics".
Or we could all just wait a few months until everyone out-gears heroics and they don't require skill to run anymore. It'll happen, it just needs time.
The intentions behind these ideas are good, and in theory, they could work, but they all share the problem of having the potential to be abused by players. Some people will always look for a way to game the system if they can, and some people are just jerks, so no matter what Blizzard might do to try to prevent the system from being used as it wasn't intended to be used, someone will either benefit unfairly or be unfairly penalized. It's tempting to think the system could be designed to avoid that, but no design is foolproof. As an example, someone in the comments section of the WoW Insider post above had the idea to make it so that you can only mark players as bad players, which will increase their queue time. There would be no consequences for new players under this system because they would not be locked out of fast queues by a lack of up-ratings, which would be one of the worst consequences if players could be rated as good players, in addition to bad players. After all, up-rated players would be given shorter queue times (or else why up-rate players?), and if the up-rated players are being grouped together, that would give the newer players no one to group with.
But as another commenter pointed out, some players would just down-vote everyone they group with just because they can. Even worse, since down-votes would move the down-voted player farther down the queue, any down-rate you give another player would theoretically move you up the queue, assuming the down-rate isn't reciprocated. This would give players real, tangible motivation to down-rate people who don't deserve it; in other words, it wouldn't be just the jerkass players who down-rate everyone. In an attempt to moderate this kind of abuse, I had the idea of changing the system so you can still mark players as bad players based on their performance, but the more negative votes you give players, the less your negative votes will count against other players. This would discourage players from trying to game the system because the more they try to do so, the less of an effect they will have. Of course, players could abuse this system as well by just abstaining from down-rating players, which would give their votes more weight, and then using that weight to grief players they personally don't like by voting them down. Did another player win the roll for an item you wanted? If they're the only person you've ever down-rated, that could really increase their queue times. Isn't vengeance sweet?
Now, sure, Blizzard could tweak the formulas to prevent this kind of abuse, too, but the issues of players always looking for a way to game the system aside, this kind of system would still suffer from the issue of being a subjective system. A down-ranking system like the one described above depends on players down-ranking other players based on criteria shared by every other player, but people are subjective, and this might not be the case. Some players would down-rank players based on lack of skill, others would down-rank players for their attitudes, and some would probably only down-rank good players just to be ironic. Rather than a unified system for judging players, we would get players using their own standards to rate other players, standards which are not universal, and thus won't improve the dungeon finder for everyone.
What is needed is an objective system to help weed out the bad players (or at least increase their queue times). Some players have suggested that certain statistics be used to rank players, rather than a rating system. These statistics could include whether or not they use crowd control, whether they were healing efficiently, average healer mana when the tank pulled, etc. These are nice ideas, but they also have their own issues. What stats will we choose to use to judge a player? What if the player runs with a guild that chooses to run heroics in an unconventional way, a way that is successful but won't reflect well on their statistics? Or what if they consistently run with bad players and thus can't use crowd control, because their crowd control ends up being broken anyways? The fact is that it's very difficult to objectively measure player skill, no matter what statistics you use.
Another possibility is an idea I had a while ago, inspired by the achievement Ready for Raiding. What if a series of quests was set up to help players learn the skills they need to run heroics? These quests would be phased quests in which players would have simulated party members, and they would run through various typical heroic situations and train players in the skills they need to be successful in heroics. Tanks could learn to wait for the healer to regain his mana, how to hold threat against multiple targets, how to position targets, etc. DPS could learn how to crowd control, how to move out of the fire, how to prioritize kill order, etc. Healers could learn how to heal efficiently, how to best use their cooldowns, etc. All this could be done in a phased environment where the player would really be tested on whether or not they had the skills needed to run heroics. Now, players would probably feel uncomfortably forced if these quests were mandatory to run heroics, so perhaps they could be option and could reward some valor points to sweeten the deal, as well as an achievement--perhaps called "Ready for Heroics".
Or we could all just wait a few months until everyone out-gears heroics and they don't require skill to run anymore. It'll happen, it just needs time.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The other faction: my friend or my enemy?
