WoW: Drawing the Line

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”
Jack Kerouac

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WoW: Drawing The Line

I remember collecting ore in our WoD garrison and getting an Archeology fragment. I panicked because I didn’t have Archeology. I went and GOT Archeology because I thought the game design was pointing me that way. Silly me.

Alternative Chat in today’s article called Not Anymore talks about dropping Pet Battles. This author also points us to another article.

Burnout in World of Warcraft Legion has a fair assessment of Legion. Though I feel this author missed the boat on collecting AP and suggests that players are endlessly chasing Artifact Power to the point of burn out. And, this hasn’t the reality. Our Artifact Weapons are just fine; my Alts are only two weeks behind my Main (who DID chase AP).

In fact, I will bravely state that everyone will have all 54 traits easily before 7.2 drops. Everyone. That dreaded AP grind is an illusion and too many players got suckered into it: hence the article.

Much of the rest of the article was clearly thought out but I didn’t feel that it was written for mature players.

Deez Wurds today writes about So I Abandoned A Bunch of Emerald Nightmare Quests And It Felt Good. Along with a discussion of the volume of content and the directions in which to play. Good post!

Forgive me for using the word “mature” player, there must be a better word. But I try to be a mature player with a healthy gaming perspective. This means that I draw a line on what I will delve into inside the game. For Alt-Chat, that means a huge block of text with over-the-top declarations as if this author was making a stand. Yet, one only has to visit Gnomecore’s blog to see a player with well-defined and wholly reasonable goals; with no fanfare or sense of rebellion. Yet, with a ton of satisfaction.

And; today I fear I am making walls of text too.

It is all about journey and destination; always. A good plot with crummy writing is a lousy journey, no thanks. If you love Mythic Plus for the challenge of the timer; then great. If you are chaining Mythic Plus for the rewards; then it is a sucker bet. If you are doing both: then awesome-sauce.

I have a ton of respect for the Raid Advice blog. However, his article on Get 20% Better at Raiding in One Simple Step is something that I reject in that the one simple step is running Mythic Plus ad nauseum.

You have to define yourself as a player.

In my guild, I think of them as “kids”, the guys who are chaining Mythic Plus at 1am. I think that they will be disillusioned or simply bored and gone in six months. You can’t repeat content until it makes you feel sick (Hellfire Citadel for me). Only Asses chase the carrot, Mules refuse to budge, well-led Horses will serve you for years.

Blizzard is not burning out players. Don’t take Archeology unless you want to take Archeology. Gear as reward is a fake-out, higher numbers don’t always force you through mechanics. The game becomes trivial when you’ve mastered the content more than when you over-gear it. Over-gearing is for running old content and another story.

The satisfied players (and there are millions) have defined themselves and their goals. It can be lore or tmog or gold-making or raiding or collecting or so many other things. Please don’t be suckered into have a goal of “more powerful” which will break your heart and give you class envy and resentment at catch-up mechanics (which will make you feel like you can never stop to breathe).

My cup of tea is casual raiding. A blocked time slot with an end, a progression with friends and an intention to milk the content until the next bit is served up. The sugar cube in the cup is a new piece of gear: sweet but not the only reason I’m drinking tea.

Okay, enough of this. Relax. Go fishing!