So I'm back with more tales from the warrior front. As I mentioned in my last post before my laptop went down, patch 4.0.1 revitalized my interest in the game by turning my warrior alt from a joke to a force to be reckoned with, one who can take down red-colored-level monsters and complete red-colored quests with ease. What was once something of a burden has become fun; so fun, in fact, that I didn't want to stop playing my warrior. Killing things became so fun that I started to resent any break in the process, including needing to go to a capital city to learn my new moves. It was when I realized that this was the case that I was a bit shocked; after all, isn't leveling up the whole point of the leveling process? Why was I suddenly not looking forward to hitting those levels?
I remember that back before patch 4.0.1 made leveling a warrior fun, I looked forward to each time I leveled up. I would count the little bars in my experience bar and watch them fill, waiting anxiously for that time when I would see that golden light. Though all levels gave me a bit of a rush, the even ones especially were the ones I looked forward to, for that was when I would get my new abilities. But more than that, each of those levels represented something I had accomplished, something I had worked for. Leveling at the lower levels was usually not that fun, and each time I leveled up, it was like the game was telling me, "You should feel satisfied with what you have accomplished." And I did, and thus, though the leveling process was a pain, it was worth it for the sense of satisfaction I felt upon ascending to each new level.
Now, however, things are different (for me, at least). As I play my warrior, I don't watch the experience bar at all; I've been taken by surprise by that golden light quite a few times, in fact. And while the odd levels are met with joy (I do get to spend a talent point, after all), the even levels are met with less enthusiasm, since I have to go out of my way to learn whatever new ability I get at those levels. In other words, as I play my warrior now, leveling up is merely incidental to the leveling process; it's just another event that happens along the way. And it has become that way because the leveling process is now exciting in its own right, because this class is finally fun to play.
But now I'm a bit jaded, because I have experienced the contrast between playing for the objective statistical rewards and playing in spite of them. I have experienced the contrast between playing the game for the end result and playing the game for the sake of playing the game, and I'm not sure I could go back to the former. To put this in terms that might be more familiar to people who don't level alts frequently, the difference I have experienced is like the different between running a raid because you want to say you killed that boss or because you want the loot upgrades they drop, and running a raid because you enjoy raiding. One mode of play is motivated by the end-result, the other is motivated by the playing itself, and that's what I'm experiencing on my warrior now.
After experiencing this shift in mode of play, I realized that much of the time I have spent playing WoW has been spent in results-oriented mode. Most of the heroics I ran were motivated by the emblems that dropped and the gear that could be obtained with them. Most of the alts I leveled were leveled so that I could experience playing them once they got their better abilities and became fun, but I ended up leveling even the few that I managed to get that far for the sake of that flash of golden light. Maybe that's why I was never able to get into raiding; I was there for the experience, not the loot, the achievements, or the bragging rights, so I had nothing to motivate me to gloss over the things I found tedious or frustrating about the whole process.
So what does that mean in the larger scheme of things? Well, for me, it means I have become skeptical of many of the rewards we get for playing and their purpose in the game. By a metaphorical show of hands, how many of you would play WoW if there were no gear, no leveling up, no achievements, etc.; just the gameplay? Some of you would, I'm sure, so the other question is, how long would you play a game like this? Would you have raided ICC for ten months (going on eleven) if the gear weren't there to motivate you or to pace your progress? Maybe you would have; I won't make any assumptions, I'm just presenting these questions as food for thought.
But where am I going with this? Truth be told, I'm not sure myself; this mode of playing WoW is so new to me that I'm still getting a feel for it, for its nuances and consequences. I suppose the only thing I can say for now is that, though levels, gear currency, achievements, and gear itself might serve larger purposes within the game, they should be incidental to the gameplay itself. They should be there as conveniences and game mechanics, not as motivators to play. When they do become players' reasons to play, that's a sign that the gameplay itself isn't enough to keep people playing, and that says to me that the game just isn't fun.
Showing posts with label alts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alts. Show all posts
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
On the pre-expansion doldrums
Having grown bored with my shaman, my priest, and my level-cap druid, I have given in to my alt-itis and rolled another alt. This time, he's a warrior, who is currently level 15, and I will likely leave him there for a while since he ran out of rested experience this morning. I did roll a rogue before him, but I have more-or-less decided that my inevitable Worgen alt will be a rogue, so I dropped that idea out of fear of becoming bored with the rogue class before Cataclysm comes out. I knew I wanted to play a class that was as melee-based as possible, though, so if a rogue wasn't in the works, a warrior seemed like an acceptable substitute. Thus far, he has been pretty enjoyable to play, his lack of survivability notwithstanding, and he is serving his function as a pre-expansion diversion quite well.