This post contains minor spoilers for the quests in Deepholm and Vashj'ir. They're nothing major, but if you wish to avoid them, here is your warning.
As I have already written about, WoW circa Cataclysm has been less than consistent with its storytelling, and the same sort of mood-whiplash I wrote about before relating to our motivations in Uldum compared to our motivation in Cataclysm's other zones has shown up again. This time, it has shown up in how inconsistent Cataclysm's storytelling is in terms of how we should view the other faction: the Horde. Different people may have different opinions on how the other faction should be viewed, but I think we can all agree that if Blizzard wants us to feel a particular way about the other faction, they'll be much more effective at making us think a certain way about them if they can be consistent in enforcing that viewpoint. Now, Blizzard has said that they want there to be more faction conflict than there was in Wrath of the Lich King, so you would think that, with Cataclysm being a complete redesign of WoW, they would design the game to foster that kind of combative atmosphere, yet Cataclysm hasn't been very consistent with that goal.
This inconsistency shows up best (for the Alliance, anyway) if you quest in Vashj'ir first and then move on to Deepholm. In Vashj'ir--from the Alliance perspective, anyways--your entire reason for going there is to fight the Horde, for they have attacked us in our attempts to scout out a new land mass. But after finishing up Vash'ir, you go to Deepholm, where while searching for a fragment of the World Pillar, you discover that the Horde ship that was delivering it might have been attacked by the Alliance. Upon returning with this news to Stormcaller Mylra, she has this to say:
"The Earthen Ring is a neutral organization, [name]. We cannot pick sides in the war between the Horde and the Alliance. Look around you -- our members come from all backgrounds. Our mission would be compromised should racial tensions be put above our goal. Let's try to keep this under wraps until we have more information."
So in two sequential zones, we go from being entirely motivated by the need to fight the other faction to being expected to cooperate with them. Something just doesn't add up here.
The animosity in Vashj'ir was to be expected. Like I said, Blizzard has said that they want Cataclysm to reignite the fires of war between the Alliance and the Horde, and they have shown some effort towards making that happen. The Worgan starting area is an example of this kind of effrt, for it contains much Forsaken aggression against the innocent Gilneans, the kind that makes me as ready to fight them as they clearly are to fight me. This is exactly the kind of animosity that it seems Blizzard wants players to have for the other faction, and yet when we get to Deepholm, we are asked to put that animosity in check for the sake of saving the world. Many players have expressed their desire for the factions to stop their bickering and come together to save the world, and for once, we actually get it. But why now? Why, after so many instances of being told that we should hate the other faction, do we get to cooperate with them now?
We saw this inconsistency in other parts of the game, too. Northrend featured the event that forever cemented that the Alliance and the Horde would never cooperate again (the Wrathgate), yet also includes numerous examples of the players putting aside their differences to help out one of the many neutral factions on Northrend (the Kirin Tor, the Argent Crusade, the Sons of Hodir, etc.). And yet, in addition to this cooperation, we also saw many examples of faction animosity in Northrend (the quest Catch More Dispatches, the Gunship Battle in Icecrown Citadel). In Hyjal, we rallied behind the Guardians of Hyjal to save the mountain, and in Deepholm, we rallied behind the Earthen Ring to save the world. Yet in the face of trying to take down one of the biggest threats to Azeroth at the time (the Lich King), the factions still had an air battle. So it seems as if the only time we can get the Alliance and the Horde to cooperate is when we have a third party that they are both rallying behind; in other words, having a common enemy just isn't enough to get the Alliance and the Horde to put aside their differences. I guess that's just what it takes to get the two to cooperate.
