Go, worship her latest post.

I feel wisdom should be venerated, as it is so bloody rare. And there is much to admire in the wisdom of Lady Jess.

Following fast on the heels of her beloved post about Abrams the tanking bear (I wish I woulda thought of that… I ended up naming my new tanking Hunter Bear pet ‘Clawsome’ instead) is a post about her feelings when checking out upcoming Lifebloom changes on the PTR… her feelings, her initial reaction… and then, what happened when she felt her personal priority shift bringing sanity back at last. 

Go read it, and maybe you’ll be prepped for where this post is coming from.

Gone and done it? Got it? Good.

Here we go.

First off, let’s set the stage here. I posted about my take on stuff that I said was centered around Dual Specs over a week ago.

It ended up not really having much to do with Dual Specs and more to do with game balance, but I clearly touched a nerve with that one. 

Okay. I get it. A lot of you disagreed with me. Okay? 

I would have thought the first 50 comments telling me you think I’m wrong were sufficient to get your position across to me, but some of you, as far as I can figure, don’t think so.

There are even bloggers that still apparently feel so passionately that I was wrong, that they are still posting rebuttals to it. Well-written rebuttals to be sure, but… well, that ship sailed last week, didn’t it? Or did I miss some new perspective on the whole thing?

Maybe it was kick the bear week and I missed the announcement.

Kinda makes me proud to have been able to piss some folks off THAT bad, actually.

I will say one thing.

There were many points made that had, for their foundation, the implied belief that all classes that do DPS are well balanced. In fact, I saw several comments that said that a 5% buff to a Mage or Rogues’ DPS would be so unbalancing that it would kill the game for hybrids.

Thank you very much for the laugh, that was awesome.

If you think that DPS classes are balanced at the moment, really balanced THAT close to each other, I need you to get in touch with my secretary, there is this excellent deal going down right now, and you can get in on the ground floor with your initial investment. Cash only, please. Act now, opportunities like this are available for a limited time only… like, for just as long as I’m ahead of the PO-lice in getting to the train station.

Okay, having had my fun, let’s get on to where I was inspired by Lady Jess… and where my own thoughts on the upcoming Patch have been going.

I love the inherent structure of Lady Jess’s post.

She illustrates beautifully the cycle; apprehension, fear, worry, and outrage over changes. 

It happens time after time.

We are told there will be a new patch.

We know what things are like now, so we wonder… what will change in the new patch? Will my class be changed? What ABOUT my class will be changed? Will the changes add something totally new? Will the changes take away something that I love? Will the changes make me more powerful in my chosen role? Or will I be weaker in the dawning of a new age? Will all the bugs I have endured finally be fixed? Will any? Some? Please? 

Worry sets in. Worry about the unknown. Fear about change. Change that you cannot control.

But maybe you can control it. You are told that Blizzard listens to feedback. They want to know what you think. There are forums, there are blogs, there are endless opportunities to comment.

And so, the speculation begins, WELL before any actual changes are even announced.

This feeds posts speculating, and keeps the tension high…

Until the first depth charge hits.

People asking questions in a panic, speculating, bitching… get a Developer to comment on thier posts in the forums, hinting at what some of the changes may be. Vague ideas are mentioned. Fuel has been added to the fire directly from an official source.

The speculation rises. People begin making up numbers based on vague mumblings from Blue posts and start posting what the “new changes will bring!!!!!”, don’t ask me why.

And then, the big one gets dropped, the one that makes the first depth charges look puny…

The new patch is on the PTR… and we have Patch notes to go over.

We now have proof things will change.

Big or small, there will be changes. And even though we KNOW, we are told time after TIME, that the patches on the PTR are subject to vast, drastic changes at any time… we treat every patch build as gospel in the speculations.

In some ways, you need to understand, some things get changed simply to prove to the community that the game is being actively and vigorously supported. If there were no changes, if all that got added to the game was new content, then it would be spun by SOMEONE as being a stagnant game, a dead game, a game where there were new ‘levels’ or content, but no actual changes.

It would be a game where, if you felt your class is weaker than someone else’s… and there was no HOPE for a future improvement or balancing or buff… then you would quickly become disheartened, discouraged with your class. People would leave, if there was no hope for change.

So long as the HOPE is alive that your issues may be addressed in the next patch… well, then hope can keep your interest in the game alive.