And yet, playing my warrior alt is a bittersweet experience, and that bitterness comes from the fact that he'll likely be more fun to play in a few months. Once Cataclysm is released, the questing will be more enjoyable, the more even rate at which I learn new moves will make the evolution of the class as I level it up more interesting, the quests (from the looks of it) will reward more useful gear, etc. In other words, I won't fear leaving Bloodmyst Isle for the older content; hell, I may look forward to is. Those are the pre-expansion doldrums, and I'm sure many players are feeling them right now. The raiders are probably feeling them because it seems pointless to try to get better gear when the expansion will make that gear meaningless. PvP'ers might not be feeling it as much, because PvP always seemed to me to be a part of the game that derives the most its fun from the experience itself, rather than the obtainment of the end goal. The manifestation that is affecting me the most, however, is the knowledge that leveling alts is going to be more fun once Cataclysm comes out, so any alt I level now won't be as fun to play as it will be. Thus we are forced to ask ourselves: why play when the game is going to get so much better?
Thankfully, there's one question I asked myself that re-motivated me to continue leveling alts: isn't it still fun? Most players would say yes, and then follow it up with some "but" about Cataclysm. But here's the thing; as it is now, the idea that leveling alts will be more fun after Cataclysm comes out is just an abstract concept floating about in our minds, the result of news and announcements about an expansion pack that we have not yet experienced (well, that those of us who are not in the beta have not yet experienced). We are comparing our current gameplay to content that we have only heard about (in descriptions and announcements) or perhaps seen (in screenshots or videos). Thus, we are our own obstacles when it comes to playing before the expansion is released, because the game we are comparing our current experiences to exists only in our mind. Yes, it does technically exist on those beta servers and in Blizzard's development HQ, but in our own realm of experience, it's just in our minds. Once I recognized that, my warrior no longer felt bittersweet to play.
Of course, that can't change the fact that it's more efficient for me to use an AoE ability as my primary attack than a single-target ability that is probably supposed to be my main attack, but at least it allows me to feel more intelligent about the way I play my character. And hey, it's still fun.
And yet, playing my warrior alt is a bittersweet experience, and that bitterness comes from the fact that he'll likely be more fun to play in a few months. Once Cataclysm is released, the questing will be more enjoyable, the more even rate at which I learn new moves will make the evolution of the class as I level it up more interesting, the quests (from the looks of it) will reward more useful gear, etc. In other words, I won't fear leaving Bloodmyst Isle for the older content; hell, I may look forward to is. Those are the pre-expansion doldrums, and I'm sure many players are feeling them right now. The raiders are probably feeling them because it seems pointless to try to get better gear when the expansion will make that gear meaningless. PvP'ers might not be feeling it as much, because PvP always seemed to me to be a part of the game that derives the most its fun from the experience itself, rather than the obtainment of the end goal. The manifestation that is affecting me the most, however, is the knowledge that leveling alts is going to be more fun once Cataclysm comes out, so any alt I level now won't be as fun to play as it will be. Thus we are forced to ask ourselves: why play when the game is going to get so much better?
Thankfully, there's one question I asked myself that re-motivated me to continue leveling alts: isn't it still fun? Most players would say yes, and then follow it up with some "but" about Cataclysm. But here's the thing; as it is now, the idea that leveling alts will be more fun after Cataclysm comes out is just an abstract concept floating about in our minds, the result of news and announcements about an expansion pack that we have not yet experienced (well, that those of us who are not in the beta have not yet experienced). We are comparing our current gameplay to content that we have only heard about (in descriptions and announcements) or perhaps seen (in screenshots or videos). Thus, we are our own obstacles when it comes to playing before the expansion is released, because the game we are comparing our current experiences to exists only in our mind. Yes, it does technically exist on those beta servers and in Blizzard's development HQ, but in our own realm of experience, it's just in our minds. Once I recognized that, my warrior no longer felt bittersweet to play.
Of course, that can't change the fact that it's more efficient for me to use an AoE ability as my primary attack than a single-target ability that is probably supposed to be my main attack, but at least it allows me to feel more intelligent about the way I play my character. And hey, it's still fun.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Alts for their own sake?