As a non sequitur, I have often noticed that if you read the story that unfolds in WoW like a novel, it seems that the theme of that novel would be the destructive nature of faction conflict and how much good can be wrought when the two sides put aside their differences. In Hyjal and Deepholm, the Alliance and the Horde work together and save the mountain and the world, respectively. In Vashj'ir, we ride into battle ready to face some Horde scum, and we are attacked by a kraken and almost die. When we cooperate, good things happen, and when we don't, bad things result. Perhaps that's the whole moral of WoW, that cooperation is good and needless conflict is bad. That could explain why we veteran players often complain about the damage wrought by faction conflict: we have already learned that moral, and to see new content that is still trying to teach it to us means the game is re-teaching us something we already know. When that thing we already know is a moral lesson, and the game tries to teach us that lesson through demonstration, watching those demonstrations of why faction conflict is bad long after we have realized this fact is just frustrating.
As I have already written about, WoW circa Cataclysm has been less than consistent with its storytelling, and the same sort of mood-whiplash I wrote about before relating to our motivations in Uldum compared to our motivation in Cataclysm's other zones has shown up again. This time, it has shown up in how inconsistent Cataclysm's storytelling is in terms of how we should view the other faction: the Horde. Different people may have different opinions on how the other faction should be viewed, but I think we can all agree that if Blizzard wants us to feel a particular way about the other faction, they'll be much more effective at making us think a certain way about them if they can be consistent in enforcing that viewpoint. Now, Blizzard has said that they want there to be more faction conflict than there was in Wrath of the Lich King, so you would think that, with Cataclysm being a complete redesign of WoW, they would design the game to foster that kind of combative atmosphere, yet Cataclysm hasn't been very consistent with that goal.
This inconsistency shows up best (for the Alliance, anyway) if you quest in Vashj'ir first and then move on to Deepholm. In Vashj'ir--from the Alliance perspective, anyways--your entire reason for going there is to fight the Horde, for they have attacked us in our attempts to scout out a new land mass. But after finishing up Vash'ir, you go to Deepholm, where while searching for a fragment of the World Pillar, you discover that the Horde ship that was delivering it might have been attacked by the Alliance. Upon returning with this news to Stormcaller Mylra, she has this to say:
"The Earthen Ring is a neutral organization, [name]. We cannot pick sides in the war between the Horde and the Alliance. Look around you -- our members come from all backgrounds. Our mission would be compromised should racial tensions be put above our goal. Let's try to keep this under wraps until we have more information."
So in two sequential zones, we go from being entirely motivated by the need to fight the other faction to being expected to cooperate with them. Something just doesn't add up here.
The animosity in Vashj'ir was to be expected. Like I said, Blizzard has said that they want Cataclysm to reignite the fires of war between the Alliance and the Horde, and they have shown some effort towards making that happen. The Worgan starting area is an example of this kind of effrt, for it contains much Forsaken aggression against the innocent Gilneans, the kind that makes me as ready to fight them as they clearly are to fight me. This is exactly the kind of animosity that it seems Blizzard wants players to have for the other faction, and yet when we get to Deepholm, we are asked to put that animosity in check for the sake of saving the world. Many players have expressed their desire for the factions to stop their bickering and come together to save the world, and for once, we actually get it. But why now? Why, after so many instances of being told that we should hate the other faction, do we get to cooperate with them now?
We saw this inconsistency in other parts of the game, too. Northrend featured the event that forever cemented that the Alliance and the Horde would never cooperate again (the Wrathgate), yet also includes numerous examples of the players putting aside their differences to help out one of the many neutral factions on Northrend (the Kirin Tor, the Argent Crusade, the Sons of Hodir, etc.). And yet, in addition to this cooperation, we also saw many examples of faction animosity in Northrend (the quest Catch More Dispatches, the Gunship Battle in Icecrown Citadel). In Hyjal, we rallied behind the Guardians of Hyjal to save the mountain, and in Deepholm, we rallied behind the Earthen Ring to save the world. Yet in the face of trying to take down one of the biggest threats to Azeroth at the time (the Lich King), the factions still had an air battle. So it seems as if the only time we can get the Alliance and the Horde to cooperate is when we have a third party that they are both rallying behind; in other words, having a common enemy just isn't enough to get the Alliance and the Horde to put aside their differences. I guess that's just what it takes to get the two to cooperate.