So you have a list of patch notes to read. And the patch itself is available for the community to test. MMO-Champion vigorously tests it, looking for undocumented changes, things that are new that have not been officially announced… and obviously, somone somewhere is going to freak.

Because… lol… someones’ class is changed. The changes added something totally new, they removed things that someone loved, they made some folks weaker, and gave other folks a buff. 

At this point, those folks that were perfectly happy with exactly what they were doing in the game, that were having fun, that were simply rolling along with a smile and a singing heart… well, if they got changes they feel are going to take some of that fun away, make them weaker, or even just make things DIFFERENT… those folks are gonna get pissed.

Upset.

Furious.

Ranting and raging and carrying on.

And before you say “It’s just a game, walk it off”, try and be awake enough to remember, this is a game about becoming emotionally invested in the character that you have created, that you have spent considerable time with, and through whom you have lived wild adventures.

Don’t act all ignorant and sneer at folks that get upset when stuff changes in new and unexpected ways after several years, okay?

Sure, you see changes that will dramatically (or not) affect the character that you love, and you get upset.

More often, you read the changes, but you don’t really understand how they will affect you. Not really. They seem like they might be a nerf, but by how much? Maybe they are a buff, and you just don’t see where it links together with something else. Hope springs eternal.

This is where WoW Insider gets it’s biggest pagehits. WoW Insider begs for this situation, when players see changes coming, and are dying to know exactly how these changes will affect them. A players fear in the face of change is one of WI’s biggest draws. Nobody is better than WoW Insider at getting that PTR speculation and walkthrough machine running. More power to them, because someone clearly has to do it, and they do it well.

When you go to WoW Insider at a time like this, you are assured that every post will have the words “PTR”, “3.1″, or “Patch” in them somewhere. Unless it’s one of the regular features, anyway. And I won’t lay down what the odds are that the features are going to tie into the patch, either.

I’m not knocking them for it, although it may seem that way. I poke fun, since they take themselves so deadly serious at the top levels, but they know what their readers want, and that is what drives their content.

In that way, they are an excellent resource for every player that DOES have these fears. MMO Champion provides the actual knowledge, the information, the research… and WoW Insider’s writers do a fascinating job of interpreting that info into what they feel it will mean for each class and spec, what the future of raiding will be like, how our classes will be affected… it’s the whole enchilada, with extra sauce and lots of cheese.

As I said… WoW Insider carefully studies what the readers want to know, and they do their best to provide that as fast and as comprehensively as possible. So you can get a good idea of what concerns players have in the game, and what drama is brewing, by checking the topics on the front page.

Back on topic…. Players see the changes, and some of them inevitably get afraid, or anxious, or angry.

Lady Jess fired directly into the heart of the subject with her post. When you read these changes, when you see the wavefront coming down upon you, no matter whether it is a buff, a nerf, or just a change in the nature of your class that might just end up having the same results in a different way, you should keep in mind the priorities that really matter.

Remember, you are playing a character in a video game that changes all the time, by design.

No matter what happens, change is inevitable in WoW, just as it is in life. Railing against the changes, shouting, screaming, crying and whining… these things are not going to change the simple fact that whatever will happen, will happen.

It is how YOU choose to react to change that will determine what happens in your game.

You may feel, perhaps with strong justification, that there is absolutely no good reason for the changes that are being made. They may piss you off. You may even feel betrayed.

I cannot tell you to stop feeling strongly about the changes that happen to your favorite character. Why would I? I feel strongly as well. I love my characters, we have had many wonderful adventures together.

What I can do is to try and remind you that, in the grand scheme of things, the game you are playing, the character you are playing, the time you are spending in WoW is all meant to be for pleasure. It’s supposed to be fun.

If you find yourself emotionally close to your character, and you feel angry or upset or furious at the changes that you see… then I recommend you immediately take positive action.

First, decide what it is that you currently enjoy that is being changed, and what it is about those changes that are inspiring you to feel unhappy or angry. Reason it out in your mind, and write it down. 

Now that you have done this, go to the Official WoW Forums, find the appropriate category, and post these thoughts of yours there… in as clear, concise and polite a way as possible. Be respectful if you can, for the moderators that will see your comment first will have no power to do anything about it… but a well thought-out, clearly phrased and passionately expressed comment may inspire the moderator to bring it to the attention of a developer.

Now that you have taken the time to think about what it is that has made you so upset… and you have expressed as clearly as possible your thoughts and feelings about it… let it go.

Don’t wait for a developer to reply. Don’t demand answers. Don’t petition, picket or grandstand.