Full disclosure: I'm a recovering alt-oholic. For as long as I have been playing WoW, I have always felt the temptation to see how the other nine sides live. The sheer number of alts I rolled that never made it past level 20, or even level 15, astounds me sometimes. I used to go through a very predictable pattern with my alt-itis: I'd grow envious of one class, roll alt of that class, give it a profession I was envious of, play it, get board with it somewhere in the 10-15 range (or sometimes even before then), and repeat that process about six times, give or take. I would then have a mini existential crisis where I would look at that screen of alts and wonder, "Why do I keep rolling alts that I never play? No more of this!" I would then log in to each alt individually, sell all of their stuff, send the money to my main, and delete them. I would then promise to myself that I would not roll another alt without having a good reason to do so. I have gone through this whole process at least four times thus far, enough times to have gained some insight into how and why it happens.
One thing that is consistent with most of the alts I roll is that I never roll them for the sake of just leveling them. In most cases, what motivates me to roll an alt is the desire to use that alt in end-game content. It's usually jealousy of that class's abilities and perceived strengths that draws me away from my druid. Perhaps a class looks fun to play as a DPS, or perhaps the class's healing or tanking style looks more varied than my druid's and thus more engaging. Inevitably, though, I realize that it will likely take me months to reach that point (that point being level 80), and I realize that I will likely never be able to use my alt for group content. (What's that you say? Run dungeons on the way to 80? Um... no.) And with the possibility of using that alt for level cap content gone, my motivation to level it goes as well.
So it seems the issue is a disjunction between my motivation for rolling the alt in the first place and the amount of effort I am willing to put up with to get it there. After all, when you roll an alt, you start with a very small selection of that class's abilities, and if the goal is to play the class because of the class's playstyle, it's disheartening to only be able to start with a skeleton of that playstyle (it's really just the ribcage, if we want to stick with that metaphor). That's part of the reason that I've always thought that a good middleground between the people who want to be able to start alts at level 55 and the people who think we shouldn't be able to do that would be the ability for us to start our alts at level 20. That way, you skip the most boring levels and start at the point where most classes start to come into their own and feel like the class they are. In other words, you could skill the lol-smite/lol-wrath/lol-judgment stages in which the classes are incredibly boring to play. But that's a topic for another time.
Of course, the obvious answer is to just roll an alt for the sake of playing the alt, for the sake of experiencing the class as it evolves and comes into its own. My most successful alt, my shaman, who is now level 66, was rolled for exactly this reason, which is part of the reason why I have stuck with him for so long. So why isn't this enough of a motivator for me to stick with an alt? Why isn't playing an alt for its own sake enough to motivate me to roll an alt?
I think it has something to do with the issue of meaning. Perhaps in WoW, as in life, we desire a meaning for our actions, a motivating factor to motivate us to play. Fun can certainly be that motivating factor, but I see fun in WoW as similar to happiness in real life: they're both one answer to the question of what to live for, but for some, they are insufficient answers, not enough to make all it worth it. Perhaps you don't know what I mean, but maybe some of you reading this do; maybe you have experienced the dissatisfaction with living for day-to-day experiences rather than for something greater. Life isn't constantly enjoyable, so living only for the moment can backfire when that moment isn't a particularly good one.
Alts are the same way. They are certainly fun, but some parts of the leveling process are just plain grueling, including the lol-phases listed above, the 40-50 stretch, quest items with aggravatingly low drop-rates, etc. In those moments, it can be easy to forget the fun times you had with your alt and the fun times you will have if you continue playing. That's where that long-term goal comes in. That long-term goal is what will keep you playing through those uninteresting stretches, because achieving that goal will make it all worth it.
So the real question becomes, are those long term goals necessary, or are the fun moments themselves enough motivation to keep playing one's alt? I guess this is just a question that every player needs to answer for themselves.
One thing that is consistent with most of the alts I roll is that I never roll them for the sake of just leveling them. In most cases, what motivates me to roll an alt is the desire to use that alt in end-game content. It's usually jealousy of that class's abilities and perceived strengths that draws me away from my druid. Perhaps a class looks fun to play as a DPS, or perhaps the class's healing or tanking style looks more varied than my druid's and thus more engaging. Inevitably, though, I realize that it will likely take me months to reach that point (that point being level 80), and I realize that I will likely never be able to use my alt for group content. (What's that you say? Run dungeons on the way to 80? Um... no.) And with the possibility of using that alt for level cap content gone, my motivation to level it goes as well.