As a non sequitur, I have often noticed that if you read the story that unfolds in WoW like a novel, it seems that the theme of that novel would be the destructive nature of faction conflict and how much good can be wrought when the two sides put aside their differences. In Hyjal and Deepholm, the Alliance and the Horde work together and save the mountain and the world, respectively. In Vashj'ir, we ride into battle ready to face some Horde scum, and we are attacked by a kraken and almost die. When we cooperate, good things happen, and when we don't, bad things result. Perhaps that's the whole moral of WoW, that cooperation is good and needless conflict is bad. That could explain why we veteran players often complain about the damage wrought by faction conflict: we have already learned that moral, and to see new content that is still trying to teach it to us means the game is re-teaching us something we already know. When that thing we already know is a moral lesson, and the game tries to teach us that lesson through demonstration, watching those demonstrations of why faction conflict is bad long after we have realized this fact is just frustrating.
Monday, January 3, 2011
To the dungeons with you!
Over a year ago, during the era of Wrath of the Lich King, I wrote a post about how to get exalted with every faction in the expansion (minus the Ashen Verdict, of course) without championing. In other words, this was a post about how to hit exalted on every faction by yourself, without needing to enter an instance. I was pretty proud of it, if only for the idea, and was looking forward to writing a similar post for Cataclysm's factions. Then Cataclysm came out, and as I plodded my way through the new zones' quests, I was hit by a sad realization: there would be no Cataclysm version of that post, because some factions are impossible to reach exalted with without donning their tabard and entering a 5-man instance. As such, if I should desire to obtain the Wrap of the Great Turtle to tank 5-mans, or if I want the Signet of the Elder Council to boost my stats while I'm out solo-ing, I can't get them by solely by solo-ing. And this doesn't sit right with me. Why, after letting us get exalted with every faction in Wrath of the Lich King by solo-ing, would Blizzard regress in its accommodation of us solo players?
Now, this is nothing new. Many of the factions in Burning Crusade required players to enter dungeons in order to earn reputation with them beyond a certain point (Honor Hold/Thrallmar come to mind), as did many of the factions in vanilla WoW. Wrath of the Lich King, however, moved away from this model by giving every one of its factions (minus one that was clearly designed around a specific raid) a way for players to earn reputation with that faction on their own. This was a good move on their part, in my opinion, for though those ways of earning reputation on one's own were often slower than championing, they gave solo players something to work for, as well as something to do, and they gave players a way to earn faction reputation that wasn't dependent on the competence of other players.
But there is one other major difference between the two expansion packs, one which may explain Blizzard's shift in design philosophy. In Wrath of the Lich King, the gear earned through reputation was the same ilevel as the gear earned through heroics, the primary source of reputation. The gear dropped by the last boss in all of the pre-3.2 heroics and the gear awarded at exalted status with Wrath-era factions were both ilevel-200 epics, and the gear dropped by all other heroic bosses and awarded at revered with the factions were ilevel-200 rare gear. In other words, factions awarded gear that was on par with what was awarded by heroics at the time, so by running heroics to earn reputation with various factions, players would be getting gear that was just as good as the gear they were trying to earn. What this meant was that it was quite possible for players, in the process of trying to earn one specific piece of gear, to earn another piece of gear that would render the reputation-awarded piece unneeded.
This has changed between Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, and in my mind, that change justifies some factions requiring dungeon runs if we wish to reach exalted with them. It is this one change that prevents this post from being one in which I merely complain about how this change to the faction design philosophy is unfair to those who don't wish to run dungeons. You see, heroics no longer drop epics. Heroics in Cataclysm drop ilevel 346 rare gear, while reaching exalted with a Cataclysm faction gives you access to ilevel 359 epics. This means that running heroics doesn't give you better gear than the gear you are trying to earn by hitting exalted with whatever faction you are trying to get exalted with. In fact, outside of crafted epics, the epics awarded by reaching exalted with a faction are currently the best gear one can get outside of raids. (With the exception of the epics that you can get if you save up enough valor points doing your daily random heroic, but it takes a couple of weeks of running a random heroic each day in order to earn enough points for just one piece of gear, so that's by no means a practical way to deck yourself out in epics.)