Just let the anger and upset go.

You have done what you can to take positive action about what you feel. You cannot make them understand you, care about you, or listen to you. All you can do is tell them how you feel, and the next part is up to them.

Now, find something else that you can feel positive about doing, and GO DO IT.

Whether it is to continue to play your current character, play an alt, or even to take a break and watch a movie or read a book or do a little skiing.

Take action to do something positive and fun.

As much as we all love this game… it is for fun. If you are beginning to feel worried, stressed, upset and angry over changes in the game, or in how things are going… take charge of your own life, of the things you CAN control, and bring positive change into your life.

Lady Jess is going to be spending more time with the man she loves. She is going to enjoy the parts of the game that bring her joy, and she is going to know when it’s time to walk away and spend some glorious time with her husband and celebrate life.

I cannot possibly think of a better reaction to what Lady Jess expressed. 

Wisdom. She haz it.

Now, that would be the perfect place to end this post. But this is a blog, ostensibly, about Feral Druids. So I am sure someone, somewhere, wants to know what I think about the latest changes on the PTR.

Well, let’s look at the changes, shall we?

So far, Heart of the Wild is nerfed to increase Stamina in Dire Bear form by 10% instead of 20%, Survival of the Fittest now increases your armor contribution from cloth and leather items in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 33% instead of 66%, and we get a popup video bubble, Savage Defense, 1 rank, level 40 – Each time you deal a melee critical strike, you gain Savage Defense, reducing the damage taken from the next physical attack that strikes you by 25% of your attack power.

Okay… what do I think?

I think I’m having a fine time with everything just the way it is, thanks. I do not feel I need any of these changes, thank you very much. No, really. I pass on this loot. Just say no. Nyet. Kiss my bear butt, but NO.

To reiterate… I play a Feral Druid as a main tank, and I do not want you to change a single bloody thing, okay?

But seeing as how you’re going to do it anyway, because I am apparently way too uber….

My response is to say, yes, if these changes go into effect as they are currently written, this is a fairly sizeable nerf. It will undoubtedly make me a little unhappy. I feel I worked fairly hard to determine exactly what gear I needed to be primed to set foot in Naxx as a main tank, I played instances repeatedly until I acquired that gear, and I even anticipated their last round of nerfs/changes, and worked hard to have the best gear I felt I could obtain for use after them.

So, no, I do not currently feel I am overpowered. If I am a capable tank, able to perform my particular part in a raid well, I do not feel as if I ‘lucked’ into it or cheated. I feel that I worked pretty hard and with foresight and careful planning to be able to be a good team player and a strong asset to our runs.

But things will change no matter what the heck I might want. And even if these changes end up making us weaker tanks than we are right now, and I can’t possibly see how they wouldn’t… I’ll still have fun. 

You see, what some folks seem to forget is, I was Feral when Feral wasn’t cool.

I was Feral Old Skool, baby. I was Feral from level 1 to 60 in old WoW, pre every damn buff patch we ever got. I was kitty, and I had one incredibly fun ride.

Sure, I never did the DPS of anyone else, sure I wasn’t worth as much as a tank, sure it took me forever to level as a feral kitty pre-BC… and I never knew nor cared, because I wasn’t comparing myself with anyone else, it wasn’t a competition to see who levels the fastest, DPS the most, or is the uberist. It is a game for fun! And boy, have I had fun. 

Even if changes someday were to make it impossible for me to main tank or off tank a raid, or even a five man heroic… I will continue to enjoy playing, because it’s not about whether I’m a better tank than a Warrior or Paladin or Death Knight, it’s not about the size of my epeen or being a tanking god.

I’ve always been all about having a ton of fun as a Feral Druid.

Unless they pull out my darn claws and replace cat form with bunny form, I just don’t see the inherent fun I have with the class ever going away.  And even then… I can see having a smoking good time with playing a death bunny. I best have one hell of a long range pounce attack in bunny form, is all I’m saying.

If you don’t feel that way about the changes to your favorite character, if you feel that you have to live in the negative, if you are consumed with fear, worry, anger or rage at what you think is going to happen, and you just can’t back off, regain some perspective, and let it go…

Well, why not play a nice game of chess, instead?

Or maybe watch a movie, this thing called Watchmen is coming out this weekend, I understand. It looks like a fine, G-rated romp with lots of critters like Owls and such. Should be a fun, relaxing good time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Patch News, Soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.