So it seems the issue is a disjunction between my motivation for rolling the alt in the first place and the amount of effort I am willing to put up with to get it there. After all, when you roll an alt, you start with a very small selection of that class's abilities, and if the goal is to play the class because of the class's playstyle, it's disheartening to only be able to start with a skeleton of that playstyle (it's really just the ribcage, if we want to stick with that metaphor). That's part of the reason that I've always thought that a good middleground between the people who want to be able to start alts at level 55 and the people who think we shouldn't be able to do that would be the ability for us to start our alts at level 20. That way, you skip the most boring levels and start at the point where most classes start to come into their own and feel like the class they are. In other words, you could skill the lol-smite/lol-wrath/lol-judgment stages in which the classes are incredibly boring to play. But that's a topic for another time.
Of course, the obvious answer is to just roll an alt for the sake of playing the alt, for the sake of experiencing the class as it evolves and comes into its own. My most successful alt, my shaman, who is now level 66, was rolled for exactly this reason, which is part of the reason why I have stuck with him for so long. So why isn't this enough of a motivator for me to stick with an alt? Why isn't playing an alt for its own sake enough to motivate me to roll an alt?
I think it has something to do with the issue of meaning. Perhaps in WoW, as in life, we desire a meaning for our actions, a motivating factor to motivate us to play. Fun can certainly be that motivating factor, but I see fun in WoW as similar to happiness in real life: they're both one answer to the question of what to live for, but for some, they are insufficient answers, not enough to make all it worth it. Perhaps you don't know what I mean, but maybe some of you reading this do; maybe you have experienced the dissatisfaction with living for day-to-day experiences rather than for something greater. Life isn't constantly enjoyable, so living only for the moment can backfire when that moment isn't a particularly good one.
Alts are the same way. They are certainly fun, but some parts of the leveling process are just plain grueling, including the lol-phases listed above, the 40-50 stretch, quest items with aggravatingly low drop-rates, etc. In those moments, it can be easy to forget the fun times you had with your alt and the fun times you will have if you continue playing. That's where that long-term goal comes in. That long-term goal is what will keep you playing through those uninteresting stretches, because achieving that goal will make it all worth it.
So the real question becomes, are those long term goals necessary, or are the fun moments themselves enough motivation to keep playing one's alt? I guess this is just a question that every player needs to answer for themselves.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Reflections on leveling a shadow priest
Having grown bored with all that end-game has to offer my druid and having temporarily lost interest in my long-suffering shaman alt (I'll find him interesting again at some point; my interest in him ebbs and wains) I have turned to the dark side, rolled a priest, and spec'ed him shadow for leveling (get it?). I rolled him simply because I was getting bored with healing as a tree and I wanted to try a new healing style. Neither the shaman nor the paladin healing style particularly appealed to me, so the priest was the logical decision. In leveling my priest, I have learned a few things that I thought I would share with you.
Leveling an alt is easier when you have goals for that alt and they are reasonable.
What surprised me the most was how dedicated I was to this alt. Most of my alts never get past level 25 (my shaman being the notable exception, currently at 62), but my priest is currently level 30 and still going strong. In fact, he is the first character I have leveled mostly without any rested state. What made him different? Probably my goals with him. I rolled my shaman mostly with the intent to have fun, which is why I have stuck with him. I rolled all of my other alts out of class envy and leveled them with the intent of using them in group-play in the back of my mind. However, that was such a far off goal I never stuck with those alts. With my priest, my goal was to get him to 40, buy dual specs, make his other spec holy, and start healing dungeons. A much more reasonable goal, aye? Since my end-goal for my priest isn't as far off as my goals for my other alts were, I was more motivated to level him. The larger lesson is that if you role an alt for fun, focusing on how you will use him at end-game will make you less motivated to play it.
Leveling an alt is more fun when you take two gathering professions.
My priest has skinning and herbalism, but if he actually reaches a higher level, I'll drop skinning and power-level alchemy. Why herbalism and not mining? For Lifeblood, of course; that ability has saved me quite a few times. Why not level alchemy now and save myself the hassle? A few reasons.
1. Selling all those herbs and all that leather on the auction house makes my alt filthy rich and able to stand on his own without injections of money from my main.
2. Leveling alchemy would just be another thing to do and would distract me from questings and leveling in general.
3. Leveling a profession now so I don't need to do it later causes me to think about the future too much, and though having reasonable goals for an alt makes him easier to level (as I said before), the easiest way to stick with an alt is to focus on the here-and-now and not think about the future.
Shadow is not a very attractive leveling tree.