What this all means is that in order to obtain the best gear you can obtain outside of a raid, you will have to do the hardest thing you can do outside of a raid, i.e. running dungeons. This wasn't the case in Wrath of the Lich King, where gear awarded by factions wasn't the best gear available outside of a raid: you had the drops from the last bosses of each heroic, the emblem of heroism gear, and the crafted gear. But those first two sources of epics outside of a raid no longer award epics, so we players are left with factions and professions as avenues to earn epics without raiding. And since ilevel 359 epics are the best gear one can earn outside of a raid, it makes sense that to earn them, you should need to do the hardest thing you can do outside of a raid: running dungeons. (And the fact that crafted epics require Chaos Orbs, which are bind-on-pick-up and are dropped by the last bosses in heroics, further fits this trend.) To me, that seems like a fair trade.
Now, this is nothing new. Many of the factions in Burning Crusade required players to enter dungeons in order to earn reputation with them beyond a certain point (Honor Hold/Thrallmar come to mind), as did many of the factions in vanilla WoW. Wrath of the Lich King, however, moved away from this model by giving every one of its factions (minus one that was clearly designed around a specific raid) a way for players to earn reputation with that faction on their own. This was a good move on their part, in my opinion, for though those ways of earning reputation on one's own were often slower than championing, they gave solo players something to work for, as well as something to do, and they gave players a way to earn faction reputation that wasn't dependent on the competence of other players.
But there is one other major difference between the two expansion packs, one which may explain Blizzard's shift in design philosophy. In Wrath of the Lich King, the gear earned through reputation was the same ilevel as the gear earned through heroics, the primary source of reputation. The gear dropped by the last boss in all of the pre-3.2 heroics and the gear awarded at exalted status with Wrath-era factions were both ilevel-200 epics, and the gear dropped by all other heroic bosses and awarded at revered with the factions were ilevel-200 rare gear. In other words, factions awarded gear that was on par with what was awarded by heroics at the time, so by running heroics to earn reputation with various factions, players would be getting gear that was just as good as the gear they were trying to earn. What this meant was that it was quite possible for players, in the process of trying to earn one specific piece of gear, to earn another piece of gear that would render the reputation-awarded piece unneeded.
This has changed between Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, and in my mind, that change justifies some factions requiring dungeon runs if we wish to reach exalted with them. It is this one change that prevents this post from being one in which I merely complain about how this change to the faction design philosophy is unfair to those who don't wish to run dungeons. You see, heroics no longer drop epics. Heroics in Cataclysm drop ilevel 346 rare gear, while reaching exalted with a Cataclysm faction gives you access to ilevel 359 epics. This means that running heroics doesn't give you better gear than the gear you are trying to earn by hitting exalted with whatever faction you are trying to get exalted with. In fact, outside of crafted epics, the epics awarded by reaching exalted with a faction are currently the best gear one can get outside of raids. (With the exception of the epics that you can get if you save up enough valor points doing your daily random heroic, but it takes a couple of weeks of running a random heroic each day in order to earn enough points for just one piece of gear, so that's by no means a practical way to deck yourself out in epics.)
What this all means is that in order to obtain the best gear you can obtain outside of a raid, you will have to do the hardest thing you can do outside of a raid, i.e. running dungeons. This wasn't the case in Wrath of the Lich King, where gear awarded by factions wasn't the best gear available outside of a raid: you had the drops from the last bosses of each heroic, the emblem of heroism gear, and the crafted gear. But those first two sources of epics outside of a raid no longer award epics, so we players are left with factions and professions as avenues to earn epics without raiding. And since ilevel 359 epics are the best gear one can earn outside of a raid, it makes sense that to earn them, you should need to do the hardest thing you can do outside of a raid: running dungeons. (And the fact that crafted epics require Chaos Orbs, which are bind-on-pick-up and are dropped by the last bosses in heroics, further fits this trend.) To me, that seems like a fair trade.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