Now, when I say that shadow isn't attractive for leveling, I don't mean that it isn't viable or fun; it is both of those things. However, when a priest first starts out, he can cause more damage with Smite and Holy Fire than he can with Mind Flay and Mind Blast. Throw in the DoTs for added damage and leveling holy seems like a good idea. Thing is, Mind Flay and Mind Blast have many talents that improve their damage and mana-efficiency, but Smite and Holy Fire don't have as many, and priests that spec holy won't take talents that improve those abilities. Smite and Holy Fire are supposed to allow healing priests to be able to fend for themselves, so they need to have high damage to be viable. However, that means that at low levels, shadow doesn't do as much damage as holy, which is just not right. Perhaps increasing the damage of low ranks of Mind Flay and Mind Blast (and increasing the damage they cause at lower levels once ranks are removed) could solve this problem. Speaking of which...
Ability ranks need to go, now.
Ability ranks are going away with Cataclysm, but they need to go out the door right now. As it stands, all ranks of spells cost the same amount of mana. This means that as you level, each spell gets less and less mana efficient until you can purchase the next rank. On my priest, this resulted in Mind Flay, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of mana efficiency, being my least mana-efficient ability during the few levels before its upgrade. It also caused the least amount of damage, so I had no reason to use it at all. Having all ranks of spells cost the same while still requiring that their damage be upgraded every few levels simply doesn't work; it needs to end now, before Cataclysm comes out. It can't be that difficult to implement, so why delay such a necessary fix?
Have you learned any other interesting lessons by leveling alts?
Leveling an alt is easier when you have goals for that alt and they are reasonable.
What surprised me the most was how dedicated I was to this alt. Most of my alts never get past level 25 (my shaman being the notable exception, currently at 62), but my priest is currently level 30 and still going strong. In fact, he is the first character I have leveled mostly without any rested state. What made him different? Probably my goals with him. I rolled my shaman mostly with the intent to have fun, which is why I have stuck with him. I rolled all of my other alts out of class envy and leveled them with the intent of using them in group-play in the back of my mind. However, that was such a far off goal I never stuck with those alts. With my priest, my goal was to get him to 40, buy dual specs, make his other spec holy, and start healing dungeons. A much more reasonable goal, aye? Since my end-goal for my priest isn't as far off as my goals for my other alts were, I was more motivated to level him. The larger lesson is that if you role an alt for fun, focusing on how you will use him at end-game will make you less motivated to play it.
Leveling an alt is more fun when you take two gathering professions.
My priest has skinning and herbalism, but if he actually reaches a higher level, I'll drop skinning and power-level alchemy. Why herbalism and not mining? For Lifeblood, of course; that ability has saved me quite a few times. Why not level alchemy now and save myself the hassle? A few reasons.
1. Selling all those herbs and all that leather on the auction house makes my alt filthy rich and able to stand on his own without injections of money from my main.
2. Leveling alchemy would just be another thing to do and would distract me from questings and leveling in general.
3. Leveling a profession now so I don't need to do it later causes me to think about the future too much, and though having reasonable goals for an alt makes him easier to level (as I said before), the easiest way to stick with an alt is to focus on the here-and-now and not think about the future.
Shadow is not a very attractive leveling tree.
Now, when I say that shadow isn't attractive for leveling, I don't mean that it isn't viable or fun; it is both of those things. However, when a priest first starts out, he can cause more damage with Smite and Holy Fire than he can with Mind Flay and Mind Blast. Throw in the DoTs for added damage and leveling holy seems like a good idea. Thing is, Mind Flay and Mind Blast have many talents that improve their damage and mana-efficiency, but Smite and Holy Fire don't have as many, and priests that spec holy won't take talents that improve those abilities. Smite and Holy Fire are supposed to allow healing priests to be able to fend for themselves, so they need to have high damage to be viable. However, that means that at low levels, shadow doesn't do as much damage as holy, which is just not right. Perhaps increasing the damage of low ranks of Mind Flay and Mind Blast (and increasing the damage they cause at lower levels once ranks are removed) could solve this problem. Speaking of which...
Ability ranks need to go, now.
Ability ranks are going away with Cataclysm, but they need to go out the door right now. As it stands, all ranks of spells cost the same amount of mana. This means that as you level, each spell gets less and less mana efficient until you can purchase the next rank. On my priest, this resulted in Mind Flay, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of mana efficiency, being my least mana-efficient ability during the few levels before its upgrade. It also caused the least amount of damage, so I had no reason to use it at all. Having all ranks of spells cost the same while still requiring that their damage be upgraded every few levels simply doesn't work; it needs to end now, before Cataclysm comes out. It can't be that difficult to implement, so why delay such a necessary fix?
Have you learned any other interesting lessons by leveling alts?
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